Showing results for "Introduction to Philosophy" in Religion & Spirituality

In 2008, celebrating the long-awaited completion of the English-language translation of The Great Treatise, the Dalai Lama gave a historic six-day teaching at Lehigh University to explain the meaning of this classic text and to underscore its importance. It is the longest teaching that he has ever given to Westerners on just one text, and Westerners have never before had the opportunity to receive such a complete teaching that encompasses the totality of the Buddhist path from the Dalai Lama.

What is tantra? Who is qualified to practice it? How should it be practiced? What are the results? According to Buddhism, every human being has the potential to achieve profound and lasting happiness. And according to the tantric teachings of Buddhism, this remarkable transformation can be realized very quickly if we utilize all aspects of our human energy - especially the energy of our desires.

This course aims to help the student examine fundamental questions on the nature of the universe and human participation in it. Particular stress is placed on the answers offered by great thinkers through the ages. These answers are evaluated rationally, and in the light of Biblical revelation, in order to understand the principles of a Biblical worldview in comparison and contrast with other world views. This course will help you learn to articulate a reasoned defense of the philosophical foundations of a Biblical worldview.

This lucid overview of the Buddhist path takes the perspective of the three "vehicles" of Tibetan Buddhism: the Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. While these vehicles are usually presented as a historical development, they are here equated with the attitudes that individuals bring to their Buddhist practice. Basic to them all, however, is the need to understand our own immediate condition. The primary tool for achieving this is meditation, and The Essence of Buddhism serves as a handbook for the various meditative approaches of Buddhist practice.

"The unexamined life is not worth living," according to Socrates, but pursuing the examined life strikes many as daunting, unappealing and even unnecessary. Is philosophy important? Why do I need philosophy if I have the Bible? Aren't philosophers simply engaged in meaningless disputes that are irrelevant to everyday life? Mark Foreman addresses these and other questions in this "prelude" to the subject. Unlike a full introduction to philosophy, this book is a preliminary discussion that dispels misunderstandings and explains the rationale for engaging in philosophical reasoning.

From Aristotle to Wittgenstein and Zizek, 50 Philosophy Classics provides a lively entry point to the field of philosophy. Analyses of key works by Descartes, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Heidegger, and Nietzsche also show how philosophy helped shape the thinking and events of the last 150 years.

What does it mean to know something? Can we have confidence in our knowledge? Epistemology, the study of knowledge, can often seem like a daunting subject. And yet few topics are more basic to human life. We are inquisitive creatures by nature, and the unending quest for truth leads us to raise difficult questions about the quest itself. What are the conditions, sources, and limits of our knowledge? Do our beliefs need to be rationally justified? Can we have certainty? In this primer on epistemology, James Dew and Mark Foreman guide readers through this discipline in philosophy.

In this very short introduction, Tim Bayne introduces the field of philosophy of religion and engages with some of the most burning questions philosophers discuss.

This is the course listening for Aquinas 101 - Course 2: Introduction to Thomistic Philosophy--the second of six courses that together make up the Aquinas 101 Course. Each podcast episode accompanies a course video and course reading. If you haven't enrolled already to receive semiweekly emails with all the materials, be sure to do so at http://www.aquinas101.com. Because it matters what you think!

A Buddhist life is lived with peace, joy and contentment: each day can be a step along the path to true enlightenment. To live by these values every day takes patience, skill and knowledge, but it is hugely rewarding. This book can show you how to begin to do so – in just 20 minutes...