The content in this work is fiction, fiction in the sense that the main character through which the eyes of this metaphysical and philosophical journey is viewed, Charlie, is not a real character, nor are his counterparts and foils through which he explores various topics such as love, the meaning of existence or the origins of the cosmos and how our understanding of these abstract ideas have evolved since the dawn of civilization. But like any work of fiction, the characters do have some basis in real experience, from which of course nothing can be created. The intent of the work is to explore the foundations and evolution of knowledge and the boundaries between reason and faith, boundaries which from the author's perspective are not quite as clear as some might have us believe. And the point of going through the exercise, the purpose as it were, is not only for the author to come to a better understanding of how all our modern branches of science hang together, how they have come to be given their socio-political and historical context, but also for others to share in his journey and perhaps learn something along the way. Since the birth of language and thought even, going back thousands of years and even prior to the dawn of civilization itself, mankind has attempted to answer two fundamental questions, questions that have spurred countless creative forces and branches of thought over the centuries; namely who we are and from whence we came. The answers to these questions, no matter what race, religion or creed the seeker might be, or what philosophy or religion they might adhere to, are inextricably linked to each other. This journey of trying to understand our place in the world, and the origins of the universe itself, is an ageless quest that in many respects distinguishes mankind from the rest of the creatures on the planet. Furthermore, this very same quest to answer the same questions fuels not only scientific development but also is the basis for theology and religion, both approaching the same set of questions with a different set of tools and with a different mindset but both trying to answer the same set of basic questions as to who we are and how we got here. From the author's perspective, in order to answer these questions effectively in the Information Age, we should have at least some understanding of the history of our answers to these questions as they have evolved over time. For we all build our collective knowledge on those that have come before us, whether we recognize this or not. And in turn, that in building this bridge, a common metaphor used throughout the work, we must leverage the tool of metaphysics, a term originally coined by Aristotle but in the context of this work implies a level of abstraction that sits above physics as we understand it in today's world but also provides a conceptual underpinning to all of the branches of knowledge that collectively make up our ?understanding? of the world and out place in it. In doing so, it is the author's hope that we can not only come to a more complete and fuller understanding of the answers to these basic human questions that have plagued mankind since time immemorial, but also at the same time perhaps develop a deeper understanding of the problems of life in the Information Age and how we might best approach them, or cope with them, in way that not only benefits ourselves as individuals but to society as a whole, to which our individual well-being depends upon whether or not we recognize it or not.

CHRISTOPHER RORY PAGE Two bodies, two souls and an inspiring four way conversation between contrasting mortals as they journey through the African bush and discover the way from Fear to faith. The author awakens one morning riddled with fear from a deafening noise outside his bungalow window. This is the beginning of an exploration into the self as he meets a primitive man who proves that there is more to someone than meets the eye. A non-verbal form of communication develops between as the two men dissect the concept of fear based on age-old theories and beliefs. The reader is introduced to the Ukuesaba Isitebhisa which translated from Zulu means Fear Ladder. This shows the progression of fear from the most superficial to the most concrete. The common denominator to minimise the fear on all levels is to instil faith in various forms. From Fear to faith is an inspiring story and teaches as much as it entertains. Light hearted moments dispersed with simple truths make it must read for anyone who aims to minimise the fears in their lives which prevent them from being who they were born to be.

This study charts a history of weakness in a selection of canonical works in literature and philosophy. Examining the nature of weakness has inspired some of the most influential aesthetic and philosophical portraits of the human condition. By reading a selection of canonical literary and philosophical texts, Michael O'Sullivan charts a history of responses to the experience and exploration of weakness. Beginning with Plato and Aristotle, this first book-length study of the concept explores weakness as it interpreted by Lao Tzu, Nietzsche, the Romantics, Dickens and the Modernists. It examines what feminist critics Elaine Showalter and Luce Irigaray make of the figure of the "weaker vessel" and considers philosophical notions such as radical passivity, a "syntax of weakness" and human vulnerability in the work of Derrida and Beckett and Coetzee. Through analysis of these differing versions of weakness, O'Sullivan's study challenges the popular myth that aligns masculine identity with strength and force and presents a humane weakness as a guiding motif for debates in ethics.

Exposed to yoga from early childhood, Veena S. Gandhi, M.D has been conducting yoga classes and organizing seminars on yoga and its philosophy for over two decades. A board-certified OB/GYN, Dr. Gandhi has over 40 years of experience in working with pregnant women and in delivering babies. Her knowledge of yoga and medical training from the Eastern and Western hemispheres gives her a unique perspective in helping couples create a miracle child.

For her dedication and generosity, Dr. Gandhi has received many awards, including "Best Doctor" from the "Courier-Post "newspaper, Woman of Outstanding Achievement by the Camden County Council of Girl Scouts, and the Bhakti Visharat award for dedicated service to the community by the International Society of Krishna Consciousness. Additionally, the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) awarded her the presidential award and women's leadership award for her dedicated service to AAPI.

She ran several youth programs for human values and culture. Recently she has accepted a leading position in AAPI in improving women's health. She introduced and taught yoga at every AAPI annual convention since 1995. Her latest community effort involves increasing the literacy of children in India's remote villages as a member of the Board of Directors of the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation for the last twelve years. She was recognized for her outstanding and dedicated service to "The literacy movement" in India.

Dr. Gandhi lives in Voorhees, New Jersey with her husband, Sharad K. Gandhi. She has two grown children and two grandchildren. This is her first book.

Peripheralizing DeLillo tracks the historical arc of Don DeLillo’s poetics as it recomposes itself across the genres of short fiction, romance, the historical novel, and the philosophical novel of time. Drawing on theories that capital, rather than the bourgeoisie, is the displaced subject of the novel, Thomas Travers investigates DeLillo’s representation of fully commodified social worlds and re-evaluates Marxist accounts of the novel and its philosophy of history. Deploying an innovative re-periodisation, Travers considers the evolution of DeLillo’s aesthetic forms as they register and encode one of the crises of contemporary historicity: the secular dynamics through which a society organised around waged work tends towards conditions of under- and unemployment. Situating DeLillo within global histories of uneven and combined development, Travers explores how DeLillo’s treatment of capital and labour, affect and narration, reconfigures debates around realism and modernism. The DeLillo that emerges from this study is no longer an exemplary postmodern writer, but a composer of capitalist epics, a novelist drawn to peripheral zones of accumulation, zones of social death whose surplus populations his fiction strives to re-historicise, if not re-dialecticise as subjects of history.

This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It contains classical literature works from over two thousand years. Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of international literature classics available in printed format again - worldwide.