Philosophy Books

A panoramic history of rules in the Western world.Rules order almost every aspect of our lives. They set our work hours, dictate how we drive and set the table, tell us whether to offer an extended hand or cheek in greeting, and organize the rites of...

Perhaps no other Western writer has more deeply probed the bitter struggle in the Muslim world between the forces of religion and law and those of violence and lawlessness as Noah Feldman. His scholarship has defined the stakes in the Middle East today...

Most people, including philosophers, tend to classify human motives as falling into one of two categories: the egoistic or the altruistic, the self-interested or the moral. According to Susan Wolf, however, much of what motivates us does not comfortably...

How to Win an Election is an ancient Roman guide for campaigning that is as up-to-date as tomorrow's headlines. In 64 BC when idealist Marcus Cicero, Rome's greatest orator, ran for consul (the highest office in the Republic), his practical brother...

Logic is essential to correct reasoning and also has important theoretical applications in philosophy, computer science, linguistics, and mathematics. This book provides an exceptionally clear introduction to classical logic, with a unique approach that...

Examines "Adam Smith, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx--heirs of the Enlightenment who embodied its highest ideals about progress--and shows how their thoughts, over time and in the hands of their followers and...

A masterful new account of old regime France by one of the world's most prominent political philosophers France before 1789 traces the historical origins of France's National Constituent Assembly of 1789, providing a vivid portrait of...

A dramatic intellectual biography of Victorian jurist Travers Twiss, who provided the legal justification for the creation of the brutal Congo Free State.Eminent jurist, Oxford professor, advocate to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Travers Twiss (18091897)...

A leading political theorist's groundbreaking defense of ideal conceptions of justice in political philosophyThroughout the history of political philosophy and politics, there has been continual debate about the roles of idealism versus realism. For...

Is socialism desirable? Is it even possible? In this concise book, one of the world's leading political philosophers presents with clarity and wit a compelling moral case for socialism and argues that the obstacles in its way are exaggerated. There are...

Black--favorite color of priests and penitents, artists and ascetics, fashion designers and fascists--has always stood for powerfully opposed ideas: authority and humility, sin and holiness, rebellion and conformity, wealth and poverty, good and bad. In...

A novel approach to the crucial role emotion plays in virtuous actionWhat must a person be like to possess a virtue in full measure? What sort of psychological constitution does one need to be an exemplar of compassion, say, or of courage? Focusing on...

Race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender, sexuality: in the past couple of decades, a great deal of attention has been paid to such collective identities. They clamor for recognition and respect, sometimes at the expense of other things we value...

*A New York Times #1 Bestseller*One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of...

Much political thinking today, particularly that influenced by liberalism, assumes a clear distinction between the public and the private, and holds that the correct understanding of this should weigh heavily in our attitude to human goods. It is, for...

In America today, the problem of achieving racial justice--whether through "color-blind" policies or through affirmative action--provokes more noisy name-calling than fruitful deliberation. In Color Conscious, K. Anthony Appiah and Amy Gutmann, two...

The aim of this book is to ask through a study of one of his most complicated treatises on explanation, how far, and in what sense, the demands of the 'scientific person' are Aristotle's.

Volume one of the acclaimed Oxford translation of Aristotle's works-now fully revised and expandedOriginally published in twelve volumes between 1912 and 1954, the Oxford translation of Aristotle is universally recognized as the standard English version...

Taking the title of his book from Isaiah Berlin's famous essay distinguishing a negative concept of liberty connoting lack of interference by others from a positive concept involving participation in the political realm, Samuel Fleischacker explores a...

New work by world-renowned French thinker translated by Sydney-based Gazebo Books.In Around the world with writers, scientists and philosophers, world-renowned philosopher Michel Serres takes us on a voyage that unveils a different map than the...

Wabi sabi, the quintessential Japanese design aesthetic, is quickly gaining popularity around the world. Taken from the Japanese words wabi, which translates to less is more, and sabi, which means attentive melancholy, wabi...

Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy, the fundamental and originating work of the modern era in Western philosophy, is presented here in Donald Cress's completely revised edition of his well-established translation, bringing this version even...

