How the World Thinks: A Global History of Philosophy by Julian Baggini

$27.99 NZD

Category: Philosophy

Julian Baggini's How the World Thinks is there to fill the Sapiens-size hole in your life' Observer's guide to Autumn in culture In this groundbreaking global overview of philosophy, Julian Baggini travels the world to provide a wide-ranging map of human thought. One of the great unexplained wonders of human history is that written philosophy flowered entirely separately in China, India and Ancient Greece at more or less the same time. These early philosophies have had a profound impact on the development of distinctive cultures in different parts of the world. What we call 'philosophy' in the West is not even half the story. Julian Baggini sets out to expand our horizons in How the World Thinks, exploring the philosophies of Japan, India, China and the Muslim world, as well as the lesser-known oral traditions of Africa and Australia's first peoples. Interviewing thinkers from around the globe, Baggini asks questions such as: why is the West is more individualistic than the East? What makes secularism a less powerful force in the Islamic world than in Europe? And how has China resisted pressures for greater political freedom? Offering deep insights into how different regions operate, and paying as much attention to commonalities as to differences, Baggini shows that by gaining greater knowledge of how others think we take the first step to a greater understanding of ourselves. ...Show more

Philosophers: Their Lives and Works by Dorling Kindersley Publishing Staff

$48.00 NZD

Category: Philosophy

From Confucius and Plato to Karl Marx and Noam Chomsky, this book brings together more than 100 illustrated biographies of the world's great philosophers. Introduced with a stunning portrait of each featured philosopher, the biographies trace the ideas, friendships, loves, and rivalries that inspired t he great thinkers and influenced their work, providing revealing insights into what drove them to question the meaning of life, and come up with new ways of understanding the world and the history of ideas. Lavishly illustrated with photographs and paintings of philosophers, their homes, friends, studies, and their personal belongings, together with pages from original manuscripts, first editions, and correspondence, this book introduces the key ideas, themes, and working methods of each featured individual, setting their ideas within a wider historical and cultural context. Charting the development of ideas across the centuries in both the East and West, from ancient Chinese philosophy to the work of contemporary thinkers, Philosophers provides a compelling glimpse into the personal lives, loves, and influences of the great philosophers as they probed into life's "big ideas". ...Show more

Utopia by Thomas More; Dominic Baker-Smith (Translator)

$30.00 NZD

Category: Philosophy | Series: Penguin Pocket Hardbacks Ser.

Utopia (Libellus vere aureus, nec minus salutaris quam festivus, de optimo rei publicae statu deque nova insula Utopia) is a work of fiction and socio-political satire by Thomas More (1478-1535) published in 1516 in Latin. The book is a frame narrative primarily depicting a fictional island society and its religious, social and political customs. Many aspects of More's description of Utopia are reminiscent of life in monasteries. Utopia was begun while More was an envoy in the Low Countries in May 1515. More started by writing the introduction and the description of the society which would become the second half of the work and on his return to England he wrote the "dialogue of counsel", completing the work in 1516. In the same year, it was printed in Leuven under Erasmus's editorship and after revisions by More it was printed in Basel in November 1518. It was not until 1551, sixteen years after More's execution, that it was first published in England as an English translation by Ralph Robinson. Gilbert Burnet's translation of 1684 is probably the most commonly cited version. The work seems to have been popular, if misunderstood: the introduction of More's Epigrams of 1518 mentions a man who did not regard More as a good writer. The eponymous title Utopia has since eclipsed More's original story and the term is now commonly used to describe an idyllic, imaginary society. Although he may not have directly founded the contemporary notion of what has since become known as Utopian and dystopian fiction, More certainly popularised the idea of imagined parallel realities, and some of the early works which owe a debt to Utopia must include The City of the Sun by Tommaso Campanella, Description of the Republic of Christianopolis by Johannes Valentinus Andreae, New Atlantis by Francis Bacon and Candide by Voltaire. The politics of Utopia have been seen as influential to the ideas of Anabaptism and communism. citation needed] While utopian socialism was used to describe th ...Show more

On the Shoulders of Giants by Umberto Eco

$75.00 NZD

Category: Philosophy

The final collection of essays from the internationally acclaimed and bestselling author of The Name of the Rose and The Prague Cemetery, on the subjects of art and culture. In this collection of essays we find Umberto Eco's perennial areas of interest explored in a lively and engaging style, accompani ed by beautiful reproductions of the art he discusses. In these wide-ranging pieces he explores the roots of our civilization, changing ideas of beauty, our obsession with conspiracies and the emblematic heroes of the great narrative, amongst other fascinating topics. Umberto Eco was one of the most influential, and entertaining, intellectuals of the last century, as well as being a critically acclaimed and bestselling writer of both fiction and non-fiction. ...Show more

The Empire and the Five Kings - America's Abdication and the Fate of the World by Bernard-Henri Levy

$27.99 NZD

Category: Philosophy

One of the West's leading intellectuals offers a provocative look at America's withdrawal from world leadership and the rising powers who seek to fill the vacuum left behind.The United States was once the hope of the world, a beacon of freedom and the defender of liberal democracy. Nations and peoples o n all continents looked to America to stand up for the values that created the Western worldand to oppose autocracy and repression. Even when America did not live up to its ideals, it still recognized their importance, at home and abroad.But as Bernard-Henri L vy lays bare in this powerful and disturbing analysis of the world today, America is retreating from its traditional leadership role, and in its place have come five ambitious powers, former empires eager to assert their primacy and influence. L vy shows how these five--Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, and Sunni radical Islamism--are taking steps to undermine the liberal values that have been a hallmark of Western civilization.The Empire and the Five Kings is a cri de coeur that draws upon lessons from history and the eternal touchstones of human culture to reveal the stakes facing the West as America retreats from its leadership role, a process that did not begin with Donald Trump's presidency and is not likely to end with him. The crisis is one whose roots can be found as far back as antiquity and whose resolution will require the West to find a new way forward if its principles and values are to survive.As seen on Real Time with Bill Maher (2/22/2019) and Fareed Zakaria GPS (2/17/2019). ...Show more

