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The Western literary canon has come to epitomize the official—and sometimes controversial—list of works that every educated person should know. Among its more than 3,000 works are the Odyssey, Beowulf, Hamlet, and War and Peace—all of which have stood the test of time to become essential aspects of Western culture and our reading lives. Even if you haven't read some of them, you've undoubtedly heard of them—their mere titles are synonymous with greatness.

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Religion in Mind summarizes and extends the past decade's advances in the cognitive study of religion. Its aim is to use empirical research from psychology and anthropology to understand different components of religious belief, ritual and experience.

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Is there meaning in human life? All of us have asked ourselves this question. But for philosophers through the ages, it was the first question of many, for they needed to know whether such a question was even answerable by philosophy. And if it was, they needed to ask whether any positive answer could be pursued through the practice of philosophy itself. Today, these questions remain as timely and controversial as ever. But following the pathway of proposed answers on anything other than a level surface—no matter how fascinating we find the subject—can often be difficult for those untrained in philosophy and the profound rigor of its arguments and language.

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From the outset it is clear this book has no intention of revisiting the classical mind/body problem. At issue is 'thought as a bodily event, ' and in terms of this issue, Vallega-Neu turns to some surprising sources--Plato's Timaeus and the later work of Heidegger in particular, for a creative analysis of this theme.

In this provocative book, Alexander offers a skeptical appraisal of the claim that freedom of expression is a human right. He examines the various contexts in which a right to freedom of expression might be asserted and concludes that such a right cannot be supported in any of these contexts.

Reflective Authenticity: Rethinking the Project of Modernity is a challenging consideration of what remains of ambitious Enlightenment ideas such as democracy, freedom and universality in the wake of relativist, postmodern thought.

The Mystery of Being contains the most systematic exposition of the philosophical thought of Gabriel Marcel, a convert to Catholicism and the most distinguished twentieth-century exponent of Christian existentialism. Its two volumes are the Gifford lectures which Marcel delivered in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1949 and 1950. Marcel’s work fundamentally challenges most of the major positions of the atheistic existentialists (Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus), especially their belief in an absurd, meaningless, godless universe.

Two bestselling authors first met in a televised Caltech debate on “the future of God,” one an articulate advocate for spirituality, the other a prominent physicist. This remarkable book is the product of that serendipitous encounter and the contentious—but respectful—clash of worldviews that grew along with their friendship...

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Why do humans do evil? What is behind "man's inhumanity to man," the troubling fact of human actions that produce suffering and destruction? Is it ultimately a spiritual or cosmic problem? Is it a consequence of social systems or power structures? Or is it some inner deficit of human nature, lurking in the shadow world of our psychology? Why, in the end, does evil exist?

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It's as essential to human existence as water is to a fish, and yet every night we surrender it gratefully. As human beings, we recognize that we have it, but we can never be sure anyone else does. It has been the subject of debate for philosophers and scientists for millennia, but we've yet to pin down or even understand its true essence and purpose.

Mathematics has spread its influence far beyond the realm of numbers. The concepts and methods of mathematics are crucially important to all of culture and affect the way countless people in all spheres of life look at the world.