Philosophy Books
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Ethics: The Essential Writings (Modern Library Classics)
Marino, Gordon
(Paperback)
List Price: $18.00 Our Price: $7.59
Philosopher Gordon Marino skillfully presents an accessible, provocative anthology of both ancient and modern classics on matters moral. The philosophers represent 2,500 years of thought - from Plato, Kant, and Nietzsche to Alasdair MacIntyre, Susan Wolf, and Peter Singer - and cover a broad range of topics, from the timeless questions of justice, morality, and faith to the hot-button concerns of today, such as animal rights, our duties to the environment, and gender issues. Featuring an illuminating preamble, concise introductory essays on the giants of ethical theory, and incisive chapter headnotes to the modern offerings, this Modern Library edition is a perfect single-volume reference for students, teachers, and anyone eager to engage in reflection on ethical questions, including “What is the basis for our ethical views and judgments?”
How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living (Revised Edition)
Kidder, Rushworth M.
(Paperback)
List Price: $15.99 Our Price: $7.79
Should you take a much-needed vacation or save money for the kids' education? Protect the endangered owl or maintain jobs for loggers? Have a heart-to-heart with a lying employee or fire him on the spot? All of us face ethical choices. Sometimes they're easy: One side is wrong and the other is right. But how do we handle the really tough "right vs. right" dilemmas, where each side has strong moral arguments and we can't do both? This book helps us build Ethical Fitness - a values-based decision-making process so definitive that it's now a registered trade mark. Rushworth M. Kidder, founder of the Institute for Global Ethics, teaches us how to think for ourselves in order to resolve ethical dilemmas ranging from the intimately personal to the broadly philosophical. Unique in its approach and rich with illustrative anecdotes - updated with examples of real-world conflicts from today's political realm and from Dr. Kidder's own observations - How Good People Make Tough Choices is an indispensable resource for spotting, understanding, and resolving our toughest decisions.
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Hitchens, Christopher
(Paperback)
List Price: $16.00 Our Price: $7.79
In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.
I and Thou
Buber, Martin
(Paperback)
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Today considered a landmark of twentieth-century intellectual history, I and Thou is also one of the most important books of Western theology. In it, Martin Buber, heavily influenced by the writings of Frederich Nietzsche, united the proto-Existentialists currents of modern German thought with the Judeo-Christian tradition, powerfully updating faith for modern times. Since its first appearance in German in 1923, this slender volume has become one of the epoch-making works of our time. Not only does it present the best thinking of one of the greatest Jewish minds in centuries, but has helped to mold approaches to reconciling God with the workings of the modern world and the consciousness of its inhabitants.
Confessions
Augustine
(Paperback)
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One of the great works of Western literature, from perhaps the most important thinker of Christian antiquity, in a revolutionary new translation by one of today’s leading classicistsSarah Ruden’s fresh, dynamic translation of Confessions brings us closer to Augustine’s intent than any previous version. It puts a glaring spotlight on the life of one individual to show how all lives have meaning that is universal and eternal.In this intensely personal narrative, Augustine tells the story of his sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. He describes his ascent from a humble farm in North Africa to a prestigious post in the Roman Imperial capital of Milan, his struggle against his own overpowering sexuality, his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage, and the recovery of the faith his mother had taught him during his earliest years. Augustine’s concerns are often strikingly contemporary, and the confessional mode he invented can be seen everywhere in writing today. Grounded in her command of Latin as it was written and spoken in the ancient world, Sarah Ruden’s translation is a bold departure from its predecessors—and the most historically accurate translation ever. Stylistically beautiful, with no concessions made to suit later theology and ritual, Ruden’s rendition will give readers a startling and illuminating new perspective on one of the central texts of Christianity.
On the Shortness of Life: Life Is Long if You Know How to Use It (Penguin Great Ideas)
Seneca
(Paperback)
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The Stoic writings of the philosopher Seneca, who lived from c. 5 BC to AD 65, offer powerful insights into the art of living, the importance of reason and morality, and continue to provide profound guidance to many through their eloquence, lucidity and timeless wisdom. This selection of Seneca's orks was taken from the Penguin Classics edition of Dialogues and Letters, translated by C.D.N. Costa, and includes the essays On the Shortness of Life, Consolation to Helvia, and On Tranquility of Mind.
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work
Crawford, Matthew B.
(Paperback)
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A philosopher/mechanic's wise (and sometimes funny) look at the challenges and pleasures of working with one's hands Called "the sleeper hit of the publishing season" (The Boston Globe), Shop Class as Soulcraft became an instant bestseller, attracting readers with its radical (and timely) reappraisal of the merits of skilled manual labor. On both economic and psychological grounds, author Matthew B. Crawford questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a "knowledge worker," based on a misguided separation of thinking from doing. Using his own experience as an electrician and mechanic, Crawford presents a wonderfully articulated call for self-reliance and a moving reflection on how we can live concretely in an ever more abstract world.
Animal Liberation: The Definitive Classic of the Animal Movement (P.S.)
Singer, Peter
(Softcover)
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Since its original publication in 1975, this groundbreaking work has awakened millions of people to the existence of "speciesism" - our systematic disregard of nonhuman animals - inspiring a worldwide movement to transform our attitudes to animals and eliminate the cruelty we inflict on them. In Animal Liberation, author Peter Singer exposes the chilling realities of today's "factory farms" and product-testing procedures - destroying the spurious justifications behind them, and offering alternatives to what has become a profound environmental and social as well as moral issue. An important and persuasive appeal to conscience, fairness, decency, and justice, it is essential reading for the supporter and the skeptic alike.
Philosophy 101: From Plato and Socrates to Ethics and Metaphysics, an Essential Primer on the History of Thought (Adams 101)
Kleinman, Paul
(Hardcover)
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Discover the world's greatest thinkers and their groundbreaking notions!Too often, textbooks turn the noteworthy theories, principles, and figures of philosophy into tedious discourse that even Plato would reject. Philosophy 101 cuts out the boring details and exhausting philosophical methodology, and instead, gives you a lesson in philosophy that keeps you engaged as you explore the fascinating history of human thought and inquisition.From Aristotle and Heidegger to free will and metaphysics, Philosophy 101 is packed with hundreds of entertaining philosophical tidbits, illustrations, and thought puzzles that you won't be able to find anywhere else.So whether you're looking to unravel the mysteries of existentialism, or just want to find out what made Voltaire tick, Philosophy 101 has all the answers--even the ones you didn't know you were looking for.
Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
Fukuyama, Francis
(Hardcover)
List Price: $26.00 Our Price: $11.09
The New York Times bestselling author of The Origins of Political Order offers a provocative examination of modern identity politics: its origins, its effects, and what it means for domestic and international affairs of state.
