Best of
Philosophy

1960

Love and Responsibility


Pope John Paul II - 1960
    He writes in the conviction that science--biology, psychology, sociology--can provide valuable information on particular aspects of relations between the sexes, but that a full understanding can be obtained only by study of the human person as a whole. Central to his argument is the contrast between the personalistic and the utilitarian views of marriage and of sexual relations. The former views marriage as an interpersonal relationship, in which the well-being and self-realization of each partner are of overriding importance to the other. It is only within this framework that the full purpose of marriage can be realized. The alternative, utilitarian view, according to which a sexual partner is an object for use, holds no possibility of fulfillment and happiness. Wojtyla argues that divorce, artificial methods of birth control, adultery (pre-marital sex), and sexual perversions are all in various ways incompatible with the personalistic view of the sexual self-realization of the human person. Perhaps the most striking feature of the book is that Wojtyla appeals throughout to ordinary, human experience, logically examined. He draws support for his views on the proper gratification of sexual needs, on birth control, and on other matters, from the findings of physiologists and psychologists. His conclusions coincide with the traditional teachings of the Church, which invoke scriptural authority. His approach ensures that non-Christians also can consider his arguments on their own merits.

This is It & Other Essays on Zen & Spiritual Experience


Alan W. Watts - 1960
    Six essays dealing with the relationship of mystical experience to ordinary life.

Resistance, Rebellion and Death: Essays


Albert Camus - 1960
    Resistance, Rebellion and Death displays Camus's rigorous moral intelligence addressing issues that range from colonial warfare in Algeria to the social cancer of capital punishment. But this stirring book is above all a reflection on the problem of freedom, and, as such, belongs in the same tradition as the works that gave Camus his reputation as the conscience of our century: The Stranger, The Rebel and The Myth of Sisyphus.

The Four Loves


C.S. Lewis - 1960
    S. Lewis Signature Classics series.C.S. Lewis—the great British writer, scholar, lay theologian, broadcaster, Christian apologist, and bestselling author of Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Chronicles of Narnia, and many other beloved classics—contemplates the essence of love and how it works in our daily lives in one of his most famous works of nonfiction. Lewis examines four varieties of human love: affection, the most basic form; friendship, the rarest and perhaps most insightful; Eros, passionate love; charity, the greatest and least selfish. Throughout this compassionate and reasoned study, he encourages readers to open themselves to all forms of love—the key to understanding that brings us closer to God.

Truth and Method


Hans-Georg Gadamer - 1960
    An astonishing synthesis of literary criticism, philosophy, theology, the theory of law and classical scholarship, it is undoubtedly one of the most important texts in twentieth century philosophy. Looking behind the self-consciousness of science, he discusses the tense relationship between truth and methodology. In examining the different experiences of truth, he aims to "present the hermeneutic phenomenon in its fullest extent."

The Constitution of Liberty


Friedrich A. Hayek - 1960
    Hayek's book, first published in 1960, urges us to clarify our beliefs in today's struggle of political ideologies.

The Journal, 1837-1861


Henry David Thoreau - 1960
    It is a treasure trove of some of the finest prose in English and, for those acquainted with it, its prismatic pages exercise a hypnotic fascination. Yet at roughly seven thousand pages, or two million words, it remains Thoreau’s least-known work. This reader’s edition, the largest one-volume edition of Thoreau’s Journal ever published, is the first to capture the scope, rhythms, and variety of the work as a whole. Ranging freely over the world at large, the Journal is no less devoted to the life within. As Thoreau says, “It is in vain to write on the seasons unless you have the seasons in you.”

The Poetics of Reverie


Gaston Bachelard - 1960
    In his earlier book, The Poetics of Space, Bachelard considered several kinds of "praiseworthy space" conducive to the flow of poetic imagery. In Poetics of Reverie he considers the absolute origins of that imagery: language, sexuality, childhood, the Cartesian ego, and the universe. Approaching the psychology of wonder from the phenomenological viewpoint, Bachelard demonstrates the aurgentative potential of all that awareness. Thus he distinguishes what is merely a phenomenon of relaxation from the kind of reverie which "poetry puts on the right track, the track of expanding consciousness"

The Firmament of Time


Loren Eiseley - 1960
    His illuminating and accessible discussion is a characteristically skillful and compelling synthesis of hard scientific theory, factual evidence, personal anecdotes, haunting reflection, and poetic prose.

