Topics in philosophy

On 19 April 2005 at 5.

In one of the most influential philosophical works ever writer, John Stuart Mill explores the risks and responsibilities of liberty.

'This is a blast of fresh air' Jonathan Clark, TLS'Thank goodness for Gottlieb' Daily Telegraph'A joy to read' EconomistThe author of the celebrated The Dream of Reason vividly explains the rise of modern thought from Descartes to RousseauIn a short period - from the early 1640s to the eve of the French Revolution - Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark on Western thought.

Ren Descartes was a central figure in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century.

Tagore was a fierce opponent of British rule in India.

Widely regarded as the father of modern Western philosophy, Descartes sought to look beyond established ideas and create a thought system based on reason.

In this personal and practical guide to moral self-improvement and living a good life, the second-century philosopher Epictetus tackles questions of freedom and imprisonment, stubbornness and fear, family, friendship and love, and leaves an intriguing document of daily life in the classical world.

In this fascinating, provocative account, eminent philosopher John Searle shows how our everyday actions and cultural knowledge are of a metaphysical complexity that is truely staggering.

'Poverty does not consist in the want of money,' I answered, 'nor is begging to be deplored.

Of all the works of the man claimed by many as the father of modern philosophy, the MEDITATIONS, first published in 1641, must surely be Rene Descartes' masterpiece.

Nietzsche's first published book, The Birth of Tragedy is a compelling argument for the necessity of art in lifeThis landmark work of criticism is fuelled by Nietzsche's enthusiasms for Greek tragedy, the philosophy of Schopenhauer and the music of Wagner, to whom the book was dedicated.

Already a classic, this landmark account of early Western thought now appears in a new edition with expanded coverage of the Middle Ages.

In this vivid account, Kryiacos C Markides introduces to us the rich and intricate world of Daskalso, The Magus of Strovolos.

A LANDMARK WORK OF POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.

'Powerful and gripping.

'Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains.

A general and systematic account of the role of knowledge in society aimed to stimulate both critical discussion and empirical investigations.

If a man supports Arsenal one day and Spurs the next then he is fickle but not necessarily illogical.

How the utopian tradition offers answers to today's environmental crisesIn the face of Earth's environmental breakdown, it is clear that technological innovation alone won't save our planet.

In this important new collection of interviews with the acclaimed radio journalist David Barsamian, Noam Chomsky discuses U.

Timaeus and Critias is a Socratic dialogue in two parts.

Since its first publication thirty years ago, Timothy Ware s book has become established throughout the English-speaking world as the standard introduction to the Orthodox Church.

Hegemony or Survival is Noam Chomsky's essential polemic on American foreign policy.

The United States asserts the right to use military force against failed states around the globe.

In A Discourse on Inequality Rousseau sets out to demonstrate how the growth of civilization corrupts man s natural happiness and freedom by creating artificial inequalities of wealth, power and social privilege.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world.

In what remains one of his most seminal papers, Freud considers the incompatibility of civilisation and individual happiness, and the tensions between the claims of society and the individual.

How do we see the world around us?

Taking the form of a dialogue between Socrates, Gorgias, Polus and Callicles, GORGIAS debates perennial questions about the nature of government and those who aspire to public office.

No philosopher has held a higher opinion of art than Hegel, yet nor was any so profoundly pessimistic about its prospects - despite living in the German golden age of Goethe, Mozart and Schiller.

Free your mind, discover your potential, and become the person you want to be in 2020____________Like physical clutter in your home, mental clutter slowly fills up your head, making it hard to think and act clearly.

For the Pre-Socratic philosophers the soul was the source of movement and sensation, while for Plato it was the seat of being, metaphysically distinct from the body that it was forced temporarily to inhabit.

Few figures in intellectual history have proved as notorious and ambiguous as Niccol Machiavelli.

The Metaphysics presents Aristotle's mature rejection of both the Platonic theory that what we perceive is just a pale reflection of reality and the hardheaded view that all processes are ultimately material.

Throughout history, some books have changed the world.

If you can't prove something, it is literally senseless - so argues Ayer in this irreverent and electrifying book.

From Theodore Roosevelt to Barack Obama, discover the most significant speeches of the modern era!

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

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

The phenomenal international bestseller that shows us how to stop trying to predict everything - and take advantage of uncertaintyWhat have the invention of the wheel, Pompeii, the Wall Street Crash, Harry Potter and the internet got in common?

'These sixteen pieces brim over with vitality .

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 .

Written after Nietzsche had ended his friendship with Richard Wagner and had been forced to leave academic life through ill health, Human, All Too Human (1878) can be read as a monument to his personal crisis.

'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.

This landmark work challenges the separatist doctrines which have come to dominate our understanding of the world.

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.

'The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.

'It remains astonishingly radical .

Revolutionary essays on design, aesthetics and materialism - from one of the great masters of modern architectureAdolf Loos, the great Viennese pioneer of modern architecture, was a hater of the fake, the fussy and the lavishly decorated, and a lover of stripped down, clean simplicity.