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The "Nicomachean Ethics" by the Greek philosopher Aristotle is the most influential book of the moral philosophy and one of the earliest treatises on the nature of good actions or ethics. From Kant to John Rawls, all philosophers have discussed the issue with Aristotle on the good life and on happiness. The title derives from either Aristotles father, Nicomachus, or his son, also named Nicomachus. In the "Nicomachean Ethics" Aristotle raises the question of virtue: How should we act? How to live? The man, he said, must act according to reason. The moral of Aristotle is an ethics based on actions, the outcome (good is the end) override the intention, contrary to the kantian ethics.

First published in 1689, "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" is a work by English philosopher John Locke concerning the foundation of human knowledge and understanding.Lockes aim in "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" is to inquire into the origin and extent of human knowledge. His conclusionthat all knowledge is derived from sense experiencebecame the principal tenet of empiricism, which has dominated Western philosophy ever since. Even George Berkeley, who rejected Lockes distinction between sense qualities independent of the mind and sense qualities dependent on the mind, produced his idealism in response to Lockes provocative philosophy and gave it an empirical cast that reflected Western cultures rejection of innate or transcendental knowledge.

Philosophy may be divided into three fields: physics (the study of the physical world), ethics (the study of morals), and logic (the study of logical principles). These fields may involve either "empirical" study of our experiences, or "pure" analysis of concepts. "Metaphysics" is the study of pure concepts as they relate to moral or physical experience.First published in 1785, "Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals" is a preliminary sketch of the fundamental metaphysical laws governing moral experience by German philosopher Immanuel Kant. These laws are metaphysical in that they can be discerned a priorithat is, by the exercise of pure reason and without reference to psychology. Kants goal is to set forth the supreme principle of morality. The attempt is organised into three sections.

In "The Critique of Practical Reason" (1788), Immanuel Kant argues that principles are subjective (and therefore maxims) if one person considers them; they are objective (and therefore imperatives) if every rational being considers them. Imperatives are either hypothetical or categorical. A hypothetical imperative demands a course of action to achieve a specified result; for example, If I want to stay dry in the rain, then I should take my umbrella with me. A categorical imperative demands a course of action under all possible circumstances; for example, Thou shalt not commit murder.According to Kant, hypothetical imperatives respond to desires, while categorical imperatives constitute rationality.Kant is often described as an ethical rationalist, and the description is not wholly inappropriate. He never espoused, however, the radical rationalism of some of his contemporaries nor of more recent philosophers for whom reason is held to have direct insight into a world of values or the power to intuit the rightness of this or that moral principle.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was an English philosopher and economist. He wrote one of his most famous essays, "On Liberty", in 1859."On Liberty" is the philosophy classic that laid the foundation of modern liberal politics, by applying the concept of utilitarianism to societies and countries, in order to create a working system between authority and liberty. It was widely read at the time, and in the century and a half since it was published, it has proven to be one of the most influential books of political philosophy of all time.

The appearance of "Meditations on First Philosophy" in 1641 marked a dramatic turning point in the history of Western thought.In "Meditations on the First Philosophy", René Descartes delves into epistemology, or the theory of knowledge. He asks questions such as whether there is such a thing as knowledge, and if so, what distinguishes it from opinion. However, in order to answer these questions and to validate knowledge, it was necessary to raise the fundamental questions of being.Descartes chooses to present his thoughts as meditations; he represents himself as seated before a fire in a cozy Dutch dwelling, wrapped in his dressing gown, freed from worldly care, and ready to devote himself to a task to which he had for some time looked forward, a kind of mental housecleaning. On six successive days, he pursues his meditation, step by step, clearing his mind of all error.

Vom 16.-20. Oktober 2013 veranstaltete John MacArthur die funftagige Strange Fire Konferenz (Fremdes Feuer). Die Konferenz befasste sich mit dem ganzen Spektrum pfingstlich-charismatischer Lehre und Praxis, von der MacArthur uberzeugt ist, dass es sich dabei um die grote Verfuhrung in der gesamten Kirchengeschichte handele. John MacArthur sagte in einem Interview: Ich denke, das Problem ist viel groer als die meisten meinen. Und es bricht mein Herz, dass Hunderte von Millionen von Seelen in eine Bewegung geraten, in der sie durch ein falsches Evangelium verfuhrt werden. Aus diesem Grund wollte ich eine so deutliche Warnung ausrufen.John MacArthur vertritt die Position des Cessationismus. Der Cessationismus lehrt, dass Geistesgaben wie Prophetie, Zungenreden, Worte der Weisheit oder die Gabe der Krankenheilung mit dem Tod der letzten Apostel und dem Abschluss des Schriftkanons aufhorten. Die Lehre des Nichtcessationismus der pfingstlich-charismatischen Theologie hingegen vertritt die Auffassung, dass diese Geistesgaben noch heute angestrebt und praktiziert werden sollten. Unter konservativen Calvinisten stot letztere Lehre zunehmend auf Akzeptanz.Der US-amerikanische Blogger Tim Challies verfolgte die Konferenz und fasste auf seinem Blog Challies.com Informing the Reforming (www.challies.com) einige der Vortrage zusammen. Tim Challies erteilte freundlicherweise die Genehmigung, diese Beitrage ins Deutsche zu ubersetzen und der Leserschaft von distomos zuganglich zu machen.

