Review of Megan Neary, “Lev’s Pawn Shop,” After Dinner Conversation 3, no. 12 (December 2022): 83-91 — Subscribe here. Reviewed by Sara L. Uckelman.
(Note: After Dinner Conversation pairs spec fic stories with philosophical reflection questions. In some reviews, I’ll engage with the questions; in some, I won’t.)
For a journal that is ostensibly about engaging with philosophy and philosophical questions, I’ve been surprised at how big a role religion (mostly, pretty conservative Christianity) has played in the stories in this issue. This isn’t because I think philosophy and religion are antithetical to each other, but rather because I think they are not the same thing, and when I’m promised one and I get the other, that’s worth noting. I wonder what this story might have been like if instead of Lev being motivated by Bible passages, he’d read Mill on utilitarianism, or Kant on deontology, or Aristotle on virtue, and that had been what changed his behavior.
But, I enjoyed this story of redemption more than I enjoyed some of the others in this issue, so thumbs up for that.
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