What’s in it
Tap a tag: ❤ = this matters to me · tap again ✕ = don’t care · again to reset. The list below updates each time. Start over
24 books with the same feel
Hide books by the same authorThe Abolition of Man
C.S. Lewis · 116 pages
C. S. Lewis sets out to persuade his audience of the importance and relevance of universal values such as courage and honor in contemporary society.
Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill · 102 pages
"Because Utilitarianism is a work of enduring value, it is easy to forget that Mill meant for it to be a topical and relevant contribution to the moral debates of his time. In this edition of Mill's essay, Colin Heydt situates the work in its historical context by supplementing the text of the essay with appendices containing excerpts of related works by Mill's predecessors, Mill himself, and prom
The Mind’s I: Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul
Douglas R. Hofstadter, Daniel C. Dennett · 431 pages
Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre
Walter Kaufmann · 384 pages
The Open Society and Its Enemies - Volume Two: Hegel and Marx
Karl R. Popper · 763 pages
An open society provides its citizens with a mechanism for changing government; a closed society doesn't, forcing its citizens to rely on extra-legal revolution. Popper analyzes the open-closed society debate using three exemplars of closed-society advocacy: Plato, Hegel (and wow, does Popper hate on Hegel), and Marx. The main analytical viewpoints are historicist (backward-looking, utopian) mot
He Is There and He Is Not Silent
Francis A. Schaeffer · 128 pages
This book deals with one of the most fundamental of all questions: how we know, and how we know we know. Unless our epistemology is right, everything is going to be wrong. That is why I say that this book goes with The God Who Is There -- a link emphasized by its title. The infinite-personal God is there, but also he is not silent; that changes the whole world. Wittgenstein, in his Tractatus, can
The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View
Richard Tarnas · 544 pages
Ten years in the making and already receiving wide critica acclaim, The Passion of the Western Mind is a major new inquiry into the evolution of our culture's consciousness, from the dawn of Western civilization to the dawn of the twenty-first century. This is the epic sstory of our intellectual and spiritual heritage, a story never before told with such breadth of focus and clarity of insight.
Event
Slavoj Zizek · 217 pages
An Event can be an occurrence that shatters ordinary life, a radical political rupture, a transformation of reality, a religious belief, the rise of a new art form, or an intense experience such as falling in love. This book examines the new and highly-contested concept of Event.
Philosophical Hermeneutics
Hans-Georg Gadamer · 243 pages
Published in German during the last 15 years, the 13 essays in this volume provide readers with valuable knowledge of the much discussed theme of hermeneutics today. Gadamer was an early student of Martin Heidegger and has been a lifelong friend and interpreter. These essays are an outgrowth of Gadamer's Truth and Method. They can be understood, however, independently of it. Gadamer's standpoint i
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Robert M. Pirsig · 418 pages
"The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called 'yourself.'"One of the most important and influential books of the past half-century, Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a powerful, moving, and penetrating examination of how we live and a meditation on how to live better. The narrative of a father on a summer motorcycle trip across America's Northwest with his young
The Foucault Reader: An Introduction to Foucault's Thought
Michel Foucault · 390 pages
Michael Foucault's writing has shaped the teaching of half a dozen disciplines, ranging from literary criticism to the history of criminology. But none of his books offers a satisfactory introduction to the entire complex body of his work. The Foucault Reader precisely serves that purpose. It contains selections from each area of Foucault's thought, a wealth of previously unpublished writings, and
Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil
Alain Badiou · 224 pages
"Ethical questions dominate today's political and academic agendas. While government think-tanks ponder the dilemmas of bio-ethics, medical ethics and professional ethics, respect for human rights and reverence for the Other have become matters of virtually instinctive consensus." "Alain Badiou, one of the most powerful and unusual voices in contemporary French philosophy, explodes the facile assu
Giving an Account of Oneself
Judith Butler · 149 pages
Offers an outline for a new ethical practice - one responsive to the need for critical autonomy and grounded in a new sense of the human subject. The author demonstrates how difficult it is to give an account of oneself, and how this lack of self-transparency and narratibility is crucial to an ethical understanding of the human.
Discourse on Thinking
Martin Heidegger · 93 pages
An English translation of a book, first published in 1959, by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger. Presents an introduction to the complexities of Heidegger's philosophy, including his understanding of the relation of meditative thinking to contemporary human life. -- adapted from preface.
The Poetics of Reverie
Gaston Bachelard · 212 pages
In this, his last significant work, an admired French philosopher provides extraordinary meditations on the relations between the imagining consciousness and the world, positing the notion of "reverie"as its most dynamic point of reference. In his earlier book, "The Poetics of Space, "Bachelard considered several kinds of "praiseworthy space" conducive to the flow of poetic imagery. In "Poetics of
The Complete Essays
Michel de Montaigne · 406 pages
Michel de Montaigne was one of the most influential figures of the Renaissance, responsible for popularising the essay as a literary form. In 1572 Montaigne retired to his estates in order to devote himself to leisure, reading and reflection. There he wrote his constantly expanding 'assays', inspired by the ideas he found in books contained in his library and from his own experience. He discusses