Modern Science

Through 10 unique cities, from the founding of ancient capitals to buzzing modern megacities, Paul Strathern explores how urban centres lead civilisation forward, enjoying a moment of glory before passing on the baton. We journey back to discover Babylonian mathematics, Athenian theatre and intellectual debate, and Roman construction that has lasted millennia. We see Constantinople evolve into Istanbul, revolutionary sparks fly in Enlightenment Paris, and the railways, canals and ships that built Imperial London.

Often considered the foundation of political liberalism, John Locke's Two Treatises of Government was first published anonymously in 1689, in the wake of England's Glorious Revolution. In The First Treatise of Government, Locke refutes the idea of divine monarchy, while The Second Treatise of Government articulates Locke's philosophy of government, which he based upon his theories of natural rights and the social contract.

Wherever he goes, the Dreamseller enchants, stirs up trouble, and inspires his listeners to search for the most important thing: the heart of the human soul. Every person he meets is someone who has abandoned their dreams and is struggling through life: a professor who has stopped pursuing his passions; a lonely alcoholic with no family; the elderly who have lost their zest for life. Through his wisdom, the Dreamseller helps them to look into their silent hearts and get to the root of their unhappiness.

When a surprise nuclear attack forces Aidan from hiding, he finds the world to be a much different and more deadly place. Now, he'll traverse a post-apocalyptic landscape populated by violent redneck looters, rogue military factions, and an army of hungry undead.... After two combat tours in the Middle East, Aidan Sullivan just wants to be left alone on his family’s ranch in the Texas Hill Country. But when the bombs fall and the dead walk, Aidan risks life and limb to rescue his aging parents from the zombie horde.

Agent Tony Mendoza has a sleeping problem… every time he falls asleep, he dreams of her. But it’s not any cozy, cuddly encounter his subconscious conjures, nor some kinky, carnal congress. Instead, Tony’s nights are haunted by nightmares of his supernatural stalker bleeding him dry. He’s also seeing things. Shadows flitting at the edges of his vision, cloaked figures lurking in darkened doorways, and a 7-foot-tall homeless man who accosts him and disappears. Except, the leviathan vagrant turns out to be real—and he’s killing people close to home.

An inspiring and radical celebration of 70 women, girls, and gender nonbinary people who have changed - and are still changing - the world, from the Civil Rights Movement and Stonewall riots through Black Lives Matter and beyond.

The central motif running through this thought-provoking book is Jung's most misunderstood concept, synchronicity. By deftly meshing his interpretation of synchronicity with key concepts in quantum physics and Middle Way Buddhism, Victor Mansfield brings fresh insight to our understanding of synchronicity.

Peter Sloterdijk porträtiert philosophische Temperamente von der Antike bis in das 20. Jahrhundert...

Somerset Maugham's success as a writer enabled him to indulge his adventurous love of travel, and he recorded the sights and sounds of his wide-ranging journeys with a unique urbane, wry style. The Gentleman in the Parlour is an account of the author's trip through what was then Burma and Siam, ending in Haiphong, Vietnam. Whether by river to Mandalay, on horse through the mountains and forests of the Shan States to Bangkok, or onwards by sea, Maugham's vivid descriptions bring a lost world to life.

Alex Fletcher, Iraq War veteran, has read the signs for years. With his family and home prepared to endure an extended period of seclusion, Alex thinks he's ready for the pandemic. He's not even close. The unstoppable H16N1 virus rapidly spreads across the United States, stretching the fragile bonds of society to the breaking point. Schools close, grocery stores empty, fuel deliveries stop, hospitals start turning away the sick...riots engulf the cities.

In 1927, as a twenty-three-year-old postgraduate scholar in Paris, Joseph Campbell first encountered James Joyce’s Ulysses. Known for being praised and for kicking up controversy (including an obscenity trial in the United States in 1920), the novel left Campbell both intrigued and confused, as it had many others. Because he was in Paris, he was able to visit the Shakespeare & Company bookstore - the outpost of the original publisher of Ulysses, Sylvia Beach. She gave him “clues” for reading Ulysses, and that, Campbell attested, changed his career.

Start your listening journey today. “Meditations” provides not just philosophical wisdom, but a roadmap to living a fulfilling and thoughtful life. Let this journey of self-discovery enrich your life.

Timothy Snyder opens a new path in the understanding of modern nationalism and 20th-century socialism by presenting the often overlooked life of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz, an important Polish thinker at the beginning of the 20th century. During his brief life in Poland, Paris, and Vienna, Kelles-Krauz influenced or infuriated most of the leaders of the various socialist movements of Central Europe and France. His central ideas ultimately were not accepted by the socialist mainstream at the time of his death.

Entertaining and insightful, David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and The Natural History of Religion are considered to be among the most important philosophical works on the topic of religion. Each investigates the formation and consequences of religious belief.

In this collection of essays and epigrams, E.M. Cioran gives us portraits and evaluations—which he calls "admirations"—of Samuel Beckett, Jorge Luis Borges, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the poet Paul Valery, and Mircea Eliade, among others. In alternating sections of aphorisms—his "anathemas"—he delivers insights on such topics as solitude, flattery, vanity, friendship, insomnia, music, mortality, God, and the lure of disillusion.

In Dangerous Minds, Ronald Beiner traces the deepest philosophical roots of such right-wing ideologues as Richard Spencer, Aleksandr Dugin, and Steve Bannon to the writings of Nietzsche and Heidegger - and specifically to the aspects of their thought that express revulsion for the liberal-democratic view of life. Beiner contends that Nietzsche's hatred and critique of bourgeois, egalitarian societies has engendered new disciples on the populist right who threaten to overturn the modern liberal consensus.

The extraordinary principles of Stoicism instructed through the narrative of its most acclaimed defender.

One of the most unique aspects of anarchism as a political philosophy is that it seeks to abolish the state. But what exactly is “the state”? The State is like a vast operating system for ordering and controlling relations among human society, the economy, and the natural world, analogous to a digital operating system. Anyone concerned with entrenched power, income inequality, lack of digital privacy, climate change, the response to COVID-19, or military-style policing will find eye-opening insights into how states operate and build more power for themselves—at our expense.

Recent years have brought deeply disturbing developments around the globe. American sentiment seems to be leaning increasingly toward withdrawal in the face of such disarray. In this powerful, urgent essay, Robert Kagan elucidates the reasons why American withdrawal would be the worst possible response, based as it is on a fundamental and dangerous misreading of the world. Like a jungle that keeps growing back after being cut down, the world has always been full of dangerous actors who, left unchecked, possess the desire and ability to make things worse.

T. W. Adorno (1903-1969) was a German philosopher and social and cultural theorist. His work has come to be seen as increasingly relevant to understanding the pathologies of contemporary society evident in today's climate emergency, the financial crash, the reappearance of fascism in many countries, and the growing instability of the world order. This Very Short Introduction covers Adorno's work and life, explaining his key philosophical concepts and the philosophical background and historical context of Adorno's thinking.