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The foundation for a general system of morals, this 1749 work is a landmark in the history of moral and political thought. Readers familiar with Adam Smith from The Wealth of Nations will find this earlier book a revelation. Although the author is often misrepresented as a calculating rationalist who advises the pursuit of self-interest in the marketplace, regardless of the human cost, he was also interested in the human capacity for benevolence -...
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The second of Immanuel Kant's three critiques, "Critique of Practical Reason", published in 1788, is considered by many to be one of the most important works on the subject of moral philosophy ever written. Written several years after his first critique, "Critique of Pure Reason", this work addresses Kant's views on moral philosophy and what it means to be good and ethical. In this work, Kant explores his philosophy of the categorical imperative,...
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First published posthumously in 1779, "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion" is Scottish philosopher David Hume's classic work of religious philosophy. This detailed and exhaustive examination of the nature and existence of God was begun by Hume in 1750, but not completed until shortly before his death in 1776. Hume was an important and influential English Empiricist, along with other English philosophers such as Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Thomas...
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German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche was one the most controversial figures of the 19th century. His evocative writings on religion, morality, culture, philosophy, and science were often polemic attacks against the established views of his time. First published in 1887, "The Genealogy of Morals," is a work, which follows and expands upon the principles of his previous works, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and "Beyond Good and Evil." In a preface and...
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As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin Wall Kimmerer has spent a career learning how to ask questions of nature using the tools of science. As a Potawatomi woman, she learned from elders, family, and history that the Potawatomi, as well as a majority of other cultures indigenous to this land, consider plants and animals to be our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowing together to reveal what...
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After kicking open the doors to twentieth-century philosophy in Thus Spake Zarathustra, Friedrich Nietzsche refined his ideal of the superman with the 1886 publication of Beyond Good and Evil. Conventional morality is a sign of slavery, Nietzsche maintains, and the superman goes beyond good and evil in action, thought, and creation. Nietzsche especially targets what he calls a "slave morality" that fosters herd like quiescence and stigmatizes the...
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This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. When Principia Ethica appeared, in 1903, it became something of a sacred text for the Cambridge-educated elite who formed the core of the Bloomsbury Group. In a letter of October 11, 1903, Strachey confesses to Moore that he is "carried away" by Principia, which inaugurates, for him, "the beginning of the Age of Reason." Moore's critique of convention, his caustic...
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Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell was a notable 20th century British philosopher, mathematician, historian, social critic, and political activist. Considered one of the founders of analytical philosophy, Russell was an iconoclast who helped lead the revolt against British idealism, a prominent philosophy in England at the end of the 19th century. First written in 1912, Bertrand Russell's "The Problems of Philosophy" was an attempt by the author to create...
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Excerpt: "When Schopenhauer was asked where he wished to be buried, he answered, "Anywhere; they will find me;" and the stone that marks his grave at Frankfort bears merely the inscription "Arthur Schopenhauer," without even the date of his birth or death. Schopenhauer, the pessimist, had a sufficiently optimistic conviction that his message to the world would ultimately be listened to-a conviction that never failed him during a lifetime of disappointments,...
10) What Is Art?
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While Tolstoy may be best remembered as the talented Russian author of such monumentally great works as "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina", he also wrote prolifically in essay format on various subjects. In this volume Tolstoy turns his attention to the study of aesthetics and art in all its forms. Based on fifteen years of research, "What is Art?" is Tolstoy's intellectual exposition into answering the titular question. Rich with criticism for his...
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Disappointed by the public reception to "A Treatise of Human Nature", published anonymously between 1739 and 1740, David Hume decided to produce a shorter more polemic version of that work nearly ten years later. That revision, which was published in 1748, would be entitled "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding". Dispensing with much of the extraneous material from the "Treatise", Hume focuses on his more vital propositions in the "Enquiry"....
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What is morally permissible, and what is morally obligatory? These questions form the core of a vast amount of philosophical reasoning. In his Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, Immanuel Kant developed a basis for the answers. In this landmark work, the German philosopher asks what sort of maxim might function as a guide to appropriate action under a given set of circumstances. By universalizing such a maxim, would morally permissible...
13) How We Think
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"How We Think" by John Dewey is a groundbreaking exploration of the process of thinking and its role in education and problem-solving. In this influential work, Dewey delves into the nature of intelligence, inquiry, and reflective thought, offering valuable insights into how individuals can enhance their thinking abilities and engage in meaningful learning experiences. The book begins by challenging traditional notions of thinking as a passive, linear...
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2022.
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"Scientific methods, tools, and discoveries have shaped modern civilization and created the landscape we've built for ourselves on which to live, work, and play. Tyson shows how an infusion of science and rational thinking renders worldviews deeper and more informed than ever before-and exposes unfounded perspectives and unjustified emotions. With crystalline prose and an abundance of evidence, Starry Messenger walks us through the scientific palette...
15) Greenlights
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"Drawing on the Academy Award-winning actor's journals and diaries from the last 40 years, this book presents a uniquely McConaughey approach to achieving success and satisfaction"--
16) The Enchiridion
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A HANDBOOK FOR LIFE
The Enchiridion, or Handbook of Epictetus, is a short manual of Stoic ethical advice which was compiled by Arrian, who was a 2nd-century disciple of the Greek philosopher Epictetus.
Epictetus lived in ancient Greece from 55 to 135 AD. Born into slavery, he endured a permanent physical disability. While enslaved, he studied Stoic philosophy. After attaining his freedom, Epictetus remained a fervent believer of Stoic thought and...
17) The Ethics
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"Ethics" is the most famous work of Benedict de Spinoza, who is considered one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy. Spinoza was born of Jewish and Portuguese ancestry in 1632 and lived a simple life in Amsterdam as an optical lens grinder. His greatest fame came about when "Ethics," a collection of several of his philosophical works, was published anonymously by his close friends in 1677 shortly after Spinoza's untimely death at age...
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First published in 1789, Jeremy Bentham's best-known work remains a classic of modern philosophy and jurisprudence. Its definitions of the foundations of utilitarian philosophy and its groundbreaking studies of crime and punishment retain their relevance to modern issues of moral and political philosophy, economics, and legal theory. Based on the assumption that individuals seek pleasure and avoid pain, Bentham's utilitarian perspective forms a guide...
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Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle - The Nicomachean Ethics is one of Aristotle's most widely read and influential works. Ideas central to ethics-that happiness is the end of human endeavor, that moral virtue is formed through action and habituation, and that good action requires prudence-found their most powerful proponent in the person medieval scholars simply called "the Philosopher." Drawing on their intimate knowledge of Aristotle's thought, Robert...
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The World as Will and Representation marked the pinnacle of Schopenhauer's philosophical thought; he spent the rest of his life refining, clarifying, and deepening the ideas presented in this work without any fundamental changes. The first edition was met with near universal silence. The second edition of 1844 similarly failed to attract any interest. At the time, post-Kantian German academic philosophy was dominated by the German Idealists-foremost...
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