Thorstein Veblen's groundbreaking treatise upon the evolution of the affluent classes of society traces the development of conspicuous consumption from the feudal Middle Ages to the end of the 19th century. Beginning with the end of the Dark Ages, Veblen examines the evolution of the hierarchical social structures. How they incrementally evolved and influenced the overall picture of human society is discussed. Veblen believed that the human social order was immensely unequal and stratified, to the point where vast amounts of merit are consequently ignored and wasted. Veblen draws comparisons between industrialization and the advancement of production and the exploitation and domination of labor, which he considered analogous to a barbarian conquest happening from within society. The heavier and harder labor falls to the lower members of the order, while the light work is accomplished by the owners of capital: the leisure class.

Although Aristotle's contribution to biology has long been recognized, there are many philosophers and historians of science who still hold that he was the great delayer of natural science, calling him the man who held up the Scientific Revolution by two thousand years. They argue that Aristotle never considered the nature of matter as such or the changes that perceptible objects undergo simply as physical objects; he only thought about the many different, specific natures found in perceptible objects. Aristotle's Science of Matter and Motion focuses on refuting this misconception, arguing that Aristotle actually offered a systematic account of matter, motion, and the basic causal powers found in all physical objects. Author Christopher Byrne sheds lights on Aristotle's account of matter, revealing how Aristotle maintained that all perceptible objects are ultimately made from physical matter of one kind or another, accounting for their basic common features. For Aristotle, then, matter matters a great deal.

Oor Gode En Afgode is ’n herdruk van ’n vyftal essays van die Suid-Afrikaanse filosoof Marthinus Versfeld.

Die bundel het oorspronklik reeds in 1948 verskyn, maar die kwessies wat hierin bespreek word, is vandag steeds aktueel. Versfeld se groot bekommernis hier is dat die Westerse mens se opvatting van redelikheid en sy verhouding met die wêreld om ons, sedert die Verligting baie verskraal het. Met verwysings na die kerkvader Augustinus en groot Middeleeuse filosowe soos Thomas van Aquinas, toon Versfeld aan dat hierdie ouer denkers se sienings van die skepping en die Skepper tot ’n meer geïntegreerde beeld van die mens en sy plek in die werklikheid kan bydra, ’n siening wat ook in ons postmoderne era aanklank by denkende lesers behoort te vind.

Die bundel bevat verder ’n kritiese bespreking van die Franse filosoof Jean-Jacques Rousseau en die oordrewe rol van die Staat in ons tyd (iets wat bekommerde Suid-Afrikaners met instemming kan lees), die verval in moraliteit en die oorheersing van die masjien in die lewe van die gewone mens. Dit is nie Versfeld se toeganklikste werk nie, maar die skrywer slaag steeds daarin om ingewikkelde filosofiese begrippe in eenvoudige taal oor te dra.

Die bundel word ingelei deur prof. Ernst Wolff, ’n kenner van die werk van Versfeld.