Philosophical traditions and schools of thought

'Their icy blasts are refreshing and restorative.

With the emergence of democracy in the city-state of Athens in the years around 460 BC, public speaking became an essential skill for politicians in the Assemblies and Councils - and even for ordinary citizens in the courts of law.

In his reflections on Christianity, Saint Thomas Aquinas forged a unique synthesis of ancient philosophy and medieval theology.

The philosophy of La Rochefoucauld, which influenced French intellectuals as diverse as Voltaire and the Jansenists, is captured here in more than 600 penetrating and pithy aphorisms.

Edmund Burke was one of the foremost philosophers of the eighteenth century and wrote widely on aesthetics, politics and society.

Set alongside The Analects and Mencius, these two texts make up the 'Four Books' of Chinese Confucian tradition.

'Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.

Barely acknowledged in his lifetime, the New Science of Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) is an astonishingly perceptive and ambitious attempt to decipher the history, mythology and laws of the ancient world.

'The Master said, "e;If a man sets his heart on benevolence, he will be free from evil"e;'The Analects are a collection of Confucius's sayings brought together by his pupils shortly after his death in 497 BC.

Kierkegaard's infamous and hugely influential philosophical work on faith, choice and sacrificeIn Fear and Trembling Kierkegaard, writing under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio, expounds his personal view of religion through the scene in Genesis in which Abraham prepares to kill his son at God's command.

One of the greatest prodigies of his era, John Stuart Mill (1806-73) was studying arithmetic and Greek by the age of three, as part of an astonishingly intense education at his father's hand.

One of the most significant works of Western philosophy, Hume's Treatise was published in 1739-40, before he was thirty years old.

'Enigmatic, vatic, emphatic, passionate .

In these two devastating late works, Nietzsche offers a powerful attack on the morality and the beliefs of his timeNietzsche's Twilight of the Idols is a 'grand declaration of war' on reason, psychology and theology, which combines highly charged personal attacks on his contemporaries (in particular Hegel, Kant and Schopenhauer) with a lightning tour of his own philosophy.

Dixon Chibandas beautiful and heroic book will inspire everyone who reads it.

From the bestselling author of Science: A History comes the enthralling story of a revolution that shook the world.

'One of the greatest books of a very great thinker' Michael TannerBeyond Good and Evil confirmed Nietzsche's position as the towering European philosopher of his age.

First and foremost an outcry against injustice and inhumanity, Unto this Last is also a closely argued assault on the science of political economy, which dominated the Victorian period.

'We must learn to love, learn to be kind, and this from our earliest youth .

'I'll stop doing it as soon as I understand what I'm doing.

'The most esteemed philosopher to have produced a general introduction to his discipline since Bertrand Russell' Independent In these essays, one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century writes about communism and socialism, the problem of evil, Erasmus and the reform of the Church, reason and truth, and whether God is happy.

'It remains astonishingly radical .

Classical rhetoric is one of the earliest versions of what is today known as media studies.

Few, if any, English-language critics have written as perceptively as Isaiah Berlin about Russian thought and culture.

'The best book ever written' Nicholas Lezard, GuardianRobert Burton's labyrinthine, beguiling, playful masterpiece is his attempt to 'anatomize and cut up' every aspect of the condition of melancholy, from which he had suffered throughout his life.

One of the most important philosophical works of all time, in a new Penguin Classics translation by Adam Beresford'Right and wrong is a human thing' What does it mean to be a good person?

Taking the form of a discussion between the hedonist Philebus, his na ve disciple Protarchus and Socrates, Philebus is a compelling consideration of the popular belief that pleasure is the greatest attainable good.

Discover Dante's original Inferno in this modern and acclaimed Penguin translation.

'God is dead .

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.

One of the most important works of the Enlightenmentin the first new, unabridged English translation in more than two centuriesPublished in four volumes between 1784 and 1791, Herder's Ideas for the Philosophy of the History of Mankind is one of the most important works of the Enlightenmenta bold, original, and encyclopedic synthesis of, and contribution to, the era's philosophical debates over nature, history, culture, and the very meaning of human experience.

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Harness the life-changing power of integrity in an era of dishonesty: book 3 in the New York Times-bestselling Stoic Virtues series 'Right Thing, Right Now is a message all of us need to hear' ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGERWe know justice when we see it: moral character, admirable action, decency, honour, integrity.

A constitutionalist reading of Plato's political thoughtPlato famously defends the rule of knowledge.

The unlikely story of how Americans canonized Adam Smith as the patron saint of free marketsOriginally published in 1776, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations was lauded by America's founders as a landmark work of Enlightenment thinking about national wealth, statecraft, and moral virtue.

A trenchant defense of hierarchy in different spheres of our lives, from the personal to the politicalAll complex and large-scale societies are organized along certain hierarchies, but the concept of hierarchy has become almost taboo in the modern world.

A decade ago, the question was 'could martial arts ever be studied academically?

Heidegger's influence in the twentieth century probably outstrips that of any other philosopher, at least in the so-called Continental tradition.

A brief, accessible history of the idea of purpose in Western thought, from ancient Greece to the presentCan we live without the idea of purpose?

Timeless wisdom on death and dying from the celebrated Stoic philosopher Seneca"e;It takes an entire lifetime to learn how to die,"e; wrote the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca (c.

What would stoic ethics be like today if stoicism had survived as a systematic approach to ethical theory, if it had coped successfully with the challenges of modern philosophy and experimental science?

The story of the greatest of all philosophical friendships-and how it influenced modern thoughtDavid Hume is widely regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English, but during his lifetime he was attacked as "e;the Great Infidel"e; for his skeptical religious views and deemed unfit to teach the young.

A major new history of classical Greece-how it rose, how it fell, and what we can learn from itLord Byron described Greece as great, fallen, and immortal, a characterization more apt than he knew.

Although Franz Rosenzweig is arguably the most important Jewish philosopher of the twentieth century, his thought remains little understood.

A superb new edition of Epictetus's famed handbook on Stoicismtranslated by one of the world's leading authorities on Stoic philosophyBorn a slave, the Roman Stoic philosopher Epictetus (c.

Contemporary philosopher-analytic as well as continental tend to feel uneasy about Ernst Tugendhat, who, though he positions himself in the analytic field, poses questions in the Heideggerian style.

Believing Philosophy introduces Christians to philosophy and the tools it provides believers, helping them understand, articulate, and defend their faith in an age of unbelief.

Previously unpublished writings from one of the most important political philosophers of recent timesG.

During John Dewey's lifetime (1859-1952), one public opinion poll after another revealed that he was esteemed to be one of the ten most important thinkers in American history.

The founder of modern linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure inaugurated semiology, structuralism, and deconstruction and made possible the work of Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Lacan, thus enabling the development of French feminism, gender studies, New Historicism, and postcolonialism.

Timeless techniques of effective public speaking from ancient Rome's greatest oratorAll of us are faced countless times with the challenge of persuading others, whether we're trying to win a trivial argument with a friend or convince our coworkers about an important decision.