Society

What does everyone in the modern world need to know? Renowned psychologist Jordan B. Peterson's answer to this most difficult of questions uniquely combines the hard-won truths....

Economist and philosopher Daniel Chandler builds a powerful case for a new progressive agenda that would fundamentally reshape our societies for the better....

One of the most important and influential books of the past half-century, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance tells the iconic story of a father and son's motorcycle trip across America in the 1960s....

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Black Swan, a bold new work that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion....

One of our greatest philosophers and scientists of the mind asks where the self comes from - and how our selves can exist in the minds of others....

This landmark in the field of social psychology is completely relevant and essential for understanding the world today as it delivers a visionary, highly provocative look into the mind of the fanatic and a penetrating study of how an individual becomes one....

Whenever we worry about what to eat, how to love, or simply how to be happy, we are worrying about how to lead a good life....

An economist explores the five laws that confirm our worst fears: Stupid people can and do rule the world....

Have you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Have you read that certain people shouldn't practice yoga? Or been told that being obese is healthy, that there is no such thing as biological sex, or that only White people can be racist? Listen to find out more....

From the author of the critically acclaimed Interior States comes a strikingly original exploration of what it might mean to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence....

Solidarity is often invoked, but it is rarely analyzed and poorly understood. Here, two leading activists and thinkers survey the past, present, and future of the concept across borders of nation, identity, and class....

In 1962, the young Eugene Rose - the future Hieromonk Seraphim - undertook to write a monumental chronicle of the abandonment of truth in the modern age....

What is work that’s worth doing in a life worth living? A revealing exploration of the questions we ask and the stories we tell about our work....

An astonishing work of cultural criticism, this book is widely recognized as a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, religion, and psychoanalysis....

Misogyny is a hot topic, yet it's often misunderstood. Who deserves to be called a misogynist? How does misogyny contrast with sexism, and why is it prone to persist even when sexist gender roles are waning? This book is an exploration of misogyny in public life and politics....

Linear and progressive views of history have dominated the popular imagination for the past seventy years in a worldview wedded to the inexorable rise of globalization and GDP growth at any cost.

In this classic evaluation of play that has become a “must-listen” for those in game design, Dutch philosopher Johan Huizinga defines play as the central activity in flourishing societies. Like civilization, play requires structure and participants willing to create within limits....

Cognitive scientist Professor Steven Pinker has spent his life thinking about thinking, and now he wants us to join him....

In this sequel to The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction, the brilliantly original French thinker who died in 1984 gives an analysis of how the ancient Greeks perceived sexuality....

Wonder and awe lie at the heart of life's most profound questions. Wonderstruck shows how these emotions respond to our fundamental need to make sense of ourselves and everything around us, and how they enable us to engage with the world as if we are experiencing it for the first time.

Charles Eisenstein explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self....

Judith Butler shows how COVID-19 and all its consequences-political, social, ecological, economic-have challenged us to reconsider the sense of the world that such disasters bring about....

Un poderoso llamamiento a abandonar la vida hiperactiva para recuperar el sentido de nuestras vidas, el equilibrio y la riqueza interior....

From eminent philosopher A. C. Grayling comes an authoritative exploration of the great questions of how to live, exploring with clarity and depth the ideas that each of us must use in answering it for ourselves....

Niccolò Machiavelli's brutally uncompromising manual of statecraft, The Prince....

Imagine: you are designing a society, but you don't know who you'll be within it - rich or poor, man or woman, gay or straight. What would you want that society to look like? This is the revolutionary thought experiment proposed by the twentieth century's greatest political philosopher, John Rawls. As economist and philosopher Daniel Chandler argues in this hugely ambitious and exhilarating manifesto, it is by rediscovering Rawls that we can find a way out of the escalating crises that are devastating our world today.

According to recent studies, barely a third of American workers feel “engaged” at work, and for many people around the world, happiness is lowest when earning power is highest. After a global pandemic that changed why, how, and what people do for a living, many workers find themselves wondering what makes their daily routine worthwhile. In Is Your Work Worth It?, two professors–a philosopher and organizational psychologist–investigate the purpose of work and its value in our lives.

