Modern Philosophy

Prudence is not timidity. It is not caution for its own sake. It is the art of knowing when to act and when to wait, when to follow reason and when to trust instinct. In Prudence, Ralph Waldo Emerson reclaims this often-misunderstood virtue, not as mere carefulness but as the wisdom of navigating life with both vision and restraint. For Emerson, prudence is not the enemy of boldness but its quiet architect. It does not stifle ambition but shapes it, guiding passion with clarity and purpose. A mind without prudence rushes blindly; a mind ruled by it never moves at all.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's The Over-Soul isn't just an essay—it's a revelation. It speaks of a vast, unshakable presence within us all, a silent force that knows, guides, and connects. Beyond intellect, beyond ego, Emerson leads us to the infinite. The Over-Soul is the quiet voice of truth, the source of wisdom that needs no teacher. It is intuition over logic, unity over isolation. When we listen, the noise of the world fades, and something deeper takes its place—clarity, purpose, transcendence. Emerson doesn't explain; he awakens.

Nothing stands still. The moment we grasp an idea, it expands beyond us. The instant we define a boundary, a wider one emerges. Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay Circles is not about shapes on a page but about the shifting nature of thought, existence, and perception. Each insight is a stepping stone, each conclusion just another starting point. There is no final answer—only an ever-widening ring of understanding. Emerson writes with the quiet confidence of someone who has seen the world rearrange itself countless times. He does not dictate; he invites. He does not confine; he liberates.

Addressing both collegiate and professional sports, the updated edition of Fair Play explores the ethical presuppositions of competitive athletics and their connection both to ethical theory and to concrete moral dilemmas that arise in actual athletic competition. A major new section in chapter four examines the ethics of genetically enhancing athletic abilities. Other new material covers the analysis of sports and games according to influential philosopher Bernard Suits; the morality of cheating and the ethics of strategic fouling; and more.

A cultural and intellectual history of sincerity, from its emergence during the Protestant Reformation to its present incarnations and adversaries. People have long been duped by "straight-talking" politicians, confessional talk-show hosts, and falsely earnest advertisers. As sincerity has become suspect, the upright and honest have taken refuge in irony.

De twintigste eeuw heeft een vrijwel onuitputtelijke rijkdom aan filosofische ideeën opgeleverd. Er leefden in deze eeuw meer filosofen dan in alle voorgaande eeuwen tezamen. Deze serie colleges maakt deze rijkdom zichtbaar aan de hand van acht vooraanstaande denkers en de wijsgerige stromingen die ze vertegenwoordigen. Aan bod komen Russell, Husserl, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Reichenbach, Sartre, Popper en Van Orman Quine.

Your intellectual freedom is at stake, threatened by everything from academia and Big Tech to the media and government. Fortunately, you have a way to take back personal control, and it’s a solution founded upon ancient philosophy. In Restoring Reason, philosopher Dr. Travis Corcoran demonstrates how the liberal arts provide us with a skillset to evaluate knowledge and draw our own conclusions for clarity, confidence, and freedom.

La historia de cómo cuatro genios revolucionaron la filosofía y cambiaron nuestra forma de entender el mundo.

Sun Tzu was a famous Chinese general whose mastery of strategy was so exceptional that he reportedly transformed 180 courtesans into skilled soldiers in a single training session. While that episode was likely exaggerated, historians agree that Sun Tzu defeated the Ch'u, Qi, and Chin states for King Ho-Lu, forging his empire. With methods so powerful they can conquer an adversary's spirit, you can use Master Tzu's strategies to overcome any challenge, from warfare to self-defense to business negotiations.

In 1929, Edwin Hubble announced the greatest discovery in the history of astronomy since Galileo first turned a telescope to the heavens. The galaxies, previously believed to float serenely in the void, are in fact hurtling apart at an incredible speed: the universe is expanding. This stunning discovery was the culmination of a decades-long arc of scientific and technical advancement.

Am I happy enough? This has been a pivotal question since America's inception. "Am I not happy enough because I am depressed?" is a more recent version. Psychotherapist Gary Greenberg shows how depression has been manufactured---not as an illness but as an idea about our suffering, its source, and its relief. He challenges us to look at depression in a new way.

In this fascinating book, David Barash highlights an intriguing patch of common ground between scientific and religious thought, illuminating the many parallels between biology and Buddhism, allowing listeners to see both in a new way. Indeed, he shows that there are numerous places where the Buddhist and biological perspectives coincide. For instance, the cornerstone ecological concept - the interconnectedness and interdependence of all things - is remarkably similar to the fundamental insight of Buddhism.

As late as the 1930s, virtually no drug intended for sickness did any good; doctors could set bones, deliver babies, and offer palliative care. That all changed in less than a generation with the discovery and development of a new category of medicine known as antibiotics. By 1955 the age-old evolutionary relationship between humans and microbes had been transformed, trivializing once-deadly infections.

Science and violence converge in modern warfare. While the finest minds of the 20th century have improved human life, they have also produced human injury. They engineered radar, developed electronic computers, and helped mass produce penicillin all in the context of military mobilization. Scientists also developed chemical weapons, atomic bombs, and psychological warfare strategies. Rational Fog explores the quandary of scientific and technological productivity in an era of perpetual war.

Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous, or simply Three Dialogues, is a 1713 book on metaphysics and idealism by George Berkeley. The book was written as a response to the criticism of his work A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. Berkeley faced opposition from many philosophers who held to the Platonic view. He argues that sensible qualities like color, sound, temperature and even shape are not inherent in matter, but are ascribed and understood by the mind.

The father of modern philosophy, Descartes is still one of the most widely discussed philosophers today. Putting rationalism above all else, he sought to base all knowledge of the world on a single idea: "I think, therefore I am." This introduction expertly summarises his thoughts on the dualism of mind and body, his proofs for God’s existence, and his responses to scepticism. Explaining how his life informed his philosophy, Bracken demonstrates the philosopher’s enduring significance.

Ludwig Wittgenstein was born in Vienna in 1889 and died in Cambridge, England in 1951. He was one of the most influential philosophers of the 20th century.

Der große Theologe, Arzt und Musiker Albert Schweitzer veröffentlichte seine "Gespräche über das Neue Testament" in den Jahren 1901 bis 1904, als er Privatdozent in Straßburg war, in der kleinen Zeitung Evangelisch-protestantischer Kirchenbote für Elsass-Lothringen. Gemeinsames Ziel der 33 kurzen, predigtähnlichen Texte ist es, eine Anleitung zu geben, "wie ein erwachsener Christ selbständig für sich die Bibel lesen soll".

Sometimes our understanding of our universe is given a huge boost by one insightful thinker. Such a boost came in the first half of the 20th century, when an obscure Belgian priest put his mind to deciphering the nature of the cosmos. The Day Without Yesterday covers the modern history of an evolving universe, and how Georges Lemaître convinced a generation of thinkers to embrace the notion of cosmic expansion and the theory that this expansion could be traced backward to the cosmic origins, a starting point for space and time that Lemaître called "the day without yesterday".

De moderne mens is een paradoxaal wezen dat - hoe rationeel ook - bij de diepste levensbeslissingen liever op het gevoel dan op de rede terugvalt. Hij doorziet de natuur wetenschappelijk, maar laat zich even graag door haar overweldigen. Hij kan (bijna) alles, maar weet niet of hij ook alles mág. In deze collegeserie laat Ger Groot zien welke filosofische ideeën de mens gevormd hebben tot het wezen dat hij nu is. In veel muziekwerken resoneren filosofische gedachten mee die deze ontwikkeling illustreren.