A Brief Diversion

We'll be taking a very brief diversion this week back into philosophy, then it'll be back to working on the remaining Temperament-derived play style descriptions. We will be returning to philosophy in the Spring for the Ethics Campaign, which will start some time after GDC (which is in March). Why the diversion? Well, see the fourth point, below.

• Talking of the Ethics campaign, can anyone recommend a good book on social contracts ? Something more recent than the 18th century, preferably. I'd like to skip ahead beyond Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau (if possible) to a modern conception.
• My wife and I got our Wii the day before leaving for the Isle of Wight to spend the winter festival with my family there. We've been the very model of the game evangelist, showing it off to all and sundry on the way. We're loving it - and getting some much needed exercise too. My arms ached after the first few days of playing Wii Sports.
• I'm a longtime fan of the Zelda games, but I have to say I'm rather disgusted by the heart piece tax in Twilight Princess. I'm not saying you can't vary the rules, but this one is a real kick in the teeth for established fans!
• I feel compelled to comment on Dawkin's recent polemic, and will be posting on this later this week. Call me old fashioned, but if a noted intellectual wants to stray into a new field, I feel they should do their research first and not simply publish their own bigotry. To make it as clear as I can that my problem is with Dawkin's foolishness, and not atheism in general, I am first going to post a precis to last year's Metaphysics Campaign and reiterate my position on such matters as clearly as I can.
• To the various people waiting to hear from me about various things, I apologise for the various delays. Hopefully things will settle down a little over the next few weeks.

Have fun everyone!

Comments

[translucy]

"Talking of the Ethics campaign, can anyone recommend a good book on social contracts ? Something more recent than the 18th century, preferably. I'd like to skip ahead beyond Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau (if possible) to a modern conception."

Rawls two books on justice, perhaps?

[Chris]

The closest I can find to this on Amazon is this: "The Philosophy of Rawls: A Collection of Essays: The Development and Main Outlines of Rawl's Theory of Justice Vol 1 (Readings in Philosophy)" which is an astonishing 80 pounds ($160). Is this what you meant?

Thanks for the tip!

[translucy]

Chris,

sorry for the unclear proposal (i was kinda drained, i guess)

paperbacks
John Rawls: A theory of justice, 16.10 pounds
John Rawls: Justice as fairness, 12.95 pounds

The number of derivative literature, rebuttals etc. answering to these is just huge.

Rawls proposals, though 30 yrs old, (based on the kinda famous "veil of ignorance" at the beginning of the deliberations for the social contract) are still considered some modern form of benchmark in the debate on justice, distribution of goods, equal opportunities for success and the like - at least in liberal/progressive circles.

Oh and happy new year by the way!

[Chris]

Many thanks! I'll get one or both of these added to my reading list as soon as possible. Happy Gregorian New Year to you too! It'll be Chinese New Year soon. ;)