What is said can be understood only when seen in the context of what is not said. Many ancient and medieval philosophers use this dynamic of presence and absence. Plato always recognizes that his expressions are energized by being set before other people. Aristotle’s dialectic between different sorts of public activity does the same. Anselm sees his writing as a test case for what it says. Bonaventure approximates his distance from trinity by finding its images at large. Aquinas makes lega...

Being A Primer rediscovers our appreciation of being. It does this by finding the dynamic of essence and existence that being requires. This dynamic expresses itself in single beings, in multiple beings and in sequential beings. Our acquaintance with being takes place across the whole of being by expressions that are as wide as being—single realities in what are called by transcendental names. Each being manifest this for itself and others beings are similar to some others, showing its likene...

In the seminal work "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus," Ludwig Wittgenstein offers a profound exploration of the relationship between language, reality, and thought, articulating a framework that seeks to dissolve traditional philosophical problems through logical analysis. Written in a distinctive, aphoristic style, the text presents a series of propositions that build upon one another, ultimately asserting that the limits of language are the limits of our world. Positioned at the intersect...

Are we free, whether we know it or not? Or is our sense of freedom merely an illusion? Rudolf Steiner tackles this age-old problem in a new way. He shows that by taking account of our own activity of thinking, we can know the reasons for our actions. And if these reasons are taken from our world of ideals, then our actions are free, because we alone determine them. But this freedom cannot be settled for us by philosophical argument. It is not simply granted to us. If we want to become free...

Philosophy of Existence was first presented to the public as a series of lectures invited by The German Academy of Frankfurt. In preparing these lectures Jaspers, whom the Nazis had already dismissed from his professorship at Heidelberg, knew that he was speaking in Germany for the last time. Jaspers used the occasion to offer an account of the cultural and intellectual situation from which existentialism emerged as well as a summary of his own philosophy.The book serves t...

One of the major philosophical texts of the 20th century, Process and Reality is based on Alfred North Whitehead’s influential lectures that he delivered at the University of Edinburgh in the 1920s on process philosophy.Whitehead’s master work in philsophy, Process and Reality propounds a system of speculative philosophy, known as process philosophy, in which the various elements of reality into a consistent relation to each other. It is also an e...

An invaluable introduction to the leading French intellectual of the twentieth centuryThe Wisdom of Sartre offers key excerpts from the eloquent French writer, playwright, and philosopher's masterpiece, Being and Nothingness. From this collection, readers will discover the strongest themes in his early philosophical work: an ontological account of what it means to be human, and the role of perception, knowledge, and consciousness in the practical ...

Insight is Bernard Lonergan's masterwork. It aim is nothing less than insight into insight itself, a comprehensive view of knowledge and understanding, and to state what one needs to understand and how one proceeds to understand it.In Lonergan's own words: 'Thoroughly understand what it is to understand, and not only will you understand the broad lines of all there is to be understood but also you will possess a fixed base, and invariant pattern, opening upon all further d...

Perhaps the most important work of philosophy written in the twentieth century, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was the only philosophical work that Ludwig Wittgenstein published during his lifetime. Written in short, carefully numbered paragraphs of extreme brilliance, it captured the imagination of a generation of philosophers. For Wittgenstein, logic was something we use to conquer a reality which is in itself both elusive and unobtainable. He famously summarized the book in the...

This book is an academic treatise on semiotics: the science of signs. It presents the subject to the reader as a key to it all: an understanding of ideas, thought, and semiosis; of the utility of knowledge and signs; and of the necessary and pleasurable parts, as well as the dangerous aspects, played by learning and communication in living.