This issue’s main essays take up an ancient philosophical question, “What is time?”, a defining question of our present political times, “What is fake news?”, and a question that might get you where you live right down here on Earth, “What is dirt?”.
Lisa Tessman also grapples with a real live philosophical question. How should we respond to someone who is forced to choose one way of morally failing or another? Think less about philosopher’s dilemmas like trolley problems and more about actual choices facing parents, soldiers, witnesses, spouses, doctors, asylum seekers — people who have to choose between two moral wrongs. There are also interesting new ideas from Neil Levy, who claims that nudging is no more problematic than arguing. We leave the final word to John Sellars, who argues that thinking of philosophy as a way of life is not just for the Ancient Greeks — it’s a live option today.
