Discover how our big social, political and ethical ideas are formed with The Philosophy Book. Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Philosophy in this overview guide to the subject, great for beginners looking to learn and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Philosophy Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Philosophy, with: - Key quotes from more than 100 of the great thinkers of philosophy - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts - A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout - Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understanding The Philosophy Book is the perfect introduction to philosophy, aimed at adults with an interest in the subject and students wanting to gain more of an overview. Here you'll discover how key concepts in philosophy have shaped our world, with authoritative articles that explore big ideas. Learn about everyone who's contributed to the flow of world philosophy, from antiquity to the modern age, through superb mind maps explaining the line of thought. Your Philosophical Questions, Simply Explained If you thought it was difficult to learn philosophy and its many concepts, The Philosophy Book presents the key ideas in a clear layout. Find out what philosophers thought about the nature of reality, and the fundamental questions we ask ourselves; What is the meaning of life? What is the Universe made of? And work your way through the different branches of philosophy such as metaphysics and ethics, from ancient and modern thinkers. The Big Ideas Series With millions of copies sold worldwide, The Philosophy Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas series from DK. The series uses striking graphics along with engaging writing, making big topics easy to understand.

An ambitious new history of philosophy in English that broadens the canon to include many lesser-known figures Ludwig Wittgenstein once wrote that “philosophy should be written like poetry.” But philosophy has often been presented more prosaically as a long trudge through canonical authors and great works. But what, Jonathan Rée asks, if we instead saw the history of philosophy as a haphazard series of unmapped forest paths, a mass of individual stories showing endurance, inventiveness, bewilderment, anxiety, impatience, and good humor? Here, Jonathan Rée brilliantly retells this history, covering such figures as Descartes, Locke, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Mill, James, Frege, Wittgenstein, and Sartre. But he also includes authors not usually associated with philosophy, such as William Hazlitt, George Eliot, Darwin, and W. H. Auden. Above all, he uncovers dozens of unremembered figures—puritans, revolutionaries, pantheists, feminists, nihilists, socialists, and scientists—who were passionate and active readers of philosophy, and often authors themselves. Breaking away from high-altitude narratives, he shows how philosophy finds its way into ordinary lives, enriching and transforming them in unexpected ways.

It is commonly known that Nietzsche is one of Plato's primary philosophical antagonists, yet there is no full-length treatment in English of their ideas in dialogue and debate. Plato and Nietzsche is an advanced introduction to these two thinkers, with original insights and arguments interspersed throughout the text. Through a rigorous exploration of their ideas on art, metaphysics, ethics, and the nature of philosophy, and by explaining and analyzing each man's distinctive approach, Mark Anderson demonstrates the many and varied ways they play off against one another. This book provides the background necessary to understanding the principle matters at issue between these two philosophers and to developing an awareness that Nietzsche's engagement with Plato is deeper and more nuanced than it is often presented as being.

Philosophical Conversations is a light, informal, and contemporary introduction to the study of philosophy. Using a dialogue format, Robert M. Martin delves into the traditional questions of philosophy in a manner that readers will find engaging. These substantive yet entertaining conversations emphasize that philosophical questions are contested and open-ended. The characters in each dialogue advocate different answers to questions on religion, ethics, personal identity, and other topics equitably and without naming any clear winners. Philosophic positions are presented with maximum clarity and persuasiveness, so that readers can appreciate all sides of an issue and make their own choices. An excellent tool for newcomers to philosophy, Philosophical Conversations provides the necessary background for further study while vividly portraying the back-and-forth argument that is essential to the philosophical method.

"Socrates once complained in the Protagoras that eloquent orators and books are alike in that they provide massive amounts of information, "but if one asks any of them an additional question . . . they cannot either answer or ask a question on their own account." As I wrote this book, my challenge was to see to what degree I could provide a counterexample to Socrates' claim. Of course, Socrates is correct: There is no substitute for live philosophical conversations and debates. However, as you get acquainted with this book, you will find that it does ask you questions and provokes you to ask questions in turn. Instead of simply presenting information for you to passively absorb, its many exercises require your active involvement, and some will even provide the opportunity for you to dialogue with your friends about the philosophical issues discussed. For this reason, I chose the title The Philosophical Journey: An Interactive Approach"--

This book is designed to explain the technical ideas that are taken for granted in much contemporary philosophical writing. Notions like 'denumerability', 'modal scope distinction', 'Bayesian conditionalization', and 'logical completeness' are usually only elucidated deep within difficult specialist texts. By offering simple explanations that by-pass much irrelevant and boring detail, Philosophical Devices is able to cover a wealth of material that is normally only available to specialists. The book contains four sections, each of three chapters. The first section is about sets and numbers, starting with the membership relation and ending with the generalized continuum hypothesis. The second is about analyticity, a prioricity, and necessity. The third is about probability, outlining the difference between objective and subjective probability and exploring aspects of conditionalization and correlation. The fourth deals with metalogic, focusing on the contrast between syntax and semantics, and finishing with a sketch of Gödel's theorem. Philosophical Devices will be useful for university students who have got past the foothills of philosophy and are starting to read more widely, but it does not assume any prior expertise. All the issues discussed are intrinsically interesting, and often downright fascinating. It can be read with pleasure and profit by anybody who is curious about the technical infrastructure of contemporary philosophy.

"The Philosophical Imaginary teaches us how to read philosophy afresh. Focusing on central, but often undiscussed, images, Le Doeuff's patient, perspicacious, and always brilliant readings show us how to uncover the political unconscious at work in great philosophy. Le Doeuff's contribution to philosophy and feminism is unequalled. This book is a classic."

After presenting a general survey of spiritual practice in the different schools of Indian philosophy, the author focuses on the Trika School, popularly called Kashmir Shaivism. He deals clearly and exhaustively with such topics as Shaktipat (the descent of Divine Grace), Diksha (initiation), and the role of the Guru. His treatment of the various paths (upayas) appropriate for the different types of practitioners is especially useful. The book ends with a chapter on enlightenment (jivanmukti). This chapter not only presents the meaning of self-realization-in-this-lifetime, but offers material on this topic for the first time in English.