Harry Potter and Philosophy

$21.95

In Harry Potter and Philosophy, seventeen philosophical experts unlock some of Hogwarts' secret panels, and uncover surprising insights that are enlightening both for wizards and the most discerning muggles.

Cover image for Harry Potter and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812694550

Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men

$44.95

This book combines a sweeping narrative of the Civil War with a bold new look at the war’s significance for American society. Professor Hummel sees the Civil War as America’s turning point: simultaneously the culmination and repudiation of the American revolution.

Chapters tell the story of the Civil War, discussing the issues raised in readable prose, each followed by a detailed bibliographical essay, looking at the different major works on the subject with varying ideological viewpoints and conclusions.

In his economic analysis of slavery, Professor Hummel takes a different view. While some writers claim that slavery was unprofitable and harmful to the Southern economy, and others maintain it was profitable and efficient for the South, Hummel uses the economic concept of 'Deadweight Loss' to show that slavery was both highly profitable for slave owners and harmful to Southern economic development.

While highly critical of Confederate policy, Hummel argues that the war was fought to prevent secession, not to end slavery, and that preservation of the Union was not necessary to end slavery arguing that the South crucially relied on the Northern states to return runaway slaves to their owners.

Cover image for Emancipating Slaves, Enslaving Free Men, isbn: 9780812698435

Guerrilla Metaphysics

$34.95

In Guerrilla Metaphysics, Graham Harman develops further the object-oriented philosophy first proposed in Tool-Being. Today’s fashionable philosophies often treat metaphysics as a petrified relic of the past, and hold that future progress requires an ever further abandonment of all claims to discuss reality in itself. Guerrilla Metaphysics makes the opposite assertion, challenging the dominant "philosophy of access" (both continental and analytic) that remains quarantined in discussions of language, perception, or literary texts. Philosophy needs a fresh resurgence of the things themselvesnot merely the words or appearances themselves.
Once these themes are adapted to the needs of an object-oriented philosophy, what emerges is a brand new type of metaphysicsa "guerrilla metaphysics."

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Occult Underground, The

$45.00

Just when it seemed that Science and Reason had scored their greatest triumphs, the mid-nineteenth century witnessed an astonishing rebirth of occultism and anti-rationalism: the beginnings of the movement we now call New Age. A secret tradition of knowledge rejected by the Christian or Scientific establishments suddenly became emboldened to seek publicity and converts. James Webb's painstaking research carry him into the undergrowth inhabited by such illuminated personages as Madame Blavatsky, the Reverend Leadbeater, the Bortherhood of Luxor, Annie Besant, Krishnamurti, Swami Vivekananda, Spiritualists, Rosicrucians, Vegetarians, Mithraic cults, and all manner of occult propagandists.

Cover image for Occult Underground, The, isbn: 9780812690736

Atheism Explained

$34.95

Atheism Explained explores the claims made both for and against the existence of God. On the pro side: that the wonders of the world can only be explained by an intelligent creator; that the universe had to start somewhere; telepathy, out-of-body experiences, and other paranormal phenomena demonstrate the existence of a spirit world; and that those who experience God directly provide evidence as real as any physical finding. After disputing these arguments through calm, careful criticism, author David Ramsay Steele presents the reasons why God cannot exist: monstrous, appalling evils; the impossibility of omniscience; and the senseless concept that God is a thinking mind without a brain. He also explores controversial topics such as Intelligent Design, the power of prayer, religion without God, and whether a belief in God makes people happier and healthier. Steele’s rational, easy-to-understand prose helps readers form their own conclusions about this eternally thorny topic.

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The Titanic Story

$16.95

The tragedy of the Titanic continues to fascinate readers and filmgoers. Author Stephen Cox maintains that the true stories of those onboard are even more compelling than the fictionalized tale told in James Cameron's box-office smash. Cox retells the real story in human terms, by focusing on a few individuals. Through these survivors' firsthand accounts, he uncovers the fatal decisions that underlay the events.

Cover image for The Titanic Story, isbn: 9780812693966

Our Spiritual Crisis

$18.95

Michael Nagler argues that problems now faced by American society spring from a false way of looking at the world,based on the premise that material things are fundamental, consciousness merely derivative. He advocates a return to the ancient and Eastern spritual view that consciousness is fundamental.
In developing a new conception of the universe and applying it to our social problems, Dr. Nagler explains how we can best oppose war, consumerism, commercialism, scientism, and the spiritual hollowness of modern life.
Commentary by Lewis S. Mudge.

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From Marx to Mises

$39.95

In 1920, Ludwig von Mises proclaimed that all attempts to establish socialism would come to grief, for reasons of informational efficiency. At first, socialists and economists took Mises's argument seriously, but by the end of the Second World War, a consensus prevailed that Mises had been discredited. More recently, that consensus has been rapidly reversed: it is now widely agreed that 'Mises was right'. Yet the momentous implications of the Mises argument -- for economics, politics, culture, and philosophy -- remain largely unexplored. From Marx to Mises is a clear, penetrating exposition of the economic calculation debate, and a scrutiny of some of the broader issues it raises.

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The Philosophy of P. F. Strawson

$72.95

Born in 1919, Strawson was a leading proponent of ordinary language philosophy. He is the author of the early and extremely influential paper "On Referring" in which he criticized Russell's theory of definite descriptions. His most influential book, Individuals, helped to raise the status of metaphysics as a philosophical enterprise. Themes first addressed in this book continued to be of concern to him in his later work, including the possibility of objective knowledge, the subject-predicate distinction, the ontological status of persons, and the problem of individuation.

Contributors to the book include: Ruth Garrett Millikan, Susan Haack, E. M. Adams, Panayot Butchvarov, Richard Behling, John McDowell, Simon Blackburn, Tadeusz Szubka, David Frederick Haight, Joseph S. Wu, Andrew G. Black, David Pears, Robert Boyd, Hilary Putnam, Paul F. Snowdon, Arindam Chakrabarti, Wenceslao J. Gonzalez, Ernest Sosa, Chung-M. Tse, John R. Searle, P. F. Strawson.

Cover image for The Philosophy of P. F. Strawson, isbn: 9780812693775

The Rolling Stones and Philosophy

$32.95

From their commanding role in the so-called British Invasion of the early 1960s to their status as the elder statesmen (and British Knight) of rock and roll, the Stones have become more than an evanescent phenomenon in pop culture. They have become a touchstone not only for the history of our timestheir performance at the Altamont Raceway marked the "end of the sixties," while their 1990 concert in Prague helped Czechoslovakia and other eastern bloc nations celebrate their newfound freedom (and satisfaction) out from under Moscow’s thumb. Because of their longevity, the music and career of the Stonesmuch more than The Beatlesstand as touchstones in the personal lives of even casual Stones fans. Everyone of a certain age remembers the Stones on Ed Sullivan, the death of founder Brian Jones, their favorite songs, concerts, or videos, and their stance in the classic Beatles versus Stones” debates. In the wake of Keith Richards’s bestselling autobiography, Life (2010), many are now reliving these events and decades from the viewpoint of the band’s endearing and seemingly death-defying guitarist.

The chapters in The Rolling Stones and Philosophy celebrate the Stones’ place in our lives by digging into the controversies, the symbols, and meanings the band and its songs have for so many. What might you mean (and what did Mick mean) by sympathy for the Devil”? Did the Stones share any of the blame for the deaths at Altamont, as critic Lester Bangs charged they did in Rolling Stone magazine? What theories of ethics and personality lay behind the good-boy image of the Beatles and the bad-boy reputation the Stones acquired? If Keith Richards really had his blood replaced four separate times, does that make him a zombie? How do the Glimmer Twins help us refine our understanding of friendship? Written by a dozen philosophers and scholars who adore the Rolling Stones not only for their music, this book will become required reading for anyone seeking maximum satisfaction from "the world's greatest rock and roll band."

Cover image for The Rolling Stones and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812697582

Downton Abbey and Philosophy

$29.95

In Downton Abbey and Philosophy, twenty-two professional thinkers uncover the deeper significance of this hugely popular TV saga. Millions of viewers throughout the world have been enthralled by this enactment of a vanished world of decorum and propriety, because it presents us with emotional and interpersonal problems that remain urgent for people in the twenty-first century.

Why do we attach such importance to our memories and to particular places? What do war and epidemics tell us about life in peacetime and in good health? Is it healthy or harmful for people to feel that they know their place? What does Downton Abbey teach us about the changes in women’s roles since 1912? Do good manners always agree with good morals? How can everybody know what no one will talk about? What’s the justification for a class of people who pride themselves on not having a job? Should we sometimes just accept the reality of social barriers to love, and abandon the pursuit? What happens when community reinforces oppression?

All of these and many other issues are discussed through a detailed examination of the actual characters and situations in Downton Abbey.

Cover image for Downton Abbey and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812699036

The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell, Volume 5

$59.95

This volume is one of the most significant documents on the thought of the giant of the twentieth-century philosophy. Russell's 'Reply to Criticisms,' supplemented by a 1971 'Addendum,' displays his unrivalled clarity, perceptiveness, and scalpel-like wit, on topics ranging from mathematical logic to political philosophy, from epistemology to philosophy of history.

Cover image for The Philosophy of Bertrand Russell, Volume 5, isbn: 9780875481388

The Red Sox and Philosophy

$36.95

This volume in the Popular Culture and Philosophy series delves into the tragic and redemptive history of the Boston Red Sox baseball franchise. Drawing on philosophers from Aristotle to Sartre, chapters range from issues of faith and spirituality to tragedy, irony, existentialism, Sabermetrics, and the infamous "curse of the Bambino." With an emphasis on "Red Sox Nation" the community of Red Sox fans across the globe the book connects important philosophical ideas with one of the most storied teams in the history of Major League Baseball. The chapters make complex philosophical arguments easy to understand while providing an insider’s knowledge of the hometown team. All but one of the authors in this volume are all Red Sox fans who comment on their team philosophically. There's even a Yankee fan’s perspective! With a foreword by Dick Bresciani, vice president and official historian of the Boston Red Sox, this book provides a unique philosophical experience for the die-hard Red Sox fan.

