A lucid guide to humankind's greatest thinkers, from Aristotle to Peter Singer
Philosophy begins with the nature of reality and how we should live. These were the concerns of Socrates, who spent his days in the ancient Athenian marketplace asking awkward questions, disconcerting the people he met by showing them just how little they genuinely understood.
This engaging Little History introduces the great thinkers in Western philosophy and explores their most compelling ideas about the universe and our place in it. Nigel Warburton guides us on a tour of the lives and work of thought-provoking philosophers - from the certainty of Descartes ('I think, therefore I am') to Hannah Arendt who examined crimes against humanity and taught us 'the banality of evil'.
Little Histories - Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds
All people have a natural capacity for intuition, but in many cases social conditioning and formal education works against it. This volume provides many specific exercises and meditations designed to nourish and support each individual's natural intuitive gifts.
Are intellectuals merely the servants of special interests or do they have a larger responsibility? In these wide-ranging essays, one of our most brilliant and fiercely independent public thinkers addresses this question with extraordinary eloquence. Said sees the intellectual as an exile and amateur whose role it is 'to speak the truth to power' even at the risk of ostracism or imprisonment. Drawing on the examples of Jonathan Swift and Theodor Adorno, Robert Oppenheimer and Henry Kissinger, Vietnam and the Gulf War, Said explores the implications of this idea and shows what happens when intellectuals succumb to the lures of money, power, or specialization.
By walking, you escape from the very idea of identity, the temptation to be someone, to have a name and a history ... The freedom in walking lies in not being anyone; for the walking body has no history, it is just an eddy in the stream of immemorial life.
In A Philosophy of Walking, a bestseller in France, leading thinker Frédéric Gros charts the many different ways we get from A to B-the pilgrimage, the promenade, the protest march, the nature ramble-and reveals what they say about us.
Gros draws attention to other thinkers who also saw walking as something central to their practice. On his travels he ponders Thoreau's eager seclusion in Walden Woods; the reason Rimbaud walked in a fury, while Nerval rambled to cure his melancholy. He shows us how Rousseau walked in order to think, while Nietzsche wandered the mountainside to write. In contrast, Kant marched through his hometown every day, exactly at the same hour, to escape the compulsion of thought.
Brilliant and erudite, A Philosophy of Walking is an entertaining and insightful manifesto for putting one foot in front of the other.
One of the greatest philosophical works of all time, in a new translation for the twenty-first century
'The final philosopher to perform the most profound surgery on philosophy ... concise yet exceptionally clear' Ai Weiwei
Widely regarded as one of the most influential philosophical works of the twentieth century, Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is a succinct yet wide-ranging exploration of language and logic; of science and mysticism; of what can be said, and what can only be shown. Its austere beauty - along with its famous 'picture theory' of meaning - has inspired generations of thinkers, artists, novelists and musicians. In a series of short, bold statements, Wittgenstein seeks to define the limits of meaningful expression. Originally published in the early 1920s, it is the only book-length work the renowned philosopher published in his lifetime.
In this thrilling new translation, accompanied by a lively introduction by Jan Zwicky, Alexander Booth displays an extraordinary sensitivity to the subtle influence on Wittgenstein's gem-like prose - at once specialist and, often, remarkably plain-spoken - of his background in mechanical engineering, while at the same time highlighting the underlying poetry of this seminal text.
Fascinated by the myth of Cupid and Psyche throughout his life, C. S. Lewis reimagines their story from the perspective of Psyche's sister, Orual.
'I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer . . . Why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?'
Till We Have Faces is a brilliant examination of envy, betrayal, loss, blame, grief, guilt, and conversion. In this, his final - and most mature and masterful - novel, Lewis reminds us of our own fallibility and the role of a higher power in our lives.
New Book by International Bestselling Author Rhonda Byrne.Once you know, freedom is yours.The Greatest Secret, the long-awaited major work by Rhonda Byrne, lays out the next quantum leap in a journey that will take the reader beyond the material world and into the spiritual realm, where all possibilities exist. The book reflects Rhonda's own journey, and shares the most direct way out for those experiencing hardship and the path to end pain and suffering endured by so many, and shines a light on a future without anxiety or fear. Filled with accessible practices that can be immediately put to use and profound revelations that take the reader on an incomparable journey, Rhonda's discovery is reinforced throughout by the revelatory words of sages from around the world, past and present.'
