Philosophy

This fascinating book charts the relationship between Mark Rowlands, a rootless philosopher, and Brenin, his extraordinarily well-travelled wolf. More than just an exotic pet, Brenin exerted an immense influence on Rowlands as both a person, and, strangely enough, as a philosopher, leading him to re-evaluate his attitude to l... read more

The Philosopher and the Wolf by Mark Rowlands has been around for quite some time, but I've only just got around to reading it - it is just great! Rowlands was a Philosophy lecturer at a University in USA when he bought a wolf cub. The book tells the story of their 11 years together along with the philosophical ideas ... read more

Scholar, philosopher and political sage, Confucius lived at a turbulent time in his country's history, the so-called 'Spring and Autumn Period' of the sixth century BC, during which China was wracked by warfare between rival feudal states. Against this backdrop he developed a system of social and political behaviour that he h... read more

Something went wrong around the start of the twenty-first century. The crowd was wise. Social networks replaced individual creativity. There were more places to express ourselves than ever before ...yet no one really had anything to say. Does this have to be our future?
In You Are Not A Gadget digital guru and... read more

Every day around the world millions of people enter virtual worlds through video games. These games are now the fastest-growing form of entertainment – and being played by people of all ages. International communities are coming together to play, have fun and share ideas – without ever meeting. How To Play A Video... read more

In the last decade there has been a revolution in our understanding of the minds of infants and young children. We used to believe that babies were irrational, and that their thinking and experience were limited. Now Alison Gopnik -- a leading psychologist and philosopher, as well as a mother -- explains the cutting-edge scie... read more

Jim Flynn is on a mission to change how we think about the modern world, our place in it, and the moral choices we make. In The Torchlight List he argued that great literature can change lives. Now in Fate & Philosophy, he looks at tough moral decisions we face and urges us not to be influenced by subconscious conditionin... read more

First published in the 1920's, The Prophet, Gibran's hugely popular guide to living, has sold millions of copies worldwide and is the most famous work of religious fiction of the twentieth century. The Prophet became the bible of 1960s culture and was credited with founding the New Age movement, yet it still continues to insp... read more

Discursive, entertaining and provocative, Secular Sermons contains fourteen essays by celebrated philosopher Professor Alan Musgrave, examining the basic assumptions of science, religion and mathematics. Can we decide what to believe? Why do scientists do experiments and what can their experiments show? Is evolution a scienti... read more

Philosophy begins with questions about the nature of reality and how we should live. These were the concerns of Socrates, who spent his days in the ancient Athenian marketplace asking awkward questions, disconcerting the people he met by showing them how little they genuinely understood. This engaging book introduces the grea... read more

Having read many fiction titles, I decided to read one of my all time favourite non-fiction titles once again, Nigel Warburton's A Little History of Philosophy. Warburton explains philosophy in a totally understandable way, his short chapters on previous philosophers are funny and explanatory and I find myself questioning all... read more

Travels with Epicurus: A Journey to a Greek Island in Search of an Authentic Old Age is a humourous, uplifting meditation on finding the pleasures of old age, by the New York Times bestselling co-author of Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar. When philosopher, jokester and septuagenarian Daniel Klein goes to the dentist for ... read more

Tzvetan Todorov argues that although our liberal democracies are the offspring of the Enlightenment, they also illustrate the ways in which its ideas have been distorted and perverted. People living in contemporary democracies are often baffled by phenomena which resist easy judgement: globalisation and media omnipotence; dis... read more

Shop Class as Soulcraft brings alive an experience that was once quite common but now seems to be receding from society - the experience of making and fixing things with our hands. For those who felt hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations, it seeks to restore the honour of the manual trade... read more

The new bestseller from one of Britain's most pre-eminent philosophers and arguably the best known, A.C. Grayling Everyone wishes to live a life that is satisfying and fulfilling, in which there is achievement and pleasure, and which has the respect of people one, in turn, respects. And one of the fundamentals to living such ... read more

‘Opportunities multiply as they are seized.’ Written in the 6th century BC, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is a Chinese military treatise that is still revered today as the ultimate commentary on war and military strategy. Focussing on the principle that one can outsmart your foe mentally by thinking very careful... read more

The perfect subject for a book by one of the most recognised spiritual figures in the world today.

The Dalai Lama's message in this book is as renowned as he is himself: that compassion is essential for individuals and for the world. This is very much his subject for, when we think of His Holiness, we immediately... read more

The original and bestselling leadership book! Sun Tzu's ideas on survival and success have been read across the world for centuries. Today they can still be applied to business, politics and life. The Art of War demonstrates how to win without conflict. It shows that with enough intelligence and planning, it is possible to... read more

'The Big Questions' series is designed to let renowned experts confront the 20 most fundamental and frequently asked questions of a major branch of science or philosophy. In 'The Big Questions: Ethics' Julian Baggini, one of Britain's best-known philosophers, condenses complex, contemporary issues of right and wrong into 20 k... read more

If you assume an average life expectancy of 85 years, and deduct the hours we spend daily on sleeping, shopping, eating, working, tending to our relationships and on everything else that is obligatory, then how much time is left for the average person to enjoy those activities that are the sweetness of life? For Francoise Her... read more

A Brief History of Analytic Philosophy: From Russell to Rawls presents a comprehensive overview of the historical development of all major aspects of analytic philosophy, the dominant Anglo-American philosophical tradition in the twentieth century. Features coverage of all the major subject areas andfiguresin analytic philo... read more

I'm halfway through A Brief History of Analytic Philosophy by Stephen P. Schwartz. I'm not really qualified to judge content but I'm really enjoying the history of thought and being able to place names such as Frege, Russell, Moore, Wittgenstein and Quine in context and to understand what their positions were (if not how t... read more