George Easton
1) 2024
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It is 2024, and Keith Richards is about to be sworn in as the next president of the United States. President-Elect Richards, a member of the new Republican Tea Party, is intent on spreading a new message of hope between the warring parties now in power. The public is thrilled. His party is irate. Just as he takes his oath and America begins to celebrate, shots ring out. Seconds later, the new president is dead, and the vice president elect is now...
2) Gorgias
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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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German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche was one the most controversial figures of the 19th century. His evocative writings on religion, morality, culture, philosophy, and science were often polemic attacks against the established views of his time. First published in 1887, "The Genealogy of Morals," is a work, which follows and expands upon the principles of his previous works, "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" and "Beyond Good and Evil." In a preface and...
4) Timaeus
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Of all the writings of Plato the Timaeus is the most obscure and repulsive to the modern reader, and has nevertheless had the greatest influence over the ancient and mediaeval world. The obscurity arises in the infancy of physical science, out of the confusion of theological, mathematical, and physiological notions, out of the desire to conceive the whole of nature without any adequate knowledge of the parts, and from a greater perception of similarities...
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"Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic" is French philosopher Henri Bergson's treatise on laughter and the timeless role of comedy in human society. Originally published in three parts in French in 1900 and translated into English in 1924, Bergson makes three essential observations about laughter and comedy. First, that comedy is a necessary human behavior and acts as a sort of caricature or parody of essential human activities and behaviors....
6) Phaedrus
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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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OUR next task is to study coming-to-be and passing-away. We are to distinguish the causes, and to state the definitions, of these processes considered in general, as changes predicable uniformly of all the things that come-to-be and pass-away by nature. Further, we are to study growth and 'alteration'. We must inquire what each of them is; and whether 'alteration' is to be, identified with coming-to-be, or whether to these different names there correspond...
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The second of Immanuel Kant's three critiques, "Critique of Practical Reason", published in 1788, is considered by many to be one of the most important works on the subject of moral philosophy ever written. Written several years after his first critique, "Critique of Pure Reason", this work addresses Kant's views on moral philosophy and what it means to be good and ethical. In this work, Kant explores his philosophy of the categorical imperative,...
9) What Is Art?
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While Tolstoy may be best remembered as the talented Russian author of such monumentally great works as "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina", he also wrote prolifically in essay format on various subjects. In this volume Tolstoy turns his attention to the study of aesthetics and art in all its forms. Based on fifteen years of research, "What is Art?" is Tolstoy's intellectual exposition into answering the titular question. Rich with criticism for his...
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The Meaning of Truth is one of William James' most important books. It is a necessary read for anyone looking to understand the nature of truth. Does it exist independently of man or does man make truth what it is? Here you will find answers to this and many other questions on the nature of truth. William James was the older brother of novelist Henry James, and a pioneering psychologist and philosopher. His works pushed the boundaries of psychology...
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After a brief military career, the illustrious Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky quickly turned to writing as a profession with the publication of his first novel, "Poor Folk," in 1846. This novel sparked a literary career that would eventually cement Dostoyevsky's reputation as one of the greatest novelists of the nineteenth century. Early participation in a literary/political group landed the writer in exile in Siberia for nearly a decade, an experience...
12) How We Think
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"How We Think" by John Dewey is a groundbreaking exploration of the process of thinking and its role in education and problem-solving. In this influential work, Dewey delves into the nature of intelligence, inquiry, and reflective thought, offering valuable insights into how individuals can enhance their thinking abilities and engage in meaningful learning experiences. The book begins by challenging traditional notions of thinking as a passive, linear...
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Ancient accounts of Aristotle credit him with 170 Constitutions of various states; it is widely assumed that these were research for the Politics, and that many of them were written or drafted by his students. Athens, however, was a particularly important state, and where Aristotle was living at the time; it is plausible that, even if students did the others, Aristotle did that one himself, and possible that it was, intended as, a model for the rest....
14) On the Heavens
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THE science which has to do with nature clearly concerns itself for the most part with bodies and magnitudes and their properties and movements, but also with the principles of this sort of substance, as many as they may be. For of things constituted by nature some are bodies and magnitudes, some possess body and magnitude, and some are principles of things which possess these. Now a continuum is that which is divisible into parts always capable of...
15) Cratylus
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The Cratylus has always been a source of perplexity to the student of Plato. While in fancy and humour, and perfection of style and metaphysical originality, this dialogue may be ranked with the best of the Platonic writings, there has been an uncertainty about the motive of the piece, which interpreters have hitherto not succeeded in dispelling. We need not suppose that Plato used words in order to conceal his thoughts, or that he would have been...
16) Sophist
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The "Sophist" is a Platonic dialogue from the philosopher's late period, most likely written in 360 BC. Its main theme is to identify what a sophist is and how a sophist differs from a philosopher and statesman. Because each seems distinguished by a particular form of knowledge, the dialogue continues some of the lines of inquiry pursued in the epistemological dialogue, Theaetetus, which is said to have taken place the day before. Because the Sophist...
17) Pragmatism
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"The lectures that follow were delievered at the Lowell Institute in Boston in November and December, 1906, and in January, 1907, at Columbia University, in New York. ... The pragmatic movement, so called -- I do not like the name, but apparently it is too late to change it -- seems to have rather suddenly precipitated itself out of the air. ... I have sought to unify the pictture as it presents itself to my own eyes, dealing in broad strokes, and...
18) Protagoras
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The Library of liberal arts volume no. 59
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Plato's "Protagoras" is a series of debates or arguments between Socrates and the elderly Protagoras, who was a well-known Sophist. Socrates was deeply critical of the Sophists, who were teachers or wise men who charged money for educating students and dispensing wisdom. He believed them to be corrupt and dangerous men, who could lead their pupils astray. In Plato's dialogue, Socrates challenges Protagoras and his beliefs in front of an audience of...
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Think of As a Matter of Course as a philosophical manifesto for women who embrace traditional roles and values in the family and in the wider world. In this collection, the popular nineteenth-century magazine columnist Annie Payson Call addresses a broad range of issues and matters spiritual and practical in nature, issuing advice that is both thought-provoking and timeless in its wisdom.
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Philosopher, mathematician and social critic, Bertrand Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950. In The Analysis of Mind, one of his most influential and exciting books, Russell presents an intriguing reconciliation of the materialism of psychology with the antimaterialism of physics. This book established a new conception of the mind and provided one of the most original and interesting externalist accounts of knowledge. Drawing...