Robert Whitfield
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English
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Make good habits, change your life.
Regardless of your objectives, Thinking Habits offers a demonstrated system for self-improvement, pulling from histories most inspiring stories and brilliant minds. Uncover down to earth systems that will show you precisely how to create lasting routines, break useless ones, and excel in the the small tasks that lead to noteworthy outcomes.
Habits are powerful factors in our lives. Because they are consistent,...
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In an age when philosophers had scarcely glimpsed the horizons of the mind, a boy named Aristocles decided to forgo his ambitions as a wrestler. Adopting the nickname Plato, he embarked instead on a life in philosophy. In 387 B.C. he founded the Academy, the world's first university, and taught his students that all we see is not reality but merely a reproduction of the true source. And in his famous Republic, he described the politics of “the highest...
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With Friedrich Nietzsche, philosophy was dangerous not only for philosophers but for everyone. Nietzsche ended up going mad, but his ideas presaged a collective madness that had horrific consequences in Europe in the early 1900s. Though his philosophy is more one of aphorisms and insights than a system, it is brilliant, persuasive, and incisive. His major concept is the will to power, which he saw as the basic impulse for all our acts. Christianity...
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René Descartes spent most of his childhood in solitude, a situation that also came to characterize his adult life. Fortunately, these countless lonely hours helped Descartes produce the declaration that changed all philosophy: “I think, therefore I am.” Eventually convincing himself to doubt and disregard sensory knowledge, Descartes found he could prove his existence through his thoughts. This internal information, he believed, was the true...
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Hegel's dialectical method produced the most grandiose metaphysical system known to man. Its most vital element was the dialectic of the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. This sprung from Hegel's aim to overcome the deficiencies of logic and ascend toward Mind as the ultimate reality. His view of history as a process of humanity's self-realization inspired Marx to synthesize his philosophy of dialectical materialism. In Hegel in 90 Minutes, Paul...
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In Kafka in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Kafka's life and ideas, and explains their influence on literature and on man's struggle to understand his place in the world. The book also includes selections from Kafka's writings; a list of his chief works in English translation; a chronology of Kafka's life and times; and recommended reading for those who wish to push further.
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A highly sensitive and intelligent child, Virginia Woolf grew up in a large family prone to psychological instability. Throughout her life, she was subject to periods of mental breakdown, yet when she was lucid she was capable of a uniquely perceptive and frank introspection. Under the influence of the Bloomsbury Group and their progressive social attitudes, she became experimental in her life and art, breaking with convention to produce some of the...
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Weaving fiction with fact, fantastic matter with historical figures, Borges' frequent theme of a world where time, culture, and place converge is not only timely but pertinent in our advance toward globalization. Drawing from his multi-ethnic and –lingual upbringing in Argentina, Borges' focus on universal themes early on came to belittle the sentiments of racism and communism, earning him widespread recognition. His work is both timeless and touching,...
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By the end of his life, D. H. Lawrence had despaired of Western civilization, which he felt had corrupted and weakened the human spirit. He believed that we had somehow lost touch with our instinctual being and no longer responded to the "true voice" of our blood. His works were an attempt to revive a life we have lost, and in them it is possible to glimpse something vivid, something now damaged, that we nonetheless recognize in ourselves. This is...
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From a young age, James Joyce showed a precocious and original intellect and a confidence in his own artistic destiny. He would indeed go on to transform the nature of modern literature, employing a unique stream-of-consciousness technique rich in symbolism and wordplay. Through his art, the Dublin native sought to reveal the radiance and meaning that lurks in the everyday world—"the soul of the commonest object”—evoking a heightened sense of...