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A useful book for philosophers and truth seekers, this book is a collection of Thomas Aquinas's thoughts on just about everything throughout his life. Included are extracts from his "Summa Contra Gentile", and "Summa Theologica", plus essays on law and happiness.
Price: EUR 24.00
Aristotle was born in Stagirus in northern Greece. His father was Nichomachus, a doctor of medicine. "Ethics" concerns itself with the nature of happiness. How can we achieve happiness, if at all? What constitutes happiness? Aristotle argues that happiness is to be found in the "activity of the soul in accordance with virtue". In layman's terms this means finding happiness through acts of courage, justice and generosity, which Aristotle terms moral values. Similarly, intellectual values - knowledge, wisdom and insight - can also raise our spirits.
Price: EUR 12.90
Allen Lane Too often the debate around civilization is impersonal, focusing on the political tensions between different parts of the world, colonial history and scientific development. Yet the promise of civilization is greater: it is a way of reconnecting grand, societal forces – economic liberty, social freedom – with the more intimate and deeper needs of life in a flourishing culture. In ‘In Search of Civilization’ the philosopher, John Armstrong, passionately and illuminatingly explores the sources behind such wisdom, maturity and happiness which, he fears, are rapidly drying up.
Price: EUR 19.00
This book seeks to change perceptions, inspire mind-shifts and alter the way we see the world and live our lives. Its powerful central argument is that science and spirituality must learn to join forces and work together in order for us to make sense of our universe. By linking the apparently unrelated fields of quantum physics, holistic health, cosmology, theology, neuroscience, evolutionary theory and studies of consciousness, Bailey has shown that each is a facet of a greater, unified reality. He does not intend to give a blueprint of how to live one’s life, but aims to open our minds to what can be accessed and achieved, once we realise that we are living within, and are part of, a unified whole, where nothing is truly out of reach.
Price: EUR 18.00
Michael Berg is son of eminent Kabbalist Rav P.S. Berg, director of the Kabbalah Centre, and translator of the first English version of the holy Zohar, a twenty three volume compendium of virtually all knowledge pertaining to the universe, written in Aramaic. He draws on these traditional teachings and shows readers how to overcome 'ego nature' which the ancient texts name as the 'desire to receive for the self alone'. He uses the metaphor of imprisonment, claiming that most of us are confined in a jail of pain, suffering and death, and that it is our job to conquer the ego and escape. This is done primarily by looking after the needs of the collective, instead of just oneself, thereby creating a path to realise our true, 'godlike' nature.
Price: EUR 22.00
"Every adult life could be said to be defined by two great love stories. The first, the story of our quest for sexual love, is well-known and well charted. The second, the story of our quest for love from the world, is a more secret and shameful tale - and yet this second love story is no less intense than the first." Alain de Botton, the layman's philosopher, asks where worries about our status come from and what, if anything, we can do to surmount them. With the help of philosophers, artists and writers, he provides us with persuasive and consoling reminders that there is more than one way of succeeding in life.
Price: EUR 16.90
Granta With acute insight, scholarly intelligence and sprightly wit, Professor Simon Critchley introduces a collection of nearly two hundred notable philosophical figures. He investigates not only what they have thought about, but also how they have actually died. Along with murders and suicides, the reader will discover what dark departures, from suffocating in cow dung, indigestion and lethal insect stings, have to do with how we live today! Critchley writes, ‘My hope is that, if read from the beginning to end, a cumulative series of themes will emerge that will add up to a specific argument about how philosophy might teach us how to die, and by implication, how to live.’ This rigorous, profound and often hilarious book makes for a witty and enlightening gift that should leave the reader a bit less afraid of death and more appreciative of life!
Price: EUR 14.90
In the tradition of Euripides, Sophocles and Ovid, Andrew Dalby collates and retells the myths that surround Bacchus, god of wine. He has collected tales from an astonishing range of sources and dramatises the life of the powerful seducer, magician and merrymaker, bringing him to life as never before.
Price: EUR 25.00
Picking up where he left off in "Darwin's Dangerous Idea", Dennett argues that there is indeed such a thing as free will, but it is not "a preexisting feature of our existence, like the law of gravity". The conditions on which our freedom depend upon have to evolve, and, like the atmosphere on which life depends, they continue to evolve but can also be extinguished. Here is the story of how we came to be different from all other creatures, how our early ancestors created human culture, and then, out of culture came consciousness, vision, moral problems, in a nutshell, our freedom.
