How to live meaningfully in the face of the unknowableWe human beings had no say in existing—we just opened our eyes and found ourselves here. We have a fundamental need to understand who we are and the world we live in. Reason takes us a long way, but mystery remains. When our minds and senses are baffled, faith can seem justified—but faith is not knowledge. In Ultimate Questions, acclaimed philosopher Bryan Magee provocatively argues that we have no way ...

Isaiah Berlin was born a century ago. One of the most celebrated British thinkers of the twentieth century, he was a tireless champion of freedom and diversity against control and conformity. His generous, open vision of life is displayed with special immediacy in his brilliant pen-portraits of contemporaries, Personal Impressions, in which he sees the point of radically differing personalities, enters into their distinctive outlooks, and describes his encounters with them, in arrestingly ...

The Concrete Solutions series of International Conferences on Concrete Repair began in 2003 with a conference held in St. Malo, France in association with INSA Rennes. Subsequent conferences have seen us partnering with the University of Padua in 2009 and with TU Dresden in 2011. This conference is being held for the first time in the UK, in associ

Karl Popper is not, as yet anyway, a household name among the educated, and this fact requires explanation. In this book, Bryan Magee gives a bold, clear outline of Popper's thought which exhibits its systematic unity.

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. Each 3000-word essay simply and concisely examines a question that has eternally perplexed enquiring minds, and provides answers from history's great thinkers. This ambitious project is a unique distillation of humanity's best ideas.In Big Questions: Philosophy, bestselling author Simon Blackburn addresses 20 essenti...

This book is the essential introduction to the history of Western thought. Covering all the key thinkers, both ancient and modern, and all the major branches of philosophy, it will give you new insights about the world we live in. Packed full of examples and clear explanations, and with key terms defined and explained, it is ideal whether you are student looking for a quick refresher or just want to explore this fascinating topic out of personal interest.NOT GOT MUCH TIME?O...

“Hitchens presents a George Orwell fit for the twenty-first century.”—The Boston GlobeIn this widely acclaimed biographical essay, the masterful polemicist Christopher Hitchens assesses the life, the achievements, and the myth of the great political writer and participant George Orwell. True to his contrarian style, Hitchens is both admiring and aggressive, sympathetic yet critical, taking true measure of his subject as hero and problem. Answering both the...

Philosophy is to question everything. More than a lifestyle, larger than any single idea, broader than a conviction, philosophy is the love of exploration, of knowledge, of uncertainty, and of that cornerstone of free thinking: doubt. Kevin Perry’s “Philosophy” takes the reader on a grand tour of life’s biggest questions, examining all that the world’s greatest philosophers have said about life and death, love and loss, language, art and God, to name a few.Philosophy is a ...

This is a book about the big questions in life: knowledge, consciousness, fate, God, truth, goodness, justice. It is for anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to approach them. Think sets out to explain what they are and why they are important. Simon Blackburn begins by putting forward a convincing case for the study of philosophy and goes on to give the reader a sense of how the great historical figures such as Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Wittgenstein...

Malcolm Muggeridge’s writing dazzles with its prophetic insight, courage and humour. He exposed the terror famine in the Ukraine in 1933, becoming the first writer to reveal the true nature of Stalin’s regime – ‘one of the most monstrous crimes in history, so terrible that people in the future will scarcely believe it ever happened’. Four decades later, Muggeridge made Something Beautiful for God, which made the work of Mother Teresa of Calcutta – who contributes the Foreword to this book ...

Despite the recent ferocious public debate about belief, the concept most central to the discussion-God-frequently remains vaguely and obscurely described. Are those engaged in these arguments even talking about the same thing? In a wide-ranging response to this confusion, esteemed scholar David Bentley Hart pursues a clarification of how the word God” functions in the world’s great theistic faiths.Ranging broadly across Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Vedantic and Bhaktic Hinduism,...