Best of
Philosophy

1996

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark


Carl Sagan - 1996
    And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.

Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti


Jiddu Krishnamurti - 1996
    Now the trustees of Krishnamurti’s work have gathered his very best and most illuminating writings and talks to present in one volume the truly essential ideas of this great spiritual thinker.Total Freedom includes selections from Krishnamurti’s early works, his ‘Commentaries on Living’, and his discourses on life, the self, meditation, sex and love. These writings reveal Krishnamuri’s core teachings in their full eloquence and power: the nature of personal freedom; the mysteries of life and death; and the ‘pathless land’, the personal search for truth and peace. Warning readers away from blind obedience to creeds or teachers – including himself – Krishnamurti celebrated the individual quest for truth, and thus became on of the most influential guides for independent-minded seekers of the twentieth century – and beyond.

Pedagogy of Freedom: Ethics, Democracy, and Civic Courage


Paulo Freire - 1996
    This book displays the striking creativity and profound insight that characterized Freire's work to the very end of his life-an uplifting and provocative exploration not only for educators, but also for all that learn and live.

Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom


John O'Donohue - 1996
    In Anam Cara, Gaelic for soul friend, the ancient teachings, stories, and blessings of Celtic wisdom provide such profound insights on the universal themes of friendship, solitude, love, and death as: Light is generous The human heart is never completely born Love as ancient recognitionThe body is the angel of the soul Solitude is luminous Beauty likes neglected places The passionate heart never ages To benatural is to be holy Silence is the sister of the divine Death as an invitation to freedom

The Warrior Within: The Philosophies of Bruce Lee


John Little - 1996
    However, most of his philosophical writings could be found only within the personal library of the Bruce Lee estate--until now. "The Warrior Within" is the most comprehensive volume of these teachings, meant to help you apply Lee's philosophies to your own life. This unique guide reveals such life-affirming secrets as:Seeing the totality of life and putting things into perspectiveUnderstanding the concept of Yin and YangDefeating adversity by adapting to circumstancesTapping into inner spiritual forces to help shape the futureWith a foreword by Linda Lee Cadwell and photographs and other memorabilia from Bruce Lee's short but celebrated life, "The Warrior Within" is an engrossing and easy-to-understand guide to the little-explored world of Bruce Lee. John Little has been identified as "one of the foremost authorities on Bruce Lee in the world" by "Black Belt" magazine. He edited a three-volume series for the Bruce Lee estate and has written articles for several publications, including "Men's Fitness, Official Karate," and "Inside Kung Fu."

The Essential Kierkegaard


Søren Kierkegaard - 1996
    Drawn from the volumes of Princeton's authoritative Kierkegaard's Writings series by editors Howard and Edna Hong, the selections represent every major aspect of Kierkegaard's extraordinary career. They reveal the powerful mix of philosophy, psychology, theology, and literary criticism that made Kierkegaard one of the most compelling writers of the nineteenth century and a shaping force in the twentieth. With an introduction to Kierkegaard's writings as a whole and explanatory notes for each selection, this is the essential one-volume guide to a thinker who changed the course of modern intellectual history.The anthology begins with Kierkegaard's early journal entries and traces the development of his work chronologically to the final The Changelessness of God. The book presents generous selections from all of Kierkegaard's landmark works, including Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, Works of Love, and The Sickness unto Death, and draws new attention to a host of such lesser-known writings as Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions and The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air. The selections are carefully chosen to reflect the unique character of Kierkegaard's work, with its shifting pseudonyms, its complex dialogues, and its potent combination of irony, satire, sermon, polemic, humor, and fiction. We see the esthetic, ethical, and ethical-religious ways of life initially presented as dialogue in two parallel series of pseudonymous and signed works and later in the "second authorship" as direct address. And we see the themes that bind the whole together, in particular Kierkegaard's overarching concern with, in his own words, "What it means to exist; . . . what it means to be a human being.?Together, the selections provide the best available introduction to Kierkegaard's writings and show more completely than any other book why his work, in all its creativity, variety, and power, continues to speak so directly today to so many readers around the world.

The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems


Fritjof Capra - 1996
    Now, in The Web of Life, he takes yet another giant step forward, offering a brilliant synthesis of such recent scientific breakthroughs as the theory of complexity, Gaia theory, and chaos theory. 25 line drawings.

Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings, Volume 1, 1913-1926


Walter Benjamin - 1996
    Harvard University Press is now undertaking to publish a significant portion of his work in definitive translation, under the general editorship of Michael W. Jennings. This volume, the first of three, will at last give readers of English a sense of the man and the many facets of his thought.

Jung on Active Imagination


C.G. Jung - 1996
    G. Jung's early work on active imagination. Joan Chodorow here offers a collection of Jung's writings on active imagination, gathered together for the first time. Jung developed this concept between the years 1913 and 1916, following his break with Freud. During this time, he was disoriented and experienced intense inner turmoil --he suffered from lethargy and fears, and his moods threatened to overwhelm him. Jung searched for a method to heal himself from within, and finally decided to engage with the impulses and images of his unconscious. It was through the rediscovery of the symbolic play of his childhood that Jung was able to reconnect with his creative spirit. In a 1925 seminar and again in his memoirs, he tells the remarkable story of his experiments during this time that led to his self-healing. Jung learned to develop an ongoing relationship with his lively creative spirit through the power of imagination and fantasies. He termed this therapeutic method "active imagination."This method is based on the natural healing function of the imagination, and its many expressions. Chodorow clearly presents the texts, and sets them in the proper context. She also interweaves her discussion of Jung's writings and ideas with contributions from Jungian authors and artists.

Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View


Richard Tarnas - 1996
    Drawing on years of research & on thinkers from Plato to Jung, Tarnas explores the planetary correlations of epochal events like the French Revolution, the world wars & 9/11. Whether read as astrology updated for the quantum age or as a contemporary classic of spirituality, Cosmos & Psyche is an important work of sophistication & learning. importance.Preface1 The transformation of the cosmos. The birth of the modern selfThe dawn of a new universe Two paradigms of historyForging the self, disenchanting the worldThe cosmological situation today 2 In search of a deeper order. Two suitors: a parableThe interior quest Synchronicity & its implicationsThe archetypal cosmos3 Through the archetypal telescope. The evolving traditionArchetypal principlesThe planets Forms of correspondence Personal transit cycles Archetypal coherence & concrete diversityAssessing patterns of correlation 4 Epochs of revolution. From the French Revolution to the 1960sSynchronic & diachronic patterns in historyScientific & technological revolutionsAwakenings of the DionysianThe liberation of natureReligious rebellion & erotic emancipationFilling in the cyclical sequence The individual & the collectiveA larger view of the sixties5 Cycles of crisis & contraction. World Wars, Cold War & 9/11Historical contrasts & tensionsConservative empowermentSplitting, evil & terror"Moby Dick" & nature's depthHistorical determinism, realpolitik & apocalypseMoral courage, facing the shadow & the tension of oppositesParadigmatic works of artForging deep structures 6 Cycles of creativity & expansion. Opening new horizons Convergences of scientific breakthroughsSocial & political rebellions & awakeningsQuantum leaps & peak experiencesFrom Copernicus to DarwinMusic & literatureIconic moments & cultural milestonesGreat heights & shadowsHidden births 7 Awakenings of spirit & soul. Epochal shifts of cultural visionSpiritual epiphanies & the emergence of new religionsUtopian social visions Romanticism, imaginative genius & cosmic epiphanyRevelations of the numinous The great awakening of the Axial Age The late 20th century & the turn of the millennium8 Towards a new heaven & a new earth. Understanding the past, creating the futureObservations on future planetary alignmentsSources of the world orderEpilogueNotesSourcesAcknowledgmentsIndex

