Nearly 200,000 copies sold!

Chosen by God by Dr. R. C. Sproul is a contemporary classic on predestination, a doctrine that isn't just for Calvinists. It is a doctrine for all biblical Christians. In this updated and expanded edition of Chosen by God, Sproul shows that the reformed doctrine of predestination doesn't create a whimsical or spiteful picture of God, but rather paints a portrait of a loving God who provides grace and redemption amidst sin for radically corrupt humans.

Sproul, author of The Holiness of God, brings his signature clarity and deep, biblical understanding to this theological topic, addressing:

• How free will fits with predestination
• The sovereignty of God
• How we can have assurance of our salvation

We choose God because he has opened our eyes to see his beauty; we love him because he first loved us. There is mystery in God's ways, but not contradiction.

Gazzaniga is one of the most brilliant experimental neuroscientists in the world. --Tom Wolfe

Michael S. Gazzaniga has been called the father of cognitive neuroscience. In his remarkable book, Who's in Charge?, he makes a powerful and provocative argument that counters the common wisdom that our lives are wholly determined by physical processes we cannot control.

There is no you consciously making decisions. So how do we make decisions? How can we have free will if we don't pull the levers of our own behavior?

What moral and legal implications follow if we don't have free well? Who's in Charge is a primer for a new era in the understanding of human behavior that ranges across neuroscience, psychology, ethics, and the law with a light touch but profound implications.

His well-reasoned case against the idea that we live in a determined world is fascinating and liberating, solidifying his place among the likes of Oliver Sacks, Antonio Damasio, V.S. Ramachandran, and other bestselling science authors exploring the mysteries of the human brain.

A superb new edition of Epictetus's famed handbook on Stoicism--translated by one of the world's leading authorities on Stoic philosophy

Born a slave, the Roman Stoic philosopher Epictetus (c. 55-135 AD) taught that mental freedom is supreme, since it can liberate one anywhere, even in a prison. In How to Be Free, A. A. Long--one of the world's leading authorities on Stoicism and a pioneer in its remarkable contemporary revival--provides a superb new edition of Epictetus's celebrated guide to the Stoic philosophy of life (the Encheiridion) along with a selection of related reflections in his Discourses.

Freedom, for Epictetus, is not a human right or a political prerogative but a psychological and ethical achievement, a gift that we alone can bestow on ourselves. We can all be free, but only if we learn to assign paramount value to what we can control (our motivations and reactions), treat what we cannot control with equanimity, and view our circumstances as opportunities to do well and be well, no matter what happens to us through misfortune or the actions of other people.

How to Be Free features splendid new translations and the original Greek on facing pages, a compelling introduction that sets Epictetus in context and describes the importance of Stoic freedom today, and an invaluable glossary of key words and concepts. The result is an unmatched introduction to this powerful method of managing emotions and handling life's situations, from the most ordinary to the most demanding.

Volume 2 also available now (ISBN 9781648370939)!

Immerse Yourself in This Seminal Philosophic Work

Arthur Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation (Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung) is one of the most important philosophical works of the nineteenth century, the basic statement of one important stream of post-Kantian thought. It is without question Schopenhauer's greatest work. Conceived and published before the philosopher was 30 and expanded 25 years later, it is the summation of a lifetime of thought. It is both a brilliant synthesis of western and eastern thought and a wholly original work that has helped millions over many generations.

For 70 years, the only unabridged English translation of this work was the Haldane-Kemp collaboration. In 1958, a new translation by E. F. J. Payne appeared that decisively supplanted the older one. Payne's translation is superior because it corrects nearly 1,000 errors and omissions in the Haldane-Kemp translation, and it is based on the definitive 1937 German edition of Schopenhauer's work prepared by Dr. Arthur Hübscher. Payne's edition is the first to translate into English the text's many quotations in half a dozen languages. It is thus the most useful edition for the student or teacher.

