There is no better way to study the big questions in philosophy than to compare how the world's greatest minds have analyzed these questions, defined the terms, and then reasoned out potential solutions. Once you've compared the arguments, the final step is always deciding for yourself whether you find an explanation convincing.This course gives you the tools to follow and create logical arguments while exploring famous philosophers' viewpoints on these important questions. Although progress has been made toward answers, brilliant thinkers have continued to wrestle with many big questions that inspire thoughtful people everywhere. These questions include: What is knowledge? Does God exist? Do humans have free will? What is right and wrong? How should society be organized?Given the complexity of these big questions, it should be no surprise that many controversies are far from settled. In fact, by the end of these 36 lectures, you may be even less sure of the right answers to some of the questions than you were at the beginning. But being a philosopher means constantly testing your views - giving a reasoned defense if you believe you are right and modifying your ideas when you realize you are wrong. You'll discover that great thinkers before you have offered convincing answers to hard questions, philosophers after them have made equally persuasive objections, and then still others have refined the debate even further - causing the issues to come into sharper and sharper focus.Join Plato, St. Anselm, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Mill, Smith, Marx, Rawls, and many others in an exploration of fundamental questions. Get ready to think big!

    Inspired by the hugely popular sitcom The Good Place, which uses a comic format to examine moral dilemmas and schools of ethical thought, this is a brief tour of the main issues that face humans when we try to "do the right thing." Using traditional and modern thought experiments, as well as 21st century dilemmas from the etiquette of texting to the narcissism of "selfie" culture, here is everything you need to know about reaching a good place in life.

    In What It Means to Be Moral: Why Religion Is Not Necessary for Living an Ethical Life, Phil Zuckerman argues that morality does not come from God. Rather, it comes from us: our brains, our evolutionary past, our ongoing cultural development, our social experiences, and our ability to reason, reflect, and be sensitive to the suffering of others. By deconstructing religious arguments for God-based morality and guiding listeners through the premises and promises of secular morality, Zuckerman argues that the major challenges facing the world today-from global warming and growing inequality to religious support for unethical political policies to gun violence and terrorism-are best approached from a nonreligious ethical framework. In short, we need to look to our fellow humans and within ourselves for moral progress and ethical action.

    Widely recognized as the most talented and humane writer of the Stoic tradition, Seneca teaches us to live with freedom and purpose. His most enduring work, over a hundred “Letters from a Stoic” written to a close friend, explains how to handle adversity; overcome grief, anxiety, and anger; transform setbacks into opportunities for growth; and recognize the true nature of friendship.In Breakfast with Seneca, philosopher David Fideler mines Seneca’s classic works in a series of focused chapters, clearly explaining Seneca’s ideas without oversimplifying them. Best enjoyed as a daily ritual, like an energizing cup of coffee, Seneca’s wisdom provides us with a steady stream of time-tested advice about the human condition—which, as it turns out, hasn’t changed much over the past two thousand years.

    Known as a Republican rebel and a departing cohost of "The View", new mom Meghan McCain tells her story - in her own words. She invites listeners inside the unwavering heart and ferocious mind of a young conservative woman who refuses to back down. With the aptly titled Bad Republican, McCain expresses how it is to feel like you no longer fit in with your political party. She tells of growing up the daughter of an American icon who shaped her life and details the heartbreaking final moments spent by his side. She recalls her (mis)adventures on the New York dating scene and brings us up to speed on meeting her now-husband. We hear her views on cancel culture and Internet trolls as well as life backstage as the sole Republican at America’s most-watched daytime talk show - and why she decided to leave. Revealingly, she relays the awkward phone call she received from Donald and Melania and where she thinks the Republican Party and the country go from here. And with surprising candor, she divulges why a miscarriage and the birth of her daughter have left her so fired up about women’s rights - even if that puts her at odds with her party. Unsparingly honest, deeply relatable, and highly entertaining, Bad Republican is as personal as a story gets. It’s a memoir imbued with an unmistakable maverick spirit.