Cover image for The Red Sox and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812696776

Egyptian Heaven and Hell

$14.95

Budge, a prestigious Egyptologist, includes a translation of secret religious papyri, a history of Egyptian religion, and a helpful English translation of Egyptian hieroglyphics. This is a reprint of the classic work first published in 1906.

Cover image for Egyptian Heaven and Hell, isbn: 9780875482989

Human Freedom After Darwin

$49.95

Arguing that philosophical discussion of human freedom has been transformed by developments in modern science, especially evolutionary biology, the author outlines a naturalistic account of freedom and creativity by using examples from hypnosis, brainwashing, and creative leaps in thought.

Cover image for Human Freedom After Darwin, isbn: 9780812694062

The Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, Volume 3

$59.95

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) has made an enormous impact upon philosophical thinking. His work continues to fascinate, and occasionally to exasperate, Whitehead's 'Principia Mathematica' (jointly offered with Russell) is crucial to an understanding of recent philosophy of logic and of mathematics. Whitehead's metaphysics has proved formidably difficult yet stimulating. With his ideas on God he fathered a major school of modern theology.

Cover image for The Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead, Volume 3, isbn: 9780875481401

Marxism and the Call of the Future

$37.95

This book offers readers a rare chance to witness a mainstream thinker challenge an outlaw-activist. Avakian and Martin wrestle with big questions that have to do with the state of the world and the possibility for radical change. The scope and relevance of Marxism, and the nature and reach of communist revolution, are at the heart of this rich and lively dialogue. Avakian and Martin probe a wide range of issues: the place of ethics in a transformative revolutionary politics; Kant, Rousseau, and Hegel; Marx and the question of colonialism and Eurocentrism; the Maoist experience in China; sustainable agriculture and the task of overcoming the urban-rural divide; imperialism and lopsided development in the world, and the effects on social structure and revolution; animal rights; secularism and religion; the post-911 agenda of the U.S. ruling class, the political-social-cultural landscape of the U.S., and the prospects for resistance and revolution; Marxism and the question of homosexuality; the challenges confronting radical and communist intellectuals and the possibilities for engaged, creative intellectual work today.

Cover image for Marxism and the Call of the Future, isbn: 9780812695793

Cancer as Initiation

$38.95

This is the haunting personal story of one woman's journey through breast cancer, a disease that has reached epidemic proportions and now claims the lives of 46,000 American women each year.

For Barbara Stone, cancer was not a death sentence, but a challenge to become more fully alive, an initiation into a new stage of life. She fought this illness with the best tools Western medicine has been able to discover: surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. But she also combined these treatments with the best tools that Eastern medicine could offer: meditation, yoga, herbs, and acupuncture.

Her gripping account draws on the wisdom that came to her through dreams, and includes her journal entries which show the emotional highs and lows of the healing process. Stone shows that one can take the fear out of breast cancer by gaining greater understanding of the nature of the illness, and, most of all, explaining ways to prevent immune system dysfunction in the first place.

Cover image for Cancer as Initiation, isbn: 9780812692730

The Ultimate Game of Thrones and Philosophy

$19.95

The Ultimate Game of Thrones and Philosophy treats fans to dozens of new essays by experts who examine philosophical questions raised by the Game of Thrones story. This ultimate analysis provides the most comprehensive discussion to date and engages the Game of Thrones universe through the end of Season Six of the HBO series.

Ned Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, Joffrey, Cersei, Brienne, Arya, Stannis, and many other characters are used to apply the traditional philosophical questions that everyone faces. How should political leaders be chosen in Westeros and beyond? Is power merely an illusion? Is it immoral to enjoy overly violent and sexual stories like Game of Thrones? How should morally ambiguous individuals such as Jamie Lannister: The Kingslayer and Savior of King’s Landing be evaluated? Can anyone be trusted in a society like Westeros? What rules should govern sexual relationships in a world of love, incest, rape, and arranged marriage? How does disability shape identity for individuals like Tyrion, Bran, and others? How would one know whether there is a God in the Game of Thrones universe and what he is like?

Cover image for The Ultimate Game of Thrones and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812699500

Carnap Brought Home

$49.95

Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970) is considered the pioneer of logical positivism, but his work was thought to have been repudiated. Recently he has been undergoing a reappraisal, and this book of essays by leading philosophers, logicians, and art historians attempts to return Carnap to his rightful place. The philosopher’s early days as a utopianist, the root of his thought in neo-Kantianism, his social and political activism all are explored in these important essays.

Cover image for Carnap Brought Home, isbn: 9780812695502

Blade Runner 2049 and Philosophy

$19.95

Blade Runner 2049 is a 2017 sequel to the 1982 movie Blade Runner, about a world in which some human-looking replicants have become dangerous, so that other human-looking replicants, as well as humans, have the job of hunting down the dangerous models and “retiring” (destroying) them. Both films have been widely hailed as among the greatest science-fiction movies of all time, and Ridley Scott, director of the original Blade Runner, has announced that there will be a third Blade Runner movie.

Blade Runner 2049 and Philosophy is a collection of entertaining articles on both Blade Runner movies (and on the spin-off short films and Blade Runner novels) by twenty philosophers representing diverse backgrounds and philosophical perspectives. Among the issues addressed in the book:

What does Blade Runner 2049 tell us about the interactions of state power and corporate power?

Can machines ever become truly conscious, or will they always lack some essential human qualities?

The most popular theory of personhood says that a person is defined by their memories, so what happens when memories can be manufactured and inserted at will?

We already interact with non-human decision-makers via the Internet. When embodied AI becomes reality, how can we know what is human and what is simulation? Does it matter?

Do AI-endowed human-looking replicants have civil and political rights, or can they be destroyed whenever “real” humans decide they are inconvenient?

The blade runner Deckard (Harrison Ford) appears in both movies, and is generally assumed to be human, but some claim he may be a replicant. What’s the evidence on both sides?

Is Niander Wallace (the-mad-scientist-cum-evil-corporate-CEO in Blade Runner 2049) himself a replicant? What motivates him?

What are the impacts of decision-making AI entities on the world of business?

Both Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 have been praised for their hauntingly beautiful depictions of a bleak future, but the two futures are very different (and the 2019 future imagined in the original Blade Runner is considerably different from the actual world of 2019). How have our expectations and visions of the future changed between the two movies?

The “dream maker” character Ana Stelline in Blade Runner 2049 has a small but pivotal role. What are the implications of a person whose dedicated mission and task is to invent and install false memories?

What are the social and psychological implications of human-AI sexual relations?

Cover image for Blade Runner 2049 and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812694710

Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy

$34.95

This volume will convince readers that the swift ascent of the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons to worldwide popularity in the 1970s and 1980s is the most exciting event in popular culture since the invention of the motion picture.”
Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy presents twenty-one chapters by different writers, all D&D aficionados but with starkly different insights and points of view. It will be appreciated by thoughtful fans of the game, including both those in their thirties, forties, and fifties who have rediscovered the pastime they loved as teenagers and the new teenage and college-student D&D players who have grown up with gaming via computer and console games and are now turning to D&D as a richer, fuller gaming experience.
The book is divided into three parts. The first, Heroic Tier: The Ethical Dungeon-Crawler,” explores what D&D has to teach us about ethics and about how results from the philosophical study of morality can enrich and transform the game itself. Authors argue that it’s okay to play evil characters, criticize the traditional and new systems of moral alignment, and (from the perspective of those who love the game) tackle head-on the recurring worries about whether the game has problems with gender and racial stereotypes. Readers of Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy will become better players, better thinkers, better dungeon-masters, and better people.
Part II, Paragon Tier: Planes of Existence,” arouses a new sense of wonder about both the real world and the collaborative world game players create. Authors look at such metaphysical questions as what separates magic from science, how we express the inexpressible through collaborative storytelling, and what the objects that populate Dungeons and Dragons worlds can teach us about the equally fantastic objects that surround us in the real world.
The third part, Epic Tier: Leveling Up,” is at the crossroads of philosophy and the exciting new field of Game Studies. The writers investigate what makes a game a game, whether D&D players are artists producing works of art, whether D&D (as one of its inventors claimed) could operate entirely without rules, how we can overcome the philosophical divide between game and story, and what types of minds take part in D&D.

Cover image for Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812697964

U2 and Philosophy

$25.95

Is it possible to be a committed Christian and a rock superstar? Can political activists make good music? Do hugely successful rock bands really care about AIDS and poverty in Africa, or is it just another image-enhancing schtick? U2 and Philosophy ponders these and other seeming dichotomies in the career of the Irish supergroup. For over two decades, U2 has been one of the biggest acts in rock music. They’ve produced over a dozen platinum and multiplatinum records and won 15 Grammy Awards. Critics everywhere have praised the band’s thoughtful, complex lyrics and the artistry of their music. At the same time, Bono, the group’s lead singer, has dedicated himself to political and social causes, blurring the line between rock star and respected statesman. Offering fresh insight into the band’s music and activism, these thought-provoking essays allows fans to discover philosophy through the eyes of U2, and rediscover U2 through the eyes of philosophers.

Cover image for U2 and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812695991

Autobiographical Notes

$15.00

Delivered with warmth, clarity, and humor, this brief work is the closest Einstein ever came to writing an autobiography. Although a very personal account, it is concerned solely with the development of his ideas, saying little about his private life or about the world-shaking events through which he lived. Includes parallel German and English texts.

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Death

$37.95

No one who reads this book will ever again think of their own death in the same way.

Fingarette faces up to the reality of death and demolishes some popular errors in our thinking about death. He examines the metaphors which mislead us: death as parting, death as sleep, immortality as the denial of death, and selflessness as a kind of consolation.

He thinks through some of the more illuminating metaphors: death as the end of the world for me, death as the conclusion of a story, life as ceremony, and life as a tourist visit to earth. Fingarette goes on to discuss living a future without end and living a present without bounds. The author offers no facile consolation, but he identifies the true root of fear of death, and explains how the meaning of death can be reconceived.

