Best of
Philosophy

1998

Out of Your Mind


Alan W. Watts - 1998
    Perhaps more than any other teacher in the West, this celebrated author, former Anglican priest, and self-described spiritual entertainer was responsible for igniting the passion of countless wisdom seekers to the spiritual and philosophical delights of Asia and India. Now, with Out of Your Mind: Essential Listening from the Alan Watts Audio Archives, you are invited to immerse yourself in 12 of this legendary thinker's pinnacle teaching sessions about how to break through the limits of the rational mind, and begin expanding your awareness and appreciation for the Great Game unfolding all around us.Carefully selected from hundreds of recordings by Alan Watts' son and archivist, Mark Watts, Out of Your Mind brings you six complete seminars that capture the true scope of this brilliant teacher in action. On these superb, digitally restored recordings, you will delve into Alan Watts' favorite pathways out of the trap of conventional awareness, including: The art of the controlled accident—what happens when you stop taking your life so seriously and start enjoying it with complete sincerity• How we come to believe the myth of myself that we are skin-encapsulated egos separate from the world around us, and how to transcend that illusion• Why we must fully embrace chaos and the void to find our deepest purpose• Unconventional and refreshing insights into the deeper principles of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Western philosophy, plus much, much moreWhether you're completely new to Alan Watts or familiar with his work, here is a rare opportunity to experience him at his best improvising brilliantly before a live audience on Out of Your Mind: Essential Listening from the Alan Watts Audio Archives.

The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching: Transforming Suffering into Peace, Joy, and Liberation


Thich Nhat Hanh - 1998
    With poetry and clarity, Nhat Hanh imparts comforting wisdom about the nature of suffering and its role in creating compassion, love, and joy – all qualities of enlightenment. Covering such significant teachings as the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Three Doors of Liberation, the Three Dharma Seals, and the Seven Factors of Awakening, The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching is a radiant beacon on Buddhist thought for the initiated and uninitiated alike. “Thich Nhat Hanh shows us the connection between personal, inner peace, and peace on earth.”                                     – His Holiness the Dalai Lama “Thich Nhat Hanh is a real poet.”                                    – Robert Lowell

Eternal Echoes: Celtic Reflections on Our Yearning to Belong


John O'Donohue - 1998
    There is a divine restlessness in the human heart, our eternal echo of longing that lives deep within us and never lets us settle for what we have or where we are.In this exquisitely crafted and inspirational book, John O'Donohue, author of the bestseller Anam Cara, explores the most basic of human desires - the desire to belong, a desire that constantly draws us toward new possibilities of self-discovery, friendship, and creativity.

Fides et Ratio: On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason


Pope John Paul II - 1998
    Pope John Paul II - Encyclical Letter "On the Relationship between Faith and Reason." (FIDES ET RATIO)

Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction


Murray B. Stein - 1998
    . . Stein develops the cartographical metaphor of the title by beginning with the "surface" (ego) of the psyche and exploring successively more complex areas, including complexes, libido thoery, shadow, "anima/us," the self, individuation, and synchronicity. The map soon resembles the multidisciplinary chart of a solar system more than it does a flat map. In each subject area, Stein draws heavily on papers that Jung wrote late in his life, but he sets these in the context of Jung's earlier developing thought. This method allows the author to demonstrate the interconnectedness and coherence of Jung's mature work. -- Choice, 10/15/98Stein could just as aptly have named his introductory guide "Jung's Art of the Soul," for the course the founder of analytical psychology charted also has the intuitive sweep of an artist on an inner journey integrated within a systematic framework of techniques. Though acknowledging Jung's creative, intuitive approach to fathoming the mysteries of the individual and collective human psyche, the author presents a solid case for the basic coherency and empirical underpinnings of the great psychoanalyst's theory-counter to those who viewed him as more of a mystic or philosopher who espoused: "As within, so without." Territory consciously omitted from this psychic map concern his analytic practice and interpretation of culture, history, and religion. Organized like a graduate thesis, all the major concepts that evolved over Jung's lengthy career are lucidly summarized with some contextual details: ego-consciousness, complexes, libido theory, archetypes, persona/shadow, anima/animus, the self, individuation, and synchronicity. While this presentation is eminently more accessible than most Jungian texts-and Stein does preface it with personal remarks about his long-time attraction to Jung-those who seek a sense of Jung's own voice and personal development in his quest for answers to many of life's enigmas will have their appetites whet to explore further. -- From Independent Publisher

Bruce Lee: The Art of Expressing the Human Body


Bruce Lee - 1998
    He achieved this through an intensive and ever-evolving conditioning regime that is being revealed for the first time in this book.Drawing on Lee's notes, letters, diaries and training logs, Bruce Lee historian John Little presents the full extent of Lee's unique training methods including nutrition, aerobics, isometrics, stretching and weight training.In addition to serving as a record of Bruce Lee's training, The Art of Expressing the Human Body, with its easy-to-understand and simple-to-follow training routines, is a valuable source book for those who seek dramatic improvement in their health, conditioning, physical fitness, and appearance. This Bruce Lee Book is part of the Bruce Lee Library which also features:Bruce Lee: Striking ThoughtsBruce Lee: The Celebrated Life of the Golden DragonBruce Lee: The Tao of Gung FuBruce Lee: Artist of LifeBruce Lee: Letters of the DragonBruce Lee: Jeet Kune Do

The Art of Happiness


Dalai Lama XIV - 1998
    And he makes everyone else around him feel like smiling. He's the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, a Nobel Prize winner, and an increasingly popular speaker and statesman. What's more, he'll tell you that happiness is the purpose of life, and that "the very motion of our life is towards happiness." How to get there has always been the question. He's tried to answer it before, but he's never had the help of a psychiatrist to get the message across in a context we can easily understand. Through conversations, stories, and meditations, the Dalai Lama shows us how to defeat day-to-day anxiety, insecurity, anger, and discouragement. Together with Dr. Cutler, he explores many facets of everyday life, including relationships, loss, and the pursuit of wealth, to illustrate how to ride through life's obstacles on a deep and abiding source of inner peace.

The 48 Laws of Power


Robert Greene - 1998
    Barnum. Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.

The Mission of Art


Alex Grey - 1998
    Alex Grey's reflections combine his extensive knowledge of art history and his own first-hand experiences in creating art on the boundaries of consciousness. Included are practical techniques and exercises that can be used to explore the spiritual dimension of art. Challenging and thought-provoking, The Mission of Art will be enjoyed by everyone who has ever contemplated the deeper purpose of artistic expression.

The Science of Enlightenment: Teachings and Meditations for Awakening Through Self-Investigation


Shinzen Young - 1998
    For it is through the investigation of your own thoughts and feelings that you can awaken to clear insight and a happiness independent of conditions: the state of enlightenment.Through his expertise in both science and spirituality, meditation teacher Shinzen Young demystifies the principles of awakening hidden within the world's great spiritual traditions and shows you how to use them in your own life.Here, in an unequaled 14-CD course covering traditional teachings, scientific insights, and practical instructions, you will test for yourself the discoveries of the great wisdom traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Jewish mysticism, Sufism, Hinduism, shamanism, and many others.Why is single-pointed concentration so highly regarded on every contemplative path? How do you move beyond emotional/intellectual blocks and into a state of highest presence? Where do psychic powers and other mystical phenomena fit in the architecture of enlightenment? How do you know if your meditation practice is working?On The Science of Enlightenment, Shinzen Young elucidates these questions with precision and intelligence, demonstrating why he is regarded as one of the Western world's most articulate and understandable teachers of classical mystical experience.The search for awakening is not limited to a chosen few. It is a field open for you to investigate--once you possess the inner technologies to do so. Now you can begin that investigation with The Science of Enlightenment. Includes six complete guided meditation sessions.Learn More About: Six common traps on the path to awakening - and how to avoid them- Ancient mystical teachings in clear, modern language- Fascinating research about meditation and your brain-wave states, perceptual acuity, oxygen levels, and aging- How meditation enhances your learning, athletic performance, relationships, and emotional life- Why your body is the greatest mystical teacher- How to digest harmful mental blockages through inner work- Samadhi--your inner microscope for self-understanding- Inner healing techniques you won't learn in psychotherapy- What to do if you lack discipline- An expansive survey of awakening practices from their tribal roots to the Information AgeCourse objectives: Discuss the benefits of having a regular meditation practice- Recognize the similarities between the world's oldest and largest spiritual traditions in terms of practices of concentration and ideas of enlightenment- Utilize meditation practices that focus on relaxation, the body, thinking, the sense of self, expanding and contracting, and the sensory field- Describe the meaning of enlightenment and the Buddhist practices used to reach enlightenment- Summarize the Buddhist perspective on the self, the no-self, and how this is brought into meditation practice- Apply Western scientific knowledge to Eastern spiritual practices in order to understand the benefits of both- Identify the differences between reaching the source of consciousness/enlightenment, and the realm of power/new age phenomena

The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image


Leonard Shlain - 1998
    Making remarkable connections across brain function, myth, and anthropology, Dr. Shlain shows why pre-literate cultures were principally informed by holistic, right-brain modes that venerated the Goddess, images, and feminine values. Writing drove cultures toward linear left-brain thinking and this shift upset the balance between men and women, initiating the decline of the feminine and ushering in patriarchal rule. Examining the cultures of the Israelites, Greeks, Christians, and Muslims, Shlain reinterprets ancient myths and parables in light of his theory. Provocative and inspiring, this book is a paradigm-shattering work that will transform your view of history and the mind.

