Philosophy

Published in 1848, at a time of political upheaval in Europe, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels's Manifesto for the Communist Party was at once a powerful critique of capitalism and...

With an Introduction by Derek Matravers.In The Social Contract Rousseau (1712-1778) argues for the preservation of individual freedom in political society. An individual can only be free under the law,...

Acclaimed as one of the most exciting books in the history of American letters, this modern epic became an instant bestseller upon publication in 1974, transforming a generation and continuing...

Classical liberalism promised to overthrow the old aristocracy, creating an order in which individuals could create their own identities and futures. To some extent it did--but it has also demolished...

From the preface to its closing pages "Beyond Good and Evil" is fired by a passion which expresses itself in an idiom of poetic metaphor. Yet this is philosophy. It...

In Doctor Who and Philosophy, a team of mostly human philosophers (who are also fans) looks at the deeper issues raised by the Doctor's mind-blowing adventures. They discuss, among other...

Since he burst on the world with his heavy-metal memoir Fargo Rock City in 2001, Chuck Klosterman has been one of the most successful novelists and essayists in America. His...

Let others be vassals and you be the king; let them keep their cities and they will levy their own tax. A later addition to China's most influential military texts,...

An inspirational, allegorical guide to living. 'The Prophet' is the most famous work of religious fiction in the twentieth century and had sold millions of copies in more than twenty...

The left views alienation as something to be resisted or overcome, but could it actually form the basis of our emancipation?We often think of our existential and political projects as...

Socrates spent a lifetime analyzing ethical issues, and the "Euthyphro" finds him outside the court-house, still debating the nature of piety with an arrogant acquaintance. "The Apology" is both a...

Silicon for microchips; manganese for batteries; titanium for missiles.The moon contains a wealth of natural resources. So, as the Earth's supplies have begun to dwindle, it is no surprise that...

Notes and Introduction by Mark G. Spencer, Brock University, Ontario John Locke (1632-1704) was perhaps the most influential English writer of his time. His Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690) and...

NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER'A beautiful book of great tenderness, love of life, and wisdom' JOSEPH O'CONNORFor almost fifty years, Michael Harding has been crafting words in a bid to express himself...

Translated by J.J. Graham, revised by F.N. Maude Abridged and with an Introduction by Louise Willmot.On War is perhaps the greatest book ever written about war. Carl von Clausewitz, a...

Translated with Notes by Arthur Waley. With an Introduction by Robert Wilkinson.Dating from around 300BC, Tao Te Ching is the first great classic of the Chinese school of philosophy called...

Children are, in many ways, born philosophers.Without prompting, they ask some of the largest questions about time, mortality, happiness and the meaning of it all. Yet too often this inborn...

This is a humorous investigation into the unlikely, yet very real connections between the likes of Marx and Foucault and one of the legendary symbols of outlaw individualism. Harley-Davidson Riders...

'What a marvellous book this is . . . de Botton dissects what [Proust] had to say about friendship, reading, looking carefully, paying attention taking your time, being alive and...

Winnie-the-Pooh is `The Bear for all Ages', and now he's more fun than ever before. Join in The Tao of Pooh! Winnie-the-Pooh has a certain way about him, a way...

'The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts' Bertrand Russell'Science is what you know....

'The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.' Descartes'It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Unapologetically optimistic and bracingly realistic, this is the most inspiring book on 'ethical living' I've ever read.' Oliver Burkeman, Guardian'A monumental event.' Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind'A...

'One of the most important thinkers alive' The TimesEver since its publication in 1651, Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan has unsettled and challenged how we understand the world. Condemned and vilified by...

The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism, and FascismAs a lifelong socialist, Shaw believed that economic inequality was a poison destroying every aspect of human life, perverting family affections...

Shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman PrizeParis, near the turn of 1932-3. Three young friends meet over apricot cocktails at the Bec-de-Gaz bar on the rue Montparnasse. They are Jean-Paul Sartre,...

Straw Dogs is a radical work of philosophy that sets out to challenge our most cherished assumptions about what it means to be human. From Plato to Christianity, from the...

The goddess Folly gives a speech, praising herself and explaining how much humanity benefits from her services, from politicians to philosophers, aristocrats, schoolteachers, poets, lawyers, theologians, monarchs and the clergy....

Born in poverty in India, Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) became a leading spiritual and philosophical thinker whose ideas continue to influence us today. George Bernard Shaw declared that he was the...

Why has there been such an explosion of discussion about sex in the west since the 17th century? Here, one of France's greatest intellectuals explores the evolving social, economic and...

Nietzsche is one of the most influential philosophers of the modern age.

"What's this you're writing?... asked Pooh, climbing onto the writing table."The Tao of Pooh,... I replied."The how of Pooh?... asked Pooh, smudging one of the words I had just written."The...

In Utopia, Thomas More gives us a traveller's account of a newly discovered island where the inhabitants enjoy a social order based on natural reason and justice, and human fulfilment...

Robert Bly writes that it is clear to men that the images of adult manhood given by popular culture are worn out, that a man can no longer depend on...

Translated by Yuan Shibing and J.J.L.Duyvendak. With introductions by Robert Wilkinson.The two political classics in this book are the product of a time of intense turmoil in Chinese history. Dating...

Translated by Thomas Common. With an Introduction by Nicholas Davey.This astonishing series of aphorisms, put into the mouth of the Persian sage Zarathustra, or Zoroaster, contains the kernel of Nietzsche's...

Translated by C.E.Detmold. With an Introduction by Lucille Margaret Kekewich.Written in 1513 for the Medici, following their return to power in Florence, The Prince is a handbook on ruling and...