"All of Herbert Fingarette's books are enormously personal voyages that explore with philosophical honesty real life dilemmas: self-deception, cultural alterity, the role of ritual, the achievement of personhood, justifications for alcoholism, and now death. One of Fingarette's most important career accomplishments". -- Roger T. Ames Philosophy East & West

Cover image for Death, isbn: 9780812693294

How History Made the Mind

$32.00

How History Made the Mind, David Martel Johnson argues that what we now think of as "reason" or "objective thinking" is not a natural product of the existence of an enlarged brain or culmination of innate biological tendencies. Rather, it is a way of learning to use the brain that runs counter to the natural characteristics involved in being an animal, a mammal, and a primate. Johnson defends his theory of mind as a cultural artifact against objections, and uses it to question a number of currently fashionable positions in philosophy of mind, known theories of Julian Jaynes, which Johnson argues go too far in the direction of emphasizing the dissimilarities between ancient and modern ways of thinking.

Cover image for How History Made the Mind, isbn: 9780812695366

The Mindful Traveler

$16.95

For Jim Currie, a weekend getaway, extended vacation, or business trip can be more than diversion or duty. In The Mindful Traveler, he helps the reader structure journal writing - and the journey - around eight Buddhist archetypes that offer specific skills for problem solving and spiritual progress. Topics include everything from organizing the journal to choosing the appropriate "spiritual touchstones" for the trip.

Cover image for The Mindful Traveler, isbn: 9780812694215

The Philosophy of Arthur C. Danto

$99.95

Arthur Danto is the Johnsonian Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Columbia University and the most influential philosopher of art in the last half century. As an art critic for The Nation for 25 years and frequent contributor to other widely read outlets such as the New York Review of Books, Danto also has become one of the most respected public intellectuals of his generation. He is the author of some two dozen important books, along with hundreds of articles and reviews which have been the center of both controversy and discussion. In this volume Danto offers his intellectual autobiography and responds to essays by 27 of the keenest critics of his thought from the worlds of philosophy and the arts. The book includes 16 pages of color art reproductions. Danto is the author dozens of books on art, philosophy, the philosophy of art, and art criticism. He is a rare philosopher who is also a public intellectual.

Cover image for The Philosophy of Arthur C. Danto, isbn: 9780812697322

Facing Evil

$37.00

From the Holocaust to the destruction of the World Trade Center, evil human acts continue to defy all attempts at explanation. This collection of lectures on evil by prominent scholars, writers, theologians and philosophers resonates powerfully as a guide to these dark forces and will help conceptualize a plan for action against them. Included are contributions by Maya Angelou, M. Scott Peck, Rollo May, Raul Hilberg, Samuel Proctor, and others.

Cover image for Facing Evil, isbn: 9780812690798

Men in Love

$19.95

Recent writings about homosexuality have tended toward either dry science or trendy self-help. But the mystery of human sexuality cannot be summed up using only psychoanalitic or biological models. In Men in Love, Jungian psychoanalist Vittorio Lingiardi traces the poetic roots of eros from ancient Greek times to modern times through myths, art, poetry, and symbols. From the rape of Ganymede to Michelangelo’s loves, from the relationship of Batman and Robin to the letters between Freud and Jung, this voyage speaks eloquently about the complex relationships between men. A substantial and imaginative study ... pleasurable and edifying.” David Leavitt, author of The Lost Language of Cranes

Cover image for Men in Love, isbn: 9780812695151

The Book of Gins and Vodkas

$22.95

Author Bob Emmons provides expert tasting notes on gin, vodka, and aquavit - from the most popular to the more obscure. He describes historical and current production methods, recent trends, and the different flavoring components of these liquors. The book includes advice on how to organize a tasting, a brief history of the martini, and a chapter of recipes for a variety of martinis and other cocktails.

Cover image for The Book of Gins and Vodkas, isbn: 9780812694109

WikiLeaking

$27.95

WikiLeaks is famous—or infamous—for publishing secret material, including classified government documents, confidential videos and emails, and information leaked by whistleblowers, some of them anonymous, others revealing their identities. WikiLeaks claims to have compiled a database of more than ten million “forbidden” documents. Its founder and leader, Australian activist Julian Assange proclaims that the public is entitled to the truth and that “information wants to be free.”

WikiLeaks activities have polarized opinion, with some claiming its operations are traitorous and harmful, and others defending its releases as necessary exposure of wrongdoing.

In WikiLeaking: The Ethics of Secrecy and Exposure, professional philosophers with diverse opinions and backgrounds deliver their provocative insights into WikiLeaks.

● If leaking secrets sometimes causes harm, can this harm be outweighed by the benefit of more people knowing the truth?

● How much of WikiLeaks information is true, and does it matter that some of it might be erroneous or misleading through lack of context?

● Is the prevalence of leaking an automatic outcome of the value of free expression, as enshrined in the First Amendment?

● If it’s wrong to lie, does this imply that it’s always right to speak the truth?

● Does selective media bias require to be countered by unpredictable leaking?

● Can there be too much information? And if so, how can citizens protect themselves against information overload?

● WikiLeaks activists are guided by a code of ethics. How does this compare with the professional ethics of conventional journalists?

● When French politician Emmanuel Macron included deliberate falsehoods in his emails, knowing they would be leaked, he showed the relation between leaking and “bullshit,” as defined by Harry Frankfurt. Can we expect the prevalence of leaking to increase the volume of bullshit?

● The existence of government necessitates the practice of subterfuge and double-dealing by statesmen, but the culture of democracy calls for transparency. How can we fix the boundary between necessary deception and the public’s “right to know”?

● Leaking exposes what some powerful person wants to be kept secret. Is leaking always justified whenever that person wants to keep their own immoral actions secret, and is leaking not justified when the keeper of secrets has done nothing wrong?

Cover image for WikiLeaking, isbn: 9780812699883

Jeopardy! and Philosophy

$24.95

Since its debut in 1964, Jeopardy! has been one of America’s favorite and longest-running daytime quiz shows. It turns the question-answer format of traditional quiz shows on its head and requires contestants to pose correct questions to answers in selected categories. While mining information and facts from Alchemy to Zoology, Jeopardy!, is a uniquely intellectual, erudite, and challenging daytime television program. Far beyond entertaining its fans with nail-biting contests of knowledge, memory, and speed, it all but requires them to participate. Few people watch Jeopardy! without pressing an invisible button and blurting out questions to their TV screen.

Because of this personal and intellectual investment, most Jeopardy! fans are devout. Watching the show is valued as a daily ritual in which genuine intellectual skill and encyclopedic knowledge (as opposed to thin Hollywood depictions such as those in Big Bang Theory or Rain Man) are not only respected and placed in the spotlight, but also rewarded with national prestige and prize winnings. Champion Ken Jennings (who contributes to this volume) has won over three million dollars and remained champion seventy-four times. For those who embrace Jeopardy! as an intellectual oasis in the arid desert of popular culture, it is the geeks who shall inherit the earth.

Jeopardy!’s celebration of intellect and forward-thinking is well recognized throughout popular culture and among all age groups. Ken Jennings, Chuck Forrest, and other all-time champions are near celebrities, while the show itself regularly reaches out through special tournaments to different segments of American culture, such as actors and musicians (Celebrity Jeopardy!), high-school and college students (Teen Tournament and College Championship Jeopardy!) and senior citizens (Senior Tournament Jeopardy!). Still, despite its widespread respect and, some might complain, smug self-respect, neither the show nor its fans take themselves too seriously. Jokes about host Alex Trebek’s hair and famous parodies of Jeopardy! on Saturday Night Live are as familiar as Weird Al Yankovic’s MTV-mainstay I Lost on Jeopardy!” (to the tune of Our Love’s in Jeopardy”):

Don't know what I was thinkin' of,
I guess I just wasn't too bright.
Well, I sure hope I do better
Next weekend on The Price Is Right.

Cover image for Jeopardy! and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812697995

The Bonds of Freedom

$42.95

Simone de Beauvoir published a number of philosophical essays and novels before writing The Second Sex. The most important of these was The Ethics of Ambiguity, in which she argues that one’s freedom is always intertwined with that of others. The Bonds of Freedom examines de Beauvoir’s ideas on ethics, demonstrating her importance in contemporary philosophy.

Cover image for The Bonds of Freedom, isbn: 9780812694420

Beginning with the End

$24.95

Can theology be informed by science and inform science in turn? Can theology make significant contributions to the understanding of science? Wolfhart Pannenberg, Professor of Theology at the University of Munich, is a significant voice in the conversation between religion and science; however, almost all the material published about him speaks exclusively from a theological/philosophical perspective. Theologians and philosophers of religion often feel unqualified to address Pannenberg's dialogue with the natural sciences.

Beginning with the End addresses this need. The collection begins with a thoughtful introduction mapping the science/religion dialogue and Pannenberg's place in it, followed by 4 pivotal essays by Pannenberg. It includes articles by distinguished scientists and theologians that compellingly analyze everything from behavioral genetics to evolutionary ecology. The editors have made the essays accessible to the general reader who is interested in the hotly debated terrain between religion and science.

Cover image for Beginning with the End, isbn: 9780812693263

Deadpool and Philosophy

$34.95

Deadpool is the super-anti-hero who knows he's in a comic book. His unique situation and blood-stained history give rise to many philosophical puzzles. A group of philosophical Deadpool fans delve into these puzzles in Deadpool and Philosophy. For instance, if you know that someone is writing the script of your life, can you really be a hero?

Is Deadpool really Wade Wilson, or did Wilson have his identity stolen by the monster who is now Deadpool? Are his actions predetermined by the writers, or does he trick the writers into scripting his choices? And what happens when Deadpool breaks into the real world to kill the writers? What kind of existence do literary characters have? How can we call him a moral agent for good when he still commits murder left and right and then left again and then right? Since Deadpool gets paid for his good deeds, can they be truly heroic? And which of the many Deadpool personalities are the real Deadpool? And of course, why does Deadpool love to annoy Wolverine so much?

Deadpool challenges us to think outside the box. Deadpool and Philosophy shows us the profound implications of this most contradictory and perplexing comic book character.

