Social Philosophy

In Yoga and the Pursuit of Happiness, you'll discover that lasting happiness is already at your fingertips - in the small, everyday moments inherently infused with purpose and meaning. The philosophy of yoga - rather than the poses and postures - boils down to one fundamental process: overcoming suffering by coming to know ourselves and aligning our actions with our own intrinsic sense of spiritual purpose. And yoga gives us the tools to address two basic existential questions: Who am I? What should I do?

Love is most often associated with happiness, satisfaction, and pleasure. But it has a darker side we ignore at our peril. Love is often an uncomfortable and difficult feeling. The people we love can let us down badly. Since we are inevitably disappointed by love, wouldn't we be better off without it? No, says Carrie Jenkins. Instead, we need a new philosophy of love, one that recognizes that the pain and suffering love causes are a natural, even a good part of what makes love worthwhile. It's time we liberated love.

One World Now seamlessly integrates major developments of the past decade into Peter Singer's classic text on the ethics of globalization, One World. Singer, often described as the world's most influential philosopher, here addresses such essential concerns as climate change, economic globalization, foreign aid, human rights, immigration, and the responsibility to protect people from genocide and crimes against humanity, whatever country they may be in. Every issue is considered from an ethical perspective.

We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don’t know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check—because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts.

As a traditional psychotherapist, Dr. Brian Weiss was astonished and skeptical when one of his patients began recalling past-life traumas that seemed to hold the key to her recurring nightmares and anxiety attacks. His skepticism was eroded, however, when she began to channel messages from the “space between lives”, which contained remarkable revelations about Dr. Weiss’ family and his dead son. Using past-life therapy, he was able to cure the patient and embark on a new, more meaningful phase of his own career.

The book draws its inspiration from stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience. Stoics focus on the things they can control, let go of everything else, and turn every new obstacle into an opportunity to get better, stronger, tougher. As Marcus Aurelius put it nearly 2000 years ago: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”

As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.”

When The Universe Next Door was first introduced nearly 30 years ago, it set the standard for a clear, readable introduction to worldviews. In concise, easily understood prose, James W. Sire explained the basics of theism, deism, naturalism, nihilism, existentialism, Eastern monism, and the new consciousness.

Philosophy experienced its origins at the time of ancient Greece with its well-known representatives Plato and Socrates, to name just two examples. One can translate philosophy as the striving for knowledge about the meaning of life, the essence of the world, and the position of man in the world. It describes the teaching and science of the knowledge of the meaning of life and of the world and of man's position in the world.

Called "the sleeper hit of the publishing season" by The Boston Globe, Shop Class as Soulcraft became an instant best seller, attracting fans with its radical (and timely) reappraisal of the merits of skilled manual labor. On both economic and psychological grounds, author Matthew B. Crawford questions the educational imperative of turning everyone into a "knowledge worker," based on a misguided separation of thinking from doing.

Modern humans have come a long way in the 70,000 years they’ve walked the earth. Art, science, culture, trade - on the evolutionary food chain, we’re true winners. But it hasn’t always been smooth sailing, and sometimes - just occasionally - we’ve managed to truly f--k things up.

A thrilling exploration of how Carl Jung found the equation for realizing the divine through personal consciousness. In 1951, Carl Jung published what he considered the highest synthesis and exposition of the transformation of Self and the discovery of the divine in one of his latest and most difficult works, Aion. The equation’s complexity and uncharacteristic elements of mysticism have caused it to fall by the wayside in traditional Jungian and psychological analysis. No major work has tackled this fascinating concept until now.

Living each day fully and serenely is the ideal we aspire to, without really believing in it. Reaching our goals can seem impossible, and even pursuing them feels challenging. The personal development advice and methods we have tried repeatedly haven’t proven convincing, to the point where leading a harmonious, meaningful, and fulfilled life may feel like an unreachable utopia.

While social and emotional learning (SEL) is most familiar as compartmentalized programs separate from academics, the truth is, all learning is social and emotional. What teachers say, the values we express, the materials and activities we choose, and the skills we prioritize all influence how students think, see themselves, and interact with content and with others.

According to Maurice Doreal, the history of the tablets, translated in the following book, is strange and beyond the belief of modern scientists. Their antiquity is stupendous, dating back some 36,000 years.

It’s a belief that unites the left and right, psychologists and philosophers, writers and historians. It drives the headlines that surround us and the laws that touch our lives. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Dawkins, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we’re taught, are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest.

Treasured by Buddhists of all traditions, The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara) is a guide to cultivating the mind of enlightenment and to generating the qualities of love, compassion, generosity, and patience. This text has been studied, practiced, and expounded upon in an unbroken tradition for centuries, first in India, and later in Tibet. Presented in the form of a personal meditation in verse, it outlines the path of the Bodhisattvas - those who renounce the peace of individual enlightenment and vow to work for the liberation of all beings.

Nada es posible sin la virtud del coraje. Desde los antiguos espartanos hasta el Movimiento por los derechos civiles; desde científicos pioneros hasta empresarios innovadores; desde Charles de Gaulle hasta Florence Nightingale, los grandes líderes han pasado a la historia por los riesgos que se atrevieron a asumir. Sin embargo, hoy somos muchos los que nos vemos paralizados por el miedo.

Almost every religion, spiritual practice, philosophy and person grapples with fear. The most repeated phrase in the Bible is “Be not afraid.” The ancient Greeks spoke of phobos, panic and terror. It is natural to feel fear, the Stoics believed, but it cannot rule you. Courage, then, is the ability to rise above fear, to do what’s right, to do what’s needed, to do what is true. And so it rests at the heart of the works of Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle, and CS Lewis, alongside temperance, justice, and wisdom.

"The Secret of Light" by Walter Russell is a profound exploration of the nature of light and its pivotal role in the universe. Russell, a visionary artist and philosopher, presents a comprehensive treatise on the spiritual and scientific significance of light, positing it as the fundamental force behind all creation.