my mind on books

Following up the recent post here on “Philosophy and TV” … “Pop Goes Philosophy” is a monthly column at PopMatters from George Reisch, the editor of the Popular Culture and Philosophy Series at Open Court. Discussing the relationship between philosophy and popular culture in his latest column (in response to an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education), Reisch concludes:

When philosophy went pop and the doors of the ivory tower were thrown open, in other words, the point was not to lure the public inside. Some may wander in, of course, and find they like that “extremely self-reflexive relationship” Asma describes. But the vast majority hope that philosophers will take the chance to get outside, to look up from their intense focus on their own tradition and take seriously what’s going on in popular culture.

Open Court also has a podcast series drawn from the various “… and Philosophy” books. I can’t wait to download some of these, with titles like: “Knowing When to Be Afraid: Rationality and Suspense” (from Hitchcock and Philosophy) and “Why Make a Matrix? And Why You Might Be in One” (from More Matrix and Philosophy).