Her beauty and her brother's crime put everyone to the test: Can Shatarupa survive the guilt? Can the philosophers rein their passions before they spiral out of control? Are you ready to awaken and unlock Tao? Nothing is what it seems in this sizzling, brainy adventure that makes philosophy sexy again. But beware, it's hard to put down. And when you're through, the world may look different-forever
Ideas can change the world but rarely do. Some call for pause. What if Western thought is warped by an illusion so compelling that it affects almost every aspect of our understanding, including modern science? Scientists look for objective knowledge. But suppose the distinction between the subjective mind and the objective reality does not exist. Fathoming this is called nondual awareness, and it is so counterintuitive that it remains rare. Nonetheless, reason demands a nondual world, as Existential Rationalism explains. This has far-reaching consequences. For example, science relies heavily on replicable experiments. But without an objective reality, what makes empirical data scientific? To answer this question, Eschauzier goes back nearly three centuries when David Hume made his case for empiricism, challenging the validity of pure reason to obtain scientific knowledge. Rationalism never recovered from Hume's challenge. Eschauzier argues that nondual awareness is the missing insight to reinstate reason as the supreme scientific principle: Without an objective reality, reason justifies empirical science. Thus revitalized, the principles of rational thought can still provide groundbreaking clarity today. From understanding the dualistic disposition in psychology to debunking the quantum computer mythology, Existential Rationalism is a trailblazing synthesis of Western rationalism and Eastern nondualism. "I am a firm believer that great things happen when different practices and schools of thought converge to create something new. Arts and hard sciences are often pitted against each other as contradictory and opposite ends of our spectrum of knowledge. This book is a wonderful example of how philosophy and science can be integrated to deepen our understanding of both. [...] Kudos to the author for this inspiring contribution to the world!"-Amazon customer
"I remember screaming very loudly. In TV shows, that's where the ad break comes in, while some ninny is screaming her head off. No ad break in life, though". Lissa Wilson has seen more than enough death in her family, so when people start being savagely killed whenever she has a night out in Melbourne with her beautiful new boyfriend, she's determined to investigate and make the killings stop. Even when she realises the murders must be the work of a vampire. Things had been looking up for this librarian and 21st century geekgirl, but the murders make her remember why she prefers books to people. People leave you. People can die. She finds herself teaming up with the painfully awkward Gary to get to the undead heart of the matter. But there are more challenges in store than Gary's appalling fashion sense. The idea of living forever can be a big temptation for someone who has lost so much... AUTHOR: Narrelle Harris was born in Newcastle, Australia and proceeded to move every few years until most of her friends thought she was in a Witness Protection program. Her itinerancy included three years abroad, teaching English in Egypt and Poland. Although now settled in Melbourne with her husband and her cat, she continues to relieve itchy feet with regular travel. Narrelle has also been a playwright, songwriter, actress, editor, public servant, kitchen hand and - once only - a very bad telemarketer.
A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.
It is assumed that every inch of the world has been explored and charted; that there is nowhere new to go. But perhaps it is the everyday places around us—the cities we live in—that need to be rediscovered. What does it feel like to find the city’s edge, to explore its forgotten tunnels and scale unfinished skyscrapers high above the metropolis? Explore Everything reclaims the city, recasting it as a place for endless adventure. Plotting expeditions from London, Paris, Berlin, Detroit, Chicago, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Bradley L. Garrett has evaded urban security in order to experience the city in ways beyond the boundaries of conventional life. He calls it ‘place hacking’: the recoding of closed, secret, hidden and forgotten urban space to make them realms of opportunity. Explore Everything is an account of the author’s escapades with the London Consolidation Crew, an urban exploration collective. The book is also a manifesto, combining philosophy, politics and adventure, on our rights to the city and how to understand the twenty-first century metropolis.
"By linking Wittgenstein with Derrida, Staten suggests that the intellectual relevance of deconstruction is wider than the English-speaking public has recognized."?Studies in the Humanities "This work is altogether first rate. It is informative, faithful, rigorous and completely original in its problematization. It is an original theoretical advance which I believe will mark an essential step forward in the field."?Jacques Derrida "Staten has plenty of philosophical acuity and critical sensitivity as well as wide philosophical scholarship, and he writes in a clear, muscular style which illuminates the issues sometimes profoundly without in any way concealing their difficulty and complxity. . . . Wittgenstein and Derrida should be essential reading not only for anyone interested in the current critical debate but also for philosophers."?Bernard Harrison, University of Sussex, England This book examines Aristotle, Kant, and especially Husserl to bring to light Derrida's development of the classical philosophical concepts of form (eidos), verbal formula (logos), the object-in-general, and time. The later work of Wittgenstein is then examined in detail and Wittgenstein's "zigzag" writing in the Philosophical Investigations is interpreted as deconstructive syntax, directed, like Derrida's work, against the dominance of the philosophical concern with the form of an entity. Henry Staten is a professor of English and philosophy at the University of Utah.
