early works to 1800

Classic guide to acquiring and maintaining political power.

Translates an edited version of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius's ponderings on power, human nature, and mortality, among other philosophical concerns; includes a chronology, a genealogical table, and extensive notes.

This useful book, an extended study of the Poetics , treats such subjects as Aristotle's general aesthetic views; mimesis; pity, fear, and katharsis; recognition, reversal, and hamartia; tragic misfortune; the nontragic genres; and the historical influence of the work. Aristotle emerges as holding a deeply cognitivist view of poetry and as rejecting the attempt to judge art primarily by external (e.g., moral, political) criteria; his call for the relative autonomy of art, however, neither commits him to an aestheticist view nor prevents him from attributing to art a significant moral dimension. Halliwell's attempts to keep Plato in close view and to keep the Poetics within the context of Aristotle's philosophy as a whole are illuminating.

Written by an anonymous English monk during the late fourteenth century, 'The Cloud of Unknowing' holds an important place in the history of both Western literature and spirituality. Though originally intended for a select audience, the work's simple, engaging style has won it widespread popularity since it rediscovery more than century ago. 'The Cloud' puts forth a method of contemplation that stresses the impotence of the understanding to break through the cloud of unknowing that separates God and humanity. Rather, 'it is love alone that can reach God in this life.'.

Shares an exalted vision of human nature, but a vision that proceeds from the truths of revelation as interpreted by the Greek fathers, and not from Descartes.

A representative selection of extracts from the writings of the early Christian Fathers, concerning the main areas of Christian thought.

This classic text of Chan/Zen Buddhism is a vehicle of ancient knowledge said to go back to time immemorial and to have been originally transmitted mind to mind.

This work is a selection from Samuel Johnson?s 1755 Dictionary of the English language and includes the Plan of a dictionary that he published in 1747.