Lectures on Ancient Philosophy


Manly P. Hall - 1996
    Hall's masterpiece of symbolic philosophy, The Secret Teachings of All Ages.   In Lectures on Ancient Philosophy, Manly P. Hall expands on the philosophical, metaphysical, and cosmological themes introduced in his classic work, The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Hall wrote this volume as a reader's companion to his earlier work, intending it for those wishing to delve more deeply into the esoteric philosophies and ideas that undergird the Secret Teachings. Particular attention is paid to Neoplatonism, ancient Christianity, Rosicrucian and Freemasonic traditions, ancient mysteries, pagan rites and symbols, and Pythagorean mathematics. First published in 1929-the year after the publication of Hall's magnum opus-this edition includes the author's original subject index, twenty diagrams prepared under his supervision for the volume, and his 1984 preface, which puts the book in context for the contemporary reader.

Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays


Abraham Joshua Heschel - 1996
    This first collection of Heschel's essays - compiled, edited and with an introduction by his daughter Susannah Heschel, is a stunning reminder of the virtuosity of one of the most well respected minds in Judaic studies.

The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes--and Its Implications


David Deutsch - 1996
    Taken literally, it implies that there are many universes “parallel” to the one we see around us. This multiplicity of universes, according to Deutsch, turns out to be the key to achieving a new worldview, one which synthesizes the theories of evolution, computation, and knowledge with quantum physics. Considered jointly, these four strands of explanation reveal a unified fabric of reality that is both objective and comprehensible, the subject of this daring, challenging book. The Fabric of Reality explains and connects many topics at the leading edge of current research and thinking, such as quantum computers (which work by effectively collaborating with their counterparts in other universes), the physics of time travel, the comprehensibility of nature and the physical limits of virtual reality, the significance of human life, and the ultimate fate of the universe. Here, for scientist and layperson alike, for philosopher, science-fiction reader, biologist, and computer expert, is a startlingly complete and rational synthesis of disciplines, and a new, optimistic message about existence.

The Ultimate Medicine: Dialogues with a Realized Master


Nisargadatta Maharaj - 1996
    Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897-1981) lived and taught in a small apartment in the slums of Bombay. A realized master of the Tantric Nath lineage, he supported himself and his family by selling cheap goods in a small booth on the streets outside his tenement for many years. His life exemplified the concept of absolute nonduality of being. In this volume, Maharaj shares the highest truth of nonduality in his own unique way. His teaching style is abrupt, provocative, and immensely profound, cutting to the core and wasting little effort on inessentials. His terse but potent sayings are known for their ability to trigger shifts in consciousness, just by hearing or reading them."The point is that man freed from his fetters is morality personified. Such a man therefore does not need any moralistic injunctions in order to live righteously. Free a man from his bondage and thereafter everything else will take care of itself. On the other hand, man in his unredeemed state cannot possibly live morally, no matter what moral teaching he is given. It is an intrinsic impossibility, for his very foundation is immorality. That is, he lives a lie, a basic contradiction: functioning in all his relationships as the separate entity he believes himself to be, whereas in reality no such separation exists. His every action therefore does violence to other 'selves' and other 'creatures,' which are only manifestations of the unitary consciousness. So Society had to invent some restraints in order to protect itself from its own worst excesses and thereby maintain some kind of status quo. The resulting arbitrary rules, which vary with place and time and therefore are purely relative, it calls 'morality,' and by upholding this man-invented 'idea' as the highest good–oftentimes sanctioned by religious 'revelation' and scriptures–society has provided man with one more excuse to disregard the quest for liberation or relegate it to a fairly low priority in his scheme of things."

Deliver Us From Evil: Restoring the Soul in a Disintergrating Culture


Ravi Zacharias - 1996
    Social observer Ravi Zacharias shows how many of today's most popular ideas, seemingly innocent thoughts, and beliefs are vandalizing our culture.

The Abstract Wild


Jack Turner - 1996
    There is knowledge only the wild can give us, knowledge specific to it, knowledge specific to the experience of it. These are its gifts to us. How wild is wilderness and how wild are our experiences in it, asks Jack Turner in the pages of The Abstract Wild. His answer: not very wild. National parks and even so-called wilderness areas fall far short of offering the primal, mystic connection possible in wild places. And this is so, Turner avows, because any managed land, never mind what it's called, ceases to be wild. Moreover, what little wildness we have left is fast being destroyed by the very systems designed to preserve it. Natural resource managers, conservation biologists, environmental economists, park rangers, zoo directors, and environmental activists: Turner's new book takes aim at these and all others who labor in the name of preservation. He argues for a new conservation ethic that focuses less on preserving things and more on preserving process and "leaving things be." He takes off after zoos and wilderness tourism with a vengeance, and he cautions us to resist language that calls a tree "a resource" and wilderness "a management unit." Eloquent and fast-paced, The Abstract Wild takes a long view to ask whether ecosystem management isn't "a bit of a sham" and the control of grizzlies and wolves "at best a travesty." Next, the author might bring his readers up-close for a look at pelicans, mountain lions, or Shamu the whale. From whatever angle, Turner stirs into his arguments the words of dozens of other American writers including Thoreau, Hemingway, Faulkner, and environmentalist Doug Peacock. We hunger for a kind of experience deep enough to change our selves, our form of life, writes Turner. Readers who take his words to heart will find, if not their selves, their perspectives on the natural world recast in ways that are hard to ignore and harder to forget.

Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization


Richard Sennett - 1996
    The story then moves to Rome in the time of the Emperor Hadrian, exploring Roman beliefs in the geometrical perfection of the body.The second part of the book examines how Christian beliefs about the body related to the Christian city—the Venetian ghetto, cloisters, and markets in Paris. The final part of Flesh and Stone deals with what happened to urban space as modern scientific understanding of the body cut free from pagan and Christian beliefs. Flesh and Stone makes sense of our constantly evolving urban living spaces, helping us to build a common home for the increased diversity of bodies that make up the modern city.

Buddhism: The Religion of No-Religion


Alan W. Watts - 1996
    Watts traces the Indian beginnings of Buddhism, delineates differences between Buddhism and other religions, looks at the radical methods of the Mahayan Buddhist, and reviews the Four Noble Truths and The Eightfold Path

The Wisdom of James Allen: Five Books in One: As a Man Thinketh: The Path to Prosperity: The Mastery of Destiny: The Way of Peace: Entering the Kingdom


James Allen - 1996
    James Allen's best-selling classic, As a Man Thinketh, combined with four other James Allen titles: The Path to Prosperity, The Mastery of Destiny, The Way of Peace, and Entering the Kingdom.

The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World


David Abram - 1996
    This major work of ecological philosophy startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception.For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patters) that we have only lately come to think of as inanimate. How, then, did humans come to sever their ancient reciprocity with the natural world? What will it take for us to recover a sustaining relation with the breathing earth?In The Spell of the Sensuous David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand of magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which--even at its most abstract--echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with a passion, a precision, and an intellectual daring that recall such writers as Loren Eisleley, Annie Dillard, and Barry Lopez.