The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life
Puett, Michael
(Paperback)
List Price: $16.00 Our Price: $6.79
For the first time, an award-winning Harvard professor shares his wildly popular course on classical Chinese philosophy, showing you how ancient ideas - like the fallacy of the authentic self - can guide you on the path to a good life today.Why is a course on ancient Chinese philosophers one of the most popular at Harvard? Because it challenges all our modern assumptions about what it takes to flourish.Astonishing teachings emerged two thousand years ago through the work of a succession of Chinese scholars exploring how humans can improve themselves and their society. And what are these counterintuitive ideas? Transformation comes not from looking within for a true self, but from creating conditions that produce new possibilities. Good relationships come not from being sincere and authentic, but from the rituals we perform within them. A good life emerges not from planning it out, but through training ourselves to respond well to small moments. Influence comes not from wielding power but from holding back. Excellence comes from what we choose to do, not our natural abilities.
The Foucault Reader
Foucault, Michel
(Paperback)
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Michel Foucault was one of the most influential thinkers in the contemporary world, someone whose work has affected the teaching of half a dozen disciplines ranging from literary criticism to the history of criminology. But of his many books, not one offers a satisfactory introduction to the entire complex body of his work. The Foucault Reader was commissioned precisely to serve that purpose.The Reader contains selections from each area of Foucault's work as well as a wealth of previously unpublished writings, including important material written especially for this volume, the preface to the long-awaited second volume of The History of Sexuality, and interviews with Foucault himself, in the course of which he discussed his philosophy at first hand and with unprecedented candor.This philosophy comprises an astonishing intellectual enterprise: a minute and ongoing investigation of the nature of power in society. Foucault's analyses of this power as it manifests itself in society, schools, hospitals, factories, homes, families, and other forms of organized society are brought together in The Foucault Reader to create an overview of this theme and of the broad social and political vision that underlies it.
Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre (Revised and Expanded Edition)
Kaufmann, Walter
(Paperback)
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This volume provides basic writings of Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Rilke, Kafka, Ortega, Jaspers, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus, including some not previously translated, along with an invaluable introductory essay by Walter Kaufmann.
Strangers Drowning: Impossible Idealism, Drastic Choices, and the Urge to Help
Macfarquhar, Larissa
(Paperback)
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What does it mean to devote yourself wholly to helping others? In Strangers Drowning, Larissa MacFarquhar seeks out people living lives of extreme ethical commitment and tells their deeply intimate stories; their stubborn integrity and their compromises; their bravery and their recklessness; their joys and defeats and wrenching dilemmas. A couple adopts two children in distress. But then they think: If they can change two lives, why not four? Or ten? They adopt twenty. But how do they weigh the needs of unknown children in distress against the needs of the children they already have? Another couple founds a leprosy colony in the wilderness in India, living in huts with no walls, knowing that their two small children may contract leprosy or be eaten by panthers. The children survive. But what if they hadn't? How would their parents' risk have been judged? A woman believes that if she spends money on herself, rather than donate it to buy life-saving medicine, then she's responsible for the deaths that result. She lives on a fraction of her income, but wonders: when is compromise self-indulgence and when is it essential? We honor such generosity and high ideals; but when we call people do-gooders there is skepticism in it, even hostility. Why do moral people make us uneasy? Between her stories, MacFarquhar threads a lively history of the literature, philosophy, social science, and self-help that have contributed to a deep suspicion of do-gooders in Western culture. Through its sympathetic and beautifully vivid storytelling, Strangers Drowning confronts us with fundamental questions about what it means to be human. In a world of strangers drowning in need, how much should we help, and how much can we help? Is it right to care for strangers even at the expense of those we are closest to? Moving and provocative, Strangers Drowning challenges us to think about what we value most, and why.
The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
Hoffer, Eric
(Paperback)
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Newly urgent, The True Believer is Eric Hoffer's classic examination of nationalist movements, fanatical causes, and the psychology of authoritarian leaders and their followers. "It's theme is political fanaticism, with which it deals severely and brilliantly," hails The New Yorker.
Ethics 101: From Altruism and Utilitarianism to Bioethics and Political Ethics, an Exploration of the Concepts of Right and Wrong (Adams 101)
Boone, Brian
(Hardcover)
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Explore the mysteries of morality and the concept of right and wrong with this accessible, engaging guide featuring basic facts along with an overview of modern-day issues ranging from business ethics and bioethics to political and social ethics.Ethics 101 offers an exciting look into the history of moral principles that dictate human behavior. Unlike traditional textbooks that overwhelm, this easy-to-read guide presents the key concepts of ethics in fun, straightforward lessons and exercises featuring only the most important facts, theories, and ideas. Ethics 101 includes unique, accessible elements such as:- Explanations of the major moral philosophies including utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, and eastern philosophers including Avicenna, Buddha, and Confucius.- Classic thought exercises including the trolley problem, the sorites paradox, and agency theory.- Unique profiles of the greatest characters in moral philosophy.- An explanation of modern applied ethics in bioethics, business ethics, political ethics, professional ethics, organizational ethics, and social ethicsFrom Plato to Jean-Paul Sartre and utilitarianism to antirealism, Ethics 101 is jam-packed with enlightening information that you can’t get anywhere else!
The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap
Taibbi, Matt
(Paperback)
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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST, NPR, AND KIRKUS REVIEWS A scathing portrait of an urgent new American crisis Over the last two decades, America has been falling deeper and deeper into a statistical mystery: Poverty goes up. Crime goes down. The prison population doubles. Fraud by the rich wipes out 40 percent of the world's wealth. The rich get massively richer. No one goes to jail. In search of a solution, journalist Matt Taibbi discovered the Divide, the seam in American life where our two most troubling trends--growing wealth inequality and mass incarceration--come together, driven by a dramatic shift in American citizenship: Our basic rights are now determined by our wealth or poverty. The Divide is what allows massively destructive fraud by the hyperwealthy to go unpunished, while turning poverty itself into a crime--but it's impossible to see until you look at these two alarming trends side by side. In The Divide, Matt Taibbi takes readers on a galvanizing journey through both sides of our new system of justice--the fun-house-mirror worlds of the untouchably wealthy and the criminalized poor. He uncovers the startling looting that preceded the financial collapse; a wild conspiracy of billionaire hedge fund managers to destroy a company through dirty tricks; and the story of a whistleblower who gets in the way of the largest banks in America, only to find herself in the crosshairs. On the other side of the Divide, Taibbi takes us to the front lines of the immigrant dragnet; into the newly punitive welfare system which treats its beneficiaries as thieves; and deep inside the stop-and-frisk world, where standing in front of your own home has become an arrestable offense. As he narrates these incredible stories, he draws out and analyzes their common source: a perverse new standard of justice, based on a radical, disturbing new vision of civil rights. Through astonishing--and enraging--accounts of the high-stakes capers of the wealthy and nightmare stories of regular people caught in the Divide's punishing logic, Taibbi lays bare one of the greatest challenges we face in contemporary American life: surviving a system that devours the lives of the poor, turns a blind eye to the destructive crimes of the wealthy, and implicates us all.
