Commentary Philosophy

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.

Inspired by timeless principles from The Art of War, The Art of Tactical War for Life transforms ancient battlefield wisdom into a practical guide for modern personal victory. Life is a competitive arena—filled with obstacles, rivals, setbacks, and uncertainty. The question is not whether you will face conflict. The question is whether you will be prepared for it.

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.

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.

Have you ever felt a quiet, persistent yearning for something more? A sense that behind the noise of daily life, there lies a deeper truth, a more profound peace? We live in a world of constant motion, yet many of us feel a sense of inner stillness is missing. We chase success and happiness in the outer world, only to find that true, lasting fulfillment remains just out of reach. What if the map to that fulfillment wasn't hidden in a distant land, but deep within the landscape of your own soul? In Brahma Sutras: Timeless Wisdom of Vedanta, author Naveen Goyal invites you on an extraordinary...

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 ...

Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Thomas Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book.

In A Trackless Path renowned translator and teacher Ken McLeod offers a beautiful and evocative translation and commentary of one of the many poems that the 18th century Tibetan mystic Jigmé Lingpa wrote on the practice of Dzogchen, one of the great wisdom traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. McLeod makes this ancient poem relevant and accessible to today's seeker.

In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of 19th-century surgery on the eve of profound transformation. She conjures up early operating theaters - no place for the squeamish - and surgeons, working before anesthesia, who were lauded for their speed and brute strength. They were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. A young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister would solve the deadly riddle and change the course of history.

Two of Nicole Parker’s colleagues were murdered while executing a search warrant on a dangerous suspect with no SWAT support. Meanwhile, the FBI sent SWAT for those charged with January 6 misdemeanors. Special Agent Parker witnessed an internal war between what she refers to as the two FBIs -...

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...

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.

A New York Times Bestseller The world’s leading intellectual offers a probing examination of the waning American Century, the nature of U.S. policies post-9/11, and the perils of valuing power above democracy and human rights In an incisive, thorough analysis of the current international...

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...

The Practical Philosophy of Plato is an accessible guide to the enduring ideas of one of history's greatest thinkers, designed for modern readers who want to apply ancient wisdom to everyday life.

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 ...

Bloomsbury presents Against the Tide by Roger Scruton and Mark Dooley, read by Kris Dyer. 'His moral courage shines through from the start.' – Sunday Telegraph The definitive edition of the late Sir Roger Scruton's philosophical and political essays and reviews, now collected in one volume...

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.

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 ...

A specter satisfies no one when it speaks in Victorian English. The Communist Manifesto is one of the most influential texts ever written — and one of the worst served by its English translations. The standard version, by Samuel Moore in 1888, was drafted forty years after the original and revised by an aging Engels who smoothed out the raw urgency of the 1848 pamphlet. Every subsequent edition has relied on it. The result is that English-speaking readers have never encountered Marx and Engels as their first readers did: in a text designed to be read aloud in clandestine meetings, shouted...