Permanent Crisis
Reitter, Paul & Chad Wellmon, Permanent Crisis: This work argues that the narrative that the humanities are in crisis is not new. This complaint …
Outlines of Pyrrhonism
Sextus Empiricus, Outlines of Pyrrhonism: Plato defined philosophy as the love of wisdom. Philosophers ever since have quested for the Truth. Sextus Empiricus suggests …
Symposium
Plato, Symposium: This is one of Plato’s literary masterpieces, along with the Republic. It contains several speeches on the nature of love given by …
Bhagavad Gita
Bhagavad Gita: The Bhagavad Gita begins with a moral dilemma: should Arjuna the great warrior, fight a fratricidal war and kill members of his extended …
From Darwin to Derrida
David Haig, From Darwin to Derrida: From Darwin to Derrida (2020) is a roller-coaster ride for intrepid thinkers. Dawkins (1976) introduced the endlessly productive …
Letters and Maxims of Epicurus
Epicurus, Letters and Maxims: The ancient world’s self-proclaimed autodidact, Epicurus was revered by his followers and reviled by his critics. He founded a community …
Gender Trouble
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: In this landmark of third-wave feminism, Judith Butler advances a novel conception of gender identity. Against the prevailing tradition that …
Blue Book, The
Ludwig Wittgenstein, The Blue Book: This small volume conveys a vibrant sense of the life of philosophy. With intellectual honesty reminiscent of Augustine’s Confessions, we …
Upanishads
Upanishads: A repository of some of humanity’s earliest philosophical explorations – including an appearance by the first documented female philosopher, Gargi. Through dialogues, stories, …
Tragic Sense of Life
Miguel de Unamuno, Tragic Sense of Life: We humans are creatures of thought, but also of ‘flesh and bone.’ That reason and feeling are …
Enemies of Hope
Raymond Tallis, Enemies of Hope: A Critique of Contemporary Pessimism: A long book you won’t want to end, which is sometimes funny, often passionate, …
Thinking to Some Purpose
L. S. Stebbing, Thinking to Some Purpose: Susan Stebbing (1885-1943) is a significant but often overlooked figure in twentieth-century philosophy. In 1939, just under …
Death and the Afterlife
Samuel Scheffler, Death and the Afterlife: If you discovered the human race were going to be annihilated soon after you died, how would you …
Émile
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Émile: Despite misanthropic tendencies and profound failure as a father, Rousseau deigns to offer advice on educating a child disconnected from peers …
Phaedo
Plato, The Phaedo: Plato’s Phaedo is about the meaning of life and death. Socrates is about to be executed and his friends challenge his …
Apology of Socrates
Plato, Apology of Socrates: Socrates subjected his fellow Athenians to prolonged interrogation, bringing home to them how little they knew about what really matters, …
Pensées
Blaise Pascal, Pensés: The Pensés are an enduring testament to the powers and limitations of human expression. Pascal wrote about our self-love, the grandeur …
Word Child, A
Iris Murdoch, A Word Child: A Word Child is first and foremost a work of fiction, and a very finely crafted one at that. …
Idea of Africa, The
V. Y. Mudimbe, The Idea of Africa: The Idea of Africa traces notions of Africanity within a variety of historical archives and using a …
Mencius, The
Mencius, The Mencius: Dr. Anthony Fauci’s face palm behind a president railing against the ‘Deep State Department’ illustrates an age-old problem: what to do …
On the Nature of Things
Lucretius, On the Nature of Things: This great Latin poem, a guided tour of the infinite, reveals a universe of atoms and void, gloriously …
Sickness Unto Death
Søren Kierkegaard, Sickness Unto Death: ‘Sickness unto Death’ isn’t an encouraging title in pandemic times, but Kierkegaard claims that the only thing we need …
Objectivity and Diversity
Sandra Harding, Objectivity and Diversity: Can anything intelligible come from the whirlwind of pandemic evidence and punditry currently bombarding us? Yes, answers Harding, who …
Paradox of Cruelty, The
Philip P. Hallie, The Paradox of Cruelty: Understood as ‘the infliction of ruin, whatever the motives,’ cruelty upon humans subdivides into fatal cruelties, which …
Epistemic Injustice
Miranda Fricker, Epistemic Injustice: One thing we’ve learned from this pandemic: those in power often ignore those in the know. Historically marginalized people will …
Manual, The (Enchiridion)
Epictetus, The Manual (Enchiridion): ‘What is the path to happiness?’ This is surely the most important philosophical question, and no one has answered it …
Origin of Species, The
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species: Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859), in which he argues for the evolution of organisms by virtue of …
Analects, The
Confucius, The Analects: In China today, one may find statues of Confucius or Kongzi (551-479 B.C.E) depicting him as the ‘model teacher for 10,000 …
Ash Wednesday Supper, The
Giordano Bruno, The Ash Wednesday Supper: Bruno’s dialogue defends the new Copernican astronomy, but also presents our world as a mere speck in an …
Inward Morning, The
Henry Bugbee, The Inward Morning: A philosophical journal that presents the task of thinking above all as giving expression to what presents itself to …
Consolation of Philosophy, The
Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy: In 523 CE Boethius lived his final year in detention under suspicion of plotting against Ostrogothic King Theodoric, conqueror …
Ethics of Ambiguity, The
Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity: De Beauvoir explores the implications of a central political tension: as existential agents, we each freely set …
Human Condition, The
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition: The human condition, for Arendt, is defined not by the universality of death but the uniqueness of each birth, …
Visible Identities
Linda Martín Alcoff, Visible Identities: Race, Gender and the Self: The book takes heed of Western philosophy’s ocularcentrism and argues that race and gender …