Society

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....

One of the most important and influential books of the past half-century, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance tells the iconic story of a father and son's motorcycle trip across America in the 1960s....

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....

This landmark in the field of social psychology is completely relevant and essential for understanding the world today as it delivers a visionary, highly provocative look into the mind of the fanatic and a penetrating study of how an individual becomes one....

An economist explores the five laws that confirm our worst fears: Stupid people can and do rule the world....

The New York Times best-selling coauthor of Sex at Dawn explores the ways in which “progress” has perverted the way we live — how we eat, learn, feel, mate, parent, communicate, work, and die....

From the author of the critically acclaimed Interior States comes a strikingly original exploration of what it might mean to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence....

Have you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Have you read that certain people shouldn't practice yoga? Or been told that being obese is healthy, that there is no such thing as biological sex, or that only White people can be racist? Listen to find out more....

An astonishing work of cultural criticism, this book is widely recognized as a brilliant and devastating challenge to conventional views of literature, anthropology, religion, and psychoanalysis....

In 1962, the young Eugene Rose - the future Hieromonk Seraphim - undertook to write a monumental chronicle of the abandonment of truth in the modern age....

Neuroqueer Heresies collects a decade's worth of Dr. Walker's most influential writings, along with new commentary by the author and new material on her radical conceptualization of Neuroqueer Theory.

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....

Misogyny is a hot topic, yet it's often misunderstood. Who deserves to be called a misogynist? How does misogyny contrast with sexism, and why is it prone to persist even when sexist gender roles are waning? This book is an exploration of misogyny in public life and politics....

In this classic evaluation of play that has become a “must-listen” for those in game design, Dutch philosopher Johan Huizinga defines play as the central activity in flourishing societies. Like civilization, play requires structure and participants willing to create within limits....

At a time when we are all confronted by not one, but many crossroads in our modern lives - identity, technology, trust, politics, and a global pandemic - celebrated mythologist and wilderness guide Martin Shaw delivers Smoke Hole to help us understand our world....

From the New York Times best-selling author of How Not to Be Wrong - himself a world-class geometer - comes a far-ranging exploration of the power of geometry, which turns out to help us think better about practically everything....

Charles Eisenstein explores the history and potential future of civilization, tracing the converging crises of our age to the illusion of the separate self....

A leading philosopher shows that if the pursuit of happiness is the question, Epicureanism is the answer....

Das Spiel mit der Macht liegt in der Natur des Menschen. Die einen kämpfen um die Macht, andere verteidigen ihre Macht, wieder andere wollen...

Solidarity is often invoked, but it is rarely analyzed and poorly understood. Here, two leading activists and thinkers survey the past, present, and future of the concept across borders of nation, identity, and class....

What Thoreau can teach us about working—why we do it, what it does to us, and how we can make it more meaningful: Henry at Work invites listeners to rethink how we work today by exploring an aspect of Henry David Thoreau that has often been overlooked....

Cognitive scientist Professor Steven Pinker has spent his life thinking about thinking, and now he wants us to join him....

Peikoff, as Rand's foremost interpreter, here reveals both the abstract fundamentals of objectivism and its practical applications....

The world is encountering multiple crises—climate, droughts, floods, energy, food, and pandemics, to name a few. We have a problem, this is the solution. Capitalism and Crises is about how capitalism can fix them—how it can solve not cause them....

Linear and progressive views of history have dominated the popular imagination for the past seventy years in a worldview wedded to the inexorable rise of globalization and GDP growth at any cost.

In 2011, Emerick, an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church and a licensed clinical social worker, embarked on a self-directed study to educate himself about the nation's principal political disputes. He discovered that America's dominant political and economic theories...are... pitting the demands of the individual against the needs of the community. But in the Constitution's preamble... the concerns of individual liberty and the general welfare are given equal weight, and a more equitable national philosophy will...combine the two.

In May 2022, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences released a paper that measured fourteen European countries on three factors: biodiversity, wellbeing, and nature connectedness. Britain came last in every single category. The findings are clear. We are suffering, and nature is too. Enter ‘Wild Service’ – a visionary concept crafted by the pioneers of the Right to Roam campaign, which argues that humanity’s loss and nature’s need are two sides of the same story. Blending science, nature writing and indigenous philosophy, this groundbreaking book calls for mass reconnection to the land.

