Ethics & Morality

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....

As David Brooks observes, “There is one skill that lies at the heart of any healthy person, family, school, community organization, or society: the ability to see someone else deeply and make them feel seen—to accurately know another person, to let them feel valued, heard, and understood.”....

Nearly two thousand years after it was written, Meditations remains profoundly relevant for anyone seeking to lead a meaningful life....

Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 AD, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy....

In his New York Times bestselling book, Discipline Is Destiny, Ryan Holiday made the Stoic case for a life of self-discipline. In this much-anticipated third installment in the Stoic Virtues series, he argues for the necessity of doing what’s right—even when it isn’t easy....

Written in Greek by an intellectual Roman emperor without any intention of publication, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius offer a wide range of fascinating spiritual reflections and exercises developed as the leader struggled to understand himself and make sense of the universe....

Exploring the driving forces behind Nietzsche’s philosophy, the Friedrich Nietzsche Collection draws on four of his most influential works, painting a rich and compelling picture of his immense legacy. This collection breaks down Nietzsche’s most impactful reflections....

Everybody tells you to live for a cause larger than yourself, but how exactly do you do it? The best-selling author of The Road to Character explores what it takes to lead a meaningful life in a self-centered world....

Being a stoic means embracing positivity and self-control through the ability to accept the uncertainty of outcomes. With this stoicism guide, the beginner stoic will learn how to take charge of their emotions on the path to sustained happiness and satisfaction....

In The Voice of Knowledge, don Miguel Ruiz reminds us of a profound and simple truth: The only way to end our emotional suffering and restore our joy in living is to stop believing in lies....

Attacking the notion of morality as nothing more than institutionalised weakness, Nietzsche criticises past philosophers for their unquestioning acceptance of moral precepts....

Looking to some of the world's greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character....

As it was in Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, and Othello, so it is in life....

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....

Discover the universal tale of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse brought to life in audio by its author and illustrator Charlie Mackesy, with a beautiful music score and the real wildlife sounds of rural England....

One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life....

Here is an impassioned plea for reason in a world divided by faith....

Las anotaciones autobiográficas, las reflexiones y sentencias que Marco Aurelio fue escribiendo para sí mismo, durante sus últimos años...

In this explosive new book, Sam Harris tears down the wall between scientific facts and human values....

Vanessa Machado de Oliveira presents us with a challenge: to grow up, step up, and show up for ourselves, our communities, and the living Earth, and to interrupt the modern behavior patterns that are killing the planet we’re part of....

This urgent and eye-opening book makes the case that protecting humanity's future is the central challenge of our time....

During 1954-1955, John F. Kennedy, then a US senator, chose eight of his historical colleagues to profile for their acts of astounding integrity in the face of overwhelming opposition....

Ayn Rand here sets forth the moral principles of Objectivism, the philosophy that holds human life - the life proper to a rational being - as the standard of moral values...

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....

In this profound and funny audiobook, Anne Lamott calls for each of us to rediscover the nuggets of hope and wisdom that are buried within us that can make life sweeter than we imagined. Almost Everything pinpoints these moments of insight as it shines an encouraging light forward....

Iris Murdoch once observed: 'philosophy is often a matter of finding occasions on which to say the obvious'. What was obvious to Murdoch, and to all those who read her work, is that Good transcends everything—even God. Throughout her distinguished and prolific writing career, she explored questions of Good and Bad, myth and morality. The framework for Murdoch's questions—and her own conclusions—can be found here.

William Mulligan, founder of The Everyday Stoic, transforms principles from ancient Stoic philosophy into a contemporary guide for overcoming the challenges of modern life and cultivating an unshakeable sense of inner calm, so that you too can live like a Stoic. Rediscover ancient wisdom and join the Stoic movement: From Marcus Aurelius to Seneca, the Stoics have a long and rich history. The Everyday Stoic draws on these timeless teachings and offers a chance to be part of a growing stoic community.

Because reason is how we understand and deal with reality, a proper approach to morality will teach us how to follow reason on principle, without any concession to unexamined feelings or to faith. It will teach us what it means to be purposeful and to hold our own happiness as our most sacred purpose.

Early 20th-century philosopher, mathematician, historian, and social critic Bertrand Russell once again offers a refreshing and insightful look at the way in which we raise and educate our children and the effect it has on the kind of adults they become. Once again Russell demonstrates how timeless and unresolved some issues remain—be they war, religion, politics, or ... in this instance ... education.