The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness


R.D. Laing - 1960
    Laing explains how we all exist in the world as beings, defined by others who carry a model of us in their heads, just as we carry models of them in our heads. In later writings he often takes this to deeper levels, laboriously spelling out how "A knows that B knows that A knows that B knows..."! Our feelings and motivations derive very much from this condition of "being in the world" in the sense of existing for others, who exist for us. Without this we suffer "ontological insecurity", a condition often expressed in terms of "being dead" by people who are clearly still physically alive.This watershed work aimed to make madness comprehensible, and in doing so revolutionized the way we perceive mental illness. Using case studies of patients he had worked with, psychiatrist R. D. Laing argued that psychosis is not a medical condition, but an outcome of the 'divided self', or the tension between the two personas within us: one our authentic, private identity, and the other the false, 'sane' self that we present to the world. Laing's radical approach to insanity offered a rich existential analysis of personal alienation and made him a cult figure in the 1960s, yet his work was most significant for its humane attitude, which put the patient back at the centre of treatment. R.D. Laing (1927-1989), one of the best-known psychiatrists of modern times, was born in Glasgow, Scotland.This work is available on its own or as part of the 7 volume set iSelected Works of R. D. Laing

Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought - Expanded Edition


Sheldon S. Wolin - 1960
    Sheldon Wolin's Politics and Vision inspired and instructed two generations of political theorists after its appearance in 1960. This new edition retains intact the original ten chapters about political thinkers from Plato to Mill, and adds seven chapters about theorists from Marx and Nietzsche to Rawls and the postmodernists. The new chapters, which show how thinkers have grappled with the immense possibilities and dangers of modern power, are themselves a major theoretical statement. They culminate in Wolin's remarkable argument that the United States has invented a new political form, inverted totalitarianism, in which economic rather than political power is dangerously dominant. In this new edition, the book that helped to define political theory in the late twentieth century should energize, enlighten, and provoke generations of scholars to come.Wolin originally wrote Politics and Vision to challenge the idea that political analysis should consist simply of the neutral observation of objective reality. He argues that political thinkers must also rely on creative vision. Wolin shows that great theorists have been driven to shape politics to some vision of the Good that lies outside the existing political order. As he tells it, the history of theory is thus, in part, the story of changing assumptions about the Good.In the new chapters, Wolin displays all the energy and flair, the command of detail and of grand historical developments, that he brought to this story forty years ago. This is a work of immense talent and intense thought, an intellectual achievement that will endure.

On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism


Gershom Scholem - 1960
    In On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, Gershom Scholem guides the reader through the central themes in the intricate history of the Kabbalah, clarifying the relations between mysticism and established religious authority, the mystics' interpretation of the Torah and their attempts to discover the hidden meaning underlying Scripture, the tension between the philosophical and the mystical concepts of God, and the symbolism employed in mystical religion.With a new foreword by Bernard McGinn

Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth: From Mazdean Iran to Shi'ite Iran


Henry Corbin - 1960
    It may be that the world which our authors here describe in symbolic language as the "eighth climate" will be seen by Western people as the "lost continent." Should some of them be searching for it, the Spiritual Masters whom the present book seeks to interpret will perhaps serve as their guides.

Crowds and Power


Elias Canetti - 1960
    Breathtaking in its range and erudition, it explores Shiite festivals and the English Civil war, the finger exercises of monkeys and the effects of inflation in Weimar Germany. In this study of the interplay of crowds, Canetti offers one of the most profound and startling portraits of the human condition.

Thoughts and Meditations


Kahlil Gibran - 1960
    Here is the fiery prophet, assailing the corruptions of Syrian governmental and upper social circles with the wrath and scorn of Biblical seers.Here, too, is the poet of love, apostrophizing beauty, youth and nature, particularly the wonderful vistas of Lebanon, with its cedar groves and mountains, in poetry of passionate tenderness.And above all, here is the author of the remarkable poetic narratives in which Gibran's mystical, spiritual vision of the transmigration of souls is embodied in tales of lovers tragically parted in one existence and rapturously reunited, after centuries of separation, in a later incarnation.The spiritual message of the great Lebanese prophet and poet is conveyed with exceptional beauty and power in these sensitive writings.

Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul


Titus Burckhardt - 1960
    This wonderfully insightful volume introduces some of the metaphors useful for establishing attitudes required for the soul's advancement: trust, confidence, hope, and detachment. It is a reminder that when any substance or entity undergoes dissolution, it must eventually be resolved or re-crystalized in a new, possibly higher and more noble form.

