Shakyamuni Buddha with Avadana Legend Scenes

How Comparative Religion Took Root in the 19th Century

Many Americans considered faiths outside Christianity and Judaism to be "pagan." Unitarian minister James Freeman Clarke argued otherwise.
Tough Mudder

When Sports Have “Death Waivers”

Obstacle courses can draw thousands of participants to a single event, but legal scholars say they need scrutiny.
Emliie Chatelet, Anne Conway, and Mary Wollstonecraft

3 Women Philosophers of the Enlightenment

They shaped the history of Western philosophical thought. It's past time to recognize their contributions.
Robert Brandom

Robert Brandom, a Philosopher’s Philosopher

Robert Brandom’s A Spirit of Trust, a groundbreaking new book on Hegel, seeks to unite analytic philosophy with continental.
Peasants Before Their House by Louis Le Nain

Quiet Struggle Means Resistance without Protest

A lone resister is easy to take down, but there is safety in numbers, in conspiracies of silence, in refusals to testify against one's neighbors.
Closeup shot of a group of unrecognizable people holding plants growing out of soil

Five Green Living Resolutions for 2020

We won't solve all of the pressing environmental problems, but we can help mitigate some.
A group of babies with various emotions

The Science of Baby-Name Trends

What makes a name suddenly pop—and then die? Social scientists and historians have been puzzling over this for decades.
Luther at the Diet of Worms by Anton von Werner

Ok papist

England faced a generational divide almost 500 years ago, as the Protestant Reformation split the nation apart.
Illustrated chart from the late 19th Century

Dispatches from Deaf Education’s Infancy

Despite deep biases, the early editions of the American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb contain the seeds of a distinct deaf culture.