History of philosophy, philosophical traditions – The Bell Bookshop

Good and Evil

Emma — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

*Introduced by Rory Stewart*

What makes a person good? What does it mean to be evil? And what does it tell us about being human?

Philosophers have been grappling with these questions for thousands of years, and they remain as vital as ever in our present moment. Here, in a selection of essays each written by a different world expert, we explore the ideas of twelve strikingly different philosophers. From Hannah Arendt’s ‘banality of evil’ to Nietzsche’s embrace of suffering, from John Stuart Mill’s ethics of happiness to the ruthless realism of Machiavelli, there is an approach for readers of all persuasions. This is the book for anyone trying to understand how humans can sometimes behave so badly, and how we can all be better.

What Do I Know?

Emma — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Stunning paperback edition of this fresh translation of Montaigne’s most profound, searching essays, with an introduction from Yiyun Li, author of The Book of Goose

This gift-worthy collection of 16 essays by “the father of the essay” is a short, accessible introduction to his work, offering a fascinating glimpse inside a great Renaissance mind

“I myself am the subject of my book.” So wrote Montaigne in the introductory note to his Essays, the book that marked the birth of the modern essay form. In works of probing intelligence and idiosyncratic observation, Montaigne moved from intimate personal observation to roving theories of the conduct of kings and cannibals, the effects of sorrow and fear, and the fallibility of human memory and judgement.

This new selection of Montaigne’s 16 most ingenious essays appears in a lucid new translation by the prize-winning David Coward. What Do I Know? gives the modern reader profound insight into a great Renaissance mind.

What Do I Know? is divided into 3 sections and includes:

MONTAIGNE ON MONTAIGNE

On Sorrow, On how our Actions are to be judged by the Intention, On Idling, On Liars, That we should not be considered happy until we are dead

ON THE PURSUIT OF REASON

On Fear, To tell true from false, it is folly to rely on our own capacities, How we can cry and laugh at the same thing, On Solitude, On the Uncertainty of our Judgement, On Drunkenness

ON GOVERNANCE AND GOVERNORS

On Cannibals, On the Inequality that exists between us, On Sleep, On our lease of life, On Carriages

Ecce homo

Emma — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

90 classic titles celebrating 90 years of Penguin Books

I am not a man, I am dynamite

Weeks before his final mental breakdown, Nietzsche set out to compose his autobiography, and Ecce Homo is the result. A summary of his life’s work as a philosopher, with chapter headings including ‘Why I Am So Wise’ and ‘Why I Write Such Good Books’, it is part mocking self-judgement and part battle cry, and remains one of the most singular, strange examples of the genre ever written.

Live like a philosopher

Emma — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A wide-ranging philosophical and practical guide to incorporating the wisdom of ancient philosophers into daily modern life.

What does life truly mean? Who do I want to become? And how do I get there?

These are some of life’s biggest questions that can be hard to think through. Fortunately, a group of philosophers from ancient Greece and Rome have already done a lot of the heavy lifting. Drawing on the philosophies, life lessons and experiences of key thinkers, Live Like a Philosopher will help you navigate these existential waters with invaluable insights for modern life.

From finding balance with Aristotle and embracing uncertainty with Cicero to avoiding pain with Epicurus and learning how to rebel with Cynic Hipparchia, this is a powerful toolkit to help you navigate the highs and lows of modern life. Organized around three main themes of pleasure, virtue, and doubt, there’s something to learn from each master in this philosophical quest. Live Like a Philosopher is the helping hand we all need to make life better.

Roger Scruton

Emma — Thu, 28 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

An intriguing portrait of Roger Scruton and his philosophy, with a new Preface and updated Bibliography of Scruton’s many literary works over the years.Roger Scruton was one of the outstanding British philosophers of the post-war years. Why then was he at best ignored and at worst reviled? Part of the reason was that he was an unapologetic conservative in the tradition of Edmund Burke. That conservative instinct was sharpened during the Paris riots of 1968. From that point on Scruton set himself the task of stridently opposing what he termed ‘the culture of repudiation’. In so doing he targeted liberals in the tradition of Russell and Mill, existentialists like Sartre and post modernists in the fashion of Foucault. Here is a brilliant description of Scruton’s life and work and a careful analysis of his central ideas. Scruton defended an Hegelian and Burkean view of human nature, one founded on allegiance to the State as the guarantor of tangible freedom. He thus opposed any and all variations of the social contract theory, liberal or existential individualism or philosophical theories of the ‘authentic’ self in isolation from its kind. His conservative notion of the nation state was used to reflect upon and criticise the European Union, the United Nations and the idea that the Middle East can be reformed along Western democratic lines. Roger Scruton was one of the outstanding British philosophers of the post-war years. Why then was he at best ignored and at worst reviled? In this intriguing portrait Mark Dooley brilliantly illuminates Scruton’s life and offers careful analysis of his work. Considering how Scruton’s conservative instinct was sharpened during the Paris riots of 1968, Dooley explores why Scruton set himself the task of stridently opposing what he termed ‘the culture of repudiation’ and how he accomplished it.Covering Scruton’s centrals ideas, such as his view of human nature, opposition of the social contract theory and criticisms of the European Union and United Nationals, Dooley argues that he was a prophet for our times – the one British intellectual who courageously rowed against the tide of liberal conviction and arrived at political conclusions the truth of which are becoming more and more obvious.

