Category Archives: books to consider

by Kim Stanley Robinson The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity’s only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confrontContinue reading “Book to consider: 2312”

edited by Diego Machuca and Baron Reed Skepticism: From Antiquity to the Present is an authoritative and up-to-date survey of the entire history of skepticism. Divided chronologically into ancient, medieval, renaissance, modern and contemporary periods and featuring 50 specially-commissioned chapters from leading philosophers, this comprehensive volume is the first of its kind. By exploring each ofContinue reading “Book to consider: Skepticism — From Antiquity to the Present”

by Penelope Fitzgerald In 1959 Florence Green, a kindhearted widow with a small inheritance, risks everything to open a bookshop – the only bookshop – in the seaside town of Hardborough. By making a success of a business so impractical, she invites the hostility of the town’s less prosperous shopkeepers. By daring to enlarge herContinue reading “Book to consider: The Bookshop”

by Xenophon An essential text for understanding Socrates, Xenophon’s Memorabilia is the compelling tribute of an affectionate student to his teacher, providing a rare firsthand account of Socrates’ life and philosophy. The Memorabilia is invaluable both as a work of philosophy in its own right and as a complement to the study of Plato’s dialogues. The longest of Xenophon’sContinue reading “Book to consider: Memorabilia”

by Robert Harris Imperium: When Tiro, the confidential secretary (and slave) of a Roman senator, opens the door to a terrified stranger on a cold November morning, he sets in motion a chain of events that will eventually propel his master into one of the most suspenseful courtroom dramas in history. The stranger is aContinue reading “Books to consider: The Cicero Trilogy”

by Hannah Arendt The Origins of Totalitarianism begins with the rise of anti-Semitism in central and western Europe in the 1800s and continues with an examination of European colonial imperialism from 1884 to the outbreak of World War I. Arendt explores the institutions and operations of totalitarian movements, focusing on the two genuine forms of totalitarianContinue reading “Book to consider: The Origins of Totalitarianism”

by Massimo Pigliucci Enjoy this audio excerpt from my forthcoming book (out next week!), The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us about Our Search for Good Leaders. What Socrates’s greatest failure reveals about an ancient question: Can we teach our leaders to be better people? Is good character somethingContinue reading “The Quest for Character, audio excerpt”

by Skye C. Cleary In an age of self-exposure, what does it mean to be authentic? “Authenticity” has become attenuated to the point of meaninglessness; everyone says to be yourself, but what that means is anyone’s guess. For existential philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, authenticity is not the revelation of a true self, but an exhilaratingContinue reading “Book to consider: How to Be Authentic”

by Seneca Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE–65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and adviser to the emperor Nero, all during the Silver Age of Latin literature. The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca is a fresh and compelling series of new English-language translations of his works in eight accessible volumes. Edited by world-renowned classicistsContinue reading “Book to consider: Anger, Mercy, Revenge”

by Peter Adamson Peter Adamson presents a lively introduction to six hundred years of European philosophy, from the beginning of the ninth century to the end of the fourteenth century. The medieval period is one of the richest in the history of philosophy, yet one of the least widely known. Adamson introduces us to someContinue reading “Book to consider: Medieval Philosophy”