A Brief Guide To Ideas

A popular introduction to the history of Western religion and philosophy, this volume contains information on all familiar names in the fields as well as more obscure contributors to the broad scope of intellectual pursuit.

Coves the major faiths including alternative movements, neo-paganism, and New Age, offering a comprehensive introduction to each that covers contemporary issues regarding God and the supernatural. Original.

Big ideas sometimes come from the strangest places. In this wide ranging introduction, James M Russell takes the fear out of philosophy and selects seventy-six works - from Plato, Descartes and Wittgenstein to Philip K Dick and the Moomins as well as contemporary thinkers such as Peter Singer and John Rawls. Dividing into accessible sections - history, contemplation, happiness, and -isms, Russell gives us the lives as well as the lessons of the great thinkers, including a digest of their key ideas. A perfect antidote to the complex life. The topics and books covered include: Traditional Philosophy: The Republic, Plato; The Confessions, St Augustine; The Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes; On Liberty, John Stuart Mill; Philisophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein; Critique of Pure Reason, Immanuel Kant. Outsiders: Fear and Trembling, Soren Kierkegaard; Beyond Good and Evil, Frederick Nietzsche; The Outsider, Albert Camus; Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley. Contemplation as Philosophy: The Prophet, Kahil Gibran; Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach; Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig; The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff. The Continental Tradition: The Prison Notebooks, Antonio Gramsci; The History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault; Symbolic Exchange and Death, Jean Baudrillard. How to Live Your Life: The Art of War, Sun Tzu; Maxims, La Rouchefoucauld; Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Carl Jung; On Sexuality, Sigmund Freud; On Becoming a Person, Carl Rogers. Political and Personal Issues: Das Kapital, Karl Marx; Being and Nothingness, Jean Paul Sartre; Gaia, James Lovelock. Modern Philosophy: A Theory of Justice, John Rawls; Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Daniel Dennett; After the Terror, Ted Honderich.

Academic Writing Now: A Brief Guide for Busy Students is a rhetoric designed to cover the basics of a college writing course in a concise, student-friendly format. Anything inessential to the business of college writing has been excluded. Each chapter concentrates on a crucial element of composing an academic essay and is capable of being read in a single sitting. The book is loaded with “timesaver tips,” ideas for making the most of the student’s time, along with occasional warnings to avoid common errors made by student writers. Each short chapter concludes with questions and suggestions designed to trigger class discussion. The second edition has been updated throughout, with special attention to making the book even better suited to accelerated and co-requisite composition courses.

Charles Darwin has become one of the most important men in history. The quiet, unsure polymath who avoided confrontation, ensconced in his family home at Down House in Kent, was also a revolutionary who developed his idea of Natural Selection in isolation. Cyril Aydon's short biography is considered one of the best introductions to the life and ideas of Darwin. With Darwin's legacy still in contention and the forthcoming anniversary of the publication of The Origins Species, Aydon's book is a perfect guide to the ideas as well as the man who was recently voted one of the greatest Britons of all time, and certainly one of the most influential thinkers ever.

This is a compact introduction to the work of Philo (c. 20 BCE-50 CE), the important Jewish thinker and scriptural interpreter. Kenneth Schenck provides a guide for understanding Philo's complex works, a roadmap for topics and contents of Philo's writings, and a description of contemporary research so students can easily find their ways into Philo study.

Academic Writing Now: A Brief Guide for Busy Students is a rhetoric designed to cover the basics of a college writing course in a concise, student-friendly format. Anything inessential to the business of college writing has been excluded. Each chapter concentrates on a crucial element of composing an academic essay and is capable of being read in a single sitting. The book is loaded with “timesaver tips,” ideas for making the most of the student’s time, along with occasional warnings to avoid common errors made by student writers. Each short chapter concludes with questions and suggestions designed to trigger class discussion.