Showing titles in Movements

For more than half a century, in such books as The Art of Happiness and The Dalai Lama's Little Book of Inner Peace, the Dalai Lama has guided us along the path to compassion and taught us how to improve our inner lives. In A Force for Good, with the help of his longtime friend Daniel Goleman, the New York Times best-selling author of Emotional Intelligence, the Dalai Lama explains how to turn our compassionate energy outward. This revelatory and inspiring work provides a singular vision for transforming the world in practical and positive ways.

What drives all of your life’s priorities, values, and decisions? In the sequel to An End to Upside Down Thinking, Mark Gober builds a science-based worldview from which we can create a compass for living. In stark contrast to his prior belief system, Gober explains why life is actually full of meaning. From this perspective, he lays out how we might approach life accordingly, along with the well-traveled “awakening” path that we’re likely to encounter. Approaching life in a new way is the antidote that our civilization desperately needs.

In 1845, after years of literary and emotional struggle, friend and colleague Ralph Waldo Emerson invited Thoreau to build a cabin on his land near Walden Pond, the location of which became Thoreau's inspiration. Walden records the doctrines of transcendentalism that he lived, supported, and for which he became famous. He focuses on the concept of self-knowledge and encourages all people to find some way to learn more about themselves and the world around them. Thoreau is remembered as a major American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.

Henry David Thoreau’s Walking is a profound meditation on nature, freedom, and self-discovery. Originally published in 1862, this classic essay explores the philosophy of walking as both a physical and spiritual act, emphasizing the importance of immersing oneself in the wild, untamed beauty of the natural world. Thoreau argues that walking is not merely a pastime but a way to achieve a deeper connection with the land, free from societal constraints and distractions.

In this daring and insightful work, Nietzsche lays bare the hypocrisies at the foundations of our ideas of morality. Considering ideas of good and evil, guilt and conscience, and law and violence along the way, On the Genealogy of Morals takes the listener on a journey through the history of value systems in three masterful essays.

Philosophy for busy people who are always on the go but have always wanted to read up on certain figures in history that have shaped the way we think and live. Listen to this succinct account of the philosophy of Heidegger in just one hour. One of the two major philosophical traditions of the...

Durant provides an immensely astute, clear, and enjoyable story of philosophy. He focuses not on schools of thought or subdisciplines, but on the most vigorous, powerful, and appealing thinkers in the Western philosophical tradition, starting with the founding figures of Plato and Aristotle, and taking us through Francis Bacon, the prime theorist of present-day scientific thought, and on to Spinoza, whom Durant prizes above all for his earnest effort to live his own philosophy.

The modern understanding of what it means to be stoical is never showing any form of outward emotion regardless of all circumstances, good or bad, and indeed not having any emotions whatsoever. The entire species of the Vulcans in the popular science fiction franchise Star Trek exemplifies the popular definition. But it's easy to recognize an absence of outward emotion as not necessarily being a good thing.

Immerse yourself in the serene and reflective world of Walden by Henry David Thoreau, narrated by Gary Middleton. This timeless literary classic chronicles Thoreau’s two years living in a simple cabin near Walden Pond, exploring themes of self-reliance, nature, and the pursuit of a meaningful life. Through his philosophical insights and poetic descriptions of the natural world, Thoreau invites readers to reflect on the essentials of existence and the beauty of simplicity.

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

A celebration of individuality, diversity, and nonconformity, On Liberty still makes a persuasive argument for what John Stuart Mill believed to be humankind’s essential liberties: the freedoms of speech, assembly, and the pursuit of pleasure, so long as one’s actions do not impede the liberty of another. These freedoms, he maintained, result in a far more successful society than one ruled by the tyranny of the majority. This treatise on personal liberty has inspired debate since its publication in 1859, and has provided the foundation for modern liberal political thought.

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...

Although Montaigne’s writing resists easy analysis, Montaigne includes seven essays before he even explicitly states the purpose of the Essays. Manent finds in it a subtle unity, and demonstrates both the philosophical depth of Montaigne’s reflections and the distinctive and even radical character of his central ideas.

To some, Soren Kierkegaard is primarily a philosopher, to others a Christian thinker or theologian. He was also a perceptive psychologist and incisive cultural critic. But above all, Kierkegaard was a writer. Clare Carlisle’s book tackles eight key questions surrounding Kierkegaard’s multi-faceted thinking, exploring above all his view of the world and how we live in it.

Since the publication of The Prince five centuries ago, Machiavelli has been associated with political amorality. But that characterization is unfair. In Be Like the Fox, Erica Benner sets the record straight: far from the ruthless "Machiavellian" henchman that people think he was, Machiavelli emerges here as a profound ethical thinker who fought to uphold high moral standards and restore the democratic freedoms of his beloved Florence.

On Liberty is an 1859 philosophical treatise by the English philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873) which applies an ethical system of utilitarianism to society and the state. Mill starts with a brief overview of the meaning of liberty and proffers his basic argument in favor of liberty for the individual, to the degree that it harms no one else. The value of liberty of opinion and liberty of action are set forth in two chapters.

In "Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State," Senegalese scholar Cheikh Anta Diop boldly calls for the unification of Black African nations. He argues that colonial borders fractured regions with shared cultures and economies, hindering progress. Diop proposes a unified state for greater global influence, emphasizing cultural revival and a common African language.

In the complex tapestry of life, the brilliance of Marcus Aurelius serves as a guiding beacon. Within his personal reflections, meticulously crafted with profound insight, the revered Stoic philosopher-emperor imparted timeless wisdom that continues to inspire generations.

In 1968, at the climax of the '60s, Os Guinness visited the United States for the first time. There he was struck by an impression he’d already felt in England and elsewhere: Beneath all the idealism and struggle for freedom was a growing disillusionment and loss of meaning. “Underneath the efforts of a generation”, he wrote, “lay dust”. Even more troubling, Christians seemed uninformed about the cultural shifts and ill-equipped to respond. Guinness took on these concerns by writing his first book, The Dust of Death.

Denis Diderot is often associated with the decades-long battle to bring the world's first comprehensive Encyclopedie into existence. But his most daring writing took place in the shadows. Thrown into prison for his atheism in 1749, Diderot decided to reserve his best books for posterity - for us, in fact. In the astonishing cache of unpublished writings left behind after his death, Diderot challenged virtually all of his century's accepted truths, from the sanctity of monarchy, to the racial justification of the slave trade, to the norms of human sexuality.