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The Philosophy of W. V. Quine, Volume 18

$59.95

This volume on Quine includes 25 critical essays by contemporary philosophers such as William P.Alston, Ulrich Gahde, Geoffrey Hellman, Hao Wang and Charles Parsons and Quine's answers to these critics. The text also includes a bibliography of Quine's works and discusses his views on the philosophy of logic, methodology, logical theory, theory of language, ontology and epistemology and a biographical essay.

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Confucius Now

$38.95

Written by the most important scholars in contemporary Confucian studies, these approachable essays focus on the relevance of Confucius’s ideas to modern living, with special attention given to the Analects, his seminal text. Topics covered include tradition and creativity, grief and mourning, the doctrine of correcting names, Confucian kungfu, and moral cultivation.

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More Doctor Who and Philosophy

$19.95

More Doctor Who and Philosophy is a completely new collection of chapters, additional to Doctor Who and Philosophy (2010), by the same editors. Since that first Doctor Who and Philosophy, much has happened in the Whoniverse: a new and controversial regeneration of the Doctor, multiple new companions, a few creepy new enemies of both the Doctor and planet Earth.

New questions have been raised and new questioners have come along, so there are plenty of new topics for philosophical scrutiny. Is the impossible” girl really impossible? Is there anything wrong with an inter-species lesbian relationship (the kids weren’t quite ready for that in 1963, but no one blinks an eye in 2015)? Can it really be right for the Doctor to lie and to selectively forget? We even have two authors who have figured out how to build a TARDIS instructions included!

An added feature of this awesome new volume is that the editors have reached out to insiders of Who fandom, people who run hugely successful Who conventions, play in Who-inspired bands, and run wildly popular podcasts and websites, to share their privileged insights into why the Doctor is so philosophically deep.

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Freud and the Question of Pseudoscience

$26.95

For three decades Frank Cioffi has been at the center of the debate over Freud's legacy and the legitimacy of psychoanalysis. Cioffi has given startling demonstrations that, in one area after another, Freud's accounts of the development of his theories are untruthful. But Cioffi's even more impressive achievement has been to scrupulously distinguish the many different, often equivocal, assertions made by psychoanalysis, thus laying bare the mechanism of its rhetorical conjuring tricks.

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Monty Python and Philosophy

$31.95

From the 1970s cult TV show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, to the current hit musical Spamalot, the Monty Python comedy troupe has been at the center of popular culture and entertainment. The Pythons John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam are increasingly recognized and honored for their creativity and enduring influence in the worlds of comedy and film. Monty Python and Philosophy extends that recognition into the world of philosophy. Fifteen experts in topics like mythology, Buddhism, feminism, logic, ethics, and the philosophy of science bring their expertise to bear on Python movies such as Monty Python’s Life of Brian and Flying Circus mainstays such as the Argument Clinic, the Dead Parrot Sketch, and, of course, the Bruces, the Pythons’ demented, song-filled vision of an Australian philosophy department. Monty Python and Philosophy follows the same hit format as the other titles in this popular series and explains all the philosophical concepts discussed in laymen’s terms.

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The Stoic Art of Living

$24.95

Tom Morris's exuberant seminars and presentations to business leaders have taken the commanding heights of corporate America by storm and his books on philosophy for businesspeople have sold millions. Dr. Morris shows how the ideas of Stoic Philosophy - which emphasizes goals like gaining command of one's passions and achieving indifference to pain and distress - are completely up-to-date in their relevance to the practical issues people confront in the 21st century.
Divided into three sections Dr. Morris sympathetically relates the life and intellectual achievements of the three leading Stoics: the slave Epictetus, the lawyer Seneca, and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. From the bottom of society, to the upwardly mobile middle, and all the way to the top, these thinkers saw life deeply.

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The Philosophy of G. E. Moore, Volume 4

$35.95

For almost a half-century G.E. Moore has exercised an enormous influence on modern thought. Since 1903, when his famous "Refutation of Idealism" burst upon the philosophical world, he has had a long and distinguished career. The present volume is a living testament to this great realist and to his reputation (along with his colleagues, Russell and Whitehead) as one of the most profound thinkers of our century.

Here every aspect of Professor Moore's thought is described and examined--in nineteen brilliant, searching and incisive essays which form a definitive critique of his work and from which all further evaluations must spring. Each contributor and critic has been chosen because of his thorough familiarity and deep interest in the subject--and each is a noted American or European philosopher in his own right.

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Baseball and Philosophy

$17.95

Baseball and Philosophy brings together two high-powered pastimes: the sport of baseball and the academic discipline of philosophy. Eric Bronson asked eighteen young professors to provide their profound analysis of some aspect of baseball. The result offers surprisingly deep insights into this most American of games.
The contributors include many of the leading voices in the burgeoning new field of philosophy of sport, plus a few other talented philosophers with a personal interest in baseball. A few of the contributors are also drawn from academic areas outside philosophy: statistics, law, and history.
This volume gives the thoughtful baseball fan substancial material to think more deeply about. What moral issues are raised by the Intentional Walk? Do teams sometimes benefit from the self-interested behavior of their individual members? How can Zen be applied to hitting? Is it ethical to employ deception in sports? Can a game be defined by its written rules or are there also other constraints? What can the U.S. Supreme Court learn from umpiring? Why should baseball be the only industry exempt from antitrust laws? What part does luck play in any game of skill?

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The Space of Love and Garbage

$44.95

Focusing on personal, emotional, and political issues, these witty, brilliant essays from the Harvard Review of Philosophy strive to illuminate those areas of philosophy and life that are most important to living the good life” to its fullest as an individual and as a citizen. From immigration to moral intuition, from love to hubris, these essays demonstrate how philosophy tackles modernity’s central questions.

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Hitchcock and Philosophy

$17.95

The shower scene in Psycho; Cary Grant running for his life through a cornfield; innocent” birds lined up on a fence waiting, watching these seminal cinematic moments are as real to moviegoers as their own lives. But what makes them so? What deeper forces are at work in Hitchcock’s films that so captivate his fans? This collection of articles in the series that’s explored such pop-culture phenomena as Seinfeld and The Simpsons examines those forces with fresh eyes. These essays demonstrate a fascinating range of topics: Sabotage’s lessons about the morality of terrorism and counter-terrorism; Rope’s debatable Nietzschean underpinnings; Strangers on a Train’s definition of morality. Some of the essays look at more overarching questions, such as why Hitchcock relies so heavily on the Freudian unconscious. In all, the book features 18 philosophers paying a special homage to the legendary auteur in a way that’s accessible even to casual fans.

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South Park and Philosophy

$17.95

Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s long-running Comedy Central hit cartoon South Park has been equally cheered and reviled for its edgy humor, poited satire of current events and celebrities, and all-around obnoxiousness. But is there more to Kyle, the lonely Jew, Timmy and the Crips, Cartman’s bitchiness, Chef’s inappropriate advice, and Kenny’s continued violent deaths than meets the eye? This collection of essays affirms that possibility. Individual chapters take a sometimes witty, often provocative look at Is South Park a Libertarian Manifesto?", "That's So Gay!", and "Why Is Cartman Such an Asshole?”. The writers apply classical philosophical analysis to this two-dimensional dystopia, whether in Paul Draper’s Why Good Things Happen to Bad People The Problem of Evil in South Park” or Randall Auxier’s Finding South Park on the Map: Officer Barbrady, Mayor McDaniel, and Chef in Plato’s Republic.” South Park and Philosophy presents new and thoughtful approaches to understanding this surprisingly meaningful show.

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Madness, Heresy, and the Rumor of Angels

$49.95

This is a collection of seven true stories of individuals insulted and injured by the mental health system, individuals who then fought back, broke free, and rebuilt their lives. Madness, Heresy, and the Rumor of Angels is a work in the tradition of Thomas Szasz, R. D. Laing, and Erving Goffman, a challenge to the delusional belief-system known as psychiatry, and a protest against its appalling crimes.

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The Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr

$59.95

This book looks at one of today's greatest thinkers and his influential writings on religion, science, history, and Persian mysticism. The text includes 33 critical essays by contemporary scholars and Nasr's responses to each of them.

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The Walking Dead and Philosophy

$27.95

Rick, Lori, Shane, Carl, Dale, Andrea, and Michonne--human survivors of a zombie apocalypse--don't know much about philosophy, but philosophical ideas continue to shamble on through their world, and there's no excape from them.

The Walking Dead is both a hugely successful comics series and a popular TV show. This epic story of a zombie apocalypse is unique. It focuses on the long-term individual, social, and moral consequences of survival by small groups of humans in a world overrun by infected zombies.

Guns, chainsaws, and machetes are not enough for survival: humans also need agreement on rules of conduct. Can equality or fairness have any polace in the post-apocalyptic world? Do theft or even assault and murder become okay under desperate circumstances? Who should be recognized as having political authority? What about eating human flesh? Should survivors have children?

As zombies have low IQs, terrible manners, and the overpowering urge to eat people, do they have any rights at all? Am I still me if I become a zombie? Do zombies know anything? are they rational? Would it be ethical to train a zombie and keep it as a pet? What the heck are P-zombies? And why would we all jump at the chance

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All We Need Is a Paradigm

$44.95

The Harvard Review of Philosophy has long been a forum for new thoughts in the field this collection includes some of the most important essays from that publication. Exploring the unexpected ways that philosophy impacts our world, this book considers the discipline as an essential element in our understanding of science, economics, and logic. This fascinating read for both laypeople and those familiar with philosophical concepts delves deep into questions of human nature, intellectual thought, and the manner in which our world operates. Using several different approaches, including puzzles, essays, and songs, this book challenges our basic assumptions about how things work.

