"One of the greatest works of philosophy, political theory, and literature ever produced, Plato's Republic has shaped Western thought for thousands of years and remains as relevant today as when it was written during the fourth century B.C. Republic begins by posing a central question: "What is justice, and why should we be just, especially when the wicked often seem happier and more successful?" For Plato, the answer lies with the ways people, groups,...

Records the Italian statesman's classic statement on the nature of government and the means by which political power is obtained.

Thomas More, a 16th century English lawyer, statesman, and philosopher, was one of the most controversial figures of his time. More opposed the Protestant reformation and denied the King's position as head of the Church of England. This act would ultimately lead to his trial for treason and execution. Despite his tragic downfall, he will forever be remembered for his pioneering work "Utopia." Thomas More first coined the word utopia in his 1516 book...

The influence of Euripides on the development of the dramatic genre cannot be overstated. Along with Sophocles and Aeschylus he is regarded as one of the three great Greek tragedians from classical antiquity. One of the most important of Euripides' surviving dramas is "Medea", the story of its title character, the wife of Jason of the Argonauts, who seeks revenge upon her unfaithful husband when he abandons her for a another bride. Set in Corinth...

Electra or Elektra is a Greek tragedy by Sophocles. Its date is not, known, but various stylistic similarities with the Philoctetes and the Oedipus at Colonus, lead scholars to suppose that it was written towards the end of Sophocles' career. These few facts are about all that is, known of Sophocles' life. They imply steady and distinguished attachment to Athens, its government, religion, and social forms. Sophocles was wealthy from birth, highly...

George Berkeley was an Irish Philosopher who is best known for putting forward the idea of subjective idealism. "A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge" is one of Berkeley's best known works and in it Berkeley expounds upon this idea of subjective idealism, which in other words is the idea that all of reality, as far as humans are concerned, is simply a construct of the way our brains perceive and according to Berkeley no other sense...

A treatise in which eighteenth-century German philosopher Immanuel Kant attempts to reconcile empiricism and rationalism.

Written by one of the founders of modern political philosophy, Thomas Hobbes, during the English civil war, Leviathan is an influential work of nonfiction. Regarded as one of the earliest examples of the social contract theory, Leviathan has both historical and philosophical importance. Social contract theory prioritizes the state over the individual, claiming that individuals have consented to the surrender of some of their freedoms by participating...

First published in 1757, the treatise "A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful", by the Irish philosopher Edmund Burke, provides a distinct transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism. Burke's treatise was the first fully realized exposition that separated the definition of the sublime from the beautiful. His work received much attention from other philosophers upon its publication and influenced thinkers...

German philosopher and significant 18th century late Enlightenment thinker Immanuel Kant wrote "Critique of Judgment" in 1790 to solidify his ideas on aesthetics. Divided into two sections, one on aesthetic judgment and the other on teleological judgment, "Critique" proceeds to analyze the human experience of the beautiful and the sublime. From the effect of art and nature to the role of imagination, from objectivity of taste to the limits of representation,...