Becoming Human


Jean Vanier - 1998
    He proposes that by opening ourselves to others, those we perceive as weak, different, or inferior, we can achieve true personal and societal freedom.

Happiness Is a Serious Problem: A Human Nature Repair Manual


Dennis Prager - 1998
    Achieving that happiness won't be easy, though: to Prager, it requires a continuing process of counting your blessings and giving up any expectations that life is supposed to be wonderful. "Can we decide to be satisfied with what we have?" he asks. "A poor man who can make himself satisfied with his portion will be happier than a wealthy man who does not allow himself to be satisfied." Prager echoes other political commentators in complaining that too many people today see themselves as victims; he submits that the only way to achieve your desires is to take responsibility for your life rather than blaming others. Whether or not you agree with that view, if you're willing to put some thought into achieving a happier outlook, you will find plenty to mull over in Happiness Is a Serious Problem.

Van Til's Apologetic: Readings and Analysis


Greg L. Bahnsen - 1998
    The result is a carefully organized digest of all that Van Til taught about apologetics with running exposition by Bahnsen.

Bubbles: Spheres I


Peter Sloterdijk - 1998
    Rejecting the century's predominant philosophical focus on temporality, Sloterdijk, self-described "student of the air," reinterprets the history of Western metaphysics as an inherently spatial & immunological project, from the discovery of self (bubble) to the exploration of world (globe) to the poetics of plurality (foam). Exploring macro- & micro-space from the Greek agora to contemporary urban apartments, he's able to synthesize, with immense erudition, the spatial theories of Aristotle, Descartes, Gaston Bachelard, Walter Benjamin & Georges Bataille into a morphology of shared, or multipolar, dwelling--identifying the question of being as one bound up with the aerial technology of architectonics & anthropogenesis. He describes Bubbles, Spheres' 1st volume, as a general theory of the structures that allow couplings--or as the book's original intended subtitle put it, an "archeology of the intimate." Bubbles includes a wide array of images, not to illustrate his discourse, but to offer a spatial & visual "parallel narrative" to his exploration of bubbles. Written over the course of a decade, the trilogy has waited another decade for its English translation from Semiotext(e). Volumes 2, Globes, & 3, Foam, will publish in coming seasons.

Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air


Francis J. Beckwith - 1998
    The authors survey the rising tide of relativism in recent decades, explore its inherent inconsistencies, suggest specific approaches that can be used in the course of dialogue, and consider its everyday implications. (48)

Knowing How to Know: A Practical Philosophy in the Sufi Tradition


Idries Shah - 1998
    This is the paperback edition of Shah's companion volume to the The Commanding Self, wherein he sets out to illuminate the barriers which prevent deeper knowledge and understanding.

Stigmata: Escaping Texts


Hélène Cixous - 1998
    Stigmata brings together her most recent essays for the first time.Acclaimed for her intricate and challenging writing style, Cixous presents a collection of texts that get away -- escaping the reader, the writers, the book. Cixous's writing pursues authors such as Stendhal, Joyce, Derrida, and Rembrandt, da Vinci, Picasso -- works that share an elusive movement in spite of striking differences. Along the way these essays explore a broad range of poetico-philosophical questions that have become characteristic of Cixous' work: * love's labours lost and found* feminine hours* autobiographies of writing* the prehistory of the work of artStigmata goes beyond theory, becoming an extraordinary writer's testimony to our lives and our times.

The Story of Philosophy: A Concise Introduction to the World's Greatest Thinkers and Their Ideas


Bryan Magee - 1998
    Discover the great thinkers in their historical contexts and learn the influences that shaped their lives and work. Each philosophical movement includes profiles of key philosophers and their important works, historical contexts and influences, important quotes, and other related people and ideas. Full-color photographs, artworks, and illustrations illuminate every page."The Story of Philosophy" gives you the information you need to think about life's greatest questions, opening up the world of philosophical ideas in a way that can be easily understood by students and by anyone fascinated by the ways we form our social, political, and ethical ideas.

Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America


Richard Rorty - 1998
    In Achieving Our Country, one of America's foremost philosophers challenges this lost generation of the Left to understand the role it might play in the great tradition of democratic intellectual labor that started with writers like Walt Whitman and John Dewey.How have national pride and American patriotism come to seem an endorsement of atrocities--from slavery to the slaughter of Native Americans, from the rape of ancient forests to the Vietnam War? Achieving Our Country traces the sources of this debilitating mentality of shame in the Left, as well as the harm it does to its proponents and to the country. At the center of this history is the conflict between the Old Left and the New that arose during the Vietnam War era. Richard Rorty describes how the paradoxical victory of the antiwar movement, ushering in the Nixon years, encouraged a disillusioned generation of intellectuals to pursue High Theory at the expense of considering the place of ideas in our common life. In this turn to theory, Rorty sees a retreat from the secularism and pragmatism championed by Dewey and Whitman, and he decries the tendency of the heirs of the New Left to theorize about the United States from a distance instead of participating in the civic work of shaping our national future.In the absence of a vibrant, active Left, the views of intellectuals on the American Right have come to dominate the public sphere. This galvanizing book, adapted from Rorty's Massey Lectures of 1997, takes the first step toward redressing the imbalance in American cultural life by rallying those on the Left to the civic engagement and inspiration needed for achieving our country.

Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues


Martin Curd - 1998
    Combine this with thoughtful and thorough apparatus, and Philosophy of Science: The Central Issues is the most flexible and comprehensive collection ever created for undergraduate courses.

Remnants of Auschwitz: The Witness and the Archive


Giorgio Agamben - 1998
    It did not seem possible to proceed otherwise. At a certain point, it became clear that testimony contained at its core an essential lacuna; in other words, the survivors bore witness to something it is impossible to bear witness to. As a consequence, commenting on survivors' testimony necessarily meant interrogating this lacuna or, more precisely, attempting to listen to it. Listening to something absent did not prove fruitless work for this author. Above all, it made it necessary to clear away almost all the doctrines that, since Auschwitz, have been advanced in the name of ethics.---Giorgio Agamben

The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought


Marilynne Robinson - 1998
    Whether rescuing "Calvinism" and its creator Jean Cauvin from the repressive "puritan" stereotype, or considering how the McGuffey readers were inspired by Midwestern abolitionists, or the divide between the Bible and Darwinism, Marilynne Robinson repeatedly sends her reader back to the primary texts that are central to the development of American culture but little read or acknowledged today.A passionate and provocative celebration of ideas, the old arts of civilization, and life's mystery, The Death of Adam is, in the words of Robert D. Richardson, Jr., "a grand, sweeping, blazing, brilliant, life-changing book."

Introduction to Vedanta


Dayananda Saraswati - 1998
    Yet, each moment of joy is only that: momentary, showing up the rest of our lives to be unsatisfying, somehow lacking and incomplete. On the other hand, Vedanta, the body of knowledge found at the end of the Veda, asserts with breathtaking boldness that one's true nature is completeness and limitlessness. Vedanta also promises that moksa, liberation from all forms of limitations that seem to bind a human being, is possible here and now. In this lucid, lively introduction to Vedanta, Swami Dayananda shows how man's constant struggle to overcome these limitations through the ceaseless pursuit of security and pleasure are predestined to failure for the simple reason that they are misdirected: they stem from a failure in understanding the real nature of the fundamental problem itself. All effort howsoever great or unremitting being limited, the result of such effort is also bound to be equally limited, inadequate. The road to freedom from limitation, then, can scarcely lie that way. Indeed, asserts Vedanta, it is only to be found in the correct knowledge of one's true nature as absolute. This vital first step, a clear understanding of man's fundamental problem of ignorance and error about his real nature. Is what this book is all about.

Art of Contemplation


Chinmayananda Saraswati - 1998
    Swamiji shows how the body must first be quietened, then how to start chanting the mantra, what the various methods of chanting are, how to witness the body and the mind, how to get rid of negative emotions, and finally, how to reach the state of completeness - the absolute peace and happiness.

Is There a Meaning in This Text?: The Bible, the Reader, and the Morality of Literary Knowledge


Kevin J. Vanhoozer - 1998
    Kevin Vanhoozer contends that the postmodern crisis in hermeneutics - "incredulity towards meaning, " a deep-set skepticism concerning the possibility of correct interpretationis fundamentally a crisis in theology provoked by an inadequate view of God and by the announcement of God's "death."

