French Philosophy

Jacques the Fatalist stands as one of Denis Diderot's most innovative and philosophically provocative works, a novel that gleefully dismantles the very conventions of storytelling while exploring profound questions about human agency and destiny. Written in the 1770s but not published until after Diderot's death, this remarkable narrative follows the journey of Jacques, a servant, and his unnamed master as they travel through the French countryside, their path interrupted by countless digressions, stories within stories, and the author's own intrusive commentary. The novel's central conceit...

"At a time when many people feel discouraged and unheard, the life of Thomas Paine serves as an apt reminder of the power of ideas and the written word. David Benner has given us a tremendous gift with this absorbing book." -Thomas E. Woods, New York Times bestselling author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, and Nullification: How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century “Thomas Paine rocked the political and religious establishments of America, France, and Britain. David Benner's new biography makes the implausible story of the author of "Common Sense" come ...

When Roland Barthes's groundbreaking Mythologies first appeared in English in 1972, it was immediately recognized as one of the most significant works in French theory - yet nearly half of the essays from the original work were missing. This new edition of Mythologies is the first complete, authoritative English version of the French classic. It includes the brilliant "Astrology", never published in English before.

Sartre vs Camus: A Comparative Guide to Their Friendship, Philosophy, and Dramatic Break is a powerful and accessible examination of one of the most compelling intellectual relationships of the twentieth century. Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus shaped the modern understanding of freedom, justice, rebellion, and personal responsibility. Their friendship inspired some of the most influential works in literature and philosophy, and their eventual break became a defining moment in modern thought. This book offers readers a clear, engaging, and deeply human exploration of how two brilliant ...

This short book considers a short (about thirty-seven page) speech given by the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) in 1945. In this speech, "Existentialism is a Humanism," Sartre defended existentialism against its critics. I consider what lessons of wisdom we can take from Sartre's speech. But I do that in a critical way--not in the sense of being hostile or negative but in the sense of examining and weighing what Sartre says to see where I agree and where I disagree. Like him or not, Sartre is a great thinker who is worth considering even if you may reject some or all...

When it comes to mastering a foreign language, learning around your interests makes all the difference. But finding books designed for language learners can be hard! This book fixes that. For the first time, you’ll learn to improve your French while learning about the main concepts and key figures of Western philosophy.

François-Marie Arouet—Voltaire—perfected the philosophical tale, a literary form embedding profound questions about existence, justice, and human nature within entertaining narratives that made complex ideas accessible while evading censorship through wit and indirection. This volume presents his philosophical tales and essays spanning his career. In "Micromegas" (1752), a giant from Sirius visits Earth and discovers humanity's paradoxical nature: infinitesimal physical size matched against extraordinary intellectual achievement. The tale, among the first works of science fiction, uses...

“A witty, learned, authoritative survey of philosophical thought.” —The New York Times Book Review The first authoritative and accessible single-volume history of philosophy to cover both Western and Eastern traditions, from one of the world’s most eminent thinkers The story of...

First published as a pamphlet in June 1850, The Law is already well over 150 years old, and it will still be read when another century has passed. America now faces the same situation France did in 1848 and the same socialist-communist plans and ideas adopted there are now sweeping America—the...

Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973) was a French philosopher prominent in the twentieth century. He is still known as a Christian existentialist although he later rejected that label. His father was a non-practicing Catholic; his mother's family was Jewish. Since his mother died when Marcel was a very young child, his maternal aunt raised him--at some point she converted to a liberal form of Protestantism. From this eclectic background, Marcel himself eventually converted to Catholicism as a mature man and thinker. The basic outline of his philosophy had already been set before his conversion. This ...

"L'art de la guerre" est le premier traité de stratégie militaire écrit au monde. Son auteur, Sun Tzu développe des thèses originales qui s'inspirent de la philosophie chinoise ancienne.

Will Durant's The Story of Philosophy: Voltaire and the French Enlightenment delves into the life and ideas of Voltaire, a central figure of the French Enlightenment. This volume explores Voltaire's contributions to philosophy, literature, and society, highlighting his advocacy for reason, freedom of speech, and separation of church and state. Durant's engaging narrative brings to life the vibrant era of the Enlightenment and Voltaire's enduring influence on modern thought. A must-read for anyone interested in philosophy and the history of ideas.

This annotated edition includes: All 107 essays, complete across all three Books (1580–1595), in Charles Cotton's classic English translation A critical study, "The Man Who Was Educated by His Own Book," on how a private commonplace book became the first work of its kind in European literature A biographical portrait that separates the verified life from the legend that has grown around it A Note on the Text, naming the translation, its editorial history, and this edition's policy He set out to write about everything, and ended up writing the first book in which the subject was simply a ...

March 10, 1762: In Toulouse, Jean Calas—a sixty-eight-year-old Protestant merchant—is broken on the wheel for allegedly murdering his son to prevent Catholic conversion. The evidence: none. The verdict: determined by religious hatred. Voltaire transforms this atrocity into history's first modern human rights campaign. His Treatise on Tolerance, published 1763, secures Calas's posthumous exoneration while constructing one of the Enlightenment's most powerful arguments for religious freedom. Using the Calas case as lens, Voltaire demonstrates through historical evidence how intolerance ...

A Thousand Plateaus continues the work Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari began in Anti-Oedipus and has now become established as one of the classic studies of the development of critical theory in the late twentieth century. It occupies an important place at the center of the debate reassessing...

'One should bear in mind when reading this book that it was written with the deliberate intention of doing harm to spectacular society' Guy Debord. Originally published in France in 1968 The Society of the Spectacle is a brilliantly lucid analysis of the forms of social control and domination under modern capitalism. Since its publication it has had an enormous underground influence both on active revolutionaries and on radical cultural and political theory. Prescient in its condemnation of the image as the tool used by Capital to alienate us from the reality of our everyday lives, The ...

David French warns of the potential dangers to the country—and the world—if we don’t summon the courage to reconcile our political differences. Two decades into the 21st Century, the U.S. is less united than at any time in our history since the Civil War. We are more diverse in our beliefs...

On the Social Contract's appeal and influence has been wide-ranging and continuous. It has been called an encomium to democracy and, at the same time, a blueprint for totalitarianism. Individualists, collectivists, anarchists, and socialists have all taken courage from Rousseau's controversial masterpiece.

A soaring intellectual narrative starring the radical, brilliant, and provocative philosophers Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt, Simone Weil, and Ayn Rand by the critically acclaimed author of Time of the Magicians, Wolfram Eilenberger The period from 1933 to 1943 was one of the darkest and...

This second volume of Voltaire's collected works presents four masterful tales from the mature phase of his literary career, written during the 1760s and 1770s when the philosopher had achieved both international fame and the hard-won wisdom of age. These works—"The Naive One," "The Man with Forty Crowns," "The Princess of Babylon," and "The Story of Jenni"—showcase Voltaire at his most sophisticated, wielding his considerable narrative powers to address the pressing social, economic, and religious questions of his time with renewed urgency and refined artistry. "The Naive One" stands ...