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'Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.' Immanuel KantIsaiah Berlin was one of the most important philosophers of the twentieth century - an activist of the intellect who marshalled vast erudition and eloquence in defence...

In this poignant and personal tribute, Roger Scruton gives an account of England which is both an illuminating analysis of its institutions and culture, and a celebration of its virtues. Covering all aspects of the English inheritance, and informed by...

The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity: Twelve Lectures. Introduction by Thomas McCarthy, translated by Frederick Lawrence.About the AuthorJurgen Habermas is a German philosopher and sociologist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is...

Someone fails to shake your outstretched hand, puts you down in front of others, or makes a joke in poor taste. Should we take offence? Wouldn't it be better if we didn't? In the face of popular criticism of people taking offence too easily, and the...

THE NUMBER ONE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERFrom one of our greatest voices in modern philosophy, author of The Course of Love, The Consolations of Philosophy and The School of Life, The Architecture of Happiness explores the fascinating hidden links between...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780262533379Author Byung-Chul HanFormat PaperbackPage Count 88Imprint MIT PressPublisher MIT Press LtdDimensions(mm) 178mm * 114mm * 6mm

Neutrality has, supposedly, long been a pillar of the Irish national identity. But examining the concept reveals it to be a vague, flimsy and elastic notion that, throughout history, various governments have been happy to stretch or, in some cases,...

To Have Or to Be? is one of the seminal books of the second half of the 20th century. Nothing less than a manifesto for a new social and psychological revolution to save our threatened planet, this book is a summary of the penetrating thought of Eric...

MCKINSEY TOP 5 RECOMMENDED READ 'An underground hit' - Best Politics Books, Financial Times 'Jon has one of the few big ideas that's easily applied' - Sam Conniff, Be More Pirate 'A wonderful guide to how to be human in the 21st Century' - Ece...

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 - Alain de Botton sets out to understand our universal...

Byung-Chul Han, a star of German philosophy, continues his passionate critique of neoliberalism, trenchantly describing a regime of technological domination that, in contrast to Foucault's biopower, has discovered the productive force of the psyche. In...

The Phenomenological Mind, Third Edition introduces fundamental questions about the mind from the perspective of phenomenology. One of the outstanding books in the field, now translated into eight languages, this highly regarded exploration of...

Philosophy of Economics: A Contemporary Introduction is the first systematic textbook in the philosophy of economics. It introduces the epistemological, metaphysical and ethical problems that arise in economics, and presents detailed discussions of the...

A new selection of foundational works from the influential philosopher who developed the theory of mimetic desireWhy do humans have such a remarkable capacity for conflict? From ancient foundational myths to the modern era, the visionary thinker Rene...

A philosopher, essayist, novelist, pornographer and fervent Catholic who came to regard the brothels of Paris as his true 'churches', Georges Bataille ranks among the boldest and most disturbing of twentieth-century thinkers. In this influential study he...

Our society worships at the fountain of youth. Each year, we try to delay the arrival of old age, using everything at our disposal, from extreme exercise and botox to pilates and cosmetic dentistry. But in the process, are we missing out on a distinct...

The Courage of the Truth is the last course that Michel Foucault delivered at the College de France before his death in 1984. In this course, he continues the theme of the previous year's lectures in exploring the notion of "truth-telling" in politics to...

Critical theory emerged in the 1920s from the work of the Frankfurt School, the circle of German-Jewish academics who sought to diagnose -- and, if at all possible, cure -- the ills of society, particularly fascism and capitalism. In this book, Stephen...

Have you ever found yourself alone with your thoughts? Have you ever been asked if the glass is half full or half empty? Do you wonder what true happiness is or how to attain it? Or maybe nothing really matters if everything is just an illusion or a...

A sense of belonging - being liked, understood, accepted for who we are - is vital for our mental health. Whether it is fitting in at school, struggling to connect with colleagues in a new job, or just feeling out of place in our own family, we all, at...

