For almost four decades, Made Simple books have set the standard for continuing education and home study. In answer to the changing needs of today's marketplace, the Made Simple series for the '90s presents a thoroughly up-to-the-minute portfolio of skills, information, and experience, with revised and updated editions of bestselling titles, plus a whole range of new subjects from personal finance to office management to desktop publishing.

Spanning Ludwig Wittgenstein’s entire career, from his student days at Cambridge to the entries inserted into a notebook two days before his death, this is an indispensable guide to a philosopher described by Bertrand Russell as "the most perfect example of genius I have ever known."Combining careful organization with a highly readable style, eminent scholar Avrum Stroll outlines the unconventional backdrop to Wittgenstein’s great philosophical achievements: his dramatic change of ...

Analytic philosophy is difficult to define since it is not so much a specific doctrine as a loose concatenation of approaches to problems. As well as having strong ties to scientism -the notion that only the methods of the natural sciences give rise to knowledge -it also has humanistic ties to the great thinkers and philosophical problems of the past. Moreover, no single feature characterizes the activities of analytic philosophers. Undaunted by these difficulties, Avrum Stroll investigate...

The problem of the nature of fiction and the problem of nonexistence are closely tied because fiction often talks about nonexistent entities. In Fiction, Reference, and Nonexistence, A. P. Martinich and Avrum Stroll, two of America's leading philosophers, explore fiction and undertake an analytic philosophical study of fiction and its reference and its relation to truth. Included in the discussion is the authors' new, contemporary theory of fiction developed as an extension of the...

The Stoic Mindset offers a clear and practical introduction to Stoicism as it was originally meant to be understood: not as abstract philosophy, but as a way of thinking and living.Rather than promising control over life’s outcomes, this book focuses on what Stoicism has always emphasised: control over judgment, character, and response. Its teachings are grounded in everyday experience, addressing how to face difficulty, manage emotion, make sound decision...

Passionate and spiritual writings uncovering the philosophical foundations of one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkersKahlil Gibran's works are known throughout the world for their lyrical grandeur, wisdom, and insights drawn from the everyday sufferings of man. This nine-book collection captures one of modern history's titanic literary figures at his best. Texts such as "The Secret of the Heart," "Laughter and Tears," and "Song of the Flower" reveal the viv...

The Armenian-Greek spiritual teacher, G.I. Gurdjieff’s autobiographical account of his youth and early travels has become something of a legend since it was first published in 1963. A compulsive read in the tradition of adventure narratives, but suffused with Gurdjieff’s unique perspective on life, it is organized around portraits of remarkable men and women who aided Gurdjieff’s search for hidden knowledge or accompanied him on his journeys in remote parts of the Near East and Central Asi...

Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) is widely regarded as the founding figure of the philosophical movement of "phenomenology." Husserl's philosophical program was both embraced and rejected by many, but in either case, his ideas set the stage for and exercised an enormous influence on the development of much of the philosophy that followed. In particular, his thought provides the backdrop and impetus for movements such as existentialism, hermeneutics, and deconstruction. Also, because of his caree...

Peter Unger's provocative new book poses a serious challenge to contemporary analytic philosophy, arguing that to its detriment it focuses the predominance of its energy on "empty ideas." In the mid-twentieth century, philosophers generally agreed that, by contrast with science, philosophy should offer no substantial thoughts about the general nature of concrete reality. Leading philosophers were concerned with little more than the semantics of ordinary words. For example: Our word "percei...

Many great artists have had at least intermittent doubts about their own abilities. But The Education of Henry Adams is surely one of the few masterpieces to issue directly from a raging inferiority complex. The author, to be sure, had bigger shoes to fill than most of us. Both his grandfather and great-grandfather were U.S. presidents. His father, a relative underachiever, scraped by as a member of Congress and ambassador to the Court of St. James. But young Henry, born in Boston in 1838,...

The book identifies the specific ethical aspects of sustainability and develops ethical tools to analyze them. It also provides a methodological framework to integrate ethical and scientific analyses of sustainability issues, and explores the notion of a new type of self-reflective inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research. With this, the book aims to strengthen the overall ability of academics to contribute to the analysis and solution of sustainability issues in an inclusive a...

Now available as an ebook, this acclaimed A-Z dictionary is a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to the superstitions, old and new, of the English-speaking world, complete with their origins, meanings and variant forms. It includes just about everything from touching wood, crossing fingers and identifying future lovers to folk remedies, spells and modern beliefs relating to the lottery, the computer and the mobile phone. A first-class source book for the historian, folklorist and casual re...