“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.
Both scholarly and diverting, "Imagining Atlantis" has beenhailed as the most important book ever written about the Atlantislegend and its perennial appeal. 46 illustrations. 5 maps.
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.
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.
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 universalacclaimas the 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 reduced tosimplistic caricatures. Copleston set out to redress thewrong by writing a complete history of Western philosophy, onecrackling with incident and intellectual excitement - and one thatgives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in abeautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who cameafter him.
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.
