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.

This is above all a practical book. It discusses with a wealth of illustration and insight such subjects as the organization of the intellectual worker's time, materials, and his life; the integration of knowledge and the relation of one's specialty to general knowledge; the choice and use of reading; the discipline of memory; the taking of notes, their classification and use; and the preparation and organization of the final production.

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.

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.

"Esteemed for providing the best available translations, Philosophic Classics: From Plato to Derrida, features complete works or complete sections of the most important works by the major thinkers, as well as shorter samples from transitional thinkers." First published in 1961, Forrest E. Baird's revision of "Philosophic Classics, "Pearson Education's long-standing anthology (available in split volumes), continues the tradition of providing generations of students with high quality course material. Using the complete works, or where appropriate, complete sections of works, this anthology allows philosophers to speak directly to students. "For more information on the period volumes that are available please see below: " Philosophicl Classics, Volume I: Ancient Philosophy, 6/E "ISBN-10: 0205783856"Philosophicl Classics, Volume II: Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, 6/E "ISBN-10: 0205783902"Philosophic Classics, Volume III: Modern Philosophy, 6/E "ISBN-10: 0205783899"

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 English philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903) was a colossus of the Victorian age. His works ranked alongside those of Darwin and Marx in the development of disciplines as wide ranging as sociology, anthropology, political theory, philosophy and psychology. In this acclaimed study of Spencer, the first for over thirty years and now available in paperback, Mark Francis provides an authoritative and meticulously researched intellectual biography of this remarkable man that dispels the plethora of misinformation surrounding Spencer and shines new light on the broader cultural history of the nineteenth century. In this major study of Spencer, the first for over thirty years, Mark Francis provides an authoritative and meticulously researched intellectual biography of this remarkable man. Using archival material and contemporary printed sources, Francis creates a fascinating portrait of a human being whose philosophical and scientific system was a unique attempt to explain modern life in all its biological, psychological and sociological forms. Herbert Spencer and the Invention of Modern Life fills what is perhaps the last big biographical gap in Victorian history. An exceptional work of scholarship it not only dispels the plethora of misinformation surrounding Spencer but shines new light on the broader cultural history of the nineteenth century. Elegantly written, provocative and rich in insight it will be required reading for all students of the period.

Squarely challenging a culture obsessed with success, an acclaimed philosopher argues that failure is vital to a life well lived, curing us of arrogance and self-deception and engendering humility instead. Our obsession with success is hard to overlook. Everywhere we compete, rank, and measure. Yet this relentless drive to be the best blinds us to something vitally important: the need to be humble in the face of life's challenges. Costica Bradatan mounts his case for failure through the stories of four historical figures who led lives of impact and meaning-and assiduously courted failure. Their struggles show that engaging with our limitations can be not just therapeutic but transformative. In Praise of Failure explores several arenas of failure, from the social and political to the spiritual and biological. It begins by examining the defiant choices of the French mystic Simone Weil, who, in sympathy with exploited workers, took up factory jobs that her frail body could not sustain. From there we turn to Mahatma Gandhi, whose punishing quest for purity drove him to ever more extreme acts of self-abnegation. Next we meet the self-styled loser E. M. Cioran, who deliberately turned his back on social acceptability, and Yukio Mishima, who reveled in a distinctly Japanese preoccupation with the noble failure, before looking to Seneca to tease out the ingredients of a good life. Gleefully breaching the boundaries between argument and storytelling, scholarship and spiritual quest, Bradatan concludes that while success can make us shallow, our failures can lead us to humbler, more attentive, and better lived lives. We can do without success, but we are much poorer without the gifts of failure.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics… Despite dating from the 4th century BC, The Art of Rhetoric continues to be regarded by many as the single most important work on the art of persuasion. As democracy began emerging in 5th-century Athens, public speaking and debate became an increasingly important tool to garner influence in the assemblies, councils, and law courts of ancient Greece. In response to this, both politicians and ordinary citizens became desperate to learn greater skills in this area, as well as the philosophy behind it. This treatise was one of the first to provide just that, establishing methods and observations of informal reasoning and style, and has continued to be hugely influential on public speaking and philosophy today. Aristotle, the grandfather of philosophy, student of Plato, and teacher of Alexander the Great, was one of the first people to create a comprehensive system of philosophy, encompassing logic, morality, aesthetics, politics, ethics, and science. Although written over 2,000 years ago, The Art of Rhetoric remains a comprehensive introduction for philosophy students into the subject of rhetoric, as well as a useful manual for anyone today looking to improve their oratory skills of persuasion.