TechGnosis: Myth, Magic Mysticism in the Age of Information


Erik Davis - 1998
    Davis uncovers startling connections between such seemingly disparate topics as electricity and alchemy; online role-playing games and religious and occult practices; virtual reality and gnostic mythology; programming languages and Kabbalah. The final chapters address the apocalyptic dreams that haunt technology, providing vital historical context as well as new ways to think about a future defined by the mutant intermingling of mind and machine, nightmare and fantasy.

Metaphysics: Concept and Problems


Theodor W. Adorno - 1998
    It provides a unique introduction not only to metaphysics but also to Adorno's own intellectual standpoint, as developed in his major work Negative Dialectics.Metaphysics for Adorno is defined by a central tension between concepts and immediate facts. Adorno traces this dualism back to Aristotle, whom he sees as the founder of metaphysics. In Aristotle it appears as an unresolved tension between form and matter. This basic split, in Adorno's interpretation, runs right through the history of metaphysics. Perhaps not surprisingly, Adorno finds this tension resolved in the Hegelian dialectic.Underlying this dualism is a further dichotomy, which Adorno sees as essential to metaphysics: while it dissolves belief in transcendental worlds by thought, at the same time it seeks to rescue belief in a reality beyond the empirical, again by thought. It is to this profound ambiguity, for Adorno, that the metaphysical tradition owes its greatness.The major part of these lectures, given by Adorno late in his life, is devoted to a critical exposition of Aristotle's thought, focusing on its central ambiguities. In the last lectures, Adorno's attention switches to the question of the relevance of metaphysics today, particularly after the Holocaust. He finds in metaphysical experiences, which transcend rational discourse without lapsing into irrationalism, a last precarious refuge of the humane truth to which his own thought always aspired.This volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in Adorno's work and will be a valuable text for students and scholars of philosophy and social theory.

The Case of the Speluncean Explorers: Nine New Opinions


Peter Suber - 1998
    Describing a case of trapped travellers who are forcd to cannibalize one of their team, it is used on courses in philosophy of law and Jurisprudence to show how their trial upon rescue touches on key concepts in philosophy and legal theory such as utilitarianism and naturalism. The Case of the Speluncean Explorers: Nine New opinions includes a reprint of Fuller's classic article and a much-needed revision of and addition to the five openings originally expressed in the case by the five Supreme Court Judges. Peter Suber carefully and clearly introduces students to the main themes of Fuller's article before introducing nine new opinions. These opinions include perspectives from communitarian, feminist, multicultural, postmodern and economic theories of law, updating Fuller's original case and bringing contemporary theories of law to bear on the five original opinions.Why read this book? One reason is to get beyond sloganeering about "judicial activism" and "activist judges." The book is an enjoyable and even-handed way to understand what the debate is about. It doesn't tell you what to think, but illustrates the contending positions and lets you think for yourself. It will show you how judges with different moral and political beliefs interpret written law, how they use precedents, how they conceive the proper role of judges, how they conceive the relationship between law and morality, and how they defend their judicial practices against criticism. It anchors all of this in a Supreme Court hearing of a gripping, concrete case on which real people disagree. (Challenge: Take any view of how judges should interpret law, especially any view that makes it sound easy, and try it out on this case. How well can it respect the facts and law? How well can it answer the objections from judges who take other views? How well does it deliver justice?) The book uses no jargon and assumes no prior knowledge of law or legal philosophy.

Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and its Challenge to Western Thought


George Lakoff - 1998
    In addressing them, philosophers have made certain fundamental assumptions-that we can know our own minds by introspection, that most of our thinking about the world is literal, and that reason is disembodied and universal-that are now called into question by well-established results of cognitive science. It has been shown empirically that: Most thought is unconscious. We have no direct conscious access to the mechanisms of thought and language. Our ideas go by too quickly and at too deep a level for us to observe them in any simple way. Abstract concepts are mostly metaphorical. Much of the subject matter of philosophy, such as the nature of time, morality, causation, the mind, and the self, relies heavily on basic metaphors derived from bodily experience. What is literal in our reasoning about such concepts is minimal and conceptually impoverished. All the richness comes from metaphor. For instance, we have two mutually incompatible metaphors for time, both of which represent it as movement through space: in one it is a flow past us and in the other a spatial dimension we move along. Mind is embodied. Thought requires a body-not in the trivial sense that you need a physical brain to think with, but in the profound sense that the very structure of our thoughts comes from the nature of the body. Nearly all of our unconscious metaphors are based on common bodily experiences. Most of the central themes of the Western philosophical tradition are called into question by these findings. The Cartesian person, with a mind wholly separate from the body, does not exist. The Kantian person, capable of moral action according to the dictates of a universal reason, does not exist. The phenomenological person, capable of knowing his or her mind entirely through introspection alone, does not exist. The utilitarian person, the Chomskian person, the poststructuralist person, the computational person, and the person defined by analytic philosophy all do not exist. Then what does? Lakoff and Johnson show that a philosophy responsible to the science of mind offers radically new and detailed understandings of what a person is. After first describing the philosophical stance that must follow from taking cognitive science seriously, they re-examine the basic concepts of the mind, time, causation, morality, and the self: then they rethink a host of philosophical traditions, from the classical Greeks through Kantian morality through modern analytic philosophy. They reveal the metaphorical structure underlying each mode of thought and show how the metaphysics of each theory flows from its metaphors. Finally, they take on two major issues of twentieth-century philosophy: how we conceive rationality, and how we conceive language.

Letters of the Dragon


Bruce Lee - 1998
    A highly personal collection of letters, these writings span Lee's life from high school until the year of his death.

The Limits of Thought: Discussions between J. Krishnamurti and David Bohm


Jiddu Krishnamurti - 1998
    Krishnamurti and the renowned physicist, David Bohm.The starting point of their engaging exchange is the question: If truth is something different than reality, then what place has action in daily life in relation to truth and reality? We see Bohm and Krishnamurti explore the nature of consciousness and the condition of humanity. These enlightening dialogues address issues of truth, desire awareness, tradition, and love.Limits of Thought is an important book by two very respected and important thinkers. Anyone interested to see how Krishnamurti and Bohm probe some of the most essential questions of our very existence will be drawn to this great work.

Learning the Human Game: Original Live Recordings on the Tao of Philosophy


Alan W. Watts - 1998
    In Learning the Human Game, Watts starts with this Taoist insight, then takes his audience into a mind-expanding inquiry into the human condition. This four-session collection offers the best of Watts' celebrated Tao of Philosophy lecture series, recorded during live seminars and radio broadcasts spanning two decades. Here, Watts offers clear delineations of Taoist, Buddhist, and Hindu teachings about what it means to be human; insights into the hidden order behind the apparent chaos of the universe; what nature can teach us about how to live our lives; and much more. Perhaps more than anyone else this century, Alan Watts is credited with helping the modern West gain access to the spiritual traditions of the Far East. Now on Learning the Human Game, join this renowned scholar and beloved spiritual entertainer at his best, offering his listeners a rich and completely unpredictable investigation into our place in the cosmos and our great common task at once formidable and effortless.

The Path of Yoga: Commentaries on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali


Osho - 1998
    In addition to lessons on postures and breathing, this guide provides a look at the history of yoga, including its roots and modern relevance.as.

The Burden of Responsibility: Blum, Camus, Aron, and the French Twentieth Century


Tony Judt - 1998
    Judt focuses particularly on Blum's leadership of the Popular Front and his stern defiance of the Vichy governments, on Camus's part in the Resistance and Algerian War, and on Aron's cultural commentary and opposition to the facile acceptance by many French intellectuals of communism's utopian promise. Severely maligned by powerful critics and rivals, each of these exemplary figures stood fast in their principles and eventually won some measure of personal and public redemption.Judt constructs a compelling portrait of modern French intellectual life and politics. He challenges the conventional account of the role of intellectuals precisely because they mattered in France, because they could shape public opinion and influence policy. In Blum, Camus, and Aron, Judt finds three very different men who did not simply play the role, but evinced a courage and a responsibility in public life that far outshone their contemporaries."An eloquent and instructive study of intellectual courage in the face of what the author persuasively describes as intellectual irresponsibility."—Richard Bernstein, New York Times

Zen and the Brain


James H. Austin - 1998
    What are the peak experiences of enlightenment? How could these states profoundly enhance, and yet simplify, the workings of the brain? Zen and the Brain presents the latest evidence. In this book Zen Buddhism becomes the opening wedge for an extraordinarily wide-ranging exploration of consciousness. In order to understand which brain mechanisms produce Zen states, one needs some understanding of the anatomy, physiology, and chemistry of the brain. Austin, both a neurologist and a Zen practitioner, interweaves the most recent brain research with the personal narrative of his Zen experiences. The science is both inclusive and rigorous; the Zen sections are clear and evocative. Along the way, Austin examines such topics as similar states in other disciplines and religions, sleep and dreams, mental illness, consciousness-altering drugs, and the social consequences of the advanced stage of ongoing enlightenment.