Papers and Journals


Søren Kierkegaard - 1996
    Taken from his personal writings, these private reflections reveal the development of his own thought and personality, from his time as a young student to the deep later internal conflict that formed the basis for his masterpiece of duality Either/Or and beyond. Expressing his beliefs with a freedom not seen in works he published during his lifetime, Kierkegaard here rejects for the first time his father's conventional Christianity and forges the revolutionary idea of the 'leap of faith' required for true religious belief. A combination of theoretical argument, vivid natural description and sharply honed wit, the Papers and Journals reveal to the full the passionate integrity of his lifelong efforts 'to find a truth which is truth for me'.

The Re-enchantment of Everyday Life


Thomas Moore - 1996
    With his lens focused on specific aspects of daily life such as clothing, food, furniture, architecture, ecology, language, and politics, Moore describes the renaissance these can undergo when there is a genuine engagement with beauty, craft, nature, and art in both private and public life.Millions of readers who found comfort and substance in Moore's previous bestsellers will discover in this book ways to restore the heart and soul of work, home, and creative endeavors through a radical, fresh return to ancient ways of living the soulful life.

Everyday Tao: Living with Balance and Harmony


Ming-Dao Deng - 1996
    Everyday Tao revives an ancient approach to meditation and reflection by using these stories as sources of insight for spiritual growth.Tao is a person running along a pathA companion volume to the bestselling 365 Tao, Everyday Tao offers clear, specific directions on bringing the Taoist spirit into our work, our relationships, and other aspects of our everyday lives. Each ideogram provides the starting point for a Taoist lesson. The narrative that follows shows how we can achieve an intimate relationship with nature, others, and our natural selves.

Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues


Michael Sugrue - 1996
    Though he never wrote down his thoughts, he had a brilliant pupil in Plato, who immortalized his teacher's legacy in 35 timeless dialogues that laid the philosophical basis for Western civilization.Professor Michael Sugrue of Princeton University brings the Socratic quest for truth alive in these lectures, which discuss ideas that are as vital today as they were 25 centuries ago. Ideas about truth, justice, love, beauty, courage, and wisdom. Ideas that can change lives and reveal the world in new ways to the true student.Professor Sugrue reveals the inner structure, action, and meaning of 17 of Plato's greatest dialogues, making this course an indispensable companion for anyone interested in philosophy in general or Platonic thought in particular.

Metaphysics of War


Julius Evola - 1996
    In this book Evola considers the spiritual aspects of war in different spiritual traditions, including the Vedic, Iranian, Islamic and Catholic. In so doing he concludes that war can, in certain circumstances, have a ‘sacred character’ through which man may achieve self-realisation. In the second edition we have added a large number of new footnotes and a comprehensive index.This collection of essays is about war from a spiritual and heroic perspective. Evola selects specific examples from the Aryan and Islamic traditions to demonstrate how traditionalists can prepare themselves to experience wars in a way that could allow them to transcend the limited possibilities of life in our materialistic age, entering the world of heroism, i.e., achieving a higher state of consciousness, an effective realisation of the meaning of life. His call to action, however, is not that of today’s armies, which ask nothing more of their soldiers than to become mercenaries in the service of a decadent class. Rather, Evola presents the warrior as one who lives a cohesive and integrated way of life – one who adopts a specifically Aryan view of the world, which sees the political aims of a war not as war’s ultimate justification, but as being merely a means through which the warrior realizes his calling to a higher form of existence.

Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master


Robert Barron - 1996
    The life and spiritual teachings of the Catholic Church's greatest classical theologian as seen through the eyes of a contemporary theologian. Robert Barron examines the life and work of Catholicism's premier scholar and discovers a saintly deep in love with Jesus Christ.

The Path of Prosperity


James Allen - 1996
    In this book you will learn how to change your life through the way you think. This book will guide you to an understanding of how to find peace and prosperity by changing your attitudes and reactions to life's challenges. "By your own thoughts you make or mar your life, your world, your universe. As you build within by the power of thought, so will your outward life and circumstances shape themselves accordingly." -James Allen

The Book of Children: Supporting the Freedom and Intelligence of a New Generation


Osho - 1996
    The eyes of a child are an abyss, there is no bottom to them."---OshoChildren have an authentic freedom. They are joyful, playful, and naturally creative. But by the time they grow up, most children have been sacrificed to the gods of "productivity" and good behavior to the extent that only nostalgia for childhood remains. Osho says, "It is the child's experience that haunts intelligent people their whole life. They want it again---the same innocence, the same wonder, the same beauty." And while each adult generation may vow, with the best of intentions, not to repeat the mistakes of the past, they inevitably find themselves imposing their own inherited limitations on new generations to come.This book calls for a "children's liberation movement" to break through old patterns and create opportunities for an entirely new way of relating as human beings. It is a guide for grown-ups to become aware of their own conditioning as they relate to the children in their lives. And, with that awareness, to learn when to nurture and protect and when to get out of the way, so that children can flower into their highest potential and greatest capacity for joy.

Twelve Step Sponsorship: How It Works


Hamilton B. - 1996
    Twelve Step Sponsorship delivers both the theory and practice--how to do it and why--in a clear, step-by-step presentation. Written by the author of Getting Started in AA, a widely acclaimed guide for the newcomer to the program of AA, Twelve Step Sponsorship is the first truly comprehensive look at sponsorship, a role recovering people benefit from both as sponsees and ultimately as sponsors. Twelve Step Sponsorship includes informative sections that deal with: finding a sponsor and being a sponsor. Twelve Step Sponsorship offers a welcome reinforcement to the tradition of "passing it on" from one generation of sponsors to the next.

Myth and Religion: A Thorn in the Flesh


Alan W. Watts - 1996
    He then takes a revealing look at the mystical origins of Christianity in Jesus - His Religion, Or the Religion About Him? and explores how Christianity has diverged historically from those teachings in a brilliant and well researched critique of the Church. In Democracy in the Kingdom of Heaven Watts then carries his inquiry one step further, and asks if indeed a monarchical religion still makes sense in a democratic society. Watts takes a fascinating look at the ultimately anthropomorphic quality of man's view of his god in Images of Man. Here he is only half kidding when he says that "In the beginning there was Man, and he created God in his image," pointing to the highly subjective nature of our inquiry into the highest orders of reality. In the final chapter, Religion and Sexuality, Watts again looks at organized religion, but with more than a touch of humor as he suggests that churches today are sexual regulation societies, and precious little else. To make this point Watts asks, "How else can you get thrown out?" He then goes on to discuss the social implications of the Church's investment in moral issues, and demonstrates that this may in fact be a ploy to cover up for the lack of any substantial religious teaching in organized religion today.

God and Evil: The Problem Solved (Trinity Paper No. 46)


Gordon H. Clark - 1996
    Either God is good or he is all-powerful, but he cannot be both. Either way, the God of the Bible is disproved. For centuries Christian theologians have attempted to refute this argument, and they have failed. Now, one American Christian philosopher has succeeded - brilliantly. God and Evil is a masterful solution to the problem of evil.

