Catalog Search Results
1) Leviathan
Author
Series
Lexile measure
1270L
Language
English
Description
Written during the turmoil of the English Civil War, Leviathan is an ambitious and highly original work of political philosophy. Claiming that man's essential nature is competitive and selfish, Hobbes formulates the case for a powerful sovereign--or 'Leviathan'--to enforce peace and the law, substituting security for the anarchic freedom he believed human beings would otherwise experience. This world view shocked many of Hobbes's contemporaries, and...
Author
Language
English
Description
Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind is one of the greatest contributions to twentieth-century American conservatism. Brilliant in every respect, from its conception to its choice of significant figures representing the history of intellectual conservatism, The Conservative Mind launched the modern American Conservative Movement when it was first published in 1953 and has become an enduring classic of political thought.
The seventh revised edition...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Truth Has a Power of Its Own is an engrossing collection of never-before-published conversations with Howard Zinn, conducted by the distinguished broadcast journalist Ray Suarez in 2007, that covers the course of American history from Columbus to the War on Terror from the perspective of ordinary people--including slaves, workers, immigrants, women, and Native Americans. Viewed through the lens of Zinn's own life as a soldier, historian, and activist...
4) Symposium
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Written sometime during the 4th century BC, "Symposium" is one the most poetic and sublime works by the Greek philosopher Plato. The action of the dialogue is set during a party hosted by the poet Agathon to celebrate his first victory in a dramatic competition. The title 'Symposium', or 'Banquet' refers to the setting of the work, however the more literal translation from the Greek is a 'drinking party.' At this party several notable figures from...
5) The Meno
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Plato's "Meno" is a Socratic dialogue between the two main speakers, Socrates and Meno, and explores the definition of virtue and whether it is something that can be taught. Meno is an attractive and well-to-do young man visiting Athens and is a student of the sophist Gorgias, who has greatly influenced Meno's ideas on virtue and knowledge. The dialogue begins abruptly with a question posed by Meno, who asks Socrates whether virtue can be taught....
6) The prince
Author
Series
Accelerated Reader
IL: UG - BL: 9.3 - AR Pts: 7
Lexile measure
1510L
Language
English
Description
Need to seize a country? Have enemies you must destroy? In this handbook for despots and tyrants, the Renaissance statesman Machiavelli sets forth how to accomplish this and more, while avoiding the awkwardness of becoming generally hated and despised. "Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be...
7) Gorgias
Author
Language
English
Description
One of the middle or transitional dialogues of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, "Gorgias" depicts a dinner gathering attended by Socrates and a group of sophists. Gorgias, a foreigner, has been drawn to Athens by its cultural and intellectual sophistication. In this dialogue Plato contrasts Gorgias, the rhetorician, with Socrates, the philosopher, whose differing specialties are persuasion and refutation, respectively. As Plato delves into arguments...
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Language
English
Description
The eighteenth-century philosopher’s landmark treatise against monarchy that inspired the French and American Revolutions.
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
With these stirring words, Jean-Jacques Rousseau begins The Social Contract—the first shot in a battle of ideas that would set the stage for the American War of Independence and the French Revolution....
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
With these stirring words, Jean-Jacques Rousseau begins The Social Contract—the first shot in a battle of ideas that would set the stage for the American War of Independence and the French Revolution....
Author
Language
English
Description
"Discourses on Livy", which was first published posthumously in 1531, is Niccolo Machiavelli's analysis of the first ten books of Livy's monumental work of Roman History, which details the expansion of Rome through the end of the Third Samnite War in 293 BC. Machiavelli believed that by examining the exemplary greatness in Roman history, practical lessons could be applied to the politics of the present day. The Italian renaissance was causing people...
10) Apology
Author
Language
English
Description
"Apology" is the famous account of the trial of Socrates. Plato's dialogue presents the charges brought against Socrates by the people of Athens and lays out the arguments that the accused presented in his defense. Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth of the city with his radical ideas and of impiety against the pantheon of the Athenian gods, or more specifically, of not believing in the gods of the city and believing instead in no gods or...
