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First published in 1752, "Micromegas" is one of Voltaire’s best-known works. It is a tale of mordant irony, and actually the original science-fiction short story. Arriving on Earth from the star Sirius, the gigantic explorer Micromegas discovers the people of Earth, so small compared to him that he first believes that no creature this size can hope to achieve any degree of intelligence; he will soon discover the ways and thoughts of these diminutive people, who clearly have an over-inflated idea of their own importance in the universe. Voltaire's extrapolations of sun-powered interstellar flight, alien civilizations, and the two moons of Mars, are designed to make us see ourselves in a new light and laugh at what we find.
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5 out of 5 stars
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excellent philosophical satire by voltaire!
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The Critique of Pure Reason is a work that examines the faculty of reason and the qualities inherent in human thought. Before this time the influence of the knower on that which was sought to be known was not considered in a thorough and developed manner. Kant attempted with this critique to establish a limit to the knowable based on the nature of human cognition. His work was an attempt to address the failings in philosophy and metaphysics and provide a solid foundation for the proper use of reason to expand knowledge.
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"Candide" is a delightful story filled with boundless misadventure while tackling the great philosophical issues of the Enlightenment era. The story is about Candide, a young man who is the illegitimate nephew of a German baron with whom he resides. When it is discovered he is kissing the baron's beautiful daughter he is thrown from the castle where he experiences the horrors of war, poverty, the maliciousness of man, and the hypocrisy of the church.
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Durant lucidly describes the philosophical systems of such world-famous “monarchs of the mind” as Plato, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Spinoza, Kant, Voltaire, and Nietzsche. Along with their ideas, he offers their flesh-and-blood biographies, placing their thoughts within their own time and place and elucidating their influence on our modern intellectual heritage. This book is packed with wisdom and wit.
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5 out of 5 stars
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AN ALL TIME FAVORITE
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No Excuses: Existentialism and the Meaning of Life
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- Narrated by: Robert C. Solomon
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,454
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,273
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What is life? What is my place in it? What choices do these questions obligate me to make? More than a half-century after it burst upon the intellectual scene - with roots that extend to the mid-19th century - Existentialism's quest to answer these most fundamental questions of individual responsibility, morality, and personal freedom, life has continued to exert a profound attraction.
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Exhaustive Philosophic Treatise
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Micromegas: A philosophical short story
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- Length: 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 32
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 29
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First published in 1752, "Micromegas" is one of Voltaire’s best-known works. It is a tale of mordant irony, and actually the original science-fiction short story. Arriving on Earth from the star Sirius, the gigantic explorer Micromegas discovers the people of Earth, so small compared to him that he first believes that no creature this size can hope to achieve any degree of intelligence; he will soon discover the ways and thoughts of these diminutive people, who clearly have an over-inflated idea of their own importance in the universe. Voltaire's extrapolations of sun-powered interstellar flight, alien civilizations, and the two moons of Mars, are designed to make us see ourselves in a new light and laugh at what we find.
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5 out of 5 stars
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excellent philosophical satire by voltaire!
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- Narrated by: Marlain Angelides
- Length: 26 hrs and 49 mins
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 93
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 82
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3 out of 5 stars
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A brilliant book ... read by Siri or Alexa
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 55
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"Candide" is a delightful story filled with boundless misadventure while tackling the great philosophical issues of the Enlightenment era. The story is about Candide, a young man who is the illegitimate nephew of a German baron with whom he resides. When it is discovered he is kissing the baron's beautiful daughter he is thrown from the castle where he experiences the horrors of war, poverty, the maliciousness of man, and the hypocrisy of the church.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Classic masterpiece, awful narration
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The Story of Philosophy
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- Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,361
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,116
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,103
Durant lucidly describes the philosophical systems of such world-famous “monarchs of the mind” as Plato, Aristotle, Francis Bacon, Spinoza, Kant, Voltaire, and Nietzsche. Along with their ideas, he offers their flesh-and-blood biographies, placing their thoughts within their own time and place and elucidating their influence on our modern intellectual heritage. This book is packed with wisdom and wit.
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5 out of 5 stars
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AN ALL TIME FAVORITE
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The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) was the first major text by Adam Smith who, seven years later, was to publish what was to become one of the major economic classics, The Wealth of Nations (1776). However, Smith regarded The Theory of Moral Sentiments as his most important work because in it he identified the profound human instinct to act not necessarily in self-interest but through, as he phrased it, a ‘mutual sympathy of sentiments’.
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Taught by award-winning Professor Patrick Grim of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, The Philosopher’s Toolkit: How to Be the Most Rational Person in Any Room arms you against the perils of bad thinking and supplies you with an arsenal of strategies to help you be more creative, logical, inventive, realistic, and rational in all aspects of your daily life.
