Philosophy Books - Page 17

Jesus I Never Knew, The

Philip Yancey

List Price: $29.99 By: Zondervan Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $9.90

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General AAS
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( Y ) -> Yancey, Philip -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 168 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1996, The Jesus I Never Knew was chosen as the Gold Medallion Book of the Year. For thousands of readers, this provocative journey through the Gospels has peeled back stereotypes to give readers a literate and piercingly honest look at the teachings, person, and life of Jesus of Nazareth. Now The Jesus I Never Knew comes to you in complete, unabridged audio format. Everything is here. All the penetrating insights. All the challenging, deeply personal perspectives. You'll find them inside, with the immediacy and convenience of audio cassette. What happens when a respected Christian journalist decides to put his preconception aside and take a long look at the Jesus described in the Gospels? Best-selling author Philip Yancey offers a new and different perspective on the life of Christ and his work -- his teachings, his miracles, his death and resurrection -- and ultimately, who he was and why he came. Join Yancey in discovering the Jesus you've never known: brilliant, creative, challenging, fearless, compassionate, unpredictable, and deeply satisfying. A Jesus fully capable of turning your life completely around.

Flatland

Edwin Abbott Abbott

Amazon Price: $18.94 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Buccaneer Books Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $10.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Classics -> General AAS
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General -> Classics
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 159 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Thinking W A Y Outside the Box 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Yes, many young people have been required to read Flatland against their wills. Yes, many people have missed the real point of the book. This book stretched the mind and imagination in ways that are fun and challenging. The author might not have been entirely serious in writing the book, but nonetheless provided serious food for thought.

I believe Flatland is an excellent (and quick) reading experience for minds in the formative stage, a stage I recommend maintaining throughout life. The book's theological implications were the most important to me. I had always wondered where heaven might be, how God can see inside us, and what the spirit is made of. I do not know if extrapolating the Flatland concepts into a fourth (or fifth) physical dimension reflects ultimate reality, but it provides a sufficiently possible and plausible explanation to remove rationalist objections.

The 3-D sphere that intersects the plane of reality provided the "Aha" moment. The sphere embodied perfection and could mysteriously appear and disappear. Explaining the view from above the plane to a flat square is as difficult as explaining the spiritual realm to a person unable to envision beyond the world seen with the eye. A greater-dimensional being floating above the plane can see inside the geometric shapes, reach inside their skins without intersecting their boundaries, think far more complex thoughts, and take them out of their limited reality to a better place they could not have imagined. If a Flatland person had no thickness, he would have no volume by our reckoning, and therefore no real existence. If there is a spiritual dimension and a person has no thickness in that direction at all, then he may not really exist either.

We have learned to adjust to modern concepts of reality that are no longer Euclidean and Newtonian. Perhaps we need a view of creation that is not limited by unfounded presumptions of limited dimensionality. After you ponder the concepts of Flatland and extrapolate them to your life, I wonder what new thought may form.

Editorial Review:

A century-old classic of British letters that charmed and fascinated generations of readers with its witty satire of Victorian society and its unique insights, by analogy, into the fourth dimension.

Raising a Modern-Day Knight

Robert Lewis

List Price: $15.99 By: Tyndale Audio Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $17.97

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General AAS
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Christian Living -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Every dad should read this book. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Men are being emasculated today. Mainstream family media shows us to be idiots fumbling our way through life. Fathers are accepting passivity and surrendering our manhood in the process. This book is an excellent guide to help counter this and create an authentic relationship with our sons.

helpful, but incomplete 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Lewis addresses a major need in our society: raising our boys into men. This is a timely message because we live in a society that has completely forgotten that there is such a thing. Or else its definition of a man is far short of what the Bible calls 'a man'. Lewis offers many helpful tips on how to celebrate rites of passage from boyhood to manhood - tips that I may just use with my own sons.
That said, I felt that his overall view of what a man is still fell short of the biblical standard. What was lacking in this book was 'how' this is done. To come up with good insight and goals to strive for in wanting to become a man is one thing - to show young men 'how' that is to be done is quite another. Our power to become men and to live like men and to treat women as they should be treated and to stand for truth the way we're called to is rooted firmly in Jesus Christ, not in our best intentions to be men. I'm not sure that Lewis wouldn't agree with this; however, I did not read much of it in his book.
We cannot just give ourselves a good vision of manhood and then strive, in our own best intentions, to live it out. We WILL fail at this if it is not rooted in our life source Himself, Jesus Christ. I appreciate what Lewis has done - he has narrowed the gap between what little writing is out there on biblical manhood and what should be. But I would have liked to have seen our Savior magnified more as the Cornerstone for how such men are made and sustained.