In 2011, Emerick, an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church and a licensed clinical social worker, embarked on a self-directed study to educate himself about the nation's principal political disputes. He discovered that America's dominant political and economic theories...are... pitting the demands of the individual against the needs of the community. But in the Constitution's preamble... the concerns of individual liberty and the general welfare are given equal weight, and a more equitable national philosophy will...combine the two.

In May 2022, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences released a paper that measured fourteen European countries on three factors: biodiversity, wellbeing, and nature connectedness. Britain came last in every single category. The findings are clear. We are suffering, and nature is too. Enter ‘Wild Service’ – a visionary concept crafted by the pioneers of the Right to Roam campaign, which argues that humanity’s loss and nature’s need are two sides of the same story. Blending science, nature writing and indigenous philosophy, this groundbreaking book calls for mass reconnection to the land.

We normally don’t have any time, but when we finally do, we lack energy. On those rare occasions when we have energy outside of work, it is restless and difficult to harness towards meaningful goals. Starting from the realization that meaningful time is worthless without energy, the concept of “timenergy” points to something we all lack: large energy-infused blocks of repeatable time throughout the week.

Human beings have taken one thing for granted since our earliest days: we are bodily creatures dealing with one another on a face-to-face basis. The internet has shattered this fundamental feature of human existence. We are suddenly living our lives in two worlds at once-shifting endlessly from virtual to physical reality as we reach out to others.

You may think that a simple concept like Truth should be easy to describe and easy to understand. But like many simple concepts, it becomes so much more complicated the further you go. Author Drew Weatherhead endeavors to display the complexity of the objective Truth that we're forced to navigate from our subjective viewpoints through a variety of meta constructs. These Layers of Truth that make up the whole of our reality can help us recognize how we perceive the parts of it in which we exist.

Drawing from extensive psychiatric expertise and historical examples, Meerloo explores the vulnerabilities of the human mind to external influences, shedding light on the profound impact of social dynamics on shaping beliefs and perceptions. With profound insights into the roots of mass hysteria, indoctrination, and ideological fanaticism, "Delusion and Mass Delusion" remains a timeless exploration of the complexities of human psychology and societal behavior.

Science, not speculative philosophy, is the only guide, however imperfect, to the nature of existence. Science culture uses and supports science. The social brain experiences free will and needs religious faith. Empathy is a choice based on intuition. We need a better scientific understanding of dogma and chauvinism, and this book explores these issues. It also describes the Crisis of the Anthropocene is a wakeup that needs to overcome ignorance and naïve optimism, and reach our deepest emotions.

In "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy," Nikola Tesla embarks on an intellectual voyage that explores the avenues through which human society could augment its collective energy resources for the betterment of mankind. First published in Century Magazine in 1900, this work showcases Tesla's profound ingenuity and his visionary approach to not only scientific and technological advancements but also to addressing broader existential challenges.

In a world that is more connected than ever before, it may come as a surprise to learn that feelings of loneliness and disconnection are on the rise. We live in an age where technology has revolutionized the way we communicate and interact with one another. Social media platforms, instant messaging, and video calls have made it possible to connect with people from all corners of the globe at the touch of a button.

Looking across a fascinating range of situations both familiar and unfamiliar, serious and light-hearted, Bullsh*t Comparisons is a ground-breaking guide to the role of could-be-true but misleading comparisons. It is illuminated by examples spanning the globe from university league tables, to childhood rivalries, politicians' tawdry analogies, the FIFA World Footballer of the year award and Chinese neo-colonialism in Africa.

Wonder and awe lie at the heart of life's most profound questions. Wonderstruck shows how these emotions respond to our fundamental need to make sense of ourselves and everything around us, and how they enable us to engage with the world as if we are experiencing it for the first time.

Awkwardness discusses how we ostracize and punish those who fail to fit into existing social categories, how we all depend on-and are limited by-social scripts and norms for guidance, and how these norms frequently let us down when we need them.

Using examples and analysis, Abramson gives an account of gaslighting and its immorality, and argues that such a discussion can help us understand other aspects of social life—from racism and sexism to the structure of interpersonal trust.