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Showing 61 - 80 of 26186 items
By David Hume. 2015
One of the most important thinkers ever to write in English, the Empiricist David Hume liberated philosophy from the superstitious…
constraints of religion; here, he argues that all are free to choose between life and death, considers the nature of personal taste and succinctly criticises common philosophies of the time.By Cicero. 2012
In the first century BC, Marcus Tullius Cicero, orator, statesman, and defender of republican values, created these philosophical treatises on…
such diverse topics as friendship, religion, death, fate and scientific inquiry. A pragmatist at heart, Cicero's philosophies were frequently personal and ethical, drawn not from abstract reasoning but through careful observation of the world. The resulting works remind us of the importance of social ties, the questions of free will, and the justification of any creative endeavour.This lively, lucid new translation from Thomas Habinek, editor of Classical Antiquity and the Classics and Contemporary Thought book series, makes Cicero's influential ideas accessible to every reader.By John Stuart Mill. 2010
In one of the most influential philosophical works ever writer, John Stuart Mill explores the risks and responsibilities of liberty.…
Examining the tyranny that can come both from government and from the herd-like opinion of the majority, Mill proposes a freedom to think, unite, and pursue our pleasures as the most important freedoms, as long as we cause no harm to others. GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.By John Stuart Mill. 1974
'Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.' To this 'one very simple principle' the whole…
of Mill's essay On Liberty is dedicated. While many of his immediate predecessors and contemporaries, from Adam Smith to Godwin and Thoreau, had celebrated liberty, it was Mill who organized the idea into a philosophy, and put it into the form in which it is generally known today. The editor of this essay, Gertrude Himmelfarb records responses to Mill's books and comments on his fear of 'the tyranny of the majority'. Dr Himmelfarb concludes that the same inconsistencies which underlie On Liberty continue to complicate the moral and political stance of liberals today.By Niccolo Machiavelli. 2013
Machiavelli is one of the most famous strategists of all time. In this collection he discusses the dangers of conspiracies,…
and the component parts of an army, vital for gaining and holding power in his day. He also gives advice on tactics and discipline, and explains why promises made under force ought not to be kept. GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.By John Locke. 2009
John Locke was one of the greatest figures of the Enlightenment, whose assertion that reason is the key to knowledge…
changed the face of philosophy. These writings on thought, ideas, perception, truth and language are some of the most influential in the history of Western thought. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.By Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 2012
'Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.' These are the famous opening words of a treatise that…
has stirred vigorous debate ever since its first publication in 1762. Rejecting the view that anyone has a natural right to wield authority over others, Rousseau argues instead for a pact, or 'social contract', that should exist between all the citizens of a state and that should be the source of sovereign power. From this fundamental premise, he goes on to consider issues of liberty and law, freedom and justice, arriving at a view of society that has seemed to some a blueprint for totalitarianism, to others a declaration of democratic principles.Translated by Quintin HoareWith a new introduction by Christopher BertramThe founding father of modern political philosophy, Thomas Hobbes, living in an era of horrific violence, saw human life as…
meaningless and cruel; here, he argues the only way to escape this brutality is for all to accept a 'social contract' that acknowledges the greater authority of a Sovereign leader.By Epictetus. 2008
In this personal and practical guide to moral self-improvement and living a good life, the second-century philosopher Epictetus tackles questions…
of freedom and imprisonment, stubbornness and fear, family, friendship and love, and leaves an intriguing document of daily life in the classical world.GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.By Graham Harman. 2018
What is reality, really?Are humans more special or important than the non-human objects we perceive?How does this change the way…
we understand the world?We humans tend to believe that things are only real in as much as we perceive them, an idea reinforced by modern philosophy, which privileges us as special, radically different in kind from all other objects. But as Graham Harman, one of the theory's leading exponents, shows, Object-Oriented Ontology rejects the idea of human specialness: the world, he states, is clearly not the world as manifest to humans. At the heart of this philosophy is the idea that objects - whether real, fictional, natural, artificial, human or non-human - are mutually autonomous. In this brilliant new introduction, Graham Harman lays out the history, ideas and impact of Object-Oriented Ontology, taking in everything from art and literature, politics and natural science along the way.Graham Harman is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at SCI-Arc, Los Angeles. A key figure in the contemporary speculative realism movement in philosophy and for his development of the field of object-oriented ontology, he was named by Art Review magazine as one of the 100 most influential figures in international art.By Stanislaus Kennedy. 2003
"Take time to live - it's what life is for."This is an inspiring and thought-provoking work of vision from multi-bestseller…
Sister Stanislaus Kennedy. A timely and prescient collection of thoughts and reflections, with one central message: we have the time, if we make the choice to take time...'Even the most convinced cynics will find something in Sister Stan's basic premise' -- Ireland on Sunday'Very beautifully written' -- ***** Reader review'A book I want to read & reread in order to plumb its depths' -- ***** Reader review*************************************************************SPIRITUAL REFLECTIONS ON TIME FOR EVERYBODYNow is the Time looks beyond the boundaries of any one faith or church and draws on the great spiritual and philosophical traditions of east and west.As Sister Stan focuses on a line of poetry from one of the world's great authors, an idea from a psychotherapist or philosopher, or a proverb from oriental wisdom, she weaves her own thoughts around them in a way that presents them afresh, and allows us to see them from a new perspective.This is book for everyone battling with today's current climate: young or old, male or female, for the converted, the irreligious or plain disaffected.Reflective, contemplative and spiritual, it is the perfect tonic to our busy and relentless world...By Eiyû Murakoshi. 1998