Il pensiero di Epicuro e una miniera di saggezza che puo aiutare anche luomo di oggi a raggiungere la felicita. Ma era davvero necessaria una nuova edizione della Lettera sulla Felicita di Epicuro?Si. E per due ottimi motivi.La grande maggioranza delle traduzioni disponibili sono ottime da un punto di vista filologico ma di difficile comprensione per un lettore che non ha alle spalle studi classici. La traduzione di Giulia Mancinelli, pur fedelissima alloriginale di Epicuro nelle idee e nella forma, usa un italiano semplice ed immediato.Se Epicuro avesse scritto oggi questa lettera probabilmente avrebbe usato queste stesse parole.Inoltre nessuna delle traduzioni in circolazione e priva di copyright. Un testo importante e prezioso come la lettera a Meneceo di Epicuro merita di poter circolare liberamente, senza vincoli. O meglio: chiunque lo desideri ha diritto di poter leggere questo piccolo capolavoro senza vincoli. Perche, come recita la dichiarazione di indipendenza degli Stati Uniti, la ricerca della felicita e un diritto.

First published in 1796, Immanuel Kants "The Science of Right" is a complete exposition of the Philosophy of Law, viewed as a rational investigation of the fundamental Principles of Jurisprudence.The importance and value of the great thinkers exposition of "The Science of Right", both as regards the fundamental Principles of his own Practical Philosophy and the general interest of the Philosophy of Law, were at once recognised.

The question of what happiness actually is has puzzled humankind since time immemorial. After all, it was one of the first issues that the early Greek philosophers turned to. They called it eudaimonia, a term that encompasses prosperity and good fortune as well as happiness.The question troubled Arthur Schopenhauer, too, and in his 1851 philosophical essay "The Wisdom of Life" he presents his own thoughts on the matter. He attempts both to define what happiness is and to ascertain how life should be lived so as to achieve it, how one should order his life so as to obtain the greatest possible amount of pleasure and success. According to him, that is the only way to gain the wisdom of life.

"On the Nature of Things" is a first-century BC long didactic poem written in Latin as "De rerum natura" by the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius that sets forth the physical theory of the Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicurus taught that the world could be understood by reason and that religion only arouses unnecessary fear. Lucretius denounced popular beliefs in deities and supernatural creatures.The staying power of "On the Nature of Things" is unquestionable. The work has been, over the centuries, both widely influential on the greatest writers and widely reviled. Quickly dubbed atheistic by early Christian fathers, the book continued to provoke negative reactions from Catholic theologians for nearly a millennium.Rediscovered during the Renaissance, the work became an oft-quoted source of inspiration for figures as diverse as Giordano Bruno in Italy, Michel de Montaigne in France, and Edmund Spenser in England.

Thomas Hobbess political manifesto "Leviathan" (or, as it was originally titled: Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common-Wealth Ecclesiastical and Civil", 1651) holds that a commonwealth with a social contract is the ideal way to govern a body of people.Hobbes argues that a sovereign power is best equipped to maintain peace and civic unity and that each of the nations citizens buys into a social contract that allows the sovereign power to act on behalf of safety and public defence. The central image of the philosophy is a leviathan or sea monster, with a body made of human constituents and a head representing the sovereign leader. According to Hobbes, this philosophy is the best in order to avoid civil war and maintain a unified nation. The manifesto is broken up into four sections, which build on this central idea.

Stoic philosopher and tutor to the young emperor Nero, Seneca wrote moral dialogues - exercises in practical philosophy - on how to live in a troubled world. These essays are strikingly applicable today, as Seneca ranges widely across subjects such as the shortness of life, tranquility of mind, anger, mercy, happiness, and grief at the loss of a loved one. This superb volume offers the finest translation of Senecas dialogues and essays, capturing the full range of his philosophical interests. Senecas accessible, aphoristic style makes his writing especially attractive as an introduction to Stoic philosophy, and belies its reputation for austerity and dogmatism.

Solomon ibn Gabirol, also known as Avicebron, was a Spanish-Jewish poet and philosopher of the eleventh century and his major philosophical work is the "Fons Vitae," or "The Fountain of Life."In this text, Ibn Gabirol uses a Socratic dialog as a framework to discuss his theory of the First Cause. Written in Arabic, the Fons was translated into Latin in the 12th century, The work was attributed to Avicebron, who was not identified as Jewish but as Christian or possibly Muslim. One reason is that Ibn Gabirol does not reference the Tanakh or Talmud, as would be normal for a Jewish intellectual from this time and place. In addition, his neo-Platonic views seem to place him in a more Christian intellectual current. However, in 1846, a scholar named Solomon Munk announced that he had discovered that Avicebron was the same person as Ibn Gabirol.Ibn Gabirol is well known in the history of philosophy for the doctrine that all things including soul and intellectare comprised of matter and form (Universal Hylomorphism), and for his emphasis on Divine Will.