11) Ethics. Book 1
Author
Language
English
Description
The Ethics of Aristotle is one half of a single treatise of which his Politics is the other half. Both deal with one and the same subject. This subject is what Aristotle calls in one place the 'philosophy of human affairs;' but more frequently Political or Social Science. In the two works taken together we have their author's whole theory of human conduct or practical activity, that is, of all human activity which is not directed merely to knowledge...
12) Metaphysics
Author
Language
English
Description
"All men by nature are actuated with the desire of knowledge," declared Aristotle. The philosopher's works are foundational to the history of science, and his treatise on metaphysics, or "first philosophy," is divided into sections on previous philosophical thought and theories; a refutation of skepticism; a demonstration of God's existence; an examination of the relation of metaphysics to the other sciences; an elucidation of the nature of the infinite;...
13) Phaedrus
Author
Language
English
Description
Plato's "Phaedrus" is a dialogue between Phaedrus and the great Greek philosopher Socrates. Phaedrus has been spending the morning with Lysias, the celebrated rhetorician, and is going to refresh himself by taking a walk outside the wall, when he is met by Socrates, who professes that he will not leave him until he has delivered up the speech with which Lysias has regaled him, and which he is carrying about in his mind, or more probably in a book...
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Language
English
Description
"Do tough times create tougher people? Can humanity handle the power of its weapons without destroying itself? Will human technology or capabilities ever peak or regress? No one knows the answers to such questions, but no one asks them in a more interesting way than Dan Carlin. The creator of the wildly popular award-winning podcast Hardcore History looks at apocalyptic moments from the past as a way to frame the challenges of the future. In The End...
15) Phaedo
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
A classic work of ancient Greek literature from Plato, one of the most famous of all ancient Greek philosophers, the "Phaedo" is the moving story of the last moments of Socrates life as recounted by Phaedo, a student of Socrates and a first-hand witness to his final hours. "Phaedo" is the fourth and last dialogue by Plato of Socrates final days, following "Euthyphro", "Apology", and "Crito". In "Phaedo" we see the famous philosopher in his last hours...
16) On liberty
Author
Series
Lexile measure
1500L
Language
English
Description
Discusses Mill's political writing applying his principle for determining proper limits for individual and collective action.
Author
Language
English
Description
America has always been committed to the idea that citizens can work together to build a common world. Today, three afflictions keep us from pursuing that noble ideal. The first and most obvious affliction is identity politics, which seeks to transform America by turning politics into a religious venue of sacrificial offering. For now, the sacrificial scapegoat is the white, heterosexual, man. After he is humiliated and purged, who will be the
...18) On the Soul
Author
Language
English
Description
Written in 350 BC, Aristotle's "De Anima" or "On the Soul" is not a work on spirituality, as the title would suggest, but rather a work that could be described as one of biopsychology, or a work on the subject of psychology from a biological perspective. Aristotle's exposition centers on the soul. Aristotle's soul however is not the same as the common modern spiritual conception of something distinct from the body that lives on past death. Rather...
Author
Language
English
Description
"The sharp polarisation of left and right is commonly dwelt on as the big political handicap of our times. Angry divisions on the right itself get less attention. Conservatism fills that gap. Across Europe and the US, a liberal right is at war with an illiberal right. As the leading force in politics, it is vital to understand the roots of the right's struggle with itself, how it stands and how it is likely to come out. From its early 19th-century...
Author
Language
English
Description
"Winner of the 2016 PROSE Award in Philosophy, Association of American Publishers" Jason Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of Knowledge and Practical Interests, Language in Context, and Know How.
How propaganda undermines democracy and why we need to pay attention
Our democracy today is fraught with political campaigns, lobbyists, liberal media, and Fox News commentators, all using language...
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