Audio Books

Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None (version 2) (includes annotations)

Friedrich Nietzsche
The modern British philosopher, Anthony M. Ludovici, said that this text “is unquestionably Nietzsche’s opus magnum.” However, he warns the reader that since “the book with the most mysterious, startling, or suggestive title, will always stand the best chance of being purchased by those who have no other criteria to guide them in their choice than the aspect of a title-page … ‘Thus Spake Zarathustra’ is almost always the first and often the only one of Nietzsche’s books that falls into the hands of the uninitiated.” He therefore recommends reading this text alongside some scholarly annotations, which Ludovici gratefully supplies in the volume read here. To keep Ludovici’s intention, in this version of ‘Zarathustra’ the reader includes these annotations (where available) immediately after the reading. Summary by jvanstan

On the Duty of Civil Disobedience Version 2

Thoreau, Henry David
ivil Disobedience (Resistance to Civil Government) is an essay by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau that was first published in 1849. In it, Thoreau argues that individuals should not permit governments to overrule or atrophy their consciences, and that they have a duty to avoid allowing such acquiescence to enable the government to make them the agents of injustice. Thoreau was motivated in part by his disgust with slavery and the Mexican–American War.

Heretics

Chesterton, G. K.
The Author Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England on the 29th of May, 1874. Though he considered himself a mere "rollicking journalist," he was actually a prolific and gifted writer in virtually every area of literature. A man of strong opinions and enormously talented at defending them, his exuberant personality nevertheless allowed him to maintain warm friendships with people--such as George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells--with whom he vehemently disagreed. Chesterton had no difficulty standing up for what he believed. He was one of the few journalists to oppose the Boer War. His 1922 "Eugenics and Other Evils" attacked what was at that time the most progressive of all ideas, the idea that the human race could and should breed a superior version of itself. In the Nazi experience, history demonstrated the wisdom of his once "reactionary" views.
Chesterton wrote several works of Christian apologetics, the best known of which are "Othodoxy", "Heretics", and "The Everlasting Man".

Soul of Man, The

Wilde, Oscar
“(T)he past is what man should not have been. The present is what man ought not to be. The future is what artists are.”
Published originally as “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” this is not so much a work of sober political analysis; rather it can be summed up as a rhapsodic manifesto on behalf of the Individual. Socialism having deployed technology to liberate the whole of humanity from soul-destroying labour, the State obligingly withers away to allow the free development of a joyful, anarchic hedonism...
“Is this Utopian? A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing.”
Far from abandoning the epigram in favour of the slogan, Wilde wittily assails several of his favourite targets: the misguided purveyors of philanthropy; life-denying ascetics of various kinds; the army of the half-educated who constitute themselves the enemies of Art - and those venal popular journalists who cater to them...
“Behind the barricade there may be much that is noble and heroic. But what is there behind the leading-article but prejudice, stupidity, cant, and twaddle?”

Mental Efficiency

Bennett, Arnold
In this light-hearted yet thought-provoking collection of articles, Bennett offers his thoughts on exercising the mind, organising your life, the advantages (and disadvantages) of marriage and other pocket philosophies.

The book stands the test of time, and much is still relevant and amusing - perhaps even more so, with nearly 100 years of hindsight, than when it was originally written.

The book "X" to which Bennett refers in Chapter 5 is An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus, of which there is also a Librivox recording.

Discovery Of The Future

H. G. Wells
The Discovery of the Future is a 1902 philosophical lecture by H. G. Wells that argues for the knowability of the future. It was originally delivered to the Royal Institution on January 24, 1902. Wells begins by distinguishing between "two divergent types of mind," one that judges and attaches importance principally to what has happened in the past and one that judges and attaches importance principally to what will happen in the future. To the former he attributes the adjectives "legal or submissive," "passive," and "oriental," and to the latter the adjectives "legislative, creative, organizing, or masterful," and "active," calling it "a more modern and much less abundant type of mind."... Confessing himself to be among "those who believe entirely in the forces behind the individual" rather than in individuals themselves as determining causes, Wells argues that there is "no reason why we should not aspire to, and discover and use, safe and serviceable, generalizations upon countless issues in the human destiny." Wells devotes the last part of his text to speculations about "the question what is to come after man," considering it "the most persistently fascinating and the most insoluble question in the whole world." He concludes with a statement of personal faith "in the coherency and purpose in the world and in the greatness of human destiny." ( Wikipedia and david wales)

