Gathers the writers and works that represent the building blocks of libertarianism, including Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, and John Perry Barlow. View More...
This New York Times bestseller is the hilarious philosophy course everyone wishes they'd had in school.Outrageously funny, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar... has been a breakout bestseller ever since authors--and born vaudevillians--Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein did their schtick on NPR's Weekend Edition. Lively, original, and powerfully informative, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar... is a not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical thinkers and traditions, from Existentialism (What do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common?) to Logic (Sherlock Holmes never deduced... View More...
A philosopher/mechanic's wise (and sometimes funny) look at the challenges and pleasures of working with one's hands Called the sleeper hit of the publishing season by The Boston Globe, Shop Class as Soulcraft became an instant bestseller, attracting readers with its radical (and timely) reappraisal of the merits of skilled manual labor. On both economic and psychological grounds, author Matthew B. Crawford questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a knowledge worker, based on a misguided separation of thinking from doing. Using his own experience as an electrician and mec... View More...
The opening lines of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri launched Rod Dreher on a journey that rescued him from exile and saved his life. Dreher found that the medieval poem offered him a surprisingly practical way of solving modern problems. Following the death of his little sister and the publication of his New York Times bestselling memoir The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, Dreher found himself living in the small community of Starhill, Louisiana where he grew up. But instead of the fellowship he hoped to find, he discovered that fault lines within his family had deepened. Dreher spiraled in... View More...
Clear and concise, this brief text is designed to assist students with no previous formal background in writing philosophy papers. Contents include topic selection, outlines, drafts, proper and improper quotation, argument development and evaluation, principles of good writing, style, criteria for grading student papers, and a review of common grammatical and dictional errors. In addition, the book devotes several chapters to basic concepts in logic, which have proven invaluable for philosophy students in the course of critically considering and writing about the ideas and arguments they encou... View More...
A heartfelt, deeply personal book that shines a bright light on the values and principles that Bill Gates Sr. has learned over a lifetime of "showing up" lessons that he learned growing up during the Great Depression, and that he instilled in his children and continues to practice on the world stage as the co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Through the course of several dozen narratives arranged in roughly chronological fashion, Gates introduces the people and experiences that influenced his thinking and guided his moral compass. Among them: the scoutmaster who taught him about t... View More...
In 1921, at the age of eleven, Isaiah Berlin arrived in England from Riga, Latvia. By the time he was thirty he was at the heart of British intellectual life. He has remained its commanding presence ever since, and few would dispute that he was one of Britain's greatest thinkers. His reputation extends worldwide--as a great conversationalist, intellectual historian, and man of letters. He has been called the century's most inspired reader. Yet Berlin's contributions to thought--in particular to moral and political philosophy, and to liberal theory--are little understood, and surprisingly negle... View More...
From renowned classicist Edith Hall, ARISTOTLE'S WAY is an examination of one of history's greatest philosophers, showing us how to lead happy, fulfilled, and meaningful lives Aristotle was the first philosopher to inquire into subjective happiness, and he understood its essence better and more clearly than anyone since. According to Aristotle, happiness is not about well-being, but instead a lasting state of contentment, which should be the ultimate goal of human life. We become happy through finding a purpose, realizing our potential, and modifying our behavior to become the best version of ... View More...
Heir to the throne of Ephesus, Heraclitus gave up his kingdom and chose, instead of the trappings of power, to seek the word of wisdom. Twent-five hundred years before Einstein, Heraclitus declared that energy is the essence of matter, that everything becomes energy in flux, in relativity: "All things change to fire, /and fire exhausted/falls back into things". His great book, On Nature, the world's first coherent philosophical treatise, has been long lost to history -- but its surviving fragments have for thousands of years tantalized our greatest thinkers -- from Plato and Aristotle to Nietz... View More...
Whether framed philosophically as "Why is there a world rather than nothing at all?" or more colloquially as "But, Mommy, who made God?" the metaphysical mystery about how we came into existence remains the most fractious and fascinating question of all time. Following in the footsteps of Christopher Hitchens, Roger Penrose, and even Stephen Hawking, Jim Holt emerges with an engrossing narrative that traces our latest efforts to grasp the origins of the universe. As he takes on the role of cosmological detective, the brilliant yet slyly humorous Holt contends that we might have been too narrow... View More...
