Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in Philosophy

The last book of the Christian Bible, Revelation, read by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, could leave one wondering, "Should I repent now?"

The wisdom of Sun Tzu has been available for over 2,000 years and ignored or studied by many. Those who have studied and put Sun Tzu's teachings into action, be it a CEO of a corporation or Ho Chi Minh, have typically emerged as winners and those who ignored them the losers. As a platoon leader in Vietnam, I, like many of our leaders, wase unaware of his teachings. I am permanently disabled; my replacement, also unaware, was KIA two months later.

In The Road, Jack London embraces the concepts of unconfined individualism and Darwinism through his autobiographical account of his time riding the rails of Canada and the United States. The author of White Fang, The Call of the Wild, and Sea Wolf, relays the time leading up to turning point in his life - a perfunctory trial and a 30-day imprisonment in the Erie County Penitentiary for the crime of vagrancy - an experience so degrading that he turned to a career in writing.

In 1597, a series of witch trials were held in Scotland which resulted in about 200 executions. The Scottish King James VI (who became James I of England in 1603) took a great interest in the trials and was inspired to write Daemonologie, a text in which the detection and classification of acts of sorcery and the resulting judicial processes are discussed in the form of a Socratic dialogue.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky is best known as the cofounder of theosophy, which is essentially a selective conflation of Hindu and Buddhist ideas combined with Blavatsky's idiosyncratic system of cosmology. The Voice of the Silence, first published in 1889, is described by the author as "chosen fragments from the Book of the Golden Precepts, for the daily use of disciples".

This collection of miscellaneous essays was published posthumously in 1921. In the first and largest section, The Hidden Power, the author identifies Spirit as the "innermost within" of all things and the unseen essence of all phenomena. He develops this proposition to claim that Spiritual Science has fixed laws just as does Physical Science, and that an understanding of the laws could enable man to develop powers of which he is currently unaware. The other essays cover a range of topics relating to metaphysics, the Bible and other arcana of religion.

Henry David Thoreau discusses walking, the importance of nature, and the human need for walking in the wilderness.

The ABC of Relativity is still considered today, nearly 90 years after its first appearance, as an authoritative and accessible introduction to Einstein's Theory of Relativity. While there's nothing particularly easy about understanding the Theory of Relativity, many have found that Russell's explanation is easier to understand than Einstein's own writings on the topic. Russell covers topics such as time dilation and curved space-time, using non-scientific examples of train travel and aerial views of the terrain.

Russell once said, "Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric." His views on religion in general, and on Christianity in particular (as in this work), were considered "eccentric" by many of his contemporaries. So were his views on sex, which figures frequently as an example of the misery that Christian leaders and thinkers inflict, and for which he was often vilified. The lectures in this collection leave no doubt about his views on these and related subjects.

Thomas Troward (1847-1916) was a divisional Judge in British-administered India. In his retirement, he became well known as a lecturer on metaphysical subjects and developed a unique New Thought philosophy, which he discussed in a number of books. The Law and the Word was published posthumously in 1917. The book explores the power of the word as the fundamental element in manifestation. Troward held the word to be the expression of the immutable law of creation and supports his claim with extensive citations from the Bible.

The secret to success has been around since our ancestors crawled out of their cave, and went looking for a Mastodon for lunch. It’s a positive attitude. But even those with that attitude need a boost now and then, and here’s an hour of great ideas to listen to on that commute, so you will hit the ground running. A story masterfully told by that voice from “Down Under”, Denis Daly.

After living in the city of Orphalese for 12 years, a prophet is about to board a ship which will carry him home. He is stopped by a seeress and the people of the city, who ask him for his insights into life. The book is divided into chapters dealing with love, marriage, children, giving, eating and drinking, work, joy and sorrow, houses, clothes, buying and selling, crime and punishment, laws, freedom, reason and passion, pain, self-knowledge, teaching, friendship, talking, time, good and evil, prayer, pleasure, beauty, religion, and death.

American philosopher and psychologist William James was considered one of the late 19th century's leading thinkers and the "Father of American Psychology". This collection of essays includes four on James' belief that religious faith is an acceptable way of viewing the world, despite the absence of empirical evidence; the remaining papers include a discussion of the important contributions of individuals to society, a criticism of Hegelisms, and his curiosity in the matter of psychical research.

Read by award-winning narrator Mike Vendetti, Common Sense is a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775-76 that inspired people in the Thirteen Colonies to declare and fight for independence from Great Britain in the summer of 1776. The pamphlet explained the advantages of and the need for immediate independence in clear, simple language. It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution and became an immediate sensation.

The Travelling Ape is an award-winning book that explores what travelling the world taught him about life, humanity, and the geopolitical turmoil that so defines us. And how exploring the world changed him as a person, too. A journey infused with sharp insights and equally entertaining anecdotes of personal humiliation from when travel goes wrong.

American psychologist William James (1842-1910) was also a philosopher of considerable repute and borrowed the theory of pragmatism first put forward by Charles Peirce to help form his own interpretation of the philosophy. Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking is based on the notion that the meaning of any idea is valid only if it works both experientially and practically. The book consists of a series of eight lectures, delivered at the Lowell Institute in Boston in November and December of 1906, and at Columbia University in January 1907.

This text draws together central components of Hegel's philosophical system as he explores the development of Mind (Spirit, Geist) in its individual, communal and conceptual aspects. Translator William Wallace writes (1894): 'I here offer a translation of the third or last part of Hegel's encyclopaedic sketch of philosophy, Philosophy of Mind. The volume, like its subject, stands complete in itself. But it may also be regarded as a supplement or continuation of the work begun in my version of his logic.'

Early 20th-century philosopher, mathematician, historian, and social critic Bertrand Russell once again offers a refreshing and insightful look at the way in which we raise and educate our children and the effect it has on the kind of adults they become. Once again Russell demonstrates how timeless and unresolved some issues remain—be they war, religion, politics, or ... in this instance ... education.

The Analysis of the Mind by Bertrand Russell is a collection of 15 lectures he delivered in 1920. Russell was a highly reputed philosopher, mathematician, and social critic, and would go on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

Little is known of the life of Zen master Huang-Po (Obaku in Japanese). He was born in Fuzhou, China, and died about 850 AD. His main teacher was Pai Chang (Hyakujo) (720 - 814). The main source for Huang-Po's teaching is the Treatise of the Essentials of the Transmission of the Mind, compiled by his student, Pei Xiu. Huang-Po's teaching is focused on the concept of Mind, the essence of intrinsic Buddahood. According to the master, the search for enlightenment was a useless distraction, as seeking for something inevitably separates the seeker from what is being sought.