A Handbook for New Stoics: How to Thrive in a World Out of Your Control
Pigliucci, Massimo
(Paperback)
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Stress often comes from situations that are beyond our control - such as preparing for a meeting, waiting for test results, or arguing with a loved one. But we can control our response to these everyday tensions - through the wisdom and practice of Stoicism.Stoicism is an ancient pragmatic philosophy that teaches us to step back, gain perspective, and act with intention. In this handbook, renowned philosopher Massimo Pigliucci and seasoned practitioner Gregory Lopez provide 52 week-by-week lessons to help us apply timeless Stoic teachings to modern life.
The Question of God
Nicholi, Armand M., Jr.
(Paperback)
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Throughout the ages, many of the world's greatest thinkers have wrestled with the concept of -- and belief in -- God. It may seem unlikely that any new arguments or insights could be raised, but the twentieth century managed to produce two brilliant men with two diametrically opposed views about the question of God: Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis. They never had an actual meeting, but in "The Question of God," their arguments are placed side by side for the very first time. For more than twenty-five years, Armand Nicholi has taught a course at Harvard that compares the philosophical arguments of both men. In "The Question of God," Dr. Nicholi presents the writings and letters of Lewis and Freud, allowing them to "speak" for themselves on the subject of belief and disbelief. Both men considered the problem of pain and suffering, the nature of love and sex, and the ultimate meaning of life and death -- and each of them thought carefully about the alternatives to their positions. The inspiration for the PBS series of the same name, "The Question of God" does not presuppose which man -- Freud the devout atheist or Lewis the atheist-turned-believer -- is correct in his views. Rather, readers are urged to join Nicholi and his students and decide for themselves which path to follow.
Zen Guitar
Sudo, Philip Toshio
(Paperback)
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Zen Guitar unfolds through fifty-eight lessons that establish a beginner's mind and provide focus and a guide to common missteps, continuing through technical excellence and advanced levels of Zen. Philip Sudo offers his own experiences with music to enable us to rediscover the harmony in each of our lives and open ourselves to a Zen awareness uniquely suited to the Western mind. This harmony is further illuminated through quotes from sources ranging from Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix to Miles Davis and Andres Segovia.
Michel de Montaigne: Essays
De Montaigne, Michel
(Paperback)
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In writing these celebrated essays, Montaigne was creating a new literary form in which he put his own views and opinions on trial. In each piece he set out to discover himself by setting down his reactions and responses to different subjects. In this way he could discern how much of his intellectual standpoint was due to nature, and how much to external forces. Against a brilliant range of subjects, including the education of children, friendship, cannibals and the custom of wearing clothes, he shows himself to be frank, objective, amusing and totally without prejudice.Taken together, this selection of essays forms an exquisitely drawn portrait that depicts the strength and warmth of Montaigne's personality.
The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses
Carlin, Dan
(Hardcover)
List Price: $29.99 Our Price: $11.39
Do tough times create tougher people? Can humanity handle the power of its weapons without destroying itself? Will human technology or capabilities ever peak or regress? No one knows the answers to such questions, but no one asks them in a more interesting way than Dan Carlin.In The End is Always Near, Dan Carlin looks at questions and historical events that force us to consider what sounds like fantasy; that we might suffer the same fate that all previous eras did. Will our world ever become a ruin for future archaeologists to dig up and explore? The questions themselves are both philosophical and like something out of The Twilight Zone.Combining his trademark mix of storytelling, history and weirdness Dan Carlin connects the past and future in fascinating and colorful ways. At the same time the questions he asks us to consider involve the most important issue imaginable: human survival. From the collapse of the Bronze Age to the challenges of the nuclear era the issue has hung over humanity like a persistent Sword of Damocles.Inspired by his podcast, The End is Always Near challenges the way we look at the past and ourselves. In this absorbing compendium, Carlin embarks on a whole new set of stories and major cliffhangers that will keep readers enthralled. Idiosyncratic and erudite, offbeat yet profound, The End is Always Near examines issues that are rarely presented, and makes the past immediately relevant to our very turbulent present.
The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why
Nisbett, Richard E.
(Paperback)
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When psychologist Richard E. Nisbett showed an animated underwater scene to his American students, they zeroed in on a big fish swimming among smaller fish. Japanese observers instead commented on the background environment - and the different "seeings" are a clue to profound cognitive differences between Westerners and East Asians. As Nisbett shows in The Geography of Thought, people think about - and even see - the world differently because of differing ecologies, social structures, philosophies, and educational systems that date back to ancient Greece and China. The Geography of Thought documents Professor Nisbett's groundbreaking research in cultural psychology, addressing questions such as: Why did the ancient Chinese excel at algebra and arithmetic, but not geometry, the brilliant achievement of such Greeks as Euclid? Why do East Asians find it so difficult to disentangle an object from its surroundings? Why do Western infants learn nouns more rapidly than verbs, when it is the other way around in East Asia? At a moment in history when the need for cross-cultural understanding and collaboration have never been more important, The Geography of Thought offers both a map to that gulf and a blueprint for a bridge that might be able to span it.
The Basic Writings of John Stuart Mill
Mill, John Stuart
(Paperback)
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A brilliant exploration of the balance between individual rights and the power of the state, John Stuart Mill's On Liberty is essential reading for anyone interested in political thought and theory. This edition includes two other seminal works by Mill, The Subjection of Women and Utilitarianism, as well as an index and newly commissioned endnotes.
Consciousness Explained
Dennett, Daniel C.
(Paperback)
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Consciousness Explained is a full-scale exploration of human consciousness. In this landmark book, Daniel Dennett refutes the traditional, commonsense theory of consciousness and presents a new model, based on a wealth of information from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and artificial intelligence. Our current theories about conscious life - of people, animals, even robots - are transformed by the new perspectives found in this book.
The Existentialist's Survival Guide: How to Live Authentically in an Inauthentic Age
Marino, Gordon
(Paperback)
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Gordon Marino recasts the practical takeaways existentialism offers for the twenty-first century, from negotiating angst, depression, despair, and death to practicing faith, morality, and love. What emerges are life-altering epiphanies - existential prescriptions for living with integrity, courage, and authenticity in an increasingly chaotic, uncertain, and inauthentic age.
The Art of Work: A Proven Path to Discovering What You Were Meant to Do
Goins, Jeff
(Softcover)
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Jeff Goins, a brilliant new voice counting Seth Godin and Jon Acuff among his fans, explains how to abandon the status quo and live a life that matters with true passion and purpose. The path to your life's work is difficult and risky, even scary, which is why few finish the journey. This is a book about discovering your life's work, that treasure of immeasurable worth we all long for. It's about the task you were born to do. As Jeff Goins explains, the search begins with passion but does not end there. Only when our interests connect with the needs of the world do we begin living for a larger purpose. Those who experience this intersection experience something exceptional and enviable. Though it is rare, such a life is attainable by anyone brave enough to try. Through personal experience, compelling case studies, and current research on the mysteries of motivation and talent, Jeff shows readers how to find their vocation and what to expect along the way.
Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them
Greene, Joshua
(Paperback)
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Our brains were designed for tribal life, for getting along with a select group of others (Us) and for fighting off everyone else (Them). But modern times have forced the world’s tribes into a shared space, resulting in epic clashes of values along with unprecedented opportunities. As the world shrinks, the moral lines that divide us become more salient and more puzzling. We fight over everything from tax codes to gay marriage to global warming, and we wonder where, if at all, we can find our common ground. A grand synthesis of neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy, Moral Tribes reveals the underlying causes of modern conflict and lights the way forward. Greene compares the human brain to a dual-mode camera, with point-and-shoot automatic settings (“portrait,” “landscape”) as well as a manual mode. Our point-and-shoot settings are our emotions—efficient, automated programs honed by evolution, culture, and personal experience. The brain’s manual mode is its capacity for deliberate reasoning, which makes our thinking flexible. Point-and-shoot emotions make us social animals, turning Me into Us. But they also make us tribal animals, turning Us against Them. Our tribal emotions make us fight—sometimes with bombs, sometimes with words—often with life-and-death stakes. An award-winning teacher and scientist, Greene directs Harvard University’s Moral Cognition Lab, which uses cutting-edge neuroscience and cognitive techniques to understand how people really make moral decisions. Combining insights from the lab with lessons from decades of social science and centuries of philosophy, the great question of Moral Tribes is this: How can we get along with Them when what they want feels so wrong to Us? Ultimately, Greene offers a set of maxims for navigating the modern moral terrain, a practical road map for solving problems and living better lives. Moral Tribes shows us when to trust our instincts, when to reason, and how the right kind of reasoning can move us forward. A major achievement from a rising star in a new scientific field, Moral Tribes will refashion your deepest beliefs about how moral thinking works and how it can work better.
Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life
Hall, Edith
(Paperback)
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From renowned classicist Edith Hall, an examination of one of history's greatest philosophers, showing us how to lead happy, fulfilled, and meaningful lives.Two thousand years ago, Aristotle wrote the most important book on happiness. The first philosopher to inquire into subjective happiness, he understood its essence more clearly than anyone since. Most important, Aristotle understood happiness as available to the vast majority of us, but only, crucially, if we decide to apply ourselves to its creation.In Aristotle's Way, Professor Edith Hall shows how his timeless teachings are exactly what we need today to pursue a life well lived. Mixing affecting biographical anecdotes with a deep wealth of classical learning, Hall lays out the crux of Aristotle's thinking and distills his ancient wisdom into ten practical and universal lessons to help us become the best version of ourselves.
Out of Your Mind: Tricksters, Interdependence, and the Cosmic Game of Hide and Seek
Watts, Alan
(Paperback)
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In order to come to your senses, Alan Watts often said, you sometimes need to go out of your mind. Perhaps more than any other teacher in the West, this celebrated author, former Anglican priest, and self-described spiritual entertainer was responsible for igniting the passion of countless wisdom seekers to the spiritual and philosophical delights of India, China, and Japan.With Out of Your Mind, you are invited to immerse yourself in six of this legendary thinker's most engaging teachings on how to break through the limits of the rational mind and expand your awareness and appreciation for the great game unfolding all around us. Distilled from Alan Watts’s pinnacle lectures, Out of Your Mind brings you an inspiring new resource that captures the true scope of this brilliant teacher in action.
Practical Wisdom: The Right Way to Do the Right Thing
Schwartz, Barry
(Paperback)
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In their provocative new book, Barry Schwartz and Kenneth Sharpe explore the core idea of "practical wisdom" - the essential insights we must embrace to lead satisfying lives. Aristotle identified it millennia ago and new scientific research proves that it's just as crucial today: the essential human quality that combines the fruits of our individual experiences with our empathy and intellect. But we have forgotten this, and Schwartz and Sharpe illuminate how to get back in touch with our wisdom. The result is a book that helps us understand that wisdom is above all a practical idea. Practical Wisdom shows us how to identify it, cultivate it, and enact it, and how to make ourselves healthier, wealthier, and wiser.
The Best Guide to Eastern Philosophy & Religion
Morgan, Diane
(Softcover)
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The Best Guide to Eastern Philosophy & Religion provides a thorough discussion of the most widely practiced belief systems of the East. Author Diane Morgan understands how to direct the materialistic, linear way of Western thinking toward a comprehension of the cyclical, metaphysical essence of Eastern philosophy. With an emphasis on the tenets and customs that Western seekers find most compelling, the text is accessible to the novice yet sophisticated enough for the experienced reader.
The Morning Mind: Use Your Brain to Master Your Day and Supercharge Your Life
Carter, Robert III
(Paperback)
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Bad habits. Bad feelings. Bad mornings that turn into regrettable days.Banish them all with simple brain hacks that flip negative thoughts and behaviors into positive, productive ones. Instead of dragging through your day, learn to wake up refreshed, recharge regularly, and live better than ever.The Morning Mind makes it easy. Based on findings from neuroscience and medicine, the book helps you tamp down on the fear-driven reptile brain and tap into the part linked to thinking and imagination.With topics ranging from diet and hydration to exercise and meditation, you’ll find ideas for activating your brain—and improving every aspect of your life:• Restore healthy cycles of waking and sleeping• Block harmful cortisol hormones• Boost mental performance• Create calmer mornings• Develop self-discipline• .Stimulate creativity• Improve your leadership skills• And more.From the moment the alarm clock rings, The Morning Mind helps you greet each day with gusto.
The Outsider
Wilson, Colin
(Paperback)
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The seminal work on alienation, creativity, and the modern mindset. First published 30 years ago, it illuminated the struggle of those who seek not only the transformation of the Self, but of society as a whole.
Yoga: Discipline of Freedom
Miller, Barbara Stoller
(Paperback)
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By one of the leading Sanskrit scholars of our time, this remarkable new translation includes an introduction to the Yoga Sutra, the full text with explanatory commentary, and a glossary of terms in Sanskrit and in English. "Yoga: Discipline Of Freedom" "is really essential to anyone's understanding of Indian philosophy or the practice of yoga"
The Te of Piglet
Hoff, Benjamin
(Paperback)
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The sequel to The Tao of Pooh explores the te (a Chinese word meaning virtue) of A. A. Milne's Piglet and features dialogue between the author and Piglet, Pooh, Eeyore, and other characters
The Common Good
Reich, Robert B.
(Hardcover)
List Price: $22.95 Our Price: $10.55
With the warmth and lucidity that have made him one of our most important public voices, Robert B. Reich makes the case for a generous, inclusive understanding of the American project, centering on the moral obligations of citizenship. Rooting his argument in everyday reality and common sense, Reich demonstrates the existence of a common good, and argues that it is this that defines a society or a nation. Societies and nations undergo virtuous cycles that reinforce and build the common good, as well as vicious cycles that undermine it. Over the course of the past five decades, Reich contends, America has been in a slowly accelerating vicious cycle - one that can and must be reversed. But first we need to weigh what really matters, and how we as a country should relate to honor, shame, patriotism, truth, and the meaning of leadership.Powerful, urgent, and utterly vital, this is a heartfelt missive from one of our foremost political thinkers: a fundamental statement about the purpose of society and a cri de coeur to save America's soul.
Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think About Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth
Scott, A. O.
(Paperback)
List Price: $17.00 Our Price: $6.79
Few could explain, let alone seek out, a career in criticism. Yet what A.O. Scott shows in Better Living Through Criticism is that we are, in fact, all critics: because critical thinking informs almost every aspect of artistic creation, of civil action, of interpersonal life. With penetrating insight and warm humor, Scott shows that while individual critics--himself included--can make mistakes and find flaws where they shouldn't, criticism as a discipline is one of the noblest, most creative, and urgent activities of modern existence.Using his own film criticism as a starting point--everything from his infamous dismissal of the international blockbuster The Avengers to his intense affection for Pixar's animated Ratatouille--Scott expands outward, easily guiding readers through the complexities of Rilke and Shelley, the origins of Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones, the power of Marina Abramovich and 'Ode on a Grecian Urn.' Drawing on the long tradition of criticism from Aristotle to Susan Sontag, Scott shows that real criticism was and always will be the breath of fresh air that allows true creativity to thrive. "The time for criticism is always now," Scott explains, "because the imperative to think clearly, to insist on the necessary balance of reason and passion, never goes away."
Dogmatics in Outline
Barth, Karl
(Softcover)
List Price: $13.00 Our Price: $6.25
An excellent summary of and introduction to Barthian theology.
Astonish Yourself!
Droit, Roger-Pol
(Softcover)
List Price: $12.00 Our Price: $4.39
Say your name aloud to yourself in a quiet room. Imagine peeling an apple in your mind. Take the subway without trying to get anywhere. The simple meditations in this book have the potential to shake us awake from our preconceived certainties: our own identity, the stability of the outside world, the meanings of words. At once entertaining and startling, irreverent and wise, this book will provoke moments of awareness for readers in any situation and in all walks of life. Enter the space of your favorite painting. Watch someone sleeping. The world won't look the same again.
Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live
Klein, Daniel
(Paperback)
List Price: $15.00 Our Price: $5.99
Daniel Klein’s fans have fallen in love with the warm, humorous, and thoughtful way he shows how philosophy resonates in everyday life. Readers of his popular books Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . . and Travels with Epicurus come for enlightenment and stay for the entertainment.As a young college student studying philosophy, Klein filled a notebook with short quotes from the world’s greatest thinkers, hoping to find some guidance on how to live the best life he could. Now, from the vantage point of his eighth decade, Klein revisits the wisdom he relished in his youth with this collection of philosophical gems, adding new ones that strike a chord with him at the end of his life. From Epicurus to Emerson and Camus to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr - whose words provided the title of this book - each pithy extract is annotated with Klein’s inimitable charm and insights. In these pages, our favorite jokester–philosopher tackles life’s biggest questions, leaving us chuckling and enlightened.
Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
Gardiner, Patrick (Edt)
(Paperback)
List Price: $22.95 Our Price: $10.55
The full scope and impact of Western philosophy from the Presocratics to the important thinkers of the twentieth century are presented in this original paperback series. Readings in the History of Philosophy contains many selections that appear in English for the first time, as well as selections that have never before been available in a modestly priced edition. Each volume may be used independently as introductory, comparative, or reference material in a wide range of courses in philosophy and humanities. This volume is edited by Patrick L. Gardiner.
Socrates' Way
Gross, Ronald
(Softcover)
List Price: $19.95 Our Price: $8.69
Provides step by step guidance on how to harness Socrates' methods to vastly enhance your own creativity and autonomy. The author shares the seven keys to using one's mind to the utmost.
Draw Your Weapons
Sentilles, Sarah
(Hardcover)
List Price: $28.00 Our Price: $4.89
A single book might not change the world. But this utterly original meditation on art and war might transform the way you see the world - and that makes all the difference.Through a dazzling combination of memoir, history, reporting, visual culture, literature, and theology, Sarah Sentilles offers an impassioned defense of life lived by peace and principle. It is a literary collage with an urgent hope at its core: that art might offer tools for remaking the world.In Draw Your Weapons, Sentilles tells the true stories of Howard, a conscientious objector during World War II, and Miles, a former prison guard at Abu Ghraib, and in the process she challenges conventional thinking about how war is waged, witnessed, and resisted. The pacifist and the soldier both create art in response to war: Howard builds a violin; Miles paints portraits of detainees. With echoes of Susan Sontag and Maggie Nelson, Sentilles investigates images of violence from the era of slavery to the drone age. In doing so, she wrestles with some of our most profound questions: What does it take to inspire compassion? What impact can one person have? How should we respond to violence when it feels like it can’t be stopped?
Surfing with Sartre: An Aquatic Inquiry into a Life of Meaning
James, Aaron
(Hardcover)
List Price: $27.95 Our Price: $11.65
Author Aaron James uses the experience and the ethos of surfing to explore key concepts in philosophy. The existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once declared "the ideal limit of aquatic sports . . . is waterskiing." The avid surfer and lavishly credentialed academic philosopher Aaron James vigorously disagrees, and in Surfing with Sartre he intends to expound the thinking surfer's view of the matter, in the process elucidating such philosophical categories as freedom, being, phenomenology, morality, epistemology, and even the emerging values of what he terms "leisure capitalism." In developing his unique surfer-philosophical worldview, he draws from his own experience of surfing and from surf culture and lingo, and includes many relevant details from the lives of the philosophers, from Aristotle to Wittgenstein, with whose thought he engages. In the process, he'll speak to readers in search of personal and social meaning in our current anxious moment, by way of doing real, authentic philosophy.
How to Think Politically: Sages, Scholars and Statesmen Whose Ideas Have Shaped the World
Murphy, James Bernard
(Paperback)
List Price: $22.00 Our Price: $9.09
What is truly at stake in politics? Nothing less than how we should live, as individuals and as communities. This book goes beyond the surface headlines, the fake news and the hysteria to explore the timeless questions posed and answers offered by a diverse group of the 30 greatest political thinkers who have ever lived.Are we political, economic, or religious animals? Should we live in small city-states, nations, or multinational empires? What values should politics promote? Should wealth be owned privately or in common? Do animals also have rights? There is no idea too radical for this global assortment of thinkers, which includes: Confucius; Plato; Augustine; Machiavelli; Burke; Wollstonecraft; Marx; Nietzsche; Gandhi; Qutb; Arendt; Nussbaum, Naess and Rawls.In each brief chapter, the authors paint a vivid portrait of these often prescient, always compelling political thinkers, showing how their ideas grew out of their own dramatic lives and times and evolved beyond them. Now more than ever we need to be reminded that politics can be a noble, inspiring and civilising art. And if we want to understand today's political world, we need to understand the foundations of politics and its architects. This is the perfect guide to both.