In Tune with the Infinite

Ralph Waldo Trine
Trine tells us that by connecting and harmonizing with the Universe we attract love, health, peace and success. Trines' writings may have been the most important to the "New Thought" movement of the late 1800's and early 1900's which was the forerunner to the "New Age" movement.

Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll, Volume 1

Ingersoll, Robert G.
Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) was a Civil War veteran, American political leader and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought, noted for his defense of atheism. This book is the first of two volumes collecting Ingersoll's speeches.

Fishing with a Worm

Perry, Bliss
Fishing with a Worm by Bliss Perry includes the poignant and philisophical observations of a fly fisherman lured by the worm. Bliss Perry was a professor of literature at Princeton and Harvard Universities and spent time in Vermont writing and fly fishing.

Problem of Truth

Herbert Wildon Carr
A problem of philosophy is completely different from a problem of science. In science we accept our subject-matter as it is presented in unanalysed experience; in philosophy we examine the first principles and ultimate questions that concern conscious experience itself. The problem of truth is a problem of philosophy. It is not a problem of merely historical interest, but a present problem—a living controversy, the issue of which is undecided. Its present interest may be said to centre round the doctrine of pragmatism, which some fifteen years ago began to challenge the generally accepted principles of philosophy. In expounding this problem of truth, my main purpose has been to make clear to the reader the nature of a problem of philosophy and to disclose the secret of its interest. My book presumes no previous study of philosophy nor special knowledge of its problems. The theories that I have shown in conflict on this question are, each of them, held by some of the leaders of philosophy. In presenting them, therefore, I have tried to let the full dialectical force of the argument appear. I have indicated my own view, that the direction in which the solution lies is in the new conception of life and the theory of knowledge given to us in the philosophy of Bergson. If I am right, the solution is not, like pragmatism, a doctrine of the nature of truth, but a theory of knowledge in which the dilemma in regard to truth does not arise. But, as always in philosophy, the solution of one problem is the emergence of another. There is no finality. (Preface)

As a Man Thinketh (version 3)

James Allen
The burgeoning conflict between science and organized religion in the Nineteenth Century had many cultural offshoots, one of the most significant of which was the New Thought movement. New Thought exponents sought to reconcile the principles of science and general spirituality in a synthetic practical philosophy which explored the universality of the human experience. The literature which developed as a consequence has provided the basic material used by most of today's self-help practitioners, and has won enduring popularity because of the simplicity of its concepts and the practical methods it espouses. Among the earliest and most celebrated of these authors was James Allen (1864 - 1912). A reclusive man, he spent the last ten years of his life in rural seclusion in the village of Ilfracombe in Devon, during which period he wrote most of his twenty books. The most famous of these is As A Man Thinketh, a short treatise of the power of thought. This short work is one of the first great classics of self-help literature, and has never been out of print since it was first published in 1902. Allen's main thesis is that thought is not just a vehicle for comprehending and explaining the world, but is also the prime mechanism for creating and changing human experience. While Allen's views may remain controversial, a vast audience of readers has found his work greatly inspiring. (Algy Pug)

Book of Tea (Version 2)

Kakuzo Okakura
The Book of Tea is as much about philosophy, religion and art as it is about a drink made with dried leaves in boiling water. It traces the development of tea into teaism. The author’s first paragraph summarizes the whole book:

“Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eighth century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite amusements. The fifteenth century saw Japan ennoble it into a religion of aestheticism--Teaism. Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life.”