Our Saviour Has Arrived


Elijah Muhammad - 1996
    It eloquently delves into the subject of form and spirit in the simplest terms. The relationship of Jesus, Joseph and Mary is given a critical analysis as it relates to blacks in America. Dynamic emphasis on the deep theological aspects of the Supreme Wisdom.Our Saviour Has Arrived is not merely a great title for this book, nor should it be taken lighly as a volley over the bow. For thousands of years the people of most religions have been looking for the appearance of God and now, Messenger Elijah Muhammad hearlds that Our Saviour has Arrived and proceeds to prove it in theological, spiritual, metaphysical and historical terms.In the past it was simply a knee, jerk response to write the messenger of such a statement off and call it a day, but that type of day is over; for the level of wisdom contained in this book will not let that small time approach be tolerated.You must either bring your best arguments and "proofs" of thow in your hats or crowns!

The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos: Humanity and the New Story


Brian Swimme - 1996
    Opens up not only the exhilarating truths that science reveals of the birth of the universe, but how these truths can transform our lives.

Being Singular Plural


Jean-Luc Nancy - 1996
    The fundamental argument of the book is that being is always “being with,” that “I” is not prior to “we,” that existence is essentially co-existence. Nancy thinks of this “being-with” not as a comfortable enclosure in a pre-existing group, but as a mutual abandonment and exposure to each other, one that would preserve the “I” and its freedom in a mode of imagining community as neither a “society of spectacle” nor via some form of authenticity.The five shorter essays impressively translate the philosophical insight of “Being Singular Plural” into sophisticated discussions of national sovereignty, war and technology, identity politics, the Gulf War, and the tragic plight of Sarajevo. The essay “Eulogy for the Mêlée,” in particular, is a brilliant discussion of identity and hybridism that resonates with many contemporary social concerns.As Nancy moves through the exposition of his central concern, being-with, he engages a number of other important issues, including current notions of the “other” and “self” that are relevant to psychoanalytic, political, and multicultural concepts. He also offers astonishingly original reinterpretations of major philosophical positions, such as Nietzsche’s doctrine of “eternal recurrence,” Descartes’s “cogito,” and the nature of language and meaning.

The Wholeness of Nature : Goethe's Way Toward a Science of Conscious Participation in Nature


Henri Bortoft - 1996
    In this brilliant book, Henri Bortoft (who began his studies of Goethean science with J. G. Bennett and David Bohm) introduces the fascinating scientific theories of Goethe. He succeeds in showing that Goethe's way of doing science was not a poet's folly but a genuine alternative to the dominant scientific paradigm.Bortoft shows that a different, "gentler" kind of empiricism is possible than that demanded by the dualizing mind of modern technological science and demonstrates that Goethe's participatory phenomenology of a new way of seeing--while far from being a historical curiosity--in fact proposes a practical solution to the dilemmas of contemporary, postmodern science.If you read only one book on Goethan science, this should be the one!

Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty


Roy F. Baumeister - 1996
    A fascinating study of one of humankind's oldest problems, Evil has profound implications for the way we conduct our lives and govern our society.

Finding a Form


William H. Gass - 1996
    With dazzling intelligence and wit, Gass sifts through cultural issues of our time and contemplates how written language, whether a sentence or an entire book, is a container of consciousness, the gateway to another's mind that we enter for a while and make our own.

On Dialogue


David Bohm - 1996
    Renowned scientist David Bohm believed there was a better way for humanity to discover meaning and to achieve harmony. He identified creative dialogue, a sharing of assumptions and understanding, as a means by which the individual, and society as a whole, can learn more about themselves and others, and achieve a renewed sense of purpose.

The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality and Dialectic


Catherine Malabou - 1996
    Published here in English for the first time, it includes a substantial preface by Jacques Derrida in which he explores the themes and conclusions of Malabou's book.The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality and Dialectic restores Hegel's rich and complex concepts of time and temporality to contemporary philosophy. It examines his concept of time, relating it to perennial topics in philosophy such as substance, accident and the identity of the subject. Catherine Malabou's also contrasts her account of Hegelian temporality with the interpretation given by Heidegger in Being and Time, arguing that it is the concept of 'plasticity' that best describes Hegel's theory of temporality. The future is understood not simply as a moment in time, but as something malleable and constantly open to change through our interpretation. The book also develops Hegel's preoccupation with the history of Greek thought and Christianity and explores the role of theology in his thought.Essential reading for those interested in Hegel and contemporary continental philosophy, The Future of Hegel is also fascinating to those interested in the ideas of Heidegger and Derrida.

Indiscrete Thoughts


Gian-Carlo Rota - 1996
    The era covered by this book, 1950 to 1990, was surely one of the golden ages of science as well as the American university.Cherished myths are debunked along the way as Gian-Carlo Rota takes pleasure in portraying, warts and all, some of the great scientific personalities of the period Stanislav Ulam (who, together with Edward Teller, signed the patent application for the hydrogen bomb), Solomon Lefschetz (Chairman in the 50s of the Princeton mathematics department), William Feller (one of the founders of modern probability theory), Jack Schwartz (one of the founders of computer science), and many others.Rota is not afraid of controversy. Some readers may even consider these essays indiscreet. After the publication of the essay "The Pernicious Influence of Mathematics upon Philosophy" (reprinted six times in five languages) the author was blacklisted in analytical philosophy circles. Indiscrete Thoughts should become an instant classic and the subject of debate for decades to come."Read Indiscrete Thoughts for its account of the way we were and what we have become; for its sensible advice and its exuberant rhetoric."--The Mathematical Intelligencer"Learned, thought-provoking, politically incorrect, delighting in paradox, and likely to offend but everywhere readable and entertaining."--The American Mathematical Monthly"It is about mathematicians, the way they think, and the world in which the live. It is 260 pages of Rota calling it like he sees it... Readers are bound to find his observations amusing if not insightful. Gian-Carlo Rota has written the sort of book that few mathematicians could write. What will appeal immediately to anyone with an interest in research mathematics are the stories he tells about the practice of modern mathematics."--MAA Reviews"

Rain Without Thunder: The Ideology of the Animal Rights Movement


Gary L. Francione - 1996
    Francione argues that the modern animal rights movement has become indistinguishable from a century-old concern with the welfare of animals that in no way prevents them from being exploited.Francione maintains that advocating humane treatment of animals retains a sense of them as instrumental to human ends. When they are considered dispensable property, he says, they are left fundamentally without "rights." Until the seventies, Francione claims, this was the paradigm within which the Animal Rights Movement operated, as demonstrated by laws such as the Federal Humane Slaughter Act of 1958.In this wide-ranging book, Francione takes the reader through the philosophical and intellectual debates surrounding animal welfare to make clear the difference between animal rights and animal welfare. Through case studies such as campaigns against animal shelters, animal laboratories, and the wearing of fur, Francione demonstrates the selectiveness and confusion inherent in reformist programs that target fur, for example, but leave wool and leather alone.The solution to this dilemma, Francione argues, is not in a liberal position that espouses the humane treatment of animals, but in a more radical acceptance of the fundamental inalienability of animal rights.

Mourning Becomes the Law: Philosophy and Representation


Gillian Rose - 1996
    It presents a powerful and eloquent case against postmodernism, and breathes new life into the debates about power and domination, transcendence and eternity. Addressing topics such as architecture, cinema, painting, poetry, the Holocaust and Judaism, Gillian Rose enables us to connect ideas about the individual and society with theories of justice. This is philosophy for the nonphilosopher.

