Essays

'There are certain words which possess, in themselves, when properly used, a virtue which illumines and lifts up towards the good'The philosopher and activist Simone Weil was one of the most courageous thinkers of the twentieth century. Here she writes,...

From 'one of the most influential thinkers of our time' (Sunday Times): how to respond to today's demands on our attentionIn this brilliant follow-up to The Case for Working with Your Hands, Matthew Crawford investigates the challenge of mastering one's...

'Bristles with provocative insights into the tangled liaisons of sex and self' Times Higher EducationIn the third volume of his acclaimed examination of sexuality in modern Western society, Foucault investigates the Golden Age of Rome to reveal a ...

Britain's most authentically prophetic voice - The Daily Telegraph'The choice with which humankind is faced is between the idea of power and the power of ideas.'From his appointment as Chief Rabbi in 1991, through to his death in November 2020, Rabbi...

The struggle which Plato has Socrates recommend to his interlocutors in Gorgias - and to his readers - is the struggle to overcome the temptations of worldly success and to concentrate on genuine morality. Ostensibly an enquiry into the value of...

The final major work by one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth centuryIn the fourth and final volume of his far-reaching and influential study of human sexuality, Foucault turns his attention to early Christianity, exploring how ancient...

'His moral courage shines through from the start.' - Sunday Telegraph The definitive edition of the late Sir Roger Scruton's philosophical and political essays and reviews, now collected in one volume. The philosopher Roger Scruton was the leading...

Although Plato's celebrated work of philosophy describes a society which to some seems the ideal human community and to others like a totalitarian nightmare, it also raises enduring questions about politics, art, education and the general conduct of life...

'Never before has there been so many and such dreadful weapons in so many irresponsible hands.' - Karl Popper, from the PrefaceAll Life is Problem Solving is a stimulating and provocative selection of Popper's writings on his main preoccupations during...

It's time to rethink our attitudes to work.For too long we have convinced ourselves that the only jobs worth doing involve sitting at a desk. Generations of school-leavers head for university lacking the skills to fix or even understand the most basic...

One of the greatest essayists of the Graeco-Roman world, Plutarch (c. AD 46 -120) used an encyclopedic knowledge of the Roman Empire to produce a compelling and individual voice. In this superb selection from his writings, he offers personal insights...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781513207711Author Ancius BoethiusFormat HardbackPage Count 154Imprint Mint EditionsPublisher Mint Editions

Translated by W.H.White and A.K.Stirling. With an Introduction by Don Garrett. Benedict de Spinoza lived a life of blameless simplicity as a lens-grinder in Holland. And yet in his lifetime he was expelled from the Jewish community in Amsterdam as a...

'A necessary and brave read.' Paul Kingsnorth Hope and isolation, courage and division, withdrawal and reunion - how can we find meaning as we emerge from the troubled time of Covid? Renowned social philosopher and best-selling author Charles...

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780375415036Author George OrwellFormat HardbackPage Count 1416Imprint Everyman's Library USAPublisher Random House USA IncWeight(grams) 1213gDimensions(mm)...

What is the contemporary legacy of Gramsci's notion of Hegemony? How can universality be reformulated now that its spurious versions have been so thoroughly criticized? In this ground-breaking project, Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Zizek...

In the first century BCE, Marcus Tullius Cicero, orator, statesman, and defender of republican values, created these philosophical treatises on such diverse topics as friendship, religion, death, fate and scientific inquiry. A pragmatist at heart,...

Fair or Foul considers different aspects of ambition and its place in our lives. It asks: what does success mean? When is enough enough? And is Lady Macbeth right to suggest that only those with the 'illness' of ambition achieve the highest goals?Stefan...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781590177181Author William H. GassFormat PaperbackPage Count 112Imprint NYRB ClassicsPublisher The New York Review of Books, IncWeight(grams)...

Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) was a Dutch humanist, scholar, and social critic, and one of the most important figures of the Renaissance. The Praise of Folly is perhaps his best-known work. Originally written to amuse his friend Sir Thomas More, this...

This book brings together three major studies from Isaiah Berlin's central intellectual project - to explain the opposition to the excessively scientistic French Enlightenment by getting under the skin of its critics and giving a sympathetic account of...

Bertrand Russell was regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest minds. Well known for his profound knowledge and controversial approach to a myriad of different issues and subjects, his prolific works also exhibited great intellectual wit and...

The powerful, beautiful and chilling sequel to the bestselling Straw Dogs'By nature volatile and discordant, the human animal looks to silence for relief from being itself while other creatures enjoy silence as their birthright'Why do humans seek meaning...

The philosophically rich David Bowie is an artist of wide and continuing influence. The theatrical antics of Bowie ushered in a new rock aesthetic, but there is much more to Bowie than mere spectacle. The visual belies the increasing depths of his...

"Gill's and Ryan's Parmenides is, simply, superb: the Introduction, more than a hundred pages long, is transparently clear, takes the reader meticulously through the arguments, avoids perverseness, and still manages to make sense of the dialogue as a...

'It is impossible to live the pleasant life without also living sensibly, nobly and justly'The ancient Greek philosopher and teacher Epicurus argued that pleasure - not sensual hedonism, but the absence of pain or fear - is the highest goal of life. His...

In this timely new edition of his classic book A Political Philosophy, celebrated conservative philosopher Roger Scruton interrogates contemporary values, virtues and morality. What principles should govern our relations to animals, the nation state,...

Confronting harsh ecological realities and the multiple cascading crises facing our world today, An Inconvenient Apocalypse argues that humanity's future will be defined not by expansion but by contraction. For decades, our world has understood that we...

This is the work in which Louis Althusser formulated some of his most influential ideas. For Marx, first published in France in 1968, has come to be regarded as the founding text of the school of "structuralist Marxism" which was presided over by the...

'Witty and learned ... Hershovitz intertwines parenting and philosophy, recounting his spirited arguments with his kids about infinity, morality, and the existence of God' Jordan Ellenberg, author of ShapeA funny, wise guide to the art of thinking, and...

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched...

'Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life'The two works brought together here, 'The Decay of Lying' and 'The Critic as Artist', are Oscar Wilde's wittiest and most profound writings on aesthetics, in which he proposes that criticism is the...

'Poverty does not consist in the want of money,' I answered, 'nor is begging to be deplored. Poverty consists in the desire to have everything, and through violent means if necessary'From their founding in the fifth century BC and for over 800 years, the...

Jaegwon Kim presents a selection of his essays from the last two decades. The volume includes three new essays, on an agent-centered first-person account of action explanation, the concepts of realization and their bearings on the mind-body problem, and...

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched...

In the Laws, Plato describes in fascinating detail a comprehensive system of legislation in a small agricultural utopia he named Magnesia. His laws not only govern crime and punishment, but also form a code of conduct for all aspects of life in his ideal...

"We continue to live within the intellectual shadow cast by Nietzsche."-New York Times Book Review Reissued for the age of "fake news," On Truth and Untruth charts Nietzsche's evolving thinking on truth, which has exerted a powerful...

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLERFrom one of our greatest voices in modern philosophy, author of The Course of Love, The Consolations of Philosophy, Religion for Atheists and The School of Life - an accessible and eye-opening exploration of our...

An exemplary collection of work from one of the world's leading scholars of intellectual history "Foeldenyi . . . stage[s] a broad metaphysical melodrama between opposites that he pursues throughout this fierce, provoking collection (expertly translated...