It's a belief that unites the left and right, psychologists and philosophers, writers and historians. It drives the headlines that surround us and the laws that touch our lives. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Dawkins, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we're taught, are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest.

Humankind makes a new argument: that it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume that people are good. By thinking the worst of others, we bring out the worst in our politics and economics too.

In this major book, internationally bestselling author Rutger Bregman takes some of the world's most famous studies and events and reframes them, providing a new perspective on the last 200,000 years of human history. From the real-life Lord of the Flies to the Blitz, a Siberian fox farm to an infamous New York murder, Stanley Milgram's Yale shock machine to the Stanford prison experiment, Bregman shows how believing in human kindness and altruism can be a new way to think - and act as the foundation for achieving true change in our society.

It is time for a new view of human nature.

This is an inspiring work which explains the way outsiders need to apply themselves to gain something substantive from life. The reader is given a stark appreciation of their world and how fickle, meaningless and absurd it appears to them. The book destroys many of the illusions which underpin people's assertions today. It argues that in many instances there is no real rationale behind what people do or aspire to in modern life as the way their lives transpire is usually dependent on the things they are conditioned to value or accept as authentic. Many readers will be able to identify with the essentially human traits outsiders possess. Their conception of freedom and truth must be something that is capable of being applied to have any value to them. They do not believe they are limited in any way for doing what they set their mind to, but unfortunately modern society is designed in such a way which scuppers their ability to express or be themselves. This book is a testament to the human spirit in overcoming the impediments within society which stifle the outsiders' freedom. It argues that outsiders must preserve their uniqueness as individuals to derive any value from life. They need to grasp the opportunity to project themselves, often through a more creative medium, to discover a quantifiable purpose and meaning within their lives.

Surmontant une opposition souvent outree entre les deux auteurs, ce volume reevalue l'heritage de la pensee de Locke chez Rousseau, dans tous les domaines de sa philosophie (identite personnelle, epistemologie, medecine, morale, pedagogie, economie, politique). Au-dela de l'histoire intellectuelle, l'ouvrage met en lumiere le dialogue critique fecond que Rousseau entretient avec Locke, quitte a identifier les distorsions que le Citoyen de Geneve fait subir a son predecesseur. Tout en etablissant la dette de l'auteur d'Emile a l'egard du 'sage Locke', le volume discerne la pertinence des objections que Rousseau lui adresse en operant un retour a la lettre de la philosophie de Locke. En quel sens Rousseau a-t-il etabli sa philosophie sur des 'principes communs' a ceux de Locke ? Quelle subversion fait-il subir a l'Essai concernant l'entendement humain ou aux Pensees sur l'education ? Quels sont les points aveugles de la philosophie de Locke que la critique rousseauiste permet de mettre en lumiere et, a l'inverse, les limites de la critique rousseauiste de Locke ? Tels sont les axes de cet ouvrage qui reunit des specialistes, en philosophie et en litterature, de Rousseau et de Locke. -- Transcending an often outraged opposition between the two authors, this volume reassesses the legacy of Locke's thought in that of Rousseau, in all the areas of his philosophy (personal identity, epistemology, medicine, morality, pedagogy, economics, politics). Beyond an intellectual history, this collected volume highlights the fruitful critical dialogue that Rousseau maintains with Locke, while identifying the ways in which the Citizen of Geneva distorted his predecessor's thought. While establishing the author of Emile's debt to the 'sage Locke', the volume also discerns the relevance of Rousseau's objections to Lockian philosophy. In what sense did Rousseau establish his own philosophy on 'common principles' to those of Locke? How does he subvert the Essay Concerning Human Understanding or the Thoughts Concerning Education? What are the blind spots in Locke's philosophy that Rousseau highlights and, conversely, the limits of Rousseau's criticism of Locke? These are the main aspects of this volume, which brings together scholars in philosophy and literature, on Rousseau and Locke.