Opening the Dragon Gate: The Making of a Modern Taoist Wizard


Chen Kaiguo - 1996
    This is the first English translation by noted writer Thomas Cleary of the authorized biography by two longtime disciples of this living master of the Dragon Gate branch of the Complete Reality school of Taoism, which integrated Buddhism and Confucianism into a comprehensive new form of Taoism.

The Sources of Normativity


Christine M. Korsgaard - 1996
    They make claims on us: they command, oblige, recommend, or guide. But where does their authority over us come from? Christine Korsgaard identifies and examines four accounts of the source of normativity that have been advocated by modern moral philosophers--voluntarism, realism, reflective endorsement, and the appeal to autonomy--and shows how Kant's autonomy-based account emerges as a synthesis of the other three. Her discussion is followed by commentary from G.A. Cohen, Raymond Geuss, Thomas Nagel, and Bernard Williams, and a reply by Korsgaard.

Creating the Kingdom of Ends


Christine M. Korsgaard - 1996
    She is identified with a small group of philosophers who are intent on producing a version of Kant's moral philosophy that is at once sensitive to its historical roots while revealing its particular relevance to contemporary problems. This collection contains some of the finest work being done on Kant's ethics and will command the attention of all those involved in teaching and studying moral theory.

The Need for a Black Bible


Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochannan - 1996
    These three volumes were originally published as the 3-volume set The Black Man's Religion and are available separately for the first time. The Black Man's Religion is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to gain a better understanding of belief systems in the Western World.

Being There: Putting Brain, Body, and World Together Again


Andy Clark - 1996
    In treating cognition as problem solving, Andy Clark suggests, we may often abstract too far from the very body and world in which our brains evolved to guide us. Whereas the mental has been treated as a realm that is distinct from the body and the world, Clark forcefully attests that a key to understanding brains is to see them as controllers of embodied activity. From this paradigm shift he advances the construction of a cognitive science of the embodied mind.

Osho on Zen


Osho - 1996
    Always bold and unpredictable, Oshos prolific teachings were aimed at the creation of a new manone who is free from outdated ideologies, doctrines, and dogmas of the past.

Ramar: The Rabbit with Rainbow Wings


Darrell T. Hare - 1996
    It is a tale of soaring spiritual power--sometimes magical, sometimes profound--and always, at its heart, a celebration of life and the limitless potential of the human spirit.The unforgettable story of a rabbit with a beautiful soul and a pair of rainbow wings

Short Notes from the Long History of Happiness


Michael Leunig - 1996
    Book by Leunig, Michael

Persons: The Difference Between `Someone' and `Something'


Robert Spaemann - 1996
    Persons takes issue with major contemporary philosophers, especially in the English-speaking world (such as Parfit and Singer), who have contributed to the eclipse of the idea, and traces the debate back to the foundations of modern philosophy in Descartes and Locke. Robert Spaemann offers extended discussions of the sources of the idea in Christian theology and its development in Western philosophy. He also provides anumber of pointed discussions of pressing practical questions--for example, our treatment of the severely disabled human and the moral status of intelligent non-human animals. The book covers a great deal of ground before coming to a focused conclusion: all human beings are persons.

Meditations on the Peaks: Mountain Climbing as Metaphor for the Spiritual Quest


Julius Evola - 1996
    Julius Evola, a leading exponent of esoteric thought, was also an ardent mountain climber who personally scaled the peaks of the Tyrols, Alps, and Dolomites. For Evola the physical conquest of a mountain, with all the courage, self-transcendence and mental lucidity that it entails, becomes an inseparable and complementary part of spiritual awakening. It is no coincidence that many ancient cultures chose mountains as the abodes of their gods and considered the rigorous ascent of peaks as the task of heroes and initiates. In modern times, which tend to suffocate the heroic with naked self interest, the mountain still forms part of the profound dimension of spirit where the soul finds within itself more than what it thought itself to be. In Meditations on the Peaks, Evola combines recollections of his own experiences with reflections on other inspirational men and women who shared his view of the transcendent greatness of mountains.

The Night Is Large: Collected Essays, 1938-1995


Martin Gardner - 1996
    Delving into an immense range of topics, from philosophy and literature to social criticism to mathematics and science, with essays that date from 1930s to the 1990s, Martin Gardner has astounded readers with his insight and erudition. The Night Is Large is the crowning achievement of his extraordinary career.

Mahasatipatthana Sutta: The Great Discourse on the Establishing of Awareness


Vipassana Research Institute Staf - 1996
    This translation of the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta has Roman-script Pāli with an English translation on facing pages as well as an introductory article and detailed footnotes explaining Pali terms and phrases. This highly significant text will be of interest to any serious student of meditation or of the Buddha's teaching.

Asclepius: A Secret Discourse of Hermes Trismegistus


Hermes Trismegistus - 1996
    The Greek original, lost since classical times, is thought to date from the second or third century AD. However, a Latin version survived, of which this volume is a translation.Like its companion, the Corpus Hermeticum, the Asclepius describes the most profound philosophical questions in the form of a conversation: the nature of the One, the role of the gods, the stature of the human being. Not only does this work offer spiritual guidance, but it is also a valuable insight into the minds and emotions of the Egyptians in ancient and classical times.

The Evidential Argument from Evil


Daniel Howard-Snyder - 1996
    The Evidential Argument from Evil presents five classic statements on this issue by eminent philosophers and theologians and places them in dialogue with eleven original essays reflecting new thinking by these and other scholars. The volume focuses on two versions of the argument. The first affirms that there is no reason for God to permit either certain specific horrors or the variety and profusion of undeserved suffering. The second asserts that pleasure and pain, given their biological role, are better explained by hypotheses other than theism.Contributors include William P. Alston, Paul Draper, Richard M. Gale, Daniel Howard-Snyder, Alvin Plantinga, William L. Rowe, Bruce Russell, Eleonore Stump, Richard G. Swinburne, Peter van Inwagen, and Stephen John Wykstra.

Emmanuel Levinas: Basic Philosophical Writings


Emmanuel Levinas - 1996
    This anthology, including Levinas's key philosophical texts over a period of more than forty years, provides an ideal introduction to his thought and offers insights into his most innovative ideas. Five of the ten essays presented here appear in English for the first time. An introduction by Adriaan Peperzak outlines Levinas's philosophical development and the basic themes of his writings. Each essay is accompanied by a brief introduction and notes. This collection is an ideal text for students of philosophy concerned with understanding and assessing the work of this major philosopher.

Wittgenstein's Ladder: Poetic Language and the Strangeness of the Ordinary


Marjorie Perloff - 1996
    Taking seriously Wittgenstein's remark that "philosophy ought really to be written only as a form of poetry," Perloff begins by discussing Wittgenstein the "poet." What we learn is that the poetics of everyday life is anything but banal."This book has the lucidity and the intelligence we have come to expect from Marjorie Perloff.—Linda Munk, American Literature"[Perloff] has brilliantly adapted Wittgenstein's conception of meaning and use to an analysis of contemporary language poetry."—Linda Voris, Boston Review"Wittgenstein's Ladder offers significant insights into the current state of poetry, literature, and literary study. Perloff emphasizes the vitality of reading and thinking about poetry, and the absolute necessity of pushing against the boundaries that define and limit our worlds."—David Clippinger, Chicago Review"Majorie Perloff has done more to illuminate our understanding of twentieth century poetic language than perhaps any other critic. . . . Entertaining, witty, and above all highly original."—Willard Bohn, Sub-Stance

The Roaring Stream: A New Zen Reader


Nelson Foster - 1996
    It offers readers a tour through more than a millennium of writing, presenting one masterpiece after another in chronological progression. "You can dip into the waters of this stream, again and again, at any point Finding refreshment and perspective, " notes Robert Aitken in his introduction. "A year From now you can dip in again and find treasures that were not at all evident the First time." From lectures to letters, brief poems to extended disquisitions, this collection is an ideal point of entry For newcomers to the Zen tradition, and an essential sourcebook For those who are already " on the way.""Now the masterpieces of Zen Buddhist writing are availa6le in a single volume," applauds Library Journal. "[This] will be the standard introduction to Zen Buddhism For years to come."