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Love and the Abyss

$25.95

This book develops the notion of a "culture of narcissism," a concept originally proposed by Christopher Lasch. The author puts forward a coherent theory of the role played by love in human attempts to grapple with the problems of finitude and the experience of the basic value of beinguniversal problems that are especially troublesome in a narcissistic culture such as ours. Ellis suggests that love is a way to experience the finitude of existence in a positive rather than negative way, making possible a resolution of the dilemma of finitude in a non-self-deceptive way. Love includes compassion for others in their vulnerability, and this compassion emotionally intensifies admiration, creating an inspirational appreciation of the intrinsic value of being, directly and intensely experienced as instantiated in others. Paradoxically, compassion for others’ finitude leads to a powerful positive value experience, whereas compassion for one’s own finitude (self-pity) is only negative. When this intensified value experience is then universalized, it is greatly strengthened by its derivation from individualized emotion.

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The Philosophy of A. J. Ayer, Volume 21

$59.95

This, the 21st volume in the Library of Living Philosophers, is more than Sir Alfred Ayer's final word on the philosophical issues that preoccupied him for more than sixty years; the list of contributors is a roll-call of some of the greatest living figures in philosophy, each expertly addressing a key problem arising in Ayer's work. Most of the critical papers are answered directly and in detail by Sir Alfred-he completed his replies to 21 of the 24 papers before his death.

Contributors include: A. J. Ayer, Evandro Agazzi, James Campbell, David S. Clarke, Michael Dummett, Elizabeth Eames, John Foster, Dimitri Ginev, Paul Gochet, Martin Hollis, Ted Honderich, Tscha Hung, Peter Kivy, Arne Naess, D. J. O'Connor, Desiree Park, David Pears, Azarya Polikarov, Hilary Putnam, Francisco Miró, Quesada C., A. Anthony Quinton, Emanuele Riverso, Ernest Sosa, T. L. S. Sprigge, Barry Stroud, and David Wiggins.

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Jungian Psychoanalysis

$59.95

Written by 40 of the most notable Jungian psychoanalysts spanning 11 countries, and boasting decades of study and expertise Jungian Psychoanalysis represents the pinnacle of Jungian thought. This handbook brings up to date the perspectives in the field of clinically applied analytical psychology, centering on five areas of interest: the fundamental goals of Jungian psychoanalysis, the methods of treatment used in pursuit of these goals, reflections on the analytic process, the training of future analysts, and special issues, such as working with trauma victims, handicapped patients, or children and adolescents, and emergent religious and spiritual issues. Discussing not only the history of Jungian analysis but its present and future applications, this book marks a major contribution to the worldwide study of psychoanalysis.

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Why Men Rule

$18.95

The first edition of this book was lavishly praised by many authorities as the most formidable demonstration of an unpopular truth: males rule in all societies known to history or anthropology, for reasons arising from innate physiology, a brute fact that can never be conjured away by tinkering with social institutions. This new edition has been completely rewritten in the light of two decades of scholarship and debate, taking account of all published criticisms of earlier editions.

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Virtuous Liaisons

$27.95

Author Raja Halwani discusses how virtue ethics sheds light on three crucial areas of our lives: care, love, and sex. He has three groundbreaking theses: first, care should be construed as a virtue, and care ethics should be subsumed under virtue ethics. Second, romantic love is an emotion and not a virtue, and the best (most moral) love is the one found in a virtuous person. Third, virtue ethics allows for sexual lifestyles (promiscuity, open relationships, and sex work) that are abjured by traditional morality.

The book's three theses are unique in important respects. The Chapter on care settles decisively the issue of care ethics' status. By arguing that care ethics is subsumed by virtue ethics, the book preserves the importance of care ethics and avoids objections to it. The chapter on love spells out the connections between love and the virtues and argues that romantic love is crucial to a well-lived, flourishing life. The third chapter argues that virtue ethics is perfectly hospitable to alternative sexual lifestyles, which boldly counters the conservative viewpoints of many virtue ethicists.

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Pierre Duhem

$44.95

More than any other major twentieth-century writer, Pierre Duhem has been the victim of ill-informed guesswork. For instance, many references to Duhem stress the importance of his Catholic faith, but nearly all of them draw the obvious-and entirely erroneous-conclusions about the role of Catholicism in Duhem's thinking.

This book pays particular attention to the political and intellectual context of French Catholicism, wracked as it was by the tensions of Dreyfus affair and the so-called modernist crisis. Duhem took his inspiration, not from the papally-sponsored revival of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, but from Pascal, a fact that aroused suspicions of skepticism in the minds of conservative Catholics. The tensions between Duhem's work and authoritarian Catholic positions became more explicit as his historical work unfolded. Most famous for his denial of the possibility of a crucial experiment which could unambiguously decide between contending scientific theories, Duhem has often been interpreted as a mere instrumentalist or conventionalist, denying the meaningfulness of a reality behind the theory. Dr. Martin shows that Duhem was a Pascalian who argued for both logic and intuition as indispensable in approaching the truth. Duhem argues that physics could not legitimately be used to attack Christianity, but he held that physics was equally useless for the defense of Christianity, a position which made him unpopular with many Catholics.

Duhem is now well-known for his historical work refuting the myth that there was no medieval science. Duhem demonstrated that figures like Leonardo and Galileo were not isolation pioneers; far from being the founders of a new science, they were continuing a tradition of scientific work that had been developing for centuries. It has been surmised that Duhem was predisposed to rehabilitate medieval science for apologetic motives. Martin shows that Duhem's discovery of medieval science can be dated to within a month, and came as a complete surprise to him, changing the whole course of his work, and introducing an abrupt discontinuity between his earlier and his later preoccupations. Furthermore, Duhem's findings in medieval intellectual history have proved indigestible ever since, to believers and unbelievers alike.

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The Wire and Philosophy

$32.95

By many accounts, HBO’s The Wire was and remains the greatest and most important television drama of all time. Conceived by writers David Simon and ex-Baltimore homicide detective Ed Burns, this five-season, sixty-episode tour de force has raised the bar for compelling, intelligent television production. With each season addressing a different arena of life in the city of Baltimore, and each season’s narratives tapping into those from previous seasons, The Wire was able to reveal the overlapping, criss-crossing, and colliding realities that shapeif not controlthe people, institutions, and culture of the modern American city.

The Wire and Philosophy celebrates this show’s realism as well as its intellectual and philosophical clarity. Selected philosophers who are fans of The Wire tap into these conflicts and interconnections to expose the underlying philosophical issues and assumptions and pursue questions, such as, can cops really tell whether they are smarter than their perps? Or do they fall victim to intellectual vanity? Do individuals really have free will to resist the temptationsof gangs, of drugs, or corruptionthat surround them? Is David Simon a modern-day Marx who sees capitalism leading ultimately to its own collapse, or is Baltimore’s story uniquely its own?

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The Philosophy of Umberto Eco

$189.95

The Philosophy of Umberto Eco stands out in the Library of Living Philosophers series as the volume on the most interdisciplinary scholar hitherto and probably the most widely translated. The Italian philosopher’s name and works are well known in the humanities, both his philosophical and literary works being translated into fifteen or more languages. Eco is a founder of modern semiotics and widely known for his work in the philosophy of language and aesthetics. He is also a leading figure in the emergence of postmodern literature, and is associated with cultural and mass communication studies. His writings cover topics such as advertising, television, and children’s literature as well as philosophical questions bearing on truth, reality, cognition, language, and literature. The critical essays in this volume cover the full range of this output.
This book has wide appeal not only because of its interdisciplinary nature but also because of Eco’s famous high and low” approach, which is deeply scholarly in conception and very accessible in outcome. The short essay Why Philosophy?” included in the volume is exemplary in this regard: it will appeal to scholars for its wit and to high school students for its intelligibility.

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Movies and the Meaning of Life

$32.95

"The meaning of life is the most urgent of questions," said the existentiallist thinker Albert Camus. And no less a philosopher than Woody Allen has wondered:"How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world, given my waist and shirt size?"
"Movies and the Meaning of Life" looks at popular and cult movies, examining their assumptions and insights on meaning-of-life questions: What is reality and how can I know it? (The Truman Show, Contact, Waking Life); How do I find myself and my true identity? (Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Boys Don't Cry, Memento); How do I find meaning from my interactions with others? (Pulp Fiction, Shadowlands, Chasing Amy); What is the chief purpose in life? (American Beauty, Life is Beautiful, The Shawshank Redemption); and How ought I live my life? (Pleasantville, Spiderman, Minority Report, Groundhog Day).

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The Roots of Power

$50.00

This interdisciplinary work demonstrates, by steadfast attention to corporeal matters of fact, how the concept of power and of power relations is rooted in bodily life, in animate form. It first shows how Foucault's "optics of power" is Sartre's "The Look" writ large, and proceeds to explain how optics of power are undergirded by a "power of optics" which has its roots in our primate evolutionary heritage. The exploration of an evolutionary genealogy leads in turn into extended examinations and exemplifications of corporeal and intercorporeal archetypes. Moving easily through biological, anthropological and psychological domains, and informed by keen philosophical reflection, "The Roots of Power" aims to show how the personal and political are fundamentally joined in the body, that is, how the political defines us both as creatures of a natural history and as culturally - and individually - groomed bearers of meaning. Sheets-Johnstone assesses the complex of topics that progressively surfaces such as females' being receptive "year-round", male threat/female vulnerability, Sartre's characterisation of females' being "in the form of a hole", and proposed relationships between aggression and sex.

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The Philosophy of Michael Dummett

$59.95

For over 50 years, Sir Michael Dummett has been a major philosophical voice in a wide range of fields, including epistemology, ontology, and the philosophy of language. This comprehensive volume treats all of these subjects and more in detail. It contains Dummett’s intellectual autobiography, 27 previously unpublished critical and descriptive essays by famous scholars, a reply to each essay by Dummett, and a complete bibliography of his published works.

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Critique of Pure Verbiage

$21.95

These essays may at first give the impression of being no more than hatchet jobs in which Thomas Carlyle, Benedetto Croce, T.S. Eliot, Martin Heidegger, Immanuel Kant, Bishop John A.T. Robinson, John Ruskin, Gilbert Ryle, A.N. WHitehead and others are taken to task for various linguistic imbecilities. In fact the author's purpose lies not so much in putting down the mighty from their seats as in dissecting some common types of worthless writing. The lessons he draws - founded on the theory of human thought and behaviour he propounded in his two earlier (posthumously published) books - have wider applications.

