Greek Science

Here are three important but very different Dialogues from the Middle Period. Symposium, the most well-known in this collection, is concerned with the theme of love. In the house of Agathon, a group of friends - each very different in personality and background - meet to consider and discuss various kinds of love. Each one, Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes (the playwright) and Agathon (a prize-winning tragic poet), presents his particular view in a short discourse.

Aristotle said that philosophy begins with wonder, and the first Western philosophers developed theories of the world which express simultaneously their sense of wonder and their intuition that the world should be comprehensible. But their enterprise was by no means limited to this proto-scientific task. Through, for instance, Heraclitus's enigmatic sayings, the poetry of Parmenides and Empedocles, and Zeno's paradoxes, the Western world was introduced to metaphysics, rationalist theology, ethics, and logic.

Pensées pour moi-même, l'empereur philosophe Marc Aurèle nous livre un témoignage intime et intemporel sur la condition humaine, le devoir, la souffrance, la mort, et la vertu. Rédigées pour lui-même, ces réflexions stoïciennes n’étaient pas destinées à la publication, ce qui leur confère une sincérité brute et touchante. Ce chef-d'œuvre de la philosophie antique devient alors un guide profond pour quiconque cherche à vivre avec sagesse, force intérieure, et sérénité face aux épreuves de l’existence.

As an ancient Sumerian god, Sin was one of the most powerful among his pantheon. . . Until the night Artemis brutally stole his godhood and left him for dead. For millennia, this ex-god turned Dark-Hunter has dreamed only of regaining his powers and seeking revenge on Artemis. If only life were that simple.

Here, in this second collection of Socratic Dialogues from Plato's Early Period, read by David Rintoul as Socrates with a full cast, are contrasting six works. Often, as with Gorgias, which opens the recording, Socrates combats the popular subjects of sophistry and rhetoric, in direct conversation with Gorgias (a leading sophist teacher), and with one of his pupils, Callicles.

Is good character something that can be taught? In 430 BCE, Socrates set out to teach the vain, power-seeking Athenian statesman Alcibiades how to be a good person—and failed spectacularly. Alcibiades went on to beguile his city into a hopeless war with Syracuse, and all of Athens paid the price. In The Quest for Character, philosophy professor Massimo Pigliucci tells this famous story and asks what we can learn from it.

Epictetus, one of the greatest of the ancient thinkers, believed that the primary mission of philosophy is to help ordinary people meet the challenges of daily life and deal with losses, disappointments, and grief. His prescription for the good life: master desires, perform one's duties, and learn to think clearly about oneself and the larger community. This recording includes an interview with philosopher Jacob Needleman on the significance of Epictetus' work.

Acclaimed historian and best-selling author Paul Johnson’s books have been translated into dozens of languages. In Socrates: A Man for Our Times, Johnson draws from little-known resources to construct a fascinating account of one of history’s greatest thinkers. Socrates transcended class limitations in Athens during the fifth century B.C. to develop ideas that still shape the way we think about the human body and soul, including the workings of the human mind.

Ten-year-old Zeus is mystified (and super annoyed) by the fact he keeps getting hit by lightening. He also longs for adventure, as he has never been far from the cave where he grew up. Zeus gets his wish - and a lot more than he bargained for - when he is kidnapped by dangerous, giant Titans! In self-defense, Zeus grabs the first thing he sees - an actual thunderbolt he pulls from a stone that is covered in mysterious markings. Zeus is the only one who can decipher the markings, and he sets off on a quest to rescue his fellow Olympians from the evil Cronus.

His name is Parmenion. Despised by Spartans and Macedonians alike, he must fight for his place in the world. Yet he will survive. Dark forces have marked out his destiny as the most fearsome warlord Greece has ever known. For he will become the Lion of Macedon - and will reshape the glory of Greece before he faces the wrath of hell....

Most classical authors and modern historians depict the ancient Greek world as essentially stable and even static, once the so-called colonization movement came to an end. But Robert Garland argues that the Greeks were highly mobile, that their movement was essential to the survival, success, and sheer sustainability of their society, and that this wandering became a defining characteristic of their culture.

Over two millennia ago, the prescient insights of Anaximander paved the way for cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. His legacy includes the revolutionary ideas that the Earth floats in a void, that animals evolved, that the world can be understood in natural rather than supernatural terms, and that universal laws govern all phenomena. In this elegant work, the renowned theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli brings to light the importance of Anaximander’s overlooked influence on modern science

Bride McTierney has had it with men. They're cheap, self-centered, and never love her for who she is. But though she prides herself on being independent, deep down, she still yearns for a knight in shining armor. She just never expected her knight in shining armor to have a shiny coat of fur.

The remarkable range of Plato's Dialogues is vividly demonstrated by these three works. It opens with Phaedrus, a highly personal discussion between Socrates (David Rintoul) and the young, love-struck Phaedrus (Gunnar Cauthery). They go for a walk outside the walls of Athens and, under a plane tree by the banks of the Ilissus, talk about love - erotic and 'Platonic' love. Socrates endeavours to steer Phaedrus away from infatuation and show him that real love is based on concern for the beloved.

Valerius isn't a popular Dark-Hunter - he's a Roman, which means that the largely Greek Hunters have a major grudge against him and his civilization for superceding them. So it serves him right when he runs into Tabitha Devereaux. She's sassy, sexy, and completely unwilling to take him seriously. (Not to mention that she's the twin sister of the wife of former Dark-Hunter Kyrian - Val's mortal enemy.) What Tabitha does take seriously is hunting and killing vampires....

In Aristotle's Rhetoric, the philosopher identifies rhetoric as one of the three key elements of philosophy, along with logic and dialectic. According to Aristotle, logic is concerned with reasoning to reach scientific certainty while dialectic and rhetoric - because they are concerned with probability - are the branches of philosophy best suited to human affairs. Rhetoric is a tool for practical debate, a means for persuading a general audience to resolve practical issues using probable knowledge.

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.

Descendants of the Fates are always born in threes: one to weave, one to draw, and one to cut the threads that connect people to the things they love and to life itself. The Ora sisters are no exception. Io, the youngest, uses her Fate-born abilities as a private investigator in the half-sunken city of Alante. But her latest job leads her to a horrific discovery: somebody is abducting women, maiming their life-threads, and setting the resulting wraiths loose in the city to kill.

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 people ever since, speaking as they do to some of the perennial issues that face anyone trying to navigate their way through life.

Fang Kattalakis isn't just a wolf. He is the brother of two of the most powerful members of the Omegrion: the ruling council that enforces the laws of the Were-Hunters. And when war erupts among the lycanthropes, sides must be chosen. Enemies are forced into shaky alliances. And when the woman Fang loves is accused of betraying her people, her only hope is that Fang believes in her. Yet in order to save her, Fang must break the law of his people and the faith of his brothers. That breech could very well spell the end of both their races and change their world forever.