Restores the Platonic history and context of mysticism and shows how mysticism helps us understand more deeply the humanities as a whole, from philosophy and literature to art. In Platonic Mysticism, Arthur Versluis clearly and tautly argues that mysticism must be properly understood as belonging to the great tradition of Platonism. He demonstrates how mysticism was historically understood in Western philosophical and religious traditions and emphatically...

Describes the author's loving relationship with a rescued dog and his observations about how today's pet dogs are treated with more care than in past generations, exploring the dog's complex and prominent place in the world while assessing related issues about animal rights and ethics.

3D of Happiness shows that the failure in finding happiness in modern times is largely due to the mistake of limiting the search for happiness to the hedonic (pleasure) dimension. It delves into the meaning and spiritual dimensions of happiness in order to help individuals increase their levels of happiness. 3D of Happiness covers a personal and scientific journey of searching for happiness through pleasure, meaning, and spirituality. It is the story...

First published in 1962, Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions "reshaped our understanding of the scientific enterprise and human inquiry in general." In it, he challenged long-standing assumptions about scientific progress, arguing that transformative ideas don't arise from the gradual process of experimentation and data accumulation, but instead occur outside of "normal science." Though Kuhn was writing when physics ruled the sciences,...

In a rarified world of scientific research, a revolution has been brewing. Its activists are not anarchists, but rather Nobel Laureates in physics and economics and pony-tailed graduates, mathematicians, and computer scientists from all over the world. They have formed an iconoclastic think-tank and their radical idea is to create a new science: complexity. They want to know how a primordial soup of simple molecules managed to turn itself into the...

A journey through culture, science, philosophy, and religion to better understand the genius of William Blake.

"Winner of a 2008 Lannan Notable Book Award, Lannan Foundation" Sheldon S. Wolin (1922-2015) was professor emeritus of politics at Princeton University. His books include Politics and Vision and Tocqueville between Two Worlds (both Princeton). Democracy is struggling in America--by now this statement is almost cliché. But what if the country is no longer a democracy at all? In Democracy Incorporated, Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has...