Best Philosophy Books

A Roman emperor's private journal in which Marcus Aurelius wrestles with anger, mortality, duty, and the difficulty of staying calm while running an empire. The book is a collection of fragmentary reflections organized into twelve short books, each a conversation with himself about not being derailed by other people's frustrations or the fear of death. It reads like a Stoic devotional—repetitive by design, since Marcus was reminding himself of the same truths daily. There is no plot, no system. There is a man trying not to lose himself to the weight of the job.

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, Spirituality, NonFiction, Philosophy, Personal Development lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Matt Ridley, acclaimed author of the classics Genome and Nature via Nurture, turns from investigating human nature to investigating human progress. In The Rational Optimist Ridley offers a counterblast to the prevailing pessimism of our age, and proves, however much we like to think to the contrary, that things are getting better.

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, NonFiction, Philosophy, History, Science lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, NonFiction, Philosophy, Entrepreneur, Personal Development lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, ificial, Intelligence, NonFiction, Artificial lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for creative discipline, craft, or artistic motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

Winner of the Pulitzer prize in 1974 and the culmination of a life's work, The Denial of Death is Ernest Becker's brilliant and impassioned answer to the "why" of human existence. In bold contrast to the predominant Freudian school of thought, Becker tackles the problem of the vital lie man's refusal to acknowledge his own mortality. In doing so...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, Finance, NonFiction, Philosophy, Business lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, NonFiction, Artificial, Intelligence, Philosophy lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life. Most forms of private vice and public evil are kindled and sustained by lies. Acts of Adult,ery and other personal betrayals, financial fraud, government corruption—even murder and genocide—generally require an additional moral defect: a willingness to lie.In Lying, bestselli...

How do you lead a fulfilling life That profound question animates this book of inspiration and insight from worldclass business strategist and bestselling author of The Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton Christensen.After beating a heart attack, advancedstage cancer and a stroke in three successive years, the worldrenowned innovation expert and autho...

Jonathan Safran Foer spent much of his life oscillating between enthusiastic carnivore and occasional vegetarian. Once he started a family, the moral dimensions of food became increasingly important.Faced with the prospect of being unable to explain why we eat some animals and not others, Foer set out to explore the origins of many eating tradition...

“I wrote this book not sure I could follow the road to character, but I wanted at least to know what the road looks like and how other people have trodden it.”—David Brooks With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column and his previous bestsellers, David Brooks has consist...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, NonFiction, Philosophy, Personal Development, Psychology lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Sociology, Social Sciences, NonFiction, Philosophy, History lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

In his monumental 1687 work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, known familiarly as the Principia, Isaac Newton laid out in mathematical terms the principles of time, force, and motion that have guided the development of modern physical science. Even after more than three centuries and the revolutions of Einsteinian relativity and quantum...

?A manifesto of sorts for anyone who makes art [and] cares for it.? ?Zadie Smith?The best book I know of for talented but unacknowledged creators. . . . A masterpiece.? ?Margaret Atwood?No one who is invested in any kind of art . . . can read The Gift and remain unchanged.? ?David Foster WallaceBy now a modern classic, The Gift is a brilliantly orc...

The power and wealth which Seneca the Younger (c.4 B.C. A.D. 65) acquired as Nero's minister were in conflict with his Stoic beliefs. Nevertheless he was the outstanding figure of his age. The Stoic philosophy which Seneca professed in his writings, later supported by Marcus Aurelius, provided Rome with a passable bridge to Christianity. Seneca's...

In the words of economist and scholar Arnold Kling, Martin Gurri saw it coming.Technology, has categorically reversed the information balance of power between the public and the elites who manage the great hierarchical institutions of the industrial age government, political parties, the media.The Revolt of the Public tells the story of how insurgen...

For David Deutsch, a young physicist of unusual originality, quantum theory contains our most fundamental knowledge of the physical world. Taken literally, it implies that there are many universes ?parallel? to the one we see around us. This multiplicity of universes, according to Deutsch, turns out to be the key to achieving a new worldview, one w...

"The word "love" is most often defined as a noun, yet...we would all love better if we used it as a verb," writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, the renowned scholar, cultural critic, and feminist skewers our view of love as romance. In its place she offers a...