    Tracing its beginning with close-up views of seminal 19th century writers like Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky and Nietzsche, Existentialism For Beginners follows the trail of existential thought and literature through 20th century German philosophers Jaspers and Heidegger, and finally through to the flowering of the movement in Postwar France brought forth by Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir and beyond. With dazzling, gritty illustrations Existentialism For Beginners takes an affectionate, good-humored look at a style of thinking that, while pervasive in influence, has often been seen as obscure, difficult, cryptic and dark. Existentialism For Beginners helps to draw the movement’s many diverse elements together to create a palatable introduction for people who have always had difficulty defining or understanding existentialism, and an enjoyable historical review packed with richly fascinating quotes from existentialism’s most notable purveyors for those who are already appreciators of existentialism.

    You experience it passing every day when you watch clocks tick, bread toast, and children grow. But most physicists see things differently, from Newton to Einstein to today’s quantum theorists. For them, time isn’t real. You may think you experience time passing, but they say it’s just an illusion.Lee Smolin, author of the controversial bestseller The Trouble with Physics, argues this limited notion of time is holding physics back. It’s time for a major revolution in scientific thought. The reality of time could be the key to the next big breakthrough in theoretical physics.What if the laws of physics themselves were not timeless? What if they could evolve? Time Reborn offers a radical new approach to cosmology that embraces the reality of time and opens up a whole new universe of possibilties. There are few ideas that, like our notion of time, shape our thinking about literally everything, with major implications for physics and beyond—from climate change to the economic crisis. Smolin explains in lively and lucid prose how the true nature of time impacts our world.

    The Seven Deadly Virtues sits down next to readers at the bar, buys them a drink, and an hour or three later, ushers them into the revival tent without them even realizing it.   The book’s contributors include Sonny Bunch, Christopher Buckley, David “Iowahawk” Burge, Christopher Caldwell, Andrew Ferguson, Jonah Goldberg, Michael Graham, Mollie Hemingway, Rita Koganzon, Matt Labash, James Lileks, Rob Long, Larry Miller, P. J. O’Rourke, Joe Queenan, Christine Rosen, and Andrew Stiles. Jonathan V. Last, senior writer at the Weekly Standard, editor of the collection, is also a contributor. All eighteen essays in this book are appearing for the first time anywhere.   In the book’s opening essay, P. J. O’Rourke observes: “Virtue has by no means disappeared. It’s as much in public view as ever. But it’s been strung up by the heels. Virtue is upside down. Virtue is uncomfortable. Virtue looks ridiculous. All the change and the house keys are falling out of Virtue’s pants pockets.”   Here are the virtues everyone (including the book’s contributors) was taught in Sunday school but have totally forgotten about until this very moment.  In this sanctimony-free zone:   • Joe Queenan observes: “In essence, thrift is a virtue that resembles being very good at Mahjong. You’ve heard about people who can do it, but you’ve never actually met any of them.” • P. J. O’Rourke notes: “Fortitude is quaint. We praise the greatest generation for having it, but they had aluminum siding, church on Sunday, and jobs that required them to wear neckties or nylons (but never at the same time). We don’t want those either.” • Christine Rosen writes: “A fellowship grounded in sociality means enjoying the company of those with whom you actually share physical space rather than those with whom you regularly and enthusiastically exchange cat videos.” • Rob Long offers his version of modern day justice: if you sleep late on the weekend, you are forced to wait thirty minutes in line at Costco. • Jonah Goldberg offers: “There was a time when this desire-to-do-good-in-all-things was considered the only kind of integrity: ‘Angels are better than mortals. They’re always certain about what is right because, by definition, they’re doing God’s will.’ Gabriel knew when it was okay to remove a mattress tag and Sandalphon always tipped the correct amount.” • Sonny Bunch dissects forbearance, observing that the fictional Two Minutes Hate of George Orwell’s 1984 is now actually a reality directed at living, breathing people. Thanks, in part, to the Internet, “Its targets are designated by a spontaneously created mob—one that, due to its hive-mind nature—is virtually impossible to call off.”   By the time readers have completed The Seven Deadly Virtues, they won’t even realize that they’ve just been catechized into an entirely different—and better—moral universe.

    Reeves (a biographer of Mill) and Haidt (a social psychologist) summarize Mill's three timeless arguments for free speech and the value of viewpoint diversity. They then reduce the text to half its original length, allowing Mill's best arguments and metaphors to shine. Artist Dave Cicirelli illustrates those metaphors to amplify their intuitive power. Ideal for use in college courses, or in any organization in which people would benefit from productive disagreement.

