Breaking Bad and Philosophy
David R. Koepsell, Robert Arp (eds)
Open Court, PB, 9780812697643
Breaking Bad tells the story of a man whose life changes because of the medical death sentence of an advanced cancer diagnosis. The show depicts his metamorphosis from inoffensive chemistry teacher to feared drug lord and remorseless killer. Driven at first by the desire to save his family from destitution, he risks losing his family altogether because of his new life ... More/Buy
The Courage of Truth: Lectures at the College du France 1983 - 1984
Michel Foucault
Palgrave, PB, 9781403986696
The course given by Michel Foucault from February to March 1984, under the title The Courage of Truth, was his last at the College de France. His death shortly after, on June 25th, tempts us to detect a philosophical testament in these lectures, especially in view of the prominence they give to the theme of death, notably through a reinterpretation of ... More/Buy
The Greek Search for Wisdom
Michael K Kellogg
Prometheus Books, HB, 9781616145750
The philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said that all of Western philosophy was "but a series of footnotes to Plato." By the same token, one could argue that all of Western civilization is but an extension of the ancient Greek cultural legacy. As Michael Kellogg shows in this appreciation of our Greek intellectual heritage, it's hard to overemphasize how much the ... More/Buy
How to Change the World: The School of Life
John-Paul Flintoff
Pan, PB, 9781447202325
How To Change The World combines insights from Tolstoy, Gandhi and Sartre and outlines a refreshing theory of political power, giving examples of successful non-violent action from across the world, from the start of recorded history to the present day. Of course, we don't all need to topple dictators, but any attempt to change the status quo requires us to overcome ... More/Buy
How to Stay Sane: The School of Life
Philippa Perry
Pan, PB, 9781447202301
A handbook to console, nourish and gently lead us on the path to emotional balance. There is no simple set of instructions that can guarantee sanity, but if you want to overcome emotional difficulties and become happier, psychotherapist Philippa Perry argues that there are four cornerstones to sanity you can influence to bring about change. By developing your self-observation skills, examining ... More/Buy
How to Think More About Sex: The School of Life
Alain de Botton
Pan, PB, 9781447202271
View your sex life in a different light and learn how it can make you happier. Sex is the most intimately human experience there is. It can also be the most confusing. Our desire to be together conflicts with our desire to avoid vulnerability and appear "normal", leaving us detached, desensitised or embarrassed. Covering topics including adultery, lust, pornography and impotence, ... More/Buy
How to Thrive in the Digital Age: The School of Life
Tom Chatfield
Pan, PB, 9781447202318
Over the last decade, through digital media, we have crossed a number of significant thresholds: the interconnection of over half of the world's adult population through mobile telephony and the internet and the devotion of more than half the waking hours of a western generation to mediated experience. Yet little mainstream thought has been given to what these transitions signify for ... More/Buy
How to Worry Less about Money: The School of Life
John Armstrong
Pan, PB, 9781447202295
Break free of your destructive relationship with money, and learn how money can make you happy. Our relationship with money is one that lasts a lifetime. It can be as important as family life, as competitive as work, and as exciting and secretive as love. Yet books about money tend to take one of two routes: a) how to get more, ... More/Buy
The Intellectual and His People: Staging the People, Volume 2
Jacques Ranciere
Verso, PB, 9781844678600
Following the previous volume of essays by Jacques Ranciere from the 1970s, Staging the People: The Proletarian and His Double, this second collection focuses on the ways in which radical philosophers understand the people they profess to speak for. The Intellectual and His People engages in an incisive and original way with current political and cultural issues, including the 'discovery'of totalitarianism ... More/Buy
The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values
Sam Harris
Black Swan, PB, 9780552776387
Sam Harris has discovered that most people, from secular scientists to religious fundamentalists, agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, science's failure to address questions of meaning and morality has become the primary justification for religious faith.The underlying claim is that while science is the best authority on the workings of the ... More/Buy
Neil Gaiman and Philosophy
Tracy L Bealer er al (eds)
Open Court, PB, 9780812697650
Neil Gaiman is the imaginative wizard behind the best-selling novels American Gods (soon to be an HBO series) and The Anansi Boys, the graphic series The Sandman, and popular children's books like Coraline and The Graveyard Book. Neil Gaiman and Philosophy looks at Gaiman's work through a philosophical lens. How does fantasy interact with reality and what can each tell us ... More/Buy
A Philosophy of Discomfort
Jacques Pezeu-Massabuau
Reaktion Books, PB, 9781861899033
A Philosophy of Discomfort explores the idea of comfort and discomfort as a historical and philosophical concept - a constant push and pull of opposing forces. While instinct demands we avoid it, the author insists that we recognize discomfort as central to our existence. He suggests we should learn to utilize it in order to find our way to its opposite: ... More/Buy
Sin: The Early History of an Idea
Paula Fredricksen
Princeton University Press, HB, 9780691128900
Ancient Christians invoked sin to account for an astonishing range of things, from the death of God's son to the politics of the Roman Empire that worshipped him. In this book, award-winning historian of religion Paula Fredriksen tells the surprising story of early Christian concepts of sin, exploring the ways that sin came to shape ideas about God no less than ... More/Buy
Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France
Judith Butler
Columbia University Press, PB, 9780231159999
This classic work by one of the most important philosophers and critics of our time charts the genesis and trajectory of the desiring subject from Hegel's formulation in Phenomenology of Spirit to its appropriation by Kojève, Hyppolite, Sartre, Lacan, Deleuze, and Foucault. Judith Butler plots the French reception of Hegel and the successive challenges waged against his metaphysics and view of ... More/Buy