Perhaps the French philosopher's masterpiece, which is concerned with an extraordinary question: What does it mean to be mad?

Michel Foucault has become famous for a series of books that have permanently altered our understanding of many institutions of Western society. He analyzed mental institutions in the remarkable Madness and Civilization; hospitals in ...

Michel Foucault was one of the most influential thinkers in the contemporary world, someone whose work has affected the teaching of half a dozen disciplines ranging from literary criticism to the history of criminology. But of his man...

The work numbers among those outward signs of culture the trained eye should find on prominent display in every private library. Have you read it? One's social and intellectual standing depends on the response.' -- Michel de Certeau

In 1784, the German newspaper Berlinische Monatsschrift asked its audience to reply to the question 'What is Enlightenment?' Immanuel Kant took the opportunity to investigate the purported truths and assumptions of his age. Two hundre...

Scholars have largely misunderstood Soren Kierkegaard, remembering him chiefly in connection with the development of existentialist philosophy in this century. In a short and unhappy life, he wrote many books and articles on literary...

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) is one of the most famous and important philosophers of the twentieth century. In this account of his life and work A. C. Grayling introduces both his technical contributions to logic and philosophy, and ...

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was an extraordinarily original thinker, whose influence on twentieth-century thinking far outside the bounds of philosophy alone. In this engaging Introduction, A.C. Grayling makes Wittgenstein's thoug...

Hegel wrote this classic as an introduction to a series of lectures on the "philosophy of history." With this work, he created the history of philosophy as a scientific study. He reveals philosophical theory as neither an accident nor...

In this volume Martin Heidegger confronts the philosophical problems of language and begins to unfold the meaning begind his famous and little understood phrase "Language is the House of Being."The "Dialogue on Language," between Heid...

Schopenhauer is considered to be the most readable of German philosophers. This book gives a succinct explanation of his metaphysical system, concentrating on the original aspects of his thought, which inspired many artists and thinke...

A part of Jaspers’s planned universal history of philosophy, focusing on the four paradigmatic individuals who have exerted a historical influence of incomparable scope and depth. Edited by Hannah Arendt; Index. Translated by Ralph ...

To Be Human presents Krishnamurti's radical vision of life in a new way. At the heart of this extraordinary collection are passages from the great teacher's talks that amplify and clarify the nature of truth and those obstacles that ...

Complete interlinked edition complemented by author biography and analysis. 'If The Prince resembles a guidebook based primarily on empirical observations, Machiavelli wrote the Discourses as a commentary on Livy's work on Roman histo...

Two cornerstones of liberalism from the great social radical of English philosophy John Stuart Mill was a prodigious thinker who sharply challenged the beliefs of his age. In On Liberty?one of the sacred texts of liberalism?he argues ...

'it is only the cultivation of individuality which produces, or can produce, well developed human beings'Mill's four essays, 'On Liberty', 'Utilitarianism', 'Considerations on Representative Government', and 'The Subjection of Women' ...

One hundred years after his death, Friedrich Nietzsche remains the most influential philosopher of the modern era. Basic Writings of Nietzsche gathers the complete texts of five of Nietzsche\'s most important works, from his first boo...

"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.." This is the book in which Nietzsche put forth his boldest declaration. It is also his most personal, featuring some of the author's most important discussions of art, morality,...

One of the most controversial and inflammatory philosophers in western civilization, Friedrich Nietzsche summarized his extraordinary ideas in "The Twilight of the Idols." Appropriately subtitled "How One Philosophizes ...

Written in 1888, while Nietzsche was at the height of his brilliance, these 2 polemics blaze with provocative, inflammatory rhetoric. Nietzsche's "grand declaration of war," Twilight of the Idols examines what we worship and why. In a...

The Fourth Way is the most comprehensive statement thus far published of the ideas taught by the late P.D. Ouspensky. Consisting of verbatim records of his oral teaching from 1921 to 1946, it gives a lucid explanation of the practical...

“In its less dramatic versions,” writes author Dan Palmer, “structuralism is just a method of studying language, society, and the works of artists and novelists. But in its most exuberant form, it is a philosophy, an overall wo...

Written in his beloved epigrammatic and aphoristic style, Equals extends Adam Phillips's probings into the psychological and the political, bringing his trenchant wit to such subjects as the usefulness of inhibitions and the paradox o...

Foreward by Hans Urs von BalthasarNear the end of a long career as one of the most widely read popular Thomistic philosophers of the twentieth century, Josef Pieper has himself compiled an anthology from all his works. He has selected...

A collection of essays by fifteen philosophers presenting a thoughtful, introductory guide to choosing a philosophy for living an examined and meaningful life. A VINTAGE ORIGINALSocrates famously said "the unexamined life is not ...

If you are like most people, you’re not sure what Postmodernism is. And if this were like most books on the subject, it probably wouldn’t tell you. Besides what a few grumpy critics claim, Postmodernism is not a bunch of meaning...

In the tumultuous late 60s and early 70s, a social movement known as the 'New Left' emerged as a major cultural influence, especially on the youth of America. It was a movement that embraced 'flower-power' and psychedelic 'consciousne...

Here is the final collection of articles and speeches by the bestselling and world-renowned novelist, essayist, and philosopher.

Bertrand Russell changed Western philosophy forever. He tackled many puzzles—how our minds work, how we experience the world, and what the true nature of meaning is. InIntroducing Bertrand Russellwe meet a passionate eccentric, acti...

The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard is regarded as the founder of Existentialism and a forerunner of postmodernism. Philosophy, in Kierkegaard's radical view, was of no use unless it permanently changed people's lives. This graphic gui...