Subject: Philosophy
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Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Wilhelm Meister, the son of a merchant, has been seduced by the chimerical world of the theater and embarks on the ambitious quest to become a great theatrical performer and dramatist. The Apprenticeship was a landmark in European literature, as not only one of the key works of Weimar Classicism, and the prototype... read more »
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Spirits Rebellious Kahlil Gibran
When first published in the original Arabic, this book aroused considerable agitation and intrigue. It was burned publicly in the Beirut market place by furious church and state officials, who denounced it as poisonous and dangerous to the peace of the country. Gibran himself was exiled. But this was at a time when... read more »
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The Earth Gods Kahlil Gibran
The last book to be published while Gibran was still in this world, came into the poet's hands two weeks before he was to lay aside all earthly volumes. He had a peculiar feeling of tenderness for this book, unlike what he felt for any of the others. 'Because,' he said, 'it was written out of the poet's hell—a... read more »
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Lazarus and his Beloved Kahlil Gibran
The garden outside of the home of Lazarus and his mother and sisters in Bethany Late afternoon of Manday, the day after the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the grave. At curtain rise: Mary is at right gazing up towards the hills. Martha is seated at her loom near the house door, left. The Madman is seated... read more »
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The Forerunner Kahlil Gibran
The wisdom, poetic outlook, and deep humanity for which Gibran's best-known work, The Prophet, is famous are also amply present in The Forerunner, published just 3 years earlier. Heartfelt and compassionate, it is a memorable, internationally acclaimed collection of 24 morality tales dealing with universal human... read more »
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Areopagitica John Milton
Areopagitica: A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England is John Milton's famous tract against censorship. Named after a speech by Isocrates, a fifth century BC Athenian orator, the work is counted as one of the most influential and inspired defenses of the right to freedom of... read more »
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Free Culture Lawrence Lessig
Lawrence Lessig, “the most important thinker on intellectual property in the Internet era”, masterfully argues that never before in human history has the power to control creative progress been so concentrated in the hands of the powerful few, the so-called Big Media. Never before have the cultural powers... read more »
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The Prophet Kahlil Gibran
The prophet Almustafa who has lived in the foreign city of Orphalese for 12 years is about to board a ship which will carry him home. He is stopped by a group of people, with whom he discusses many issues of life and the human condition. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children... read more »
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The Four Loves C. S. Lewis
We hear often that love is patient and kind, not envious or prideful. We hear that human love is a reflection of divine love. We hear that God is love. But how do we understand its work in our lives, its perils and rewards? Here, the incomparable C. S. Lewis examines human love in four forms: affection, the most... read more »
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The Inferno Henri Barbusse
A young man staying in a Paris boarding house finds a hole in the wall above his bed. Alternately voyeur and seer, he obsessively studies the private moments and secret activities of his neighbors: childbirth, first love, marriage, betrayal, illness and death all present themselves to him through this spy hole... read more »
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Optimism Helen Keller
Optimism is an important essay whcih was written by American author and lecturer Helen Keller. Due to illness, Keller was left blind and deaf at a young age and spent a great deal of years lecturing on behalf of those with similar issues and and facing the same problems that she has. In optimism she writes about how... read more »
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A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers Henry David Thoreau
Based on a trip with his brother in 1839, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is an excellent example of Thoreau's talent for naturalistic writing. In exquisite detail Thoreau depicts the nature that surrounds him over the course of his trip. One of only two books to be published during his lifetime, Thoreau... read more »
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Walden Henry David Thoreau
In 1845 Henry David Thoreau left his pencil-manufacturing business and began building a cabin on the shore of Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. This lyrical yet practical-minded book is at once a record of the 26 months Thoreau spent in withdrawal from society -- an account of the daily minutiae of building... read more »
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Erewhon Revisited Samuel Butler
Samuel Butler's Erewhon Revisited is a satirical sequel to his highly successful Erewhon. Mr. Higgs meets many unpleasant accidents and surprises in Butler's utopian nation. A new religion has come into existence as a result of distorted and misunderstood sayings, and corruption has taken over society. Butler's... read more »
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Erewhon Samuel Butler
Setting out to make his fortune in a far-off country, a young traveller discovers the remote and beautiful land of Erewhon and is given a home among its extraordinarily handsome citizens. But their visitor soon discovers that this seemingly ideal community has its faults - here crime is treated indulgently as a... read more »
