Commentary Philosophy

The most fatal virus known to science, rabies kills nearly 100 percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh, fascinating, and often wildly entertaining look at one of mankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes.

The Gaudapada-karikas is the earliest extant Advaita Vedanta text. It is only explicitly Advaita text deemed worth saving from before Shankara’s time. Its philosophical doctrines makes it worthy of study in its own right and sets the stage for Shankara’s slightly different Advaita. The text is presented here in a plain English translation with notes, along with a translation of the Mandukya Upanishad, and an extensive summary of Shankara’s own commentary upon it. Also included are an essay on early Vedanta, who the author(s) of this text may be, and the influence of Buddhism on the ...

The history of the Prophet Mohammad, the development of Islam, implementation of Shariah Law, and views of Quranic interpretations are all presented along with three separate classical translations of the Holy Quran. Put simply, The Quran (Koran) is viewed as an unfolding revelation. Thus, the last statement in the Quran regarding a subject supersedes any statement that came before it. This is called ABROGATION. Thus, we list verses in chronological order and examine the list for the last verses written on a subject to see what instructions are to be followed by Islam today.

Despite advances in health care, infectious microbes continue to be a formidable adversary to scientists and doctors. Vaccines and antibiotics, the mainstays of modern medicine, have not been able to conquer infectious microbes because of their amazing ability to adapt, evolve, and spread to new places. Terrorism aside, one of the greatest dangers from infectious disease we face today is from a massive outbreak of drug-resistant microbes.

This volume begins with a new translation of the Brahma Sutra and then translates or summarizes the philosophical portions of Shankara's commentary on it. Shankara's Brahma-sutra-bhashya is the most important work in Advaita and represents his mature thought on Brahman and Atman. Three essays (along with one on the non-Advaita Brahma Sutra) explain Shankar's philosophy and reasoning.

For two thousand years, cadavers have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way.

A good book may have the power to change the way we see the world, but a great book actually becomes part of our daily consciousness, pervading our thinking to the point that we take it for granted, and we forget how provocative and challenging its ideas once were - and still are. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is that kind of book.

The Book of Job is about a question for all of us. Why is there suffering? Job is a personal book that speaks to each of us as we face suffering and meaninglessness. Job is a theological book that both builds on the biblical worldview and prepares its listeners for the gospel. Job is a philosophical book that critically examines solutions to this question.

THE MOST QUOTED AND LEAST UNDERSTOOD TEXT IN HUMAN HISTORY—NOW IN A DEFINITIVE NEW TRANSLATION For twenty-five centuries, Sun Tzu's Art of War has shaped how generals, statesmen, and strategists think about conflict. Yet most readers encounter this ancient masterpiece through translations that obscure its original power—Victorian prose that dilutes the text's brutal compression, or corporate repackagings that strip away its meaning. This edition is different. NEW TRANSLATION — Neither Victorian nor corporate. This translation restores the density of the original: verse by verse, line ...

What follows is not a translation in the ordinary sense of the word. It’s more like a paraphrase. Rather than worry over the letter of the text, the goal has been to illuminate the large scale patterns that structure it. The King James Version, for instance, renders Paul’s letter with uncanny beauty but is opaque as an argument. Modern translations tend to have the same problem. Their overriding concern is with the letter of the text, not with its logic. As a result, Paul’s forest is always getting sacrificed for the sake of his trees. But Paul’s work is too important, his good news...

Have we been taught to discount the veracity and deeper meaning of our emotional resonance with the world around us? In The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis looks at the curriculum of the English "prep school" and begins to wonder if this subliminal teaching has indeed produced a generation who discount such a nature.

Written almost two millennia ago, Patañjali's work focuses on how to attain the direct experience and realization of the purusa: the innermost individual self, or soul. As the classical treatise on the Hindu understanding of mind and consciousness and on the technique of meditation, it has exerted immense influence over the religious practices of Hinduism in India and, more recently, in the West.

The Living Gita is a translation of, and commentary on, the Bhagavad Gita by Sri Swami Satchidananda, one of the world’s most respected Yoga masters. The Gita is the summary and essence of Eastern spiritual wisdom, drawn from the Hindu tradition. When Swami Satchidananda arrived in the West in 1966, he recognized the need to make the teachings of Yoga and this classic text accessible to modern readers and listeners. He soon began giving talks on the Gita, which became the foundation for The Living Gita, first published in 1988.

The Mengzi is one of the very greatest works of world literature and philosophy, and it is perhaps the single most influential Confucian text of all time. Of all the Confucian classics, it is also the one most likely to speak to a contemporary audience. The Mengzi contains the dialogues, debates and sayings of Mengzi, a Confucian sage of the fourth century BCE. (He is also known by the Latinization of his name, 'Mencius'.)

This is a thrilling historical account of the worst cholera outbreak in Victorian London and a brilliant exploration of how Dr. John Snow's solution revolutionized the way we think about disease, cities, science, and the modern world.

Contrary to popular belief, not all scientists are materialists fervently discounting the spiritual. Science, Being, & Becoming shares interviews with some of the world's foremost scientists who recount their own transpersonal, metaphysical, and mystical experiences and how those experiences transformed them and their scientific work. This groundbreaking book makes it evident that the long-standing divide between science and spirituality has not served us well and in fact continues to have significant adverse consequences for us all.

Written between A.D. 413 and 426, The City of God is one of the great cornerstones in the history of Christian thought, a book which is vital to the understanding of modern Western society. Augustine originally intended it to be an apology for Christianity against the accusation that the Church was responsible for the decline of the Roman Empire, which had occurred just three years earlier. Indeed, Augustine produced a great amount of evidence to prove that paganism was responsible for this event. However, by the time the work was finished, the book had taken on a larger theme.

In this classic book, Madeleine L’Engle addresses the questions, What makes art Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian artist? What is the relationship between faith and art? Through L’Engle’s beautiful and insightful essay, listeners will find themselves called to what the author views as the prime tasks of an artist: to listen, to remain aware, and to respond to creation through one’s own art.

Introducing the Fellig edition of Shaar Habitachon (Gate of Trust) from Chovot Halevavot (Duties of the Heart)—the classical and timeless work authored by the eleventh-century Spanish scholar Rabbeinu Bachya ibn Pekuda. Published by Kehot Publication Society in partnership with Chayenu, this exciting new book features the Hebrew text with a new English translation, classical commentary, a fresh infusion of Chasidic and mystical teachings, and bottom line takeaways to help guide the listener.

This small book is a commentary on the first published book of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset in which he draws philosophical insights from the classic novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) was a Spanish philosopher who anticipated many of the themes of later, more famous existentialists such as Heidegger. In the Meditations on Quixote (1914), Ortega anticipates many of the philosophical ideas that he developed during the rest of his life. Reading Ortega's insights will deepen your experience of daily life as you learn to ...