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Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019) and AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021).

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Currently reading - the new issue of Free Inquiry


The new (December 2011/January 2012) issue of Free Inquiry has turned up in my letterbox today, and I'm enjoying it. It features a set of articles on the prospects of human enhancement, and how these should be viewed by secular people. The positions range across the spectrum from enthusiastic to very resistant.

Among these pieces is my own article, "Enhancement Anxiety", which is also one of the contributions to this issue that you can read online. It summarises, in only about 3000 words, IIRC, quite a bit of my current thinking on this subject. You can also read Ron Lindsay's long intro to this part of the issue.

Author and IEET Executive Director James Hughes's contribution is not available online, but it also gives a solid idea of its author's current position.

Note that Free Inquiry only pays for itself by people actually subscribing to the printed magazine (or at least buying individual issues that interest them), so what it places online is merely meant to whet your appetites. Even if you can't afford a subscription, I'm sure that any support you can give to Free Inquiry on your own blogs, or via other social media that you use, will not go astray.

2 comments:

Jean Kazez said...

Grrr, they need to offer Kindle subscriptions. I'm looking forward to reading this issue.

Russell Blackford said...

Thanks for giving it a plug on your blog, Jean.