Christmas - Philosophy for Everyone: Better Than a Lump of Coal

Front Cover
Scott C. Lowe
John Wiley & Sons, Jan 11, 2011 - Philosophy - 256 pages

From Santa, elves and Ebenezer Scrooge, to the culture wars and virgin birth, Christmas - Philosophy for Everyone explores a host of philosophical issues raised by the practices and beliefs surrounding Christmas.

  • Offers thoughtful and humorous philosophical insights into the most widely celebrated holiday in the Western world
  • Contributions come from a wide range of disciplines, including philosophy, theology, religious studies, English literature, cognitive science and moral psychology
  • The essays cover a wide range of Christmas themes, from a defence of the miracle of the virgin birth to the relevance of Christmas to atheists and pagans
 

Selected pages

Contents

Joining the Stephen Nissenbaum MangertotheSleigh?
On the Possibility of
Authentic Christmas Magic
Puttingthe Yule Back in Yuletide
Armed for the War on Christmas
Sacred and Secular
Multiculturalism
Sonofa
Elf Exploitation
The Truth
Why Its Just
Putting Claus Back into Christmas
Happiness
A Naturalistic Justification
Christmas
Festivus andthe Need for Seasonal Absurdity

The Mind of Santa Claus and the Metaphors
The Santa Claus
YoudBetter Watch Out
Santa as CrossCultural
Afterword

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About the author (2011)

Scott C. Lowe is professor of Philosophy and chair of the Department of Philosophy at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. His current interest is in the political philosophy of Richard Rorty. He is the editor, along with Steven Hales, of Delight in Thinking: An Introduction to Philosophy Reader (2006).

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