We normally don’t have any time, but when we finally do, we lack energy. On those rare occasions when we have energy outside of work, it is restless and difficult to harness towards meaningful goals. Starting from the realization that meaningful time is worthless without energy, the concept of “timenergy” points to something we all lack: large energy-infused blocks of repeatable time throughout the week.

Linear and progressive views of history have dominated the popular imagination for the past seventy years in a worldview wedded to the inexorable rise of globalization and GDP growth at any cost. However, the end of the Cold War failed to produce the end of history as hoped, a fact brought home to many by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In this era of unprecedented environmental crisis, it's no longer enough to simply admire nature – we must fundamentally rethink our relationship with it. "A Philosophy for the End of Nature - Rethinking Humanity in the Anthropocene" challenges the traditional Western ideas that have placed humans above the natural world, leading us down a dangerous path of exploitation. This thought-provoking book delves into the philosophical roots of the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch defined by humanity's profound impact on Earth's ecosystems.

You may think that a simple concept like Truth should be easy to describe and easy to understand. But like many simple concepts, it becomes so much more complicated the further you go. Author Drew Weatherhead endeavors to display the complexity of the objective Truth that we're forced to navigate from our subjective viewpoints through a variety of meta constructs. These Layers of Truth that make up the whole of our reality can help us recognize how we perceive the parts of it in which we exist.

Drawing from extensive psychiatric expertise and historical examples, Meerloo explores the vulnerabilities of the human mind to external influences, shedding light on the profound impact of social dynamics on shaping beliefs and perceptions. With profound insights into the roots of mass hysteria, indoctrination, and ideological fanaticism, "Delusion and Mass Delusion" remains a timeless exploration of the complexities of human psychology and societal behavior.

Science, not speculative philosophy, is the only guide, however imperfect, to the nature of existence. Science culture uses and supports science. The social brain experiences free will and needs religious faith. Empathy is a choice based on intuition. We need a better scientific understanding of dogma and chauvinism, and this book explores these issues. It also describes the Crisis of the Anthropocene is a wakeup that needs to overcome ignorance and naïve optimism, and reach our deepest emotions.

In "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy," Nikola Tesla embarks on an intellectual voyage that explores the avenues through which human society could augment its collective energy resources for the betterment of mankind. First published in Century Magazine in 1900, this work showcases Tesla's profound ingenuity and his visionary approach to not only scientific and technological advancements but also to addressing broader existential challenges.

In a move to disrupt our materialistic society and shed light on the consequences of pervasive greed, reclusive billionaire Victor Emanuel Jovis launches a free online game of chance that sparks a frenzy of worldwide participation. No Purchase Necessary irresistibly entices gamers with its triple appeal—no cost to play, the allure of speculative gains, and a staggering prize for one fortunate winner.

Looking across a fascinating range of situations both familiar and unfamiliar, serious and light-hearted, Bullsh*t Comparisons is a ground-breaking guide to the role of could-be-true but misleading comparisons. It is illuminated by examples spanning the globe from university league tables, to childhood rivalries, politicians' tawdry analogies, the FIFA World Footballer of the year award and Chinese neo-colonialism in Africa.

In "Behind the Modern Mythos," embark on a transformative journey through the unseen narratives that quietly sculpt our beliefs, behaviors, and the society at large. This thought-provoking book peels back the layers of modern life to reveal the ancient yet ever-present myths that guide us—on progress, success, individualism, digital existence, binary oppositions, and the universal quest for meaning.

Wonder and awe lie at the heart of life's most profound questions. Wonderstruck shows how these emotions respond to our fundamental need to make sense of ourselves and everything around us, and how they enable us to engage with the world as if we are experiencing it for the first time.

Awkwardness discusses how we ostracize and punish those who fail to fit into existing social categories, how we all depend on-and are limited by-social scripts and norms for guidance, and how these norms frequently let us down when we need them.

Using examples and analysis, Abramson gives an account of gaslighting and its immorality, and argues that such a discussion can help us understand other aspects of social life—from racism and sexism to the structure of interpersonal trust.