'Majestic, ambitious' Literary Review ____________________________________ We are endlessly fascinated by the French. We are fascinated by their way of life, their creativity and sophistication, and even their insistence that they are exceptional. But how did France become the country it is today, and what really sets it apart? Historian Peter Watson sets out to answer these questions in this dazzling history of France, taking us from the seventeenth century to the present day through the nation's most influential thinkers. He opens the doors to the Renaissance salons that brought together poets, philosophers and scientists, and tells the forgotten stories of the extraordinary women who ran these institutions, fostering a culture of stylish intellectualism unmatched anywhere else in the world. It's a story that takes us into Bohemian cafes and cabarets, into chic Parisian high culture via French philosophies of food, fashion and sex, and through two explosive revolutions. The French Mind is a history propelled by the writers, revolutionaries and painters who loved, inspired and rivalled one another over four hundred years. It documents the shaping of a nation whose global influence, in art, culture and politics, cannot be overstated. __________________________________________ 'An encyclopaedic celebration of French intellectuals refusing to give up on universal principles, while remaining slim, bringing up well-behaved children and falling in love at every opportunity' The Times 'An engaging movement through time towards France's recent reckonings with extremism, exceptionalism and empire' TLS

A BOLD NEW VISION FOR A NEW WORLD
Our way of life isn't working anymore. People are losing their jobs, their homes, their neighborhoods--and even their hope for a just society. We urgently need a new story to live by, based on fairness--not simply on the accumulation of wealth and "survival of the fittest."
"The Bond "offers a radical new blueprint for living a more harmonious, prosperous, and connected life. International bestselling author Lynne McTaggart demonstrates with hard science that we are living contrary to our true nature.
In fact, life doesn't have to be "I win, you lose; "we have been designed to succeed and prosper when we work as part of a greater whole. "The Bond "proves that we are weak when we compete, and thrive only when we cooperate and connect deeply with each other.
In this seminal book for our age, McTaggart also offers a complete program of practical tools and exercises to help you enjoy closer relationships--across even the deepest divides--encourage a more connected workplace, rebuild a united neighborhood, and become a powerful, global agent of change.

SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 'The most important book of the year' Daily Mail The brilliant and provocative new book from one of the world's foremost political writers 'The anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high time that we revise them in turn...' In The War on the West, international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the history of humankind is one of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the blame for it? It's become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws and crimes is called hate speech. What's more it has become acceptable to discuss the flaws and crimes of Western culture, but celebrating their contributions is also called hate speech. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning; however, some is part of a larger international attack on reason, democracy, science, progress and the citizens of the West by dishonest scholars, hatemongers, hostile nations and human-rights abusers hoping to distract from their ongoing villainy. In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows the ways in which many well-meaning people have been lured into polarisation by lies, and shows how far the world's most crucial political debates have been hijacked across Europe and America. Propelled by an incisive deconstruction of inconsistent arguments and hypocritical activism, The War on the West is an essential and urgent polemic that cements Murray's status as one of the world's foremost political writers.

In Enlightenment Europe, a new form of pantomime ballet emerged, through the dual channels of theorization in print and experimentation onstage. Emphasizing eighteenth-century ballet's construction through print culture, Theories of Ballet in the Age of the Encyclopedie follows two parallel paths-standalone treatises on ballet and dance and encyclopedias-to examine the shifting definition of ballet over the second half of the eighteenth century. Bringing together the Encyclopedie and its Supplement, the Encyclopedie methodique, and the Encyclopedie d'Yverdon with the works of Jean-Georges Noverre, Louis de Cahusac, and Charles Compan, it traces how the recycling and recombining of discourses about dance, theatre, and movement arts directly affected the process of defining ballet. At the same time, it emphasizes the role of textual borrowing and compilation in disseminating knowledge during the Enlightenment, examining the differences between placing borrowed texts into encyclopedias of various types as well as into journal format, arguing that context has the potential to play a role equally important to content in shaping a reader's understanding, and that the Encyclopedie methodique presented ballet in a way that diverged radically from both the Encyclopedie and Noverre's Lettres sur la danse.