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Phaedo Plato
The Phaedo is acknowledged to be one of Plato's masterpieces, showing him both as a philosopher and as a dramatist at the height of his powers. For its moving account of the execution of Socrates, the Phaedo ranks among the supreme literary achievements of antiquity. It is also a document crucial to the... read more »
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Discourses on Livy Niccolò Machiavelli
The Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius is one of the masterpieces by Machiavelli. This work narrates the writer's comments as to how a democratic government should be established. Through the comparison of Venice and Rome a detailed analysis of different kinds of governments is given. Machiavelli has... read more »
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Crito Plato
Crito is a short but important dialogue by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. It is a conversation between Socrates and his wealthy friend Crito regarding justice (δικη), injustice (αδικια), and the appropriate response to injustice. Socrates thinks that injustice may not be answered with injustice, and... read more »
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Nature Ralph Waldo Emerson
Originally published anonymously, Nature was the first modern essay to recommend the appreciation of the outdoors as an all-encompassing positive force. Emerson’s writings were recognized as uniquely American in style and content, and launched the idea of going for a walk as a new way of looking at the world... read more »
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Euthyphro Plato
These four dialogues enact the trial and execution of Socrates, presenting a dialectical process that shows not only why the Athenians condemned him to death but, much more to the point, the reason why Socrates lived and devoted himself to examining the meaning of life. These works not only offer the best... read more »
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The Conduct of Life Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson's The Conduct of Life is among the gems of his mature works. First published in the year of Abraham Lincoln's election as President, this work poses the questions of human freedom and fate. The book, here newly edited from the original 1860 edition and fully annotated to illuminate and trace... read more »
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The Dawn of Day Friedrich Nietzsche
When Nietzsche called his book The Dawn of Day, he was far from giving it a merely fanciful title to attract the attention of that large section of the public which judges books by their titles rather than by their contents. The Dawn of Day represents, figuratively, the dawn of Nietzsche's own philosophy. Hitherto... read more »
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The Discovery of the Future H. G. Wells
The Discovery of the Future is a philosophical lecture by H. G. Wells that argues for the knowability of the future. It was originally delivered to the Royal Institution on January 24, 1902. Before appearing in book form. Wells begins by distinguishing between "two divergent types of mind," one that judges and... read more »
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The Book of Tea Kakuzō Okakura
At the turn of the 20th century, in Boston, a small esoteric book about tea was written with the intention of being read aloud in the famous salon of Isabella Gardner. It was authored by Okakura Kakuzo, a Japanese philosopher, art expert, and curator. Little known at the time, Kakuzo would emerge as one of the great... read more »
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The Trial Franz Kafka
A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released, but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening, as... read more »
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Eugenics and Other Evils G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton was an early critic of the philosophy of eugenics, expressing this opinion in his book, Eugenics and Other Evils. Its advocates regarded eugenics as a social philosophy for the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.Today it is widely regarded as a brutal... read more »
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Orthodoxy G. K. Chesterton
This book is meant to be a companion to "Heretics," and to put the positive side in addition to the negative. Many critics complained of the book called "Heretics" because it merely criticised current philosophies without offering any alternative philosophy. This book is an attempt to answer the challenge. It is... read more »
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The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka
In this, his most famous story, Kafka explores the notions of alienation and human loneliness through extraordinary narrative technique and depth of imagination. Gregor Samsa awakens one morning to find himself transformed into a repulsive bug. Trapped inside this hideous form, his mind remains unchanged—until he... read more »
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Siddhartha Hermann Hesse
In the novel, Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his family for a contemplative life, then, restless, discards it for one of the flesh. He conceives a son, but bored and sickened by lust and greed, moves on again. Near despair, Siddhartha comes to a river where he hears a unique sound. This sound signals the true... read more »
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Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche
A scathing and powerful critique of philosophy, religion and science. Here Nietzsche presents us with problems and challenges that are as troubling as they are inspiring, while at the same time outlining the virtues, ideas, and practices which will characterise the philosophy of the future. Relentless, energetic... read more »