'In Japan we have an expression, 'Float like Cloud, Flow like Water'. Its meaning is: to live free and unconstrained'In…
this short introduction to Zen Buddhism, a practising Japanese monk shares the many lessons he has learned from life inside a temple.With charm and humour, he guides us through everything from meditation to tea-drinking ceremonies, the meaning of koans to preparing Zen food. Accompanied by the author's own illustrations, this book invites you to change your perception through the wisdom of monastic life.By Friedrich Nietzsche. 1977
The literary career of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) spanned less than twenty years, but no area of intellectual inquiry was left…
untouched by his iconoclastic genius. The philosopher who announced the death of God in The Gay Science (1882) and went on to challenge the Christian code of morality in Beyond Good and Evil (1886), grappled with the fundamental issues of the human condition in his own intense autobiography, Ecce Homo (1888). Most notorious of all, perhaps, his idea of the triumphantly transgressive übermann ('superman') is developed in the extreme, yet poetic words of Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-92). Whether addressing conventional Western philosophy or breaking new ground, Nietzsche vastly extended the boundaries of nineteenth-century thought.By Aristotle. 2020
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.By Giambattista Vico. 2011
Barely acknowledged in his lifetime, the New Science of Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) is an astonishingly perceptive and ambitious attempt to…
decipher the history, mythology and laws of the ancient world. Discarding the Renaissance notion of the classical as an idealised model for the modern, it argues that the key to true understanding of the past lies in accepting that the customs and emotional lives of ancient Greeks and Romans, Egyptians, Jews and Babylonians were radically different from our own. Along the way, Vico explores a huge variety of topics, ranging from physics to poetics, money to monsters, and family structures to the Flood. Marking a crucial turning-point in humanist thinking, New Science has remained deeply influential since the dawn of Romanticism, inspiring the work of Karl Marx and even influencing the framework for Joyce's Finnegan's Wake.A new translation of Simone Weil's best-known work: a political, philosophical and spiritual treatise on what human life could beWhat…
do humans require to be truly nourished? Simone Weil, one of the foremost philosophers of the last century, envisaged us all as being bound by unconditional, eternal obligations towards every other human being. In The Need for Roots, her most famous work, she argued that our greatest need was to be rooted: in a community, a place, a shared past and collective future hopes. Written for the Free French movement while she was exiled in London during the Second World War, Weil's visionary combination of philosophy, politics and mysticism is her answer to the question of what life without occupation - and oppression - might be.'The patron saint of all outsiders' Andre Gide'The only great spirit of our time' Albert Camus Translated by Ros Schwartz, with an introduction by Kate Kirkpatrick.By Ralph Emerson. 2008
Originally published anonymously, Nature was the first modern essay to recommend the appreciation of the outdoors as an all-encompassing positive…
force. Emerson’s writings were recognized as uniquely American in style and content, and launched the idea of going for a walk as a new way of looking at the world. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.By Rabindranath Tagore. 2010
Tagore was a fierce opponent of British rule in India. In this work he discusses the resurgence of the East…
and the challenge it poses to Western supremacy, calling for a future beyond nationalism, based instead on cooperation and racial tolerance.GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.By Roger Eatwell, Matthew Goodwin. 2018
A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEARA crucial new guide to one of the most important and most dangerous phenomena…
of our time: the rise of populism in the WestAcross the West, there is a rising tide of people who feel excluded, alienated from mainstream politics, and increasingly hostile towards minorities, immigrants and neo-liberal economics. Many of these voters are turning to national populist movements, which pose the most serious threat to the Western liberal democratic system, and its values, since the Second World War. From the United States to France, Austria to the UK, the national populist challenge to mainstream politics is all around us.But what is behind this exclusionary turn? Who supports these movements and why? What does their rise tell us about the health of liberal democratic politics in the West? And what, if anything, should we do to respond to these challenges?Written by two of the foremost experts on fascism and the rise of the populist right, National Populism is a lucid and deeply-researched guide to the radical transformations of today's political landscape, revealing why liberal democracies across the West are being challenged-and what those who support them can do to help stem the tide.By Peter Kropotkin. 2022
A pioneering treatise on cooperation and reciprocity, from the great anarchist thinker'Don't compete! - competition is always injurious to the…
species, and you have plenty of resources to avoid it!'In his pioneering 1902 treatise on human cooperation, the anarchist thinker and natural scientist Peter Kropotkin argued that it is our innate instinct for mutual aid - rather than mutual struggle - which enables societies to survive and flourish. From the earliest days of evolution through to medieval guilds, indigenous nomads and modern voluntary organisations, Kropotkin's vision of small-scale, ecologically sustainable, collective communities challenged the orthodoxies of his age, whether individualism or Marxism. Mutual Aid offers instead a radical, and prescient, rewriting of the whole of human history.With an introduction by David Priestland