Taking examples from sources as diverse as Plato and Steven Spielberg, author Julian Baggini presents abstract philosophical issues in concrete terms, suggesting possible solutions while encouraging readers to draw their own conclusions: Lively, clever, and thought-provoking, The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten is a portable feast for the mind that is sure to satisfy any intellectual appetite.

    In addition, the wide range of Leibniz's work--letters, published papers, and fragments on a variety of philosophical, religious, mathematical, and scientific questions over a fifty-year period--heightens the challenge of preparing an edition of his writings in English translation from the French and Latin.

    It is universally recognized as the standard English version of Aristotle. This revised edition contains the substance of the original translation, slightly emended in light of recent scholarship; three of the original versions have been replaced by new translations; and a new and enlarged selection of Fragments has been added. The aim of the translation remains the same: to make the surviving works of Aristotle readily accessible to English speaking readers.

     According to MSNBC, having a child makes you stupid. You actually lose IQ points. Good Morning America has announced that natural blondes will be extinct within two hundred years. Pundits estimated that there were more than a million demonstrators at a tea party rally in Washington, D.C., even though roughly sixty thousand were there. Numbers have peculiar powers-they can disarm skeptics, befuddle journalists, and hoodwink the public into believing almost anything. "Proofiness," as Charles Seife explains in this eye-opening book, is the art of using pure mathematics for impure ends, and he reminds readers that bad mathematics has a dark side. It is used to bring down beloved government officials and to appoint undeserving ones (both Democratic and Republican), to convict the innocent and acquit the guilty, to ruin our economy, and to fix the outcomes of future elections. This penetrating look at the intersection of math and society will appeal to readers of Freakonomics and the books of Malcolm Gladwell.

    Through the lens of Vedanta, Swami Chinmayananda shows us how to tap the immence potential power of our inner resources and thereby transform our lives.

    The book contains some of Nietzsche's most sustained discussions of art and morality, knowledge and truth, the intellectual conscience and the origin of logic.Most of the book was written just before Thus Spoke Zarathustra, the last part five years later, after Beyond Good and Evil. We encounter Zarathustra in these pages as well as many of Nietzsche's most interesting philosophical ideas and the largest collection of his own poetry that he himself ever published.Walter Kaufmann's English versions of Nietzsche represent one of the major translation enterprises of our time. He is the first philosopher to have translated Nietzsche's major works, and never before has a single translator given us so much of Nietzsche.From the Paperback edition.

    That is, it is a piece of bad logic. Just as it is a good idea to avoid eating bad food, it is also a rather good idea to avoid bad reasoning. Unfortunately, bad reasoning is all too common—it pours out of the television and infests the web like an army of venomous spiders. Perhaps even worse than the fallacies inflicted from the outside are self-inflicted fallacies. These can lead people to make poor decisions about matters great and small.Fortunately, there is a defense against bad reasoning, namely knowledge. This concise book provides the reader with definitions and examples of seventy-six common fallacies—the knowledge a person needs to defend herself in a world awash in fallacies.In addition to combining the content of my 42 Fallacies and 30 More Fallacies, this book features some revisions as well as a new section on common formal fallacies. The focus is on providing the reader with definitions and examples of these common fallacies rather than being a handbook on winning arguments or a text on general logic.The book presents the following 73 informal fallacies:Accent, Fallacy ofAccident, Fallacy ofAd HominemAd Hominem Tu QuoqueAmphiboly, Fallacy ofAnecdotal Evidence, Fallacy OfAppeal to the Consequences of a BeliefAppeal to Authority, FallaciousAppeal to BeliefAppeal to Common PracticeAppeal to EmotionAppeal to EnvyAppeal to FearAppeal to FlatteryAppeal to Group IdentityAppeal to GuiltAppeal to NoveltyAppeal to PityAppeal to PopularityAppeal to RidiculeAppeal to SpiteAppeal to TraditionAppeal to SilenceAppeal to VanityArgumentum ad HitlerumBegging the QuestionBiased GeneralizationBurden of ProofComplex QuestionComposition, Fallacy ofConfusing Cause and EffectConfusing Explanations and ExcusesCircumstantial Ad HominemCum Hoc, Ergo Propter HocDivision, Fallacy ofEquivocation, Fallacy ofFallacious ExampleFallacy FallacyFalse DilemmaGambler’s FallacyGenetic FallacyGuilt by AssociationHasty GeneralizationHistorian’s FallacyIllicit ConversionIgnoring a Common CauseIncomplete EvidenceMiddle GroundMisleading VividnessMoving the Goal PostsOversimplified CauseOverconfident Inference from Unknown StatisticsPathetic FallacyPeer PressurePersonal AttackPoisoning the WellPositive Ad HominemPost HocProving X, Concluding YPsychologist's fallacyQuestionable CauseRationalizationRed HerringReification, Fallacy ofRelativist FallacySlippery SlopeSpecial PleadingSpotlightStraw ManTexas Sharpshooter FallacyTwo Wrongs Make a RightVictim FallacyWeak AnalogyThe book contains the following three formal (deductive) fallacies:Affirming the ConsequentDenying the AntecedentUndistributed Middle