The Evolution of God
Wright, Robert
(Paperback)
List Price: $18.00 Our Price: $8.69
In this sweeping, dazzling journey through history, Robert Wright unveils a discovery of crucial importance to the present moment: there is a pattern in the evolution Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and a "hidden code" in their scriptures. Through the prisms of archeology, theology, anthropology, and evolutionary psychology, Wright repeatedly overturns conventional wisdom to show how and why religion can strengthen the social order - even in an age of globalization - and explains why modern science is not only compatible with religion, but actively affirms the validity of the religious quest. Vast in scope and thrilling in ambition, The Evolution of God brilliantly alters our understanding of God and where He came from - and where He and we are going next.
The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of Wagner
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
(Paperback)
List Price: $10.00 Our Price: $4.89
The Birth of Tragedy (1872) was Nietzsche's first book. Its youthful faults were exposed by Nietzsche in the brilliant "Attempt at a Self-Criticism" which he added to the new edition of 1886. But the book, whatever its excesses, remains one of the most relevant statements on tragedy ever penned. It exploded the conception of Greek culture that was prevalent down through the Victorian era, and it sounded themes developed in the twentieth century by classicists, existentialists, psychoanalysts, and others. The Case of Wagner (1888) was one Nietzsche's last books, and his wittiest. In attitude and style it is diametrically opposed to The Birth of Tragedy. Both works transcend their ostensible subjects and deal with art and culture, as well as the problems of the modern age generally.
Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won't Go Away
Newberger Goldstein, Rebecca
(Paperback)
List Price: $16.95 Our Price: $7.79
Is philosophy obsolete? Are the ancient questions still relevant in the age of cosmology and neuroscience, not to mention crowd-sourcing and cable news? The acclaimed philosopher and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein provides a dazzlingly original plunge into the drama of philosophy, revealing its hidden role in today’s debates on religion, morality, politics, and science.
The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis
Nussbaum, Martha C.
(Hardcover)
List Price: $25.99 Sale: $2.46
From one of the world’s most celebrated moral philosophers comes a thorough examination of the current political crisis and recommendations for how to mend our divided country.For decades Martha C. Nussbaum has been an acclaimed scholar and humanist, earning dozens of honors for her books and essays. In The Monarchy of Fear she turns her attention to the current political crisis that has polarized American since the 2016 election.Although today’s atmosphere is marked by partisanship, divisive rhetoric, and the inability of two halves of the country to communicate with one another, Nussbaum focuses on what so many pollsters and pundits have overlooked. She sees a simple truth at the heart of the problem: the political is always emotional. Globalization has produced feelings of powerlessness in millions of people in the West. That sense of powerlessness bubbles into resentment and blame. Blame of immigrants. Blame of Muslims. Blame of other races. Blame of cultural elites. While this politics of blame is exemplified by the election of Donald Trump and the vote for Brexit, Nussbaum argues it can be found on all sides of the political spectrum, left or right.Drawing on a mix of historical and contemporary examples, from classical Athens to the musical Hamilton, The Monarchy of Fear untangles this web of feelings and provides a roadmap of where to go next.
Democracy May Not Exist, But We'll Miss It When It's Gone
Taylor, Astra
(Hardcover)
List Price: $27.00 Our Price: $8.69
What is democracy really? What do we mean when we use the term? And can it ever truly exist? Astra Taylor, hailed as a “New Civil Rights Leader” by the Los Angeles Times, provides surprising answers.There is no shortage of democracy, at least in name, and yet it is in crisis everywhere we look. From a cabal of plutocrats in the White House to gerrymandering and dark-money campaign contributions, it is clear that the principle of government by and for the people is not living up to its promise.The problems lie deeper than any one election cycle. As Astra Taylor demonstrates, real democracy - fully inclusive and completely egalitarian - has in fact never existed. In a tone that is both philosophical and anecdotal, weaving together history, theory, the stories of individuals, and interviews with such leading thinkers as Cornel West and Wendy Brown, Taylor invites us to reexamine the term. Is democracy a means or an end, a process or a set of desired outcomes? What if those outcomes, whatever they may be - peace, prosperity, equality, liberty, an engaged citizenry - can be achieved by non-democratic means? In what areas of life should democratic principles apply? If democracy means rule by the people, what does it mean to rule and who counts as the people?Democracy's inherent paradoxes often go unnamed and unrecognized. Exploring such questions, Democracy May Not Exist offers a better understanding of what is possible, what we want, why democracy is so hard to realize, and why it is worth striving for.
The Voice of Reason (Volume V)
Peikoff, Leonard
(Paperback)
List Price: $18.00 Our Price: $8.89
Here is the final collection of articles and speeches by the bestselling and world-renowned novelist, essayist, and philosopher.
The Trolley Problem, or Would You Throw the Fat Man off the Bridge?: A Philosophical Conundrum
Cathcart, Thomas
(Hardcover)
List Price: $14.95 Our Price: $7.09
A trolley is careering out of control. Up ahead are five workers; on a spur to the right stands a lone individual. You, a bystander, happen to be standing next to a switch that could divert the trolley, which would save the five, but sacrifice the one - do you pull it? Or say you’re watching from an overpass. The only way to save the workers is to drop a heavy object in the trolley’s path. And you’re standing next to a really fat man….This ethical conundrum - based on British philosopher Philippa Foot’s 1967 thought experiment - has inspired decades of lively argument around the world. Now Thomas Cathcart brings his sharp intelligence, quirky humor, and gift for popularizing serious ideas to “the trolley problem.” Framing the issue as a possible crime that is to be tried in the Court of Public Opinion, Cathcart explores philosophy and ethics, intuition and logic. Along the way he makes connections to the Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham, Kant’s limits of reason, St. Thomas Aquinas’s fascinating Principle of Double Effect, and more.Read with an open mind, this provocative book will challenge your deepest held notions of right and wrong. Would you divert the trolley? Kill one to save five? Would you throw the fat man off the bridge?
Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All
Nossel, Suzanne
(Hardcover)
List Price: $28.99 Our Price: $8.69
A vital, necessary playbook for navigating and defending free speech today by the CEO of PEN America, Dare To Speak provides a pathway for promoting free expression while also cultivating a more inclusive public culture.Online trolls and fascist chat groups. Controversies over campus lectures. Cancel culture versus censorship. The daily hazards and debates surrounding free speech dominate headlines and fuel social media storms. In an era where one tweet can launch—or end—your career, and where free speech is often invoked as a principle but rarely understood, learning to maneuver the fast-changing, treacherous landscape of public discourse has never been more urgent.In Dare To Speak, Suzanne Nossel, a leading voice in support of free expression, delivers a vital, necessary guide to maintaining democratic debate that is open, free-wheeling but at the same time respectful of the rich diversity of backgrounds and opinions in a changing country. Centered on practical principles, Nossel’s primer equips readers with the tools needed to speak one’s mind in today’s diverse, digitized, and highly-divided society without resorting to curbs on free expression.At a time when free speech is often pitted against other progressive axioms—namely diversity and equality—Dare To Speak presents a clear-eyed argument that the drive to create a more inclusive society need not, and must not, compromise robust protections for free speech. Nossel provides concrete guidance on how to reconcile these two sets of core values within universities, on social media, and in daily life. She advises readers how to:• Use language conscientiously without self-censoring ideas• Defend the right to express unpopular views• And protest without silencing speech.Nossel warns against the increasingly fashionable embrace of expanded government and corporate controls over speech, warning that such strictures can reinforce the marginalization of lesser-heard voices. She argues that creating an open market of ideas demands aggressive steps to remedy exclusion and ensure equal participation.Replete with insightful arguments, colorful examples, and salient advice, Dare To Speak brings much-needed clarity and guidance to this pressing—and often misunderstood—debate.
