Μελέτες & Φιλοσοφία

"Musician, poet, novelist and botanist, but above all, a philosopher who denied being one, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the first to ask: “What is the value of civilization?” His answer shocked Enlightenment contemporaries and still challenges us today. Introducing Rousseau guides us through a turbulent life of lost innocence, persecution, and paranoia."

'To read Ka is to experience a giddy invasion of stories - brilliant, enigmatic, troubling, outrageous, erotic, beautiful' The New York Times'Who?' - or 'ka' - is the question that runs through Roberto Calasso's retelling of the stories of the minds and gods of India; the primordial question that continues to haunt human existence. From the Rigveda to the Upanishads, the Mahabharata to the life of Buddha, this book delves into the corpus of classical Sanskrit literature to re-imagine the ancient Indian myths and how they resonate through space and time. 'The very best book about Hindu mythology that anyone has ever written' Wendy Doniger'Dazzling, complex, utterly original ... Ka is his masterpiece' Sunday Times

'I write from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the frigid, the unfucked and the unfuckables, all those excluded from the great meat market of female flesh, and for all those guys who don't want to be protectors, for those who would like to be but don't know how, for those who are not ambitious, competitive, or well-endowed. Because this ideal of the seductive white woman constantly being waved under our noses - well, I'm pretty sure it doesn't exist.' Powerful, provocative and personal, King Kong Theory is a candid account of how the author of Baise-moi came to be Virginie Despentes. Drawing from personal experience, Despentes shatters received ideas about rape and prostitution, and explodes common attitudes towards sex and gender.

King Kong Theory is a manifesto for a new punk feminism, reissued here in a brilliant new translation by Frank Wynne.

Classic introduction to objectives and methods of schools of empiricism and linguistic analysis, especially of the logical positivism derived from the Vienna Circle. Topics: elimination of metaphysics, function of philosophy, nature of philosophical analysis, the a priori, truth and probability, critique of ethics and theology, self and the common world, more.

A Lifehouse is an institution at the heart of each neighborhood that responds to the terrifying reality of climate collapse in our own communities. In this book Adam Greenfield, author of Radical Technologies, recovers lessons from the Black Panther survival programs, the astonishingly effective Occupy Sandy disaster-relief effort and the solidarity networks of crisis-era Greece, as well as municipalist Spain and autonomous Rojava, to show how practices of mutual care and local power can help shelter us from a future that often feels like it has no place for us or the values we cherish.

Although there are many kinds of love, erotic love has been celebrated in art and poetry as life's most rewarding and exalting experience, worth living and dying for and bringing out the best in ourselves. And yet it has excused, and even been thought to justify, the most reprehensible crimes. Why should this be? This Very Short Introduction explores this and other puzzling questions. Do we love someone for their virtue, their beauty, or their moral or other qualities? Are love's characteristic desires altruistic or selfish? Are there duties of love? What do the sciences - neuroscience, evolutionary and social psychology, and anthropology - tell us about love?Many of the answers we give to such questions are determined not so much by the facts of human nature as by the ideology of love. Ronald de Sousa considers some of the many paradoxes raised by love, looking at the different kinds of love - affections, affiliation, philia, storage, agape, but focusses on eros, or romantic love. He considers whether our conventional beliefs about love and sex are deeply irrational and argues that alternative conceptions of love and sex, although hard to formulate and live by, may be worth striving for. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The fourth edition of Marxism after Marx is an updated version of what has become the classic account of twentieth-century Marxism. It includes new bibliographical information and sections covering developments since the previous edition. This new edition represents a comprehensive and reliable guide to one of the most influential bodies of thought of the twentieth century.

Krishnamurti (1895-1986) went from his origins in a small south Indian village to become one of the great spiritual teachers of the twentieth century. He taught that the only way to peace on earth is the transformation of the human psyche--and that there is no path to this transformation, no method for achieving it, no gurus or spiritual authorities who can help. The transformation is a truth each of us must discover within ourselves.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is the remarkable private journal of a Stoic philosopher who was also the most powerful man of his time. A Roman emperor from 161 to 180 A.D., Marcus Aurelius was trained in Stoic philosophy since his young age. As an emperor, he continued to practice daily spiritual exercises, meant to remind him to stay humble, patient, and resilient towards the hardships of his position. He kept his thoughts in his journal, as advice to himself on how to best fulfill the responsibilities of his position, but also his responsibilities as a human being. Meditations were not written to be published – yet today they are one of the most influential works of Stoicism. They offer guidance for anyone seeking resilience of the mind and constant self-improvement. An accessible read, Meditations will become a favorite book you will turn to regularly for inspiration.