biography philosophy

Hardcover. NY, Doubleday, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket with minor edgewear. 1118 pages. This book is the second volume in John Meier's masterful trilogy on the life of Jesus. In it he continues his quest for the answer to the greatest puzzle of modern religious scholarship: Who was Jesus? To answer this Meier imagines the following scenario: "Suppose that a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, and an agnostic were locked up in the bowels of the Harvard Divinity School library... and not allowed to emerge until they had hammered out a consensus document on who Jesus of Nazareth was and what he intended...". A Marginal Jew is what Meier thinks that document would reveal. Volume one concluded with Jesus approaching adulthood. Now, in this volume, Meier focuses on the Jesus of our memory and the development of his ministry. To begin, Meier identifies Jesus's mentor, the one person who had the greatest single influence on him, John the Baptist. All of the Baptist's fiery talk about the end of time had a powerful effect on the young Jesus and the formulation of his key symbol of the coming of the "kingdom of God." And, finally, we are given a full investigation of one of the most striking manifestations of Jesus's message: Jesus's practice of exorcisms, hearings, and other miracles. In all, Meier brings to life the story of a man, Jesus, who by his life and teaching gradually made himself marginal even to the marginal society that was first century Palestine. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New Havn CT, Yale University Press, 1st , 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 333 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Illustrated in color, B&W. Clean, tight copy. Few painters lived the intellectual adventures of the early twentieth century as intensely as Albert Gleizes. At the centre of the public scandal over Cubism that broke out in Paris in 1911, he was with Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia in New York during the war and was one of the first European avant-garde artists to respond to the scale and vigour of New York life. Gleizes was also one of the few French painters of the 1920s to recognise nonrepresentational painting as the logical development of Cubism. His work as a painter is accompanied by an immense body of theoretical work, addressing the question posed so starkly by Duchamp and Picabia: why should we paint? What is the justification for the work of art? Over his life he touches on many spheres of human activity - religious, political and cultural history, physics and the philosophy of work.This book follows Gleizes' argument as it evolves, drawing on painting, and both published and unpublished writings. It reveals Gleizes, not just as a significant historical personality, but as a man whose work and thinking remains surprisingly fresh and relevant to the needs of our own time.

Hardcover. London, Macmillan, reprint, 1891 , Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, dark blue cloth with gilt lettering on spine. 318 pages, b&w frontispiece. Previous owner's signature on front fly leaf, handwritten poem on front end paper. Foxing, soiling to end papers and first few pages. Else pages clean and crisp. Mrs. Ward has inserted many new passages taken from the last French edition. Amiel was a Swiss poet & philosopher, professor of aesthetics and moral philosophy at Geneva Academy, author of this introspective diary.

Hardcover. NY, St. Martins Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 350 pages. The spellbinding story of both the man and the theory,this book chronicles one of the most notorious radicals in Mikhail Bakunin, the founder of anarchism, here revealed as a practical moral philosophy rooted in a critique of wealth and power. Mark Leier corrects many of the popular misconceptions about Bakunin and his ideas, offering a fresh interpretation of his life and thoughts. Bakunin is an insightful read for all those who wish to better understand the fundamental basis of modern radical movements. Ex-lib but clean, only residue to acetate wrapper.

Hardcover. NY, Abbeville Press, 1st, 1991, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 397 pages, illustrated in b&w and color. In this thoughtful and thought-provoking art historical study, Peters first traces strands of Art Nouveau and Symbolist theory in the art of Georgia O'Keeffe. She then discusses other influences, from Arthur Dow as teacher to Paul Strand as photographer and friend. But by far the most sustained study in the text is the relationship between O'Keeffe's painting and the photography and philosophy of her husband, Alfred Stieglitz. Peters argues lucidly and always in accessible language for O'Keeffe's emergence as a great and deeply individual artist while illuminating these many influences and illustrating her points with lavish use of excellent reproductions. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Macmillan Company, 1st, 1936, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, gray cloth with gilt lettering on spine faded, 271 pages. The book covers the life and work of Bishop Butler and the impact his philosophy had on the Age of Reason. Name, date on front fly leaf, otherwise a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, Viking Studio Books, 2nd pr., 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Unpaginated. Hardcover with no dust jacket in a slipcase. Clean, tight copy with only light fading to slipcase. Paper on top of slip case is starting to become unglued. Bright colorful pictures throughout.

Hardcover. New York , Abaris Books, Inc., 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 344 pages. Oversized red decorated cloth cover, gilt lettering, minor wear to corners. This copy does not have original slipcase. Light foxing on top and fore edge, but inside is bright and clean, with many colored illustrations throughout. Contains a history of the Prayer Book and a synopsis of the life of Emperor Maximilian I.

Hardcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 320 pages. In the voluminous scholarship that's been written on Paul Cezanne, little has been said about the twenty-four portraits in oil that Cezanne made of his wife, Hortense Fiquet Cezanne, over an extended twenty-year period. In Cezanne's Other: The Portraits of Hortense, Susan Sidlauskas breaks new ground, focusing on these paintings as a group and looking particularly at the differences that render many of them unrecognizable as the same person. She argues that Cezanne sidestepped the conventional goals of portraiture-he avoids representing a consistent, identifiable physiognomy or conventional feminine postures and does not portray the subject's inner life-making lack of fixedness itself his subject, which leads him ultimately to a radical reformulation of modern portraiture. Sidlauskas also upends the notion of Mme Cezanne as the irrelevant and absent spouse. Instead she reveals Hortense Fiquet Cezanne as a presence so crucial to the artist that she became the essential "other" to his ever-evolving "self." Coupling historical texts from philosophy, psychology, and physiology with more recent writings from women's and gender studies, cognitive psychology, and visual culture, Sidlauskas demonstrates that Mme Cezanne offered intimacy at arm's length for the painter who has been dubbed "the lone wolf of Aix."

Softcover. Cambridge [England] ; New York, Cambridge University Press, reprint, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 389 pages. Minor wear to edges of cover. Previous owner's inscription on front flyleaf. Slight foxing on top edge. Inside is bright, clean and unmarked. A nice copy.

Hardcover. New York, Simon & Schuster, 1st US, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 423 pages, SIGNED BY AUTHOR on title page. Very clean and tight copy. With "humanism, generosity, and a passionate, beating heart" (The Times, London), Janice Galloway's Clara reignites, from between the lines of history, the great love of Robert and Clara Schumann. In her lifetime, Clara was a celebrated concert pianist and composer, editor and teacher, friend of Brahms -- as well as mother of the eight Schumann children and caretaker of her husband through a series of crippling mental illnesses. In its luminous integrity the novel brings Clara Schumann to life as a woman of genius. Galloway is at once a meticulous researcher of her subjects' remarkable and highly dramatic artistic careers and a virtuoso storyteller whose imagination and empathy lead her to that place off limits to history and biography -- inside the human mind. Distilling the memories, poetry, and musical notes therein, she examines the ways artists divine patterns out of life's chaos. "Passion," writes Galloway of Clara's performance philosophy, "one might take for granted -- its control is the mechanism through which all else flows." Though music may have bent to Clara's will, love served her far more tragically. Dismissing the cliches of Great Art and rejecting the romantic conflation of Madness and Creativity, Clara boldly ventures that in a life marred by alienation and isolation, "Work alone endures."

Hardcover. University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1st Edition, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 346 pages. Hardcover. Dust jacket with only minor wear. Clean, unmarked and tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, John Day, 1st, 1949, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a bright, edgeworn and chipped dust jacket. Explores the life and teachings of the ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius. The book delves into Confucius' background, upbringing, and the cultural and political context in which he lived. It also examines the various interpretations of Confucianism throughout history and how his teachings have influenced Chinese society and beyond. The author offers a critical analysis of Confucius' philosophy and challenges some of the popular myths and misconceptions that have surrounded him. Mild musty smell, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Row, 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, price-clipped dust jacket, 394 pages. Gives insight into the evolution of Schumacher's philosophy and character while providing the necessary historical details and context. The author is his daughter and while Ms.Wood's love for her Dad is evident throughout, she does not appear to treat him with kid gloves. Her report of Fritz's struggles to understand his family's tacit support for Hitler and the Nazi's was an interesting revelation. According to Ms. Wood, Fritz progressed from atheism early on to membership in the Roman Catholic Church toward the end of his life. Small sticker on dj spine otherwise clean and tight.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 2nd pr., 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 332 pages, b&w illustrations. Einstein and the Quantum reveals for the first time the full significance of Albert Einstein's contributions to quantum theory. Einstein famously rejected quantum mechanics, observing that God does not play dice. But, in fact, he thought more about the nature of atoms, molecules, and the emission and absorption of light-the core of what we now know as quantum theory-than he did about relativity.A compelling blend of physics, biography, and the history of science, Einstein and the Quantum shares the untold story of how Einstein-not Max Planck or Niels Bohr-was the driving force behind early quantum theory. It paints a vivid portrait of the iconic physicist as he grappled with the apparently contradictory nature of the atomic world, in which its invisible constituents defy the categories of classical physics, behaving simultaneously as both particle and wave. And it demonstrates how Einstein's later work on the emission and absorption of light, and on atomic gases, led directly to Erwin Schrodinger's breakthrough to the modern form of quantum mechanics. The book sheds light on why Einstein ultimately renounced his own brilliant work on quantum theory, due to his deep belief in science as something objective and eternal. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Pais turns his attention to the great physicist's life outside of science, with an informal, almost kalaidoscopic portrait of Einstein--his personal life and his public persona ("my mythical namesake who has made my life so burdensome"), his scientific contributions, and his thoughts on religion, philosophy, and politics, on Israel and Zionism, on the rise of Nazism and McCarthyism, and on much more. Pais offers a candid look at Einstein's troubled personal life--his two failed marriages, his first child Lieserl, who was born out of wedlock (and of whom all trace has vanished), his estranged son Hans Albert, also a scientist, who felt his father had abandoned the family, and his son Eduard, who gradually descended into madness. Of course, any book on Einstein must touch upon science, and Pais includes several illuminating chapters, one of which offers general readers an accessible explanation of relativity, and another traces the long road to Einstein's Nobel Prize (after being nominated almost every year from 1909 to 1920, he finally won in 1921--not for relativity, but for his work on the photoelectric effect). On the lighter side, Pais includes samples from Einstein's "curiosity file," in which he kept crank letters, marriage proposals, hate mail (one began "You are the prince of idiocy, the count of imbecility, the duke of cretinism, the baron of morons"), and the like. But the heart of the book is the final section, where Pais traces Einstein's lifeas seen through the media. Here we not only meet Einstein the living legend--receiving the keys to New York City from flamboyant Mayor Jimmy Walker, attending the Hollywood premier of City Lights with Charlie Chaplin--but also witness his extensive involvement in the issues of his day.