From the New York Times bestselling author of The End of Faith, a thought-provoking, brilliant and witty (Oliver Sacks) look at the notion of free will--and the implications that it is an illusion.

A belief in free will touches nearly everything that human beings value. It is difficult to think about law, politics, religion, public policy, intimate relationships, morality--as well as feelings of remorse or personal achievement--without first imagining that every person is the true source of his or her thoughts and actions. And yet the facts tell us that free will is an illusion.

In this enlightening book, Sam Harris argues that this truth about the human mind does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of social and political freedom, but it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.

Grounded in his famous notion that God is dead, Nietzsche's most personal book--and one of his best

A Penguin Classic

The Joyous Science--also known as The Gay Science and The Joyful Wisdom--is a liberating voyage of discovery as Nietzsche's realization that God is dead and his critique of morality, the arts and modernity give way to an exhilarating doctrine of self-emancipation and the concept of eternal recurrence. Here is Nietzsche at his most personal and affirmative; in his words, this is a book of exuberance, restlessness, contrariety and April showers. With its unique voice and style, its playful combination of poetry and prose, and its invigorating quest for self-emancipation, The Joyous Science is a literary tour de force and quite possibly Nietzsche's best book.

For more than seventy-five years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 2,000 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Self-Reliance is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. It describes the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his own instincts and ideas. Also included are the essays The Over Soul, Circles, The Poet, Experience, Nature, and Friendship.

Emerson helped start the beginning of the Transcendentalist movement in America. The Transcendentalist movement flourished in New England, and proposed a revolutionarily new philosophy of life. This new philosophy drew upon old ideas of Romanticism, Unitarianism, and German Idealism. Some of these ideas pertained closely to the values of America at the time. These values included nature, individualism, and reform, and can be noted in Emerson's essays.

This case laminate collector's edition includes a Victorian inspired dust-jacket.

Immerse Yourself in This Seminal Philosophic Work

Arthur Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation (Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung) is one of the most important philosophical works of the nineteenth century, the basic statement of one important stream of post-Kantian thought. It is without question Schopenhauer's greatest work. Conceived and published before the philosopher was 30 and expanded 25 years later, it is the summation of a lifetime of thought. It is both a brilliant synthesis of western and eastern thought and a wholly original work that has helped millions over many generations.

For 70 years, the only unabridged English translation of this work was the Haldane-Kemp collaboration. In 1958, a new translation by E. F. J. Payne appeared that decisively supplanted the older one. Payne's translation is superior because it corrects nearly 1,000 errors and omissions in the Haldane-Kemp translation, and it is based on the definitive 1937 German edition of Schopenhauer's work prepared by Dr. Arthur Hübscher. Payne's edition is the first to translate into English the text's many quotations in half a dozen languages. It is thus the most useful edition for the student or teacher.

A philosopher considers whether the scientific and philosophical arguments against free will are reason enough to give up our belief in it.

In our daily life, it really seems as though we have free will, that what we do from moment to moment is determined by conscious decisions that we freely make. You get up from the couch, you go for a walk, you eat chocolate ice cream. It seems that we're in control of actions like these; if we are, then we have free will. But in recent years, some have argued that free will is an illusion. The neuroscientist (and best-selling author) Sam Harris and the late Harvard psychologist Daniel Wegner, for example, claim that certain scientific findings disprove free will. In this engaging and accessible volume in the Essential Knowledge series, the philosopher Mark Balaguer examines the various arguments and experiments that have been cited to support the claim that human beings don't have free will. He finds them to be overstated and misguided.

Balaguer discusses determinism, the view that every physical event is predetermined, or completely caused by prior events. He describes several philosophical and scientific arguments against free will, including one based on Benjamin Libet's famous neuroscientific experiments, which allegedly show that our conscious decisions are caused by neural events that occur before we choose. He considers various religious and philosophical views, including the philosophical pro-free-will view known as compatibilism. Balaguer concludes that the anti-free-will arguments put forward by philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists simply don't work. They don't provide any good reason to doubt the existence of free will. But, he cautions, this doesn't necessarily mean that we have free will. The question of whether we have free will remains an open one; we simply don't know enough about the brain to answer it definitively.

