Ancient Ethics

Ancient Greek Ethics and the Art of Living: Virtue, Character, Habit, and the Good Life is a comprehensive and accessible guide to the moral wisdom of the ancient Greek world. This book brings together the foundational ideas of Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and earlier Greek thinkers to illuminate one of history’s most enduring questions. What does it mean to live well. Through clear explanations and thoughtful analysis, this book shows how Greek moral philosophy offers powerful insights into virtue, character formation, and the pursuit of a flourishing life. Across its ten chapters, the ...

Most readers have been taught that philosophy began in Greece—and that everything else is myth, religion, or folklore. This book quietly overturns that assumption. An Introduction to Aztec Philosophy reveals a sophisticated tradition of thought developed by the Nahua people of ancient Mexico—one that grappled seriously with truth, ethics, uncertainty, beauty, and the sacred long before European contact. This is not a book about gods and legends alone. It is a book about how human beings learned to live wisely in a world they knew was fragile, unpredictable, and in constant motion. ...

One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives. In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life.

It has been proclaimed many times, but perhaps never more convincingly than now, when every news cycle seems to deliver further confirmation of a world gone mad. Is this the endgame? Author Spencer Klavan is a classicist, with a Ph.D. from Oxford, and a deep understanding of the West. His analysis: The situation is dire. But every crisis we face today, we have faced before. And we can surmount each one. Klavan brings to the West’s defense the insights of Plato, Aristotle, the Bible, and the Founding Fathers to show that in the wisdom of the past lies hope for the future.

Aristotle's Politics does not finish. Its last page is about music and the education of the young, and the sentence in which the treatise stops has a hole in it — a translator's honest hyphen marking a gap nobody has ever filled. Two sentences earlier, Aristotle is in the middle of correcting Socrates about a point of musical theory. The largest work of political classification produced in antiquity ends still arguing with a character from somebody else's book, and never reaches the end of its own sentence. Plato's Republic ends differently. Two books after expelling poets from the ideal ...

Discover the Blueprint for a Life Worth Living For over two thousand years, Aristotle’s Eudemian Ethics has guided thinkers, leaders, and seekers on the path to true fulfillment. Now, The Eudemian Ethics for Beginners makes this profound philosophy accessible to everyone, breaking down complex ideas into actionable steps for living a life of purpose, virtue, and balance. What’s inside this transformative guide? A clear and engaging introduction to Aristotle’s timeless wisdom—no philosophy degree required. Practical insights into his concept of eudaimonia, the ultimate goal of human ...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Most people assume that the world has been explored and true adventure is dead: This book is one man’s rebuttal. Explorer and conservationist Paul Rosolie shares his incredible life in the Amazon rainforest—and what we can learn from the people fighting to...

Can philosophy help us face death, endure pain, and recover from grief? Can a good life remain happy when fortune turns against us? In the Tusculan Disputations, Cicero brings these questions into five searching conversations. Writing in the aftermath of personal loss, he tests the promises of philosophy against experiences that no argument can make unreal: fear, suffering, sorrow, anger, and desire. Each book takes up a central problem of human life. The first examines death and the reasons we fear it. The second asks how pain can be endured. The third considers grief and whether it can be...

Ancient wisdom. Practical guidance. A better way to live. Nearly two thousand years ago, the Jewish sages recorded a collection of short, unforgettable teachings about character, responsibility, friendship, leadership, humility, and the wise use of time. Those teachings became Pirkei Avot—often translated as Ethics of the Fathers—and their message remains strikingly relevant today. How should you respond to anger? What makes a person truly wise? Why do your friends and teachers matter? How can you pursue success without becoming controlled by wealth, status, or praise? Pirkei Avot for ...

The definitive translation of Plato's Republic, the most influential text in the history of Western philosophy. “To read The Republic as Bloom means it to be read is to question everything we think we know about government, politics, the best human life, and the nature of truth.” —Adam...

What if the person you become depends less on your natural instincts—and more on what you deliberately practice? More than two thousand years ago, the Chinese philosopher Xunzi made a provocative claim: human beings are not born naturally virtuous. Left undisciplined, our desires can lead to rivalry, conflict, and disorder. But Xunzi was not a pessimist. He believed human beings possess an extraordinary ability to transform themselves through learning, ritual, discipline, good teachers, and conscious effort. Xunzi for Beginners: A Simple Guide to Human Nature, Ritual, Learning, and Moral ...

What if the ruins of a forgotten world still whispered the secrets of your own? Beneath the marble columns and sun-bleached stones of Ancient Greece lies more than history. There lies a heartbeat. A story of ambition, betrayal, brilliance, and collapse. A story that didn’t end—it became the foundation of everything we call civilization today. The Rise and Fall of Ancient Greece is not just a chronicle of battles and empires. It is a journey into the soul of a people who dared to ask the hardest questions, build the boldest cities, and imagine a world governed by reason instead of fear. ...

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. His writings cover many subjects including physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, psychology, linguistics, economics, politics and government.

What was Socrates really like? Plato made Socrates one of philosophy’s most enduring voices. Xenophon remembered him differently: as a teacher encountered in streets, workshops, gymnasiums, homes, and public spaces—a man concerned not only with abstract questions, but with the practical demands of living well. In the Memorabilia, Xenophon answers the charges that led to Socrates’ execution. He argues that Socrates neither rejected the gods nor corrupted the young. Instead, he encouraged those around him to cultivate self-control, sound judgment, loyalty, competence, and reverence. ...

Step back into the world of Classical Greece and discover how one man reshaped the future of healing. Healing Wisdom of Hippocrates: Exploring the Father of Medicine and His Lasting Legacy takes readers on a journey through the life, ideas, and enduring influence of Hippocrates, whose revolutionary approach transformed medicine from superstition into a rational, ethical, and scientific discipline. From the legendary Hippocratic Oath to his insights on diet, lifestyle, and the healing power of nature, this book reveals how Hippocrates set the foundation for modern healthcare. Across ten in-...

Long before modern philosophy, psychology, and political theory existed, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were asking the questions that shaped our civilization.

What if the history of Western philosophy could be understood not as a collection of difficult theories, but as one extraordinary conversation that has continued for 2,500 years? A History of Western Philosophy: The Story of the World's Greatest Ideas—Explained in Plain English is written for curious readers who want to understand philosophy but have never wanted to fight their way through dense academic language. Instead of beginning with technical definitions, this book begins with the questions that made philosophy necessary. What is reality made of? What makes a good life? Can we ...

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is one of the greatest guides to human flourishing ever written, but its length and style have left many readers languishing. How to Flourish is a colloquial new translation by Susan Sauve Meyer that makes Aristotle's timeless insights about how to lead a good life more engaging and accessible than ever before.

The last book Cicero wrote. He was dead within the year, and he knew it was coming. It is the autumn of 44 BC. Caesar has been stabbed to death in March. The men who killed him had no plan for the morning after. Mark Antony is gathering the pieces. And Cicero — sixty-two years old, out of office, moving between country houses — is writing at a pace that reads like a man running out of time. Fourteen months later he was hunted down on the road and killed, and his head and hands were nailed up in the Roman forum. What he chose to write, in that season, was a letter to his son about how to...

From the renowned and best-selling author of A History of God, a sweeping exploration of religion and the history of human violence. For the first time, religious self-identification is on the decline in American. Some analysts have cited as cause a post-9/11perception: that faith in general is...