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Kierkegaard wasn't really a philosopher in the academic sense. Yet he produced what many people expect of philosophy. He didn't write about the world, he wrote about life, about how we live and how we choose to live. His subject was the individual and his or her existence, the "existing being." In Kierkegaard's view, this purely subjective entity lay beyond the reach of reason, logic, philosophical systems, theology, or even "the pretenses of psychology." Nonetheless, it was the source of all these subjects.

Immanuel Kant taught and wrote prolifically about physical geography yet never traveled further than forty miles from his home in Kn̲igsberg. How appropriate it is then that in his philosophy he should deny that all knowledge was derived from experience. Kant's aim was to restore metaphysics. He insisted that all experience must conform to knowledge. According to Kant, space and time are subjective; along with various "categories," they help us to see the phenomena of the world-though never its true reality.

A lively philosophical guide to time and time management, setting aside superficial efficiency solutions in favor of reckoning with and finding joy in the finitude of human life.

Ren ̌Descartes spent most of his childhood in solitude, a situation that also came to characterize his adult life. Fortunately, these countless lonely hours helped Descartes produce the declaration that changed all philosophy: "I think, therefore I am." Eventually convincing himself to doubt and disregard sensory knowledge, Descartes found he could prove his existence through his thoughts. This internal information, he believed, was the true reality and external forces were hopelessly deceiving.

In Confucius in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern offers a concise, expert account of Confucius's life and ideas and explains their influence on man's struggle to understand his existence in the world.

Aristotle wrote on everything from the shape of seashells to sterility, from speculations on the nature of the soul to meteorology, poetry, art, and even the interpretation of dreams. Apart from mathematics, he transformed every field of knowledge that he touched. Above all, Aristotle is credited with the founding of logic. When he first divided human knowledge into separate categories, he enabled our understanding of the world to develop in a systematic fashion.

From the best-selling author of The Invention of Nature comes an exhilarating story about a remarkable group of young rebels—poets, novelists, philosophers—who, through their epic quarrels, passionate love stories, heartbreaking grief, and radical ideas launched Romanticism onto the world stage, inspiring some of the greatest thinkers of the time.

Renowned philosopher Massimo Pigliucci and practitioner Gregory Lopez guide listeners through fifty-two weekly lessons that will enable them to reframe their perceptions and be happier.

Fabrice Midal teaches the power of trusting in our own thoughts and strengthening our connection to humanity, as he guides us through the inspirational ideas of forty writers, artists, thinkers, and seers from Baudelaire to Nietzsche, Emily Dickinson to Toni Morrison, Pablo Picasso to James Baldwin, and of course, Socrates to Aristotle. Midal's three-minute essays ask us to step back, reflect, and meditate, and encourage us to think about the world a little differently.

For the first time, listeners will have access to Pirsig's personal writings in this posthumous collection. Edited by Wendy Pirsig, the collection includes unpublished speeches, letters, and private notes.