The author shows that the philosophy of Teaism, which was developed from Japanese Zen Buddhist teachings, actually has deeper roots in Chinese Confucianism and Taoism as well.

After its publication in 1906 The Book of Tea provided a window into Japanese culture, and furthered a better understanding and appreciation of the philosophy behind minimalism in Japanese art, architecture, design and living.

Raven and The Philosophy Of Composition

Edgar Allan Poe
Poe’s famous narrative poem and the author’s reflections on its composition. (David Wales)

Essays Before a Sonata

Charles Ives
Some philosophical studies in relation to the ideas of Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne. Although the sonata is not explicitly referenced in this text, the ideas of these philosophers were attempted to be integrated into Ives' famous 'Piano Sonata No. 2 Concord, Mass.'

Explanation of Catholic Morals

Rev. John H. Stapleton
A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals. The ten commandments, vice and virtue from the Catholic perspective.

The contents of this volume appeared originally in The Catholic Transcript, of Hartford, Connecticut, in weekly installments, from February, 1901, to February, 1903.

World As Will and Idea, Vol. 1 of 3

Arthur Schopenhauer
In this work, Schopenhauer explains his fundamental idea that at the root of the reality we see around us is a Will that eternally, insatiably seeks to be satisfied. Each human Subject observes the Objects around her from the perspective of that fundamental Will working within each person. The human observer is distracted by the details of life and individual distinctions that obscure this Will; only by penetrating this “principium individuationis” (which is enslaved by the cause-and-effect tyranny of the Principle of Sufficient Reason) can the observer perceive the essential Thing-In-Itself. Art has the power to make us see the Thing-In-Itself, the Platonic Idea freed from the individual particular manifestation of it, thus enabling us to transcend the individual Will and perceive something of true Reality. Perceiving the common Will in all humanity, we are able to come closer to an ego-less love based on that shared essence. Schopenhauer squarely faces the fact that existence is fundamentally suffering, but it would be simplistic to label him (as is so often done) as nothing but a pessimist. His affirmation of Art and Love is a transforming principle, having a powerful influence on writers such as Tolstoy. In the end, he chooses the Way of Negation as the path toward peace; by denying our Will, by silencing the many outbreaks of Will in our lives, we can approach the ultimate peace of annihilation that is the theme of the great Vedic philosophy of India, to which Schopenhauer admits his profound debt. ( summary by Expatriate)

Bushido: The Soul of Japan

Nitobe, Inazo
Bushido: The Soul of Japan written by Inazo Nitobe was one of the first books on samurai ethics that was originally written in English for a Western audience, and has been subsequently translated into many other languages (also Japanese). Nitobe found in Bushido, the Way of the Warrior, the sources of the virtues most admired by his people: rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty and self-control, and he uses his deep knowledge of Western culture to draw comparisons with Medieval Chivalry, Philosophy, and Christianity.

Varieties of Religious Experience

William James
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature is a book by the Harvard psychologist and philosopher William James that comprises his edited Gifford Lectures on "Natural Theology" delivered at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland between 1901 and 1902. These lectures concerned the nature of religion and the neglect of science, in James' view, in the academic study of religion. Soon after its publication, the book found its way into the canon of psychology and philosophy, and has remained in print for over a century.

Essays of Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer
Schopenhauer is considered to be one of the most influential philosophers of all times. Many of his ideas and quotes have been quoted largely and have now become almost commonplace. The essays in this collection are a proof of his breakthrough contributions to Reason, Logic, Progress and Linguistics.

