Philosophy Adventure

Although content in their temple high up in the mountains, Tiny Dragon realises that something feels incomplete. So it is that they decide to make a journey together, to new and distant lands. As they encounter dangers and challenges, they learn that everything they need is already inside them and that change, though sometimes scary, is possible and, with patience, can lead to better things.

At a time when we are all confronted by not one, but many crossroads in our modern lives - identity, technology, trust, politics, and a global pandemic - celebrated mythologist and wilderness guide Martin Shaw delivers Smoke Hole: three metaphors to help us understand our world, one that is assailed by the seductive promises of social media and shadowed by a health crisis that has brought loneliness and isolation to an all-time high.

What's so special about Ted? Nobody knows...and certainly not Ted! This certainly isn't what Ted pictured as far as alien abductions! Well, he's not really in a position to complain, because his new home is a space ship crewed by over six thousand gorgeous females with bodies drawn from his own memories and desires... Ted isn't going anywhere anytime soon. With his trusted allies, the gorgeous blonde Gwen and the Earth-obsessed hottie, Hayden, Ted tries to unravel the breeding program he's been embroiled in, fight the mysterious and totally desirable Council, and maybe even find a decent ...

A Thousand Small Sanities is a manifesto rooted in the lives of people who invented and extended the liberal tradition. Taking us from Montaigne to Mill, and from Middlemarch to the civil rights movement, Adam Gopnik argues that liberalism is not a form of centrism, nor simply another word for free markets, nor merely a term denoting a set of rights. It is something far more ambitious: the search for radical change by humane measures. Gopnik shows us why liberalism is one of the great moral adventures in human history.

Solon of Pergamon, healer of the great entertainment-warriors of a glittering age, turns detective when a cherished acquaintance is murdered. Torn between his growing love for a beguiling student and a dark secret that threatens imperial power, he must find a route into the human heart to uncover the truth. Classic storytelling in an unforgettable setting.

At the age of 48, film critic David Denby returned to his alma mater, Columbia University, to re-experience the core humanities courses he had taken as a freshman 30 years before. Facing the question of what he really knows, Denby re-examines the besieged Western classics, ranging from Homer, Sappho, and Sophocles to Dante, Nietzsche, and Woolf. What relevance do the writers and thinkers of the past have to our current life? The answer surprised Denby and will surprise and enlighten his listeners.

Myths are usually seen as stories from the depths of time—fun and fantastical, but no longer believed by anyone. Yet, as Philip Ball shows, we are still writing them—and still living them—today. From Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein to Batman, many stories written in the past few centuries are commonly, perhaps glibly, called "modern myths." But Ball argues that we should take that idea seriously. Our stories of Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Sherlock Holmes are doing the kind of cultural work that the ancient myths once did.

Much of the world's landmass is already known. Deep sea and outer space are beyond most people's reach. It feels like there are fewer places left to discover. Psychedelics, on the other hand, reveal worlds that remain largely obscure. Altered states offer modern, 21st-century audiences boundless opportunities to explore what a human being can experience. In this book, I show you how to become a capable discovery-maker, sample-collecting naturalist, and rational thinker of visionary phenomena.

Inside are true stories that happened to a formerly successful American starting with nothing in a new state. Most attempting Florida transplants arrive, get chewed on, and leave. Max wasn’t that smart. It’s difficult being afraid with little to lose. "Discomforts Of (Non) Conformity" then challenges commonly held beliefs about our falling-apart world. As a former nightmare boss taught Max, even a loud irritable elephant fears a modest mouse making obvious statements. Redemption In Florida surprisingly lays groundwork for Discomforts Of (Non) Conformity. The two books are woven together...

Just 150 years ago, most of our world was an unexplored wilderness. Our sense of its age was vastly off the mark. And what we believed to be the history of our own species consisted of fantastic myths and fairy tales; fossils, known for millennia, were seen as the bones of dragons and other imagined creatures. How did we learn so much so quickly? Remarkable Creatures celebrates the pioneers who replaced our fancies with the even more remarkable real story of how our world evolved.

Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, and Nobel Laureate. In The Problems of Philosophy, written in 1912, Russell attempts to create a brief and accessible guide to the problems of philosophy. Focusing on problems he believes will provoke positive and constructive discussion, Russell concentrates on knowledge rather than metaphysics.

Winner of the Bookseller Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year. Research published in the New York Times and the Huffington Post proves that talking to strangers is good for us. But how do you get people to talk to strangers? Strangers Have the Best Candy is the book that answers that question. Margaret Meps Schulte shares her own humorous, illustrated stories of chance encounters with strangers, demonstrating how such encounters lead to adventure, friendship, and serendipity. You'll meet everyday strangers, as well as larger-than-life characters like Captain Craig, the Scourge of Lake...

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.

On a rain-lashed night Matajuro Yagyu loses the duel that should have proved his worth and is banished from his father’s estate. Desperate to reclaim his honor, he sets off to find Banzo, the reclusive sword saint rumored to cut steel with silence itself. What Matajuro discovers is not the clash of blades but years of hauling water, splitting logs, and fending off his master’s sudden wooden-sword ambushes. Each bruise strips away pride, each chore hones awareness, until the young samurai’s spirit becomes keener than any forged edge. When Matajuro finally draws his katana he learns the...

The What Every Catholic Should Know series is intended for the average faithful Catholic who wants to know more about Catholic faith and culture. The authors in this series take a panoramic approach to the topic of each book aimed at a non-specialist but enthusiastic listenership. Already published titles in this series include: literature, salvation, mercy, being Catholic, God, and philosophy.

Author A.J. Jacobs discovers that his coffee - and every other item in our lives - would not be possible without hundreds of people we usually take for granted: farmers, chemists, artists, presidents, truckers, mechanics, biologists, miners, smugglers, and goatherds. By thanking these people face-to-face, Jacobs finds some much-needed brightness in his life. Gratitude does not come naturally to Jacobs, but he sets off on the journey on a dare from his son. And by the end, it’s clear to him that scientific research on gratitude is true. Gratitude’s benefits are legion.

On the eve of a wedding, what to do when the groom mysteriously disappears? When the police and private investigators come up empty, what's a desperate bride to do? Call in the man with no qualifications: Caverlock Victor Oliver -- the world's only Consulting Philosopher. Will he prove there's no mystery that can withstand the prodigious powers of Applied Philosophy? Will he succeed in reuniting sweet Victorine with her lover? Will a Taoist-quoting bookworm solve the mystery ... and will he be paid? How much do you pay a Consulting Philosopher, anyway? The answers to these questions (and ...

Martha Barnette has spent two decades as the co-host of A Way with Words, lauded by Mary Norris in The New Yorker as “a virtual treasure house” and “‘Car Talk’ for Lexiphiles.” Over that time, she’s developed a keen sense of what fascinates people about language. They are curious about etymology and revel in slang, are surprised by regional vocabulary and celebrate linguistic diversity. Idioms both puzzle and delight word lovers, and they are eager to share family neologisms and that weird phrase Grandma always used to say.

Two experienced educators offer an up-to-date introduction to philosophy from a Christian perspective that covers the four major areas of philosophical thought: epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of religion, and ethics. Written from an analytic perspective, the book introduces key concepts and issues within the main areas of philosophical inquiry in a comprehensive yet accessible way, inviting listeners on a quest for goodness, truth, and beauty that ultimately points to Jesus as the source of all.

Deeply grieving, Oscar feels his life slipping out of his control. A seemingly innocuous one-night stand with a woman named Dawn becomes volatile when, on the first day of classes, he realizes she is his student and later learns that she is a fledgling campus drug lord. To make matters worse, his family is in debt, having lost their modest savings to a self-help guru who had indoctrinated Oscar's mother by preying on her depression. Desperate to help his family, Oscar breaks with his academic personality - he agrees to help Dawn with a drug run.