Price: EUR 15.90
Descartes has been called the first modern philosopher. He was born the son of a rich French lawyer in La Haye, France. Raised and educated by the Jesuits, he is the author of many works designed for the philosopher and theologian. "Meditations on First Philosophy" was first published in 1641 consisting of six meditations: Of the Nature of the Human Mind, Of God, That He Exists, Of Truth and Error, Of the Essence of Material Things, Of the Existence of Material Things and Of the Real Distinction Between the Mind and Body of Man. His principal goal is his search for absolute certainty to the extent that he is willing to deny all the things that to us seem self evident. "I shall imagine myself as if I had no hands, no eyes, no flesh, no blood, no senses at all". In "Meditations" he sets out to dismantle and then reconstruct the idea of the individual self and its existence. This search would eventually culminate in the now famous finding "Cogito, ergo sum" ( I think therefore I am).
Mankind, most scientists agree, is a tiny and insignificant anomaly in the impersonal vastness of the universe. But what would the universe be like if we were not here to say something about it? Would there still be numbers if there were no one to count them? Frayn shows how fleeting and indeterminate our contacts with the world around us really are. He provocatively puts us in our place should we ever overestimate our significance in the structure of the universe. His brilliance lies in the luminous way he combines intellectual with popular thinking.
Price: EUR 29.00
An essential for philosophers everywhere, "Leviathan" caused an outcry when it was published in 1651 ( it was actually publicly burned). It is a bleak, stark commentary of man's essential nature which Hobbes describes as competitive and selfish. Readers should take into account that it was written during the English Civil War. The "Leviathan" itself is the "powerful sovereign" that Hobbes believes is needed to keep peace, law and order. This fascinating work contains thoughts and arguments on subjects such as euthanasia, thought processes, religion, and the government. It is as relevant today as when it was first written, and has opened the door to a new vein of political science.
An infamously challenging but hugely rewarding exploration of methaphysics. Amongst his many Copernican manoeuvres, Kant experiments with the shifting of reality from the outside world, as an absolute phenomenon, to the inside world, a mental feature that influences experience. "Reality is not an object of experience but rather a factor of experience". This is a difficult view to comprehend but once it is understood the reader can treat reality as a personal feature of life rather than an absolute feature of the physical world. All knowledge is based upon experience and philosophy has divided knowledge into two types; "analytical" and "synthetical". Kant holds that an analytical statement is always absolutely true, whereas the synthetical statement is open to argument. In the "Critique of Pure Reason", he tries to establish whether or not there is some connection with which synthetic knowledge can be "known" in the same way as analytical knowledge is "known". Throughout the book we read of references to "a priori" for "known" synthetic knowledge. Based on his research, he tries to prove the existence of God and explores the realisation or experiencing of time.
As the title states, this work is a manifesto. It is a "public declaration of a political programme". Published in 1848 in a time of political ferment with the emergence of industrial capitalism and the modern industrial working class in Western Europe, the manifesto is a summary of Marx's vision of history and the basis for the whole Marxist movement. It is still seen today to be a statement of purpose and a call to arms.
Price: EUR 9.90
Utilitarianism - the rightness of an action rests in how well it promotes the welfare of those affected by it, aiming for the greatest happiness of the greatest number. The movement was founded by Jeremy Bentham, and in this book we follow Mill's attempt to curtail Bentham's ideas and apply them to current society. The essays are clear and understandable, and the contemporary issue of capital punishment is presented logically.
Price: EUR 17.90
"Ecce Homo" was begun in 1888 a few weeks before Nietzche's psychological breakdown. A sometimes confusing but humorous and moving autobiography from one of the most human and accessible of modern philosophers. "Beyond Good and Evil", Friedrich Nietzsche, Penguin, € 15,50 In "Beyond Good and Evil" Nietzsche tries to demonstrate how the Christian world has rejected God and "is steeped in false piety" infected with "a slave morality". A great work of black humor by one of the world's great philosophers.
Plato's main contributions are in philosophy, mathematics and science. Unfortunately, it is not easy to discover Plato's philosophical views as he never wrote a traditional, systematic treatise, rather a number of dialogues which are written in conversation form. In "The Republic", Plato envisions his ideology of what a perfect community, with ideal individuals would be like. This society would be free of corruption, discrimination and race division. "The Republic" is presented in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and three others. The main themes discussed are: what is goodness? what is knowledge? what is reality? and also the segregation of the rich and the poor. The conclusion eventually reached is that an ideal state would be bound in harmony and ruled by philosopher kings.
