THE CLASSIC NOVEL OF ONE MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING HAS DELIGHTED, INSPIRED, AND INFLUENCED GENERATIONS This classic allegorical novel of self-discovery by Hermann Hesse has touched the lives of millions since its original publication in 1922, after Hesse had spent time in India. Integrating Eastern and Western spiritual traditions with psychoanalysis and philosophy, this simple tale, written with a deep and moving empathy for humanity, provides the...

The great philosopher Aristotle once said "Humor is the only test of gravity, for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious." Taking this tenet to task, Cathart and Klein tackle all the major philosophical perspectives--ancient and postmodern alike--and make them universally accessible through hilarious jokes that cut straight to the core of the principle. Hobbes, for instance, believed that life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and...

"In Knowing the Score, philosopher David Papineau explores what philosophy can teach us about sports, and what sports can teach us about philosophy. Beginning with various sporting questions and challenges, Papineau digs into modern philosophy's most perplexing questions. For instance, he discusses drafting techniques in cycling to shed new light on questions of altruism, and examines cricket family "dynasties" to help broaden the debate over nature...

"What is democracy really? What do we mean when we use the term? And can it ever truly exist? Astra Taylor, hailed as a "New Civil Rights Leader" (LA Times), provides surprising answers. There is no shortage of democracy, at least in name, and yet it is in crisis everywhere we look. From a cabal of thieving plutocrats in the White House to campaign finance and gerrymandering, it is clear that democracy--specifically the principle of government by...

We have Nietzsche to thank for some of the most important accomplishments in intellectual history, but as Gary Shapiro shows in this unique look at Nietzsche's thought, the nineteenth-century philosopher actually anticipated some of the most pressing questions of our own era. Putting Nietzsche into conversation with contemporary philosophers such as Deleuze, Agamben, Foucault, Derrida, and others, Shapiro links Nietzsche's powerful ideas to topics...

"This book is about the tension and potential balance between the active and contemplative lives--between the "vita activa" and the "vita contemplativa"--Ideals that have been debated since antiquity. The message of this book is that deep human needs call forth both possibilities."--Provided by publisher.

Sometimes it seems like you need a PhD just to open a book of philosophy. We leave philosophical matters to the philosophers in the same way that we leave science to scientists. Scott Samuelson thinks this is tragic, for our lives as well as for philosophy. In The Deepest Human Life he takes philosophy back from the specialists and restores it to its proper place at the center of our humanity, rediscovering it as our most profound effort toward understanding,...

Plato's "Protagoras" is a series of debates or arguments between Socrates and the elderly Protagoras, who was a well-known Sophist. Socrates was deeply critical of the Sophists, who were teachers or wise men who charged money for educating students and dispensing wisdom. He believed them to be corrupt and dangerous men, who could lead their pupils astray. In Plato's dialogue, Socrates challenges Protagoras and his beliefs in front of an audience of...

"We are, all of us, everywhere, always, enmeshed in a web of rules and constraints. Rules fix the beginning and end of the working day and the school year, direct the ebb and flow of traffic on the roads, dictate who can be married to whom and how, place the fork to the right or the left of the plate, lay down the meter and rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet, and order the rites of birth and death. Cultures notoriously differ as to the content of...

"Written in prison before his brutal execution in AD 524, Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy is a conversation between the ailing prisoner and his 'nurse' Philosophy, whose instruction restores him to health and brings him to enlightenment. Boethius was an eminent public figure who had risen to great political heights in the court of King Theodoric when he was implicated in conspiracy and condemned to death. Although a Christian, it was to the...