Philosophy & Religion
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by Isaiah Berlin (Get the Book)
In this outstanding collection of essays, Isaiah Berlin, one of the great thinkers of the twentieth century, discusses the importance of dissenters in the history of ideas--among them Machiavelli, Vico, Montesquieu, Herzen, and Sorel. With his unusual powers of imaginative re-creation, Berlin brings to life original minds that swam against the current of their times--and still challenge conventional wisdom. In a new foreword to this corrected edition, which also includes a new appendix of letters in which Berlin discusses and further illuminates some of its topics, noted essayist Mark Lilla argues that Berlins decision to give up a philosophy fellowship and become a historian of ideas represented not an abandonment of philosophy but a decision to do philosophy by other, perhaps better, means. "His instinct told him," Lilla writes, "that you learn more about an idea as an idea when you know something about its genesis and understand why certain people found it compelling and were spurred to action by it." This collection of fascinating intellectual portraits is a rich demonstration of that belief.
by Susan Haack (Get the Book)
This engaging and wide-ranging collection of essays is informed and unified by the conviction that philosophy can, and should, engage with real-world issues. Susan Haack's keen analytical skills and well-chosen illustrations illuminate a diverse range of cultural questions; and her direct style and wry sense of humor make complex ideas and subtle distinctions accessible to serious readers whatever their discipline or particular interests. Putting Philosophy to Work will appeal not only to philosophers but also to thoughtful scientists, economists, legal thinkers, historians, literary scholars, and humanists. This new, expanded second edition includes several previously unpublished essays: a devastating critique of Karl Popper's highly (and dangerously) influential philosophy of science; a searching and thought-provoking analysis of scientism; and a groundbreaking paper on "academic ethics in a preposterous environment" that every professor, and would-be professor, should read.
by Tom Butler-Bowden (Get the Book)
From Aristotle to Wittgenstein and Zizek, 50 Philosophy Classics provides a lively entry point to the field of philosophy. Analyses of key works by Descartes, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Heidegger, and Nietzsche also show how philosophy helped shape the thinking and events of the last 150 years. The list also includes 20th century greats including de Beauvoir, Foucault, Kuhn, and Sartre, along with contemporary philosophy including the writings and ideas of Peter Singer, Noam Chomsky, Harry Frankfurt, and Nassim Nicholas Taleb. 50 Philosophy Classics explores key writings that have shaped the discipline and impacted the real world. From Aristotle, Plato, and Epicurus in ancient times, to John Stuart Mill s manifesto for individual freedom and Ralph Waldo Emerson s struggle to understand fate as person versus the universe. Most notably, Butler-Bowdon takes readers beyond the twentieth century to introduce contemporary thinkers like Slavoj Zizek, who suggests that the fight for food and water, a biogenetic revolution, and social indicate the apocalyptic end of global liberal capitalism.
Al-Ghazzali discusses the virtues of patience and gratitude in great detail using examples from the Quran and the Traditions (ahadith). Patience is considered to be half of faith and is necessary at all times in all situations according to al-Ghazzali. He explains how one can gain patience. In regard to the virtue of gratitude, he explores its opposite of ingratitude, the true nature of blessings, how knowledge is good and ignorance is evil and blessings and their various degrees. This is Book XXXII of Part Four of the Alchemy of Happiness entitled The Deliverers. Considered as one of the great books of the muslim world. (Summary)
