Ancient Books - Page 12

Socrates In Love: Philosophy for a Passionate Heart

Christopher Phillips

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

A breakout book completing a trilogy of Socratic exploration by the inimitable Johnny Appleseed of philosophy.

Christopher Phillips goes to the heart of philosophy and Socratic discourse to discover what we're all looking for: the kind of love that makes life worthwhile. Love here is not defined only or even primarily as eros, but in all its classic varieties—from love of family and love of neighbor to love of country, love of God, love of life, and love of wisdom. Phillips's explorations take us from New Orleans at Mardi Gras and the gambling dens of Las Vegas to the last evangelical revival presided over by Billy Graham. He talks with moms and dads about "parent love," with inmates of a maximum-security prison about "unconditional love," with Hurricane Katrina refugees and a family who took them in, and with Japanese seniors and schoolchildren in Hiroshima Peace Park. Throughout, he enriches his dialogues with commentary on the great philosophers of love from the ancients to Rumi to Ayn Rand and Anaïs Nin.

Cicero: De re Publica (On the Republic) , De Legibus (On the Laws) (Loeb Classical Library No. 213)

Cicero

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Editorial Review:

Cicero (Marcus Tullius, 106–43 BCE), Roman lawyer, orator, politician and philosopher, of whom we know more than of any other Roman, lived through the stirring era which saw the rise, dictatorship, and death of Julius Caesar in a tottering republic. In his political speeches especially and in his correspondence we see the excitement, tension and intrigue of politics and the part he played in the turmoil of the time. Of about 106 speeches, delivered before the Roman people or the Senate if they were political, before jurors if judicial, 58 survive (a few of them incompletely). In the fourteenth century Petrarch and other Italian humanists discovered manuscripts containing more than 900 letters of which more than 800 were written by Cicero and nearly 100 by others to him. These afford a revelation of the man all the more striking because most were not written for publication. Six rhetorical works survive and another in fragments. Philosophical works include seven extant major compositions and a number of others; and some lost. There is also poetry, some original, some as translations from the Greek.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Cicero is in twenty-nine volumes.

Ancient Philosophy (Philosophic Classics, Volume I - 3rd Edition)

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The anthology I use to teach 17th and 18th Century philosophy 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I don't usually like anthologies and rarely teach from them -- I tend to prefer a primary text approach, partly because it allows students to see the development of ideas in their full context and because I expect philosophy students to be interested in developing their personal library of philosophy. This volume, however, is an exception and I've been using this volume for several years (and three separate editions) to teach my "History of Philosophy: 17th and 18th Century." Since I try to cover quite a bit in the course (empiricism, rationalism, social contract theory, transcendental philosophy -- in the works of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Pascal, Berkeley, Hume, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Kant), but don't have the time to read everything by every thinker, this volume is almost perfect. It has almost everything I cover and includes both good brief introductions and fairly broad excerpts from each thinker. There is enough, at least, to illustrate the general approach and broad themes and key issues from most every thinker it includes. I've looked at a few other anthologies of Modern philosophy and they are usually either too specific (e.g. focused on 17th but not 18th century philosophy) or too broad and narrow in their coverage. This one is just right, and would be an excellent volume to get for an orientation to the basic problems of modern philosophy that sets the stage for both 19th Century continental thinkers like Hegel and Schopenhauer and Marx and Nietzsche and Kierkegaard, as well as for 20th century developments in both analytic (that picks up from Hume and to a lesser degree Kant and largely bypasses the German Idealist movement) as well as continental philosophy (in Heidegger, Sartre, etc.).

One quibble: I do wish there was more from Rousseau -- the latest volume has excerpts from the Social Contract and while that may be his most historically important work it doesn't show as clearly as some of his other works his distinctive approach to thinking -- that does not fall clearly under a rationalist or empiricist label. To give a better flavor of Rousseau I supplement this volume with Hackett's translation of the Second Discourse (On the Origins of Inequality).

Editorial Review:

For courses in 20th-century Philosophy, recent Continental Philosophy, Anglo-American Philosophy; as part of courses in Contemporary Philosophy; or courses on Epistemology or Metaphysics that take a historical approach. This anthology in 20th-century philosophical classics includes recent European and American philosophers, and contains texts that are presently seen as classics or as emerging classics. It features complete works or complete sections of works. Includes introductions to each philosopher, an abundance of drawings, diagrams, photographs, and a timeline.

Ancient Future

Wayne B. Chandler

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Important wisdom from the Ancients 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I am surprised to see so few reviews here, as this book has had such an influence on my life. I do not know how to begin to adequately express its significance, and perhaps that is appropriate. Those who are ready for the knowledge will be drawn to it in a time and manner which is right for them.