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Disputers of the Tao

$52.00

"A history of Chinese philosophy in the so-called Axial Period (the period of classical Greek and Indian philosophy), during which time China evolved the characteristic ways of thought that sustained both its empire and its culture for over 2000 years. It is comprehensive, lucid, almost simple in its presentation, yet backed up with incomparable authority amid a well-honed discretion that unerringly picks out the core of any theme. Garlanded with tributes even before publication, it has redrawn the map of its subject and will be the one essential guide for any future exploration. For anyone interested in the affinities between ancient Chinese and modern Western philosophy, there is no better introduction."
Contemporary Review

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An Introduction to Husserl's Phenomenology

$24.95

Patocka's celebrated Introduction is here made available in English for the first time. In addition to introducing Husserl's ideas, this book is also an important work of original philosophy. Patocka ranges over the whole of Husserl's output, from The Philosophy of Arithmetic to The Crisis of the European Sciences, and traces the evolution of all the central issues of Husserlian phenomenology--intentionality, categorial intuition, temporality, the subject-body; the concrete a priori, and transcendental subjectivity. But rather than attempting to give a tour of Husserl's workshop, Patocka is himself hard at work on Husserl's problems.

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The Concept of Probability in the Mathematical Representation of Reality

$49.95

The first English translation of Hans Reichenbach's lucid doctoral thesis sheds new light on how Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason was understood in some quarters at the time. The source of several themes in his still influential The Direction of Time, the thesis shows Reichenbach's early focus on the interdependence of physics, probability, and epistemology.

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Facebook and Philosophy

$34.95

Facebook and Philosophy is an entertaining, multi-faceted exploration of what Facebook means for us and for our relationships. With discussions ranging from the nature of friendship and its relationship to "friending," to the (debatable) efficacy of "online activism," this book is the most extensive and systematic attempt to understand Facebook yet. And with plenty of new perspectives on Twitter and Web 2.0 along the way, this fun, thought-provoking book is a serious and significant contribution for anyone working with social media, whether in academia, journalism, public relations, activism, or business. Exploring far-reaching questions Can our interactions on Facebook help us care about each other more? Does Facebook signal the death of privacy, or (perhaps worse yet) the death of our desire for privacy? Facebook and Philosophy is vital reading for anyone involved in social networks today.

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A Thoughtful Profession

$49.95

A profession that contemplates timeless truth, philosophy is rarely seen through a historian’s eyes, with its own discrete history and relationship to domestic and international politics. This fascinating, richly detailed account charts the development of professional philosophy in America after the Civil War, focusing on the early years of the American Philosophical Association.

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Stranger Things and Philosophy

$19.95

Stranger Things and Philosophy is an important book, the first of its kind to examine the fantastical world of this award-winning, widely beloved, phenomenal show with a philosophical lens. This is important precisely because the show rests so heavily on a complex and thought-provoking mythos based around secretive government experiments and a parallel dimension that darkly reflects readers' own. The series as a whole has asked more questions than it has delivered answers, and the chapters in this volume will explore these topics.

From the deepest recesses of the Upside Down, its tunnels snaking beneath the local bookstores of Hawkins, Indiana and who knows where else, this collection of philosophical musings on the world of Stranger Things promises to enlighten readers. This volume considers many of the philosophically related ideas that that come up in the show such as: What are the moral implications of secret government projects? What is the nature of friendship? Does scientific research need to be concerned with ethics? What might it be like to experience the world from the perspective of the Mind Flayer? Is it possible to understand the metaphysics of the Upside Down?

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Dependent Rational Animals

$26.95

To flourish, humans need to develop virtues of independent thought and acknowledged social dependence. In this book, a leading moral philosopher presents a comparison of humans to other animals and explores the impact of these virtues.

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The Gospel of Buddha

$39.00

Compiled from ancient records, this fundamental work on Buddhism contains the story of Buddha's life, his teachings, parables, and stories. A reprint of the classic work first published in 1894.

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A Tolkien Compass

$15.95

This guide to travels in Middle-Earth includes an original chapter by Tolkien himself, explaining the meaning and origin of the names in Lord of the Rings. Can hobbits be psychoanalyzed? Does Tolkien’s Christianity shine through his imitations of pagan legends? Do his books offer a useful guide to everyday life? These and many more questions are addressed in the eleven chapters of this book. Contributors analyze Gollum’s character transformation, the psychological journey of Bilbo, the regime set up by Saruman at the end of Lord of the Rings and its parallels to fascism, the books’ narrative technique, and Tolkien’s rich use of myth and symbol. This is an insightful book that will appeal to both old and new Tolkien fans.

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The Philosophy of Sarvepalli Radhadkrishnan, Volume 8

$36.95

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, colleague of Gandhi, Nehru and Tagore, former Ambassador to the Soviet Union and now Vice-President of India, is regarded as the greatest living thinker of the East; the ablest representative of its rich philosophic tradition and its leading spokesman for a reconciliation of Eastern and Western spiritual values.

In this volume, twenty-three world-renowned scholars have contributed a series of brilliant critical essays covering every aspect of Radhakrishnan's thought; his contributions to social philosophy and political philosophy, to modern religion and mysticism, to his influence on contemporary Hinduism, and his place in the main currents of twentieth century philosophy.

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Is There a Universal Grammar of Religion?

$19.95

In this provocative volume two important scholars of religion, Huston Smith and Henry Rosemont, Jr., put forth their viewpoints and share a probing conversation. Though the two diverge considerably in their accounts of religious faith and practice, they also agree on fundamental points. Huston Smith, author of the important work The World’s Religions, has long argued for the fundamental equality of the world’s religions. Describing a universal grammar of religion,” he argues that fourteen points of similarity exist among all of the major religious traditions and that these similarities indicate an innate psychological affinity for religion within the human spirit. As Noam Chomsky has argued that humans are hardwired to use language, Smith similarly argues that humans are hardwired for religious experience. In response, Rosemont explicates his humanistic vision of the world, in which the homoversal” tendency to contemplate the infinite is part of our co-humanity that endures across time, space, language, and culture. Rosemont also elaborates upon Noam Chomsky’s theory of universal grammar and its relevance to Smith’s ideas about the similarities among religions. This insightful exploration of the most essential basis of religion provides a new direction for comparative-religion scholars everywhere.

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Wittgenstein

$29.00

"The portrait that emerges from this account is human, all too human, but the author's respect for Wittgenstein is never in doubt. Though brief and written so that it can be understood by those with no previous knowledge of Wittgenstein's philosophy, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of the man and of the development of his thought."
Walter Kaufmann

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Avant Rock

$35.00

Critiquing avant-garde rock bands from the 1960s to the present, Bill Martin examines how social upheaval gave rise to this new form of musical expression. He covers early experimentation by artists such as James Brown; initiation into the mainstream and the resulting adaptations by the Beatles and the Who; and continues into the present looking at how groups like Stereolab, Sonic Youth, Jim O’Rourke, and others continue to innovate. An annotated discography is included.

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Philip K. Dick and Philosophy

$36.95

Science fiction writer Philip K. Dick (19281982) is the giant imagination behind so much recent popular cultureboth movies directly based on his writings, such as Blade Runner (based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Total Recall, Minority Report, and The Adjustment Bureau plus cult favorites such as A Scanner Darkly, Imposter, Next, Screamers, and Paycheck and works revealing his powerful influence, such as The Matrix and Inception. With the much anticipated forthcoming publication in 2011 of volume 1 of Exegesis, his journal of spiritual visions and paranoic investigations, Dick is fast becoming a major influence in the world of popular spirituality and occult thinking.

In Philip K. Dick and Philosophy: Who Adjusts the Adjustment Bureau?, twenty Dick fans and professional thinkers confront the fascinating and frightening ideas raised by Dick’s mind-blowing fantasies. Is there an alien world behind the everyday reality we experience? If androids can pass as human, should they be given the same consideration as humans? Do psychotics have insights into a mystical reality? Would knowledge of the future free us or enslave us? This volume will also include Dick's short story "Adjustment Team," on which The Adjustment Bureau is based.

Philip K. Dick and Philosophy explores the ideas of Philip K. Dick in the same way that he did: with an earnest desire to understand the truth of the world, but without falsely equating earnestness with a dry seriousness. Dick’s work was replete with whimsical and absurdist presentations of the greatest challenges to reason and to humanityparadox, futility, paranoia, and failureand even at his darkest times he was able to keep some perspective and humor, as for example in choosing to name himself Horselover Fat’ in VALIS at the same time as he relates his personal religious epiphanies, crises, and delusions. With the same earnest whimsy, we approach Philip K. Dick as a philosopher like ourselvesone who wrote almost entirely in thought-experiments and semi-fictional world-building, but who engaged with many of the greatest questions of philosophy throughout the Euro-American tradition.

Philip K. Dick and Philosophy has much to offer for both serious fans who have read many of his novels and stories, and for those who may have just recently learned his name, and realized that his work has been the inspiration for several well-known and thought-provoking films. Most chapters start with one or more of the movies based on Dick’s writing. From here, the authors delve deeper into the issues by bringing in philosophers' perspectives and by bringing in Dick’s written work. The book invites the reader with a casual familiarity with Dick to get to know his work, and invites the reader with little familiarity with philosophy to learn more. At the same time, we have new perspectives and challenging connections and interpretations for even the most hard-core Dick fans, even though we never speak to insiders” only.

To maximize public interest, the book prominently addresses the most widely-known films, as well as those with the most significant fan followings: Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, and The Adjustment Bureau. Along with these big five” films, a few chapters address his last novels, especially VALIS, which have a significant cult following of their own. There are also chapters which address short stories and novels which are currently planned for adaptation: Radio Free Albemuth (film completed, awaiting distribution), The Man in the High Castle (in development by Ridley Scott for BBC mini-series), and King of the Elves” (Disney, planned for release in 2012).

Cover image for Philip K. Dick and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812697346

Explaining Human Action

$35.95

Kathleen Lennon provides a new approach to the philosophy of action, showing how "reasons" fit into the casual framework of the world, while defending their autonomy. She disputes the rapidly-congealing orthodoxy which maintains that explanations according to intentional states cannot be casual explanations.