Examining the birth and development of early modern atheism from Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670) to d'Holbach's Systeme de la nature (1770), this study considers Spinoza, Hobbes, Cudworth, Bayle, Meslier, Boulainviller, Du Marsais, Freret, Toland, Collins, Hume, Diderot, Voltaire, and d'Holbach and positions them in a general interpretive scheme, based on the idea that early modern atheism is itself an unwanted fruit of early modern metaphysics and theology. Breaking with a long-standing tradition, Descartes claimed that it was possible to have a "clear and distinct" idea of God, indeed that the idea of God was the "clearest and most distinct" of all ideas accessible to the human mind. Humans could thus obtain a scientific knowledge of God's nature and attributes. But as soon as God became an object of science, He also became the object of a thoroughgoing scientific analysis and criticism. The effortlessness with which early modern atheists managed to turn round their adversaries' arguments to their own favour is a sign that the new doctrines of God which emerged in the seventeenth-century, each based in its own way on principles and dogmas related to the new science of nature, were plunging headfirst towards the precipice under their own steam.

Written as a personal diary for spiritual development, Marcus Aurelius's "meditations" were not meant for publication nor posterity, yet the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher has provided inspiration and guidance for more than eighteen centuries.  Now, after nearly two thousand years, Mark Forster has adapted the ideas and principles relevant to the Roman world of the second century and has made them accessible to the twenty-first-century reader.

Edward Said is a major 20th-century thinker. His impact on the way we think about identity and postcolonialism has been profound and transformative. In this book of essays, scholars of postcolonial studies, philosophy and literary criticism, informed by Said's wide-ranging scholarship, engage with and extend his work. Robert Young, author of "White Mythologies", focuses his essay on the notion of hybridity and ethnicity in England. Benita Parry explores how a very English story of imperialism is narrated in Conrad's "Nostromo". Other contributors include Bryan Cheyette, Moira Ferguson and Bruce Robbins. The collection also looks at the work of Frantz Fanon and cultural difference in Africa. And following Said's work and activism around the Palestinian question there are also essays exploring the relationship betwen Jewish and Arabic identity. Keith Ansell-Pearson is the author of "Nietzsche, Deleuze and the Philosophy Machine". Benita Parry is the author of "Delusions and Discoveries: Studies on India in the British Imagination" and "Conrad and Imperialism". Judith Squires is the joint editor of "Cultural Remix: Theories of Politics and the Popular" and "Space and Place: Theories of Identity and Location".

Since the 5th century BCE Persia has played a significant part in representing the "Other" against which European identity has been constructed. What makes the case of Persia unique in this process of identity formation is the ambivalent attitude that Europe has shown in its imaginary about Persia. Persia is arguably the nation of "the Orient" most referred to in Early Modern European writings, frequently mentioned in various discourses of the Enlightenment including theology, literature, and political theory. What was the appeal of Persia to such a diverse intellectual population in Enlightenment Europe? How did intellectuals engage with the 'facts' about Persia? In what ways did utilizing Persia contribute to the development of modern European identities? In this volume, an international group of scholars with diverse academic backgrounds has tackled these and other questions related to the Enlightenment's engagement with Persia. In doing so, Persia and the Enlightenment questions reductionist assessments of Modern Europe's encounter with the Middle East, where a complex engagement is simplified to a confrontation between liberalism and Islam, or an exaggerated Orientalism. By carefully studying Persia in the Enlightenment narratives, this volume throws new light on the complexity of intercultural encounters and their impact on the shaping of collective identities.