Philosophical Enquiry

Edmund Burke
Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry is an important treatise in the history of philosophical aesthetics, putting forth a theory of two concepts of central, perennial importance to the field of aesthetics, namely, the beautiful and the sublime. Written before Burke turned 19, it is his only purely philosophical work. Despite being such an early work, Burke's Philosophical Enquiry was noted by such later philosophers as Diderot and Kant and has remained influential in the field of aesthetics since its publication in 1757. ( Eric Jonas)

How We Think

John Dewey
A book written by an American education philosopher in which he proposed “This scientific attitude of mind might, conceivably, be quite irrelevant to teaching children and youth. But this book also represents the conviction that such is not the case; that the native and unspoiled attitude of childhood, marked by ardent curiosity, fertile imagination, and love of experimental inquiry, is near, very near, to the attitude of the scientific mind. If these pages assist any to appreciate this kinship and to consider seriously how its recognition in educational practice would make for individual happiness and the reduction of social waste, ...”
Excerpt From: John Dewey. “How We Think.”

Analysis of Mind

Bertrand Russell
A neat work on philosophy of mind by the 20th century analytic philosopher Bertrand Russell.

Fear and Trembling (selections)

Soren Kierkegaard
"And God tempted Abraham and said unto him: take Isaac, thine only son, whom thou lovest and go to the land Moriah and sacrifice him there on a mountain which I shall show thee. Genesis 22:1"Soren Kierkegaard wondered how Abraham made the movement of faith that made him the father of faith mentioned in the New Testament (Hebrews 11:17-19). Fear and Trembling is the product of his wonder. Work out your salvation in fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). One-third of "Fear and Trembling" was translated in 1923 by Lee Hollander in the University of Texas Bulliten. This book has already been read in parts in the Short Nonfiction Collection but I think some might be interested in listening to it as a complete reading.

World as Will and Idea, Vol. 3 of 3

Arthur Schopenhauer
In this work, Schopenhauer explains his fundamental idea that at the root of the reality we see around us is a Will that eternally, insatiably seeks to be satisfied. Each human Subject observes the Objects around her from the perspective of that fundamental Will working within each person. The human observer is distracted by the details of life and individual distinctions that obscure this Will; only by penetrating this “principium individuationis” (which is enslaved by the cause-and-effect tyranny of the Principle of Sufficient Reason) can the observer perceive the essential Thing-In-Itself. Art has the power to make us see the Thing-In-Itself, the Platonic Idea freed from the individual particular manifestation of it, thus enabling us to transcend the individual Will and perceive something of true Reality. Perceiving the common Will in all humanity, we are able to come closer to an ego-less love based on that shared essence. Schopenhauer squarely faces the fact that existence is fundamentally suffering, but it would be simplistic to label him (as is so often done) as nothing but a pessimist. His affirmation of Art and Love is a transforming principle, having a powerful influence on writers such as Tolstoy. In the end, he chooses the Way of Negation as the path toward peace; by denying our Will, by silencing the many outbreaks of Will in our lives, we can approach the ultimate peace of annihilation that is the theme of the great Vedic philosophy of India, to which Schopenhauer admits his profound debt.

Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
This work presents Rousseau's belief in the profoundly transformational effects of the development of civilization on human nature, which Rousseau claims other political philosophers had failed to grasp. Specifically, before the onset of civilization, according to Rousseau, natural man lived a contented, solitary life, naturally good and happy. It is only with the onset of civilization, Rousseau claims, that humans become social beings, and, concomitant with their civilization, natural man becomes corrupted with the social vices of pride, vanity, greed and servility.

Pushing to the Front

Orison Swett Marden
Published in 1894, this is the first book by the renowned inspirational author, Dr. Orison Swett Marden. Pushing to the Front is the product of many years of hard work, and marks a turning point in the life of Dr. Marden. He rewrote it following an accidental fire that brought the five-thousand-plus page manuscript to flames. It went on to become the most popular personal-development book of its time, and is a timeless classic in its genre. Filled with stories of success, triumph and the surmounting of difficulties, it is especially well-targeted at the adolescent or young adult. It is a book to inspire the reader towards a noble sense of integrity, a strong moral foundation, and solid, enduring self-discipline to let the reader put each foot forward as the leader they are meant to be.

