A recent essay in “Sightings,” an online series of reflections on religious issues that comes from the University of Chicago Divinity School, talked about a sign erected on a Roman Catholic church grounds that said, “Torture is wrong.”  Some of the parishioners — not the public — objected that the sign was political.  They were defining “torture”...

A recent article in the “Opinionator” by philosophy professor Jeff McMahan attracted a good deal of attention on my listservs, which include environmentalists, hunters, and animal studies people — a broad assortment easily set at each other throats. Some took this article as absolutely received word and others said it was obviously provocation and still others...

Because printed bound books are a commodity in a way that ebooks are not — that is, solid objects — they are made more or less valuable by scarcity. The scarcity can be produced in several ways: limited editions, controlled access (must be acquired from a certain shop, like MAC products), increased desire to acquire (popularity, status indicators), destruction...