Oxford University Press

Rasselas and his companions leave the 'happy valley' in search of 'the choice of life'. Johnson's philosophical tale considers such things as the nature of poetry, the stability of reason, the immortality of the soul, and the pursuit of happiness. This new edition relates the novel to Johnson's life and the political and social context....

M.R. James's classic ghost stories are some of the finest in English, creating        menace and terror in lonely country houses and remote inns. This is the only        one-volume edition to include all James's published stories, an appendix of James's        writings on the ghost story, and fascinating introduction and notes by...

Lawyer, judge, politician, poet, teacher, and architect, William Blackstone was a        major figure in eighteenth century public life. Over his varied and brilliant career        he made profound contributions to English politics, law, education, and culture        through involvements in legal practice, Parliament, and the University of...

Paul Hurley sets out a radical challenge to consequentialism, the theory which might seem to be the default option in contemporary moral philosophy. There is an unresolved tension within the theory: if consequentialists are right about the content of morality, then morality cannot have the rational authority that even they take it to have....

In the first in-depth study of Gregory of Nyssa, Martin Laird shows how for Gregory the darkness of faith is what unites the believer with God. While the believer is immersed in the darkness of unknowing, they are also transformed in light. Laird alters the way in which we understand Gregory's mystical theology....

Hailed in the New York Times as "e;entertaining and immensely educational,"e; Snake Oil Science is not only a brilliant critique of alternative medicine, but also a first-rate introduction to interpreting scientific research of any sort. The book's ultimate goal is to illustrate how the placebo effect conspires to make medical therapies...