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Ed Simon

Public Humanities Special Faculty/Editor-in-Chief, Carnegie Mellon University/Rust Belt Magazine

Ed Simon is a public humanities lecturer in the English Department of Carnegie Mellon University and the founding editor of The Pittsburgh Review of Books. He is also the editor-in-chief for Rust Belt Magazine, a contributing editor to The Montreal Review, and a staff writer at LitHub. His most recent book is Devil’s Contract: The History of the Faustian Bargain (2024), named one of the best books of 2024 by The New Yorker. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA.

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Written by Ed Simon

Abstract painting with an eye, trees, a bird, arches, and a small house in a colourful, dream-like landscape.

essayPhilosophy of religion

A new paganism

Now is the time to revitalise our relationship with nature and immerse ourselves in the little wonders of the universe

Ed Simon

Black-and white photo of a monk passing a ruined building cradling a large book, with mountains in the background under a clear sky.

essayPhilosophy of religion

How to pray to a dead God

The modern world is disenchanted. God remains dead. But our need for transcendence lives on. How should we fulfil it?

Ed Simon

X-ray photo of a humanoid figure with various mechanical components integrated into the head and upper body, on a black background.

essayComputing and artificial intelligence

Machine in the ghost

Can a robot pray? Does an AI have a soul? Advances in automata raise theological debates that will shape the secular world

Ed Simon

A older man in a white shirt and tie looking out of a window at New York City buildings, including the Empire State Building.

ideaMeaning and the good life

What Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy can offer in the Anthropocene

Ed Simon

A painting of a man with curly hair holding a quill pen, wearing an olive-green coat over a white shirt, looking to the left.

ideaStories and literature

How Erasmus Darwin’s poetry prophesied evolutionary theory

Ed Simon

An engraving of a man with a surprised expression sitting with an open book beside him and a skeleton at his feet in a dimly lit setting.

ideaStories and literature

My odious handiwork: Frankenstein is about art, not science

Ed Simon

A painting depicting three mythological figures in a lush, pastoral landscape with animals in the background.

ideaHistory of science

‘Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb’: the science of Paradise Lost

Ed Simon

Painting of a crowded Elizabethan theatre with an audience watching a play. People in ornate costumes are in box seats and the pit.

ideaRace and ethnicity

How ‘white people’ were invented by a playwright in 1613

Ed Simon

Grainy photo of a figure resembling Bigfoot walking in a wooded area, surrounded by trees and rocky ground.

ideaStories and literature

Why Sasquatch and other crypto-beasts haunt our imaginations

Ed Simon

Ed Simon has also published 1 article onPsyche