This Element explains Kant's distinction between rational sympathy and natural sympathy. Rational sympathy is regulated by practical reason and is necessary for adopting as our own those ends of others which are contingent from the perspective of practical rationality. Natural sympathy is passive and can prompt affect and dispose us to act wrongly. Sympathy is a function of a posteriori productive imagination. In rational sympathy, we freely use the imagination to step into others' first-p...

Exploring the Illusion of Free Will and Moral Responsibility investigates the philosophical and scientific arguments for free will skepticism and their implications. Skepticism about free will and moral responsibility has been on the rise in recent years. In fact, a significant number of philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists now either doubt or outright deny the existence of free will and/or moral responsibility—and the list of prominent skeptics appears to grow by the day. Give...

With an introduction by Charlotte R. Brown and William Edward Morris.David Hume (1711–1776) was the most important philosopher ever to write in English, as well as a master stylist. This volume contains his major philosophical works. A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–1740), published while Hume was still in his twenties, consists of three books on the understanding, the passions, and morals. It applies the experimental method of reasoning to human nature in...

HOW TO KNOW HIGHER WORLDSA Modern Path Of InitiationByRudolf SteinerSynopsisThis is the classic account of the modern Western esoteric path of initiation made public by Steiner in 1904. He begins with the premise that “the capacities by which we can gain insights into the higher worlds lie dormant within each one of us.” Steiner carefully and precisely leads the reader from the cultivation of the fundamental soul attitudes of reverence and inner tranquil...

Jiddu Krishnamurti (12 May 1895 17 February 1986) was a writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual issues including psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive social change. Krishnamurti lived next to the Theosophical Society headquarters at Adyar in Madras in his early adolescence. At Adyar, he encountered prominent occultist and Theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater. He was subsequently raised under the tutelage ...

"Self-Reliance" is an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson, a prominent American philosopher and essayist from the 19th century. Published in 1841, the essay explores the concept of individualism and the importance of trusting one's own instincts and beliefs. Emerson advocates for the rejection of conformity and societal expectations, encouraging readers to rely on their own intuition and inner convictions. The essay is a powerful call to embrace self-reliance as a means of personal growth and ful...

This book is a good starting point among the hundreds of books written by Rudolf Steiner. He sees a tripartate model of the individual here: body, soul and spirit, cautioning us that these are only approximate terms. This book will give a description of some of the regions of the supersensible world. The reader who is willing to admit the existence of the sensible world only will regard this delineation as a mere unreal production of the imagination. He, however, who looks for paths that l...

The assumption of this book is that too many of us simply accept that our thinking is out of our control. Somehow our minds have become swamped with negative thoughts, negative attitudes and lack of self-esteem and we have allowed ourselves to believe that we are powerless to change this.The fact is we can change the way we think and we are the ones best equipped to do so. By following some simple steps we can change our outlook from that of cynical negativity to one of positive op...

Explore the gray areas in your gray matter with philosophical brainteasers from armchair philosopher and bestselling author of The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, Julian Baggini.Is your brain ready for a thorough philosophical health check?Julian Baggini, the author of the international bestseller The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, and his fellow founding editor of The Philosopher's Magazine Jeremy Stangroom have some thought-provoking q...

Poverty is not accident, but design. We are not all equal before the law. And the central message of contemporary ethics is that only some people matter.Expanding on work described as “crucial” and “very fine and provocative” by the Editor of The Oxford Handbook of Free Will, author James Miles now shows not only that free will is a delusion but that it is this delusion that has left us with only the illusion of morality. Belief in free will means never having to acknowled...