"When the ears of the student are ready to hear, then cometh the lips to fill them with Wisdom." -- The Kybalion

Ancient Future is a "modern" approach to the ancient wisdom of Kemet, which was passed from lips to ear since pre-diluvian days and then more recently (about a hundred years ago), was recorded in a book entitled "Kybalion". Kybalion has been out of print for a long time, but can be found if you diligently seek it.

Editorial Review:

Ancient Future celebrates the wisdom of those ancient civilizations that did not disassociate the philosophical, spiritual, and material realms of life. This book is an attempt to recreate this holistic experience in hopes that a synthesized view of life will become of the twenty first century.

Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists

Benjamin Wiker, William Dembski

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Abortion. Euthanasia. Infanticide. Sexual promiscuity.Ideas and actions once unthinkable have become commonplace. We seem to live in a different moral universe than we occupied just a few decades ago. Consent and noncoercion seem to be the last vestiges of a morality long left behind. Christian moral tenets are now easily dismissed and have been replaced with what is curiously presented as a superior, more magnanimous, respectful and even humble morality. How did we end up so far away from where we began? Can the decline be stopped?Ben Wiker, in this provocative and insightful book, traces the amazing story that explains our present cultural situation. Wiker finds the roots of our moral slide reaching all the way back to the ethical theory and atheistic cosmology of the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Christian teaching had been in contention with this worldview long before it reached its pinnacle with the rise and acceptance of Darwinism. But it was Darwinism, Wiker contends, that provided this ancient teaching with the seemingly modern and scientific basis that captured twentieth-century minds. Wiker demonstrates that this ancient atomistic and materialistic philosophy supplies the guiding force behind Darwinism and powerfully propels the hedonistic bent of our society while promoting itself under the guise of pure science.This book is a challenge not only to those who believe Darwinism to be purely scientific fact but to Christian who have at times inconsistently lived out their Christian moral convictions and so have failed to recognize and address the ancient corrosive underpinnings of our present moral and intellectual crisis.

Parmenides (Studies in Continental Thought)

Martin Heidegger, Andre Schuwer, Richard Rojcewicz

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Editorial Review:

"...excellent translation ..." - The Philosopher. Parmenides, a lecture course delivered by Martin Heidegger at the University of Freiburg during the winter semester of 1942-1943, presents a highly original interpretation of ancient Greek philosophy. A Major contribution to Heidegger's provocative dialogue with the pre-Socratics, the book challenges some of the most firmly established traditional notions about Greek thinking and the Greek world. The central theme is the question of truth and the primordial understanding of truth to be found in "Parmenides" "didactic poem." Heidegger highlights the contrast between Greek and Roman thought and the reflection of that contrast in language. He analyzes the decline in the primordial understanding of truth - and, just as importantly, of untruth - that began in later Greek philosophy and that continues, by virtue of the Latinization of the West, down to the present day. Beyond an interpretation of Greek philosophy, "Parmenides" offers a strident critique of the contemporary world, delivered during a time that Heidegger described as "out of joint." - Studies in Continental Thought, John Sallis, general editor.

The intellectual adventure of ancient man;: An essay on speculative thought in the ancient Near East,

Henri Frankfort

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An examination into Mythopoeic truth 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 14 people found this review helpful.

The collection of essays in this book are by far brilliant examinations with fit evidence. It is great for the reader interested in Ancient religions of Egypt and Mesopotamia, it provides fundamental views on ancient mans perspective of the world, gods, and himself from myth. This is not a text book, nor a history book but it does provide adequate literary evidence and footnotes. I wish I had read this before studying ancient philosophy, it would have greatly helped my understanding of the mind of these ancients. It's amazing to read about the development of mans theories through mythopoeic tales. Well worth it for the Philosophy-, religion- or ancient studies - student. Or if you really enjoy myths, find out how man came about with these stories. Covers Egyptian, Babylonian and Assyrian (in some detail) and Mesopotamian thought and myth.

Editorial Review:

The people in ancient times the phenomenal world was teeming with life; the thunderclap, the sudden shadow, the unknown and eerie clearing in the wood, all were living things. This unabridged edition traces the fascinating history of thought from the pre-scientific, personal concept of a "humanized" world to the achievement of detached intellectual reasoning.

The authors describe and analyze the spiritual life of three ancient civilizations: the Egyptians, whose thinking was profoundly influenced by the daily rebirth of the sun and the annual rebirth of the Nile; the Mesopotamians, who believed the stars, moon, and stones were all citizens of a cosmic state; and the Hebrews, who transcended prevailing mythopoeic thought with their cosmogony of the will of God. In the concluding chapter the Frankforts show that the Greeks, with their intellectual courage, were the first culture to discover a realm of speculative thought in which myth was overcome.

The Hermetica: The Lost Wisdom of the Pharaohs

Timothy Freke, Peter Gandy

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Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The first easily accessible translation of the esoteric writings that inspired some of the world’s greatest artists, scientists, and philosophers.