This is the type of book many teachers will keep on their desk and use the exercises very regularly; for me it is up there with Geoff Petty's 'Evidence-Based Teaching' and Paul Ginnis's 'The Teacher's Toolkit' as an essential resource. Worley is an excellent clear writer, who communicates very complex ideas very well.” Francis Gilbert [http://www.francisgilbert.co.uk/], teacher, teacher trainer and author of ' I'm a Teacher, Get Me Out of Here' Inspire your class to think more deeply about curriculum subjects and get them actively taking part in exciting philosophy experiments today! This new book by bestselling author and founder of The Philosophy Foundation Peter Worley is a collection of practical lesson and activity plans to use in the primary classroom to get children thinking philosophically and creatively around different curriculum areas. The sessions - called thought adventures - use thought experiments, stories and poems to get children discussing and understanding topics more deeply. Each session is explained step-by-step, with everything you need to 'do' and 'say' spelled out, and all the equipment you need listed with instructions on how to set up each session. You can implement the sessions in the classroom either as a complete lesson or as an activity within another lesson. All the sessions are tried and tested by Peter and his colleagues at The Philosophy Foundation who work with primary schools on a regular basis.
The definitive sequel to New York Times bestseller How the Scots Invented the Modern World is a magisterial account of how the two greatest thinkers of the ancient world, Plato and Aristotle, laid the foundations of Western culture—and how their rivalry shaped the essential features of our culture down to the present day. Plato came from a wealthy, connected Athenian family and lived a comfortable upper-class lifestyle until he met an odd little man named Socrates, who showed him a new world of ideas and ideals. Socrates taught Plato that a man must use reason to attain wisdom, and that the life of a lover of wisdom, a philosopher, was the pinnacle of achievement. Plato dedicated himself to living that ideal and went on to create a school, his famed Academy, to teach others the path to enlightenment through contemplation. However, the same Academy that spread Plato’s teachings also fostered his greatest rival. Born to a family of Greek physicians, Aristotle had learned early on the value of observation and hands-on experience. Rather than rely on pure contemplation, he insisted that the truest path to knowledge is through empirical discovery and exploration of the world around us. Aristotle, Plato’s most brilliant pupil, thus settled on a philosophy very different from his instructor’s and launched a rivalry with profound effects on Western culture. The two men disagreed on the fundamental purpose of the philosophy. For Plato, the image of the cave summed up man’s destined path, emerging from the darkness of material existence to the light of a higher and more spiritual truth. Aristotle thought otherwise. Instead of rising above mundane reality, he insisted, the philosopher’s job is to explain how the real world works, and how we can find our place in it. Aristotle set up a school in Athens to rival Plato’s Academy: the Lyceum. The competition that ensued between the two schools, and between Plato and Aristotle, set the world on an intellectual adventure that lasted through the Middle Ages and Renaissance and that still continues today. From Martin Luther (who named Aristotle the third great enemy of true religion, after the devil and the Pope) to Karl Marx (whose utopian views rival Plato’s), heroes and villains of history have been inspired and incensed by these two master philosophers—but never outside their influence. Accessible, riveting, and eloquently written, The Cave and the Light provides a stunning new perspective on the Western world, certain to open eyes and stir debate. Praise for The Cave and the Light “A sweeping intellectual history viewed through two ancient Greek lenses . . . breezy and enthusiastic but resting on a sturdy rock of research.”—Kirkus Reviews “Examining mathematics, politics, theology, and architecture, the book demonstrates the continuing relevance of the ancient world.”—Publishers Weekly “A fabulous way to understand over two millennia of history, all in one book.”—Library Journal “Entertaining and often illuminating.”—The Wall Street Journal
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A novel that follows a middle-aged man as he contends with a past he never much thought about—until his closest childhood friends return with a vengeance: one of them from the grave, another maddeningly present. A novel so compelling that it begs to be read in a single setting, The Sense of an Ending has the psychological and emotional depth and sophistication of Henry James at his best, and is a stunning achievement in Julian Barnes's oeuvre. Tony Webster thought he left his past behind as he built a life for himself, and his career has provided him with a secure retirement and an amicable relationship with his ex-wife and daughter, who now has a family of her own. But when he is presented with a mysterious legacy, he is forced to revise his estimation of his own nature and place in the world.
