First published in 1931, this book provides a brief overview of the essentials of philosophy. It aims to combat the notion of the inaccessibility of philosophy by providing an introduction to its history and what the author believes to a ‘minimum dose…of incontrovertible philosophical truth’. The book merely assumes an ordinary level of adult education and offers an outline of the key areas of philosophy — consciousness, reality, experience, Life, God, love, aesthetics, conduct, logic — an...

A caustic criticism of nearly every philosophic predecessor and a challenge of traditionally held views on right and wrong, Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil paved the way for modern philosophical thought. Through nearly three hundred transformative aphorisms, Nietzsche presents a worldview in which neither truth nor morality are absolutes, and where good and evil are not opposites but counterparts that stem from the same desires. Beyond Good and Evil was a foundational text for e...

"Zarathustra" is my brother’s most personal work; it is the history of his most individual experiences, of his friendships, ideals, raptures, bitterest disappointments and sorrows. Above it all, however, there soars, transfiguring it, the image of his greatest hopes and remotest aims. My brother had the figure of Zarathustra in his mind from his very earliest youth: he once told me that even as a child he had dreamt of him. At different periods in his life, he would call this haunter of his d...

Collected here in one volume are three of Søren Kierkegaard's most important works: Fear and Trembling, Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing, and Sickness Unto Death. Fear and Trembling: In our time nobody is content to stop with faith but wants to go further. It would perhaps be rash to ask where these people are going, but it is surely a sign of breeding and culture for me to assume that everybody has faith, for otherwise it would be queer for them to be . . . going further. In those old...

First published in 1904, ‘Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and its Attainment’ by Rudolf Steiner is the classic account of the modern Western esoteric path of initiation. This work constitutes a fundamental guide to the anthroposophical path of cognition or knowledge. In human consciousness, faculties are sleeping that, if awakened, lead to life-giving wisdom. Steiner begins with the premise that “the capacities by which we can gain insights into the higher worlds lie dormant within each one...

Aristotle (384–322 BCE) was a Greek philosopher and student of Plato who stunningly changed the course of Western philosophy. He has gone down in history as one of the greatest philosophers of all time. Cicero, the Roman statesman and philosopher, once called his writing style "a river of gold;" and his scope of thought and subsequent influence on the study of science, logic, philosophical discourse, and theology has led many to dub him "The Philosopher."

"On Generation and Corruption" is a philosophical treatise written by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. The work is concerned with the nature of change and the principles that govern the transformation of substances in the natural world.Aristotle argues that everything in the natural world is composed of four basic elements: earth, air, fire, and water. These elements have different qualities, such as hot and cold, wet and dry, and they interact with one another to produce different...

Pragmatists have traditionally been enemies of representationalism but friends of naturalism, when naturalism is understood to pertain to human subjects, in the sense of Hume and Nietzsche. In this volume Huw Price presents his distinctive version of this traditional combination, as delivered in his René Descartes Lectures at Tilburg University in 2008. Price contrasts his view with other contemporary forms of philosophical naturalism, comparing it with other pragmatist and neo-pragmatist ...

Alfred Percy Sinnett was a British journalist and occultist who played an important part in the affairs of the Theosophical Society during its first generation. In the early 1880s A.P. Sinnett corresponded with the Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and Morya. In these letters the Masters gave Sinnett the basic ideas of Theosophy on the constitution of man, the planetary chain, the world periods, life after death in Devachan and Kâma-loka, the progress of humanity, Buddha and Nirvana. In 1883 Mr. Sinnett...

The Cambridge Companion to Hegel and Nineteenth-Century Philosophy examines Hegel within his broader historical and philosophical contexts. Covering all major aspects of Hegel's philosophy, the volume provides an introduction to his logic, epistemology, philosophy of mind, social and political philosophy, philosophy of nature and aesthetics. It includes essays by an internationally recognised team of Hegel scholars. The volume begins with Terry Pinkard's article on Hegel's life, a conspect...

An exploration of the fundamental realities of the existenceIs this the end? If not; how are we to discover and assure for stricken Humanity the vision and the possession of a Better Land?In this volume plumbing the depths of human experience, Alexander Philip explores the nature of reality at its most basic level. Examining the ways that time, abstract thought, and physical sensation affect consciousness, this book posits that matter and energy are the foun...

Philosophy Bites Again is a brand new selection of interviews from the popular podcast of the same name. It offers engaging and thought-provoking conversations with leading philosophers on a selection of major philosophical issues that affect our lives. Their subjects include pleasure, pain, and humour; consciousness and the self; free will, responsibility, and punishment; the meaning of life and the afterlife. Everyone will find ideas in this book to fascinate, provoke, and inspi...