The Confessions is an autobiographical work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau which initiated modern autobiography. Covering the first fifty-three years of Rousseau's life the book provides an account of the experiences that shaped his personality and ideas.

Areopagitica is among history's most influential and impassioned philosophical defences of the principle of a right to freedom of speech and expression. Today, Areopagitica is regarded as one of the most eloquent defences of press freedom ever written – and as one of the most influential, because many of its expressed principles have formed the basis for modern justifications.

After an interval of some months or years, and at Phlius, a town of Peloponnesus, the tale of the last hours of Socrates is narrated to Echecrates and other Phliasians by Phaedo the beloved disciple. The Dialogue necessarily takes the form of a narrative, because Socrates has to be described acting as well as speaking. The minutest particulars of the event are interesting to distant friends, and the narrator has an equal interest in them.

Of all the writings of Plato the Timaeus is the most obscure and repulsive to the modern reader, and has nevertheless had the greatest influence over the ancient and mediaeval world. The obscurity arises in the infancy of physical science, out of the confusion of theological, mathematical, and physiological notions, out of the desire to conceive the whole of nature without any adequate knowledge of the parts, and from a greater perception of similarities which lie on the surface than of differences which are hidden from view.

The Ion is the shortest, or nearly the shortest, of all the writings which bear the name of Plato, and is not authenticated by any early external testimony. The grace and beauty of this little work supply the only, and perhaps a sufficient, proof of its genuineness. The plan is simple; the dramatic interest consists entirely in the contrast between the irony of Socrates and the transparent vanity and childlike enthusiasm of the rhapsode Ion.

Apology presents the speech of self-defence given by Socrates in his trial for impiety and corruption specifically against the charges of corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel.

innd seama de multiplele referiri la istorie, ct i de importana i relevana perspectivei temporal-istorice pentru orice alt tem, ajungem firesc la cardinalitatea istoriei n discursul lui Emil Cioran. n noianul tuturor temelor sale obsesive, istoria este o mega-tem, aflat n puternice raporturi cu celelalte. Aderena i entuziasmul pentru studiul problemelor de filosofia istoriei le gsim mrturisite nc de la nceputul traseului, n cteva scrisori ctre Bucur incu din anii ‘30. n acele scrisori vorbete de pasiune, de gndire spontan i personal, de adaptare natural asupra domeniului, i se arat ncredinat c, alturi de problemele de filosofia culturii i antropologiei filosofice, problemele de filosofia istoriei nu pot concepe c lea prsi vreodat. Dintre multiplele justificri ulterioare – opuse ca atitudine fa de cele din perioada iniial, dar care marcheaz aceeai aderen –, s punem dou n corelaie, scrise n ani apropiai, n care preocuparea pentru istorie este descris prin stri de dependen: slbiciune, sete, patim.“ – Ioan Costea

Come on a journey into the nature of consciousness, finding the space 'between thoughts' as the most obvious place to recognize your true and eternal Self. We recognize overlooked aspects of the natural world around us; as ourselves, as well as using nature to demonstrate spiritual concepts such as God, union and liberation. Your true 'nature' awaits...---------------------------"No matter how it is approached, no amount of words will ever transmit to another person the indescribable 'ultimate Truth'. The fact that it's described as indescribable should be enough to stop us trying. Yet it's made even more difficult because of our troublesome human mind. As intelligent and magnificent as it is, it has a deep and tragic habit of confusing the symbols we use (for simple convenience) in our lives, for the actual things or ideas they represent. As Alan Watts used to say, it's like climbing a signpost rather than walking in the direction it points. Our greatest of misunderstandings is that we confuse the story and idea of who we are, with what is actually true; pure and simple. We make a false judgment on who or what we are, and you wouldn't believe the amount of mischief that arises in result.As exaggerated or humorous as all this may sound on first impressions, this habit of confusing symbols for reality is a very real problem plaguing our human world, and the implications are exceptionally far reaching. We have confused such things as money for wealth, status or fame for character and even the virtual world for real - but most appropriate to this book, is that religious or spiritual concepts are always confused for the things they are pointing towards. That's particularly true of our concepts of 'God', particularly true of Buddha's Dharma, particularly true of any teaching towards enlightenment or liberation."---------------------------"OmniscienceOh father in heaven, omniscience cannot be. It makes no sense, no sense to me....***Between thoughts, your functioning remains flawless. Between thoughts you are ego-less, yet still exist...?How is it so that your heart beats without your control?How do migrating birds travel without directions, newborn horses stand straight up and embryos form without instruction. How does a plant know how to flower and a seed mature into a tree??Without thought or instruction, nature around you is already omniscient. Are you different from nature, or one and the same?***Young one, nature already exists in an omniscient state with no mind…?Between thoughts, are you omniscient?Mid-thought, do you believe you're not?"

