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John Stuart Mill's book Utilitarianism is one of the most influential and widely-read philosophical defenses of utilitarianism in ethics. The essay first appeared as a series of three articles published in Fraser's Magazine in 1861; the articles were collected and reprinted as a single book in 1863. It went through four editions during Mill's lifetime with minor additions and revisions. Although Mill includes discussions of utilitarian ethical principles in other works such as On Liberty and The Subjection of Women , Utilitarianism contains Mill's only major discussion of the fundamental grounds for utilitarian ethical theory. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy

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In this book, his most famous, Max Stirner presents a philosophical case for a radical egoism that shuns the socially-oriented outlooks of both establishment ideologies and of revolutionaries in favor of an extreme individualism. The book is most widely talked about today only through the lens of other philosophers' thought: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels launched a famous assault on it in The German Ideology, and some draw a connection between Stirner's thoughts here and Nietzsche's egoism a generation later. But it is worth reading in its own right, as much for its lyricism as the challenge of its philosophical proposals. (Summary by Mat Messerschmidt)...

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Philosophy

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Epictetus (Greek: Επίκτητος; c.55–c.135) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. The name given by his parents, if one was given, is not known - the word epiktetos in Greek simply means acquired. Epictetus spent his youth as a slave in Rome to Epaphroditos, a very wealthy freedman of Nero. Even as a slave, Epictetus used his time productively, studying Stoic Philosophy under Musonius Rufus. He was eventually freed and lived a relatively hard life in ill health in Rome. So far as is known, Epictetus himself wrote nothing. All that we have of his work was transcribed by his pupil Arrian. The main work is The Discourses, four books of which have been preserved (out of an original eight). Arrian also compiled a popular digest, entitled the Enchiridion, or Handbook. In a preface to the Discourses, addressed to Lucius Gellius, Arrian states that whatever I heard him say I used to write down, word for word, as best I could, endeavouring to preserve it as a memorial, for my own future use, of his way of thinking and the frankness of his speech.(Summary by Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy

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Marcus Aurelius wrote Meditations in Greek while on campaign between 170 and 180, as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. These memos survive and continue to inspire others to this day. These writings take the form of quotations varying in length from one sentence to long paragraphs. He explicates the Stoic philosophy that the only way a man can be harmed by others is to allow his reaction to overpower him. He shows no particular religious faith in his writings, but seems to believe that some sort of logical, benevolent force organizes the universe in such a way that even bad occurrences happen for the good of the whole. (Summary by Ticktockman)...

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Philosophy

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Sätze aus der höhern Welt- und Menschenkunde (Maximes) von La Rochefoucauld (1613 - 1680), veröffentlicht 1678; übersetzt von Friedrich Schulz (1762-1798), veröffentlicht 1798 François VI. de La Rochefoucauld war ein französischer Schriftsteller und philosophischer Aphoristiker. Er gilt als der erste der französischen Moralisten. 1658 begann La Rochefoucauld mit der Abfassung kürzerer aphoristischer Betrachtungen über die Natur des Menschen allgemein und die Verhaltensweisen der Angehörigen der adligen Gesellschaft im Besonderen. 1664 gab er unter dem Titel Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales eine Sammlung dieser pointierten, meist pessimistischen, oft sarkastischen Texte heraus. (Zusammenfassung von Wikipedia)...

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Philosophy

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At the Court of Liang at the period of Yang Chu, about 300 B.C., the philosophers were treated as guests of the reigning king, who reserved for them lodging and maintenance, and encouraged all who had any pretence to the pursuit of truth and wisdom. Whether or not Yang Chu was actually a native of the Wei State, or whether he came there drawn by the attraction of a critical and unrivalled audience, it is at least certain that he settled there as small proprietor, probably in the reign of King Hwei, and continued there till his death, about 250 B.C. One may imagine a condition of life in many respects somewhat analogous to the life of Epicurus in his famous Athenian Garden. To the philosopher of pleasure and contentment came pupils and disciples, discourses were held in much the same way as at an identical period discourses were held in the garden at Athens, and it is to these discourses, memorised and recorded by his favourite pupil Meng-sun-Yang, that we most probably owe the single fragment of the teaching of Yang Chu that remains, a fragment complete and explicit enough to enable us to form a clear estimate of his teaching and ph...

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Philosophy

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The classic of the Way and of High Virtue is the Tao Teh Ching. Its author is generally held as a contemporary of Confucius, Lao Tzu, or Laozi. The exact date of the book's origin is disputed. The book is divided into two parts, the Upper Part and the Lower Part. The Upper Part consists of chapters 1-37, and each chapter begins with the word Tao, or the Way. The Lower Part consists of chapters 38-81, and each chapter begins with the words Shang Teh, or High Virtue. This 1919 edition names the Lower Part as the Wu Wei, or translated variously as not doing, non-ado, or non-assertion. This edition also contains a history of the book and its author, Lao Tzu, along with a discussion of the Wu Wei. Lao Tzu's classic has been cherished as suggestions, rather than commandments, for finding one's path to beauty, goodness, and quality of life through a non-assertive understanding of the Way. (Summary by Melanie McCalmont)...