Evolution Creatrice

Henri Bergson
Creative Evolution (French: L'Évolution créatrice) is a 1907 book by French philosopher Henri Bergson. Its English translation appeared in 1911. The book provides an alternate explanation for Darwin's mechanism of evolution, suggesting that evolution is motivated by an élan vital, a "vital impetus" that can also be understood as humanity's natural creative impulse. The book was very popular in the early decades of the twentieth century, before the Neodarwinian synthesis was developed.

The book also develops concepts of time (offered in Bergson's earlier work) which significantly influenced modernist writers and thinkers such as Marcel Proust. For example, Bergson's term "duration" refers to a more individual, subjective experience of time, as opposed to mathematical, objectively measurable "clock time." In Creative Evolution, Bergson suggests that the experience of time as "duration" can best be understood through creative intuition, not through intellect.

World as Will and Idea, Vol. 2 of 3

Arthur Schopenhauer
In this work, Schopenhauer explains his fundamental idea that at the root of the reality we see around us is a Will that eternally, insatiably seeks to be satisfied. Each human Subject observes the Objects around her from the perspective of that fundamental Will working within each person. The human observer is distracted by the details of life and individual distinctions that obscure this Will; only by penetrating this “principium individuationis” (which is enslaved by the cause-and-effect tyranny of the Principle of Sufficient Reason) can the observer perceive the essential Thing-In-Itself. Art has the power to make us see the Thing-In-Itself, the Platonic Idea freed from the individual particular manifestation of it, thus enabling us to transcend the individual Will and perceive something of true Reality. Perceiving the common Will in all humanity, we are able to come closer to an ego-less love based on that shared essence. Schopenhauer squarely faces the fact that existence is fundamentally suffering, but it would be simplistic to label him (as is so often done) as nothing but a pessimist. His affirmation of Art and Love is a transforming principle, having a powerful influence on writers such as Tolstoy. In the end, he chooses the Way of Negation as the path toward peace; by denying our Will, by silencing the many outbreaks of Will in our lives, we can approach the ultimate peace of annihilation that is the theme of the great Vedic philosophy of India, to which Schopenhauer admits his profound debt. ( Expatriate)

Human Nature and Conduct - Part 4, Conclusion

John Dewey
John Dewey, an early 20th Century American philosopher, psychologist, educational theorist. This project encompasses Part 4 of 4 of his book Human Nature and Conduct, An Introduction to Social Psychology, published in 1922. Dewey's uses the words "HABIT" and "Impulse" as a specialized catch-all words to describe how a person and his/her objective environment interact. This interaction is the basis for moral and ethical judgments. Dewey writes: "All habits are demands for certain kinds of activity; and they constitute the self.” In other places he also asserts that "Habits are Will." In the third part of the book, Dewey describes how we make ethical judgments (Dramatic Rehearsal) on the occasions which call upon the exercise of intelligence, and the relationship among aims, goals, means and ends, and emotions.In this fourth section he ties together the preceding concepts and conclusionsPart 4: ConclusionSection I: The Good of ActivityBetter and worse; morality a process; evolution and progress; optimism; Epicureanism; making others happy.Section II: Morals are HumanHumane morals; natural law and morals; place of science.Section III: What is Freedom?Elements in freedom; capacity in action; novel possibilities; force of desire.Section IV: Morality is SocialConscience and responsibility; social pressure and opportunity; exaggeration of blame; importance of social psychology; category of right; the community of religious symbol.Soloist supplementary note: Very important but sometimes overlooked is his concept in Part 3 of the book of "Dramatic Rehearsal" which to me means: when we are deliberating over a course of action, we don't just tote up an arithmetic series of "if I do THIS, then THIS will happen, and then THIS will happen, etc. and weigh out the pluses and minuses" as a Utilitarian would do. No, what we do, says Dewey, is that at every step of divining what the future will hold, we examine how we FEEL about the situation. For example, if we're planning a chess move, we don't think to ourselves merely "if I make THIS move, I'll weaken my king side, but I'll gain a pawn" No, instead we think "if I make THIS move, I'll weaken my king side {Dang it all to hecky darn! }, but I'll gain a pawn {Yaaaay! hoorah! }". The force of our subjective and emotive intensity sway the final decisions.~ Summary by William Allan Jones, Soloist

Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book III

John Locke
This is the third book of John Locke's Essay on Human Understanding. Book I was Neither Principles Nor Ideas Are Innate. Book II was Of Ideas and Book III is Of Words. Locke is writing about the ideas we have in our minds and the things they are to represent. What does it mean to define a thing? What is an abstract idea? What is motion? What is essential to me as an individual? What would an Englishman born in Jamaica think about ice when he went to England for the first time? What is a concrete term? Locke tackles many such questions in this third book. Book IV is Of Knowledge and Probability.

Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book IV

John Locke
This is the fourth book of John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding. His book deals with knowledge and probability. He asks how far knowledge can go, if there are universal propositions, what are judgment and probability and deals with faith, reason and enthusiasm.

Maine Woods

Henry David Thoreau
On August 31, 1846, twenty-nine-year-old Henry David Thoreau left his cabin on Walden Pond to undertake a railroad and steamboat journey to Bangor, Maine, from where he would venture with his Penobscot guide Joe Polis deep into the backwoods of Maine. This account of his expedition, some think, is a profounder exploration of the philosophical themes of the more famous "Walden" than is the latter book, at least revealing his fundamental perspectives in embryonic form. Of particular interest is his sympathetic and penetrating observation of the Indian nations of Maine, especially the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy.

Culture and Anarchy

Matthew Arnold
Culture and Anarchy is a series of periodical essays by Matthew Arnold, first published in Cornhill Magazine 1867-68 and collected as a book in 1869. The preface was added in 1875. Arnold's famous piece of writing on culture established his High Victorian cultural agenda which remained dominant in debate from the 1860s until the 1950s. According to his view advanced in the book, "Culture [...] is a study of perfection". He further wrote that: "[Culture] seeks to do away with classes; to make the best that has been thought and known in the world current everywhere; to make all men live in an atmosphere of sweetness and light [...]". His often quoted phrase "[culture is] the best which has been thought and said" comes from the Preface to Culture and Anarchy: The whole scope of the essay is to recommend culture as the great help out of our present difficulties; culture being a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world, and, through this knowledge, turning a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits, which we now follow staunchly but mechanically, vainly imagining that there is a virtue in following them staunchly which makes up for the mischief of following them mechanically.

Ontology, or the Theory of Being

Peter Coffey
The book is an introduction to metaphysics and Thomistic Ontology.

Early Greek Philosophy & Other Essays (Version 2)

Friedrich Nietzsche
“The essays contained in this volume treat of various subjects. With the exception of perhaps one we must consider all these papers as fragments. Written during the early Seventies, and intended mostly as prefaces, they are extremely interesting, since traces of Nietzsche's later tenets—like Slave and Master morality, the Superman—can be found everywhere. But they are also very valuable on account of the young philosopher's daring and able handling of difficult and abstruse subjects. "Truth and Falsity," and "The Greek Woman" are probably the two essays which will prove most attractive to the average reader.”

Your Mind and How to Use It

William Walker Atkinson
William Walker Atkinson was one of the most prominent contributors to the literature of the New Thought movement, a non-denomination spiritual philosophy which developed in the late Nineteenth Century. Although he achieved eminence in a number of professions, Atkinson never sought personal publicity, and many of his numerous works were published under a variety of pseudonyms.

Most of Atkinson’s works are manuals of practice rather than pure expositions of philosophy. Many of his books are concerned with the training of the mind, and one of the most typical of these is Your Mind and How to Use It: A Manual of Practical Psychology, first published in 1911.
Summary by Algy Pug

Representative Men

Ralph Waldo Emerson
A series of biographical lectures originally published in 1850. Each chapter is a philosophical treatment of the life of an intellectual. The six representatives are Plato, Swedenborg, Shakespeare, Montaigne, Napolean and Goethe.