The Humanity of God


Karl Barth - 1960
    The three essays in this book, "The Humanity of God," "Evangelical Theology in the 19th Century," and "The Gift of Freedom," show how Barth's later work moved beyond his revolt against the theology dominant in the first decades of the twentieth century.

In the Twilight of Western Thought


Herman Dooyeweerd - 1960
    

The Art of Scientific Investigation


William Ian Beardmore Beveridge - 1960
    Beveridge explores the development of the intuitive side in scientists. The author's object is to show how the minds of humans can best be harnessed to the processes of scientific discovery. This book therefore centers on the "human factor"; the individual scientist. The book reveals the basic principles and mental techniques that are common to most types of investigation. Professor Beveridge discusses great discoveries and quotes the experiences of numerous scientists. "The virtue of Mr. Beveridge's book is that it is not dogmatic. A free and universal mind looks at scientific investigation as a creative art. . . ." The New York Times

Dialectics of the Abstract and Concrete in Marx's Capital


Evald Vasilyevich Ilyenkov - 1960
    

The Western Intellectual Tradition: From Leonardo to Hegel


Jacob Bronowski - 1960
    Traces the development of thought through historical movements and periods from 1500 to 1830.

Signs


Maurice Merleau-Ponty - 1960
    For him, expression is a category of human behavior and existence much broader than language alone. He maintains that man is essentially expressive, even prior to speaking: in his silence, gestures, and lived behavior.

The Symbolism of Evil


Paul Ricœur - 1960
    The Primary Symbols: Defilement, Sin, GuiltPhenomenology of ConfessionDefilementSinGuiltRecapitulation of the Symbolism of Evil in the Concept of the Servile WillThe Symbolic Function of MythsThe Drama of Creation & the Ritual Vision of the WorldThe Wicked God & the Tragic Vision of ExistenceThe Adamic Myth & the Eschatological Vision of HistoryThe Cycle of the MythsThe Myth of the Exiled Soul & Salvation Thru KnowledgeThe Symbol Gives Rise to Thought

Beyond Theology


Alan W. Watts - 1960
    

Treat Yourself to Life


Raymond Charles Barker - 1960
    It teaches how to improve conditions in these and all other areas of living by means of Mind Treatment. As author of other New Thought classics such as The Power of Decision and Science of Successful Living, Dr. Barker richly exemplified the success he taught to many thousands. One of his more notable characteristics was his ability to speak plainly; and unlike so many of his peers, he was not afraid to be just a little bit outrageous.

Avicenna and the Visionary Recital


Henry Corbin - 1960
    Henry Corbin's discovery in an Istanbul library of the manuscript of a Persian translation of and commentary on Avicenna's Hayy ibn Yaqzan, written in Arabic, led him to an analysis of three of Avicenna's mystical "recitals." These form an initiatory cycle leading the adept along the path of spiritual progress. In Part I Corbin summarizes the great themes that show the philosophical situation of Avicennan man in the cosmos and presents translations of these three great Avicennan recitals. Part II is a complete translation, with notes, of the Persian commentary.

Meeting of East and West


F.S.C. Northrop - 1960
    F. S. C. Northrop in this perceptive work was one of the first Americans to grasp the full significance of Eastern culture, its distinctive features, and its potential for influencing the rest of the world. Written during World War II, this classic work correctly anticipated the clash of eastern and western ideologies which has dominated the post-war landscape.

What is 'Pataphysics? (Evergreen Review No. 13)


Barney RossetRené Daumal - 1960
    I. L. Sandomir: Opus ParaphysicumNicolaj N. Kamenev: Report on Some Concrete Historical ProblemsHis Late Magnificence, Dr. I. L. Sandomir: Epanorthosis the Moral ClinmnenHis Late Magnificence, Jean Mollet: Message to the Civilized or Uncivilized World

The Joel Goldsmith Reader


Joel S. Goldsmith - 1960
    Goldsmith: "Beyond Words & Thoughts; Conscious Union with God; Consciousness Unfolding; The Contemplative Life; God, the Substance of All Form; Leave Your Nets; Living Now; Man Was Not Born to Cry; The Master Speaks; and Realization of Oneness." Lightning Print on Demand Title

Works of Blaise Pascal


Blaise Pascal - 1960
    A dynamic table of contents allows you to jump directly to the work selected.Table of Contents:- Comparison Between Christians of Early Times and Those of To-Day- Conversation on Epictetus and Montaigne- Discourses on the Condition of the Great- Epitaph of M. Pascal- Of the Geometrical Spirit- On Geometrical Demonstration- On the Conversion of the Sinner- Pensées- Prayer to Ask of God the Proper Use of Sickness- The Art of Persuasion- The Provincial Letters

