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Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy > Ancient Western philosophy to c 500
Ryan Holiday’s bestselling trilogy—The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego is the Enemy, and Stillness is the Key—captivated professional athletes, CEOs, politicians, and entrepreneurs and helped bring Stoicism to millions of readers. Now, in the first book of an exciting new series on the cardinal virtues of ancient philosophy, Holiday explores the most foundational virtue of all: Courage.
Almost every religion, spiritual practice, philosophy and person grapples with fear. The most repeated phrase in the Bible is “Be not afraid.” The ancient Greeks spoke of phobos, panic and terror. It is natural to feel fear, the Stoics believed, but it cannot rule you. Courage, then, is the ability to rise above fear, to do what’s right, to do what’s needed, to do what is true. And so it rests at the heart of the works of Marcus Aurelius, Aristotle, and CS Lewis, alongside temperance, justice, and wisdom.
In Courage Is Calling, Ryan Holiday breaks down the elements of fear, an expression of cowardice, the elements of courage, an expression of bravery, and lastly, the elements of heroism, an expression of valor. Through engaging stories about historic and contemporary leaders, including Charles De Gaulle, Florence Nightingale, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Holiday shows you how to conquer fear and practice courage in your daily life.
You’ll also delve deep into the moral dilemmas and courageous acts of lesser-known, but equally as important, figures from ancient and modern history, such as Helvidius Priscus, a Roman Senator who stood his ground against emperor Vespasian, even in the face of death; Frank Serpico, a former New York City Police Department Detective who exposed police corruption; and Frederick Douglass and a slave named Nelly, whose fierce resistance against her captors inspired his own crusade to end slavery.
In a world in which fear runs rampant—when people would rather stand on the sidelines than speak out against injustice, go along with convention than bet on themselves, and turn a blind eye to the ugly realities of modern life—we need courage more than ever. We need the courage of whistleblowers and risk takers. We need the courage of activists and adventurers. We need the courage of writers who speak the truth—and the courage of leaders to listen.
We need you to step into the arena and fight.
Fortune favours the bold. All great leaders of history have known this, and were successful because of the risks they dared to take. But today so many of us are paralysed by fear.
Drawing on ancient Stoic wisdom and examples across history and around the world,
Ryan Holiday shows why courage is so important, and how to cultivate it in our own
lives. Courage is not simply physical bravery but also doing the right thing and standing
up for what you believe; it's creativity, generosity and perseverance. And it is the only
way to live an extraordinary, fulfilled and effective life.
Everything in life begins with courage. This book will equip you with the bravery to
begin.
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of
best-loved, essential classics. Plato's Republic has influenced
Western philosophers for centuries, with its main focus on what
makes a well-balanced society and individual.
HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of
best-loved, essential classics. No man can live a happy life, or
even a supportable life, without the study of wisdom Lucius Annaeus
Seneca (4 BC-AD 65) is one of the most famous Roman philosophers.
Instrumental in guiding the Roman Empire under emperor Nero, Seneca
influenced him from a young age with his Stoic principles. Later in
life, he wrote Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, or Letters from a
Stoic, detailing these principles in full. Seneca's letters read
like a diary, or a handbook of philosophical meditations. Often
beginning with observations on daily life, the letters focus on
many traditional themes of Stoic philosophy, such as the contempt
of death, the value of friendship and virtue as the supreme good.
Using Gummere's translation from the early twentieth century, this
selection of Seneca's letters shows his belief in the austere,
ethical ideals of Stoicism - teachings we can still learn from
today.
The "Posterior Analytics" contains some of Aristotle's most influential thoughts in logic, epistemology, metaphysics and the philosophy of science. The first book expounds and develops the notions of a demonstrative argument, and of a formal, axiomatized science. The second discusses a cluster of problems raised by the axioms of principles of such a science, and investigates in particular the theory of definition.;This volume, like the others in the "Clarendon Aristotle" series, is intended to serve the needs of readers of Aristotle without a knowledge of Greek. For this second edition the translation has been completely rewritten, with the aims of greater elegance and greater fidelity to the Greek. The commentary elucidates and assesses Aristotle's arguments from a philosophical point of view. It has been extensively revised to take account of the scholarship of the last 20 years.