Softcover. JHG Editions/Latitudes Press, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 208 pages plus index. SIGNED BY EDITOR BONAZZI on contents page. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1st Edition, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 336 pages. Hardcover. SIGNED BY AUTHOR. Tan cloth bound covers, red title on spine. In excellent condition, pages clean, bright, unmarked. Binding tight. Spin straight. Dust jacket unclipped, has a touch of tanning, otherwise very good, no tears or rips. Previous bookstore's label on spine. Traces the historical roots of an idea that has had an incalculable impact on twentieth-century thought and culture by examining the interplay of Freud's inner life--his fantasies and dreams--with the world around him.

Hardcover. NY, Viking Press, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 146 pages. Lukacs was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, aesthetician, literary historian, and critic. He was one of the founders of Western Marxism, an interpretive tradition that departed from the Marxist ideological orthodoxy of the Soviet Union. He developed the theory of reification, and contributed to Marxist theory with developments of Karl Marx's theory of class consciousness. He was also a philosopher of Leninism. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2nd pr., 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 335 pages. Giordano Bruno is one of the great figures of early modern Europe, and one of the least understood. Ingrid D. Rowland's pathbreaking life of Bruno establishes him once and for all as a peer of Erasmus, Shakespeare, and Galileo, a thinker whose vision of the world prefigures ours. By the time Bruno was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1600 on Rome's Campo dei Fiori, he had taught in Naples, Rome, Venice, Geneva, France, England, Germany, and the Prague of Emperor Rudolph II. His powers of memory and his provocative ideas about the infinity of the universe had attracted the attention of the pope, Queen Elizabeth and the Inquisition, which condemned him to death in Rome as part of a yearlong jubilee. Writing with great verve and sympathy for her protagonist, Rowland traces Bruno's wanderings through a sixteenth-century Europe where every certainty of religion and philosophy had been called into question and shows him valiantly defending his ideas (and his right to maintain them) to the very end. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Santa Cruz, CA, Flesk Publications, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 304 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Color illustrations. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Harvey Dunn was one of twentieth century America's most powerful illustrators, painters and teachers. This comprehensive volume covers a major portion of his illustrations and paintings for the first time. Content includes illustration art, pioneer and western works, and his powerful World War I pieces inspired by his battlefield sketches. Also included are the rarely seen nudes, portraits, and murals. Paintings from museums and private collections showcase the full range of this talented American artist. For this book, many original paintings were tracked down and re-photographed in order to reintroduce the work of this important artist. Until now, most of Dunn's paintings and illustrations have been unavailable to the public in their original form. Locations of pictures in public collections are listed, as are the original publication dates and places. Additionally, a section is devoted to the artist's working and teaching methods. Also included is a reprinting of Dunn's "An Evening in the Classroom," compiled from notes made during critiques, passing on his inspirational teaching philosophy. A comprehensive list of Dunn's students with sample art is included as well.

Hardcover. London, England, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1972, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, 574 pages. Hardcover. Previous owner's name on front flyleaf with small notations (pencil) throughout. Black cover boards (some light chipping), gilt title on spine. Spine slightly cocked, doesn't affect binding. Dust jacket unclipped, has agewear: chipping, fading, some small tears (see image). This book provides an intellectual biography of Hegel from the Gymnasium years until he went to his first academic post at Jena.

Hardcover. UK, Polity Press, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue pictorial boards, 292 pages. This accessible and highly readable book is the first full-length biography of Hegel to be published since the largely outdated treatments of the nineteenth century. Althaus draws on new historical material and scholarly sources about the life and times of this most enigmatic and influential of modern philosophers. He paints a living portrait of a thinker whose personality was more complex than is often imagined, and shows that Hegel's relation to his revolutionary times was also more ambiguous than is usually accepted. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, W. W. Norton & Company, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 352 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. A tight copy.