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On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings by William James
13.00 NZD
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas | Reading Level: very good
William James' strong beliefs in a pragmatic theory of truth - that truth is only as relevant as its effect on us - lead to these absorbing essays on fact and belief. Within them is a fascinating theory of reality that suggests nothing is truly 'real' without examination through human empathy and experi ...Show more
One Swallow Does Not Make a Summer (Penguin Great Ideas Series) by Aristotle
14.00 NZD
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'One swallow does not make a summer; neither does one day. Similarly neither can one day, or a brief space of time, make a man blessed and happy' What does it mean to be a good person? Ranging over eternal questions of right and wrong, pleasure and self-control, friendship and courage, Aristotle's lectu ...Show more
Reflections on the Guillotine by Albert Camus
14.00 NZD
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'When silence or tricks of language contribute to maintaining an abuse that must be reformed or a suffering that can be relieved, then there is no other solution but to speak out' Written when execution by guillotine was still legal in France, Albert Camus' devastating attack on the 'obscene exhibition' ...Show more
Steps Towards a Small Theory of the Visible by John Berger
14.00 NZD
Category: Art & Fashion | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'We live within a spectacle of empty clothes and unworn masks' In this series of remarkable pieces from across his career, John Berger celebrates and dissects the close links between art and society and the individual. Few writers give a more vivid and moving sense of how we make art and how art makes u ...Show more
Suffragette Manifestos (Penguin Great Ideas Series) by Penguin Great Ideas Series
14.00 NZD
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'We women are roused. Now that we are roused, we will never be quiet again' Bringing together the voices of women who fought for equal rights and representation - from aristocrats and actresses to mill workers and trade unionists - these speeches, pamphlets, letters and articles form an inspiring test ...Show more
The Decay of Lying (Penguin Great Ideas Series) by Oscar Wilde
14.00 NZD
Category: Classics | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life' The two works brought together here, 'The Decay of Lying' and 'The Critic as Artist', are Oscar Wilde's wittiest and most profound writings on aesthetics, in which he proposes that criticism is the highest form of creation and that lying, the telling o ...Show more
The Fastidious Assassins (Penguin Great Ideas Series) by Albert Camus
13.00 NZD
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas, AC
A daring critique of communism and how it had gone wrong behind the Iron Curtain, Camus' essay examines the revolutions in France and Russia, and argues that since they were both guilty of producing tyranny and corruption, hope for the future lies only in revolt without revolution. Throughout history, s ...Show more
The Freedom to Be Free by Hannah Arendt
14.00 NZD
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'People can only be free in relation to one another.' Three exhilarating and inspiring essays in which the great twentieth-century political philosopher argues that there can be no freedom without politics, and no politics without freedom. One of twenty new books in the bestselling Penguin Great Ideas ...Show more
The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln
13.00 NZD
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas | Reading Level: very good
The Address was delivered at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, during the American Civil War, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg ...Show more
The Narrative of Trajan's Column by Italo Calvino
14.00 NZD
Category: Art & Fashion | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'When the last fire goes out, time too will be finished' Italo Calvino was one of the most joyful and imaginative writers of the twentieth century. Here he muses on what the things we leave behind - whether waxworks or ancient graffiti, enigmatic maps or a crumbling Roman column - tell us about the gr ...Show more
The Power of Words by Simone Weil
16.00 NZD
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas Ser.
'There are certain words which possess, in themselves, when properly used, a virtue which illumines and lifts up towards the good' The philosopher and activist Simone Weil was one of the most courageous thinkers of the twentieth century. Here she writes, with honesty and moral clarity, about the manipul ...Show more
The Tao of Nature by Chuang Tzu
13.00 NZD
Category: History | Series: Penguin Great Ideas
Chuang Tzu examines the nature of existence in these dialogues and essays, from the battle to grasp the purpose of life to the search for knowledge. A collection of some of the most absorbing and charming philosophy ever written, "The Tao of Nature" is also about perfection, perception, the value of ski ...Show more