What kind of life would be truly worth wanting? What kind of world would be truly worth seeking? How should we live?We are facing a crisis of meaning. Swept up in the obstacles of the day-to-day, the deeper questions of our fundamental purpose linger...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.AwardsShort-listed for Los Angeles Times Book Prize 2022.Book InformationISBN 9780525562719Author Meghan O'GieblynFormat PaperbackPage Count 304Imprint Anchor BooksPublisher...

'The capacity to affect and to be affected'. This simple definition opens a world of questions - by indicating an openness to the world. To affect and to be affected is to be in encounter, and to be in encounter is to have already ventured forth...

Many people think Marx a totalitarian and Soviet Marxism the predictable outcome of his thought. If one shows them the texts-proves to them that Marx was a radical democrat--they often flip and think him utopian. Totalitarian or utopian--for many those...

What can freedom really mean?'One of the most electrifying writers at work in America today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation' OLIVIA LAINGIn this invigorating, essential book, Maggie Nelson explores how we might think,...

Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer are the leading figures of the Frankfurt School and this book is their magnum opus. Dialectic of Enlightenment is one of the most celebrated works of modern social philosophy that continues to impress in its wide-ranging...

'A thinker on fire' - Robin D. G. Kelley Identity politics is everywhere, polarising discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom and amplifying antagonisms in the media. But the compulsively referenced phrase bears little resemblance to the...

In a divided world, empathy is not the solution, it is the problem. We think of empathy - the ability to feel the suffering of others for ourselves - as the ultimate source of all good behaviour. But while it inspires care and protection in personal...

'If in this book harsh words are spoken about some of the greatest among the intellectual leaders of mankind, my motive is not, I hope, to belittle them. It springs rather from my conviction that, if our civilization is to survive, we must break with...

Human dignity: social movements invoke it, several national constitutions enshrine it, and it features prominently in international human rights documents. But what is it, why is it important, and what is its relationship to human rights and social...

How do things change? The question is critical to the historical study of any era but it is also a profoundly important issue today as western democracies find the fundamental tenets of their implicit social contract facing extreme challenges from forces...

Roger Scruton's How to be a Conservative presents the case for modern conservatism not in the terms of an elegy but rather as a practical example of how to live as a conservative despite the pressures to live otherwise. As he writes, the book 'is not...

Liberty is a revised and expanded edition of the book that Isaiah Berlin regarded as his most important - Four Essays on Liberty, a standard text of liberalism, constantly in demand and constantly discussed since it was first published in 1969. Writing...

Charles Handy is one of the giants of contemporary thought. His books on management - including Understanding Organizations and Gods of Management - have changed the way we view business. His work on broader issues and trends - such as Beyond Certainty...

Timeless wisdom about how to be healthy in body and mind from one of the greatest physicians of the ancient worldThe second-century Greek physician Galen-the most famous doctor in antiquity after Hippocrates-is a central figure in Western medicine. A...

Bakhtin and Voloshinov argued that dialogue is the intersubjective basis of consciousness, and of the creativity which makes historical changes in consciousness possible. The multiple dialogical relationships give every subject, who has developed through...

The Orientalism debate, inspired by the work of Edward Said, has been a major source of cross-disciplinary controversy in recent years. John MacKenzie offers a comprehensive re-evaluation of this vast literature of Orientalism and brings to the subject...

A fresh translation of The New Science, with detailed footnotes that will help both the scholar and the new reader navigate Vico's masterpieceThe New Science is the major work of Italian philosopher Giambattista Vico. First published in 1725 and revised...

The Rise of the Radical Right in the Global South is the first academic study-adopting an interdisciplinary and international perspective-to offer a comprehensive and groundbreaking framework for understanding the emergence and consolidation of different...

In 'Combining', Nora Bateson invites us into an ecology of communication where nothing stands alone, and every action sets off a chain of incalculable consequences. She challenges conventional fixes for our problems, highlighting the need to tackle...