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Philosophy

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This is an essay on decision biases and a critique on prejudices, neatly written and thought provoking. (Summary by sidhu177)

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Philosophy, Advice, Essay/Short nonfiction

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Seneca the Younger wrote the moral essay De Brevitate Vitae — On the Shortness of Life — to his friend Paulinus. The philosopher brings up many Stoic principles on the nature of time, namely that men waste much of it in meaningless pursuits. According to the essay, nature gives man enough time to do what is really important and the individual must allot it properly. (Introduction by xxxx)...

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Classics (antiquity), Philosophy

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The Pre-Socratic Greek philosophers, that is, the philosopher-scientists who lived before or contemporaneously to Socrates, were the first men in the Western world to establish a line of inquiry regarding the natural phenomena that rejected the traditional religious explanations and searched for rational explanations. Even though they do not form a school of thought, they can be considered the fathers of philosophy and many other sciences as we have them now. None of their works is extant, so, in this collection, we present the textual fragments, when existing, of ten Pre-Socratic philosopher-scientists, and quotations and testimonials about them left by later authors. (Summary by Leni)...

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Philosophy, Essay/Short nonfiction

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The Summa Theologica (or the Summa Theologiae or simply the Summa, written 1265–1274) is the most famous work of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) although it was never finished. It was intended as a manual for beginners as a compilation of all of the main theological teachings of that time. It summarizes the reasonings for almost all points of Christian theology in the West, which, before the Protestant Reformation, subsisted solely in the Roman Catholic Church. The Summa's topics follow a cycle: the existence of God, God's creation, Man, Man's purpose, Christ, the Sacraments, and back to God.(Summary adapted from the Wikipedia) These are parts three and four of six parts of the Pars Prima, consisting of questions regarding the Angels, and the Work of the Six Days....

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Religion, Philosophy

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Underhill emphasizes the practical, here-and-now nature of spiritual life. She argues that spirituality is a genuine and abiding human fact, and that any complete description of human life must find room for the spiritual factor, and for the religious life in which it finds expression....

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Religion, Philosophy

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Voltairine de Cleyre (November 17, 1866 - June 20, 1912) was an American anarchist. She was skilled in many subjects and wrote essays, poems, letters, sketches, stories and speeches. These are her selected letters, sketches and stories. (Summary by enko)...

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Short stories, Philosophy

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Surely the most deeply-rooted need of the human soul, its purest aspiration, is for the closest possible union with God. As one turns over the pages of this little work, written by Blessed Albert the Great towards the end of his life, when that great soul had ripened and matured, one feels that here indeed is the ideal of one's hopes. (From the Preface)...

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Religion, Philosophy

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The Dhammapada is is a Buddhist scripture, containing 423 verses in 26 categories. According to tradition, these are verses spoken by the Buddha on various occasions, most of which deal with ethics. It is is considered one of the most important pieces of Theravada literature. Despite this, the Dhammapada is read by many Mahayana Buddhists and remains a very popular text across all schools of Buddhism. - Excerpted from Wikipedia...

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Religion, Philosophy

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A series of biographical lectures originally published in 1850. Each chapter is a philosophical treatment of the life of an intellectual. The six representatives are Plato, Swedenborg, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Napolean and Goethe. (Introduction by S. Kovalchik)...

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Biography, Philosophy

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In diesem indischen Märchen erzählt Manfred Kyber die Geschichte von Mantao, der als Sohn armer, einfacher Leute geboren wird, aber in Wahrheit ein Königssohn ist. Wir begleiten Mantao auf seinem Lebensweg, auf dem uns Wiedergeburt und Bestimmung, Versuchung und die Erfüllung einer göttlichen Aufgabe, die ewige Verkettung der Dinge und die Verantwortung für die Schöpfung begegnen. Mit einer poetischen Sprache schafft Kyber eine schöne, leicht mystische Atmosphäre. (Zusammenfassung von Karlsson)...

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Fairy tales, Philosophy

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This dialogue brings Socrates face to face with the famous sophist Gorgias and his followers. It is a work likely completed around the time of Republic and illuminates many of the spiritual ideas of Plato. The spirituality, as Jowett points out in his wonderful introduction, has many ideas akin to Christianity, but is more generous as it reserves damnation only for the tyrants of the world. Some of the truths of Socrates, as presented by Plato, shine forth in this wonderful work on sophistry and other forms of persuasion or cookery. (Summary by Kevin Johnson)...

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Ancient Texts, Philosophy, Satire

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The Autobiography of a Slander exposes the consequences of reckless words or, even worse, intentionally disparaging words. In this moral tale, told from the point of view of the slander, Edna Lyall (pseudonym used by Ada Ellen Bayley) reveals her ideals and goals in life and relationships. (Summary by Rhonda Federman)...

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Fiction, Philosophy, Short stories, Literature

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After a number of deaths in his close family, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle turned to spiritualism in hope of finding proof of the afterlife. Being open in this way, he wanted to believe that spirits and other supernatural being including fairies were real. Because of this he believed the photographs of fairies taken by the Cottingley girls were proof of the existence of such beings. In this book he presents his stance on the issue. Eventually it was proven that the photographs were indeed a hoax. (Summary by Amy Gramour)...

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Philosophy, Myths/Legends