The Kybalion is a book claiming to be the essence of the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus, presenting the seven Hermetic principles that underlie various aspects of reality and offering insights into philosophical, spiritual, and psychological truths. It explores concepts like mentalism, correspondence, vibration, polarity, rhythm, cause and effect, and gender to explain the workings of the universe. The authorship is attributed to "The Three Initiates," adding to its mystique as a guide to Hermetic wisdom and thought.

Humankind has never before faced challenges of the scale and complexity of today. We need to expand our ethical toolkit. The mental tools most of us rely on to ‘do the right thing’ just don’t work when it comes to reasoning about such huge collective problems. From the small stuff like single-use plastics to major decisions like whether to have children, Rieder defines exactly how we can change our thinking and lead a decent, meaningful life in a scary, complicated world.

According to the Holy Bible, man is naturally evil. Psalm 51:5 states, ”Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” As a result, man is selfish, lustful, jealous, envious, divisive, deceitful, malicious, insolent, arrogant, boastful, senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless, slanderous, and full of gossip. Even human actions that seem good on the surface are often tainted by evil.

In Plato’s, The Ring of Gyges, Glaucon believed that man created justice by coming to an agreement not to inflict injury or suffer it. Glaucon also pointed out that man struggled to act justly since his natural tendency was to be unjust. This hypothesis is demonstrated in the story of the ancestor of the Lydian Gyges. In this story, a man found a ring that could make him invisible. Leaving his life as a quiet shepherd, he decided to engage in an affair with the king’s wife, killed the king, and then took over the kingdom. Would other men act similarly? Glaucon believed the only way to ...

Both John Mill and Jeremy Bentham agreed with the utilitarianism claim that a “good action” resulted in an increase in the overall balance of pleasure. At the same time, a “bad action” decreased the balance. In other words, actions can be deemed “right” depending on their promotion of happiness and labeled as “wrong” when they produce the opposite effect. It should also be noted that, according to the theory, happiness is characterized as pleasure and the absence of pain.

The just war tradition provides a framework to evaluate decisions on waging and conducting war. It can also inform conduct after a war. In addition, just war principles can assist military planners and decision-makers regarding situations other than war, including humanitarian intervention. For example, consider a potential mass atrocity in sub-Saharan Africa. The just war concepts of just cause, legitimate authority, reasonable chance of success, last resort, right intention, and proportionality can inform the moral and legal basis for intervention by a state or the international community.

Genesis provides the foundation for understanding human suffering. The story of Original Sin and the Fall of mankind sets the stage for everything that follows. But what kind of a God would punish and curse the children of future generations of for wanting to become Homo sapien... man the wise? We are told that Eve's curiosity and disobedience are reasons enough for our predicament and encouraged to move on to get to the reward of the "good news." Most of us do exactly that treating Genesis like a preface to a book that can be glossed over to get to the meat of the story. But in so doing, ...

In his autobiography, David Hume declared unequivocally that this work, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751) is "of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best." In it, Hume takes the discussion away from traditional attitudes where either rational or metaphysical issues govern moral principles. Instead, he introduces the human factor, introducing the sentiments and passions inherent in human psychology.

This tantalizing book is based on the pioneering work of Claude Levi-Strauss, who postulated that myths are links between nature and culture. Shoham enlarges this concept and claims that myth in the form of a mythogene, the structural longings and experiences of the individual as projected onto mythology, links history and transcendence, the individual and society, and consciousness and energy-matter. The mythogenes are related to Shoham's personality theory, which, in essence, postulates that personality types can be taxonomized along a continuum with one pole having the Tantalic type, ...

A bible for atheists is about how to be a good human if one doesn't believe in gods or God. It states positively what many atheists believe. In this improved second edition, it puts forth a system of belief based on reason and science and common sense into a coherent structure, starting from basic principles, to answer the big questions about our human origins, the puzzle of fate and free will, ethics, how to manage the emotions, why some binds bring new capabilities, friendship, love and mating, the nature of beauty, constructive thinking, rights and freedom and liberty, and more.

In the complex tapestry of life, the brilliance of Marcus Aurelius serves as a guiding beacon. Within his personal reflections, meticulously crafted with profound insight, the revered Stoic philosopher-emperor imparted timeless wisdom that continues to inspire generations.