On Interpretation is among the earliest surviving philosophical works in the Western tradition to deal with the relationship between language and logic in a comprehensive, explicit, and formal way.

The reasons for some animals being long-lived and others short-lived, and, in a word, causes of the length and brevity of life.

It is remarkable how closely the history of the Apple-tree is connected with that of man. The geologist tells us that the order of the Rosaceae, which includes the Apple, also the true Grasses, and the Labiatae, or Mints, were introduced only a short time previous to the appearance of man on the globe.

At the time Thoreau made this wilderness canoe trip he was forty years old. The record of the journey is the latter half of his The Maine Woods, which is perhaps the finest idyl of the forest ever written. It is particularly charming in its blending of meditative and poetic fancies with the minute description of the voyager’s experiences.

A fi rom?n? ?E o ru?ine!“, exclama Cioran. ?n ce m?sur? filosoful de la Paris avea dreptate? Ce ?nseamn? ?a fi rom?n“ ?ntr-o fals? tranzi?ie care aparent nu se mai termin?? La aceste ?i multe alte ?ntreb?ri ?ncearc? s? r?spund? scriitorul Ionel Necula ?n opus-ul de fa??, care ?nsumeaz? analize ale r?sturn?rilor sociale evidente, ?nregistrate ?n ultimii ?aptesprezece ani. Nu ?ntotdeauna comod, spiritul coroziv al autorului ??i spune cuv?ntul, av?nd uneori accente incendiare.

Once upon a time there was a very mischievous little monkey, who lived in a big banyan tree, and his name was Jacko. And in the jungle below there lived a huge, fierce old lion and lioness.

The magi, as you know, were wise men – wonderfully wise men – who brought gifts to the new-born King of the Jews in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house.

In several of the dialogues of Plato, doubts have arisen among his interpreters as to which of the various subjects discussed in them is the main thesis. The speakers have the freedom of conversation; no severe rules of art restrict them, and sometimes we are inclined to think, with one of the dramatis personae in the Theaetetus, that the digressions have the greater interest. Yet in the most irregular of the dialogues there is also a certain natural growth or unity; the beginning is not forgotten at the end, and numerous allusions and references are interspersed, which form the loose connecting links of the whole.

The Phaedrus is closely connected with the Symposium, and may be regarded either as introducing or following it. The two Dialogues together contain the whole philosophy of Plato on the nature of love, which in the Republic and in the later writings of Plato is only introduced playfully or as a figure of speech. But in the Phaedrus and Symposium love and philosophy join hands, and one is an aspect of the other. The spiritual and emotional part is elevated into the ideal, to which in the Symposium mankind are described as looking forward, and which in the Phaedrus, as well as in the Phaedo, they are seeking to recover from a former state of existence.

The Protagoras, like several of the Dialogues of Plato, is put into the mouth of Socrates, who describes a conversation which had taken place between himself and the great Sophist at the house of Callias—'the man who had spent more upon the Sophists than all the rest of the world'—and in which the learned Hippias and the grammarian Prodicus had also shared, as well as Alcibiades and Critias, both of whom said a few words—in the presence of a distinguished company consisting of disciples of Protagoras and of leading Athenians belonging to the Socratic circle.

Our next task is to study coming-to-be and passing-away. We are to distinguish the causes, and to state the definitions, of these processes considered in general-as changes predicable uniformly of all the things that come-to-be and pass-away by nature. Further, we are to study growth and 'alteration'. We must inquire what each of them is; and whether 'alteration' is to be identified with coming-to-be, or whether to these different names there correspond two separate processes with distinct natures.

The Critique of Practical Reason follows on from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and deals with his moral philosophy. The second Critique exercised a decisive influence over the subsequent development of the field of ethics and moral philosophy, beginning with Johann Gottlieb Fichte's Doctrine of Science and becoming, during the 20th century, the principal reference point for deontological moral philosophy.

The first of Immanuel Kant's mature works on moral philosophy and remains one of the most influential in the field. Kant conceives his investigation as a work of foundational ethics, one that clears the ground for future research by explaining the core concepts and principles of moral theory and showing that they are normative for rational agents. Kant aspires to nothing less than this: to lay bare the fundamental principle of morality and show that it applies to us.