Bertrand Russell: The Spirit of Solitude 1872-1921


Ray Monk - 1996
    A definitive biography presents a portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning philosopher, uses unpublished letters, manuscripts, and papers that reveal his philosophical creativity, social conscience, and erotic drives.

Practical Philosophy


Immanuel Kant - 1996
    No other collection competes with the comprehensiveness of this one. As well as Kant's most famous moral and political writings, the Groundwork to the Metaphysics of Morals, the Critique of Practical Reason, the Metaphysics of Morals, and Toward Perpetual Peace, the volume includes shorter essays and reviews, some of which have never been translated before. There is also an English-German and German-English glossary of key terms.

Compelling Reason: Essays on Ethics and Theology


C.S. Lewis - 1996
    

Manifestations of Karma


Rudolf Steiner - 1996
    He shows how, through a comprehension of karma, a person can begin to answer the inevitable questions that arise when they begin seriously to seek the meaning and purpose of life.We create our own karma in all areas of existence, says Steiner, laying the foundation in one incarnation for the following one. We cannot seek for a complete pattern or meaning in one earthly life but must begin to take into account many lives on earth. He indicates that although we may not be aware of particular causes, the knowledge that a resolution of our own self-induced karma is in process can help to bring both an acceptance and a sense of purpose into our present lives.

The Sense of Reality: Studies in Ideas and Their History


Isaiah Berlin - 1996
    Eight of the nine pieces included here are published for the first time, and their range is characteristically wide: the subjects explored include realism in history; judgement in politics; the history of socialism; the nature and impact of Marxism; the radical cultural revolution instigated by the Romantics; Russian notions of artistic commitment; and the origins and practice of nationalism. The title essay, starting from the impossibility of historians being able to recreate a bygone epoch, is a superb centerpiece.

Questioning Krishnamurti


Jiddu Krishnamurti - 1996
    Wide-ranging conversation about the ultimate questions of human existence from the influential spiritual teacher and some of the greatest thinkers of the twentieth century.

Burning All Illusions: A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom


David Edwards - 1996
    Above all about the idea that there is often no greater obstacle to freedom than the assumption that it has already been attained. What prison, after all, could be more secure than that deemed to be "the world," where boundaries of action and thought are assumed to define not the limits of the permissible, but the limits of the possible.In the past we have been prisoners of tyrants and dictators, and consequently have needed to win our freedom in very concrete, physical terms. We now need to free ourselves not from a slave ship or a concentration camp, but from many of the illusions fostered in our democratic society.“[A] wise and acute analysis of the way our minds are controlled, not in a totalitarian state, but in a ‘democratic’ one. Edwards also suggests how we can escape this control in a self-help book which, unlike other books of this genre, connects our inner world of alienation with the world outside.”—Howard Zinn“[A] treatise on what freedom truly means.… Burning All Illusions is an important philosophical and psychology text that should be on every political science curriculum reading list!”—Wisconsin Book Watch

Loving God's Way


Gary DeLashmutt - 1996
    Examines the balanced and mature pattern for healthy relationships that are found in the New Testament's various one another commands.

Religion and Rational Theology


Immanuel Kant - 1996
    These works were written during a period of conflict between Kant and the Prussian authorities over his religious teachings. The historical context and progression of this conflict are charted in the general introduction to the volume and in the translators' introductions to particular texts. All the translations are new with the exception of The Conflict of the Faculties, where the translation has been revised and redited to conform to the guidelines of the Cambridge Edition.

Temple Wilderness: A Collection of Thoughts and Images on Our Spiritual Bond with the Earth


Edward O. Wilson - 1996
    This book is an uplifting word-and-picture experience, revealing that despite diverse beliefs, people worldwide are bound in a spiritual relationship with the earth--a sacred vessel we all share.

Kant after Duchamp


Thierry De Duve - 1996
    Although Duchamp's ready mades broke with all previously known styles, de Duve observes that he made the logic of modernist art practice the subject matter of his work, a shift in aesthetic judgment that replaced the classical this is beautiful with this is art. De Duve employs this shift (replacing the word beauty by the word art) in a rereading of Kant's Critique of Judgment that reveals the hidden links between the radical experiments of Duchamp and the Dadaists and mainstream pictorial modernism.

Unspoken Sermons, Third Series (Sunrise Centenary Edition)


George MacDonald - 1996
    If thereupon any precious result of meaning should follow, the change would not merely be justifiable--seeing that points are of no authority with anyone accustomed to the vagaries of scribes, editors, and printers--but one for which to give thanks to God. And I found the change did unfold such a truth as showed the rhetoric itself in accordance with the highest thought of the apostle. So glad was I, that it added little to my satisfaction to find the change supported by the best manuscripts and versions. It could add none to learn that the passage had been, in respect of the two readings, a cause of much disputation: the ground of argument on the side of the common reading, seemed to me worse than worthless.

Can One Live after Auschwitz?: A Philosophical Reader


Theodor W. Adorno - 1996
    What took place in Auschwitz revokes what Adorno termed the “Western legacy of positivity,” the innermost substance of traditional philosophy. The prime task of philosophy then remains to reflect on its own failure, its own complicity in such events. Yet in linking the question of philosophy to historical occurrence, Adorno seems not to have abandoned his paradoxical, life-long hope that philosophy might not be entirely closed to the idea of redemption. He prepares for an altogether different praxis, one no longer conceived in traditionally Marxist terms but rather to be gleaned from “metaphysical experience.”In this collection, Adorno's literary executor has assembled the definitive introduction to his thinking. Its five sections anatomize the range of Adorno's concerns: “Toward a New Categorical Imperative,” “Damaged Life,” “Administered World, Reified Thought,” “Art, Memory of Suffering,” and “A Philosophy That Keeps Itself Alive.”A substantial number of Adorno’s writings included appear here in English for the first time. This collection comes with an eloquent introduction from Rolf Tiedemann, the literary executor of Adorno’s work.

The Girard Reader


René Girard - 1996
    In one volume, an anthology of seminal work of one of the twentieth century's most original thinkers.

Words of Light: Theses on the Photography of History


Eduardo Cadava - 1996
    Focusing on Benjamin's discussions of the flashes and images of history, he argues that the questions raised by this link between photography and history touch on issues that belong to the entire trajectory of his writings: the historical and political consequences of technology, the relation between reproduction and mimesis, images and history, remembering and forgetting, allegory and mourning, and visual and linguistic representation. The book establishes the photographic constellation of motifs and themes around which Benjamin organizes his texts and thereby becomes a lens through which we can begin to view his analysis of the convergence between the new technological media and a revolutionary concept of historical action and understanding.Written in the form of theses--what Cadava calls "snapshots in prose"--the book memorializes Benjamin's own thetic method of writing. It enacts a mode of conceiving history that is neither linear nor successive, but rather discontinuous--constructed from what Benjamin calls "dialectical images." In this way, it not only suggests the essential rapport between the fragmentary form of Benjamin's writing and his effort to write a history of modernity but it also skillfully clarifies the relation between Benjamin and his contemporaries, the relation between fascism and aesthetic ideology. It gives us the most complete picture to date of Benjamin's reflections on history.

