Popular Philosophy

The ticking bomb scenario is a thought experiment designed to demonstrate that torture can be justified in emergency conditions. If there was a bomb hidden somewhere in a major city, would it be justified to torture a captured informant in order to obtain the critical information that could prevent a devastating terrorist attack? In How to Justify Torture, cultural critic Alex Adams examines this thought experiment in depth by exploring the wide range of cultural productions. By critiquing the argument step-by-step, this audiobook reminds us why torture can never be justified.

Robert Musil: Über die Dummheit Ein Vortrag, gelesen von Moritz Brendel. Robert Musil hält seinen legendären Vortrag Über die Dummheit erstmals gehalten auf Einladung des österreichischen Werkbunds am 11. März 1937 in Wien – auf den Tag genau ein Jahr vor dem Anschluss Österreichs an Nazi-Deutschland. In seiner Rede formuliert er das Paradox der Dummheit, "dass jeder, der über Dummheit sprechen oder solch einem Gespräch mit Nutzen beiwohnen will, von sich voraussetzen muss, dass er nicht dumm sei und also zur Schau trägt, dass er sich für klug halte, obwohl es allgemein für ein Zeichen von Dummheit gilt, das zu tun!"

Since the 2008 recession began, sales of Atlas Shrugged have surged and the novel (and author Ayn Rand) have landed at the center of American politics. Whether you decide to embrace Ayn Rand's ideas, reject them, or simply want to be able to participate in an informed way in conversations about Rand's ideas, this slim volume will help you understand her revolutionary philosophy and identify the myths circulating about her ideas. Four authors identify some prominent myths, show why they are false, and state the plain facts that the myths conceal.

A false world is like an apple full of worms. It appears juicy and attractive on the outside, but is in fact disgusting on the inside. This book discusses a number of false worlds masquerading as truth but which are in fact false to their core. Included are the false worlds of politics, international relations, law, sexual confusion (premarital sex, abortion, and gayness), entertainment, and pride.

One afternoon in the late 1970s, deep in the labyrinthine interior of a massive Gothic tower in New Haven, an unsuspecting employee of Yale University opened a long-locked room in the Payne Whitney Gymnasium and stumbled upon something shocking and disturbing. Shocking, because what he found was an enormous cache of nude photographs, thousands and thousands of photographs of young men in front, side, and rear poses. Disturbing, because the photos looked like the record of a bizarre body-piercing ritual.