The hugely influential book on how the understanding of causality revolutionized science and the world, by the pioneer of artificial intelligence
'Wonderful ... illuminating and fun to read' Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize-winner and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow
'Correlation does not imply causation.' For decades, this mantra was invoked by scientists in order to avoid taking positions as to whether one thing caused another, such as smoking and cancer, or carbon dioxide and global warming. But today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, sparked by world-renowned computer scientist Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and placed cause and effect on a firm scientific basis. Now, Pearl and science journalist Dana Mackenzie explain causal thinking to general readers for the first time, showing how it allows us to explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It is the essence of human and artificial intelligence. And just as Pearl's discoveries have enabled machines to think better, The Book of Why explains how we too can think better.
'Pearl's accomplishments over the last 30 years have provided the theoretical basis for progress in artificial intelligence and have redefined the term "thinking machine"' Vint Cerf
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time
A book about romantic love, Eros the Bittersweet is Anne Carson's exploration of the concept of "eros" in both classical philosophy and literature. Beginning with, "It was Sappho who first called eros 'bittersweet.' No one who has been in love disputes her," Carson examines her subject from numerous points of view, creating a lyrical meditation in the tradition of William Carlos Williams's Spring and All and William H. Gass's On Being Blue.
Epigrammatic, witty, ironic, and endlessly entertaining, Eros is an utterly original book.
The Bible observes that God made humanity 'for a while a little lower than the angels'. If humans are that close to angels, does the difference lie in human sexuality and what we do with it? Much of the political contention and division in societies across the world centres on sexual topics, and one-third of the global population is Christian in background or outlook. In a single lifetime, Christianity or historically Christian societies have witnessed one of the most extraordinary about-turns in attitudes to sex and gender in human history. There have followed revolutions in the place of women in society, a new place for same-sex love amid the spectrum of human emotions and a public exploration of gender and trans identity. For many the new situation has brought exciting liberation - for others, fury and fear.
This book seeks to calm fears and encourage understanding through telling a 3000-year-long tale of Christians encountering sex, gender and the family, with noises off from their sacred texts. The message of Lower than the Angels is simple, necessary and timely: to pay attention to the sheer glorious complexity and contradictions in the history of Christianity. The reader can decide from the story told here whether there is a single Christian theology of sex, or many contending voices in a symphony that is not at all complete. Oxford's Emeritus Professor of the History of the Church introduces an epic of ordinary and extraordinary Christians trying to make sense of themselves and of humanity's deepest desires, fears and hopes.
Chosen by Andrew Miller as a Book of the Year in the Daily Mail
'A significant and courageous invitation to think again about the kinds of thinking that matter; the kinds of thinking that keep us awake' Rowan Williams
Mysticism has been called 'experience at its most intense form', and here philosopher Simon Critchley asks: wouldn't you like to taste this intensity? Wouldn't you like to be lifted up and out of yourself?
Mysticism is not a question of religious belief but of felt experience and daily practice. It is a way of freeing yourself of your standard habits, fancies and imagining so as to see what is there and stand with what is there ecstatically. It is the achievement of a fluid openness between thought and existence.
This is a book about Julian of Norwich and medieval mystics that also ranges through the work of Anne Carson, Annie Dillard and T.S. Eliot. It looks at Nick Cave and German krautrock and shows how music can be secular worship. It opens the door to mysticism not as something unworldly and unimaginable, but as a way of life.
An engrossing examination of political and personal life in Central America, from the award-winning author of The Year of Magical Thinking. Writing with the economical swiftness and concentrated perception that has made her one of America's most distinguished writers, Joan Didion creates a gleaming novel of innocence and evil.
Set in the ruined Central American nation of Boca Grande, A Book of Common Prayer is the story of two American women and their conflicting experiences of wealth, politics and personal history. We follow the intriguing life of Grace Strasser-Mendana - an American expatriate and member of one of Boca Grande's most influential families - alongside the story of Charlotte Douglas, whose daughter Medin has run off with a group of Marxist radicals. What follows is an exploration of the women's ability to make sense of the behaviour that surrounds them, as their worlds are made hazy by the atmosphere of evil and innocence that envelops their strained and entangled lives.