Written in 1914 but not published until 1925, a year after Kafka’s death, The Trial is the terrifying tale of Josef K., a respectable bank officer who is suddenly and inexplicably arrested and must defend himself against a charge about which he can get no information. Whether read as an existential tale, a parable, or a prophecy of the excesses of ...

Where do ideas come fromIn Catching the Big Fish, internationally acclaimed filmmaker David Lynch provides a rare window into his methods as an artist, his personal working style, and the immense creative benefits he has experienced from the practice of meditation.Lynch describes the experience of "diving within" and "catching" ideas like fish a...

Psychedelics for spiritual, therapeutic, and problemsolving use Presents practices for safe and successful psychedelic voyages, including the benefits of having a guide and how to be a guide Reviews the value of psychedelics for healing and selfdiscovery as well as how LSD has facilitated scientific and technical problemsolving Reveals how...

After service in Vietnam, as a surgeon for the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in 196869, at the height of the war, Dr. Gordon Livingston returned to the U.S. and began work as a psychiatrist. In that capacity, he has listened to people talk about their liveswhat works, what doesn’t, and the limitless ways (many of them selfinflicted) that people ...

A NYTimes.com Editor's Choice A Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Finalist ?A jaunty, insightful new book . . . [that] draws from disparate corners of history and science to celebrate our compulsion to storify everything around us.??New York TimesHumans live in landscapes of makebelieve. We spin fantasies. We devour novels, films, and plays. Even spor...

Robert Greene is a master guide for millions of readers, distilling ancient wisdom and philosophy into essential texts for seekers of power, understanding and mastery. Now he turns to the most important subject of all understanding people's drives and motivations, even when they are unconscious of them themselves.We are social animals. Our very l...

The Act of Creation begins where this view ceases to be true. Koestler affirms that all creatures have the capacity for creative activity, frequently suppressed by the automatic routines of thought and behavior that dominate their lives. The study of psychology has offered little in the way of an explanation of the creative process, and Koestler su...

One of TIME's Ten Best Nonfiction Books of 2018 "Meet the new Stephen Hawking . . . The Order of Time is a dazzling book." The Sunday Times From the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, comes a concise, elegant exploration of time.Why do we remember the past and not the future What does it mean for time to "flow" Do we exist in...

“Available recommendation signals cluster around Social Sciences, Leadership, NonFiction, Philosophy, Business lists, suggesting this book may fit readers looking for decision-making, behavior, or human motivation. Treat this as discovery context, not a quality guarantee.”

"I am neither a theologian, nor a scholar learned in the history of religions, nor an anthropologist. Psychology is the only branch of learning in which I am particularly versed. To the psychologist the religious propensities of man must be at least as interesting as any other of the facts pertaining to his mental constitution. It would seem, there...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"If you’ve ever wondered how you have the capacity to wonder, some fascinating insights await you in these pages.” Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of OriginalsAs concise and enlightening as Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, this mindexpanding dive into the mystery of con...

In 1953, in the presence of an investigator, Aldous Huxley took fourtenths of a gramme of mescalin, sat down and waited to see what would happen. Huxley described his experience in 'The Doors of Perception' and its sequel 'Heaven and Hell'....

Maxims and Reflections is a collection of several hundred brilliant, unforgettable paragraphs and aphorisms by the legendary German Renaissance writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, divided into the categories Life and Character, Literature and Art, Science and Nature. Like the Manual of Epictetus and Seneca's Letters, Goethe's Maxims and Reflections ...

A new edition of the bestselling work from one of the most forwardthinking and important philosophers of our time. Join one of the greatest contemporary philosophers on a breathtaking tour of time and the Kosmosfrom the Big Bang right up to the eve of the twenty-first century. This accessible and entertaining summary of Ken Wilber's great ideas...

Introduction by Mary OliverCommentary by Henry James, Robert Frost, Matthew Arnold, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Henry David Thoreau The definitive collection of Emerson’s major speeches, essays, and poetry, The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson chronicles the life’s work of a true “American Scholar.” As one of the architects of the transce...

This book is about the great moral issues underlying many of the headlinemaking political controversies of our times. It is not a comforting book but a book about disturbing and dangerous trends. The Quest for Cosmic Justice shows how confused conceptions of justice end up promoting injustice, how confused conceptions of equality end up promoting ...

