Western Philosophy

From Socrates' fascinating discussions of morality and virtue to Pythagoras' attempts to understand the arrangement of the cosmos, the thinkers of the ancient world provided us with an astonishing array of ideas that has helped to shape the modern world. Ranging across Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy from Anaximander to Plotinus, Knowledge in a Nutshell: Classical Philosophy explains important ideas such as Plato's Theory of Forms, Zeno's Paradox, and the Stoicism of Marcus Aurelius. This essential introduction brings the great ideas of antiquity to everyone.

The Age of Genius explores the eventful intertwining of outward event and inner intellectual life to tell, in all its richness and depth, the story of the 17th century in Europe. It was a time of creativity unparalleled in history before or since, from science to the arts, from philosophy to politics. Acclaimed philosopher and historian A. C. Grayling points to three primary factors that led to the rise of vernacular (popular) languages in philosophy, theology, science, and literature.

The religious turn to their faith to find meaning. But what about the many people who lead secular lives and are also hungry for meaning? What guides, what approaches are available to them? Distinguished philosophers Hubert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly explain that a secular life charged with meaning is indeed within reach.

This book examines how the human mind has constructed Western philosophy. What would a new history of Western philosophy be? Aren't there so many studies like that on the market already? Most histories of Western philosophy go in chronological order from the pre-Socratics up to the modern philosophers. But why does it have to be that way?

Why You Think the Way You Do traces the development of the worldviews that underpin the Western world. Professor and historian Glenn S. Sunshine demonstrates the decisive impact that the growth of Christianity had in transforming the outlook of pagan Roman culture into one that—based on biblical concepts of humanity and its relationship with God—established virtually all the positive aspects of Western civilization.

In Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism, thinker and philosopher Rajiv Malhotra addresses the challenge of a direct and honest engagement on differences by reversing the gaze, repositioning India from being the observed to the observer and looking at the West from the dharmic point of view. In doing so, he challenges many hitherto unexamined beliefs that both sides hold about themselves and each other.

In this illuminating overview, Professor Garrett Thomson surveys the field, considering the work and influence of 29 major thinkers representing logical atomism and logical positivism (including Russell and Wittgenstein), analytic philosophy (including Quine, Davidson, Rawls), phenomenology and existentialism (including Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre), hermeneutics (including Gadamer and Habermas) and post-structuralism (including Foucault, Derrida and Deleuze). Also examined are some recent thinkers including Richard Rorty and Charles Taylor.

On August 10, 1632, five men in flowing black robes convened in a somber Roman palazzo to pass judgment on a deceptively simple proposition: that a continuous line is composed of distinct and infinitely tiny parts. With the stroke of a pen the Jesuit fathers banned the doctrine of infinitesimals, announcing that it could never be taught or even mentioned. The concept was deemed dangerous and subversive, a threat to the belief that the world was an orderly place, governed by a strict and unchanging set of rules.

"See for yourself!" was the clarion call of the 1600s. Natural philosophers threw off the yoke of ancient authority, peered at nature with microscopes and telescopes, and ignited the scientific revolution. Artists investigated nature with lenses and created paintings filled with realistic effects of light and shadow. The hub of this optical innovation was the small Dutch city of Delft.

The aim of this book is to give some background information to students who are approaching philosophy for the first time. As such, it is not intended to be an introduction to philosophy textbook, but more as a companion to a philosophy introductory course or book. Too many students, in my view, complete their introductory philosophy course without an adequate knowledge about the subject in general.

One of the few names to emerge from the Dark Ages to live on today is that of Charlemagne. After the fall of Rome, Western Europe was in almost complete disarray for several centuries, with different tribes and factions running different parts of the continent. Then, in CE 768, Charles the Great, more commonly known as Charlemagne, became the ruler of the Franks.

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, Christopher Taylor explores the life of Socrates and his philosophical activity, before looking to the responses his philosophical doctrines have evoked in the centuries since his betrayal and execution at fellow Athenian hands.

The philosophers from the East (China, other countries in Asia, etc.) have many things in common with the ancient philosophers in the West (Greece, Eurasia, etc.). But there are differences, too. In this guide, we will highlight and compare some of these differences and similarities. Some other chapters are devoted to several philosophers from both regions in the world, namely Pythagoras, Mo Ti, and Aristippus of Cyrene.

A Self-Help History of Western Philosophy: Discover the profound wisdom of Western philosophy and unlock the secrets to improving your life with A Self-Help History of Western Philosophy by Andrew Gross with Vadim Gershteyn. Journey through the teachings of ancient Greek philosophers, delve into the principles of Stoicism and existentialism, explore Renaissance humanism and Enlightenment rationalism, and navigate the complexities of postmodernism.

In this book, we will delve into the fascinating world of the Goths with a scientific lens, exploring everything we can about how they came about, where they lived, what they did, and how they died off. We will look into the nitty-gritty details of their everyday life, as well as some major historical events that were affected by Goths of any variety. Do strap yourselves in - there are quite a few of those.

At the age of 48, film critic David Denby returned to his alma mater, Columbia University, to re-experience the core humanities courses he had taken as a freshman 30 years before. Facing the question of what he really knows, Denby re-examines the besieged Western classics, ranging from Homer, Sappho, and Sophocles to Dante, Nietzsche, and Woolf. What relevance do the writers and thinkers of the past have to our current life? The answer surprised Denby and will surprise and enlighten his listeners.

This book is about nothing. In mathematics there's only one way for nothing to exist, but there are an infinite number of ways for there to be something. So "something" is therefore more stable than "nothing". Which means that the more cluttered the universe is, the more stable it becomes. Does this mean that clutter is good? Brian Luff sets out to prove that it does.

Some of us were lucky enough to have one passionate, funny, inspiring English teacher who helped us fall in love with books. Add a lifetime of teaching Dharma - authentic, traditional approaches to meditation and awakening - and you get award-winning author Dean Sluyter. With droll humor and irreverent wisdom, he unpacks the Dharma of more than twenty major writers, from William Blake to Dr. Seuss, inspiring listeners to deepen their own spiritual life and see literature in a fresh new way: as a path of awakening.

In this engaging history, James MacGregor Burns brings to vivid life the two-hundred-year conflagration of the Enlightenment, during which audacious questions and astonishing ideas tore across Europe and the New World, transforming thought, bringing down governments, and inspiring visionary political experiments that would ultimately reach every corner of the globe. Unlike most historians, Burns pays particular attention to America's intellectual revolution, beginning and ending his story on American soil.

Here, we come to the very heart of Mahayana Buddhism and of Zen--the doctrine of prajna, particularly as it appears in Hui-Neng and his followers. The Void, which is the topic of this book, this emptiness or nothingness that stands so magnificently alone, is certainly no mere void, no common emptiness, no negligible nothingness, for it is conscious of itself as void and empty and nothing. This very statement is sufficient evidence of the fact!