Hume's brilliant and dispassionate essay Of Miracles has been added in this expanded edition of his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, which also includes Of the Immortality of the Soul, Of Suicide, and Richard Popkin's illuminating Introduction.

Building on the virtues that made the First edition of A Presocratics Reader the most widely used sourcebook for study of the Presocratics and Sophists, the Second Edition offers even more value and a wider selection of fragments from these philosophical...

The Essential Mengzi offers a representative selection from Bryan Van Norden's acclaimed translation of the full work, including the most frequently studied passages and covering all of the work's major themes. An appendix of selections from the classic...

The Second Treatise is one of the most important political treatises ever written and one of the most far-reaching in its influence.In his provocative 15-page introduction to this edition, the late eminent political theorist C. B. Macpherson examines...

This volume collects the most intimate writings of one of the foremost French thinkers of the twentieth century on the central topic of his oeuvre. These essays, aphorisms, notes, and lectures on nonknowledge, sovereignity, and sacrifice clarify and...

A literal translation, allowing the simplicity and vigor of the Greek diction to shine through.

An abridged reprint of the Doubleday edition of 1976, with new preface and conclusion by the author.

This anthology features unabridged translations of Diderot's best work as a literary artist, including those writings that embody his most original and influential ideas.

What explains the huge popular following for Dexter, a show which sympathetically depicts a serial killer driven by a cruel compulsion to brutally slay one victim after another? Although Dexter Morgan kills only killers, he is not a vigilante animated by...

Martial arts and philosophy have always gone hand in hand, as well as fist in throat. Philosophical argument is closely paralleled with hand-to-hand combat. And all of today's Asian martial arts were developed to embody and apply philosophical ideas. In...

Since their publication in 1982, Samuel Shirley's translations of Spinoza's Ethics and Selected Letters have been commended for their accuracy and readability. Now with the addition of his new translation of Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect...

This follow-up to the hugely successful The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real explores the issues of fate, fortune, causation and determinism as presented in the Matrix trilogy. It asks the reader to consider notions of freedom and...

The Grand Array is a stunning collection of 18 essays by widely acclaimed poet Pattiann Rogers. Written over a span of 25 years, in these essays Rogers daringly lays out the essential unity of science, spirituality, the arts, and our sensual experience...

This groundbreaking book by the acclaimed Dorothy Roberts examines how the myth of biological concept of race-revived by purportedly cutting-edge science, race-specific drugs, genetic testing, and DNA databases-continues to undermine a just society and...

Since 1968's Night of the Living Dead, zombie culture has continued to limp and claw its way into the center of popular culture. Zombies and Vampires now thrive in TV shows, comic books, cartoons, video games, and movies. Zombies, Vampires, and...

In 2006, about 69 million U.S. households had pets, giving homes to around 73.9 million dogs, 90.5 million cats, and 16.6 million birds, and spending more than 38 billion dollars on companion animals. As never before in history, our pets are truly...

This unconventional and lighthearted introduction to the ideas of the major Western philosophers examines The Simpsons - TV's favorite animated family. The authors look beyond the jokes, the crudeness, the attacks on society - and see a clever display of...

This collection of more than two hundred of Nietzsche's letters offers a representative body of correspondence on subjects of main concern to him--philosophy, history, morals, music and literature. Also included are letters of biographical interest...

Drawn from James B. Atkinson and David Sices' Montaigne: Selected Essays, this annotated translation of tienne de La Botie's political masterpiece offers an ideal opportunity to become acquainted with the thought of a brilliant though short-lived...

Like Werner Pluhar's distinguished translation of Critique of Judgment (Hackett Publishing Co., 1987), this new rendering of Critique of Pure Reason reflects the elegant achievement of a master translator. This richly annotated volume offers translations...

First among the ancient classics, the I Ching or Book of Changes is one of the world's most influential books, comparable to the Bible, the Koran, and the Upanishads.The I Ching's purpose is universal: to provide good counsel to its users in making...

Outstanding translations by leading contemporary scholars--many commissioned especially for this volume--are presented here in the first single edition to include the entire surviving corpus of works attributed to Plato in antiquity. In his introductory...