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

    Minimalism can be a beautiful, enriching and life-transforming practice that, at its core, is all about re-establishing what holds value in your life and letting go of what does not. It's not about having your groceries displayed in glass jars or having chic, Scandinavian furniture - it's a way of life that allows us to strip away the clutter that stands in the way of us achieving our goals. Simplify Your Life is about exactly that: bringing simplicity back into your life, and with it, joy in the everyday. Dispelling the myths that minimalism is for either hardcore environmentalists or the privileged few, this book shows how minimalism is more relevant and necessary than ever, not least because it's the most accessible way to achieve a state of contentment in all aspects of life. Minimalism is for you if you want to:  •  stop mindlessly scrolling and start living with intention and purpose  •  spend more time on the things and people you love and less on what you "have to be/do"  •  take control of your finances and stop mindless spending  •  learn more about conscious consumption and reducing your waste  •  experience freedom and pride in your home instead of feeling trapped by your stuffAlthough minimalism is ostensibly about taking things away from our cluttered lives, it is really about adding richness, color, and meaning to our lives. It's about identifying the aspects of our life that we truly love and that nourish us. It's about trusting ourselves and leading the life we always wanted.

    Many of the difficulties however, are not in the classroom... In The (Un)official Teacher's Manual, Omar Akbar offers direct, humorous and accessible advice on how to deal with the daily issues faced by a teacher- none of which involve teaching! Includes guidance on: lesson observations, emails, promotions, avoiding meaningless extra work, meetings, parents, maintaining a work-life balance, dealing with workplace bullying, and much more. While Omar pulls no punches on the reality of working in a school, a positive streak is maintained throughout. A must read for any teacher or potential teacher. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Contents: Introduction: Why This Book Was Written 1. How to Get the Most from Observations, Learning Walks, and Book Scrutinies 2. The Don’ts of the School Email System 3. How to Get Promoted and Other Things to Consider 4. How and When to Say No and Yes 5. The Dos and Don’ts of Meetings 6. How to Get Parents on Your Side 7. Guidance for Trainee Teachers 8. Ensuring a Life-Work Balance 9. Bullying: the Problem and the Solution 10. How to Get the Teaching Job You Want 11. Maintaining Good Relationships 12. Why It’s All Worth It

     Think back to the job interview you nailed (or blew). The date that went perfectly (or broke down completely.) Or the random encounter with that person who turned out to be your best friend (or the countless others that didn’t). Mere seconds of conversation have the power to alter the course of your life. It’s miraculous then that we are never taught HOW to conduct conversations. How to navigate them so that we get more of the jobs, dates, and best friends we want. It’s as if the world believes amazing conversational skills can’t be learned. Captivate shatters that belief. Inside you'll learn: How to keep conversations going without running out of things to say and facing the dreaded awkward silence How to create interesting "getting to know you" conversations without slipping into boring interview mode and turning off who you're talking to How to start conversations with strangers and approach people you don't know Real life examples of great (and terrible) conversations The two modes of conversation that allow you to connect with anyone, even when you don't have anything in common How to finish a conversation so people walk away planning on reaching out to you Read Captivate and you’ll learn how to have conversations that stand out in people’s minds and make you someone they never want to forget.

    Through metaphors and straightforward language, it breathes life into astrophysics, unveiling how particles and forces and fields interplay to create the drama in the heavens above us.

    He was overweight and poor as a broken piggy bank. Lamenting the cards he was dealt, Donald was allowing himself to be a victim of circumstance. He knew something had to change. Standing in front of the mirror, he took responsibility for the choices he was making, beginning the transition from playing the victim to playing the hero in his life and finding the fulfillment he was searching for.In this book, Donald shares the correlation between owning your life and finding more enjoyment in everything you do. He lays out the transformational, yet practical plan that took him from slowly losing sight of all his goals to rapidly gaining a new perspective of his own life’s beauty and meaning, igniting his motivation, passion, and productivity.The lessons in this book will teach you:How to get on track and stay on track,How to create a simple life plan that will bring clarity and meaning to your goals aheadHow to take control of your life by choosing to be the hero in your story. The significance of the four roles we all play in life—Victim, Villain, Hero, and Guide—and what it means to play each of them.How to take action, make life changes, and achieve the goals you set for your life and career.Donald Miller will help you see all the options you have of being the hero in your own life, and then help you develop your own unique plan to get there.