Philosophers in the news

A friend sent me a link to an item in the New York Times Book section, "The Nature of Reasons: Two Philosophers Feud Over a Book Review."

Unfortunately, the article had almost nothing to do with a book. It reports on the personalities of two philosophers and an ugly debate between the two. I'm not at all sure why the piece references reason in its title.

That debate is grounded in a disagreement about the nature of consciousness, but the Times doesn't get to that issue until the 18th paragraph. Until then we hear about ex-girlfriends and British class structure. Apparently those are the sorts of reasons -- personal ones -- that the title highlights.

The piece attempts to consider the question of how harsh is too harsh for a book review, but even this interesting topic is mostly lost.

I'm trying to trace the issue, but it's not easy. The review was published in The Philosophical Review, which is unavailable without subscription. However, it looks like it has been published at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/McGinnReview.html From there, one can find links to Honderich's response and McGinn's responses to the responses. There's also a lively debate at the Leiter Reports.

Assuming the piece at ucl's site is accurate, it would be impossible for a journalist to comprehend the nature of the debate on consciousness (unless he/she also happened to be a student of recent philosophical treatments of the subject). But without providing some more insight into the debate, why write about this at all?