These works articulate the most fundamental principles of Kant’s ethical and political world-view. "What is Enlightenment?" (1784) and "Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics...

The "Dao De Jing" exists on the border between poetry and philosophy, embracing both mythos and logos. Its poetic form can stand alone, but it is enriched when its timeless ideas...

Berkeley uses the Socratic mode of inquiry in "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous" to question fundamental beliefs about knowledge and reality. These dialogues are...

Aristotle's Poetics is best known for its definition and analysis of tragedy and comedy, but it also applies to truth and beauty as they are manifested in the other arts. In our...

René Descartes is often described as the first modern philosopher, but much of the content of his "Meditations on First Philosophy" can be found in the medieval period that had...

John Stuart Mill’s "On Liberty" was first published in 1859. In the 21st century this text confirms Socrates’ claim that "it is only the life of true philosophy that scorns...

David Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion had not yet been published when he died in 1776. Even though the manuscript was mostly written during the 1750s, it did not...

Whitehead presented these three lectures at Princeton University in 1929. Although 85 years have passed, his central thesis and his analysis remain remarkably current. The...

Socrates is on trial for his life. He is charged with impiety and corrupting young people. He presents his own defense, explaining why he has devoted his life to challenging the...

The basic principles that Bergson articulates, especially his way of thinking about reality as a dynamic process and his view of human beings as creative and evolving, should be...