Distinctly important (1 of 2)

Even James Ladyman, philosophy's great champion, underestimates the value of "learning to make distinctions" ("From politics to science to critical thought - 'we need philosophy'", 31 March).

In response to the alleged plagiarism of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi's PhD thesis, his supervisor at the London School of Economics, the distinguished philosopher of science Nancy Cartwright, is reported to have said: "I can hardly be confident that nobody else helped him since there's evidence that he lifted bits, but I'm confident that it isn't in the sense done by anybody else start to finish."

Steve Fuller, University of Warwick