DISCOVER THE ENDURING LEGACY OF ANCIENT STOICISM Since Roman
antiquity, Lucius Annaeus Seneca's Letters have been one of the
greatest expressions of Stoic philosophy. In a highly accessible
and timeless way, Seneca reveals the importance of cultivating
virtue and the fleeting nature of time, and how being clear sighted
about death allows us to live a life of meaning and contentment.
Letters from a Stoic continues to fascinate and inspire new
generations of readers, including those interested in mindfulness
and psychological techniques for well-being. This deluxe hardback
selected edition includes Seneca's first 65 letters from the
Richard M. Gummere translation. An insightful introduction by
Donald Robertson traces Seneca's busy life at the centre of Roman
power, explores how he reconciled his Stoic outlook with vast
personal wealth, and highlights Seneca's relevance for the modern
reader.
This study focuses on Laches, Protagoras, and the conversation
between Socrates and Agathon in the Symposium. For these dialogues
the author "proposes a strategy of interpretation that insists on
the dialogues' essentially interrogatory character. . . . Stokes
argues that we are not entitled to ascribea thesis to Socrates (far
less to Plato) unless he unambiguously asserts it as his own
belief. . . . For the most part, Stokes argues, Socrates is doing
what he claims to be doing: cross-examining his interlocutor. He
draws the materials of his own argument from the respondent's
explicit admissions and from his own knowledge of the respondent's
character, commitments and ways of life.What is shown by such a
procedure is not, . . . according to Stokes], that acertain thesis
is true or false, but, rather, that a certain sort of person, with
certain commitments, can be led, on pain of inconsistency, to
assent to theses that at first seem alien to him. Sometimes, as it
turns out, these are theses that Socrates also endorses in his own
person." "Times Literary Supplement"
What does it mean to be a great father? And how do you become one?
Parenting is a role filled with meaning and purpose, but every dad
needs guidance: because fatherhood is not a one-off, it is
something you do every day. Instead of a parenting book you read
once as a sleep-deprived new parent, The Daily Dad provides 366
accessible meditations on fatherhood, one for each day of the year.
Drawing quotes from history, literature and psychology, bestselling
author Ryan Holiday - a father of two himself - has crafted a daily
practice that will help dads old and new to find inspiration and
advice. Each entry offers a memorable lesson on being the role
model your child needs, rooted in timeless principles. From
Socrates to Martin Luther King Jr., ancient philosophy to
contemporary figures, The Daily Dad collates wisdom from around the
world to help every dad face the day-to-day challenges in the
lifelong job of parenting, and ultimately become the best father
they can be.
considers the metaphysical tradition of the contemplation of Being:
Homer, the Greek Tragedians, Plato, Plotinus and the development of
the tradition in the Middle Ages. Von Balthasar then explores the
analogy between the metaphysical vision of Being and the Christian
vision of the Trinity.
Meaning (significance) and nature are this book's principal topics.
They seem an odd couple, like raisins and numbers, though they
elide when meanings of a global sort-ideologies and religions, for
example-promote ontologies that subordinate nature. Setting one
against the other makes reality contentious. It signifies workmates
and a coal face to miners, gluons to physicists, prayer and
redemption to priests. Are there many realities, or many
perspectives on one? The answer I prefer is the comprehensive
naturalism anticipated by Aristotle and Spinoza: "natura naturans,
natura naturata." Nature naturing is an array of mutually
conditioning material processes in spacetime. Each structure or
event-storm clouds forming, nature natured-is self-differentiating,
self-stabilizing, and sometimes self-disassembling; each alters or
transforms a pre-existing state of affairs. This surmise
anticipated discoveries and analyses to which neither thinker had
access, though physics and biology confirm their hypothesis beyond
reasonable doubt. Hence the question this book considers: Is
reality divided:nature vrs. lived experience? Or is experience,
with all its meanings and values, the complex expression of natural
processes?
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