Physics For The Inquiring Mind; The Methods, Nature, And Philosophy Of Physical Science


Eric M. Rogers - 1960
    Lawyers, bankers, governors, business heads, administrators, all wise educated people need a lasting understanding of physics so that they can enjoy those contacts with science and scientists that are part of our civilization both materially and intellectually. They need knowledge and understanding instead of the feelings, all too common, that physics is dark and mysterious and that physicists are a strange people with incomprehensible interests. Such a sense of understanding science and scientists can be gained neither from sermons on the beauty of science nor from the rigorous courses that colleges have offered for generations; when the headache clears away it leaves little but a confused sense of mystery. Nor is the need met by survey courses that offer a smorgasbord of tidbit--they give science a bad name as a compendium of information or formulas.The non-scientist needs a course of study that enables him to learn real science and make its own--with delight. For lasting benefits the intelligent non-scientist needs a course of study that enables him to learn genuine science carefully and then encourages him to think about it and use it. He needs a carefully selected framework of topics--not so many that learning becomes superficial and hurried; not so few that he misses the connected nature of scientific work and thinking. He must see how scientific knowledge is built up by building some scientific knowledge of his own, by reading and discussing and if possible by doing experiments himself. He must think his own way through some scientific arguments. He must form his own opinion, with guidance, concerning the parts played by experiment and theory; and he must be shown how to develop a taste for good theory. He must see several varieties of scientific method at work. And above all, he must think about science for himself and enjoy that. These are the things that this book encourages readers to gain, by their own study and thinking."Physics for the Inquiring Mind" is a book for the inquiring mind of students in college and for other readers who want to grow in scientific wisdom, who want to know what physics really is.

Difference of Man and the Difference It Makes


Mortimer J. Adler - 1960
    Rapid advances in science and technology and the abstract concepts of that influence on man and human value systems are lucidly outlined by Adler, as he touches on the effect of industrialization, and the clash of cultures and value systems brought about by increased communication between previously isolated groups of people. Among the other problems this study addresses are the scientific achievements in biology and physics which have raised fundamental questions about humanity's essential nature, especially the discoveries in the bilogical relatedness of all living things. Thrown into high relief is humanity's struggle to determine its unique status in the natual world and its value in the world it has created.Ultimately, Adler's work develops an approach to the separation between scientific and philosophical questions which stands as a model of thought on philosophical considerations of new scientific discoveries and its consequences for the human person.

The Mystery of Being 2: Faith and Reality (Gifford Lectures 1949-50)


Gabriel Marcel - 1960
    Its two volumes are the Gifford lectures which Marcel delivered in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1949 and 1950. Marcel's work fundamentally challenges most of the major positions of the atheistic existentialists (Sartre, Beauvoir, Camus), especially their belief in an absurd, meaningless, godless universe.These volumes deal with almost all of the major themes of Marcel's thought: the nature of philosophy, our broken world, man's deep ontological need for being, i.e., for permanent eternal values, our incarnate bodily existence, primary and secondary reflection, participation, being in situation, the identity of the human self, intersubjectivity, mystery and problem, faith, hope, and the reality of God, and immortality.

Importance Of Understanding


Lin Yutang - 1960
    

Theory of the Moral Life


John Dewey - 1960
    

Continuous Geometry


John von Neumann - 1960
    In characterizing its properties, von Neumann founded the field of continuous geometry.This book, based on von Neumann's lecture notes, begins with the development of the axioms of continuous geometry, dimension theory, and--for the irreducible case--the function D(a). The properties of regular rings are then discussed, and a variety of results are presented for lattices that are continuous geometries, for which irreducibility is not assumed. For students and researchers interested in ring theory or projective geometries, this book is required reading.

