A charming pop-up book about a trip to the moon. Like other pop-up books it is hard to share how wonderful it is to see the rocket rise up or how the surface of the Moon is 3-d.  It is a reprint and was was originally Czechoslovakian but I don't know much more about the original book.  Kubasta, V. Tip & Top and The Moon Rocket. London: Bancroft and Co. (7 p.) 1964.

When the Neo-Marxist philosopher Jürgen Habermas and Catholic cardinal Joseph Ratzinger debated the place of religion in the public sphere, they agreed that faith and reason can illuminate each other despite their long-standing tension.   During this debate Habermas, an atheist, asked secular citizens of liberal democracies to put aside post-metaphysical pre-suppositions to better […]

Hey folks, Fireside this week! As I noted a couple of weeks ago, things are probably going to get more than a little fireside-y over the next few weeks, simply because of the start of the semester – and a semester in which I am undertaking a set of entire new preps (that is, teaching … Continue reading Fireside Friday, August 27, 2025 (On Defending History) →

Can we know anything for certain? That’s the question behind David Hume’s Problem of Induction. Hume undermines the basis for using past experience to predict what will happen in the future, calling into question not only science and knowledge but also our everyday beliefs. If we can’t logically justify our confidence that the sun […]

Monster or Misunderstood by Hollywood?