Editorial Review:

A unique approach to shaping a boy into a man by equipping him with three essential elements: a vision, a code of conduct, and a cause in which to invest his life.

The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions

David Berlinski

Amazon Price: $16.29 List Price: $23.95 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: Crown Forum Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $10.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> General AAS
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Reference -> Theology -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 67 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Militant atheism is on the rise. Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have dominated bestseller lists with books denigrating religious belief as dangerous foolishness. And these authors are merely the leading edge of a far larger movement–one that now includes much of the scientific community.

“The attack on traditional religious thought,” writes David Berlinski in The Devil’s Delusion, “marks the consolidation in our time of science as the single system of belief in which rational men and women might place their faith, and if not their faith, then certainly their devotion.”

A secular Jew, Berlinski nonetheless delivers a biting defense of religious thought. An acclaimed author who has spent his career writing about mathematics and the sciences, he turns the scientific community’s cherished skepticism back on itself, daring to ask and answer some rather embarrassing questions:

Has anyone provided a proof of God’s inexistence?
Not even close.

Has quantum cosmology explained the emergence of the universe or why it is here?
Not even close.

Have the sciences explained why our universe seems to be fine-tuned to allow for the existence of life?
Not even close.

Are physicists and biologists willing to believe in anything so long as it is not religious thought?
Close enough.

Has rationalism in moral thought provided us with an understanding of what is good, what is right, and what is moral?
Not close enough.

Has secularism in the terrible twentieth century been a force for good?
Not even close to being close.

Is there a narrow and oppressive orthodoxy of thought and opinion within the sciences?
Close enough.

Does anything in the sciences or in their philosophy justify the claim that religious belief is irrational?
Not even ballpark.

Is scientific atheism a frivolous exercise in intellectual contempt?
Dead on.

Berlinski does not dismiss the achievements of western science. The great physical theories, he observes, are among the treasures of the human race. But they do nothing to answer the questions that religion asks, and they fail to offer a coherent description of the cosmos or the methods by which it might be investigated.

This brilliant, incisive, and funny book explores the limits of science and the pretensions of those who insist it can be–indeed must be–the ultimate touchstone for understanding our world and ourselves.

Letters to a Young Brother: MANifest Your Destiny

Hill Harper

Amazon Price: $9.60 List Price: $12.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Gotham Amazon Marketplace: 95 new & used starting at $1.25

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> Self-Esteem
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Ethics & Morality
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Sociology -> Race Relations -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 76 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Good Book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I brought this book as a gift for my twentysomthing brother. Who is a not an avid reader, but he enjoyed this book.

Editorial Review:

Offering inspirational advice in a down-to-earth style, this unique compilation of letters provides wisdom, guidance, and heartfelt insight to help the reader chart their own path to success. Based on the author’s motivational speaking at inner-city schools across the country, the letters deal with the tough issues that face young people today.

Bombarded with messages from music and the media, Harper set out to dispel the stereotypical image of success that young people receive today and instead emphasizes alternative views of what it truly means to be a successful male, such as educational and community achievements and self-respect. Intended to provide this frequently regarded “lost generation” of young men with words of encouragement and guidance, Harper’s deep-rooted passion regarding the plight of today’s youth drove him to write this book, sure to change the lives of readers for years to come.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Thomas S. Kuhn

Amazon Price: $10.40 List Price: $13.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: University Of Chicago Press Amazon Marketplace: 161 new & used starting at $6.53

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Medicine -> Special Topics -> History
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General AAS
Subjects -> Science -> History & Philosophy -> History of Science

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 119 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Thomas S. Kuhn's classic book is now available with a new index.

"A landmark in intellectual history which has attracted attention far
beyond its own immediate field. . . . It is written with a combination
of depth and clarity that make it an almost unbroken series of
aphorisms. . . . Kuhn does not permit truth to be a criterion of
scientific theories, he would presumably not claim his own theory to be
true. But if causing a revolution is the hallmark of a superior
paradigm, [this book] has been a resounding success." —Nicholas Wade,
Science

"Perhaps the best explanation of [the] process of discovery." —William
Erwin Thompson, New York Times Book Review

"Occasionally there emerges a book which has an influence far beyond its
originally intended audience. . . . Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of
Scientific Revolutions . . . has clearly emerged as just such a
work." —Ron Johnston, Times Higher Education Supplement

"Among the most influential academic books in this century." —
Choice

—One of "The Hundred Most Influential Books Since the Second World
War," Times Literary Supplement

Thomas S. Kuhn was the Laurence Rockefeller Professor Emeritus of
linguistics and philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His books include The Essential Tension; Black-Body Theory and the
Quantum Discontinuity, 1894-1912; and The Copernican
Revolution.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ballantine Books Amazon Marketplace: 149 new & used starting at $3.08

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Occult -> Unexplained Mysteries
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Religious Studies -> Controversial Knowledge
Subjects -> Science -> History & Philosophy -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 402 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"A glorious book . . . A spirited defense of science . . . From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought."