For the first time in history, eradicating world poverty is within our reach. Yet around the world, a billion people struggle to live each day on less than many of us pay for bottled water. In The Life You Can Save, Peter Singer uses ethical arguments, illuminating examples, and case studies of charitable giving to show that our current response to...

"Nothing less than a fullscale assault on conventional economic wisdom."?NewsweekOne the 100 most influential books published since World War II?The Times Literary SupplementHailed as an "ecobible" by Time magazine, E.F. Schumacher's riveting, richly researched statement on sustainability has become more relevant and vital with each year since it...

The fiftieth Anniversary Edition of the groundbreaking international bestseller that has shown millions of readers how to achieve rich, productive lives by developing their hidden capacities for loveMost people are unable to love on the only level that truly matters: love that is compounded of maturity, selfknowledge, and courage. As with every ar...

What does it mean to devote yourself wholly to helping others In Strangers Drowning, Larissa MacFarquhar seeks out people living lives of extreme ethical commitment and tells their deeply intimate stories; their stubborn integrity and their compromises; their bravery and their recklessness; their joys and defeats and wrenching dilemmas. A couple a...

'Liquid life' is the kind of life commonly lived in our contemporary, liquidmodern society. Liquid life cannot stay on course, as liquidmodern society cannot keep its shape for long. Liquid life is a precarious life, lived under conditions of constant uncertainty. The most acute and stubborn worries that haunt this liquid life are the fears of be...

In 2016, Ben Shapiro spoke at UC Berkeley. Hundreds of police officers were required from 10 UC campuses across the state to protect his speech, which was ironically about the necessity for free speech and rational debate. He came to argue that Western Civilization is in the midst of a crisis of purpose and ideas. Our freedoms are built upon ...

A ?landmark book? (Robert J. Sternberg, president of the American Psychological Association) by one of the world's preeminent psychologists that proves human behavior is not ?hardwired? but a function of culture.Everyone knows that while different cultures think about the world differently, they use the same equipment for doing their thinking. But...

In this classic work that continues to inspire its many readers, Jim Lovelock puts forward his idea that life on earth functions as a single organism. Written for nonscientists, Gaia is a journey through time and space in search of evidence with which to support a new and radically different model of our planet. In contrast to conventional belief ...

Students of political theory will welcome the return to print of this brilliant defense of ordered liberty. Impugning John Stuart Mill’s famous treatise, On Liberty, Stephen criticized Mill for turning abstract doctrines of the French Revolution into “the creed of a religion.”Only the constraints of morality and law make liberty possible, warned St...

Do religious experiences come from God, or are they merely the random firing of neurons in the brain Drawing on his own research with Carmelite nuns, neuroscientist Mario Beauregard shows that genuine, lifechanging spiritual events can be documented. He offers compelling evidence that religious experiences have a nonmaterial origin, making a conv...

The Bhagavad Gita tells the story of how Arjuna, the great warrior, is seated in his chariot about to engage in battle, when he sees his own kinsmen and his revered teacher arrayed in battle against him, and feels that he cannot fight. It is then that Krishna, the Cosmic Lord, comes to counsel him. Arjuna represents the human soul seated in the cha...

Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme—but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity ...

The international bestselling author is bck with a pageturning tale of the origins of the peaceful warriorIn the heart of nineteenth century Tsarist Russia an orphaned boy born of both Jewish and Cossack blood desperately seeks to find a place in a dangerous world. Sergei Ivanov’s (Socrates’) journey from a military academy to America is a spellbi...

Henry David Thoreau?s Journal was his life?s work: the daily practice of writing that accompanied his daily walks, the workshop where he developed his books and essays, and a project in its own right?one of the most intensive explorations ever made of the everyday environment, the revolving seasons, and the changing self. It is a treasure trove of ...

In this modern spiritual classic, the Tibetan meditation master Chögyam Trungpa highlights a common pitfall to which every aspirant on the spiritual path falls prey: what he calls spiritual materialism. The universal human tendency, he shows, is to see spirituality as a process of selfimprovement?the impulse to develop and refine the ego when the ...

The Age of Reason represents the results of years of study and reflection by Thomas Paine on the place of religion in society.Paine wrote: "Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst; every other species of tyranny is limited to the world we live in; but this attempts to stride beyond the grave, and seeks to pursue u...

