Philosophy

John Holman contends that the perennial philosophy can be found at the heart of more than just the world's religions; it is to be found in all the great schools of thought, and writings of the greatest thinkers and philosophers, no matter how apparently diverse the presentation of their perceived truths. This accessible but thought-provoking book allows us to develop an understanding that the nature of reality and our potential for transcendence are at the core of all belief systems. Revolutionizing the debate on the perennial phil... read more

Introduction to Logic is a combined text and workbook for beginning logic students. The workbook style allows students to proceed at their own pace, checking their progress in the end-of-chapter exercises. The text covers propositional logic and predicate logic with identity, the focus being on arguments. The main method of proof is truth-trees (semantic tableaux) in the style of Jeffrey; There is one chapter of 'Copi-style' natural deduction for propositional logic. This text is suitable for students of philosophy, computer scienc... read more

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In this marvellous book, Raimond Gaita, the acclaimed author of "Romulus, My Father", reflects on ideas about good and evil, guilt and remorse, forgiveness and compassion. In his discussion of issues ranging from Mabo and land rights to the Holocaust, Gaita argues that we must realise that every human life is precious.

Thinkers such as Aristotle, Plato and Parmenides have shaped the way we see the world, and it is their original conception of philosophy which has placed topics such as logic, metaphysics, ethics and ontology at the heart of philosophical debates for centuries. Miriam Leonard not only explores the central theories of their works, but also gives some sense of the messy process of abstraction, where written texts get transformed into timeless ideals. She looks at how simple phrases such as 'in what way?' or 'there is' are turned into... read more

And Ninety-Nine Other Thought Experiments Julian Baggini presents 100 thought experiments: short scenarios which pose a problem in a vivid and concrete way, and invites the reader to think about possible answers for him/herself. Experiments cover identity, religion, art, ethics, language, knowledge and many more. From Zeno's paradox to Groundhog Day (how do you make sense of a life of eternal recurrence?), via the pig that wants to be eaten (so should you eat him?), Plato's cave, Minority Report (is it right to punish people fo... read more

"Peter Osborne presents Marx's thought as a developing investigation into what it means, concretely, for humans to be practical historical beings" "Drawing upon passages from a wide range of Marx's writings, and showing the links between them, Osborne refutes the myth of Marx as a reductively economistic thinker. What Marx meant by materialism, communism and the critique of political economy was much richer and more original, philosophically, than is generally recognized. With the renewed globalization of capitalism since 1989... read more

100 philosophical puzzles - how to approach them, how to begin to understand them, and come up with possible answers Julian Baggini presents 100 thought experiments: short scenarios which pose a problem in a vivid and concrete way, and invites the reader to think about possible answers for him/herself. Experiments cover identity, religion, art, ethics, language, knowledge and many more. In every case, Baggini sets the problem up for the reader, and then offers some ways of approaching it. There are rarely right or wrong answers ... read more

An intelligent and accessible discussion of life's Big Questions 'You're T.S. Eliot,' said a taxi driver to the famous poet as he stepped into his cab. Eliot asked him how he knew. 'Ah, I've got an eye for a celebrity,' he replied. 'Only the other evening I picked up Bertrand Russel, and I said to him, "Well, Lord Russell, what's it all about?" And do you know, he couldn't tell me.' Did the taxi-driver's question reveal his own naivety or did it puncture the pretensions of the philosopher? Why was Russell Britain's most famous... read more

Baudrillard sees the power of the terrorists as lying in the symbolism of this slaughter. Not merely the reality of death, but a sacrificial death that challenges the whole system. Where the past revolutionary sought to conduct a struggle of real forces in the context of ideology and politics, the new terrorist mounts a powerful symbolic challenge, which, when combined with high-tech resources, constitutes an unprecedented assault on an over-sophisticated, vulnerable West. This new edition is updated with the recent essays 'Hypothe... read more

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When it was first published in 1781, The Confessions scandalised Europe with its emotional honesty and frank treatment of the author's sexual and intellectual development. Since then, it has had a more profound impact on European thought. Rousseau left posterity a model of the reflective life - the solitary, uncompromising individual, the enemy of servitude and habit and the selfish egoist who dedicates his life to a particular ideal. The Confessions recreates the world in which he progressed from incompetent engraver to grand succ... read more

Scruton argues that the tragedies and disasters of the history of the European continent have been the consequences of a false optimism and the fallacies that derive from it. In place of these fallacies, Scruton mounts a passionate defence of both civil society and freedom. He shows that the true legacy of European civilisation is not the false idealisms that have almost destroyed it - in the shapes of Nazism, fascism and communism - but the culture of forgiveness and irony which we must now protect from those whom it offends. The... read more

An illustrated collector's edition of one of the most influential Chinese books. First published approx 500 BC; this edition 2009.

Being human isn't easy. We might think that consciousness and free-will give us control over our lives but our minds are dangerous and unpredictable places. We are susceptible to forces we don't understand. We are capable of inflicting immense cruelty on one another - violence, torture and rape - and yet we also have the capacity to be tender, to empathize, to feel. In his thought-provoking new book Richard Holloway holds a mirror up to the human condition. The reflection isn't always pretty. But, by drawing on a colorful and eclec... read more

50 Big Ideas You Really Need to Know is a concise, accessible and popular guide to the central tenets of Western thought. Every important principle of philosophy, religion, politics, economics, the arts and the sciences is profiled in a series of short illustrated essays, complemented by an informative array of timelines and box features. Platonism, The Soul, Communism, Aristotelianism, Faith, Fascism, The Golden rule, Atheism, Racism, Altruism, Secularism, Feminism, Pluralism, Fundamentalism, Islamism, Liberty, Creationism, Capi... read more

Can Nietzsche improve your commute? What would Freud think about your retail therapy? And what would Plato say about the way that you read books? From getting ready in the morning, through heading to work, going to a party, having sex and falling back to sleep, "Breakfast with Socrates" provides an hour-by-hour commentary on what history's greatest philosophers have said about the meaning behind everything we do. A fascinating exploration of our daily lives, "Breakfast with Socrates" also draws on literature, art, politics and psyc... read more

Richard Dawkins' apologia for atheism has attracted huge attention, and sales, all over the world. In a telling critique cast in the classical form of a letter to Dawkins John Cornwell takes issue with it. 'Monkeys make men...Men make angels' - Charles Darwin."The God Delusion" is a clarion call to the faithless, the waverers, and even firm religious believers, to follow the author into radical atheism not merely as a private conviction but as a public profession. Wouldn't humankind be better off without religion, he asks. John Cor... read more

Slavoj Zizek is one of the most important cultural theorists of our times. Tickets for his lectures sell out weeks in advance and a peer reviewed journal is devoted to his work. But his capacity to fascinate the uninitiated and subvert the rules of academia has taken his fame far beyond the world's lecture halls. So who better to cast six sideways glances on the subject of violence than 'the giant of Ljubljana', an intellectual icon and enfant terrible, and to launch this groundbreaking new series?The premise of Zizek's theory is t... read more

In "The Quest for Meaning", Tariq Ramadan, philosopher and Islamic scholar, invites the reader to join him on a journey to the deep ocean of religious, secular, and indigenous spiritual traditions to explore the most pressing contemporary issues. Along the way, Ramadan interrogates the concepts that frame current debates including: faith and reason, emotions and spirituality, tradition and modernity, freedom, equality, universality, and civilization. He acknowledges the greatest flashpoints and attempts to bridge divergent paths to... read more