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Mr. Monk and Philosophy

$29.95

Neatly organized, Mr. Monk and Philosophy uses philosophy to uncover more about the brilliant obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk. With the guidance of history’s greatest thinkers, readers learn who Monk really is, why he is the way he is, and what they can learn from him. Chapters address such topics as Mr. Monk’s unique use of logic, how everyone uses their own phobias and idiosyncrasies to navigate a threatening world, and what Monk says about what it means to be a hero (albeit a flawed one). Monk's relationships receive special attention: his dedication to his late wife, Trudy, teaches us about romantic partnership, while his relationships with Sharona and Natalie reveal the importance of friendship in dealing with illness, death, and tragedy.

Cover image for Mr. Monk and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812696745

Five Ways Patricia Can Kill Her Husband

$34.95

The titular example of Patricia, a woman who kills her husband, illustrates this book’s powerful theory of culpability. Depending on Patricia’s mental state and beliefs, her degree of guilt for killing her husband will vary. If, for example, she set fire to her apartment fully intending to kill her husband, we would deem her more blameworthy that if the fire was an unavoidable accident. Culpability, the author argues, is commonly confused with other issues such as responsibility, accountability, and liability. Yet it is concerned exclusively with the intentional mental states we have at the time that we act. Zaibert also offers a history of the theory of culpability, and gives a fascinating analysis of the beliefs and emotions associated with blaming others.

Cover image for Five Ways Patricia Can Kill Her Husband, isbn: 9780812695762

Early Confucian Ethics

$28.95

In this book internationally renowned scholar Kim-chong Chong offers new views of early Confucian thought by exploring and in some case debunking conventional wisdom on the subject. He begins by showing how The Analects contradicts the notion that Confucius rarely addressed the issue of humanity. Next, he challenges the concepts that Mencius discussed human nature only rhetorically and Xunzi merely repeated definitions. Finally, he examines the strengths, weaknesses, differences, and similarities of Mencius’s and Xunzi’s theories of what it means to be human and their surprising relation to Confucius’s ethical system.

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Samurai from Outer Space

$34.00

Samurai from Outer Space is the first book-length discussion of the suddenly popular genre of Japanese animation. Japanese animation, also known as anime (pronounced AH-nee-may), is gaining devoted fans of all ages and nationalities. A few years ago anime was something of an oddity. Now it is poised to become the biggest cultural import since PBS discovered the BBC. There are anime fan clubs on college campuses across the country, as well as anime fan magazines and anime sections in video stores.

"Besides examining the psychological reasons for the cartoons' appeal, (Levi) compares anime to American cartoon animation, traces its connections to Japanese art and theater, and demonstrates that many anime plots are based in Japanese religion. A valuable addition to film, popular-culture, and Asian studies". -- Booklist

"In this fascinating and illuminating volume, Antonia Levi provides all the cultural and historical background necessary for anyone to appreciate the allusion-rich art form of anime. A wonderful guide for beginners and otaku alike". -- Vaughan Simmons Founder & Publisher of Mangajin

Cover image for Samurai from Outer Space, isbn: 9780812693324

Iron Man vs. Captain America and Philosophy

$29.95

Iron Man or Captain America? Which one is superior—as a hero, as a role model, or as a personification of American virtue? Philosophers who take different sides come together in Iron Man versus Captain America to debate these issues and arrive at a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of these iconic characters. The discussion ranges over politics, religion, ethics, psychology, and metaphysics.

John Altmann argues that Captain America’s thoughtful patriotism, is superior to Iron Man’s individualist-cosmopolitanism. Matthew William Brake also votes for Cap, maintaining that it’s his ability to believe in the impossible that makes him a hero, and in the end, he is vindicated.

Cole Bowman investigates the nature of friendship within the Avengers team, focusing predominantly on the political and social implications of each side of the Civil War as the Avengers are forced to choose between Stark and Rogers. According to Derrida’s Politics of Friendship, Cap is the better friend, but that doesn’t make him the winner!

Aron Ericson’s chapter tracks our heroes’ journeys in the movies, culminating with Civil War, where the original attitudes of Tony (trusts only himself) and Steve (trusts “the system”) are inverted.

Corey Horn’s chapter focuses on one of the many tensions between the sides of Iron Man and Captain America—the side of Security (Iron Man) versus Liberty (Cap). But Maxwell Henderson contends that if we dig deeper into the true heart of the Marvel Civil War, it isn’t really about security or privacy but more about utilitarianism—what’s best for everybody. Henderson explains why Iron Man was wrong about what was best for everybody and discloses what the philosopher Derek Parfit has to say about evaluating society from this perspective. Daniel Malloy explains that while both Captain America and Iron Man have faced setbacks, only Iron Man has failed at being a hero—and that makes him the better hero! In his other chapter, Malloy shows that where Iron Man trusts technology and systems, Captain America trusts people. Jacob Thomas May explores loss from the two heroes’ points of view and explains why the more tragic losses suffered by Stark clearly make him the better hero and the better person.

Louis Melancon unpacks how Captain America and Iron Man each embodies key facets of America attempts to wage wars: through attrition and the prophylactic of technology; neither satisfactorily resolves conflict and the cycle of violence continues. Clara Nisley tests Captain America and Iron Man’s moral obligations to the Avengers and their shared relationship, establishing Captain America’s associative obligations that do not extend to the arbitration and protection of humans that Iron Man advocates.

Fernando Pagnoni Berns considers that while Iron Man is too much attached to his time (and the thinking that comes with it), Captain America embraces-historical values, and thinks that there are such things as intrinsic human dignity and rights—an ethical imperative. Christophe Porot claims that the true difference between Captain America and Iron Man stems from the different ways they extend their minds. Cap extends his mind socially while Stark extends his through technology. Heidi Samuelson argues that the true American spirit isn't standing up to bullies, but comes out of the self-interested traditions of liberal capitalism, which is why billionaire, former-arms-industry-giant Tony Stark is ultimately a more appropriate American symbol than Steve Rogers. By contrast, Jeffrey Ewing shows that the core of Captain America: Civil War centers on the challenge superpowers impose on state sovereignty (and the monopoly of coercion it implies).

Nicol Smith finds that Cap and Shell-Head’s clash during the Civil War does not necessarily boil down to the issue of freedom vs. regulation but rather stems from the likelihood that both these iconic heroes are political and ideological wannabe supreme rules or “Leviathans.” Craig Van Pelt reconstructs a debate between Captain America and Iron Man about whether robots can ever have objective moral values, because human bias may influence the design and programming.

James Holt looks into the nature of God within Captain America’s world and how much this draws on the “previous life” of Captain Steve Rogers. Holt’s inquiry focuses on the God of Moses in the burning bush, as contrasted with David Hume’s understanding of religion. Gerald Browning examines our two heroes in a comparison with the Greek gods Hephaestus and Hercules. Christopher Ketcham supposes that, with the yellow bustard wreaking havoc on Earth, God asks Thomas Aquinas to use his logical process from Summa Theologica to figure which one of the two superheroes would be better at fixing an economic meltdown, and which one would be better at preventing a war.

Rob Luzecky and Charlene Elsby argue that gods cannot be heroes, and therefore that the god-like members of the Avengers (Iron Man, with a god’s intelligence; Thor, with a god’s strength, and the Hulk, with a god’s wrath) are not true heroes in the same sense as Captain America. Cap is like Albert Camus’s Sisyphus, heroic in the way that he rallies against abstract entities like the gods and the government.

Cover image for Iron Man vs. Captain America and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812699760

The New Testament and Literature

$36.95

The New Testament is perhaps the most influential book in the world from both an intellectual and literary standpoint. Still, few readers understand how to read the New Testament as a piece of literature. The New Testament and Literature acts as a guide, focusing on the underlying patterns that combine ideas with literary devices. The book identifies the literary formulas in the New Testament and shows how these elements have shaped English and American literature.

Cover image for The New Testament and Literature, isbn: 9780812695915

Human Knowledge

$49.95

Finnish philosopher Eino Kaila wrote a classic statement of logical empiricism. Having experienced the foundational debates of the Vienna Circle in 1929, Kaila was a keen follower of the further developments of the Circle. His synoptic presentation and analysis of the basic themes, or theses,” of the movement was based on his lectures as professor of theoretical philosophy at the University of Helsinki. The work appeared as a book in Finnish in 1939 and a Swedish translation by Georg Henrik von Wright followed immediately. Earlier, a translation of his philosophical essays from the original German, entitled Reality and Experience, appeared in 1979. However, this is the first translation of Kaila's major epistemological work, which remains a source for re-evaluations of Logical Empiricism.

Cover image for Human Knowledge, isbn: 9780812698480

Carnap, Tarski, and Quine at Harvard

$49.95

During the academic year 1940-1941, several giants of analytic philosophy congregated at Harvard, holding regular private meetings, with Carnap, Tarski, and Quine. Carnap, Tarski, and Quine at Harvard allows the reader to act as a fly on the wall for their conversations. Carnap took detailed notes during his year at Harvard. This book includes both a German transcription of these shorthand notes and an English translation in the appendix section. Carnap’s notes cover a wide range of topics, but surprisingly, the most prominent question is: If the number of physical items in the universe is finite, what form should scientific discourse take? This question is closely connected to an abiding philosophical problem: What is the relationship between the logico-mathematical realm and the material realm? Carnap, Tarski, and Quine’s attempts to answer this question involve issues central to philosophy today.This book focuses on three such issues: nominalism, the unity of science, and analyticity. In short, the book reconstructs the lines of argument represented in these Harvard discussions, discusses their historical significance (especially Quine’s break from Carnap), and relates them when possible to contemporary treatments of these issues.

