Philosopher Biography

A dazzlingly original account of the life and thought of Adam Smith, the greatest economist of all time. In Adam Smith, political philosopher Jesse Norman dispels the myths and caricatures, and provides a far more complex portrait of the man. Offering a highly engaging account of Smith's life and times, Norman explores his work as a whole and traces his influence over two centuries to the present day. Finally, he shows how a proper understanding of Smith can help us address the problems of modern capitalism.

Author Jeremy Gray provides a comprehensive and intellectually stimulating introduction to Bernhard Riemann’s life and paradigm-defining work. Beginning with his early influences - in particular, his relationship with his renowned predecessor Carl Friedrich Gauss - Gray goes on to explore Riemann’s specific contributions to geometry, functions of a complex variable, prime numbers, and functions of a real variable, which opened the way to discovering the limits of the calculus.

What does it take to see the truth? For us to save ourselves, even if it sets fire to everything we’ve ever known. To become brave enough, sick enough, and tired enough to let go. To stop fighting the battles that were never even ours to fight. To hand back responsibility for the lives we’ve been saving at the expense of our own. To let go and begin to heal. To love what we never thought possible, and become the person our childhood selves knew us to be all along.

At the age of eight, Karl Popper was puzzling over the idea of infinity and by fifteen was beginning to take a keen interest in his father's well-stocked library of books. Unended Quest recounts these moments and many others in the life of one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, providing an indispensable account of the ideas that influenced him most. As an introduction to Popper's philosophy, Unended Quest also shines. Popper lucidly explains the central ideas in his work, making this book ideal for anyone coming to Popper's life and work for the first time.

Para la construcción de esta obra, Sacristán, posiblemente el más destacado intelectual español de izquierdas de la segunda mitad del siglo XX, sigue dos reglas: primera, no separar completamente los textos "personales" de Gramsci de los textos públicos, sino considerar que la cronología es más fuerte razón de homogeneidad que el género literario; y segunda, acentuar la temática en la que se realiza la unidad de la "obra", que no es otra que la literatura política.

For centuries, Augustine's writings have moved and fascinated readers. With the keen eye of a writer whose own intellectual analysis won him a Pulitzer Prize, Gary Wills examines this famed fourth-century bishop and seminal thinker whose grounding in classical philosophy informed his interpretation of Christian doctrine. Saint Augustine explores Augustine's thought as well as the everyday man who set pen to parchment. It challenges many misconceptions.

This is an ideal introduction to the ideas of a man whom many regard as the greatest thinker of our time. Here we encounter the stages in the development of his unique philosophy of consciousness, his key intellectual breakthroughs, his theory of history, and his diagnosis of the political ills of the modern age. The book provides a veritable catalog of the thinkers who created the intellectual foundation of the twentieth century.

In the spring of 1940, the aspiring but unknown writer Albert Camus and budding scientist Jacques Monod were quietly pursuing ordinary, separate lives in Paris. After the German invasion and occupation of France, each joined the Resistance to help liberate the country from the Nazis and ascended to prominent, dangerous roles. After the war and through twists of circumstance, they became friends, and through their passionate determination and rare talent they emerged as leading voices of modern literature and biology, each receiving the Nobel Prize in their respective fields.

عاش المفكر الكبير عبد الرحمن الكواكبي في النصف الثاني من القرن التاسع عشر، وهي الفترة التي عانت فيها الأمة العربية الكثير من الضعف والذل، إذ أراد المستعمر الاستيلاء على أراضيها واستنزاف ثرواتها.

Inayat's Song is the story of a young man who struggled with the great questions of existence. Who is God? And who am I? And what is our relationship? Inayat Khan's first-person narrative is read by award-winning actor Tom Alter. Inayat Khan was a gold medal-winning musician, a child prodigy from a musical family, including the renowned musician and music educator, Maulbakhsh Shole Khan. Along with his music education, he showed an aptitude for mystical training and was taken as a pupil of Sufi Master Abu Hashim Madani of Hyderabad.

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.

This audiobook introduces the key ideas, themes, and working methods of each featured individual, setting their ideas within a wider historical and cultural context. Charting the development of ideas across the centuries in both the East and West, from ancient Chinese philosophy to the work of contemporary thinkers, Philosophers provides a compelling glimpse into the personal lives, loves, and influences of the great philosophers as they probed into life's "big ideas".

Diogenes Laërtius was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. His work Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is a principal source for the history of ancient Greek philosophy. Book I includes, among others, Thales, Solon, Chilon of Sparta, Pittacus of Mytilene, and Epimenides.

"The Story of Philosophy: Spinoza" by Will Durant provides an engaging and comprehensive exploration of the life and philosophy of Baruch Spinoza, one of the most influential thinkers of the 17th century. Durant delves into Spinoza's biography, detailing his upbringing in a Portuguese Jewish family in the Netherlands, his excommunication from the Jewish community of Amsterdam due to his radical ideas, and his life of modesty and philosophical inquiry as a lens grinder.

This audiobook introduces the key ideas, themes and working methods of each featured individual, setting their ideas within a wider historical and cultural context. Charting the development of ideas across the centuries in both the East and West, from ancient Chinese philosophy to the work of contemporary thinkers, Philosophers provides a compelling glimpse into the personal lives, loves and influences of the great philosophers as they probed into life's 'big ideas'.

This is an essay on the unique teaching of J. Krishnamurti. It starts with the question "What is consciousness?" - and carefully proposes a holistic definition, after reviewing the various psychological and spiritual theories that deal with this subject. The author actually goes a step ahead and focuses on a more particular issue, a provocative question asked by K: “How to empty consciousness of its content?”

Walter Payton approached us. A restaurant project he had been eyeing; thought we might like to be his partners in this endeavor. We were extremely flattered. We were confident, but this was Walter Payton. Walter Payton was arguably the greatest athlete to ever play college and professional football. Yet, the thought of working with him in a business environment was a cause for some concern.

Baron Giulio Cesare Andrea Evola, known to the English-speaking world as Julius Evola (1898-1974), was an Italian philosopher, magician, painter, occultist, Orientalist, linguist, and champion mountain climber. Often considered a pillar of Neo-Fascist thought, Evola opposed Fascism and called himself a “radical traditionalist”.

In this biography of Maimonides, the medieval philosopher, physician, and religious thinker, Alberto Manguel examines the question of his universal appeal. Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonides (1138–1204), was born in Córdoba, Spain. The gifted son of a judge and mathematician, Maimonides fled Córdoba with his family when he was thirteen due to Almohad persecution of all non-Islamic faiths. Forced into a long exile, the family spent a decade in Spain before settling in Morocco. From there, Maimonides traveled to Palestine and Egypt, where he died at Saladin’s court.

No one has commanded more universal comment and attention than the mystic who was known by the name of the Comte de St. Germain. A hero of romance, a charlatan, a swindler, and an adventurer; rich and varied were the names that showered freely upon him. Hated by the many, loved and reverenced by the few, time has not yet lifted the veil that screened his true mission from the vulgar speculators of the period. Then, as now, the occultist was dubbed charlatan by the ignorant; only some men and women here and there realized the power with which he stood possessed.