The Ten Golden Rules of Leadership: Classical Wisdom for Modern Leaders
Mourdoukoutas, Panos
(Hardcover)
List Price: $15.95 Our Price: $7.09
Skills and experience might land you a leadership position, but they don't make you a true leader. Leadership comes from inside - and the greatest leaders first question themselves before they tackle the world around them. To aid in this critical interrogation, The Ten Golden Rules of Leadership explores ideas from Aristotle, Heraclitus, Sophocles, Hesiod, and other great thinkers, including: * Know thyself * Do not waste energy on things you cannot change * Nurture community * Always embrace the truth * Let competition reveal talent * Live life by a higher code * Understand that character is destiny Then it shows you how to take each idea-along with what you've learned about yourself-and apply it to the challenges of the modern workplace. As Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great, you too will learn what it takes to conquer all.
The Existentialist's Survival Guide: How to Live Authentically in an Inauthentic Age
Marino, Gordon
(Hardcover)
List Price: $25.99 Our Price: $6.25
Sophisticated self-help for the 21st century - when every crisis feels like an existential crisisSoren Kierkegaard, Frederick Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and other towering figures of existentialism grasped that human beings are, at heart, moody creatures, susceptible to an array of psychological setbacks, crises of faith, flights of fancy, and other emotional ups and downs. Rather than understanding moods - good and bad alike - as afflictions to be treated with pharmaceuticals, this swashbuckling group of thinkers generally known as existentialists believed that such feelings not only offer enduring lessons about living a life of integrity, but also help us discern an inner spark that can inspire spiritual development and personal transformation. To listen to Kierkegaard and company, how we grapple with these feelings shapes who we are, how we act, and, ultimately, the kind of lives we lead. In The Existentialist's Survival Guide, Gordon Marino, director of the Hong Kierkegaard Library at St. Olaf College and boxing correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, recasts the practical takeaways existentialism offers for the twenty-first century. From negotiating angst, depression, despair, and death to practicing faith, morality, and love, Marino dispenses wisdom on how to face existence head-on while keeping our hearts intact, especially when the universe feels like it’s working against us and nothing seems to matter.What emerges are life-altering and, in some cases, lifesaving epiphanies - existential prescriptions for living with integrity, courage, and authenticity in an increasingly chaotic, uncertain, and inauthentic age.
The Spiritual Child - The New Science on Parenting for Health and Lifelong Thriving
Miller, Lisa
(Paperback)
List Price: $16.00 Our Price: $7.95
In The Spiritual Child, psychologist Lisa Miller presents the next big idea in psychology: the science and the power of spirituality. She explains the clear, scientific link between spirituality and health and shows that children who have a positive, active relationship to spirituality: * are 40% less likely to use and abuse substances* are 60% less likely to be depressed as teenagers* are 80% less likely to have dangerous or unprotected sex* have significantly more positive markers for thriving including an increased sense of meaning and purpose, and high levels of academic success.Combining cutting-edge research with broad anecdotal evidence from her work as a clinical psychologist to illustrate just how invaluable spirituality is to a child's mental and physical health, Miller translates these findings into practical advice for parents, giving them concrete ways to develop and encourage their children's - as well as their own - well-being. In this provocative, conversation-starting book, Dr. Miller presents us with a pioneering new way to think about parenting our modern youth.
Moral Courage
Kidder, Rushworth M.
(Softcover)
List Price: $13.95 Our Price: $6.79
What gives us the strength to stand up for what we believe? The topic of moral courage is front and center in today's culture. Corporate corruption, abusive priests, cheating students, domestic violence - all these remind us that taking ethical stands should be every individual's highest priority. Rushworth Kidder's remarkable book defines key concepts and gives us indispensable tools, equipping us to respond to the increasingly complicated moral challenges we face at work, at home, and in our communities, enabling us to make clear, confident decisions by exploring such questions as: Is the benefit worth the risk? Am I motivated by my desire to uphold my beliefs or to impose them on others? Will my actions create collateral damage among those with no stake in the outcome? While physical courage may no longer be a necessary survival skill in society, moral courage is the true gauge of our maturity and civilization. This essential guidebook will help lead us to a clear understanding of what moral courage is, what it does, and how to get it.
The Zen Way to the Martial Arts
Deshimaru, Taisen
(Paperback)
List Price: $14.00 Our Price: $5.99
Taisen Deshimaru explains the way of the samurai through this engaging series of lessons that provides practical wisdom for all students of martial arts, as well as for the general reader interested in Zen
On Disobedience: Why Freedom Means Saying "No" to Power (Resistance Library)
Fromm, Erich
(Paperback)
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By the acclaimed psychologist and author, Erich Fromm's On Disobedience persuasively examines how saying "no" to power is essential to individual meaning and the preservation of a free society.
A Guide for the Perplexed
Schumacher, E. F.
(Paperback)
List Price: $14.99 Our Price: $6.49
An inspired critique of modern materialistic values and a road map for achieving one true, higher potential from "one of the wisest minds of our time."
The Gift of Anger: And Other Lessons from My Grandfather Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi, Arun
(Hardcover)
List Price: $24.00 Our Price: $5.49
Discover ten vital and extraordinary life lessons from one of the most important and influential philosophers and peace activists of the twentieth century - Mahatma Gandhi - in this poignant and timely exploration of the true path from anger to peace, as recounted by Gandhi’s grandson, Arun Gandhi. In the current troubled climate, in our country and in the world, these lessons are needed more than ever before.
Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington
Cathcart, Thomas
(Hardcover)
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America's favorite philosopher-comedians are at it again, and just in time to save us from the doublespeak and flimflam of politics in America with invaluable insight on common tactics.
A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism
Gopnik, Adam
(Hardcover)
List Price: $28.00 Our Price: $11.39
A stirring defense of liberalism against the dogmatisms of our time from an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author.Not since the early twentieth century has liberalism, and liberals, been under such relentless attack, from both right and left. The crisis of democracy in our era has produced a crisis of faith in liberal institutions and, even worse, in liberal thought.A Thousand Small Sanities is a manifesto rooted in the lives of people who invented and extended the liberal tradition. Taking us from Montaigne to Mill, and from Middlemarch to the civil rights movement, Adam Gopnik argues that liberalism is not a form of centrism, nor simply another word for free markets, nor merely a term denoting a set of rights. It is something far more ambitious: the search for radical change by humane measures. Gopnik shows us why liberalism is one of the great moral adventures in human history - and why, in an age of autocracy, our lives may depend on its continuation.
