A brilliant account of the life of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Popper also explains some of the central ideas in his work, making this ideal reading for anyone coming to his life and work for the first time.
New introductions commissioned from today's top writers andscholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporaryhistorical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes andendnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems,books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired bythe work Comments by other famous authors Study questions tochallenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographiesfor further reading Indices Glossaries, when appropriateAlleditions are beautifully designed and are printed to superiorspecifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes Noble Classics pulls together a constellationof influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich eachreader's understanding of these enduring works.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty was one of the most important thinkers of the post-war era. Central to his thought was the idea that human understanding comes from our bodily experience of the world that we perceive: a deceptively simple argument, perhaps, but one that he felt had to be made in the wake of attacks from contemporary science and the philosophy of Descartes on the reliability of human perception. From this starting point, Merleau-Ponty presented these seven lectures on The World of Perception to French radio listeners in 1948. Available in a paperback English translation for the first time in the Routledge Classics series to mark the centenary of Merleau-Ponty’s birth, this is a dazzling and accessible guide to a whole universe of experience, from the pursuit of scientific knowledge, through the psychic life of animals to the glories of the art of Paul Cézanne.
What is right ? What is wrong ? How do we decide ? To a remarkable extent, our decision-making is determined by the origins of the ethical ideas that we employ and the history of their development. A Short History of Ethics is widely acknowledged to be the perfect introduction to the subject, presenting in concise form an insightful yet exceptionally complete history of moral philosophy in the West, from the Greeks to contemporary times. In clear and readable prose, Alasdair MacIntyre, one of the finest living philosophers, leads the reader towards a greater understanding of what lies behind our ethical decisions.
