Did Newton "unweave the rainbow" by reducing it to itsprismatic colors, as Keats contended? Did he, in other words,diminish beauty? Far from it, says acclaimed scientist RichardDawkins; Newton's unweaving is the key to much of modern astronomyand to the breathtaking poetry of modern cosmology. Mysteries don'tlose their poetry because they are solved: the solution often ismore beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering deeper mysteries. Withthe wit, insight, and spellbinding prose that have made him abest-selling author, Dawkins takes up the most important andcompelling topics in modern science, from astronomy and genetics tolanguage and virtual reality, combining them in a landmarkstatement of the human appetite for wonder. This is the bookRichard Dawkins was meant to write: a brilliant assessment of whatscience is (and isn't), a tribute to science not because it isuseful but because it is uplifting.

In an era when the relationship between Islam and the Westseems mainly defined by mistrust and misunderstanding, it isimportant to remember that for centuries Muslim civilization wasthe envy of the world. Lost History fills a significant void and isessential reading for anyone seeking to understand the major theearly Muslims played in influencing modern society. Morgan reveals how early Muslim advancements in science andculture laid the cornerstones of the European Renaissance, theEnlightenment, and modern Western society. As he chronicles theGolden Ages of Islam, beginning in A.D. 570 with the birth ofMuhammad, and resonating today, he introduces scholars like IbnAl-Haytham, Ibn Sina, Al-Tusi, Al-Khwarizmi, and Omar Khayyam,towering figures who revolutionized the mathematics, astronomy, andmedicine of their time and paved the way for Newton, Copernicus,and many others. And he reminds us that inspired leaders fromMuhammad to Suleiman the Magnificent and beyond championedreligious tolerance, encou

The new "Penguin Freud", under Adam Phillips' generaleditorship, offers a fantastic opportunity to see Freud in a freshlight. This endlessly beguiling, suggestive, thought-provokingwriter can be appreciated nowhere more vividly than in "The CaseHistories": "Little Hans", "The Rat Man", "The Wolf Man" and "SomeCharacter Types Met within Psychoanalytic Work".

Many appreciate Richard P. Feynman’s contributions totwentieth-century physics, but few realize how engaged he was withthe world around him—how deeply and thoughtfully he considered thereligious, political, and social issues of his day. Now, awonderful book—based on a previously unpublished, three-part publiclecture he gave at the University of Washington in 1963—shows usthis other side of Feynman, as he expounds on the inherent conflictbetween science and religion, people’s distrust of politicians, andour universal fascination with flying saucers, faith healing, andmental telepathy. Here we see Feynman in top form: nearly burstinginto a Navajo war chant, then pressing for an overhaul of theEnglish language (if you want to know why Johnny can’t read, justlook at the spelling of “friend”); and, finally, ruminating on thedeath of his first wife from tuberculosis. This is quintessentialFeynman—reflective, amusing, and ever enlightening.

Perhaps the French philosopher's masterpiece, which isconcerned with an extraordinary question: What does it mean to bemad?

How do we see the world around us? "The Penguin on Design"series includes the works of creative thinkers whose writings onart, design and the media have changed our vision forever. SusanSontag's groundbreaking critique of photography asks forcefulquestions about the moral and aesthetic issues surrounding this artform. Photographs are everywhere. They have the power to shock,idealize or seduce, they create a sense of nostalgia and act as amemorial, and they can be used as evidence against us or toidentify us. In six incisive essays, Sontag examines the ways inwhich we use these omnipresent images to manufacture a sense ofreality and authority in our lives.

“Between the earliest and the latest of the works includedhere, we have two hundred and fifty years of vigorous andadventurous philosophizing,” Monroe Beardsley writes in hisIntroduction to this collection. “If the modern period can be onlyvaguely or arbitrarily bounded, it can at least be studied, and wecan ask whether any dominant themes, overall patterns of movement,or notable achievements can be found within it. This question isone that is best asked by the reader after he has read, or readaround in, these works.” This Modern Library Paperback Classic also includes a newly updatedBibliography.

Written during the golden age of Chinese philosophy, andcomposed partly in prose and partly in verse, the Tao TeChing is surely the most terse and economical of the world’sgreat religious texts. In a series of short, profound chapters itelucidates the idea of the Tao, or the Way–an idea that in itsethical, practical, and spiritual dimensions has become essentialto the life of China’s enormously powerful civilization. In theprocess of this elucidation, Lao-tzu both clarifies and deepensthose central religious mysteries around which our life on earthrevolves.

‘It is in every sense an epoch-making book: one that has been needed and expected for years.’ - Cambridge Magazine ‘The author maintains a fresh and brilliant yet easy style which always makes his writings a pleasure to read.’ - Nature The very relevance and legitimacy of philosophy is examined in this explosive and controversial work which investigates the relationship between ‘individual’ and ‘scientific’ knowledge, and questions the means by which we come to understand the physical world.

The author's final work, presented in a one-volume edition, is arich, challenging analysis of man's mental activity, considered interms of thinking, willing, and judging. Edited by Mary McCarthy;Indices.

Conceived originally as a serious presentatin of thedevelopment of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, FrederickCopleston's nine-volume A History Of Philosophy has journeyedfar beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaim asthe best history of philosophy in English. Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit of immense erudition who once tangledwith A.J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the existence of God andthe possibility of metaphysics, knew that seminary students werefed a woefully inadequate diet of theses and proofs, and that theirfamiliarity with most of history's great thinkers was reducedto simplistic caricatures. Copleston set out to redress thewrong by writing a complete history of Western Philosophy, onecrackling with incident an intellectual excitement - and one thatgives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in abeautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who wentbefore and to those who came after him.

