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1) Common sense
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English
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The late 18th century found the world in the grip of an ideological battle. On one side, the old ways -- monarchism, imperialism, colonialism. On the other, the new -- republicanism, egalitarianism, freedom. Of the thinkers and theorists and operating at this tumultuous time, few have become more influential and renowned than Thomas Paine. Paine's writings, The Age of Reason and The Rights of Man, became formative texts in the development of the fledgling...
2) Leviathan
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English
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The renowned work by the English political philosopher examines the structure of society and legitimate government, arguing for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign.
""During the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called Warre." Written during the turmoil of the English Civil War, Leviathan is an ambitious and highly original work of political philosophy. Claiming that...
3) The prince
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English
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Need to seize a country? Have enemies you must destroy? In this handbook for despots and tyrants, the Renaissance statesman Machiavelli sets forth how to accomplish this and more, while avoiding the awkwardness of becoming generally hated and despised. "Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot; therefore the injury that is to be done to a man ought to be...
4) The politics
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Similar to Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explores another facet of good living by outlining the best governing practices that benefit the majority, and not the minority. In The Politics, he defines various institutions and how they should operate within an established system.
The Politics provides an analysis of contemporary government as it relates to all people. Aristotle discusses the positive and negative qualities of authority and how they affect...
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The landmark political treatise that refuted the so-called divine right of kings and established the principles of representative government "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." With these stirring words, Jean-Jacques Rousseau begins The Social Contract-the first shot in a battle of ideas that would set the stage for the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. In the feverish days of the Enlightenment, Rousseau...
6) On liberty
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English
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John Stuart Mill's resolute dedication to the cause of freedom inspired this 1859 treatise. Discussed and debated from time immemorial, the concept of personal liberty went without codification until the publication of this enduring work which applies an ethical system of utilitarianism to society and the state which to this day remains well known and studied.
Mills (1806-1873), a British economist, philosopher, and ethical theorist whose argument...
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Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell was a notable 20th century British philosopher, mathematician, historian, social critic, and political activist. Considered one of the founders of analytical philosophy, Russell was an iconoclast who helped lead the revolt against British idealism, a prominent philosophy in England at the end of the 19th century. First written in 1912, Bertrand Russell's "The Problems of Philosophy" was an attempt by the author to create...
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How do we decide what is "good" and what is "bad"? According to the ethical theory of Utilitarianism, to do good is to "always perform that act, of those available, that will bring the most happiness or the least unhappiness." By far the most widely read introduction to this theory, John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism is one of the most important and controversial works of moral philosophy ever written. In this major contribution to ethical history,...
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English
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First published in 1689, "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" is British philosopher John Locke's important and influential exposition on the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. Arranged into four books, the first book begins by rejecting the notion of innate ideas proposed by Descartes and proposes instead that humans are born as blank slates. Book two argues that all knowledge is derived from experience and reflection. Locke also...
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Written in 1844 as a series of notes, Marx's posthumously published critiques on the conditions of modern industrialist societies forms the foundation of the author's denunciation of capitalism. Combining elements of psychology, sociology, and anthropology, it is a profound examination of the human condition rooted in a philosophy of economics. In this concise treatise, Marx presents an indictment of capitalism and its threat to the working man, his...
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Marx wrote this 1847 work in response to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's 1847 book, The System of Economic Contradictions, or Philosophy of Poverty. Accusing Proudhon of not only wanting to rise above the bourgeoisie, but also adhering to a quasi-religious faith in economic utopianism; Marx, on the contrary, proposes a scientific approach to the study of economic development.
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