Modern Politics

"The meaning of life is the most urgent of questions", said the existentialist thinker Albert Camus. And no less a philosopher than Woody Allen has wondered: "How is it possible to find meaning in a finite world, given my waist and shirt size?" The essays in Movies and the Meaning of Life look at popular and cult movies, examining their assumptions and insights on meaning-of-life questions....

Once solely the province of ivory-tower professors and college classrooms, contemporary philosophy was finally emancipated from its academic closet in 2010, when "The Stone" was launched in The New York Times. First appearing as an online series, the column quickly attracted millions of readers through its accessible examination of universal topics like the nature of science, consciousness, and morality while also probing more contemporary issues such as the morality of drones, gun control, and the gender divide.

In the tradition of Daniel Boorstin, the co-founder of Omni delivers an original work of history that demonstrates why modern science rests on a foundation built by ancient and medieval non-European societies. "If you think that modern science is rooted in the golden age of Greece, you owe it to yourself to [hear this] book," says Library Journal.

In The Great American Health Hoax, Francis exposes the truth about how to stay healthy and introduces us to a way of life that can become a "highway to health", while he quite effectively demonstrates that we really don't have to be sick. Then, he reminds us that not only is there absolutely no fun in being sick, but we are going broke trying to pay the cost. Francis realizes that the only solution for individuals and society as a whole is to maintain health.

In this insightful travelogue, Robert D. Kaplan, geopolitical expert and bestselling author of Balkan Ghosts and The Revenge of Geography, turns his perceptive eye to a region that for centuries has been a meeting point of cultures, trade, and ideas. He undertakes a journey around the Adriatic Sea, through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, and Greece, to reveal that far more is happening in the region than most news stories let on.

Unveil the wisdom of antiquity with the immersive audiobook version of Manly P. Hall's magnum opus, The Secret Teachings of All Ages. This masterwork, expertly revised and narrated by Dennis Logan (producer of the Amazon Best-Seller The Books of Enoch: The Angels, Watchers and Nephilim) lets you engage with the wealth of knowledge that has been revered by truth seekers for nearly a century, all while you're on the move.

Tao and the Four Pillars of Influence stands apart as a business book. It speaks ancient wisdom to the modern-day leader, while providing practical and tangible actions that lead to high levels of sustainable influence. The book is an easy-to-follow roadmap to creating lasting change in your workplace, community and family, while navigating chaotic and demanding environments.

Each of us is endowed with an inheritance—a set of evolved biases and cultural tools that shape every facet of our behavior. For countless generations, this inheritance has taken us to ever greater heights. But now, for the first time, it’s failing us. We find ourselves hurtling toward a future of unprecedented political polarization, deadlier war, and irreparable environmental destruction. In Inheritance, renowned anthropologist Harvey Whitehouse offers a sweeping account of how our biases have shaped humanity’s past and imperiled its future.

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is one of the greatest guides to human flourishing ever written, but its length and style have left many readers languishing. How to Flourish is a colloquial new translation by Susan Sauve Meyer that makes Aristotle's timeless insights about how to lead a good life more engaging and accessible than ever before.

Contained here in this volume are two of the most influential works of philosophy ever written, Descartes’ Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy.

This modern translation sheds new light on Marcus Aurelius' reflections, making them more accessible and relatable to today's audience. Whether you're grappling with the complexities of daily life or seeking a deeper understanding of your place in the world, this book offers timeless guidance. Why is "Meditations" such an important text? It transcends time and culture, offering invaluable lessons on self-discipline, inner peace, and resilience.

"Philosophy is not a theory," asserted Austro-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), "but an activity." In this 1921 opus, his only philosophical work published during his lifetime, Wittgenstein defined the object of philosophy as the logical clarification of thoughts and proposed the solution to most philosophic problems by means of a critical method of linguistic analysis.

England's recent lurch to the right appears to be but one example of the nationalist wave sweeping across the world, yet as acclaimed Irish critic Fintan O'Toole suggests in The Politics of Pain, it is, in reality, a phenomenon rooted in World War II. We must look not to the vagaries of the European Union but, instead, far back to the end of the British empire, if we hope to understand our most fraternal ally - and the royal mess in which the British now find themselves.

A majestic work of intellectual and cultural history, The Secular Enlightenment demonstrates how secular values and pursuits took hold of 18th-century Europe, spilled into the American colonies, and left their lasting imprint on the Western world for generations to come.

Who doesn't worry sometimes that smart phones, the Internet, and TV are robbing us of time and preventing us from having a life? How can we make the most of our time on earth? In the first century AD, the Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger offered one of the most famous answers to that question in his essay "On the Shortness of Life"—a work that has more to teach us today than ever before.

Economic sanctions dominate the landscape of world politics today. First developed in the early twentieth century as a way of exploiting the flows of globalization to defend liberal internationalism, their appeal is that they function as an alternative to war. This view, however, ignores the dark paradox at their core: designed to prevent war, economic sanctions are modeled on devastating techniques of warfare.

Authors Brett and Kate McKay provide a guide for every 21st-century man to achieve true manliness and live life to its full potential.

The Star Wars films continue to revolutionize science fiction, creating new standards for cinematographic excellence and permeating popular culture around the world. The films feature many complex themes ranging from good versus evil and moral development and corruption to religious faith and pragmatism, forgiveness and redemption, and many others.

Meritocracy: the idea that people should be advanced according to their talents rather than their birth. While this initially seemed like a novel concept, by the end of the twentieth century it had become the world's ruling ideology. How did this happen, and why is meritocracy now under attack from both right and left?

Rightly understood and rightly communicated, the Christian faith is one of great joy. It is an invitation to God's kingdom, where tears are replaced by laughter and longing hearts find their purpose and their home. This is the heart of the gospel: God's search to reclaim us and love us as his own. But have we truly grasped this? Those of us who have disdained Christianity as a religion of bigotry - have we repudiated the genuine article or merely demonstrated our own prejudice and ignorance?