Here is an essential digest of the Greco-Egyptian writings attributed to the legendary sage-god Hermes Trismegistus (Greek for thrice-greatest Hermes)—a combination of the Egyptian Thoth and the Greek Hermes.

The figure of Hermes was venerated as a great and mythical teacher in the ancient world and was rediscovered by the finest minds of the Renaissance. The writings attributed to his hand are a time capsule of Egyptian and Greek esoteric philosophy and have influenced figures including Blake, Newton, Milton, Shelley, Shakespeare, Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, and Jung.

Providing a fascinating introduction to the intersection of the Egyptian and Hellenic cultures and the magico-religious ideas of the antique world, The Hermetica is a marvelous volume for anyone interested in understanding the West’s roots in mystical thought.

A History of Greek Philosophy, Vol. 2: The Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus

W. K. C. Guthrie

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

To the Roots of Knowledge and Culture 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

One of the truly remarkable intellectual achievements of our time, Guthrie's magisterial six volume History of Greek Philosophy, is, within the compass of my reading, the most comprehensive rendering of the golden epoch of Western Philosophy available. The sheer magnitude of the research collected, sorted, and weighed here is enough to recommend, but this work offers much more than a survey of leading interpretations. Many a major commentary, ancient and modern, receives a fair hearing for each argument analyzed both in the text and in extensive notes. One only wishes Guthrie were eternal that he might have been able to include all that has and will come in the way of analysis since publication of these texts in the 1960's with the same judicious acumen.
On immersing oneself in these many pages, over and again, one is struck by the centrality and the exhaustive nature of the venture. While such a scope of endeavor is bound to be open to controversy on any number of particulars, and Guthrie is not without critics, the distance traversed is staggering, and the work, in its point-by-point detailed coverage, assumes an authority on the achievement of such breadth alone. But it is the analytic depth of Guthrie's treatment of the arguments that for me holds the greater value. For the many treasures on display in these pages shine ever more brightly due to the loving care with which they are presented in view of their developmental contexts.
Among the finer features of Guthrie is the headliner on each page, providing focus for the narrative, in the style of the annotated Jowett Plato. Organization of the chapters under topical rubrics contributes to the superior organization of the work itself and, along with the extensive Indexes, makes reference within this dense field blessedly user-friendly.
If you love Archaic (Pre-Socratic) Greek Philosophy like I do, I feel that there is no better practice than to regularly inter yourself in the first two volumes of Guthrie. I've been asked which is the best investment for a book on early Greek Philosophy. The best-known one-volume histories all have their virtues. Of these, Barnes is probably most useful, very good on the Eleatics and Xenophanes, not so comprehending of Herakleitos, the Milesians, and others. The writing tends to be nuanced in a very Anglo-analytic, somewhat technical, orientation. Kirk and Raven don't thrill me much either as writers or analysts, and make what a number of commentators feel are erroneous judgments. Not nearly as thorough as Guthrie, their book on balance is - sufficient. The old Burnet is quite good at times, but now has been antiquated on many points by later, more accurate readings (discussed in Guthrie). Nietzsche's study, translated as "Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks" is definitely worth a read (what did Nietzsche ever write that wasn't?), but was not intended as comprehensive scholarship. All considered, the first two volumes of Guthrie easily outpace the field, and for pure enjoyment of uniformly superb scholarship, copious citations, and solid, accessible writing, are more than worth the expensive price tag. Splurge! You're buying the best.

Editorial Review:

All volumes of Professor Guthrie's great history of Greek philosophy have won their due acclaim. The most striking merits of Guthrie's work are his mastery of a tremendous range of ancient literature and modern scholarship, his fairness and balance of judgement and the lucidity and precision of his English prose. He has achieved clarity and comprehensiveness.

Phaedo

Plato

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Spirit of the ancient 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I will not quote myself, but I'll evoke the words that I have written here before in the review of Krishnamurti's book. Since you're reading this I guess you're interested in Plato's philosophy and this work in particular. I'll just say few words and then will let you to dive into the book and find the meaning for yourself.
This is the book that belong to Plato's later works, and debate continues whether Socrates in this book is historical Socrates or just voice of Plato. If you take into consideration few Aristotelian lines than first option would be the true one. But, no matter which one is right, Socrates here is presented as few characters of world literature are. I can not speak about philosophy here, so I shall speak about style. Bearing the posture of romantic poets, and if you picture ancient greek dungeon as some reneiscance castle dungeon, you'll have the setting. And tht's it. No quarells, no fightning and vicious murdering, just one of the most beautifull speeches conserning human soul, and only one, diginified, death.
Books like these give me hope that there is still a chance for a world to become the better place.

Editorial Review:

I should so like to hear about his death. What did he say in his last hours? We were informed that he died by taking poison, but no one knew anything more; for no Phliasian ever goes to Athens now, and it is a long time since any stranger from Athens has found his way hither; so that we had no clear account.