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Didn't get good until chapter 9
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In the tradition of his very popular Candide, Zadig is what might be called a "philosophical tale." Zadig, a handsome young man with a fine education, is puzzled by the uncertainties of his destiny. He attains great success in government but is unsuccessful in love. Despite his wisdom and shrewdness, he meets with a number of misfortunes. The central question of the story is, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"
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4 out of 5 stars
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Excellent
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The first volume of Will Durant's Pulitzer Prize-winning series, Our Oriental Heritage: The Story of Civilization, Volume I chronicles the early history of Egypt, the Middle East, and Asia.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Wonderful
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Thus Spoke Zarathustra is one of the most extraordinary - and important - texts in Western philosophy. It was written by Friedrich Nietzsche between 1883 and 1885. He cast it in the form of a novel in the hope that his urgent message of the 'death of God' and the rise of the superman (Ubermensch) would have greater emotional as well as intellectual impact.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Narration!
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Voltaire's razor-sharp satire on philosophical optimism, Candide, is coupled here with another of the author's most celebrated works, Zadig. Both challenge the moral and philosophical orthodoxies of the day with humor and sly wit, while parodying the clichéd formulas of so many contemporary novels.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Highly recommended
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“A faithful translation is rare; a translation which preserves intact the original text is very rare; a perfect translation of Montaigne appears impossible. Yet Donald Frame has realized this feat. One does not seem to be reading a translation, so smooth and easy is the style; at each moment, one seems to be listening to Montaigne himself - the freshness of his ideas, the unexpected choice of words. Frame has kept everything.” (Andre Maurois, The New York Times Book Review)
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5 out of 5 stars
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Spend some enjoyable time with Michel de Montaigne
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Bolivar
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It is astonishing that Simón Bolívar, the great Liberator of South America, is not better known in the United States. He freed six countries from Spanish rule, traveled more than 75,000 miles on horseback to do so, and became the greatest figure in Latin American history. His life is epic, heroic, straight out of Hollywood: he fought battle after battle in punishing terrain, forged uncertain coalitions of competing forces and races, lost his beautiful wife soon after they married and died relatively young, uncertain whether his achievements would endure.
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4 out of 5 stars
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There will be blood.
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Swann's Way is the first novel of Marcel Proust's seven-volume magnum opus In Search of Lost Time. After elaborate reminiscences about his childhood with relatives in rural Combray and in urban Paris, Proust's narrator recalls a story regarding Charles Swann, a major figure in his Combray childhood....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Like that madeleine...
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Democracy in America
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In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville, a young French aristocrat and civil servant, made a nine-month journey through the eastern United States. The result was Democracy in America, a monumental study of the strengths and weaknesses of the nation’s evolving politics. His insightful work has become one of the most influential political texts ever written on America.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Most Listenable, if not the Best Translation
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Published in 1651, Leviathan is considered to be one of the most important works of political philosophy and a major contribution to the modern idea of central government. In the mid-17th century, England was going through a turbulent time of change and unrest, which likely shaped Hobbes' ideas on strong government. Thomas Hobbes established the social contract theory. He believed that self-government did not create the ideal state due to the human tendency to be self-serving, something he believed would eventually lead to chaos.
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5 out of 5 stars
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For the philosophical minds
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The Moral Epistles
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- Unabridged
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Towards the end of his life, Seneca the Younger (c4 BCE-65 CE) began a correspondence with a friend in Sicily, later collected under the title The Moral Epistles. In these 124 letters, Seneca expresses, in a wise, steady and calm manner, the philosophy by which he lived - derived essentially from the Stoics. The letters deal with a variety of specific topics - often eminently practical - such as 'On Saving Time', 'On the Terrors of Death', 'On True and False Friendships', 'On Brawn and Brains' and 'On Old Age and Death'.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Outstanding!
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Editorial Reviews
Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary isn't exactly what one might think of when the word "dictionary" is mentioned. Instead of a long catalog of definitions and terms, this collection is a series of articles and thoughts from one of the Enlightenment's greatest and most subversive thinkers. Actor, Donal Donnelly, with his pleasant lilt, enhances Voltaire's natural wit and satire. Subjects in this collection range from freedom of press to the Roman Catholic Church, of which Voltaire has plenty of humorous and scathing things to say.
Publisher's Summary
Preeminent French cynic and philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) collected ideas and thoughts that were too short for pamphlets but worth saving for later development. These jottings eventually became the Philosophical Dictionary, filled with witty and wise entries on subjects as diverse as Atheism and Kissing - a compendium of the whole spectrum of Voltaire's ideas. This champion of the Enlightenment's merciless satire, unorthodox views, and enmity to organized religion were a source of irritation to the political and religious authorities of his day.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Michael
- Walnut Creek, CA, United States
- 05-08-08
Good for historical value only...
In the 1700's this would have been really relevant and humorous. Luckily, many of Voltaire's insightful and then controversial ideas are now common wisdom. This leaves this volume as being interesting mostly in the historical sense. I could not recommend it for the humor, philosophical insights, or educational value. I am glad I listened, but this is definitely not for everyone.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Tom O'hayon
- 03-17-17
Great Book, too bad It's incomplete
Any additional comments?
I have been looking for a good Audio book of this classic text, but this is not it. the translation is good, the reading is excellent, but it is a vary abridged version (in contrary to its declaration of being "Unabridged"). out of the hole book, this version contains about a fifth.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Predicate
- 04-23-18
don't waste.your money.
don't waste your money. it isn't what you think it is. it's story's that horrible
0 of 1 people found this review helpful