Recognizing Reality: Dharmakīrti's Philosophy And Its Tibetan Interpretations


Georges B.J. Dreyfus - 1996
    During the golden age of ancient Indian civilization, Dharmakirti articulated and defended Buddhist philosophical principles. He did so more systematically than anyone before his time (the seventh century CE) and was followed by a rich tradition of profound thinkers in India and Tibet. This work presents a detailed picture of this Buddhist tradition and its relevance to the history of human ideas. Its perspective is mostly philosophical, but it also uses historical considerations as they relate to the evolution of ideas.

Future Visions: The Unpublished Papers of Abraham Maslow


Abraham H. Maslow - 1996
    His theories shaped not only psychology but many other fields, including counselling, education and management. At the time of his death 25 years ago, Maslow left a vast collection of articles, essays and letters intended for publication: now the noted Maslow biographer, Edward Hoffman, has compiled the most compelling of these writings into one volume.In these articles, Maslow shares his thoughts on a wide range of topics, from self-actualization and well-being to American politics and organizational management. Hoffman provides a biographical introduc

Stoic Studies


Anthony A. Long - 1996
    A. Long has been at the forefront of research in Hellenistic philosophy. In this book he assembles a dozen articles on Stoicism previously published in journals and conference proceedings. The collection is biased in favour of Professor Long's more recent studies of Stoicism and is focused on three themes: the Stoics' interpretation of their intellectual tradition, their ethics and their psychology. The contents of the book reflect the peculiarly holistic and systematic features of Stoicism. The papers are printed here in their original form for the most part, but the author has made some minor corrections and stylistic or bibliographical changes. He has also added a postscript to three papers whose topics have been the subject of much discussion during the years since they first appeared.

Technics and Time, 2: Disorientation


Bernard Stiegler - 1996
    For many years, Stiegler has explored the origins and philosophical, ethical, and political stakes of a global process he calls "the industrial temporalization of consciousness." Here, demonstrating that technology—including alphabetical writing—is memory, he argues that through new technologies of retention and inscription we have come to live in a world where time devours space, a disoriented world in which we have lost our bearings. Immersed in the multimedia of an over-connected world, with time and space as we know them abolished, we no longer find "cardinal points" to guide us and may even be led where we do not wish to go. We must therefore prepare to confront new spheres of ideological control and discover new possibilities in the digital environment.

The Waking Dream: Unlocking the Symbolic Language of Our Lives


Ray Grasse - 1996
    It is a grammar school friend you have not heard from in 30 years, but just now, while going through a box of old photographs, you came across his picture. Is this coincidence, or do such events have deeper significance? This engaging and penetrating book opens readers to the world of meaningful coincidences. Weaving ancient insights with contemporary teachings on sacred psychology, astrology, and subtle energy. Grasse shows readers how to understand the deeper meaning of the symbols and synchronicities of their everyday lives.

St. Bonaventure's on the Reduction of the Arts to Theology


Bonaventure - 1996
    Bonaventure deals with the relation of the finite to the infinite, of the natural to the supernatural, in a way which well establishes his preeminence as a mystic, a philosopher and a theologian. This English translation (from Latin) and commentary brings to the modern day reader an appreciation of the return of all created things to God.This volume is reprinted with a revised translation, introduction and commentary by Zachary Hayes, OFM, from the original by Emma Therese Healy, CSJ, in 1955.

The Cambridge Companion to Plotinus


Lloyd P. Gerson - 1996
    He thought of himself as a disciple of Plato, but in his efforts to defend Platonism against Aristotelians, Stoics, and others, he actually produced a reinvigorated version of Platonism that later came to be known as Neoplatonism. In this volume, sixteen leading scholars introduce and explain the many facets of Plotinus' complex system. They place Plotinus in the history of ancient philosophy while showing how he was a founder of medieval philosophy.

The Ethical Function of Architecture


Karsten Harries - 1996
    But if architecture is to meet that task, it first has to free itself from the dominant formalist approach, and get beyond the notion that its purpose is to produce endless variations of the decorated shed.In a series of cogent and balanced arguments, Harries questions the premises on which architects and theorists have long relied--premises which have contributed to architecture's current identity crisis and marginalization. He first criticizes the aesthetic approach, focusing on the problems of decoration and ornament. He then turns to the language of architecture. If the main task of architecture is indeed interpretation, in just what sense can it be said to speak, and what should it be speaking about? Expanding upon suggestions made by Martin Heidegger, Harries also considers the relationship of building to the idea and meaning of dwelling.Architecture, Harries observes, has a responsibility to community; but its ethical function is inevitably also political. He concludes by examining these seemingly paradoxical functions.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, Volume 1: The Person and his Work


Jean-Pierre Torrell - 1996
    The appendix consists of additions to the text, the catalog of Aquinas's works, and the chronology. Each item in the appendix is called out in the original part of the book with an asterisk in the margin."This is the introduction to Thomas: presenting all the known facts of his life and work, tracing the themes of his writing out of his juvenilia, and following the influence of his thought in the years immediately after his death."--First Things"The most up-to-date biography available."--Choice

Striving Towards Being: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz


Thomas Merton - 1996
    Milosz replied and thus began an animated correspondence which lasted until Merton's death in 1968. During this highly productive decade, Merton continued, a Trappist, to write about nonviolence and the monastic life. Milosz, meanwhile, was writing influential essays and translating the poetry of Aleksander Wat and Anna Swir. In this dynamic correspondence, Milosz and Merton differ in their views of the role of Communism, share thoughts about the power of literature, and contrast their views on the natural world. As different as Milosz and Merton were, they found common ground in their spiritual search and in a desire to understand the human race. A memorial to a great friendship between two of this century's celebrated men of letter, Striving Towards Being is a testament to the examined life.

Eyes to My Soul: The Rise or Decline of a Black FBI Agent


Tyrone Powers - 1996
    He resigned in August 1994.The picture of the country's top law enforcement agency that emerges from Powers' eloquent prose reveals an organization beset by the same problems of racism that plague the rest of American society. Powers describes sheet-clad students at the FBI Academy impersonating Ku Klux Klansmen. He reports on FBI Agents in Detroit raising funds for white Detroit policemen charged with (and later convicted of) second degree murder in the death of Black motorist Malice Green. White agents on one occasion substituted the face of an ape on the photo of an African American agent's children, displayed on their Black colleague's desk.White agents, according to Powers' narrative, urinated on photographs of President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. Powers provides eyewitness evidence of the agency's extralegal harassment of African American mayors Coleman Young (Detroit), Marion Barry (Washington, DC) and Harold Washington (Chicago).His story parallels similar complaints of harassment voiced in recent years by the Congressional Black Caucus and in the 1960s by Civil Rights workers. The FBI's Counter Intelligence Program of surveillance, disruption and assassinations against the Black movement of the 1960s and 1970s (COINTELPRO), has received wide coverage in recent years.Former Special Agent Powers grew up in inner city Baltimore and his autobiographical recollections combine the sociologist's insight with the novelist's flair for storytelling. The problems of the inner city are presented in all theirunvarnished starkness. There was drug dealing, violence, gang feuds and incest in the experience of an inner city youth growing to manhood. Some of it was very close to home.But there was also love, friendship and hope, much of it emanating from a close knit family. The despair and hopelessness of other rags-to-riches tales of urban African America find no place in Eyes To My Soul.