Cover image for Carnap, Tarski, and Quine at Harvard, isbn: 9780812698305

Time, Will, and Purpose

$59.95

Josiah Royce (18551916) has had a major influence on American intellectual life both popular movements and cutting-edge thought but his name often went unmentioned while his ideas marched forward. The leading American proponent of absolute idealism, Royce has come back into fashion in recent years. With several important new books appearing, the formation of a Josiah Royce Society, and the re-organization of the Royce papers at Harvard, the time is ripe for Time, Will, and Purpose. Randall Auxier delves into the primary texts written by Royce to retrieve the most poignant ideas, the ideas we need most in the present day, while he also offers a new framework for understanding the development of Royce’s philosophy. Auxier responds to everything that has been written about Royce, both early and recent.

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Return of the Furies

$19.95

Recovered memory therapy, which has become a rapidly-growing industry in the past ten years, is based on the controversial theory that adults often suffer emotional problems because of forgotten childhood traumas. People who experience everyday difficulties like anxiety of overeating are now often told by therapists that the root of their trouble is a 'repressed memory' of abuse in childhood. The cure is to bring back the memory - a process that usually takes many months - and then publicly humiliate the alleged perpetrators of the abuse, most often the victim's parents. But are the supposed memories recovered in therapy genuine? Or are they concocted by therapists and clients in the course of therapy? Attempts to find independent corroboration of recovered memories have drawn a blank. Contrary to folklore, there is not a shred of scientific evidence for the notion that a memory can be repressed, and there is plenty of evidence that false memories can be created.

Cover image for Return of the Furies, isbn: 9780812692723

Tell It By Heart

$29.95

'Tell It by Heart' is a collection of stories about contemporary women of various ages and ethnic backgrounds who have one thing in common: each embraces a pertinent myth as her guide through a difficult passage. Narrated by therapist Erica Helm Meade, these fictionalized case studies carry us along with all the intrigue of good short stories while at the same time instructing us in the use of healing lore.

"Clean, crisp, startling, intelligent and fun, these fictionalized case studies show that life imitates art -- and that art tells the stronger truths". -- James Hillman Author of A Blue Fire

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Louis C.K. and Philosophy

$33.95

Charlie Rose has called Louis C.K. the philosopher-king of comedy,” and many have detected philosophical profundity in his material.

Twenty-five philosophers examine the wisdom of Louis C.K. from a variety of philosophical perspectives. The chapters draw upon C.K.’s standup comedy, the show Louie, and C.K.’s other writings.

One writer looks at the different meanings of C.K.’s statement, You’re gonna be dead way longer than you were alive.” One chapter shows the affinity of C.K.’s sick of living this bullshit life” with Kierkegaard’s sickness unto death.” Another pursues Louis’s thought that we may by our lack of moral concern live a really evil life without thinking about it.”

C.K.'s insistence that things that are not can’t be” points to the philosophical problem of nothingness in relation to being. His religion is apathetic agnostic,” conveyed in his thought experiment that God began work in 1982. Louis’s argument that you can have the kind of body you want if you make yourself want a disgusting, shitty body, is the Stoic ethics of Epictetus. And, as C.K. has shown in so many ways, the fact that we’re soon going to die has its funny side.

Cover image for Louis C.K. and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812699067

Legalized Gambling

$36.95

Legalized Gambling contains twenty-three articles focusing on different aspects of gambling policy by experts in the fields of public policy, law, psychiatry, rhetoric, religion, economics, and politics. The contributors address all areas of the debate.

Cover image for Legalized Gambling, isbn: 9780812693539

Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy

$44.95

In attempting to retain her "human" side, does Sharon really have free will? Is killing a Cylon murder or garbage disposal? These are some of the questions addressed in this thoughtful collection of writings on the philosophical underpinnings of Battlestar, Galactica. The book includes a brief analysis of the original 1970s and 80s series but concentrates primarily on the episodes, characters, and issues from the entirely reimagined current series (including its fourth and final season, scheduled for airing in early 2008) as well as the two-hour TV movie and direct-to-DVD release Razor.

Cover image for Battlestar Galactica and Philosophy, isbn: 9780812696431

Yours Faithfully, Bertrand Russell

$26.95

Bertrand Russell was one of the greatest philosophers of our time. In addition, he engaged in a lifelong battle with the forces of injustice emphasizing the importance of practice as well as theory. His most effective weapon in this struggle was letters to newspapers and magazines, most of which are collected in this volume. Russell exposes the irrationality of leaders and defends the public against the evils of the time, from British conscription in World War I and fascism in the 1930s to McCarthyism in the 1950s and the Vietnam War in the 1960s. These 400 witty, acerbic letters show him brilliantly sparring with both ordinary citizens and the most powerful leaders of the day, touching on everything from war and peace to sexual ethics and religion.

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Explaining Human Action

$16.95

Kathleen Lennon provides a new approach to the philosophy of action, showing how "reasons" fit into the casual framework of the world, while defending their autonomy. She disputes the rapidly-congealing orthodoxy which maintains that explanations according to intentional states cannot be casual explanations.

Cover image for Explaining Human Action, isbn: 9780812691351

Hamilton and Philosophy

$18.95

In Hamilton and Philosophy, professional thinkers expose, examine, and ponder the deep and controversial implications of this runaway hit Broadway musical.
One cluster of questions relates to the matter of historical accuracy in relation to entertainment. To what extent is Hamilton genuine history, or is it more a reflection of America today than in the eighteenth century? What happens when history becomes dramatic art, and is some falsification of history unavoidable? One point of view is that the real Alexander Hamilton was an outsider, and any objective approach to Hamilton has to be that of an outsider. Politics always involves a debate over who is on the margins and who is allowed into the center.
Then there is the question of emphasizing Hamilton’s revolutionary aspect, when he was autocratic and not truly democratic. But this can be defended as presenting a contradictory personality in a unique historical moment. Hamilton’s character is also one that blends ambition, thirst for fame, and concern for his immortal legacy, with inability to see his own limitations, yet combined with devotion to honor and the cultivation of virtue. Hamilton’s evident ambition led him to be likened to Macbeth and Shakespearean tragedy can explain much of his life.

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The Evolution of Intelligence

$34.95

James Fetzer explores the nature of consciousness and cognition in human beings and other animals. He addresses the inadequacies of the computational conception and expounds on an alternative theory based on the study of signs and symbols as elements of communicative behavior. Fetzer offers a new theory of intelligence by which machines can be intelligent without possessing minds.

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Theodicy

$49.00

In order to be truly free, must you act arbitrarily? If an event did not happen, could it have happened? Since there is evil, and God could have made the world without evil, did God fail to pick the best course? Grappling with such simple--yet still intriguing--puzzles, Leibniz was able to present attractively his new theories of the real and the phenomenal, freewill and determinism, and the relation between minds and bodies. Theodicy was Leibniz's only book-length work to be published in his lifetime, and for many years the work by which he was known to the world. Fully at home with the latest scienctific advances, Leibniz ultimately rejected the new atomistic philosophies of Descartes, Gassendi, and Hobbes, and drew upon the old cosmology of Aristotelian scholasticism. There could be no conflict, he argued between faith and reason, freedom and necessity, natural and divine law. Ingeniously defending his postulate of pre-established harmony, Leibniz made important advances in the precise analysis of concepts.

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Against Relativism

$54.95

The Western intellectual tradition has identified rational thinking with he purely logical, excluding other kinds of thinking (such as thinking by analogy, correlation, imaginative simulation) from philosophy, without denying their indispensability in the conduit of life.

The central argument of 'Unreason Within reason' is that it is this endeavor to detach the logical from other kinds of thinking which has led to the present crisis of rationality, in which reason seems everywhere to be undermining its own foundations. The concepts from which logical thinking starts are inescapably rooted in the spontaneous correlation of the similar/contrasting and contiguous/remote, which according to Jacobsonian linguistics, structures the sentences analyzed by logic. Logical thinking can turn back on itself to criticize the correlations but cannot detach itself to replace them by logically impregnable foundations.

No mode of thinking -- poetic, mythical, mystical -- is inherently irrational; the function of the logical is not to replace them but to test them. Graham finds this approach relevant to the fact/value and egoism/altruism problems in moral philosophy and to the epistemological of conflicting conceptual schemes, as well as to the situating myth and mysticism in relation to philosophy and to the development of a variety of perspectivism clearly distinguishable from relativism.

Graham pays special attention to Nietzche and Bataille, as representative critics of rationalism, and to Chinese philosophy, as a tradition which has not isolated the logical from other kinds of thinking. Graham's' engagement of classical Chinese and western sensibilities provides a novel context within which to reconsider issues raised by Derrida's critique of logocentrism and the new Pragmatism of Davidson and Rorty.

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From Fear to Friendship

$17.95

This human story of the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a new world of friendship and peace is told in alternating segments by Boris Ivanov and Bill Shaw, two newspapermen viewing the unfolding drama from opposite sides of the collapsing Iron Curtain.

Cover image for From Fear to Friendship, isbn: 9780812692211

Avengers Infinity Saga and Philosophy

$31.95

In Avengers Infinity Saga and Philosophy, philosophers explore the momentous issues and the fascinating puzzles raised by Marvel’s compelling series of movies:

● Is the Thanos snap truly an answer to overpopulation and famine, or is it simply indefensible mass murder on a cosmic scale?

● Are the Avengers who try to stop Thanos dishing out justice or merely fighting a man who is himself just?

● Captain America or Tony Stark—which leader holds the key to a civilized society?

● Dr. Strange claims to sees 14,000,605 possible futures, in one of which Thanos is defeated. What does this tell us about the true nature of reality?

● Sometimes your best just isn’t enough. How can we cope with inevitability?

● How can the Soul Stone and the Binding of Isaac by Abraham help us understand the Infinity War saga?

● Is Thanos a utilitarian? And if so, is his utilitarian calculus logically sound?

● Would it be possible for a group like the Avengers to amass enormous power to fight for humankind, without themselves becoming a corrupt ruling class?

● Can the past Nebula shooting the future Nebula cause her to cease to exist? Can you change the future by communicating with yourself or your family in the past?

● Can Thanos be seen as the epitome of non-self-serving behavior, or is Thanos masking his own egoism with the lie that his altruistic mission is to bring the universe into balance?

● Does Thanos show us the danger of living by an absolute moral compass, which allows us to see only what we believe to be “the right” with no variations or nuances?