The Ayn Rand Column


Ayn Rand - 1998
    The essays exemplify the radical ideas of her unique philosophy of objectivism: uncompromising rationality, egoism, and laissez-faire capitalism. With her characteristic intellectual consistency, she scrutinizes a breadth of topics ranging from the Cuban missile crisis to nationalism versus internationalism. This edition includes two out-of-print essays about the field of politics.

Mind, Value, and Reality


John Henry McDowell - 1998
    One group of essays deals mainly with issues in the interpretation of the ethical writings of Aristotle and Plato. A second group of papers contains more direct treatments of questions in moral philosophy that arise naturally out of reflection on the Greek tradition. Some of the essays in the second group exploit Wittgensteinian ideas about reason in action, and they open into the third group of papers, which contains readings of central elements in Wittgenstein's difficult later work. A fourth group deals with issues in the philosophy of mind and with questions about personal identity and the special character of first-personal thought and speech.

The Story Of Thought


Bryan Magee - 1998
    Magee does a great job of balancing the various aspects of the history of philosophy that may be of interest to different readers. Each philosopher is covered in a section of a few pages outlining the thinker's major ideas, but also containing sidebars with famous quotes, major works, related topics and historical notes. The book is organized chronologically and philosophers are grouped into intellectual movements, introduced and expanded by insets. This format allows the book to be used as a point reference on a single thinker or school of thought, but also reads well from cover to cover as the "story of thought". If you are looking for a good introduction to philosophy, it would be hard to find a more complete, accessible, and universally appealing resource.

The Mystery of the Supernatural


Henri de Lubac - 1998
    First published in 1965, this book represents a refinement and further development of the core thesis that Henri de Lubac had originally put forward many years earlier in a bold and controversial work in which he first called into question the idea of pure nature.

On Touching: Jean-Luc Nancy


Jacques Derrida - 1998
    Emmanuel Levinas, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Edmund Husserl, Didier Franck, Martin Heidegger, Francoise Dastur, and Jean-Louis Chrétien are discussed, as are René Descartes, Diderot, Maine de Biran, Félix Ravaisson, Immanuel Kant, Sigmund Freud, and others. The scope of Derrida's deliberations makes this book a virtual encyclopedia of the philosophy of touch (and the body).Derrida gives special consideration to the thinking of touch in Christianity and, in discussing Jean-Luc Nancy's essay "Deconstruction of Christianity," devotes a section of the book to the sense of touch in the Gospels. Another section concentrates on "the flesh," as treated by Merleau-Ponty and others in his wake. Derrida's critique of intuitionism, notably in the phenomenological tradition, is one of the guiding threads of the book.On Touching includes a wealth of notes that provide an extremely useful bibliographical resource. Personal and detached all at once, this book, one of the first published in English translation after Jacques Derrida's death, serves as a useful and poignant retrospective on the work of the philosopher. A tribute by Jean-Luc Nancy, written a day after Jacques Derrida's death, is an added feature.

Work, Consumerism and the New Poor


Zygmunt Bauman - 1998
    This distinction truly makes a difference in the way poverty is experienced and in the chances to redeem its misery.This absorbing book traces this change, and makes an inventory of its social consequences. It also considers ways of fighting back advancing poverty and mitigating its hardships, and tackles the problems of poverty in its present form.The new edition features: Up-to-date coverage of the progress made by key thinkers in the field A discussion of recent work on redundancy, disposability, and exclusion Explorations of new theories of workable solutions to povertyStudents of sociology, politics, and social policy will find this to be an invaluable text on the changing significance and implications of an enduring social problem.

The Birth Of The Modern Mind: The Intellectual History Of The 17th And 18th Centuries


Alan Charles Kors - 1998
    They affect how we grant legitimacy to authority, define what is possible, create standards of right and wrong, and even view the potential of human life. Between 1600 and 1800, such a revolution of the intellect seized Europe, shaking the minds of the continent as few things before or since. What we now know as the Enlightenment challenged previously accepted ways of understanding reality, bringing about modern science, representative democracy, and a wave of wars, sparking what Professor Kors calls, "perhaps the most profound transformation of European, if not human, life."In this series of 24 insightful lectures, you'll explore the astonishing conceptual and cultural revolution of the Enlightenment. You'll witness in its tumultuous history the birth of modern thought in the dilemmas, debates, and extraordinary works of the 17th and 18th-century mind, as wielded by the likes of thinkers like Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Pascal, Newton, Locke, Hume, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau.And you'll understand why educated Europeans came to believe that they had a new understanding - of thought and the human mind, of method, of nature, and of the uses of knowledge - with which they could come to know the world correctly for the first time in human history, and with which they could rewrite the possibilities of human life.Disclaimer: Please note that this recording may include references to supplemental texts or print references that are not essential to the program and not supplied with your purchase.

On Creativity


David Bohm - 1998
    In On Creativity David Bohm, the world-renowned scientist, investigates the phenomenon from all sides: not only the creativity of invention and of imagination but also that of perception and of discovery. This is a remarkable and life-affirming book by one of the most far-sighted thinkers of modern times.

The Evolutionary Mind: Conversations on Science, Imagination & Spirit


Rupert Sheldrake - 1998
    Their passion is to break out of paradigms that retard our evolution and to explore new possibilities. Through challenge and synergy they venture where few have gone before, leading their readers on an exciting journey of discovery. Their discussions focus on the evolution of the mind, the role of psychedelics, skepticism, the psychic powers of animals, the structure of time, the life of the heavens, the nature of God, and transformations of consciousness.“Three fine thinkers take us plunging into the universe of chaos, mind, and spirit. Instead of leaving us lost, they bring us back with startling insights and more wonder than we knew we had.” —Matthew Fox, Original Blessing and Sheer Joy"A jam-session of the mind, an intellectual movable feast, an on-going conversation that began over twenty years ago and remains as lively and relevant today as it ever was. Sadly, Terence had to leave the conversation a little earlier than planned. But the appearance of this book of trialogues at this critical, historical juncture is a reaffirmation of the potency of the optimistic vision that the trialogues express." —Dennis McKenna, brother of the late Terence McKennaRupert Sheldrake is a biologist and author of many books including The Sense of Being Stared At, And Other Aspects of the Extended Mind. Ralph Abraham is a mathematician, one of the pioneers of chaos theory and the author of several books including Chaos, Gaia, Eros: A Chaos Pioneer Uncovers the Three Great Streams of History. The late Terence McKenna was a scholar of shamanism, ethno-botanist, psychedelic researcher and author of many books including Food of the Gods and True Hallucinations.

Propaganda and the Public Mind


Noam Chomsky - 1998
    Whether discussing the recent U.S. military escalation in Colombia, the bipartisan rollback of Social Security, the rise of for-profit HMOs, or growing inequality worldwide, Chomsky shows how ordinary citizens, if they work together, have the power to make meaningful change.Renowned interviewer David Barsamian showcases his unique access to Chomsky's thinking on a number of topics of contemporary and historical import. In an interview conducted after the important November 1999 "Battle in Seattle", Chomsky discusses prospects for building a movement to challenge corporate domination of the media, the environment, and even our private lives. Chomsky also engages in a discussion of his ideas on language and mind, making his important linguistic insights accessible to the lay reader.

Taoism Way Beyond Seeking


Alan W. Watts - 1998
    Essays include "Being in the Way", "The Philosophy of Tao", and "Landscape, Soundscape" Alan Watts' lectures always drew a large audience of diverse interests, and these Taoist explorations of the "nature of nature" should introduce a new generation to Watt's thought.

Wisdom of the Zen Masters: The Quest for Enlightenment


Tsai Chih Chung - 1998
    Wisdom of the Zen Masters illustrates the key narrative of this text and follows the orthodox line of Zen transmission in a loosely chronological format from patriarch to patriarch, master to master. The result is a delightful romp through the history of forty or so illustrious and irreverent Zen masters, complete with enlightening anecdotes and disarming wisdom.In addition to the Platform Sutra, many episodes are drawn from other key Zen texts, including the Transmission of the Lamp, the Gateless Gate (Mumonkan), and the Blue Cliff Record. All of these are recognized as rich sources of the famous Zen koan.Wisdom of the Zen Masters is not only a perfect introduction to Zen Buddhism, but also an essential component of any Zen collection.