The Kabbalah of Money: Jewish Insights on Giving, Owning, and Receiving


Nilton Bonder - 1996
    Drawing on Jewish ethical teachings, mystical lore, and tales of the Hasidic masters, Bonder explores a wide range of subjects including competition, partnerships, contracts, loans and interest, tipping, and giving gifts.

The Crisis of Western Philosophy: Against Positivism


Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov - 1996
    In it, he undertakes a stunning critique of positivism, by which he understands the entire philosophy of Western rationalism, which he sees as setting up a conflict between reason and faith, and reason and nature. In the modern period, he finds abundant evidence for reason's war against nature in Western philosophy from Descartes to Hegel. "Positivism," the leading philosophy in his time, Solovyov also finds repugnant. In its place, he proposes his great theme of total unity--which was to become the dominant theme in Russian philosophy. This is the work that launched Russian religious philosophy and is a must for anyone interested in the subject. From the Esalen-Lindisfarne Library of Russian Philosophy.

Sit: Zen Teachings of Master Taisen Deshimaru


Taisen Deshimaru - 1996
    This book answers pressing questions and provides vital instruction and inspiration for both beginner or long-time Zen practitioners and those using meditation as part of their spiritual path.

The Politics of Faith and the Politics of Scepticism


Michael Oakeshott - 1996
    Yale University Press is continuing to make available the best of these illuminating works.In this polished and hitherto unknown work, Oakeshott argues that modern politics was constituted out of a debate, persistent through centuries of European political experience down to our own day, over the question "What should governments do?" According to Oakeshott, two different answers have dominated our thought since the fifteenth century. One, exemplified by such thinkers as Rousseau and Marx, expresses a belief in the capacity of human beings to control, design, and monitor all aspects of social and political life, a belief fostered by the intoxicating increase in power available to governments in modern times. On the other hand, sceptics such as Montaigne, Pascal, and Hobbes argued that governments cannot, in principle, produce perfection and that we should prevent concentrations of power that may result in tyrannies that oppress the dignity of the human spirit. Oakeshott exposes the pitfalls of both positions and shows the value of a middle ground that incorporates scepticism with enough faith to avoid total quietism. Readers of Oakeshott will find here the thinking that lies behind his famous definition of politics as "the pursuit of intimations.".

Soft Subversions


Félix Guattari - 1996
    Concepts such as "micropolitics," "schizoanalysis," and "becoming-woman" open up new horizons for political and creative resistance in the "postmedia era."Guattari's energetic analyses of art, cinema, youth culture, economics, and power formations introduce a radically inventive thought process engaged in liberating subjectivity from the standardizing and homogenizing processes of global capitalism.

Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity


Alan Sokal - 1996
    

A Meeting of Minds: Mutuality in Psychoanalysis


Lewis Aron - 1996
    From his reappraisal of the concepts of interaction and enactment, to his examination of the issue of analyst self-disclosure, to his concluding remarks on the relational import of the analyst's ethics and values, Aron squarely accepts the clinical responsibilities attendant to a postmodern critique of psychoanalytic foundations.

Changing the Bully Who Rules the World: Reading and Thinking About Ethics


Carol Bly - 1996
    But changing their behavior may be in our power. In this provocative, visionary book, Carol Bly examines some of this century's most far-ranging concepts about how to nurture ethical human beings and presents them through the lens of excellent contemporary literature. Changing the Bully Who Rules the World is a book of hopeful, practical ideas that can hasten ethical change both in our thinking and in our behavior. Through an anthology of exceptional literature, Bly's book asks the reader to contemplate anew the voices she presents - including works by Charles Baxter, Donald Hall, Jim Harrison, Mark Helprin, Denise Levertov, Thomas McGrath, Joyce Carol Oates, Mary Oliver, Katha Pollitt, Alice Walker, Tobias Wolff, and many others - and to consider them in terms of the ideas of important thinkers in human behavior and our own experiences.

I Am the Truth: Toward a Philosophy of Christianity


Michel Henry - 1996
    In the process, Henry inevitably argues against the concept of truth that dominates modern thought and determines, in its multiple implications, the world in which we live.Henry argues that Christ undoes “the truth of the world,” that He is an access to the infinity of self-love, to a radical subjectivity that admits no outside, to the immanence of affective life found beyond the despair fatally attached to all objectifying thought. The Kingdom of God accomplishes itself in the here and now through the love of Christ in what Henry calls “the auto-affection of Life.” In this condition, he argues, all problems of lack, ambivalence, and false projection are resolved.

Politics of Security: Towards a Political Philosophy of Continental Thought


Michael Dillon - 1996
    Drawing on the work of Martin Heidegger, Politics of Security establishes the relationship between Heidegger's readical hermeneutical phenomenology and politics and the fundamental link between politics, the tragic and the ethical. It breaks new ground by providing an etymology of security, tracing the word back to the Greek asphaleia (not to trip up or fall down), and a unique political reading of Oedipus Rex . Michael Dillon traces the roots of desire for security to the metaphysical desire for certitude, and points out that our way of seeking that security is embedded in 20th century technology, thus resulting in a global crisis. Politics of Security will be invaluable to both political theorists and philosophers, and to anyone concerned with international relations, continental philosophy or the work of Martin Heidegger.

Confucius Speaks: Words to Live by


Tsai Chih Chung - 1996
    Presents key pasages from the Analects of Confucius in comic book form.

First Principles of Philosophy: Metaphysics, Logic, Ethics, Psychology, Epistemology, Esthetics & Theurgy


Manly P. Hall - 1996
    This simple and informal approach to the study of philosophy offers a straightforward explanation and interpretation of the seven departments of philosophy: Metaphysics, the Nature of Being and of God; Logic, the Rule of Reason: Ethics, the Code of Conduct: Psychology, the Science of the Soul; Epistemology, the Nature of Knowledge: Esthetics, the Urge to Beauty; and Theurgy, the Living of Wisdom.

Hierarchy Theory: A Vision, Vocabulary, and Epistemology


Valerie Ahl - 1996
    This theory aims to answer the question of whether there is a basic structure to nature, comprising discreet levels of organization within an overall pattern.

Cherokee Feast of Days, Volume II: Daily Meditations


Joyce Sequichie Hifler - 1996
    A day-by-day guide, A Cherokee Feast of Days brings Native American philosophy to people of all faiths, and to those seeking faith. Rich in images drawn from the natural world, Hifler’s writing helps us feel our own kinship with the earth we inhabit, so that we may be in tune with the natural harmony of each changing season and may walk in the beauty of that harmony every day.

The Islamic Intellectual Tradition in Persia


Seyyed Hossein Nasr - 1996
    Brought together into a single volume for the first time, these essays span four decades of Nasr's prolific and learned scholarship on the development of Islamic philosophy, as well as the general history of Islam, and expound his belief that philosophy is not merely a rational but a sacred activity.