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People respond to moral criticism of their speech by claiming that they were joking. In this paper, I develop a speech act analysis of the humor excuse consisting of a negative stage, in which the speaker denies he or she was making an assertion, and a positive stage, in which the speaker claims she or he was engaged in non-serious/humorous speech instead. This analysis, however, runs afoul of the group identity objection, according to which there is a moral distinction between jokes targeting members of vulnerable groups made by members of those groups and similar jokes made by non-members. In order to avoid this objection, I offer a revision to the speech act analysis that draws upon Perry’s distinction between beliefs and belief-states.

A personal narrative is presented exploring the author's experiences of attending Easter Festival in 1977 onwards.

In the paper, I develop what I call the “Neo-Hintikkan theory” of belief sentences. What is characteristic of this approach is that the meaning of an ascription is analyzed in terms of the believer’s “epistemic alternatives”: the set of worlds compatible with how the believer takes the world to be. The Neo-Hintikkan approach proceeds by assuming that (1) individuals in believers’ alternatives can share spatio-temporal parts with actual individuals, and (2) ascribers can refer to individuals in believer’s alternatives in virtue of their perceptual or causal interaction with the spatio-temporal parts these “believed individuals” share with actual individuals. The guiding idea underlying this view is that the source of substitutivity failure in certain central cases is that believers have put the spatio-temporal parts of the objects they have encountered together in the wrong way.

Presents letters to the editor referencing articles and topics discussed in previous issues. "The Wisdom of Repugnance," which argued against the morality of human cloning; "The Jeremiah Racket," which focused on the attitude toward the teaching profession and the woes of U.S. education; "The Setting Son," which dealt with an attack on U.S. Congressman Joe Kennedy.

The article offers information on the author's interaction with Austrian music conductor Herbert von Karajan. Information is provided on von Karajan's alleged business acumen, audio and video recordings of music performances conducted by von Karajan are discussed, and the alleged influence of von Karajan on the proliferation of compact disc technology by the Sony recording company is emphasized.

An obituary for German pianist and conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch is presented.

An interview is presented with Peter Alward, managing director of the Easter Festival Salzburg, focusing on the cancellation of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's participation, its replacement by the Dresdner Staatskapelle, and the role played by the Staatskapelle's conductor Christian Thielemann. The program structure of the festival, the inclusion of chamber music, and juvenile music, are discussed.

Presents a letters to the editor about the music release "Tristan," performed by Placido Domingo.