It is the once-in-a-generation events that reshape our world and our thinking, and it is in such times that we turn to timeless works that offer reassurance and provide inspiration. As Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in Self-Reliance, which resonates just as strongly now, The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. When Emerson published his most famous essay in 1841, it was in the aftermath of the calamitous financial collapse of 1837. His positive vision for the power of individualism and personal responsibility was issued in a climate filled with panic and uncertainty, and at a time, much like today, when the values of society and humanity were in the process of being reformed.

Emerson's text is widely available to read online, but this new, graphically reimagined edition, produced with Design Observer, elevates his wisdom through the printed word and includes twelve contemporary essays by Jessica Helfand. To suggest, as Emerson's text does, that the richest lives are lived with an independent mind, spirit, and creativity surely deserves to be celebrated.

The Philosophy of Freedom is the fundamental philosophical work of the philosopher and esotericist Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). It addresses the question of whether and in what sense human beings can be said to be free. Originally published in 1894 in German as Die Philosophie der Freiheit, with a second edition published in 1918, the work has appeared under a number of English titles, including The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity (the title Steiner proposed for the English-language translation), The Philosophy of Freedom, and Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path . Part One of The Philosophy of Freedom examines the basis for freedom in human thinking, gives an account of the relationship between knowledge and perception, and explores the role and reliability of thinking as a means to knowledge. In Part Two Steiner analyzes the conditions necessary for human beings to be free, and develops a moral philosophy that he describes as ethical individualism.

Wilson's book is ground-breaking and thought-provoking, and indispensable for every serious student of hugely influential core aspects of Augustine's thought. -- Professor Karla Pollman, University of Bristol on Dr. Ken Wilson's Augustine's Conversion. This book summarizes Dr. Wilson's ground-breaking doctoral thesis at the University of Oxford which was published by Mohr Siebeck in 2018 as Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to 'Non-free Free Will': A Comprehensive Methodology. With a new audience in mind, Dr. Wilson presents his extensive research on free will in ancient and early Christian thought in a shorter and more accessible format with translations of the ancient and modern foreign languages in plain English. Dr. Wilson first provides readers with essential background information on free will in the ancient philosophies and religions of Stoicism, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, and Manichaeism. He then guides his readers through the writings of the earliest Christian authors who wrote on free will. Finally, Dr. Wilson explores a curious split between St. Augustine's early and later writings and shows how the ideas presented in Augustine's later writings became the foundation for modern Calvinist (Reformed) theology, also known as Augustinian-Calvinism.

Though many books have ostensibly been written on Crowley's philosophy, this might well be the first one truly accessible to an intelligent reader with no prior or current interest in the occult--yet THE LAW OF THELEMA nowise pretends that one's True Will can be ascertained without the patient utilization of esoteric techniques.

In the tradition of Franz Hartmann's Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme (1891), the author organizes quotations from diverse works by Crowley into a set of themes, but mostly lets the Beast speak for himself. However, the author helps the reader parse through Crowley's unique combination of Western iconography and Eastern concepts, while showing how Thelema is similar to and different from other systematic methods of attainment.

Rather than turning himself and his readers into centres of pestilence by discussing the contents of Liber Legis, the author merely arranges the Prophet's own scattered comments into a coherent, carefully referenced whole. This book should thus also prove indispensable to anyone who genuinely wants to work Crowley's actual system, but may not have the time or resources to connect every last dot.

ANTTI P. BALK is a Finnish historian and philosopher best known for his scholarly translations of Aleister Crowley and kindred authors.

Original, Unabridged version of As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, offered here for chump change. In this classic book on thinking, the book describes how each of us shapes the events around us, creating our own lives.

