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Before the beginning of World War II, during the time of the Modernist movement in philosophy, George Santayana wrote these five descriptive essays. He examined John Locke’s sensationalism, British Idealism, the “Theory of Relativity”, Freud’s psychology, and Julien Benda’s preachment on the relations between God and the world. [Summary written by Gary]...

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Philosophy

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Richtiges Leben und Regeln dazu. Wertvoll und hilfreich. (Summary by redaer)

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Philosophy

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This essay, written in 1795, puts forth a plan for a lasting peace between nations and peoples. Kant puts forth necessary means to any peace, and argues that nations can be brought into federation with one another without loss of sovereignty. In one translation, telling of the historical impact of this essay, this federation is called a “league of nations.” The supplements and appendices are of considerable interest on their own. The supplements contain an argument regarding the use which nature makes of war, and the way in which nature, in the end, impels us towards peace. The appendices return to the question of whether his theory is mere theory, or whether it bears translation into practice. In this, he distinguishes between the moral politician and the political moralist, pointing out ways in which practical considerations conceal and excuse behavior that leads us towards discord and war. This essay continues to be relevant, and of great importance today, much to our shame. We hope still to find the perpetual peace which Kant argued as a obligatory goal, and we still have need of fear that we will, as Kant warned, “find Perpetua...

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Philosophy

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Platon (427 v. Chr.–348 v. Chr.) läßt Sokrates sein Leben darstellen und beurteilen sowie seine Einstellung zum Tod. Übersetzung durch Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768-1834) von 1805. (Summary by redaer) This reading is in German....

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Allen's books illustrate the use of the power of thought to increase personal capabilities. Although he never achieved great fame or wealth, his works continue to influence people around the world, including the New Thought movement. Allen's most famous book, As a Man Thinketh, was published in 1902. It is now considered a classic self-help book. Its underlying premise is that noble thoughts make a noble person, while lowly thoughts make a miserable person....

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Philosophy

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Unverwundbar ist nicht Das, wogegen kein Schlag geschieht, sondern, Was nicht verletzt wird. Das ist das Kennzeichen, das ich dir für den Weisen gebe. (aus dem Text) Wegen Mängel in den PDF Ausgaben wurde von zwei Quelltexten vorgelesen: Text (1) und (2)...

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Philosophy

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The Life of Reason, subtitled the Phases of Human Progress, is a book published in five volumes from 1905 to 1906, by Spanish-born American philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952). It consists of Reason in Common Sense, Reason in Society, Reason in Religion, Reason in Art, and Reason in Science. The work is considered to be the most complete expression of Santayana's moral philosophy [...]. Santayana's philosophy is strongly influenced by the materialism of Democritus and the refined ethics of Aristotle, with a special emphasis on the natural development of ideal ends. The Life of Reason is sometimes considered to be one of the most poetic and well-written works of philosophy in Western history. To supply but a single example, the oft-quoted aphorism of Santayana's, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, may be found on p. 284 of Reason in Common Sense....

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Philosophy

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Lessings Kritik an der Horazübersetzung des seinerzeit bekannten Pastors Lange ist unerbittlich und von fast brutaler Genauigkeit. Aus der Einzelkritik Lessings wird deutlich, dass Pastor Lange tatsächlich mit der unternommenen Horazübersetzung überfordert war, ihm fehlte sowohl das Verständnis für das lateinische Original als auch die deutsche Ausdruckskraft. Die Form des Verrisses gibt Lessing aber vor allem Gelegenheit, seine eigene profunde Bildung und ein sensibles Textverständnis zu demonstrieren. Seine rhetorische Sachlichkeit überzeugt bis heute und weist dem heute vergessenen Pastor Lange jederzeit die Rolle eines elenden Gegners zu. Der Text ist leider nachlässig ediert, vor allem bei den Zitaten. Das Moschuszitat auf S. 573f. (aus dem 2. Idyllion v. 131ff.) ist mit zwei Druckfehlern und ohne diakritische Zeichen kaum zu lesen, hier wurde der Text für die Aufnahme aus der folgenden zeitgenössischen Ausgabe berichtigt: http://books.google.de/books?id=E1U-AAAAcAAJ Theocriti, Bionis et Moschi Carmina Bucolica, graece et latine, ed. Valckenaer, Lugduni Batavorum MDCCLXXXI , S. 351ff. (Zusammenfassung von Marilianus)...