Spiritual Warrior II: Transforming Lust into Love


B.T. Swami - 1998
    In Spiritual Warrior II, Bhakti Tirtha Swami offers profound insight into the critical issues of the body, mind, and spirit that touch us all. Tough questions are addressed, such as: What is love? Where does lust come from? How can sexuality become a constructive force? How can we have better relationships? Provided with insightful answers stemming from a broad, compassionate perspective deeply grounded in spirituality, we are shown hoe to live from the heart, loving ourselves, one another and God."Spiritual Warrior II: Transforming Lust into Love is a book to savor and treasure, a book that needs to be read and reread because of its spiritual potency and priceless value for everyday living....I am currently on my second and even third reading of certain chapters of this divinely inspired offering....Everyone needs a copy of this book."-- Terry Cole-Whittaker. D. D. Author of What You Think of Me Is none of My Business

Having Thought: Essays in the Metaphysics of Mind


John Haugeland - 1998
    What is it? What does it take to have it? What does it presuppose in what can be understood? In the first group of essays, John Haugeland addresses mind and intelligence. Intelligibility comes to the fore in a set of "metaphysical" pieces on analog and digital systems and supervenience. In the third set of papers, Haugeland elaborates and then undermines a battery of common presuppositions about the foundational notions of intentionality and representation. Finally, the fourth and most recent group of essays confronts the essential character of understanding in relation to what is understood. The necessary interdependence between personality and intelligence is developed and explained, specifically in the conditions of the possibility of objective scientific knowledge.

The Culture of Counter-Culture: Edited Transcripts (Love of Wisdom)


Alan W. Watts - 1998
    In these lectures given during the late 1960s, Alan Watts addresses such questions as what is the nature of reality, and how does our individual relationship to society affect this reality?

The Voyage and the Messenger: Iran and Philosophy


Henry Corbin - 1998
    A study of religious philosophy, exploration of visionary faith, these pages offer a superb meditation of the great themes of Perso-Islamic mysticism—the Sufi theory of knowledge, the voyage within the soul, le rituel de la coupe—and an illuminating glimpse into the philosophic universes of Sohravardi, Ibn Arabi, and Molla Sarda Shirazi.

Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order


Noam Chomsky - 1998
    By examining the contradictions between the democratic and market principles proclaimed by those in power and those actually practiced, Chomsky critiques the tyranny of the few that restricts the public arena and enacts policies that vastly increase private wealth, often with complete disregard for social and ecological consequences. Combining detailed historical examples and uncompromising criticism, Chomsky offers a profound sense of hope that social activism can reclaim people's rights as citizens rather than as consumers, redefining democracy as a global movement, not a global market.

Mindful Living: A Collection of Teachings on Love, Mindfulness, and Meditation


Thich Nhat Hanh - 1998
    Instead of suppressing anger, fear, and guilt, mindfulness welcomes all experience. Mindful Living is a special gift-boxed collection of this beloved Zen master's most popular audio sessions, with heartfelt advice on coming fully alive to yourself and the world. The set includes:The Art of Mindful Living--Thich Nhat Hanh shows you how to use mindfulness to welcome all aspects of experience, even the most challenging partsTeachings on Love--In the Buddhist tradition, genuine love comprises four qualities: loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and freedom, and here you will learn how to enrich relationships of every kind with these transcendent qualitiesTouching the Earth--Thich Nhat Hanh and Sister Chan Khong teach an ancient Buddhist practice to unify body and mind in an exquisite gesture of spiritual surrender

This Is My Wish for You - Mini


Welleran Poltarnees - 1998
    At its center is a poem by Charles Snell which was written for, and published in, 1914 as a small gift book. In it the giver, in a series of concrete images, extends the recipient many good wishes.This Is My Wish for You is in the tradition of ancient blessings, in which one tries, through the power of language, to throw a mantle of protection and beneficence over the receiver.In our volume, the text is presented within borders made by Daniel Maclise for a book entitled Moore's Irish Melodies, published in 1846. We have selected images to accompany each wish. These are made by a great variety of painters and illustrators, and range over more than 150 years.We assert, without exaggeration, that this is the nearly perfect gift book.

Imperfect Garden: The Legacy of Humanism


Tzvetan Todorov - 1998
    In it, one of France's most prominent intellectuals explores the foundations, limits, and possibilities of humanist thinking. Through his critical but sympathetic excavation of humanism, Tzvetan Todorov seeks an answer to modernity's fundamental challenge: how to maintain our hard-won liberty without paying too dearly in social ties, common values, and a coherent and responsible sense of self.Todorov reads afresh the works of major humanists--primarily Montaigne, Rousseau, and Constant, but also Descartes, Montesquieu, and Toqueville. Each chapter considers humanism's approach to one major theme of human existence: liberty, social life, love, self, morality, and expression. Discussing humanism in dialogue with other systems, Todorov finds a response to the predicament of modernity that is far more instructive than any offered by conservatism, scientific determinism, existential individualism, or humanism's other contemporary competitors. Humanism suggests that we are members of an intelligent and sociable species who can act according to our will while connecting the well-being of other members with our own. It is through this understanding of free will, Todorov argues, that we can use humanism to rescue universality and reconcile human liberty with solidarity and personal integrity.Placing the history of ideas at the service of a quest for moral and political wisdom, Todorov's compelling and no doubt controversial rethinking of humanist ideas testifies to the enduring capacity of those ideas to meditate on--and, if we are fortunate, cultivate--the imperfect garden in which we live.

The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion


Ken Wilber - 1998
    Yet the two are seen as mutually exclusive. 'In The Marriage of Sense and Soul' Ken Wilber brilliantly shows how we can begin to think about science and religion in ways that allow for their reconciliation and union, on terms acceptable to both camps. He proves that science is compatible with the world's religions, and explains why integration is essential for a balanced life. One of the foremost thinkers in the realm of spirituality and mind, Wilber is uniquely qualified to write such a thesis. 'The author's ongoing quest is to unite science and spirituality. Deeply philosophical but with Wilber's staggering talent for making the profound sound perfectly plain.' Spirit Magazine '...rigorous, profound, original and visionary, a landmark in the science-religion debate.' Network Other books by Ken Wilber Grace and Grit A Theory of Everything A Brief History of Everything.

The Imperative


Alphonso Lingis - 1998
    a more compelling reading of Kant than any I have ever seen." --David Farrell KrellIn this provocative book, Alphonso Lingis argues that not only our thought is governed by an imperative, as Kant had maintained, but, rather, our sensual, sensing, perceiving, and emotional life is continually regulated by imperatives that come to us from the world around us. Through a series of phenomenological sketches drawn from life experiences, Lingis shows that there are directives in the natural world and in our interactions with others that govern our thought and behavior.

Poised for Grace: Annotations on the Bhagavad Gita from a Tantric View


Douglas Brooks - 1998
    In Poised for Grace, he writes a masterful and unique commentary on one of the world's most widely interpreted texts, the Bhagavad Gita. Using a Tantric perspective while simultaneously touching upon the various philosophical interpretations of this beloved Hindu classic, Poised for Grace offers Dr. Brooks' insightful ideas along with notable excerpts from the text. A must for any aspiring yoga instructor or serious student of yoga philosophy, Poised for Grace illuminates the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita in a refreshing and thought-provoking way.

The Green Halo: A Bird's-Eye View of Ecological Ethics


Erazim V. Kohák - 1998
    The author looks at the views of thinkers including John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Al Gore, and suggests alternative ways to view nature, assign it value, and respond to ecological crises.

The Essential Chuang Tzu


Sam Hamill - 1998
    Here the immediacy of Chuang Tzu's language is restored in a idiom that is both completely fresh and true to the original text. This unique collaboration between one of America's premier poet-translators and a leading Chinese scholar presents the so-called "Inner Chapters" of the text, along with important selections from other chapters thought to have been written by Chuang Tzu's disciples.

Veils


Hélène Cixous - 1998
    "Savoir," by Hélène Cixous, is a brief but densely layered account of her experience of recovered sight after a lifetime of severe myopia, an experience that ends with the unexpected turn of grieving for what is lost. Her literary inventiveness mines the coincidence in French between the two verbs savoir (to know) and voir (to see). Jacques Derrida's "A Silkworm of One's Own" complexly muses on a host of autobiographical, philosophical, and religious motifs—including his varied responses to "Savoir." The two texts are accompanied by six beautiful and evocative drawings that play on the theme of drapery over portions of the body.Veils suspends sexual difference between two homonyms: la voile (sail) and le voile (veil). A whole history of sexual difference is enveloped, sometimes dissimulated here—in the folds of sails and veils and in the turns, journeys, and returns of their metaphors and metonymies.However foreign to each other they may appear, however autonomous they may be, the two texts participate in a common genre: autobiography, confession, memoirs. The future also enters in: by opening to each other, the two discourses confide what is about to happen, the imminence of an event lacking any common measure with them or with anything else, an operation that restores sight and plunges into mourning the knowledge of the previous night, a "verdict" whose threatening secret remains out of reach by our knowledge.

