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issue nine fII winter 2000

contents

NEWS AND fEATUR.ES

6 NEWS HOUND Eugenics row, thinker of the millennium and a course closure

8 OPINiON Brian Leiter's regular column plus guest comment from Marilyn Mason

9 MEDiA WATCH A new look for our survey of philosophy and philosophers in the mass media

11 SHIFTING BELIEF Jeremy Stangroom Analysis of our survey into how philosophy shapes belief

ESSAYS

15 QUANTUM CONFUSiON Christopher Norris Should realists be worried about quantum mechanics?

18 THE SANTA WAGER Dennis Shawn Pruitt An argument to satisfy the doubting child

19 DOOMSDAY SOON? Nick Bostrum Have we under-estimated the chances that the end is nigh?

13 VELVET PHILOSOPHERS Julian Baggini The philosophers and the underground universities behind the Iron Curtain

Doomsday, p19

DISCUSSEON

23 OPEN DEBATE: THE MORAliTY OF DRUGS Paul MacDonald MacDonald replies to your objections to his article in TPM7

Quantum confusion, p15

28 DISCOURSE: THOUGHT AND THiNKER Michael Ignatieff and Ben Rogers discuss philosophy and biography