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Philosophy

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The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, also known as The Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals or Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals or Grounding of the Metaphysics of Morals, is Immanuel Kant's first contribution to moral philosophy. It argues for an a priori basis for morality. Where the Critique of Pure Reason laid out Kant's metaphysical and epistemological ideas, this relatively short, primarily meta-ethical, work was intended to outline and define the concepts and arguments shaping his future work The Metaphysics of Morals. However, the latter work is much less readable than the Fundamental Principles.(Summary from Wikipedia)...

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The Novum Organum is a philosophical work by Francis Bacon published in 1620. The title translates as new instrument. This is a reference to Aristotle's work Organon, which was his treatise on logic and syllogism. In Novum Organum, Bacon details a new system of logic he believes to be superior to the old ways of syllogism. For Bacon, finding the essence of a thing was a simple process of reduction, and the use of inductive reasoning . . . This work was critical in the historical development of the scientific method....

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Philosophy

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Kein lebendes Wesen ist störrischer, keines will mit mehr Kunst behandelt seyn, als der Mensch; keines muß mehr geschont werden. Denn was ist thörichter, als daß man sich schämt, an Zugvieh und Hunden seinen Zorn auszulassen, der Mensch aber unter Menschen stehend am schlimmsten daran ist? (aus dem Text)...

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Philosophy

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Marius the Epicurean is a philosophical novel written by Walter Pater, published in 1885. In it Pater displays, with fullness and elaboration, his ideal of the aesthetic life, his cult of beauty as opposed to bare asceticism, and his theory of the stimulating effect of the pursuit of beauty as an ideal of its own. The principles of what would be known as the Aesthetic movement were partly traceable to this book; and its impact was particularly felt on one of the movement's leading proponents, Oscar Wilde, a former student of Pater at Oxford. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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In Defense of Women is H. L. Mencken's 1918 book on women and the relationship between the sexes. Some laud the book as progressive while others brand it as reactionary. While Mencken didn't champion women's rights, he described women as wiser in many novel and observable ways, while demeaning average men. According to Mencken's biographer, Fred Hobson: Depending on the position of the reader, he was either a great defender of women's rights or, as a critic labelled him in 1916, 'the greatest misogynist since Schopenhauer','the country's high-priest of woman-haters.' (Summary from wikipedia)...

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Philosophy

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Encheiridion, stoische Regeln für ein zufriedenes Leben. Knapp und ausgezeichnet. Geschrieben von Epiktet (ca. 50-138). Übersetzung durch Carl Conz von 1864. (Summary by redaer) This reading is in German....

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Philosophy

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In der Abhandlung „Zum ewigen Frieden wendet Kant die Grundsätze seiner Moralphilosophie auf die Beziehungen zwischen Staaten an. Er stellt klar, dass Frieden kein natürlicher Zustand sei und deshalb gestiftet werden müsse. Um das Ziel „Weltfrieden“ zu verwirklichen, müssten sich die Staaten einem allgemein verbindlichen Völkerrecht unterordnen. In seinen Bestimmungen und Erläuterungen nimmt Kant zahlreiche Entwicklungen hin zum modernen Völkerrecht vorweg. In his essay Perpetual Peace, Kant applies the principles of his moral philosophy to the relations between nations. He points out that peace is not a natural state and therefore must be instituted through human effort. To make world peace come true, all nations should submit to general and binding international laws. In his definitions and explanations, Kant anticipates many aspects of the development of modern international law. (Summary by Al-Kadi)...

