Who was Jacques Derrida? For some, he is responsible, at least in part, for the contemporary crisis of truth. For the far right, he is one of the architects of Cultural Marxism. To his academic critics, he reduced French philosophy to 'little more than an object of ridicule'. For his fans, he is an intellectual rock star who ranged across literature, politics, and linguistics. In An Event Perhaps, Peter Salmon presents this misunderstood and misappropriated figure as a deeply humane and ur...

If you want to know your consequentialism from your deontology and your Aristotle from your Kant, strap in for this whirlwind tour of the essentials of ethicsEmbark on a journey of introspection and critical thinking with The Little Book of Ethics. In its most basic form, ethics is about deciding what is right and what is wrong. This accessible and thought-provoking guide will take you on a captivating exploration of the fundamental questions that form our...

At an archeological dig on the Sinai Peninsula, an obscure piece of parchment kicks off a frantic search for the fabled Emerald Tablet. Andrew Coulter leads a team of internationally renowned experts in Egyptian history and archeology in a desperate search for ancient clues to the Tablet’s location.Unbeknownst to Coulter's team, a ruthless international organization, the League, also hunts for the Tablet, and tracks Coulter's team. The League has searched for the Tablet and the pow...

If you've ever been curious about the rich culture and vibrant history of Ancient Greece, dive into this whirlwind tour and discover the highlights of this epic civilizationAlthough they lived over 2,000 years ago, the echoes of the Ancient Greeks can still be heard, loud and clear, today. From warfare and politics, to art, culture and everyday life, uncover their history with this fascinating little book, in which you will find the following and much more:...

Good communication is necessary for good clinical care, but defining good communication has been surprisingly difficult and controversial. Many current ideas that identify good communication with certain communication behaviours, or 'skills', were ethically inspired to help doctors see beyond disease to the whole patient. However, promoting specific behaviours is problematic because communication is contextually dependent. In recent decades, observational research into practitioner-patient...

At the end of his sorry life, Teddy Everett, reluctant heir to the Everett fortune realises that he may have been at his best when he was 14, the night Kebreth made him a communist by rubbing coffee bean oil on his face. Then he was with Lucy, who gave him Chinese burns and taught him how to smoke. As he remembers his family, his wives (and their lovers) he tries to understand what happened to that boy. Fuelled by caffeine and full of vituperation, this is a riotously original debut of hon...

Embark on an exhilarating expedition through human history with this whirlwind tour of the essentials of archaeologyFrom the ancient wonders of Egypt and Pompeii to the mysteries of lost Mayan civilizations and the enigmatic Nazca Lines in Peru, this captivating guide offers a whirlwind tour of humanity's past through the art of archaeology.Archaeology isn't just about dusty artifacts and buried ruins - it's about understanding ourselves and our shared hist...

The Emerald Tablet—an ancient document that contains the essence of the alchemical teachings—has had an important influence on many Western spiritual and religious traditions. Ostensibly concerned with turning base metals into gold, alchemy was in fact dedicated to transforming the lead of self into the gold of spirit. This brilliant history of alchemy traces its sources back to ancient Egypt, and presents alchemy as a useful, practical system of self-transformation. Each of the seven step...

The first volume in the eminent philosopher's three-part examination of time and narrative, exploring their relationship in the context of historical writing.Time and Narrative builds on Paul Ricoeur's earlier analysis, in The Rule of Metaphor, of semantic innovation at the level of the sentence. Ricoeur here examines the creation of meaning at the textual level, with narrative rather than metaphor as the ruling concern.Ricoeur finds a "heal...

What is ethics? Where do moral standards come from? Are they based on emotions, reason, or some innate sense of right and wrong? For many scientists, the key lies entirely in biology--especially in Darwinian theories of evolution and self-preservation. But if evolution is a struggle for survival, why are we still capable of altruism?In his classic study The Expanding Circle, Peter Singer argues that altruism began as a genetically based drive to protect one's kin and commu...

Imagine a type of writing so hard to define its very name means a trial, effort or attempt. An ancient form with an eye on the future, a genre poised between tradition and experiment. The essay wants above all to wander, but also to arrive at symmetry and wholeness; it nurses competing urges to integrity and disarray, perfection and fragmentation, confession and invention.How to write about essays and essayists while staying true to these contradictions? Essayism is a perso...

Fifty Thinkers Who Shaped the Modern World profiles fifty landmark philosophers, scientists, political, social theorists and spiritual leaders whose ideas have defined the age we live in.Stephen Trombley's Fifty Thinkers Who Shaped the Modern World traces the development of modern thought through a sequence of accessible profiles of the most influential thinkers in every domain of intellectual endeavour since 1789.No major representative o...