Price: EUR 8.90
At the core of this erudite and stimulating book is the attempt to unravel our most pressing obsession - ourselves. Porter asks how we have come to a modern understanding of our bodies and souls and what were the breakthroughs in history which allowed this development. Starting with the Civil War in Britain during the seventeenth century with its punishing sense of the body as a corrupt vessel, Porter charts how through diverse writers and thinkers such as Locke, Swift, Godwin and Blake, ideas about medicine, politics and religion fundamentally changed the notions of the self. He does not come to any final view of the "enlightened self ", but describes rather the way in which aspects of it have been championed or negated in history.
Unfortunately for Epicurus fans, most of his works have been either lost or destroyed, but the "Essential Epicurus" contains his most important teachings. Epicurus is a believer in God or gods - he thinks this is prudent! However he also believes that after death we go to an eternal oblivion, free of all pain and suffering - an unusual view for a theist. Like Aristotle, Epicurus holds that the best life led is a happy one, and in the "Essential Epicurus", he outlines his ideas of what comprises a happy life. We are advised to look at both sides of an argument to find the truth. Happiness is not to be found through attainment of a bigger house, more money or fancier clothes, as such desires can never be satisfied. Instead we should focus on the simpler things in life such as friendship, good food and the wonders of nature. According to Epicurus, those who are not satisfied with a little, will never be satisfied with a lot.
Price: EUR 11.00
Russell had a long and productive career writing on very different branches of philosophy. It was while writing the "Principles of Mathematics" in 1903 that Russell discovered the "Russell Paradox": "The Paradox arose in connection with the set of all sets which are not members of themselves. Such a set, if it exists will be a member of itself if, and only if, it is not a member of itself" (!). Although now dismissed as being intellectually dated, Russell presents his principles logically and clearly. A "must read" for students of mathematical foundations.
Price: EUR 39.00
Eckhart Tolle, known for his inspiring ‘The Power of Now’, now provides us with spiritual background to make our own lives and by extension, the wider world, more meaningful and fulfilling. He shatters modern conceptions of ego and enlightenment, self and society and exposes the fears that loom over us all which prevent us from finding health and happiness. Stripping away the illusions we live by, he takes us on a stunning journey, providing a basis for personal spirituality and self-development.
Price: EUR 11.90
Atlantic books In this erudite and highly original book, Walton deftly examines the history of each of our core emotions such fear, anger, disgust, sadness, jealousy, embarrassment, surprise and happiness and shows how they have shaped the past and influenced social structure on a global level. He mixes examples from the works of Schopenhauer, Plato and Adorno with The Simpsons and Dolly Parton to illustrate the points he is making. The result is a marvellously readable and entertaining piece of in depth scholarship which is both extremely informative but never boring. Walton is particularly astute in his observations about embarrassment and happiness and leaves us in doubt that without emotions there would simply be no human history to speak of.
"Tractatus Logico Philosophicus", Ludwig Wittgenstein, Routledge "Tractatus" was written during Wittgenstein's four years of active service during the First World War. It was found in his rucksack as he was taken prisoner in Italy, but luckily he was able to send it off to Bertrand Russell. Wittgenstein investigates the truth and function of language and its usage in relation to the world. "The right method of philosophy would be this. To say nothing except what can be said [...] and then always, when someone else wished to say something metaphysical, to demonstrate to him that he had given no meaning to certain signs in his propositions".
The Road to Delphi: The Life and Afterlife of Oracles, Michael Wood, Chatto As a combination of vivid story-telling and perceptive analysis, this book gives a sympathetic and entertaining account of humanity's persistent belief in "signs" and longing for certainties we know we can never have. The author begins with the oracles of the ancient Greeks, who were eagerly consulted in times of need and personal crisis. As with horoscopes, they allowed the hearers to fit the message to what they wanted to hear. Sometimes, as in the tragic drama of Oedipus and the Oracle of Delphi, the answer could be all too correct! Wood also explores the ways in which such consultations have evolved over time both in literature and popular culture. He examines, for example, the phenomenum of the witch, in her guise in Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and in the contemporary film, "Matrix."