Doubt: A History
Hecht, Jennifer Michael
(Softcover)
List Price: $16.95 Our Price: $8.39
In this history, Jennifer Michael Hecht celebrates doubt as an engine of creativity and as an alternative to the political and intellectual dangers of certainty. Just as belief has its own history featuring people whose unique expressions of faith have forever changed the world, doubt has a vibrant story and tradition with its own saints, martyrs, and sages. Hecht celebrates the heroes of doubt - people such as Confucius, Socrates, Jesus, Wang Ch'ung, Hypatia, Maimonides, Galileo, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Emily Dickinson, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Margaret Sanger - who drove history forward by challenging the powers and conventional wisdom of their time and heritage. Hecht views the history of doubt as not only a tradition of challenging accepted religious beliefs, including the existence of God, but also as a progression of attempts to make sense of life, the natural world, and the self, each on their own terms.
The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis
Nussbaum, Martha C.
(Paperback)
List Price: $17.00 Our Price: $5.49
From one of the world’s most celebrated moral philosophers comes a thorough examination of the current political crisis and recommendations for how to mend our divided country.For decades Martha C. Nussbaum has been an acclaimed scholar and humanist, earning dozens of honors for her books and essays. In The Monarchy of Fear she turns her attention to the current political crisis that has polarized American since the 2016 election.Although today’s atmosphere is marked by partisanship, divisive rhetoric, and the inability of two halves of the country to communicate with one another, Nussbaum focuses on what so many pollsters and pundits have overlooked. She sees a simple truth at the heart of the problem: the political is always emotional. Globalization has produced feelings of powerlessness in millions of people in the West. That sense of powerlessness bubbles into resentment and blame. Blame of immigrants. Blame of Muslims. Blame of other races. Blame of cultural elites. While this politics of blame is exemplified by the election of Donald Trump and the vote for Brexit, Nussbaum argues it can be found on all sides of the political spectrum, left or right.Drawing on a mix of historical and contemporary examples, from classical Athens to the musical Hamilton, The Monarchy of Fear untangles this web of feelings and provides a roadmap of where to go next.
The Science of Good & Evil: Why People Cheat, Share, Gossip, and Follow the Golden Rule
Shermer, Michael
(Softcover)
List Price: $19.99 Our Price: $8.09
Psychologist and science historian Shermer explores how humans evolved from social primates to moral primates, how and why morality motivates the human animal, and how the foundation of moral principles can be built upon empirical evidence.
The World According to Tom Hanks
Edwards, Gavin
(Hardcover)
List Price: $26.00 Our Price: $7.35
Niceness gets a bad rap these days. Our culture rewards those who troll the hardest and who snark the most. At times it seems like there's no place anymore for optimism, integrity, and good old-fashioned respect. Enter "America's Dad": Tom Hanks. Whether he's buying espresso machines for the White House Press Corps, rewarding a jovial cab driver with a night out on Broadway, or extolling the virtues of using a typewriter, Hanks lives a passionate, joyful life and pays it forward to others. Gavin Edwards, the New York Times bestselling author of The Tao of Bill Murray, takes readers on a tour behind the scenes of Hanks's life: from his less-than-idyllic childhood, rocky first marriage, and career wipeouts to the pinnacle of his acting career and domestic bliss with the love of his life, Rita Wilson. As he did for Bill Murray, Edwards distills Hanks's life story into ten "commandments" that beautifully encapsulate his All-American philosophy. Contemplating the life, the achievements, and the obsessions of Mr. Tom Hanks may or may not give you the road map you need to find your way. But at the very least, it'll show you how niceness can be a worthy destination.
The Present Age: On the Death of Rebellion (Resistance Library)
Kierkegaard, Soren
(Paperback)
List Price: $10.99 Our Price: $4.89
Kierkegaard's stunningly prescient essay that foresaw the rise of twenty-four-hour news and social media, The Present Age examines the philosophical and political implications of a culture of endless, inconsequential commentary and debate.
The Outsider: The Classic Exploration of Rebellion and Creativity (Tarcher Cornerstone Editions)
Wilson, Colin
(Paperback)
List Price: $17.00 Our Price: $7.35
Colin Wilson's Classic exploration of the rebel as genius, with a new introduction by Gary Lachman.When the upstart English writer Colin Wilson debuted on the literary scene with The Outsider in 1956, it marked on of the opening notes of the cultural revolution of the sixties. Wilson celebrated the misfit not as a figure be "fixed" and reintegrated into society, but as a lone journeyer who often has a stirring artistic, political, or spiritual innovation to convey to society.Wilson lived this book as much as wrote it. As an impoverished 23-year-old, the Englishman slept in a tent in a London park so that he could be free of material demands to dedicate himself fully to his study. When The Outsider appeared in 1956, it became a sensation among both critics and beats, who formed the vanguard of the dawning Aquarian Age.In Wilson's epic exploration of mystics, visionaries, literary pioneers, political troublemakers, and rule breakers of all sorts, he evoked a new kind of heroism, which changed how we view ourselves and our purpose in life.The Outsider is now reissued and reset in a beautiful Tarcher Cornerstone Edition, with a new introduction by Wilson's friend and biographer, Gary Lachman. This new volume coincides with Tarcher's Publication of Lachman's biography of Wilson, Beyond the Robot.
Why Honor Matters
Sommers, Tamler
(Hardcover)
List Price: $27.00 Our Price: $6.25
A controversial call to put honor at the center of morality.To the modern mind, the idea of honor is outdated, sexist, and barbaric. It evokes Hamilton and Burr and pistols at dawn, not visions of a well-organized society. But for philosopher Tamler Sommers, a sense of honor is essential to living moral lives. In Why Honor Matters, Sommers argues that our collective rejection of honor has come at great cost. Reliant only on Enlightenment liberalism, the United States has become the home of the cowardly, the shameless, the selfish, and the alienated. Properly channeled, honor encourages virtues like courage, integrity, and solidarity, and gives a sense of living for something larger than oneself. Sommers shows how honor can help us address some of society's most challenging problems, including education, policing, and mass incarceration. Counterintuitive and provocative, Why Honor Matters makes a convincing case for honor as a cornerstone of our modern society.
The Logic of Faith: A Buddhist Approach to Finding Certainty Beyond Belief and Doubt
Namgyel, Elizabeth Mattis
(Paperback)
List Price: $16.95 Our Price: $8.09
A popular American Buddhist teacher explores the creative relationship between faith and doubt, knowing and not-knowing, and shows how an awakened life results from living from the place in between.Faith is a thorny subject these days. Its negative expressions cause many to dismiss it out of hand - but Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel urges us to reconsider, for faith is really nothing but our natural proclivity to find certainty in a world where certainty is hard to come by. And if we look carefully, we’ll discover that the faith impulse isn’t separate from reason at all - faith and logic in fact work together in a playful and dynamic relationship that reveals the profoundest kind of truth - a truth beyond the limits of “is” and “is not.” Using the traditional Buddhist teachings on dependent arising, Elizabeth leads us on an experiential journey to discover the essential interdependence of everything - and through that thrilling discovery to open ourselves to the whole wonderful range of human experience.
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