Conceived originally as a serious presentation of thedevelopment of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, FrederickCopleston's nine-volume A History Of Philosophy has journeyed farbeyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaim as thebest history of philosophy in English. Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit of immense erudition who once tangledwith A.J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the exiatenceof God and thepossibility of metaphysics, knew that seminary students were fed awoefully inadequate diet of theses and proofs, and that theirfamiliarity with most of history's great thinkers was reduced tosimplistic caricatures. Copelston sets out to redress the wrong bywriting a complete history of Western philosophy, one cracklingwith incident and intellectual excitement - and one that gives fullplace to each thinker, presenting his thought in a beautifullyrounded manner and showing his links to those who went before andto those who came after them.

"To quietly persevere in storing up what is learned, to continuestudying without respite, to instruct others without growingweary--is this not me?" --Confucius Confucius is recognized as China's first and greatest teacher, andhis ideas have been the fertile soil in which the Chinese culturaltradition has flourished. Now, here is a translation of therecorded thoughts and deeds that best remember Confucius--informedfor the first time by the manu* version found at Dingzhou in1973, a partial text dating to 55 BCE and only made available tothe scholarly world in 1997. The earliest Analects yet discovered,this work provides us with a new perspective on the centralcanonical text that has defined Chinese culture--and clearlyilluminates the spirit and values of Confucius. Confucius (551-479 BCE) was born in the ancient state of Lu into anera of unrelenting, escalating violence as seven of the strongeststates in the proto-Chinese world warred for supremacy. Thelandscape was not only fierce politically but also intel

Bertrand Russell describes the purpose of this book as theputting together of some remarks on the state of happiness whichare inspired by common sense, rather than any profound philosophyor deep erudition. It is based on the belief that many people whoare unhappy could become happy by well-directed effort. --Thistext refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of thistitle.

The Yeats anthology of the poems of William Blake is that great rarity: one great visionary poet's anthology of everything that moves him about another, even greater one. Yeats prepared it in 1905 and it probably remains the single greatest single one-volume edition of William Blake extant, the one that, in less than 250 pages, presents as sensibly compressed and canny an edition as you'll ever find of perhaps the least sensible and most chaotic genius of English poetry. Even those who have the complete Blake in a couple of editions will find Yeats' Blake all-but-indispensable. –Buffalo News, April 6, 2003 This selection of Blake's work was commissioned in 1905 by the firm of George Routledge from W.B. Yeats. Yeats, one of the few poets comparable to Blake, prepared a unique selection of his poetic and prose writings.

In On the Nature of the Psyche Jung presents a masterly overview of his theories of the unconscious, and its relation to the conscious mind. Jung's discovery of the 'collective unconscious', a psychic inheritance common to all humankind, transformed the understanding of the self and the way we interpret the world. In On the Nature of the Psyche Jung describes this remarkable theory in his own words, and presents a masterly overview of his theories of the unconscious, and its relation to the conscious mind. Also contained in this collection is On Psychic Energy , where Jung defends his interpretation of the libido, a key factor in the breakdown of his relations with Freud. For anyone seeking to understand Jung's insights into the human mind, this volume is essential reading.

'Michael Norton is a one-man ideas factory whose new book suggests some wacky ways in which, with a little bit of effort, people really can change the world for the better. Don't just sit back and do nothing.' THE GUARDIAN 'If you want to make a difference this year then I can do no better than recommend 365 Ways to Change the World by Michael Norton. His handbook makes it easy.' Roy Greenslade, THE TELEGRAPH --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review 'Must have come on like punk rock to a public groaning under the weight of over-cooked Augustanisms.' - The Guardian Must have come on like punk rock to a public groaning under the weight of over-cooked Augustanisms. - The Guardian Product De*ion "... must have come on like punk rock to a public groaning under the weight of over-cooked Augustanisms." The Guardian "The majority of the following poems are to be considered as experiments. They were written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to the purposes of poetic pleasure." --William Wordsworth, from the Advertisement prefacing the original 1798 edition When it was first published, Lyrical Ballads enraged the critics of the day: Wordsworth and Coleridge had given poetry a voice, one decidedly different to what had been voiced before. For Wordsworth, as he so clearly stated in his celebrated preface to the 1800 edition (a

Conceived originally as a serious presentation of thedevelopment of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, FrederickCopleston's nine-volume A History Of Philosophy hasjourneyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universalacclaim as the best history of philosophy in English.

Outrageously funny, Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . . has been a breakout bestseller ever since authors—and born vaudevillians—Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein did their schtick on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Lively, original, and powerfully informative, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar . . . is a not-so-reverent crash course through the great philosophical thinkers and traditions, from Existentialism (What do Hegel and Bette Midler have in common?) to Logic (Sherlock Holmes never deduced anything). Philosophy 101 for those who like to take the heavy stuff lightly, this is a joy to read—and finally, it all makes sense!

A collection of some of Freud's most famous essays, including"On The Introduction of Narcissism", "Remembering, Repeating andWorking Through", "Beyond the Pleasure Principle", "The Ego and theID" and "Inhibition, Symptom and Fear".