Philosopher Biography

In 1895, William James, the father of American philosophy, delivered a lecture entitled "Is Life Worth Living?" It was no theoretical question for James, who had contemplated suicide during an existential crisis as a young man a quarter century earlier. Sick Souls, Healthy Minds is a compelling introduction to James's life and thought that shows why the founder of pragmatism and empirical psychology -and an inspiration for Alcoholics Anonymous - can still speak so directly and profoundly to anyone struggling to make a life worth living.

These true events cannot be explained, and many of these events were witnessed by others who, for the most part, wish to remain anonymous. There are things that can be explained in the real modern world and accepted as fact, but there are some things that remain a mystery or for the most part are ignored as the human rationale for accepting or acknowledging the event that occurred would bend the very fabric of reality - which could leave one in dire straits!

Moses Ben Maimon, frequently called Maimonides, was a medieval philosopher who revolutionized thinking about ethics, reason, and the Jewish Torah through his emphasis on reason and evidence. His works were broadly accepted by the Sephardi Jewish community and spread across the medieval world, reaching the Jewish populations as far as Yemen, and though he lived in the 12th century, Maimonides continues to be one of the most studied scholars of Jewish law, philosophy, and theology.

In Becoming a Philosopher Jonathan Rée describes the extraordinary lives of some of most influential thinkers of the past four hundred years and the radical and sometimes bizarre ideas that emerged from them. This collection of ten biographical pieces, originally published as book reviews in the London Review of Books, begins with Spinoza, the excommunicated lens grinder who sought as little attention as possible for his anonymously published work; and ends with Sartre, the most public of public intellectuals whose funeral was marked by thousands on the streets of Paris.

In The Lives of Michel Foucault, David Macey quotes the iconic French philosopher as speaking “nostalgically...of 'an unforgettable evening on LSD, in carefully prepared doses, in the desert night, with delicious music, [and] nice people'". This came to pass in 1975, when Foucault spent Memorial Day weekend in Southern California at the invitation of Simeon Wade - ostensibly to guest-lecture at the Claremont Graduate School where Wade was an assistant professor, but in truth to explore what he called the Valley of Death.

He didn’t just think. He built the tools for thinking. Born in Macedon. Trained by Plato. Tutor to Alexander the Great. But more than anything, Aristotle was a blueprint engineer. A mind that broke reality into categories, causes, and systems that still shape the world today. This is the full map of Aristotle’s legacy. Across logic, biology, politics, metaphysics, ethics, storytelling, and more. He didn’t give us the answers. He gave us the frameworks to figure them out.

Rescatamos los pensamientos que Francesco Guicciardini, el gran padre de la historiografía moderna, escribió bajo el título de Ricordi. Estas notas aforísticas, que fue reuniendo en distintos momentos de su vida y en diversos períodos de su actividad como diplomático, permanecieron inéditas hasta 1857. Vecino de Maquiavelo, catorce años mayor que él, en la República de Florencia, su pragmatismo sujeto a las circunstancias del momento lo oponían en cierto modo al autor de El príncipe.

I korte tekststykker, der fortæller om samtiden og den betydning de fik for den, portrætterer Stefan Zweig to af det 19. århundredes helt store personligheder - den russiske forfatter Fjodor Dostojevski og den tyske filosof Friedrich Nietzsche. Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) var en østrigsk forfatter, dramatiker og journalist. Han voksede op i Wien i et velhavende, jødisk hjem, studerede filosofi og litteraturhistorie og blev som ung forfatter del af de avantgardistiske kredse. I 1920'erne og 30'erne var han en af Europas førende forfattere.

Zenon, Greek philosopher and stoic: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best.

Will Rogers (1879 to 1935), born William Penn Adair, was an American stage and film actor, vaudeville performer, and newspaper columnist, known primarily for his humor and social commentary. He is significant in that he was a Cherokee citizen born in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma). During Rogers’ long career, he made over 70 films and wrote more than 4,000 newspaper columns. Rogers was born in 1935 and was raised and worked on his parents' ranch The Dog Iron Ranch in the Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory.

A reincarnated angel's tale of spiritual oneness, mental illness, the nut house, psychedelic drugs, gurus, meditation, romantic longing, mystical experience and the lesson of humility...Take the ride, because this book is gonna blow your mind.

In this compelling new biography, historian Niccol Capponi frees Machiavelli (1469-1527) from centuries of misinterpretation. Exploring the Renaissance city of Florence, where Machiavelli lived, Capponi reveals the man behind the legend. A complex portrait of Machiavelli emerges - at once a brilliantly skillful diplomat and a woefully inept liar; a sharp thinker and an impractical dreamer; a hard-nosed powerbroker and a risk-taking gambler; a calculating propagandist and an imprudent jokester.

Senecas BREVE er et hovedværk og en klassiker - det mest omfattende stoiske skrift fra antikken og igennem tiden det mest læste af Senecas værker.?Senecas BREVE er en indføring i stoicismen, skrevet som 124 breve til vennen Lucilius – så man får brevets nære og relaterbare tone, men i virkeligheden filosoffens lærebreve og pædagogiske formidling og anvisninger til sin yngre ven.

ആധുനികലോകം കണ്ട ഏറ്റവും മഹാനായ ആദ്ധ്യാത്മിക ഗുരുക്കന്മാരിലൊരാളുടെ ആത്മകഥ. ഭാരതീയ ദര്‍ശനങ്ങളിലേക്കും തത്ത്വചിന്തയിലേക്കും യോഗയിലേക്കും താന്ത്രിക വിജ്ഞാനത്തിലേക്കുമൊക്കെയുള്ള മാന്ത്രിക വാതായനം തുറക്കുന്നു കാലാതീതമായ ഈ കൃതി.

Terence McKenna (1946-2000) has been studying the ontological foundations of shamanism and the ethnopharmacology of spiritual transformation for the past quarter century. An innovative theoretician and spellbinding orator, McKenna emerged as a powerful voice for the psychedelic movement and the emergent societal tendency he calls The Archaic Revival, one of his most popular books. In 1993, McKenna wrote in This World and Its Double. It’s clearly a crisis of two things: of consciousness and conditioning.

Una vita esemplare e un pensiero folgorante. Eugenio Borgna ha trascorso molto della sua vita in dialogo con gli scritti di Simone Weil, che hanno saputo offrirgli infinite suggestioni per il suo cammino di medico e psichiatra, impegnato nell'ascolto e nella condivisione della sofferenza e della speranza.

In Iconoclast, Dr Anand Teltumbde, a distinguished public intellectual and leading authority on the Dalit movement, presents a groundbreaking biography of Dr B.R. Ambedkar. Far from the embellished narratives often associated with his legacy, Teltumbde strips away the layers of myth and hyperbole to reveal the man behind the legend. With meticulous research and intellectual honesty, Teltumbde delves into the life of Ambedkar, situating him within the dynamic context of his time.

In Simply Chomsky, Professor Raphael Salkie provides a compact, user-friendly introduction to Noam Chomsky’s political activism and his groundbreaking work in linguistics. Unlike most Chomsky studies, Prof. Salkie not only covers the essentials of Chomsky’s thought and accomplishments, but also explores his most recent concerns - including the climate crisis, the threat of nuclear holocaust, and current geopolitical hotspots - which are often very different from the topics that preoccupied him decades ago.

Edith Stein, Jewish woman, Catholic nun, and philosopher: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!

Baltasar Gracián, Spanish bestselling author and philosopher: Life and work in a short biography! Everything you need to know, brief and concise. Infotainment, education and entertainment at its best!