Essential essays on language and speech from two influential philosophers of the 18th century—"These texts are fundamental for modern critical theory" (W. J. T. Mitchell, University of Chicago).In the latter half of the eighteenth century, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Gottfried Herder each composed an essay on a fundamental question about human language. Rousseau's "Essay on the Origin of Languages" is concerned with the development of languages in their divers...

This brilliant and concise account of the lives and ideas of the world's great philosophers—Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Spinoza, Voltaire, Kant, Schopenhauer, Spencer, Nietzsche, Bergson, Croce, Russell, Santayana, James, and Dewey—is "a delight" (The New York Times) and remains one of the most important books of our time.Will Durant chronicles the ideas of the great thinkers, the economic and intellectual environments which influenced them, and the personal ...

A Nobel Prize-winning author delivers one of the most influential works of the twentieth century, showing a way out of despair and reaffirming the value of existence.Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide—the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning. With lyric eloquence, Albert Camus brilliantly presents a crucial exposition of existentialist thought.

Michel Foucault's most admired book is an incisive history of changing attitudes toward mental illness of Western Europe between 1500 and 1800.Madness and Civilization investigates the archeology of madness, tracing shifting perceptions through changes in the culture, laws, politics, philosophy, and medical practices of the West. In the late Middle Ages, insanity was still considered part of everyday life and people who were commonly labeled fools and luna...

Edited and with an Introduction by Gordon MarinoBasic Writings of Existentialism, unique to the Modern Library, presents the writings of key nineteenth- and twentieth-century thinkers broadly united by their belief that because life has no inherent meaning humans can discover, we must determine meaning for ourselves. This anthology brings together into one volume the most influential and commonly taught works of existentialism. Contributors include Simone ...

"We should be grateful to Schopenhauer for managing to express the truth about life so beautifully." —Alain De Botton, author of The Consolations of Philosophy"Schopenhauer's philosophy has had a special attraction for those who wonder about life's meaning, along with those engaged in music, literature, and the visual arts." — Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyThe Essential Schopenhauer delivers the first comprehensive English anthology of the se...

Originally published in 1926, ‘The Story of Philosophy’ profiles several prominent Western philosophers and their ideas, written by Will Durant, an American writer, historian, philosopher, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.In this enlightening and eminently readable book, Will Durant accounts the lives, ideas and views of various critical philosophical thinkers throughout history. Starting with Socrates and Plato and concluding with Friedrich Nietzsche, with twelve other distinguished ph...

One of the most remarkable philosophical works of the nineteenth century, The Sickness Unto Death is also famed for the depth and acuity of its modern psychological insights. Writing under the pseudonym Anti-Climacus, Kierkegaard explores the concept of 'despair', alerting readers to the diversity of ways in which they may be described as living in this state of bleak abandonment - including some that may seem just the opposite - and offering a much-discussed formula for the eradication of...

Why, despite all the technological and social advances, does humanity seem increasingly anxious and dissatisfied? In one of his most influential and prophetic works, Sigmund Freud delves into the inevitable conflict between our primal instincts and the rules that underpin life in society. Written in 1929, this essay transcends psychoanalysis to become a sharp lens on culture, religion, and the impossible pursuit of complete happiness. Freud argues that civilization demands a high price: th...

On the Genealogy of Morals (1887) is a book about the history of ethics and about interpretation. Nietzsche rewrites the former as a history of cruelty, exposing the 4entral values of the Judaeo-Christian and liberal traditions - compassion, equality, justice - as the product of a brutal process of conditioning designed to domesticate the animal vitality of earlier cultures. The result is a book which raises profoundly disquieting issues about the violence of both ethics and interpretation...

The companion book to Beyond Good and Evil, the three essays included here offer vital insights into Nietzsche's theories of morality and human psychology.Nietzsche claimed that the purpose of The Genealogy of Morals was to call attention to his previous writings. But in fact the book does much more than that, elucidating and expanding on the cryptic aphorisms of Beyond Good and Evil and signalling a return to the essay form. In these thr...

Perpetual peace refers to a state of affairs where peace is permanently established over a certain area (ideally, the whole world - see world peace).Many would-be world conquerors have promised that their rule would enforce perpetual peace. No empire has ever extended its authority over the entire world, and thus nothing can be said about the ability of a universal empire to ensure world peace, but several large empires have maintained relative peace in their spheres of influence over exte...