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News

News: July/August 2007

Richard Rorty Dead • Plato Goes to Broadway • Mobster was secret philosopher • Joan Callahan is philosophy’s woman of the year — News reports by Sue Roberts

Mobster Philosopher Killed

Mafia power struggles claimed an unusual victim this summer. The reputed leader of the Porto Nuova clan of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra was gunned down on a Palermo street. Nothing unusual there perhaps – except that investigating officers discovered that the victim, Nicola Ingarao, had taken an exam in the history of philosophy at Palermo University the day before his ‘execution’. The 46-year old had apparently taken up studying philosophy while incarcerated in Pagliarelli jail for nine years at an earlier stage in his career. His interest in philosophical questions was sparked by reading the Old Testament Book of Wisdom (regarded by Protestants as part of the Apocrypha).

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