As himself Allen describes, It shows how, in his own thought-world, each man holds the key to every condition, good or bad, that enters into his life, and that, by working patiently and intelligently upon his thoughts, he may remake his life, and transform his circumstances. ...and it can be carried in the pocket.

No student of influence should be without this historic philosophy book on leadership. This Chump Change Edition provides a slim volume with the full text at an affordable price.

The Table of Contents is as follows:

CONTENTS

FOREWORD 4
THOUGHT AND CHARACTER 5
EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES 7
EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON HEALTH AND THE BODY 14
THOUGHT AND PURPOSE 16
THE THOUGHT-FACTOR IN ACHIEVEMENT 18
VISIONS AND IDEALS 21
SERENITY 24

Every day we seem to make and act upon all kinds of choices: some trivial, others so consequential that they change the course of one's life, or even the course of history. But are these choices really free, or are we compelled to act the way we do by factors beyond our control? Is the feeling that we could have made different decisions just an illusion? And if our choices are not free, is it legitimate to hold people morally responsible for their actions?
Thomas Pink looks at the fundamental philosophical question of free will, critically examining the claim: If our actions are causally determined by events beyond our control, that means that we can never act freely, and so can never be held responsible for our actions.

Ayn Rand controversially defended rational egoism, the idea that people should regard their own happiness as their highest goal. Given that numerous scholars in philosophy and psychology alike are examining the nature of human flourishing and an ethics of well-being, the time is ripe for a close examination of Rand's theory. Egoism without Permission illuminates Rand's thinking about how to practice egoism by exploring some of its crucial psychological dimensions. Tara Smith examines the dynamics among four partially subconscious factors in an individual's well-being: a person's foundational motivation for being concerned with morality; their attitude toward their desires; their independence; and their self-esteem. A clearer grasp of each, Smith argues, sheds light on the others, and a better understanding of the set, in turn, enriches our understanding of self-interest and its sensible pursuit. Smith then traces the implications for a broader understanding of what a person's self-interest genuinely is, and, correspondingly, of what its pursuit through rational egoism involves. By highlighting these previously underexplored features of Rand's conceptions of self-interest and egoism, Smith betters our understanding of how vital these psychological levers are to a person's genuine flourishing.

Robert Kane is one of the most prominent contributors to debates on free will over the last 50 years. Here he discusses the evolution of his views since his 1996 volume The Significance of Free Will, and provides responses to some of the latest critical literature on them. He explains significant changes to his views on free will and related notions of moral responsibility, agency, and other related topics.

In the first half of the book Kane presents an overview of his current views with the significant additions and alterations to them spelled out and defended in greater detail. In the second half he critically examines the influential views of the many other philosophers of the past twenty-five years who have defended alternative views of free will and moral responsibility, including prominent defenders of competing libertarian views, compatibilist views, free will skeptical views, revisionist views, illusionist views, and others. Kane's goal here is not to merely criticize these alternative views, but to show what he believes they get right and what aspects of many of them can be accommodated in the views of free will, moral responsibility, and other related topics defended in the book. His conclusion connects his views to certain ethical views he has developed, and to ideas in the philosophy of religion, including Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism) and Western and Middle Eastern theistic traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).

The Complex Tapestry of Free Will presents an up-to-date overview of the current state of arguments and views on free will and related topics of moral and legal responsibility in ethics, law, science and religion, accessible to those not already familiar with the free will literature, while also developing novel and complex ideas on difficult subjects.

Epictetus (c. 50-c. 135 AD) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He believed that philosophy should be a way of life and not just a theoretical study.

In this story, Epictetus is reminding us to focus only on what we can control - our own actions - and not spend time worrying about what we can't control. Happiness can only be achieved when we accept what we can't control and adopt the most positive outlook we can.

By adapting famous animal parables, the Pocket Philosophy series seeks to introduce inquisitive readers of all ages - from 1 to 100! - to the biggest names in philosophy.