A Radical History of Plants, Drugs & Human EvolutionFor the first time in paperback, the counterculture manifesto on mindaltering drugs & hallucinogens. Illustrated. A Radical History of Plants, Drugs & Human EvolutionFor the first time in paperback, the counterculture manifesto on mindaltering drugs & hallucinogens. Illustrated. ...more...

By early 1943, it had become increasingly clear that the Allies would win the Second World War. Around the same time, it also became increasingly clear to many Christian intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic that the soontobevictorious nations were not culturally or morally prepared for their success. A war won by technological superiority...

For scientist and layman alike this book provides vivid evidence that the Copernican Revolution has by no means lost its significance today. Few episodes in the development of scientific theory show so clearly how the solution to a highly technical problem can alter our basic thought processes and attitudes. Understanding the processes which underl...

The Wisdom of Life Arthur Schopenhauer A leading German metaphysician of the 19th century, Arthur Schopenhauer (17881860) exerted an influence far beyond the hermetic world of philosophy, with adherents ranging from Richard Wagner and Friedrich Nietzsche to Leo Tolstoy and Thomas Mann. Among Schopenhauer's chief contributions to the field of philo...

The Conquest of Happiness is Bertrand Russell's recipe for good living. First published in 1930, it predates the current obsession with selfhelp by decades. Leading the reader step by step through the causes of unhappiness and the personal choices, compromises and sacrifices that (may) lead to the final, affirmative conclusion of 'The Happy Man',...

Infinite in All Directions is a popularized science at its best. In Dyson's view, science and religion are two windows through which we can look out at the world around us. The book is a revised version of a series of the Gifford Lectures under the title "In Praise of Diversity" given at Aberdeen, Scotland. They allowed Dyson the license to express...

?Fascists,? ?Brownshirts,? ?jackbooted stormtroopers??such are the insults typically hurled at conservatives by their liberal opponents. Calling someone a fascist is the fastest way to shut them up, defining their views as beyond the political pale. But who are the real fascists in our midst Liberal Fascism offers a startling new perspective on th...

"This wise, stirring book argues that the search for meaning can immeasurably deepen our lives and is far more fulfilling than the pursuit of personal happiness. There is a myth in our culture that the search for meaning is some esoteric pursuitthat you have to travel to a distant monastery or page through dusty volumes to figure out life's great...

2014 Reprint of 1955 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In "Homo Ludens," the classic evaluation of play that has become a "mustread" for those in game design, Dutch philosopher Johan Huizinga defines play as the central activity in flourishing societies. Like civilization, play requi...

Any Baedeker will tell us where we ought to travel, but only Alain de Botton will tell us how and why. With the same intelligence and insouciant charm he brought to How Proust Can Save Your Life, de Botton considers the pleasures of anticipation; the allure of the exotic, and the value of noticing everything from a seascape in Barbados to the takeo...

"More than just a story of an abiding cultural preoccupation, The Longing For Less peels back the commodified husk of minimalism to reveal something surprising and thoroughly alive." Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing "Thoughtful and absorbing . . . A superb outing from a gifted young critic that will spark joy in many readers." Kirkus Rev...

"We can place this book on the shelf that holds the writings of Thoreau and John Muir." San Francisco ChronicleThese astonishing portraits of the natural world explore the breathtaking diversity of the unspoiled American landscape the mountains and the prairies, the deserts and the coastlines. A stunning tribute to our land and a bold challenge ...

A fascinating discussion on sex, gender, and human instincts, as relevant today as ever.In the course of a lively drinking party, a group of Athenian intellectuals exchange views on eros, or desire. From their conversation emerges a series of subtle reflections on gender roles, sex in society and the sublimation of basic human instincts. The discus...

Author Bhante Gunaratana, a renowned meditation master, takes us step by step through the myths, realities, and benefits of meditation and the practice of mindfulness. This expanded edition includes the complete text of its predecessor along with a new chapter on cultivating loving kindness. For anyone who is new to meditation, this is a great reso...

Since its first publication in 1945 Lord Russell's A History of Western Philosophy has been universally acclaimed as the outstanding onevolume work on the subject?unparalleled in its comprehensiveness, its clarity, its erudition, its grace and wit. In seventysix chapters he traces philosophy from the rise of Greek civilization to the emergence of...