The first major work in the history of philosophy to bear the title Metaphysics was the treatise by Aristotle that we have come to know by that name. But Aristotle himself did not use that title or even describe his field of study as metaphysics; the name was evidently coined by the first century C.E. editor who assembled the treatise we know as Aristotles "Metaphysics" out of various smaller selections of Aristotles works. The title metaphysicsliterally, after the Physicsvery likely indicated the place the topics discussed therein were intended to occupy in the philosophical curriculum. They were to be studied after the treatises dealing with nature (ta phusika).Plato, in his theory of forms, separates the sensible world (appearances) of the intelligible world (ideas) and the intelligible world was the only reality, the foundation of all truth. But in Aristotles "Metaphysics", at the heart of his philosophy, such separation removes any intelligibility and meaning to the world. According to him, the intelligibility is present in every being and in every thing. The world consists of substances. The substance can be either matter or form, or a compound of both. The shape is that, in every being, is general, so intelligible. For example the shape of a dog is what is common to all dogs. The matter is what is special, so unknowable.There would be a hierarchy of beings, matter informally unknowable to the pure form perfectly intelligible (God). This hierarchy justifies what Aristotle calls slavery by nature...

Friedrich Nietzsche published "On the Genealogy of Morals" in 1887. This period of Nietzsches life is considered by many scholars to be his most productive and significant. "On the Genealogy of Morals"" was preceded in 1886 by "Beyond Good and Evil", and both texts are concerned with similar ideas involving the historically constructed nature of morality. Nietzsche challenged most of the main currents of philosophical thought in the 19th century and brazenly attacked many of the basic moral assumptions of his time. "On the Genealogy of Morals" is perhaps the most concise representation of his fully developed philosophy and is still highly influential in the 21st century."On the Genealogy of Morals" inaugurates Nietzsches genealogical critique (which is about something other than tracing family histories). The philosophical method of genealogy, for Nietzsche, problematizes fundamental assumptions about morality and moral theories through a careful differentiation between origin and purpose. In other words, morality is viewed not as an unassailable, static set of facts or as an ideal realm of transcendental essences. Instead, the meaning and value of morality emerge from a sequence of shifting contexts that reveal and obscure a long, complicated chain of nonlinear historical developments and blurred psychological states. For Nietzsche, the most prominent facts about morality are its contingency and its hidden though recognizable development.

Soon after the publication of the original Arabic version of "Spirits Rebellious" in 1908, considerable agitation developed. The book was burned publicly in Lebanon and Kahlil Gibran, the author, was forced for an exile. That is, mainly, due to the open question to authority that it contains. "Spirits Rebellious" contains three stories centering around man, religion, law and authority all of which do not just depict the society in the early 1900s but the themes are universal.There are many questions posed by Gibran in this book. His inquisitive thoughts are very provocative to the mind and conscience.Gibran shakes you out of the slumber of the societal norms and earthly laws that have held mankind in shackles and ignites your soul with his fire and his rebellion.

il Libero Pensiero non riconosce limiti; esso afferma la verita, non la sottrae allindagine; ammette i principii, non ha dogmi da imporre, non misteri da occultare, esso, ammettendo la perfettibilita in tutte cose, si inoltra con perseveranza nei segreti della natura, e qui asserisce che e provato, rigetta cio che e assurdo, discute cio che non lo e, ma non crea simboli ne fabbrica vincoli e a nessuno dice: credete! perche il Libero Pensiero rappresenta il progresso indefinito affermato dalla storia.Un saggio (pubblicato nel 1867 dalla Tipografia Claudiana a cura di Napoleon Roussel) sullAteismo Panteismo il Dubbio.

Most of Atkinsons works are manuals of practice rather than pure expositions of philosophy. Many of his books are concerned with the training of the mind, and one of the most typical of these is "Your Mind and How to Use It: A Manual of Practical Psychology", first published in 1911.William Walker Atkinson was one of the most prominent contributors to the literature of the New Thought movement, a non-denomination spiritual philosophy which developed in the late Nineteenth Century. Although he achieved eminence in a number of professions, Atkinson never sought personal publicity, and many of his numerous works were published under a variety of pseudonyms.

"On Generation and Corruption" (also known as "On Coming to Be and Passing Away") is a treatise by Aristotle. Like many of his texts, it is both scientific and philosophic (although not necessarily scientific in the modern sense). The philosophy, though, is essentially empirical; as in all Aristotles works, the deductions made about the unexperienced and unobservable are based on observations and real experiences. The question raised at the beginning of the text builds on an idea from Aristotles earlier work "The Physics". Namely, whether things come into being through causes, through some prime material, or whether everything is generated purely through "alteration." From this important work Aristotle gives us two of his most remembered contributions. First, the Four Causes and also the Four Elements (earth, wind, fire and water).Even the best of Aristotles scientific work has now only a historical interest. The abiding value of his treatises lis not in their particular scientific assertions but in their philosophical analyses of some of the concepts that pervade the physics of different erasconcepts such as place, time, causation, and determinism.