"It's hard to be brave,' said Piglet, sniffing slightly, "when you're only a Very Small Animal."
Rabbit, who had begun to write very busily, looked up and said: "It is because you are a very small animal that you will be useful in the adventure before us."
Frank Ramsey was a brilliant Cambridge philosopher, mathematician, and economist who died in 1930 at 26 having made landmark contributions to decision theory, game theory, mathematics, logic, semantics, philosophy of science, and the theory of truth. This rich biography tells the story of his extraordinary life and intellectual achievement.
The first ever history of the places where history and philosophy meet, from the Age of Discovery in the sixteenth century to contemplation of how space travel will affect our understanding of who we are in the twenty-first.
This book will reshape your understanding of travel.
Investigates the antinomy between history and truth, or between historicity and meaning. This book argues that history has meaning insofar as it approaches universality and system, but has no meaning insofar as this universality violates the singularity of individuals' lives.
How to Think Like a Philosopher aims to introduce you to some of the great themes of philosophical thought and the ideas of the individuals who have molded them.
In everything from philosophical ethics to legal argument to public activism, it has become commonplace to appeal to human dignity. Dignity refers to the fundamental moral worth or status supposedly belonging to all persons equally. But this is relatively new. In this volume, leading scholars across a range of disciplines attempt to clarify the variegated and murky history of "dignity," and explain how it arrived it is current and historically unusual
meaning.
Written in 1887, when Nietzsche was at the height of his powers as a philosopher and writer, On the Genealogy of Morality criticizes the idea that there is just one acceptable moral code.
One of the most significant works of political philosophy, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty (1859) defines and defends individual liberty, a cornerstone of classical liberal thinking.
Rene Descartes posed questions about the nature of knowledge and the nature of being that philosophers still debate today. In Meditations, Descartes expands on his most famous pronouncement, "I think, therefore I am," which first appeared in an earlier text.
Considered the father of the philosophical movement known as Christian existentialism, which focuses on the living human being, Kierkegaard takes readers on a journey from the human self, its spirit, despair and sin, through to faith in this major 1849 work.
More than 2,500 years after it was written, Symposium remains a key text for philosophers, historians, writers, artists and politicians. Plato imagines seven important historical figures, including the philosopher Socrates, debating eros (human love and desire).
In Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein presents a radical approach to the philosophy of language and the mind, setting out a startlingly fresh conception of philosophy itself. Wittgenstein begins from the insight that most philosophical problems trace back to incorrect assumptions about the nature of language.
One of the most vital and controversial works in twentieth-century world moral philosophy, After Virtue (1981) examines how we think about, talk about, and act out our moral views in the modern world.
What is justice? How should an individual and a society behave justly? And how do they learn how to do so? These are just some of the core questions explored in The Republic, considered by many to be Plato's most important work.
Aristotle, a student of Plato, wrote Nicomachean Ethics in 350 BCE, in a time of extraordinary intellectual development. Over two millennia later, his thorough exploration of virtue, reason, and the ultimate human good still forms the basis of the values at the heart of Western civilization.
Most likely written between 170 and 180, Meditations is a remarkable work, a unique insight into one of the most conscientious and able Roman emperors, Marcus Aurelius, who ruled at the apex of the empire's power.
Do we need religion to be good people? When Immanuel Kant tackled this question in 1793, he produced a book that remains a key text in the shaping of Western religious thought.
Argues that our brains are wired for social connection: empathy is at the heart of who we are. Through encounters with actors, activists, designers, undercover journalists, bankers and neuroscientists, the author sets out the six life-enhancing habits of highly empathic people, whose skills enable them to connect with others in extraordinary ways.
Showing the lessons that can be learned from the past, the author explores twelve universal topics, from work and love to money and creativity, and reveals the wisdom that we've been missing. It stepping into the territory of Alain de Botton and Theodore Zeldin, is 'practical history' - using the past to think about our day to day lives.
What is the nature of friendship, and what is its significance in our lives? The author tracks historical ideas of friendship, gathers a diversity of friendship stories from the annals of myth and literature, and provides unexpected insights into our friends, ourselves, and the role of friendships in an ethical life.
A collection of the lectures on moral philosophy given by John Rawls over three decades of teaching at Harvard. This book looks at thinkers such as Leibniz, Hume and Kant, in their struggle to define the role of a moral conception in human life.
In 1845, the author went to live in the woods near his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts. In this book, he documents his passion for the landscape and wildlife of Walden Pond, and his philosophical and political motivations for rejecting the materialism.
Near-Death Experiences gives an account of the profound meaning and striking transformative effects that near-death experiences engender. They argue that the integrity of scientific inquiry is compatible with genuine understanding of the significance of human spirituality.
Offers readers an account of the liberal political tradition from a scholar viewed by many as the greatest contemporary exponent of the philosophy behind that tradition.
Philosophy of Mind: A Beginner's Guide is an introduction to the philosophy of mind. Specifically aimed at students with no background knowledge of the subject, Ravenscroft brings together the basic concepts and major theories of the subject.
In this dialogue Plato shows the pretensions of the leading sophist, Protagoras, challenged by the critical arguments of Socrates. The dialogue broadens out to consider the nature of the good life and the role of intellect and pleasure.
Are our lives meaningless? Is death bad? Would immortality be better? Alternatively, should we hasten our deaths by acts of suicide? Many people are tempted to offer comforting optimistic answers to these big questions. The Human Predicament offers a less sanguine assessment, and defends a substantial, but not unmitigated, pessimism.
3AM magazine follows up their 2014 publication Philosophy at 3AM: Questions and Answers with a new collection interviews, this time focused on ethics. Interviewer Richard Marhsall presents 26 interviews, balanced both in terms of specialty, gender, and seniority, so that the result is a balanced and engaging portrait of the state of the art in ethics today.
In this accessible yet throught-provoking work, Lisa Tessman takes us through gripping examples of the impossible demands of morality - some epic, and others quotidian - whose central predicament is: How do we make decisions when morality demands we do something that we cannot?
During a 3-year 8-nation journey, Michael Ignatieff found that while human rights is the language of states and liberal elites, the moral language that resonates with most people is that of everyday virtues: tolerance, forgiveness, trust, and resilience. These ordinary virtues are the moral system of global cities and obscure shantytowns alike.
The original and bestselling leadership book!
Sun Tzu's ideas on survival and success have been read across the world for centuries. Today they can still be applied to business, politics and life. The Art of War demonstrates how to win without conflict.