Even though it's frequently asserted that we are living in a golden age of scripted television, television as a medium is still not taken seriously as an artistic art form, nor has the stigma of television as "chewing gum for the mind" really disappe...

How should we weigh the costs and benefits of scientific research on humans? Is it right that a small group of people should suffer in order that a larger number can live better, healthier lives? Or is an individual truly sovereign, unable to be plot...

What distinguishes history as a discipline from other fields of study? That's the animating question of Sarah Maza's "Thinking About History", a general introduction to the field of history that revels in its eclecticism and highlights the inherent t...

Centuries after his death, al-Ghazali remains one of the most influential figures of the Islamic intellectual tradition. Although he is best known for his "Incoherence of the Philosophers", "Moderation in Belief" is his most profound work of philosop...

Montesquieu is rightly famous as a tireless critic of despotism, which he associates in his writings overtly with Asia and the Middle East and not with the apparently more moderate Western models of governance found throughout Europe. However, a care...

In "Archive Fever", Jacques Derrida deftly guides us through an extended meditation on remembrance, religion, time, and technology – fruitfully occasioned by a deconstructive analysis of the notion of archiving. Intrigued by the evocative relationshi...

For more than 250 years, Charles de Brosses's term "fetishism" has exerted great influence over our most ambitious thinkers. Used as an alternative to "magic" but nonetheless expressing the material force of magical thought, de Brosses's term has pro...

This book is the first anthology of writings to be devoted to Icelandic theologian and religious writer Magnus Eiriksson (1806-1881). A contemporary of Kierkegaard, Eiriksson made a name (and enemies) for himself by being an outspoken advocate of tol...

In the first volume of his extraordinary analysis of the death penalty, Jacques Derrida began a journey toward an ambitious end: the first truly philosophical argument against the death penalty. Exploring an impressive breadth of thought, he traced a...