Theological Investigations


Karl Rahner - 1960
    

The Philosophy of Saint Bonaventure


Étienne Gilson - 1960
    

The Mystery of Being


Gabriel Marcel - 1960
    Chapter IV, on Truth), which implies that he is endowed with the courage of thought inseparable from liberty. II. A Broken World... page 18 Enquiry into one of the conclusions of the foregoing chapter, which dissociates truth and universal validity. Is not this dissociation dangerous? If not, how, and from what point does it appear so? Note that the objection implies a pre-notion or anticipated schematizing of the relation between the subject and the truth which he will have to recognize. Truth is indeed conceived as something to be extracted; this extraction is referable on principle to a universal technique, with the result that truth should be transmissible to anyone. But we are prone to forget that the more intelligence transcends technical activity, the less the reference to anyone as inderterminate is called upon to intervene. This objection is on the other hand a product, as it were, of a world that ignores exigencies of reflection. This world of ours is a broken world, which means that in striving after a certain type of unity, it has lost its real unity. (These types of unity in the broken world are: (1) Increased socialization of life: we are one and all treated as agents, registered, enrolled, and we end by merging into our own identity cards. (2) Extension of the powers of the State, which is like a searching eye on all of us. (3) This world has lost its true unity probably because privacy, brotherhood, creativeness, reflection and imagination, are all increasingly discredited in it. Therefore - it is of the very utmost urgency that we reflect, and reflect upon reflection, in order to bring to light that exigence which animates reflection (cf. Chapter III), and in order to show that this exigence when at work transcends any sort of process whatever, and sweeps beyond the opposition of the empiric ego and the universal ego. III. The Need For Transcendence page 39 What is the nature of this exigence, lying at the origin of philosophic research (cf. Chapter I), and danger of being smothered by the broken world of techniques and socialization?

Van Til and the Limits of Reason


Rousas John Rushdoony - 1960
    It was the mind of man that became the new standard. “My own mind is my own church,” wrote Thomas Paine in his Age of Reason (Part First, 1794), which was an attack on all religion that claimed to be authoritative and Christianity in particular. It is not without case that Paine’s title is sometimes used as a synonym for the Enlightenment. Its rationalism saw faith as a blind confidence, a belief in nothing, while Hebrews 11:3 tells us it is “through faith we understand…” The Christian must see faith in God’s revelation as opening up understanding, as thinking God’s thoughts after Him, and rationalism as a restriction of thought to the narrow confines of human understanding. Reason is a gift of God, but we must not make more of it than it is. To see our reason as supreme is to see ourselves as supreme, and thereby repeat the sin of seeking to “be as gods” (Gen. 3:5). The first three essays of this volume were published in a small booklet in 1960 as a tribute to the thought of Dr. Cornelius Van Til, titled Van Til. The last four essays were written some time later and are published here for the first time.

The Druze Faith


Sami Nasib Makarem - 1960
    

The Diary Of Soren Kierkegaard


Søren Kierkegaard - 1960
    This diary covers the important elements of Kierkegaard's life, including his childhood, his relationship with his father, the influence of other writers on him, his broken engagement (which had a far-reaching effect on the rest of his life), and his celebrated quarrel with the Church. **Lightning Print On Demand Title

A Precis of Mathematical Logic


Józef Maria Bocheński - 1960
    In 1954 Dr. Albert Menne brought out a revised and somewhat enlarged edition in German (Grund riss der Logistik, F. Schoningh, Paderborn). In making my translation I have used both editions. For the most part I have followed the original French edition, since I thought there was some advantage in keeping the work as short as possible. However, I have included the more extensive historical notes of Dr. Menne, his bibliography, and the two sections on modal logic and the syntactical categories ( 25 and 27), which were not in the original. I have endeavored to correct the typo graphical errors that appeared in the original editions and have made a few additions to the bibliography. In making the translation I have profited more than words can tell from the ever-generous help of Fr. Bochenski while he was teaching at the University of Notre Dame during 1955-56. OTTO BIRD Notre Dame, 1959 I GENERAL PRINCIPLES O. INTRODUCTION 0. 1. Notion and history. Mathematical logic, also called 'logistic', .symbolic logic', the 'algebra of logic', and, more recently, simply 'formal logic', is the set of logical theories elaborated in the course of the last century with the aid of an artificial notation and a rigorously deductive method."

The Sense of the Past: Thirteen Studies in the Theory and Practice of History


C.V. Wedgwood - 1960
    

The Challenges We Face


Richard M. Nixon - 1960
    

Five Ages of Man


Gerald Heard - 1960
    

Christian Philosophy: An Introduction


Étienne Gilson - 1960
    Translation of: Introduction �a la philosophie chr�etienne.

The Origin of Philosophy


José Ortega y Gasset - 1960
    Ortega deals here with the roots and historical justification of philosophy, and the question of philosophy's essential unity.

Structure And Process In Modern Societies


Talcott Parsons - 1960
    

St. Thomas Aquinas Philosophical Texts


Thomas Gilby - 1960
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.