PROMETHEUS

(P/B) AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING THE PRINCIPLES OR MORALS
Judging it to be "of all my writings incomparably the best," Hume accurately assessed this groundbreaking classic, which continues to influence philosophical thinking on ethics to this day through the force of its ideas and its clarity of expression. Among the many insights that Hume expounds in this work is that morality is grounded in feelings, not in knowledge. Based on moral sentiment, people naturally value agreeable qualities and shun disagreeable ones. On closer analysis, Hume concludes that the feeling of agreeableness comes from a...
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(H/B) THE KEMALISTS
A sprawling land with a fascinating, diverse, and ancient heritage, Turkey is literally at the crossroads of East and West. Sitting astride the Bosporus, which bridges Asia and Europe, modern Turkey maintains a precarious balancing act between Western secularism and orthodox Islamic revival. Now as Turkey prepares to enter the European Union, it is more important than ever for Westerners to acquire an understanding of the history and politics that have shaped this key nation of the Near East. Journalist Muammer Kaylan has spent a long, dis...
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(H/B) PRAGMATISM, OLD AND NEW
Morris R. Cohen once described pragmatism as "a philosophy for people who cannot think"; and Bertrand Russell feared that pragmatism would lead philosophy into "cosmic impiety." Nothing could be further from the truth. Pragmatism was one of the most fruitful philosophical movements of the late nineteenth century, and has continued to be a significant influence on some of the major figures in philosophy - F. P. Ramsey, W. V. Quine, Sidney Hook, Nelson Goodman, Hilary Putnam, and many others. Today some even speak of a remarkable renaissance...
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(P/B) THIS SIDE OF PARADISE
With this first novel the author of The Great Gatsby established himself as an important American novelist and launched a celebrated literary career that was to produce many classics of 20th-century fiction. The semi-autobiographical story of Amory Blaine traces the coming of age of a young man who typifies the «lost generation» of America’s Jazz Age. Fitzgerald’s descriptions of his protagonist’s pampered childhood, experiences at Princeton, love affairs, and sobering confrontations with the harsh realities of World War I reflect much of ...
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THE RATIONALE OF PUNISHMENT

(P/B) ON THE MOTION OF THE HEART AND BLOOD IN ANIMALS

(P/B) FORCES OF MATTER

AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING
How do we come to have ideas about the world and about the relationships of objects we perceive therein? Is all impressed upon the senses from outside or does the human mind have a significant role to play in how such concepts as "causality," "probability," "necessity," "contingency," "miracles," and others are to be understood? If so, what is the nature and extent of that role? In this classic work of early modern epistemology, Hume offers important insights about how we come to understand and have knowledge of our world and, in so doing,...
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(P/B) THE ESSENTIAL WRITINGS

(P/B) THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN

(P/B) THE AGE OF REASON

THE LEGACY OF JIHAD

(P/B) PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY
Biologists study life in its various physical forms, while philosophers of biology seek answers to questions about the nature, purpose, and impact of this research. What permits us to distinguish between living and nonliving things even though both are made of the same minerals? Is the complex structure of organisms proof that a creative force is working its will in the physical universe, or are existing life-forms the random result of an evolutionary process working itself out over eons of time? What moral and social questions arise regar...
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(P/B) PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

(P/B) COMMON SENSE

(H/B) CAVE PAINITNGS AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT: THE ORIGIN OF CREATIV

(P/B) RIGHTS OF MAN

(P/B) UTILITARIANISM
What is the foundation upon which moral judgments are made? Why and how do we conclude that an action, performed or contemplated, is right or wrong, good or bad? In the eighteenth century, English philosopher Jeremy Bentham developed the now famous moral theory known as utilitarianism, which is based upon the pleasure principle - a concept whose history can be traced back to the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus and to Hedonism. In his acclaimed essay Utilitarianism (1863), John Stuart Mill, the intellectual creation of his father (James ...
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THE ESSENCE OF RELIGION

(P/B) AGNOSTIC READER