The West

Emma — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

*A BBC RADIO 4 Book of the Week*
‘A fantastic achievement’ Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
‘Bright, expansive, and iconoclastic, this deliciously witty book has the potential to upset the applecart of “Western Civilisation” itself… Magnificent’ Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb
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A radical new account of how the idea of the West has shaped our history, told through the stories of fourteen fascinating lives.

We tend to imagine Western Civilisation as a golden thread stretching from classical antiquity to the countries of the modern Western world. But what if this is wrong?

Told through the lives of fourteen fascinating historical figures – including a formidable Roman matriarch, an unconventional Islamic scholar, an enslaved African American poetess and a British prime minister with Homeric aspirations – archaeologist and historian Naoíse Mac Sweeney charts how the idea of the West was invented, how it has been used to justify imperialism and racism, and why it is no longer ideologically fit for purpose today.

The result is a bold and empowering new story of the people and ideas who made us who we are today.

How to think like a woman

Emma — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As a young woman growing up in a small, religious community, Regan Penaluna daydreamed about the big questions: Who are we and what is this strange world we find ourselves in? In college she discovered philosophy and fell in love with its rationality, its abstractions, its beauty.What Penaluna didn’t realize was that philosophy – at least the canon that’s taught in Western universities, as well as the culture that surrounds it – would slowly grind her down through its devaluation of women and their minds. Women were nowhere in her curriculum, and feminist philosophy was dismissed as marginal, unserious.Until Penaluna came across the work of a seventeenth-century woman named Damaris Cudworth Masham. Reading Masham’s work was like reaching through time: writing three hundred years ago, Masham was speaking directly to her about knowledge and God, but also the condition of women. Her work eventually led Penaluna to other remarkable women philosophers of the era: Mary Astell, Catharine Cockburn and Mary Wollstonecraft.Together these women rekindled Penaluna’s love of philosophy and taught her how to live a truly philosophical life. She combines memoir with biography to tell the stories of these four women, weaving throughout an alternative history of philosophy as well as her own search for beauty and truth. Formally inventive and keenly intelligent, How to Think Like a Woman is a moving meditation on what philosophy could look like if women were treated equally.

Humankind

Emma — Thu, 13 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
A Guardian, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman and Daily Express Book of the Year

‘Hugely, highly and happily recommended’ Stephen Fry
‘You should read Humankind. You’ll learn a lot (I did) and you’ll have good reason to feel better about the human race’ Tim Harford
‘Made me see humanity from a fresh perspective’ Yuval Noah Harari

It’s a belief that unites the left and right, psychologists and philosophers, writers and historians. It drives the headlines that surround us and the laws that touch our lives. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Dawkins, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we’re taught, are by nature selfish and governed by self-interest.

Humankind makes a new argument: that it is realistic, as well as revolutionary, to assume that people are good. By thinking the worst of others, we bring out the worst in our politics and economics too.

In this major book, internationally bestselling author Rutger Bregman takes some of the world’s most famous studies and events and reframes them, providing a new perspective on the last 200,000 years of human history. From the real-life Lord of the Flies to the Blitz, a Siberian fox farm to an infamous New York murder, Stanley Milgram’s Yale shock machine to the Stanford prison experiment, Bregman shows how believing in human kindness and altruism can be a new way to think – and act as the foundation for achieving true change in our society.

It is time for a new view of human nature.

Philosophy

Emma — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

How ought we to live? What really exists? How do we know? This Very Short Introduction discusses some of the key questions philosophy engages with. Edward Craig explores important themes in ethics, and the nature of knowledge and the self, through readings from Plato, Hume, Descartes, Hegel, Darwin, and Buddhist writers. Throughout, he emphasizes why we do phiilosophy, explains how different areas of philosophy are related, and explores the contexts in which philosophy was and is done.This new edition includes a new chapter on free will, discussing determinism and indeterminism in the context of Descartes and Hegel’s work. Craig also covers the Problem of Evil, and Kant’s argument on the source of moral obligation. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.