Showing titles in Philosophers

Wer Friedrich Engels kennenlernen will, entdeckt weit mehr als den Schattenmann neben Karl Marx. Wie konnte ein Sohn aus wohlhabendem Textilhaus zum Mitbegründer des Marxismus werden, Geldgeber und Lebemann, und dabei eine Analyse der Arbeiterklasse liefern, die bis heute Debatten über Ausbeutung und gesellschaftliche Veränderung prägt? Der Autor und Herausgeber Bert Alexander Petzold nimmt Sie mit auf eine faktenreiche Wissensreise und vermittelt verständlich und klar strukturiert Erkenntnisse zu Engels Leben, Ideen und Wirkung.

Was bedeutet Freiheit, wenn sie nicht nur gedacht, sondern gelebt werden muss, gegen Konventionen, gegen Erwartungsdruck, gegen die bequemen Rollenbilder einer ganzen Epoche? Dieses Hörbuch öffnet Ihnen den Zugang zu Simone de Beauvoir, Existenzialistin, Feministin und Generationenvorbild, und zeigt, warum ihre Stimme bis heute so kraftvoll ist, weil sie Denken und Leben untrennbar machte. Mit dem 1949 veröffentlichten Werk „Das andere Geschlecht" wurde sie zur Wegbereiterin feministischer Literatur und löste Debatten aus, die bis heute nachhallen.

Wer die Mechanismen totaler Herrschaftssysteme verstehen will, kommt an Hannah Arendt nicht vorbei. Dieses Hörbuch nimmt Sie mit auf eine faktenreiche Bildungsreise und vermittelt klar strukturiert Basiswissen über eine Publizistin gegen den Antisemitismus, deren Analysen Orientierung geben. Sie lernen, wie Arendt politische Begriffe entwirrte, wie sie Herrschaft als Prozess beschrieb und warum ihre Texte nicht beruhigen wollen, sondern wach machen.

Was macht Jean-Paul Sartre zu einem Denker, der bis heute provoziert und befreit und warum wirkt sein Existenzialismus noch immer wie ein Weckruf an das eigene Leben? Der Autor und Herausgeber Bert Alexander Petzold nimmt Sie mit auf eine faktenreiche Kulturreise und erläutert verständlich, unterhaltsam und klar strukturiert das Basiswissen zum großen Existenzialisten Jean-Paul Sartre. Sie gewinnen einen roten Faden, der Leben, Ideen und Zeitgeschichte zusammenführt, und erhalten Begriffe, mit denen Sie Texte deuten und in Diskussionen präzise argumentieren können.

'The book we needed - about the man we need.' - Arun Shourie, Economist, journalist, author and politician, winner of the, Ramon Magsaysay Award 'This is a stunning book ... Avik Chanda makes Dara Shukoh, the man, come alive and, in an engaging way, makes history come alive too.' - Bibek Debroy...

According to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), philosophy is a “battle against the bewitchment of our intelligence by means of language.” This audacious idea changed the way many of its practitioners saw their subject. In the first biography of Wittgenstein in more than three decades, Anthony Gottlieb evaluates this revolutionary idea, explaining the evolution of Wittgenstein’s thought and his place in the history of philosophy.

With his well known idiosyncrasies and aphoristic style, Friedrich Nietzsche is always bracing and provocative, and temptingly easy to dip into. Michael Tanner's introduction to the philosopher's life and work examines the numerous ambiguities inherent in his writings and explodes many of the misconceptions that have grown in the hundred years since Nietzsche wrote "do not, above all, confound me with what I am not!" 

At Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau reflected on simpler living in the natural world. By removing himself from the distractions of materialism, Thoreau hoped to not only improve his spiritual life but also gain a better understanding of society through solitary introspection. In Walden, Thoreau condenses his two-year, two-month, two-day stay into a single year, using the four seasons to symbolize human development - a cycle of life shared by both nature and man. A celebration of personal renewal through self-reliance, independence, and simplicity....