Presents the thesis of a thinker who was a scientist, psychologist, metaphysician, and skeptic. The product of both youthful fire and mature consideration, this title contains everything of Consequence relating to the understanding. It endeavors to be nothing less than the construction of an anatomy of human nature. View More...
As only he can, Aldous Huxley explores the mind's remote frontiers and the unmapped areas of human consciousness. These two astounding essays are among the most profound studies of the effects of mind-expanding drugs written in this century. View More...
Luminist Horizons celebrates the art and collection of James A. Suydam (1819-1865), an American landscapist best known for his luminist paintings. Despite the fact that his name has been linked with luminism since the term was first coined, Suydam has not received the scholarly attention he deserves. With approximately 180 reproductions (eighty in color), this book considers Suydam's work in tandem with that of fellow Hudson River School artists such as Asher B. Durand, Frederic E. Church, and John F. Kensett and therefore contributes an important chapter to the history of American landscape p... View More...
This thoughtful abridgment makes an ideal introduction to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Key selections include: the Preface in B, the Introduction, the Transcendental Aesthetic, the Second Analogy, the Refutation of Idealism, the first three Antinomies, the Transcendental Deduction in B, and the Canon of Pure Reason. A brief introduction provides biographical information, descriptions of the nature of Kant's project and of how each major section of the Critique contributes to that project. A select bibliography and index are also included.
The Tibetan leader presents a plan for a new human and social paradigm, arguing that man is not inherently sinful, and discussing how redirection in the perception of our fundamental natures can bring positive change. View More...
Bestselling author and astrophysicist Mario Livio examines the lives and theories of history's greatest mathematicians to ask how--if mathematics is an abstract construction of the human mind--it can so perfectly explain the physical world. Nobel Laureate Eugene Wigner once wondered about "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics" in the formulation of the laws of nature. Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly ex... View More...
Featuring the most important and enduring works from Marx's enormous corpus, this collection ranges from the Hegelian idealism of his youth to the mature socialism of his later works. Organized both topically and in rough chronological order, the selections (many of them in the translations of Loyd D. Easton and Kurt H. Guddat) include writings on historical materialism, excerpts from Capital, and political works.
The #1 New York Times bestselling author and popular spiritual teacher presents a poignant and timely meditation on the importance of community, and demonstrates how we live more enriching lives by cultivating connectedness. At once a moving meditation and an empowering guide, More Together Than Alone is an compelling testament to the power of community and why it's so essential in our lives, now more than ever. Mark Nepo draws from historical events, spiritual thought leaders, and the natural world to show how, in every generation, our tendency is to join together to accomplish our greatest a... View More...
The cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project and pioneer behind the compassionate care movement shares an inspiring exploration of the lessons dying has to offer about living a fulfilling life. Death is not waiting for us at the end of a long road. Death is always with us, in the marrow of every passing moment. She is the secret teacher hiding in plain sight, helping us to discover what matters most. Life and death are a package deal. They cannot be pulled apart and we cannot truly live unless we are aware of death. The Five Invitations is an exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how... View More...
This collection chronicles the fiction and non fiction classics by the greatest writers the world has ever known. The inclusion of both popular as well as overlooked pieces is pivotal to providing a broad and representative collection of classic works. View More...
Christopher Phillips is a man on a mission: to revive the love of questions that Socrates inspired long ago in ancient Athens. "Like a Johnny Appleseed with a master's degree, Phillips has gallivanted back and forth across America, to caf s and coffee shops, senior centers, assisted-living complexes, prisons, libraries, day-care centers, elementary and high schools, and churches, forming lasting communities of inquiry" (Utne Reader). Phillips not only presents the fundamentals of philosophical thought in this "charming, Philosophy for Dummies-type guide" (USA Today); he also recalls what led h... View More...
Christopher Phillips goes to the heart of philosophy and Socratic discourse to discover what we're all looking for: the kind of love that makes life worthwhile. Love here is not defined only or even primarily as eros, but in all its classic varietiesfrom love of family and love of neighbor to love of country, love of God, love of life, and love of wisdom. Phillips's explorations take us from New Orleans at Mardi Gras and the gambling dens of Las Vegas to the last evangelical revival presided over by Billy Graham. He talks with moms and dads about "parent love," with inmates of a maximum-securi... View More...