Modern love is never easy. Society is obsessed with stories of romance, but what comes after happily ever afterThis is a love story with a difference. From dating to marriage, from having kids to having affairs, it follows the progress of a single ordinary relationship: tender, messy, hilarious, painful, and entirely unRomantic. It is a love stor...

Soren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, theologian, and religious author interested in human psychology. He is regarded as a leading pioneer of existentialism and one of the greatest philosophers of the 19th Century.In Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard wanted to understand the anxiety that must have been present in Abraham when God commanded him ...

Most people, believers and nonbelievers alike, are unfamiliar with the variety and force of arguments for the impossibility of God. Yet over recent years a growing number of scholars have been formulating and developing a series of increasingly powerful arguments that the concept of God, as variously understood by the world's major religions and le...

Kant's Prolegomena, although a small book, is indubitably the most important of his writings. It furnishes us with a key to his main work, The Critique of Pure Reason; in fact, it is an extract containing all the salient ideas of Kant's system. It approaches the subject in the simplest and most direct way, and is therefore best adapted as an introd...

What would you do if you were sitting quietly in your living room when a mysterious couple appeared from out of nowhereand then told you they were "ascended masters" who had come to reveal some shocking secrets of existence and teach you the miraculous powers of advanced forgiveness When two such teachers appeared before Gary Renard in 1992, he ...

Peuton être philosophe dans n'importe quelle société et dans n'importe quelle situation Ou, plus précisément, peuton philosopher quand on est l'homme le plus riche de son temps Peuton philosopher quand on est pris dans les obligations de la vie sociale Ces interrogations sont peutêtre les avatars d'une question plus fondamentale, celle du ra...

Whether regarded as a science, an art, or a skill?and it can properly be regarded as all three?logic is the basis of our ability to think, analyze, argue, and communicate. Indeed, logic goes to the very core of what we mean by human intelligence. In this concise, crisply readable book, distinguished professor D. Q. McInerny offers an indispensable ...

Logic is often perceived as having little to do with the rest of philosophy, and even less to do with real life. In this lively and accessible introduction, Graham Priest shows how wrong this conception is. He explores the philosophical roots of the subject, explaining how modern formal logic deals with issues ranging from the existence of God and ...

While few soldiers may have read the works of Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius, it is undoubtedly true that the ancient philosophy known as Stoicism guides the actions of many in the military. Soldiers and seamen learn early in their training "to suck it up," to endure, to put aside their feelings and to get on with the mission. Stoic Warriors is the f...

Tantra Illuminated takes the reader on a fascinating journey to the very heart of Tantra: its key teachings, foundational lineages, and transformative practices. Since the West s discovery of Tantra 100 years ago, there has been considerable fascination, speculation, and more than a little misinformation about this spiritual movement. Now, for the ...

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE?65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and advisor to the emperor Nero, all during the Silver Age of Latin literature. The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca is a fresh and compelling series of new Englishlanguage translations of his works in eight accessible volumes. Edited by Elizabeth Asmis...

Volume 1 presents the texts in new translations by the authors, and these are accompanied by a philosophical and historical commentary designed for use by all readers, including those with no background in the classical world. With its glossary and indexes, this volume can stand alone as an independent tool of study....

Since its publication in 1987, "Being Peace" has become a classic of contemporary religious literature. In his simple and readable style, Thich Nhat Hanh shows how our state of mind and body can make the world a peaceful place. We learn to transform the very situations that pressure and antagonize us into opportunities for practicing mindfulness......

Freedom from suffering is not only possible, but the means for achieving it are immediately within our grasp?literally as close to us as our own breath. This is the 2,500yearold good news contained in the Anapanasati Sutra , the Buddha's teaching on cultivating both tranquility and deep insight through full awareness of breathing. In this book, L...

Now in paperback, "The Philosophy Book" explores the history and concepts of philosophy, and demystifies what can often be daunting subject matter.Are the ideas of Rene Descartes, Mary Wollstonecraft, John Locke, and Thomas Hobbes still relevant today "The Philosophy Book" unpacks the writings and ideas of more than 100 of history's biggest thinke...

Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.In this brilliant work, the most influential philosopher since Sartre suggests that such vaunted reforms as the abolition of torture and the emergence of the modern penitentiary have merely shifted the focus of punishment from the prisoner?s body to his soul. Librarian note: an a...

