Talks about American pragmatism that is a fertile soil for growth in Western religious thought.

In the rich history of political philosophy, great minds have sought to define the nature and extent of human freedom, with careful justifications offered for the principles proposed. This tradition experienced a heightened degree of enthusiastic intensity upon the publication of On Liberty in England during the nineteenth century.
In this, his most powerful essay, John Stuart Mill defends individual liberty against both social and political encroachment, by daring to suggest that lines of demarcation be drawn to outline the proper role of government with respect to individual freedom....

In the mid-nineteenth century Mill turned his sharp analytic eye toward the issues raised by social critics such as Robert Owen, Saint-Simon, and others. These early socialists sought to reform, if not render extinct, the capitalism that they believed had wrought social upheaval and discontent. In several preliminary chapters, prepared as a prelude to a full-blown critique of nineteenth-century socialism, Mill seeks to understand the thrust of socialist theory and to appraise the impact of its potential implementation. These chapters, never before published in book form, were originally made...

One of America's most influential social philosophers offers a restatement of traditional liberal-democratic views as they pertain to our constitutional form of government.
The topics explored in Sidney Hook's book include the nature and extent of human freedom, the Bill of Rights, judicial review as it pertains to constitutional interpretation and the balance of powers among the three branches of government, censorship, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, social justice, the importance of intelligence in political and moral spheres, as well as civil disobedience and the right to...

Jeremy Bentham's work on The Principles of Morals and Legislation emerges from its historic roots in hedonism and teleology as a scientific attempt to assess the moral content of human action by focusing on its results or consequences. Proceeding from the assumption that human beings desire pleasure (and avoid pain), Bentham's unique perspective, known as utilitarianism, is used to construct a fascinating calculus for determining which action to perform when confronted with situations requiring moral decision-makingthe goal of which is to arrive at the -greatest happiness of the greatest...

Communism as a political movement attained global importance after the Bolsheviks toppled the Russian Czar in 1917. After that time the works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, especially the influential Communist Manifesto (1848), enjoyed an international audience. The world was to learn a new political vocabulary peppered with "socialism," "capitalism," "the working class," "the bourgeoisie," "labor theory of value," "alienation," "economic determinism," "dialectical materialism," and "historical materialism." Marx's economic analysis of history has been a powerful legacy, the effects of...

All civilized societies share a common desire for internal order and security. For this reason, among others, moral codes and legal structures are developed to give form to social belief systems, to regulate interpersonal relations, and to promulgate ideals of appropriate behavior. But what should society or individuals do when the compelling dictates of personal conscience conflict strongly with statutory law? Can the morality of some be visited upon the rest of society by giving it the authority and power of law? Are there principles that go beyond legal jurisdiction to justify acts of...

As the indisputable father of Western philosophy, Socrates stands as the archetype of free inquiry and intellectual honesty throughout history. He dared to explore the minds of men, to analyze the content of cherished beliefs, and to distinguish knowledge and truth from opinion. This philosophical gadfly irritated the people of Athens, who tried him for corrupting their youth, and subsequently sentenced him to death for his "crime."

In these four short works by Plato, we come to experience the full range of Socrates' penetrating mind. In the Euthyphro, Socrates searches after the truth...

Throughout history, but most especially during the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, great minds of philosophy grappled with two thorny questions: What are the objects of knowledge? and How do we come to know them? Using the revealing dialogue technique, Berkeley shakes the very ground of those who believe that something called matter exists to support the sensible qualities we perceive. In his critique of this view, Berkeley argues for ideas in the mind as the only true reality about which one can have knowledge. His arguments for these conclusions, and for the ultimate foundation of all...

How do we come to have ideas about the world and about the relationships of objects we perceive therein? Is all impressed upon the senses from outside or does the human mind have a significant role to play in how such concepts as -causality, - -probability, - -necessity, - -contingency, - -miracles, - and others are to be understood? If so, what is the nature and extent of that role?
In this classic work of early modern epistemology, Hume offers important insights about how we come to understand and have knowledge of our world and, in so doing, alter our relationship with it.