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Lao-Tze's Tao Teh King illuminates The Tao: a guiding principle of the universe and all within it. By exploring the nature of dualities and complements, Lao-Tze dissects strength and weakness; presence and absence; life and death. The Tao Teh King has served as a foundation for centuries of philosophy and wisdom. (Summary by Eric S. Piotrowski)...

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Je ne sais, Athéniens, quelle impression mes accusateurs ont faite sur vous. Pour moi, en les entendant, peu s’en est fallu que je ne me méconnusse moi-même, tant ils ont parlé d’une manière persuasive ; et cependant, à parler franchement, [...] ils n’ont pas dit un mot qui soit véritable ; et de ma bouche vous entendrez la vérité toute entière, ... (de L'apologie de Socrate ») How you have felt, O men of Athens, at hearing the speeches of my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that their persuasive words almost made me forget who I was - such was the effect of them; and yet [...] they have hardly uttered a word, or not more than a word, of truth; but you shall hear from me the whole truth... (from Socrates' Defense on Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy

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Of The Twilight of the Idols, Nietzsche says in Ecce Homo: “If anyone should desire to obtain a rapid sketch of how everything before my time was standing on its head, he should begin reading me in this book. That which is called ‘Idols’ on the title-page is simply the old truth that has been believed in hitherto. In plain English, The Twilight of the Idols means that the old truth is on its last legs.” Certain it is that, for a rapid survey of the whole of Nietzsche’s doctrine, no book, save perhaps the section entitled “Of Old and New Tables” in Thus Spake Zarathustra, could be of more real value than The Twilight of the Idols. Here Nietzsche is quite at his best. He is ripe for the marvellous feat of the transvaluation of all values. Nowhere is his language – that marvellous weapon which in his hand became at once so supple and so murderous – more forcible and more condensed. Nowhere are his thoughts more profound. But all this does not by any means imply that this book is the easiest of Nietzsche’s works. On the contrary, I very much fear that unless the reader is well prepared, not only in Nietzscheism, but also in the habit of...

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Philosophy

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Consolation of Philosophy (Latin: Consolatio Philosophiae) is a philosophical work by Boethius written in about the year 524 AD. It has been described as the single most important and influential work in the West in medieval and early Renaissance Christianity, and is also the last great work that can be called Classical. - Consolation of Philosophy was written during Boethius' one year imprisonment while awaiting trial, and eventual horrific execution, for the crime of treason by Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great. Boethius was at the very heights of power in Rome and was brought down by treachery. It was from this experience he was inspired to write a philosophical book from prison reflecting on how a lord's favor could change so quickly and why friends would turn against him. It has been described as “by far the most interesting example of prison literature the world has ever seen.” - The Consolation of Philosophy stands, by its note of fatalism and its affinities with the Christian doctrine of humility, midway between the heathen philosophy of Seneca the Younger and the later Christian philosophy of consolation represented by T...

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Cet ouvrage a pour objet les lois, les coutumes et les divers usages de tous les peuples de la terre. On peut dire que le sujet est immense, puisqu'il embrasse toutes les institutions qui sont reçues parmi les hommes ; puisque l'auteur distingue ces institutions ; qu'il examine celles qui conviennent le plus à la société et à chaque société ; qu'il en cherche l'origine ; qu'il en découvre les causes physiques et morales ; qu'il examine celles qui ont un degré de bonté par elles-mêmes et celles qui n'en ont aucun; que de deux pratiques pernicieuses, il cherche celle qui l'est le plus et celle qui l'est le moins ; qu'il y discute celles qui peuvent avoir de bons effets à un certain égard, et de mauvais dans un autre. Il a cru ses recherches utiles, parce que le bon sens consiste beaucoup à connaître les nuances des choses. (Résumé par Montesquieu)...

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Philosophy