Xenophilia: Golden Rule of the Stranger
We may have heard enough about xenophobia, the fear of the stranger. But what of its opposite, the love for a stranger, better known as hospitality?
Verbatim: Fredric Jameson
Marxist cultural critic Fredric Jameson offered a philosophy of late capitalism that gave us a language for talking about globalization and the end of modernism.
New Atheism and the Trouble with Literalism
Gaining strength in the early 2000s, the New Atheism movement was fueled by a fear of Christian fundamentalism and a belief that secularism was under attack.
Richard Gregg: An American Pioneer of Nonviolence Remembered
Gregg was one of the first translators of Gandhi’s methods of nonviolent resistance for the West.
Confucius in the European Enlightenment
Many Enlightenment thinkers admired Confucius, leading to a debate over whether classical Chinese philosophy was compatible with Christianity.
Nice Guy Spinoza Finishes…First?
The Dutch Jewish philosopher Spinoza died in 1677, which is when the battle to define his life—and work—began.
Do You Own Your Body?
The idea that our bodies are our own may be intuitive, but when it comes to market transactions like surrogacy, our beliefs and feelings get more complicated.
The Existentialism of Style vs. Substance
Camus, Sartre, and Beauvoir were misread, misunderstood, and misperceived by English-speaking readers due to interventions of publishers and editors.
Religion of the Devil, Philosophy of the Coiled Serpent
In yoga’s early days in the United States, skeptics warned it would lead people (e.g., women) of good faith and standing into paganism and ill repute.
Why Do We Love Thinking About Schrödinger’s Cat?
In physics, the whole point of the thought experiment is that it’s absurd. But in literature, it’s been used to explore all sorts of ideas and possibilities.