The Holy Vedas


Pandit Satyakam Vidyalankar - 1998
    , 546 pages, 448 pages with index in English followed by Hyms in Hindi, colour and black and white illustrations

Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice


Bent Flyvbjerg - 1998
    . . has to set the church clock. So he calls the telephone exchange and asks what time it is, and the telephone operator looks out the window towards the church clock and says, 'It's five o'clock.' 'Good,' says the bell ringer, 'then my clock is correct.'"In the Enlightenment tradition, rationality is considered well-defined, independent of context; we know what rationality is, and its meaning is constant across time and space. Bent Flyvbjerg shows that rationality is context-dependent and that the crucial context is determined by decision-makers' power. Power blurs the dividing line between rationality and rationalization. The result is a rationality that is often as imaginary as the time in Little Town, yet with very real social and environmental consequences.Flyvbjerg takes us behind the scenes to uncover the real politics—and real rationality—of policy-making, administration, and planning in an internationally acclaimed project for environmental improvement, auto traffic reduction, land use, and urban renewal. The action takes place in the Danish city of Aalborg, but it could be anywhere. Aalborg is to Flyvbjerg what Florence was to Machiavelli: a laboratory for understanding power and what it means for our more general concerns of social and political organization. Policy-making, administration, and planning are examined in ways that allow a rare, in-depth understanding. The reader is a firsthand witness to the classic, endless drama that defines what democracy and modernity are, and what they can be. The result is a fascinating narrative that is both concrete and general, current and timeless. Drawing on the ideas of Machiavelli, Nietzsche, Foucault, and Habermas, Flyvbjerg reads the Aalborg case as a metaphor of modernity and of modern politics, administration, and planning. Flyvbjerg uncovers the interplay of power and rationality that distorts policy deliberation. He demonstrates that modern "rationality" is but an ideal when confronted with the real rationalities involved in decision making by central actors in government, economy, and civil society. Flyvbjerg then elaborates on how this problem can be dealt with so that more fruitful deliberation and action can occur. If the new millennium marks a recurrence of the real, Flyvbjerg's Rationality and Power epitomizes this development, setting new standards for social and political inquiry. Richly informed, powerfully argued, and clearly written, this is a book that no one trying to understand policy-making, administration, and planning can afford to overlook."Flyvbjerg employs a wide-ranging intellect, an enthusiastic and persuasive voice, academic rigor, and great discipline to distill years of research into an outstanding and accessible 250-page civics lesson. It begs for a readership outside academic and professional circles . . . Rationality and Power's value is undeniable as a handbook and forensic tool for anyone seeking a better understanding of and access to the democratic process."—Arkansas Democrat-Gazette"It makes an extremely strong, and to the reviewer's mind incontrovertible, argument for placing the analysis of planning within the context of power relations. As a result it will also make a significant mark on the development of planning theory."—Geographical Journal"A book that is to be recommended doubly, first to all those engaged in planning and implementation in a democratic context, and also to all those interested in empirical power research. Rationality and Power is rewarding even enthralling reading, a seminal contribution to its field."—European Societies"This book is a must for anyone interested in how planning works . . . a reality shock . . . excellent and illuminating."—International Planning Studies

Love, Power, and Justice: The Dynamics of Authentic Morality


William S. Hatcher - 1998
    This work, now in its second edition, is an innovative contribution to one of the more intractable debates of our time—a time when so many different factions and individuals each claim to speak with moral authority.

The Revolution from Within [With DVD]


Jiddu Krishnamurti - 1998
    'There must be a revolution in our thinking', declares the author, J Krishnamurti (1895-1986), who remains one of the greatest philosophers and teachers of modern times. In this series of lectures, given in the U.S. and various cities throughout the world in the 1950s, he again confronts the habitual, projection-making mind, which fails to see what is while it absorbs itself in belief and illusion. Topics covered in these essays include: the process of change at all levels; the development of discipline; quieting the mind; self-awareness; and, freedom from slavery to mind. While we humans are constantly making superficial modifications of our circumstances, such gestures never lead to a radical transformation characterised by clarity, lack of prejudice, spontaneity, genuine peace and happiness. People would rather line up behind some leader, or a particular religious teaching, following the dictates of some outside authority, than to think for themselves, Krishnamurti explains. Sadly, 'most of our existence is spent in that way - trying to live up to something, trying to bring about a change in our attitude, to change according to the pattern which we have projected as an ideal, as a belief'. Only by rigorous self observation and self questioning is there any hope that humankind will overcome its blindness and self-obsession enough to bring about an end of violence, war and other misery on this beleaguered planet.

Jungian Spirituality


Vivianne Crowley - 1998
    Carl Jung is one of the most influential figures of the 20th century and his ideas have become vital to our understanding of the psyche.

Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind


Hans Moravec - 1998
    But even though Moravec predicts the end of the domination by human beings, his is not a bleak vision. Far from railing against a future in which machines rule the world, Moravec embraces it, taking the startling view that intelligent robots will actually be our evolutionary heirs. Intelligent machines, which will grow from us, learn our skills, and share our goals and values, can be viewed as children of our minds. And since they are our children, we will want them to outdistance us. In fact, in a bid for immortality, many of our descendants will choose to transform into ex humans, as they upload themselves into advanced computers.This provocative new book, the highly anticipated follow-up to his bestselling volume Mind Children, charts the trajectory of robotics in breathtaking detail. A must read for artificial intelligence, technology, and computer enthusiasts, Moravec's freewheeling but informed speculations present a future far different than we ever dared imagine.

Lord Chesterfield's Letters


Philip Dormer Stanhope - 1998
    Reflecting the political craft of a leading statesman and the urbane wit of a man who associated with Pope, Addison, and Swift, Lord Chesterfield's Letters reveal the author's political cynicism, his views on good breeding, and instruction to his son in etiquette and the worldly arts. The only annotated selection of this breadth available in paperback, these entertaining letters illuminate the fascinating aspects of eighteenth-century life and manners.

Lao-Tzu and the Tao-Te-Ching


Livia Kohn - 1998
    Written and edited by recognized international specialists in the field, this book brings Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching together to present current scholarship on their history and interpretation.

Love and Its Meaning in the World


Rudolf Steiner - 1998
    Steiner teaches that, without love, nothing is possible; with love, however, we can do everything. Love is always "love of the not-yet." To love is to create; it is to selflessly enter the current of time that flows toward us from the future.Reality, true knowledge of reality, is impossible without love. Only through love can we truly know as we are now and encounter the world and its beings in a living way. Without love, knowledge becomes manipulation, domination, control; the world becomes a space of dead things. But, when we know through love, we enter into a pattern of dynamic, potentially redemptive relations and the world becomes a living world of beings working for the good.This collection gathers all of Rudolf Steiner's main lectures and writings related to love. From earthly love to the nature and function of spiritual love, these pieces are essential reading for anyone concerned with the future of humanity and the Earth. Love and Its Meaning in the World is essential reading for anyone who'd like to gain a deeper understanding of our true mission as human beings and the purpose of evolution on Earth.CONTENTSIntroduction by Christopher BamfordPrologue: The Mystery of Love1. The Division of the Sexes2. Lucifer and Christ3. The Mission of Reverence4. Love: The Mission of the Earth--15. Love: The Mission of the Earth--26. Love: The Mission of the Earth--37. The Buddha's Teaching of Compassion and Love8. Faith, Love, and HopeLove & Its Meaning in the World"Epilogue: "I"-Feeling, the Soul's Capacity to Love, and Their Relationship to the Elemental WorldThree Prayers for the Dead

Blackness Visible


Charles W. Mills - 1998
    Ralph Ellison's metaphor of black invisibility has special relevance to philosophy, whose demographic and conceptual whiteness has long been a source of wonder and complaint to racial minorities. Mills points out the absence of any philosophical narrative theorizing and detailing race's centrality to the recent history of the West, such as feminists have articulated for gender domination.European expansionism in its various forms, Mills contends, generates a social ontology of race that warrants philosophical attention.Through expropriation, settlement, slavery, and colonialism, race comes into existence as simultaneously real and unreal: ontological without being biological, metaphysical without being physical, existential without being essential, shaping one's being without being in one's shape.His essays explore the contrasting sums of a white and black modernity, examine standpoint epistemology and the metaphysics of racial identity, look at black-Jewish relations and racial conspiracy theories, map the workings of a white-supremacist polity and the contours of a racist moral consciousness, and analyze the presuppositions of Frederick Douglass's famous July 4 prognosis for black political inclusion. Collectively they demonstrate what exciting new philosophical terrain can be opened up once the color line in western philosophy is made visible and addressed.

On Hunting


Roger Scruton - 1998
    And in fox-hunting they join together with their most ancient friends among the animals, to pursue an ancient enemy. The feelings stirred by hunting are explored by writer and philosopher Roger Scruton, in a book which is both illuminating and deeply personal. Drawing on his own experiences of hunting and offering a delightful portrait of the people and animals who take part in it, Roger Scruton introduces the reader to some of the mysteries of country life. His book is a plea for tolerance toward a sport in which the love of animals prevails over the pursuit of them, and in which Nature herself is the center of the drama.