Who Rules the World? by Noam Chomsky

$30.00 NZD

Category: Philosophy

A New York Times BestsellerWith a New AfterwordIn an incisive, thorough analysis of the current international situation, Noam Chomsky examines the way that the United States, despite the rise of Europe and Asia, still largely sets the terms of global discourse. Drawing on a wide range of examples, from the sordid history of U.S. involvement with Cuba to the sanctions on Iran, he details how America's rhetoric of freedom and human rights so often diverges from its actions. He delves deep into the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel-Palestine, providing unexpected and nuanced insights into the workings of imperial power on our increasingly chaotic planet. And, in a new afterword, he addresses the election of Donald Trump and what it shows about American society. Fierce, unsparing, and meticulously documented, Who Rules the World? delivers the indispensable understanding of the central issues of our time that we have come to expect from Chomsky. An American Empire Project ...Show more

Brutal Simplicity of Thought: How it Changed the World by Maurice Nathan Saatchi

$29.99 NZD

Category: Philosophy

The principles of creativity revealed in deceptively simple words and pictures by the man behind the world's most successful advertising agency. Simplicity looks easy. It's not. It's easier to complicate than simplify. This book presents stunningly simple examples of concepts that have changed the worl d - from the single piece of paper that became the American Declaration of Independence, giving birth to the most powerful nation in the history of the world, to the symbol and line that enables us to write music. Thought-provoking and incisive, Brutal Simplicity of Thought is the distillation, in words and pictures, of the Saatchi method of creativity. Whether you are a student, a manager, self-employed or a CEO, this book has something to teach us all: simplicity rules. ...Show more

The Shorter Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy by CRAIG EDWARD

$122.00 NZD

Category: Philosophy

The Examined Life : How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz

$32.99 NZD

Category: Philosophy

As heard on Book of the Week, Radio 4. 'This book is about change.' We are all storytellers - we make stories to make sense of our lives. But it is not enough to tell tales. There must be someone to listen. In his work as a practising psychoanalyst, Stephen Grosz has spent the last twenty-five years unc overing the hidden feelings behind our most baffling behaviour. The Examined Life distils over 50,000 hours of conversation into pure psychological insight, without the jargon. This extraordinary book is about one ordinary process: talking, listening and understanding. Its aphoristic and elegant stories teach us a new kind of attentiveness. They also unveil a delicate self-portrait of the analyst at work, and show how lessons learned in the consulting room can reveal as much to him as to the patient. These are stories about our everyday lives: they are about the people we love and the lies that we tell; the changes we bear, and the grief. Ultimately, they show us not only how we lose ourselves but how we might find ourselves too. ...Show more

What Do We Really Know? The Big Questions in Philosophy by Simon Blackburn

$27.99 NZD

Category: Philosophy

In What Do We Really Know? Simon Blackburn addresses the twenty most-asked philosophical questions, including 'Can machines think?', 'What is the meaning of life?', 'Is death to be feared?', 'Why be good?', 'What am I?' and 'What do we really know?' Each 3000-word essay examines a question that has eter nally perplexed enquiring minds, and provides answers from history's great thinkers. ...Show more

Running with the Pack: Thoughts from the Road on Meaning and Mortality by Mark Rowlands

$35.00 NZD

Category: Sport

'Most of the serious thinking I have done over the past twenty years has been done while running.' Mark Rowlands has run for most of his life. He has also been a professional philosopher. And for him the two - running and philosophising - are inextricably connected. In Running with the Pack he tells us about the most significant runs of his life - from the entire day he spent running as a boy in Wales, to the runs along French beaches and up Irish mountains with his beloved wolf Brenin, and through Florida swamps more recently with his dog Nina. Intertwined with this honest, passionate and witty memoiare the fascinating meditations that those runs triggered, including: how running makes him feel free, a la Jean-Paul Sartre; how running injuries make him think of death and Heidegger; how running for him is play, and therefore the antithesis of the American dream, with its ferocious work ethic; and how pondering why he runs puts him in mind of Aristotle's search for causes. He ends by describing running a mid-life marathon with absolutely no training. Woven throughout the book are profound meditations on mortailty, midlife and the meaning of life. This is a highly original and moving book that will make the philosophically inclined want to run, and those who love running become intoxicated by philosophical ideas. ...Show more

50 Philosophy Classics: Thinking, Being, Acting, Seeing - Profound Insights and Powerful Thinking from Fifty Key Books by Tom Butler-Bowdon

$24.99 NZD

Category: Philosophy

The sixth in the bestselling 50s series, and a lively entry point to the field by exploring the works of 50 of the most significant philosophers; including those that show us how to think (Descartes, Foucault and Wittgenstein); how to be (Aristotle, Spinoza, Satre); how to act (Bentham, Kant, Singer) an d how to see (Baudrillard, Hegel, Taleb). The whole spectrum of thinking, from the classical philosophers who defined the field, through the 20th century greats, all the way to the writings of some of the most exciting contemporary thinkers including Julian Baggini, Harry Frankfurt, Peter Singer and Slavoj Zizek. ...Show more