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

Composed of ten books and based upon Aristotle's own notes from his lectures at the Lyceum, "Nicomachean Ethics" holds a pre-eminent place amongst the ancient treatises on moral philosophy. As opposed to other pre-Socratic works, "Nicomachean Ethics" moves beyond the purely theoretical analysis of moral philosophy by examining its practical application. Aristotelian ethics is concerned with how an individual should best live their life and at its...

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading. While in prison awaiting a brutal execution, Boethius produced arguably the most famous work of early medieval philosophy and literature, the celebrated Consolation of Philosophy. In alternating sections of prose and poetry, Boethius describes the circumstances of his rapid fall from the upper echelons of society and power. In a conversation with lady Philosophy,...

"The falseness of an opinion is not for us any objection to it: it is here, perhaps, that our new language sounds most strangely. The question is, how far an opinion is life-furthering, life-preserving, species-preserving, perhaps species-rearing, and we are fundamentally inclined to maintain that the falsest opinions (to which the synthetic judgments a priori belong), are the most indispensable to us, that without a recognition of logical fictions,...

Also known as Charles Darwin's "Journal of Researches," "The Voyage of the Beagle" is an exquisite travel memoir, a detailed scientific journal, and the foundation for one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 19th century. It is the account of Darwin's time aboard the HMS Beagle, which set sail from Plymouth Sound on December 27, 1831 under the command of Captain Robert FitzRoy. Published in 1839 along with other accounts of the voyage,...

If there exists on any subject a philosophy (that is, a system of rational knowledge based on concepts), then there must also be for this philosophy a system of pure rational concepts, independent of any condition of intuition, in other words, a metaphysic. It may be asked whether metaphysical elements are required also for every practical philosophy, which is the doctrine of duties, and therefore also for Ethics.

Similar to Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explores another facet of good living by outlining the best governing practices that benefit the majority, and not the minority. In The Politics, he defines various institutions and how they should operate within an established system. The Politics provides an analysis of contemporary government as it relates to all people. Aristotle discusses the positive and negative qualities of authority and how they affect...

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...

To the mentality that assumes, more or less consciously, that we must of necessity find a solution to every problem, belongs the argument based on the disastrous consequences of a thing. Take any book of apologetics-that is to say, of theological advocacy-and you will see how many times you will meet with this phrase-"the disastrous consequences of this doctrine." Now the disastrous consequences of a doctrine prove at most that the doctrine is disastrous,...