Sociology of Philosophies: A Global Theory of Intellectual Change (Revised)


Randall Collins - 1998
    What emerges from this history is a general theory of intellectual life, one that avoids both the reduction of ideas to the influences of society at large and the purely contingent local construction of meanings. Instead, Collins focuses on the social locations where sophisticated ideas are formed: the patterns of intellectual networks and their inner divisions and conflicts. According to his theory, when the material bases of intellectual life shift with the rise and fall of religions, educational systems, and publishing markets, opportunities open for some networks to expand while others shrink and close down. It locates individuals -- among them celebrated thinkers like Socrates, Aristotle, Chu Hsi, Shankara, Wirt Henstein, and Heidegger -- within these networks and explains the emotional and symbolic processes that, by forming coalitions within the mind, ultimately bring about original and historically successful ideas.

Travels in a Stone Canoe: The Return to the Wisdomkeepers


Harvey Arden - 1998
    In a stunning and probing narrative -- part adventure tale, part reflection and epiphany -- the authors of "Wisdomkeepers" embark on a dramatic "spirit journey" into the living wisdom of Native American spiritual elders. When, nearly twenty years ago, a darkly enigmatic Cherokee herbalist approached Harvey Arden and Steve Wall with the proposition that they join him in a study of the lives, wisdom, and spiritual practices of Native America's fast-disappearing "Old Ones," the veteran writer and photographer found themselves thrust, despite their own hard-nosed skepticism, onto a mystic "path of the Wisdomkeepers."After receiving "signs" foretold by the Cherokee, they set off on a journey of spiritual discovery through another world, called Great Turtle Island, where the Old Ones -- the Wisdomkeepers of aboriginal culture in North America -- bestowed upon them piece by surprising piece a set of "rules for being human" called "Original Instructions."Arden and Wall eventually left their "Geographic" careers and journalism altogether, and in 1990 produced an interim report on their spirit journey, their now-classic international bestseller "Wisdomkeepers: Meeting with Native American Spiritual Elders." In that book they recalled, "We went out two journalists after a good story. We came back two 'runners' from another world, carrying an urgent message from the Wisdomkeepers. This book is that message."Now, in "Travels in a Stone Canoe," that message is furtherdeepened and elaborated as the authors reveal the intensely personal story behind -- and "beyond" -- their journey to the Wisdomkeepers. A final, incandescent chapter, "Original Instructions," sums up the transforming and highly practical wisdom they found. "Wisdom," they learned, "is not something you believe. It's something you "do."" This is a story that will inform, enlighten, and move every reader who accompanies the authors in their "Travels in a Stone Canoe."

The Analytic Theist: An Alvin Plantinga Reader


Alvin Plantinga - 1998
    This book gathers in one place Plantinga's most important work in the philosophy of religion generally and his contribution to the resurgence in Christian philosophy in particular. Organized into four sections-"Natural Theology and Atheology," "Reformed Epistemology," "Divine Nature and Attributes," and "Christian Philosophy"-these thirteen essays and book excerpts reflect the areas of thought in which Plantinga has been most influential. The volume also includes an Afterword by Plantinga and instructions for accessing his work on the World Wide Web.

A Search for Meaning: The Story of Rex (Color Edition)


Michel Gagné - 1998
    He travels far and wide in an ever so strange and visually fanciful world. Rex shows us how we can step back to our innocence, and see that meaning is found everywhere and nowhere. Rex's story is one for all seasons and ages. It is fun, silly, scary, cute and spiritual all rolled into one sweet little face.

Crazy Wisdom


Wes "Scoop" Nisker - 1998
    Jean-Paul Sartre, William Blake, lao Tzu, Groucho Marx, Albert Einstein - hold forth on poetry religion, quantum physics.

Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society


Dimitri Gutas - 1998
    Dimitri Gutas draws upon the preceding historical and philological scholarship in Greco-Arabic studies and the study of medieval translations of secular Greek works into Arabic and analyses the social and historical reasons for this phenomenon.Dimitri Gutas provides a stimulating, erudite and well-documented survey of this key movement in the transmission of ancient Greek culture to the Middle Ages.

Technology, War and Fascism: Collected Papers of Herbert Marcuse, Volume 1


Herbert Marcuse - 1998
    Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied philosophy with Husserl and Heidegger at the Universities of Freiburg and Berlin. Marcuse's critical social theory ingeniously fuses phenomenology, Freudian thought and Marxist theory; and provides a solid ground for his reputation as the most crucial figure inspiring the social activism and New Left politics of the 1960s and 1970s. The largely unpublished work collected in this volume makes clear the continuing relevance of Marcuse's thought to contemporary issues. The texts published here, dealing with concerns during the period 1942-1951, exhibit penetrating critiques of technology and analyses of the ways that modern technology produces novel forms of society and culture with new modes of social control. The material collected in Technology, War and Facism provides exemplary attempts to link theory with practice, to develop ideas that can be used to grasp and transform existing social reality.Technology, War and Fascism is the first of six volumes of Herbert Marcuse's Collected Papers to be edited by Douglas Kellner. Each volume is a collection of previously un-published or uncollected essays, unfinished manuscripts and letters by one of the greatest thinkers of our time.

Visions of Politics, Volume I: Regarding Method


Quentin Skinner - 1998
    This collection includes some of his most important philosophical and methodological statements written over the past four decades, each carefully revised for publication in this form. In a series of seminal essays Professor Skinner sets forth the intellectual principles that inform his work. Writing as a practising historian, he considers the theoretical difficulties inherent in the pursuit of knowledge and interpretation, and elucidates the methodology which finds its expression in his two successive volumes. All of Professor Skinner's work is characterised by philosophical power, limpid clarity, and elegance of exposition; these essays, many of which are now recognised classics, provide a fascinating and convenient digest of the development of his thought. Professor Skinner has been awarded the Balzan Prize Life Time Achievement Award for Political Thought, History and Theory. Full details of this award can be found at http: //www.balzan.it/News_eng.aspx?ID=2474

Enlightening Tales: as Told by Sri Swami Satchidananda


Satchidananda - 1998
    "Nothing is purer or more sacred than knowledge."

A Child's Machiavelli : A Primer on Power


Claudia Hart - 1998
    Here is a darkly comic and enticingly designed primer for survival. Right in tune with the millennial thirst for power and sanctimonious view of children, A Child's Machiavelli--distilled from the sixteenth-century Italian political philosopher's notorious treatise--spells out intricacies of manipulation and domination in simple, straightforward language juxtaposed with sweetly pastel images appropriated from children's classics. * Only give things away when people are watching * People who cheat are always more successful than people who are always honest * Make sure you only let people see you doing stuff where you come off really good * If somebody's got to hate you, make sure it's a bunch of weaklings with no money As Machiavelli's Prince meets Antoine Saint-Exupery's Little Prince, it's easy as ABC to be politically savvy and savage at work or at play. Its tongue-in-cheek concept and mischievous format make A Child's Machiavelli a finely ironical key to maximizing your advantages and diminishing your rivals. What a wicked, decadent, delicious--and ruthlessly instructive--gift book!

Contemporary Zen Classics: The 3 Pillars of Zen, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, Zen Fresh, Zen Bones (Classic Zen)


Philip Kapleau - 1998
    Each set contains audiobooks from the Audio Literature catalogue. These are timeless works which continue to entertain and enlighten millions of listeners and readers.

Yoga of the Heart


Alice Christensen - 1998
    Yoga of the Heart takes the reader a step further -- into the development of confidence and well being by reaching deep into yogic philosophy to explain in simple terms its ten essential ethics. It includes such lessons as: -- "Do no harm". (Ethic #1)-- "Learn More About What's Important to You" (Ethic #2)-- "Encourage Heroic Capability in Yourself" (Ethic #10)Alice Christensen shows that when these principles are applied daily, life grows richer and more satifying. The key message is that living happily in a world overwhelmed with uncertainties is the pinnacle of achievement, for within uncertainty lies possibility.

Biblical Ethics / The Moral Foundations of Life / The Philosophy of Sin: Ethical Principles for the Christian Life


Oswald Chambers - 1998
    He upholds the moral and spiritual standing of Christians, despite challenges from today's secular, skeptical, and lawless rationalists. Here Chambers addresses the human needs to recognize the ethical demands of Scripture, and he challenges readers to act as Jesus did, in the power of His Spirit. Throughout these pages he upholds the ethical principles of the Christian life by promoting Christian thinking that leads to godly behavior.

African-American Philosophers: 17 Conversations


George Yancy - 1998
    African-American Philosophers brings into conversation seventeen of the foremost thinkers of color to discuss issues such as Black existentialism, racism, Black women philosophers within the academy, affirmative action and the conceptual parameters of African-American philosophy.

