The argument that the discipline of philosophy was not invented by the Greeks, but was in existence elsewhere, and as far back as the middle of the second millennium B.C.E., has been gaining traction over recent years. It is now possible to trace the detail of its presence in the civilizations around the ancient Near East.'The Sacred History of Being' collects some of the key evidence together, and examines the idea of the divine as a philosophical concept in Greece, ancient Assyri...

This is my second collection of essays on philosophy and ancient history. Like my first collection, 'Understanding Ancient Thought', it expands further on the arguments of 'The Sacred History of Being', which appeared in November 2015. A theme of my work is that abstract philosophical thought was a key component in the development of ancient Divine cult.Many of the essays deal with the question of esoteric knowledge in antiquity, often from slightly different angles. 'The Death of ...

Much of the cultural production of the ancient world, east and west, was based on the idea of reflecting aspects of the divine in human life and thought. Many social structures and institutions were based on this approach. The model for these things was was astronomy and the heavens, and the heavens were conceived of as a moving image of eternity, and eternity was understood to be coterminous with the Divine. Since it moved, it contained life and thought, and repaid the attention of man. W...

There are many puzzling things about the ancient world, since those who peopled that world lived and thought within quite different models of reality. Why did they practice the sacrifice of animals? Why did they think they could understand the future by examining the entrails and the liver of a ram? What was the logic beneath the practice of magic? Other questions are equally problematic to answer, such as their understanding of religion, which, on close examination, does not closely resem...

When he was only twenty-four years old, James Frazer won a Cambridge fellowship with an essay on the development of Plato's theory of the Forms or Ideas (eidos). In this essay he argued that there was no overarching theory of Being in Plato's mind before he embarked on the writing of his dialogues, and that consequently differences in approach and discussion apparent in his work are the result of the development of his thought. He also argued that the very idea of Being is a barren notion,...

**The bestselling author of Collapse and Guns, Germs and Steel surveys the history of human societies to answer the question: What can we learn from traditional societies that can make the world a better place for all of us?“As he did in his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond continues to make us think with his mesmerizing and absorbing new book." Bookpage**Most of us take for granted the features of our modern society, f...

One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives. In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancien...

"A robustly researched and smoothly written overview of the many challenges confronting our devotion to fossil fuels" from the author of Tar Sands ( Quill & Quire).Ancient civilizations relied on shackled human muscle. It took the energy of slaves to plant crops, clothe emperors, and build cities. Nineteenth-century slaveholders viewed critics as hostilely as oil companies and governments now regard environmentalists. Yet the abolition movement ha...

Apology is Plato's version of the speech given by Socrates as he defended himself in 399 BC against the charges of "corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel."Socrates begins by telling the jury that their minds were poisoned by his enemies when they were young and impressionable. He says his reputation for sophistry comes from his enemies, all of whom are envious of him, and malicious. He says they must r...

Plato, along with his teacher Socrates and student Aristotle, is one of the most famous and influential philosophers in history. Plato founded the Academy in Athens which greatly helped develop philosophy and he was also instrumental in the development of Western religion and spirituality. This edition of Protagoras includes a table of contents.

Alcibiades I is one of Plato's early dialogues, centered around a conversation between the philosopher Socrates and the ambitious young Athenian statesman Alcibiades. In this dialogue, Socrates engages Alcibiades in a philosophical discussion about the nature of self-knowledge and the proper way to govern both oneself and the city of Athens. Alcibiades, who is eager to gain power and influence, is portrayed as struggling with his own sense of identity and virtue. Socrates challenges him to...

The noted private fortunes of settlement and colonial times were derived from the ownership of land and the gains of trading. Usually both had a combined influence and were frequently attended by agriculture. Throughout the colonies were scattered lords of the soil who held vast territorial domains over which they exercised an arbitrary and, in some portions of the colonies, a feudal sway.Nearly all the colonies were settled by chartered companies, organized for purely commercial p...