*Los Angeles Times



"POWERFUL . . . A stirring defense of informed rationality. . . Rich in surprising information and beautiful writing."

*The Washington Post Book World



How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we don't understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience and the testable hypotheses of science? Pulitzer Prize-winning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions.



Casting a wide net through history and culture, Sagan examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies of the past as witchcraft, faith healing, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in today's so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning with stories of alien abduction, channeling past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.



"COMPELLING."

*USA Today



"A clear vision of what good science means and why it makes a difference. . . . A testimonial to the power of science and a warning of the dangers of unrestrained credulity."

*The Sciences



"PASSIONATE."

*San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle

Mindfulness in Plain English, Updated and Expanded Edition

Bhante H. Gunaratana

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wisdom Publications Amazon Marketplace: 64 new & used starting at $6.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> General AAS
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Buddhism -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 87 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

informative, thorough, eye-opening 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I purchased this book because I was interested in learning about the concept of mindfulness. I wasn't exactly looking to develop a serious meditation habit, but during my reading of the book I began to embrace the idea. I read the book and wanted to re-read it fairly soon after finishing, but I loaned it out to someone. I'm eager to get it back and read it again, but I've told someone else they can borrow it! I may have to buy another copy. The book is well-laid-out, covers the subject matter very well, and opened my eyes to a new way of thinking. I'm trying to become a more regular meditator; currently I do it in ten-minute increments a couple of times a week at minimum, but I'm hoping to build from there. Also: I'm currently reading the "sequel" to this book, called "Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha's Path." I'm only in the beginning but I'm finding it on par with "Mindfulness in Plain English" -- informative and eye-opening, and teaching me things that I feel can impact my everyday thinking (and hopefully result in an overall healthier mind).

Editorial Review:

This step-by-step guide to Insight Meditation is truly practical and direct. This new edition includes the complete text of its best selling predecessor and a new chapter on loving-kindness, an especially important subject in today's fractious world.

The Pursuit of God

A. W. Tozer

List Price: $21.99 By: Christian Publications Amazon Marketplace: 4 new & used starting at $11.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General AAS
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( T ) -> Tozer, A.W.

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 96 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This book should be re-read annually 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

It never ceases to amaze me how this book, unlike all of the others on the shelf (save the Bible), seems to demand to be re-read every year. Furthermore, I'm in awe of the way God uses it to "right the ship" of my spiritual life every time I read it. It's truly a timeless classic.

It should also be noted that the style of writing and the way in which the words flow is unlike anything else I've read. The bulk of the book was written during a train ride in 1949. The soul-stirring quality of this work shouts that God was leading and inspiring the hand that wrote. Don't confuse this with the inspiration of the Bible itself, I know Tozer had no such delusions. Rather, it's one man's journey into the deeper things of God, something badly needed by all of us who name Christ as our saviour.

If your heart is open and your mind is willing, this will likely be the genesis of a closer walk.

Editorial Review:

During a train trip from Chicago to Texas in the late 1940s, A.W. Tozer began to write The Pursuit of God. He wrote all night, and when the train arrived at his destination, the rough draft was done. The depth of this book has made it an enduring favorite.

Zen And the Art of Happiness

Chris Prentiss

Amazon Price: $8.76 List Price: $10.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Power Pr Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $6.04

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> Happiness
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Eastern -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Very good read! 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I think this is a great little book. I am a Christian... where as some Christians think reading a buddhist book goes away from Christ, many of the topics and practices of the buddhist are very Christ like. Where the author may speak about the energy of the universe, I just see that as God. Great reminders here to remove our focus off ourselves and think of our neighbors... and isn't that also what Christ taught! Great book for anyone trying to grow in who they are... I will read this one over and over.

Editorial Review:

Cutting-edge science and spirituality tell us that what we believe, think, and feel actually determine the makeup of our body at the cellular level. In Zen and the Art of Happiness, you will learn how to think and feel so that what you think and feel creates happiness and vibrancy in your life rather than gloominess or depression. You ll learn how to adapt to life s inevitable changes, how to deal with stress in a healthy way, and how to nurture a mindful happiness in your daily life. Most importantly, the gentle wisdom of Zen and the Art of Happiness will show you how to invite magnificent experiences into your life and create a personal philosophy that will sustain you through anything. A timeless work about the art of happiness, the way of happiness, the inner game of happiness.