The Structure Of Liberty: Justice And The Rule Of Law


Randy E. Barnett - 1998
    These problems are dealt with by ensuring the liberty of the people to pursue their own ends, but addressing these problems also requires that liberty be structured by certain rights and procedures associated with the classical liberal conception of justice and the rule of law. Drawing upon insights from philosophy, economics, political theory, and law, Randy Barnett examines the serious social problems that are addressed by liberty--and the background or natural rights and rule of law procedures that distinguish liberty from license. He then outlines the constitutional framework that is needed to protect this structure of liberty. Athough this controversial new work is intended to challenge specialists, its clear and accessible prose ensure that it will be of immense value to both scholars and students working in a range of academic disciplines.

Meaning, Knowledge, and Reality


John Henry McDowell - 1998
    These nineteen essays collectively report on McDowell's involvement, over more than twenty years, with questions about the interface between the philosophies of language and mind and with issues in general epistemology. Throughout McDowell focuses on questions to do with content: with the nature of content both linguistic and psychological; with what McDowell regards as misguided views about content; and with the form which a proper semantic theory of content should assume.

THE ZELATOR:A MODERN INITIATE EXPLORES THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES.


Mark Hedsel - 1998
    Theirs is a reincarnationist philosophy and they believe that, as initiates of the highest order, they return in local groups at key moments to conspire to change the course of events.

Divine Providence: The Molinist Account


Thomas P. Flint - 1998
    Flint develops and defends the idea of divine providence sketched by Luis de Molina, the sixteenth-century Jesuit theologian. The Molinist account of divine providence reconciles two claims long thought to be incompatible: that God is the all-knowing governor of the universe and that individual freedom can prevail only in a universe free of absolute determinism. The Molinist concept of middle knowledge holds that God knows, though he has no control over, truths about how any individual would freely choose to act in any situation, even if the person never encounters that situation. Given such knowledge, God can be truly providential while leaving his creatures genuinely free.Divine Providence is by far the most detailed and extensive presentation of the Molinist view ever written.Middle knowledge is hotly debated in philosophical theology, and the controversy spills over into metaphysics and moral philosophy as well. Flint ably defends the concept against its most influential contemporary critics, and shows its importance to Christian practice. With particular originality and sophistication, he applies Molinism to such aspects of providence as prayer, prophecy, and the notion of papal infallibility, teasing out the full range of implications for traditional Christianity.

The Paradox Of Power And Weakness: Levinas And An Alternative Paradigm For Psychology


George Kunz - 1998
    While power is powerful and weakness is weak, power can sabotage itself, and the weakness of others has power to command our attention and service. Levinas makes distinctions that offer psychology the basis for an alternative paradigm open to paradox. In The Paradox of Power and Weakness, George Kunz shows how the analyses of hagiography, cynicism, and limits on altruistic behavior by radical altruism contribute to this psychology of ethical responsibility for social sciences.

Paradox and Passion in Psychotherapy: An Existential Approach to Therapy and Counselling


Emmy Van Deurzen - 1998
    Emmy van Deurzen shows that therapists can draw on the full richness of their own experience in order to be truly credible and inspiring mentors to their clients. Paradox and dilemmas in human life-such as loneliness versus social integration, safety versus adventure, and confidence versus humility-are discussed clearly and directly, and related to a broad spectrum of questions that psychotherapists and their clients would do well to ask themselves. Throughout the book the author reveals her personal struggles with the same predicaments that her clients seek to understand and resolve. This process of disclosure, and the weaving of vivid client cases and issues together with more general philosophical issues, make this a practical and inspiring book that demonstrates the reality and passion of psychotherapy. "Passion and Paradox will become a classic celebration of the sheer power of existential thinking, living, being, and doing. Existentialism comes to bristling life as you walk with Professor van Deurzen through the world of psychotherapy, the world of psychotherapy professionalism, and the deeply personal world of the person who is a psychotherapist." Alvin R. Mahrer, PhD, author of The Complete Guide to Experiential Psychotherapy "Of the vast number of books written on psychotherapy this is one of the very few that are really worth reading. Emmy van Deurzen has the essential attributes of the truly gifted psychotherapist: experience, intelligence, cultural breadth and-above all-the courage to strive after truth. There is much to be learned about psychotherapy and psychotherapists from what she has to say." David Smail, Nottingham, UK

The Macintyre Reader


Kelvin Knight - 1998
    He opposes liberalism and postmodernism with the teleological arguments of an updated Thomistic Aristotelianism. It is this tradition, he claims, which presents the best theory so far about the nature of rationality, morality, and politics. This is the first reader of MacIntyre's groundbreaking work. It includes extracts from and his own synopses of two famous books from the 1980s, After Virtue and Whose Justice? Which Rationality? as well as the whole of several shorter works and two interviews. Together, these pieces constitute not only a representative collection of his work but also the most powerful and accessible presentation of his arguments yet available. The MacIntyre Reader concludes with Kelvin Knight's clear and insightful overview of MacIntyre's central ideas and their development in his writings. Students will find this book an excellent introduction to one of the great thinkers of our time.

Yuan Dao: Tracing Dao to Its Source (Classics of Ancient China)


D.C. Lau - 1998
    Drawing from and expanding upon the popular Tao-Te Ching and Chuang-tzu texts, this singular work was written to show the inclusionary aspects of Daoism, that one should appreciate the contribution all things make to the well-being of the whole; Yuan Dao was also created as advice to a ruler, on the beauty of uniting a disparate people under one government without destroying their individuality.Presented here by two of the world's foremost translators of Chinese classics, this unique edition is the only English-language translation in print and features the Chinese text on facing pages. Insightful and fascinating, here is a glimpse into the early Han Dynasty, and into a way of thinking that has been, and continues to be, characteristically Chinese.

First-Order Modal Logic


Richard L. Mendelsohn - 1998
    They adopt throughout a threefold approach. Semantically, they use possible world models; the formal proof machinery is tableaus; and full philosophical discussions are provided of the way that technical developments bear on well-known philosophical problems. The book covers quantification itself, including the difference between actualist and possibilist quantifiers; equality, leading to a treatment of Frege's morning star/evening star puzzle; the notion of existence and the logical problems surrounding it; non-rigid constants and function symbols; predicate abstraction, which abstracts a predicate from a formula, in effect providing a scoping function for constants and function symbols, leading to a clarification of ambiguous readings at the heart of several philosophical problems; the distinction between nonexistence and nondesignation; and definite descriptions, borrowing from both Fregean and Russellian paradigms.

Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential


Barbara Marx Hubbard - 1998
    Barbara Marx Hubbard issues a call to action for the current generation to fulfill its creative potential. Hubbard asserts that we must quickly become capable of wise and ethical guidance of evolution itself, if life on Earth is to survive.

Art as the Cognition of Life, Aleksandr Konstantinovich Voronsky, Selected Writings 1911-1936, Translated and edited by Frederick S. Choate


Aleksander Voronsky - 1998
    A defender of "fellow traveler" writes and an opponent of the Proletarian Culture movement, Voronsky was one of the authentic representatives of classical Marxism in the field of literary criticism in the twentieth century. He was executed by Stalin in 1937. Following Voronsky's "rehabilitation" in 1957, several of his writings were published in the USSR in heavily censored form. All cuts have been restored for this edition.

Kantian Humility: Our Ignorance of Things in Themselves


Rae Langton - 1998
    Kant distinguishes things in themselves from phenomena, thus making a metaphysical distinction between intrinsic and relational properties of substances. Langton argues that his claim that we have no knowledge of things in themselves is not idealism, but epistemic humility; we have no knowledge of the intrinsic properties of substances. This interpretation vindicates Kant's scientific realism and shows his primary/secondary quality distinction to be superior even to modern day competitors. And it answers the famous charge that Kant's tale of things in themselves is one that makes itself untellable.

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 10 Volume Set


Edward Craig - 1998
    Edited by Edward Craig and assisted by thirty specialist subject editors, the REP consists of ten volumes of the world's most eminent philosophers writing for the needs of students and teachers of philosophy internationally. The REP is a project on an unparalleled scale:Over 2000 entries ranging from 500 to 15,000 words in length - thematic, biographical and national 10 volumes consisting of over 5 million words of text plus considerable bibliographic material A Chief Editor and thirty specialist Subject Editors from across the world Over 1200 authors from all over the world. The importance of the REP is not to be found just in the sheer size of the project but also in its breadth of subject matter. It covers:The core of most Anglo-American philosophy - the metaphysical, epistemological and logical questions The usual menu of ethics, political philosophy and the history of philosophy The philosophy of other cultures - from Chinese, Arabic and Jewish philosophy to the philosophy of Africa and Latin America The most impressive range of authors have been gathered together on this unique project: William Alston, Roderick Chisolm, Fred Dretske, Joel Feinberg, Sandra Harding, Larry Laudan, Martha Nussbaum, Richard Popkin, Richard Rorty, Alan Ryan, Gyatri Chakravorty Spivak, Stephen Stich, Patrick Suppes and Bernard Williams, to name just a few.Also available online: www.rep.routledge.com