These books entertain as well as teach philosophical wisdom by looking closely at entertainment icons.

This volume is an entertaining, multi-faceted exploration of what Facebook means for us and for our relationships. Facebook is a social networking service and website that launched in 2004. Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends,and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics. With discussions ranging from the nature of friendship and its relationship to "friending," to (...) the efficacy of "online activism," this book is a systematic attempt to understand Facebook, also offering perspectives on Twitter and Web 2.0. (shrink)

"It's a jungle out there. And in here, too. Through this jungle prowl all the demons of dirt and disorder. Though they must win eventually, the way to delay their victory is to keep everything in its proper place, and that means noticing any detail that doesn't fit." "Welcome to the world of former San Francisco police detective Adrian Monk, intellectual athlete and behavioral cripple, master of crime-solving and slave to his own terrors. Mr. Monk and Philosophy examines that world (...) through the lens of philosophy, bags all the evidence, and identifies DNA samples of Aristotle, Aquinas, Nietzsche, and Wittgenstein." --Book Jacket. (shrink)

Although neglected in the annals of political theory, the struggle between decentralized government and monarchy in the Hebrew scriptures parallels the tensions inherent in classic works of Western political theory from Plato to the American founders. The biblical authors provided lessons beyond the religious sphere, addressing the shared duties of religion and state in developing human virtue, the proper relationships between God, government and the people, and the best forms of government to achieve these objectives. This essay analyses the debate (...) over kingship in ancient Israel as presented in the biblical narratives, demonstrating that the Israelites’ story is important not only as a religious text, but as political theory, and that the questions asked in these texts have retained their relevance. (shrink)