Karl Marx (1818-1883) - philosopher, historian, sociologist, economist, current affairs journalist, and editor - was one of the most influential and revolutionary thinkers of modern history, but he is rarely thought of as a Jewish thinker, and his Jewish background is either overlooked or misrepresented. Avineri puts Marx's Jewish background in its proper and balanced perspective, and traces Marx's intellectual development in light of the historical, intellectual, and political contexts in which he lived. 

Ecce homo, "behold the man", are the words Friedrich Nietzsche chose as the title for his literary self-portrait. A main purpose of the book was to offer Nietzsche's own perspective on his work as a philosopher and human being. Ecce Homo also forcefully repudiates those interpretations of his previous works purporting to find support there for imperialism, anti-Semitism, militarism, and Social Darwinism.

In Becoming a Philosopher Jonathan Rée describes the extraordinary lives of some of most influential thinkers of the past four hundred years and the radical and sometimes bizarre ideas that emerged from them. This collection of ten biographical pieces, originally published as book reviews in the London Review of Books, begins with Spinoza, the excommunicated lens grinder who sought as little attention as possible for his anonymously published work; and ends with Sartre, the most public of public intellectuals whose funeral was marked by thousands on the streets of Paris.

This novel biography brings Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE) to life for a new generation by exploring the emperor’s fascinating psychological journey. Donald J. Robertson examines Marcus’s relationships with key figures in his life, such as his mother, Domitia Lucilla, and the emperor Hadrian, as well as his Stoic tutors. He draws extensively on Marcus’s own Meditations and correspondence, and he examines the emperor’s actions as detailed in the Augustan History and other ancient texts.

This anthology is a miscellany of maxims and anecdotes that generations of Western readers have consulted for edification as well as entertainment ever since Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, first compiled in the AD third century, came to prominence in Renaissance Italy. To this day, it remains a crucial source for much of what we know about the origins and practice of philosophy in ancient Greece.

Mill's autobiography deals primarily with the life of the mind - but it is a mind which ranks as one of the most remarkable and significant of the nineteenth century. The book memorably depicts the emergence of a brilliant child prodigy, the product of an extraordinary education which both hastened his development and brought him to the brink of suicide by the age of 21.

Can we make ourselves into better human beings? Can we help others do the same? And can we get the leaders of our society to care that humanity prospers, not just economically, but also spiritually? These questions have been asked for over two millennia and attempting to answer them is crucial if we want to live a better life and build a more just society. How to Be Good uses the story of Socrates and Alcibiades and examples from Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius and Machiavelli, alongside modern interpretations to explore what philosophy can teach us about the quest for virtue today.

" Le 19 avril 1980, une foule immense, silencieuse, accompagne le convoi funèbre de Sartre jusqu’au cimetière du Montparnasse, à Paris. Derrière Simone de Beauvoir, en tête de cortège, plus de cin-quante mille personnes sont venues rendre un dernier hommage au penseur français le plus célèbre au monde. Comment expliquer sa notoriété, comment mesurer aujourd’hui l’impact de la pensée et de l’écriture de Sartre dans la société actuelle ?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER An “outstanding new intellectual biography of John Maynard Keynes [that moves] swiftly along currents of lucidity and wit” (The New York Times), illuminating the world of the influential economist and his transformative ideas “A timely, lucid and compelling...

In a series of poignant vignettes, a preeminent historian makes a compelling case for Machiavelli as an unjustly maligned figure with valuable political insights that resonate as strongly today as they did in his time.

Nearly a hundred years after its publication, Kurt Gödel's famous proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true - yet never provable - continues to unsettle mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. Yet unlike Einstein, with whom he formed a warm and abiding friendship, Gödel has long escaped all but the most casual scrutiny of his life. 

Transcendence for Beginners examines life writing and philosophy across certain European and Indian traditions, exploring questions of childhood and mortality, art and religion, beauty and loss. Informed by her experience as a biographer of Søren Kierkegaard and George Eliot as well as her own life, Clare Carlisle asks what one human existence can reveal, and how writing can transmit its truth.