Philosophy Adventure

On June 3, 1769, the planet Venus briefly passed across the face of the sun in a cosmic alignment that occurs twice per century. Anticipation of the rare celestial event sparked a worldwide competition among aspiring global superpowers, each sending their own scientific expeditions to far-flung destinations to time the planet’s trek.

Just 150 years ago, most of our world was an unexplored wilderness. Our sense of its age was vastly off the mark. And what we believed to be the history of our own species consisted of fantastic myths and fairy tales; fossils, known for millennia, were seen as the bones of dragons and other imagined creatures. How did we learn so much so quickly? Remarkable Creatures celebrates the pioneers who replaced our fancies with the even more remarkable real story of how our world evolved.

At the age of 48, film critic David Denby returned to his alma mater, Columbia University, to re-experience the core humanities courses he had taken as a freshman 30 years before. Facing the question of what he really knows, Denby re-examines the besieged Western classics, ranging from Homer, Sappho, and Sophocles to Dante, Nietzsche, and Woolf. What relevance do the writers and thinkers of the past have to our current life? The answer surprised Denby and will surprise and enlighten his listeners.

In 1910, Mary Acworth Evershed (1867-1949) sat on a hill in southern India staring at the moon as she grappled with apparent mistakes in Dante's Divine Comedy. Was Dante's astronomy unintelligible? Or was he, for a man of his time and place, as insightful as one could be about the sky? As the 20th century began, women who wished to become professional astronomers faced difficult cultural barriers, but Evershed joined the British Astronomical Association and, from an Indian observatory, became an experienced observer of sunspots, solar eclipses, and variable stars.

Our purpose is to introduce young listeners to a vibrant world of language while enhancing their vocabulary with SAT-level words. Through engaging stories, this book endeavors to familiarize children with advanced vocabulary, offering synonyms (on the bottom of the page) and easy-to-follow pronunciations (with open brackets behind the vocabulary).

Ayn Rand's famous 1957 classic, Atlas Shrugged, has become more widely read and influential with each passing year, thanks in part to its brilliant dramatization of Rand's Objectivist philosophy and its celebration of self-reliance, integrity, rationality, and productive effort.

The genuine recollections of a gold rush prospector, barber, dentist, and his frontier philosophy. Set during the mostly forgotten Georgia gold rush of the 1830s this tale focuses on Bob - a lucky, but grumpy gold prospector who doesn’t get along with anybody. When Bob’s exiled by the townsfolk and forced to live alone in the wilderness surrounded by bears, he makes uncanny decisions that result in a fantastical story.

If you’re like most people, at some point you’ve had an idea that caused you to create a plan. You then spent numerous hours creating, adjusting, and dreaming of what that idea will bring. Eventually, something gets in the way and nothing ever happens, or worse yet, someone else beats you to the punch. In this book, you will learn my secret formula to turn those ideas into a reality. The best part is, it’s easier than you ever imagined.

A masterpiece of American individualism, Henry David Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience is considered by many to be one of the most important pieces of political and philosophical writings ever produced by an American. Thoreau wrote the essay because of his opposition to slavery and the Mexican-American War. When the government engages in actions that are unjust, he believed that citizens should completely withdraw their support of the government and stop paying taxes, even if it results in imprisonment or violence.

Have you ever thought there are many things that are not taught in schools, even though they are crucial to our children’s development? Have you wondered how to teach a mindset of abundance? A child that learns how to dream big and knows, that they are worthy of receiving the very best life has to offer, will grow up adopting an abundance mindset. What this attitude of mind will provide is the self-esteem, trust, and confidence that, as a person, you can ask for everything you wish for. Thus everything you ask for will be granted.