    Monk's life of Wittgenstein is such a one."--"The Christian Science Monitor."

    It’s time we stand face-to-digital-face with the true powers and limitations of the algorithms that already automate important decisions in healthcare, transportation, crime, and commerce. Hello World is indispensable preparation for the moral quandaries of a world run by code, and with the unfailingly entertaining Hannah Fry as our guide, we’ll be discussing these issues long after the last page is turned.

    Illogical Atheism comprises a comprehensive four-part analysis of the deep-seated philosophical tensions in the New Atheist agenda and serves as one of but a handful of important books seeking to alert the public consciousness toward the propagandist maneuvers of the the Freethinking community's most prominent figureheads. No stone is left unturned as Jinn takes all Four Famed Horsemen to task.

    a personal confession of its creator and a kind of involuntary and unperceived memoir.". Stewart affirms this maxim in his colorful reinterpretation of the lives and works of 17th-century philosophers Spinoza and Leibniz. In November 1676, the foppish courtier Leibniz, "the ultimate insider... an orthodox Lutheran from conservative Germany," journeyed to The Hague to visit the self-sufficient, freethinking Spinoza, "a double exile... an apostate Jew from licentious Holland." A prodigious polymath, Leibniz understood Spinoza's insight that "science was in the process of rendering the God of revelation obsolete; that it had already undermined the special place of the human individual in nature." Spinoza embraced this new world. Seeing the orthodox God as a "prop for theocratic tyranny," he articulated the basic theory for the modern secular state. Leibniz, on the other hand, spent the rest of his life championing God and theocracy like a defense lawyer defending a client he knows is guilty. He elaborated a metaphysics that was, at bottom, a reaction to Spinoza and collapses into Spinozism, as Stewart deftly shows. For Stewart, Leibniz's reaction to Spinoza and modernity set the tone for "the dominant form of modern philosophy"—a category that includes Kant, Hegel, Bergson, Heidegger and "the whole 'postmodern' project of deconstructing the phallogocentric tradition of western thought." Readers of philosophy may find much to disagree with in these arguments, but Stewart's wit and profluent prose make this book a fascinating read.

    Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Astronomy; History / General; Juvenile Nonfiction / Science

    In it, Russell offers a nontechnical, undogmatic account of his philosophical criticism as it relates to arithmetic and logic. Rather than an exhaustive treatment, however, the influential philosopher and mathematician focuses on certain issues of mathematical logic that, to his mind, invalidated much traditional and contemporary philosophy.In dealing with such topics as number, order, relations, limits and continuity, propositional functions, descriptions, and classes, Russell writes in a clear, accessible manner, requiring neither a knowledge of mathematics nor an aptitude for mathematical symbolism. The result is a thought-provoking excursion into the fascinating realm where mathematics and philosophy meet — a philosophical classic that will be welcomed by any thinking person interested in this crucial area of modern thought.

    In Dianetics 55!,L. Ron Hubbard takes this technology a step further, giving you basic knowledge you can use to increase understanding and ability in your life. Blocks to communication can destroy a marriage, a business relationship or a family. A person is as alive as he can communicate. Dianetics 55! includes L. Ron Hubbard's incredible basic principles of communication. Discover how you can use the data in this book to: Ensure your communication is easily understood by others so you can get your ideas across. Master the secrets and skills of effective communication. Build and improve lasting personal relationships. Increase your ability and competence for a happier and more successful life Dianetics provides the tools you need to break down the barriers to communication and understanding in your life and realize your true potential and ability.

    This race-realist endeavor exposes many inconvenient truths and will certainly become a catalyst for candid conversation.Flooded with statistics, headlines, pictures and other evidence, this book is not simply an anecdotal tale of a miserable, inner-city co-existence... it’s a war report.