The classic novel of fly fishing and spirituality republished with a new Afterword by the author. Since its publication in 1983, The River Why has become a classic. David James Duncan's sweeping novel is a comingofage comedy about love, nature, and the quest for selfdiscovery, written in a voice as distinct and powerful as any in American letter...

The secret to happiness is to acknowledge and transform suffering, not to run away from it. In No Mud, No Lotus, Thich Nhat Hanh offers practices and inspiration for transforming suffering and finding true joy. Thich Nhat Hanh acknowledges that because suffering can feel so bad, we try to run away from it or cover it up by consuming. We find someth...

A timely collection of speeches by David McCullough, the most honored historian in the United States?winner of two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Book Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among many others?that reminds us of fundamental American principles.?Insightful and inspirational, The American Spirit summons a vexed and divided natio...

It is a commonplace to say that in antiquity philosophy was conceived as a way of life or an art of living, but precisely what such claims amount to has remained unclear. If ancient philosophers did think that philosophy should transform an individual's way of life, then what conception of philosophy stands behind this claim John Sellars explores ...

One of the most influential works of this century, this is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought. Influenced by works such as Don Juan, and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide: the question of living or not living in an absurd universe devoid of order or meaning. With lyric eloquence, Camus posits a way out...

The Last Days of Socrates, written by legendary author Plato, is widely considered to be one of the greatest classic texts of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, The Last Days of Socrates is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeles...

Through his writing and his own personal philosophy, Ralph Waldo Emerson unburdened his young country of Europe's traditional sense of history and showed Americans how to be creators of their own circumstances. His mandate, which called for harmony with, rather than domestication of, nature, and for a reliance on individual integrity, rather than o...

"Cato, history's most famous foe of authoritarian power, was the pivotal political man of Rome; an inspiration to our Founding Fathers; and a cautionary figure for our times. He loved Roman republicanism, but saw himself as too principled for the mere politics that might have saved it. His life and lessons are urgently relevant in the harshly divid...

Librarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.Michel Foucault examines the archeology of madness in the West from 1500 to 1800 ? from the late Middle Ages, when insanity was still considered part of everyday life and fools and lunatics walked the streets freely, to the time when such people began to be considered a threat, a...

Called the "fifthmost important sociological book of the 20th century" by the International Sociological Association, this groundbreaking study of knowledge introduces the concept of "social construction" into the social sciences for the first time. In it, Berger and Luckmann reformulate the task of the sociological subdicipline that, since Max Sc...

This book makes no pretence to be anything but a popular sketch of a great historical character who ought to be more popular. Its aim will be achieved, if it leads those who have hardly even heard of St. Thomas Aquinas to read about him in better books. But from this necessary limitation certain consequences follow, which should perhaps be allowed ...

On Wall Street, in the culture of high tech, in American government: Libertarianism the simple but radical idea that the only purpose of government is to protect its citizens and their property against direct violence and threat has become an extremely influential strain of thought. But while many books talk about libertarian ideas, none unti...

?A big, bold, brilliantly crafted pageturner with HUGE ideas that challenge every last view about how the world works. This is both a primer to understand the law of attraction and the essential book of our age.? ? Jack Canfield, author of The Success Principles(TM) and featured teacher on The Secret(TM)?One of the most powerful and enlightening ...

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche inspired Matthieu Ricard to create this anthology by telling him that ?when we come to appreciate the depth of the view of the eight great traditions [of Tibetan Buddhism] and also see that they all lead to the same goal without contradicting each other, we think, ?Only ignorance can lead us to adopt a sectarian view.?? Rica...

The publication of Simulacra et Simulation in 1981 marked Jean Baudrillard's first important step toward theorizing the postmodern. Moving away from the Marxist/Freudian approaches that had concerned him earlier, Baudrillard developed in this book a theory of contemporary culture that relies on displacing economic notions of cultural production wit...

It was a deadly mistake. Joseph Malik, editor of a radical magazine, had snooped into rumors about an ancient secret society that was still alive and kicking. Now his offices have been bombed, he's missing, and the case has landed in the lap of a tough, cynical, streetwise New York detective. Saul Goodman knows he's stumbled onto something big?but ...