Writing with her inimitable mix of candid emotional frankness and razor-sharp political astuteness, Joan Didion's third novel is at once utterly particular whilst emblematic of an age of unscrupulous authority and seemingly inevitable bloodshed.
One of the most important philosophical works of all time, in a new Penguin Classics translation by Adam Beresford
'Right and wrong is a human thing'
What does it mean to be a good person? Aristotle's famous series of lectures on ethical topics ranges over fundamental questions about good and bad character; pleasure and self-control; moral wisdom and the foundations of right and wrong; friendship and love in all their forms - all set against a rich and humane conception of what makes for a flourishing life. Adam Beresford's freshly researched translation presents many of Aristotle's key terms and idioms in standard English for the first time, and faithfully preserves the unvarnished style of the original.
'Excellent. . . Sellars gives a lucid, easy-to-follow account of what Stoicism as a way of life amounts to, and how you might start to put it into practice' Nigel Warburton
How can Stoicism inspire us to lead more enjoyable lives?
In the past few years, Stoicism has been making a comeback. But what exactly did the Stoics believe? In Lessons in Stoicism, philosopher John Sellars weaves together the key ideas of the three great Roman Stoics -- Seneca, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius -- with snapshots of their fascinating lives, to show us how their ideas can help us today.
In vivid prose, Sellars shows how the works of these three Stoics have inspired readers ever since, speaking as they do to some of the perennial issues that face anyone trying to navigate their way through life. Their works, fundamentally, are about how to live -- how to understand one's place in the world, how to cope when things don't go well, how to manage one's emotions and how to behave towards others.
Consoling and inspiring, Lessons in Stoicism is a deeply thoughtful guide to the philosophy of a good life.
The best-selling single Bible edition according to Booktrack, now with an attractive new slipcase and binding, this pocket-sized white Bible is an ideal gift for anyone being Christened.
The full text of the ever-popular Authorized King James Version Bible, with all its literary beauty and poetic grandeur, in an attractive size and with beautiful binding and slipcase making it an ideal gift.
Lightmanbelongs to a noble tradition of science writers, including Oliver Sacks and Lewis Thomas, who can poke endlessly into a subject andstir up fresh embers of wonder. --
Gazing at the stars, falling in love, or listening to music, we sometimes feel a transcendent connection with a cosmic unity and things larger than ourselves. But these experiences are not easily understood by science, which holds that all things can be explained in terms of atoms and molecules. Is there space in our scientific worldview for these spiritual experiences?
According to acclaimed physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, there may be. Drawing on intellectual history and conversations with contemporary scientists, philosophers, and psychologists, Lightman asks a series of thought-provoking questions that illuminate our strange place between the world of particles and forces and the world of complex human experience. Can strict materialism explain our appreciation of beauty? Or our feelings of connection to nature and to other people? Is there a physical basis for consciousness, the most slippery of all scientific problems?
Lightman weaves these investigations together to propose what he calls spiritual materialism-- the belief that we can embrace spiritual experiences without letting go of our scientific worldview. In his view, the breadth of the human condition is not only rooted in material atoms and molecules but can also be explained in terms of Darwinian evolution.
What is revealed in this lyrical, enlightening book is that spirituality may not only be compatible with science, it also ought to remain at the core of what it means to be human.
DELVE INTO THE SCIENCE BEHIND YOUR PRACTICE WITH THIS ESSENTIAL AND PRACTICAL GUIDE TO MEDITATION
'This is a book that really can change your life' Arianna Huffington, author of the New York Times bestseller The Sleep Revolution
Meditation is fascinating, but often it feels elusive. How can simple exercises change your mental state? How can focussing your breathing lead to changes in your personality? For the first time, Harvard collaborators Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson share the science behind the practice.
Drawing on cutting edge research and sweeping away common misconceptions, they show how to improve your technique, how smart practice can cultivate selflessness, equanimity, love and compassion, and even redesign our neural circuitry.
Whether you're a beginner or have meditated for years, bring mindfulness and meditation into your life with an essential read for the world we live in now.
'A happy synthesis of the authors' remarkable careers.' Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Full Catastrophe Living and Mindfulness for Beginners
