Philosophy

What makes humans different from other animals, what humans are entitled to do to other species, whether time travel is possible, what limits should be placed on science and technology,...

Few novels have had more influence on individuals and literary culture than J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. Published in 1951 and intended by Salinger for adults (early drafts...

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...

In a promotional video for the eighth season of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David appears as Godzilla, walking through the streets of New York City, terrorizing everyone who sees...

Neil Gaiman is the imaginative wizard behind the best-selling novels American Gods (soon to be an HBO series) and The Anansi Boys, the graphic series The Sandman, and popular children's...

Breaking Bad, hailed by Stephen King, Chuck Klosterman, and many others as the best of all TV dramas, tells the story of a man whose life changes because of the...

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...

This entertaining collection of essays deserves to exist because Sherlock Holmes sees things others don't. He sees the world in a different way, and by so doing, allows us to...

SpongeBob SquarePants and Philosophy is designed to introduce fans of SpongeBob SquarePants to some of the great thinkers and questions in philosophy. The essays can be shared by young and...

Since the Doom series, First Person Shooter (FPS) videogames have ricocheted through the gaming community, often reaching outside that community to the wider public. While critics primarily lampoon FPSs for...

What explains the huge popular following for Dexter, currently the most-watched show on cable, which sympathetically depicts a serial killer driven by a cruel compulsion to brutally slay one victim...

The progressive/hard rock band Rush has never been as popular as it is now. A documentary film about the band, Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, which was released in the...

Since 1968's Night of the Living Dead, zombie culture has steadily limped and clawed its way into the center of popular culture. Today, zombies and vampires have taken over TV...

Arguably the most important pop-culture import from the East to the West, manga is a phenomenon that can no longer be ignored. Yet just as much as it is a...

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,...

This collection of incisive articles gives a leading team of international philosophers a free kick toward exploring the complex and often hidden contours of the world of soccer. What does...

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...

Recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most popular MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) in videogame history, World of Warcraft is everywhere -- from episodes of...

Led Zeppelin, who bestrode the world of rock like a colossus, have continually grown in popularity and influence since their official winding up in 1980. They exasperated critics and eluded...

The popularity of the His Dark Materials trilogy has generated a major motion picture, a stage play, video games, and a new prequel. The series has also been highly controversial...

Anime and Philosophy focuses on some of the most-loved, most-intriguing anime films and series, as well as lesser-known works, to find what lies at their core. Astro Boy, Dragon Ball...

The devil gets his due in the latest entry in the Pop Culture and Philosophy series. Supervillains and Philosophy features an international cabal of philosophers and comics industry professionals conspiring...

Transformers began with toys and a cartoon series in 1984 and has since grown to include comic books, movies, and video games -- its science fiction story has reached an...

Since their breakthrough hit "Creep" in 1993, Radiohead has continued to make waves throughout popular and political culture with its views about the Bush presidency (its 2003 album was titled...

At the head of The Colbert Report, one of the most popular shows on television, Stephen Colbert is a pop culture phenomenon. More than one million people backed his fake...

From the bedtime story by L. Frank Baum to the classic 1939 film, no story has captured the imaginations of generations of children and adults like The Wizard of Oz....

With both young and adult gamers as loyal fans, The Legend of Zelda is one of the most beloved video game series ever created. The contributors to this volume consider...

Take a trip on the Starship Enterprise before the "Star Trek" film teleports itself into cinemas. The spirit of exploration that characterizes "Star Trek"'s various television and cinematic incarnations is...

Known as the working man's poet, the Boardwalk prophet, or simply, the Boss. If "love is a banquet at which we feed," Bruce Springsteen has provided much food for thought....

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...

Pink Floyd's sound and light shows in the 1960s defined psychedelia, but their later recordings combined rock, orchestral music, literature, and philosophy. Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall...

The films of Quentin Tarantino are ripe for philosophical speculation, raising compelling questions about justice and ethics, violence and aggression, the nature of causality, and the flow of time. In...

The Grateful Dead and Philosophy contains essays from 20 professional philosophers whose love of the Dead's music and scene have led them to reflect on different philosophical questions that have...

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...

Popular interest in bullshit and its near relative, truthiness is at an all-time high, but the subject has a rich philosophical history, with Hobbes, Locke, Hume, and Kant all weighing...

"Bond. James Bond." Since Sean Connery first uttered that iconic phrase in Dr. No, more than one quarter of the world's population has seen a 007 film. Witty and urbane,...

The most popular musical group of all time, the Beatles also brought serious thought to the bubble gum-scented world of pop and rock music, with adventurous, profound, and sometimes mysterious...

Does God play cards with the universe? Do women have better poker faces than men? What's the most existential poker movie ever made? Is life more meaningful when you go...

Is there too much violence in hip-hop music? What's the difference between Kimberly Jones and the artist Lil' Kim? Is hip-hop culture a "black" thing? Is it okay for N.W.A....

The Chronicles of Narnia series has entertained millions of readers, both children and adults, since the appearance of the first book in 1950. Here, scholars turn the lens of philosophy...

The comic book naratives of superheroes wrestle with profound and disturbing issues in original ways: the definitions of good and evil, the limits of violence as an effective means, the...

The three films comprising The Matrix have become a geniune cultural phenomenon; More Matrix and Philosophy enriches both the enjoyment of the films and the understanding of life today. Broken...

Few - including director Mel Gibson - were prepared for the firestorm of controversy that followed the release of the long-awaited Passion of the Christ. Reviled by many, but so...

Covering everything from Aristotle to ziti, this title explores such topics as: is Tony Soprano a good man?; is Carmella a feminist?; morally speaking who is the worst person on...

Designed by writer Joss Whedon as a multilevel story with most of its meanings deeply buried in heaps of heavy irony, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has replaced the "X-Files" as...

Is the world around us truly as it appears or are we inert bodies in tanks, our brains subjected to electronic stimulation creating a make-believe world of hallucination? The Keanu...

Fifteen philosophers representuing different schools of thought answer the question what is Woody Allen trying to say in his films? And why should anyone care? Focusing on different works and...

A light-hearted introduction to philosophy through the antics of the Simpsons, television's animated family. These essays on the silly, absurd, hyper-ironic and strangely philosophical world that is Springfield - the...