John Locke's classic work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding laid the foundation of British empiricism and remains of enduring interest today. Rejecting doctrines of innate principles and ideas, Locke shows how all our ideas, even the most abstract and complex, are grounded in human experience--attained by sensation of external things or reflection upon our mental activities. A thorough examination of the communication of ideas through language...

Immanuel's Kant's groundbreaking work, considered to be among the most influential philosophical texts in the Western canon Familiar to philosophy students through the centuries, The Critique of Pure Reason is in many ways Kant's magnum opus. First published in 1781, it seeks to define what can be known by reason alone without evidence from experience. Kant begins by defining a posteriori knowledge, which is gained through the senses, versus a priori...

This reissue of Thomas Sowell's classic study of decision making, which includes a preface by the author, updates his seminal work in the context of The Vision of the Anointed. Sowell, one of America's most celebrated public intellectuals, describes in concrete detail how knowledge is shared and disseminated throughout modern society. He warns that society suffers from an ever-widening gap between firsthand knowledge and decision making—a gap that...

"A paradigm-shifting work that revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science. Captivatingly written, interwoven with tantalizing illustrations and historical vignettes ranging from Newton's alchemy to quantum mechanics to the storm surge of Hurricane Sandy, Michael Strevens's wholly original investigation of science asks two fundamental questions: Why is science so powerful? And why did it take so long, two thousand years...

Here, Knight argues that Merlin in all his guises represents a conflict basic to Western societies - the clash between knowledge and power. While the Merlin story varies over time, the underlying structural tension remains the same whether its takes the form of bard versus lord, magician versus monarch, or scientist versus capitalist

A modern translation of J.G. Fichte's best known philosophical work (including his two explanatory Introductions), which contributed to the development of 19th century German idealism from Kant's critical philosophy.

Identifies a loss of common-sense wisdom that has coincided with a collapsing economy, failing schools, and other setbacks, and offers recommendations to identify and cultivate wisdom by combining experience with empathy and intellect