Creative Unity

Tagore, Rabindranath
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore talks of the many things he feels is necessary for creativity through joy of unity, he covers many topics like the creative ideal, makes comparisons of creativity between the east and the west, the spirit of freedom and about his idea of an University.

Mistakes of Moses

Robert G. Ingersoll
Robert G. Ingersoll was an extremely popular humanist orator in the late nineteenth century, and he wrote Mistakes of Moses after many bootlegged versions of his speeches had been published and circulated. In Mistakes of Moses, through a close, literal reading of the Pentateuch, he challenges biblical stories using science, logic and morality.

Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women

Edward Carpenter
Written in 1908 by socialist critic and gay rights activist Edward Carpenter, The Intermediate Sex is a thoughtful, humanizing, and frequently utopian treatise on homosexuality that defies some of the period's more stultifying notions about human sexuality. In it, Carpenter argues for the legitimization of “uranianism,” recounts the history of homosexuality from antiquity to present day, highlights the great social and aesthetic work done by Uranians, and outlines some of the transformative social effects that might occur from a greater acceptance of homosexuality.

Human, All Too Human: A Book For Free Spirits, Part I

Friedrich Nietzsche
"Human, all-too-Human, is the monument of a crisis. It is entitled: 'A book for free spirits,' and almost every line in it represents a victory—in its pages I freed myself from everything foreign to my real nature. Idealism is foreign to me: the title says, 'Where you see ideal things, I see things which are only—human alas! all-too-human!' I know man better—the term 'free spirit' must here be understood in no other sense than this: a freed man, who has once more taken possession of himself." (Nietzsche; Ecce Homo, p. 75.)

Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion

George Santayana
Even before the Great War turned the world upside down, Western civilization was being revolutionized at all levels: intellectually, philosophically, artistically. Noted positivist philosopher George Santayana published this volume on the eve of the War, trying to portray the status of philosophy and theology at that moment by analyzing six significant topics:
1. the intellectual "temper" of the age
2. the clash between Modernism and Christianity
3. the new idealism of Henri Bergson
4. the new skepticism of Bertrand Russell
5. Shelley's fusion of philosophy and poetry
6. the so-called "genteel" tradition in American philosophy.

Civilisation: Its Cause and Cure, and Other Essays

Edward Carpenter
This publication, by English utopian socialist Edward Carpenter, describes civilisation as a sort of disease with which humanity is afflicted. Alongside this influential publication (originally published in 1889), are compiled other essays: Modern Science: A Criticism; The Science of the Future: A Forecast; Defence of Criminals: A Criticism of Morality; Exfoliation: Lamarck versus Darwin; Custom; A Rational and Humane Science; and The New Morality, plus Appendices (notes on various "Pre-Civilised peoples").

English Audio Books

The most popular500

Children400

Fiction750

Fantasy350

Horror/Ghost stories700

Dictionary 180,000

Fiction364

Action & Adventure315

Animals & Nature275

Myths, Legends & Fairy Tales222

Family117

General102

Historical43

Poetry48

Religion37

School33

Short works52

Non-fiction76

Reference5

Religion19

Science21

History14

Biography23

General113

Comedy76

Satire26

Tragedy & Drama101

Romance10

General694

Action & Adventure603

Classics (Greek & Antiquity)94

Crime & Mystery195

Detective322

Culture & Heritage127

Dramatic Readings151

Epistolary Fiction47

Erotica12

Travel Fiction42

Family Life123

Biographies & Memoirs73

Historical Fiction433

Humorous Fiction387

Literary227

Nature & Animal63

Nautical & Marine97

Religious Fiction109

Romance477

Sagas16

Satire127

Sports Fiction9

Suspense & Espionage79

War & Military Fiction89

Westerns98

Fantastic Fiction103

Myths, Legends & Fairy Tales178

Horror & Supernatural Fiction150

Gothic Fiction25

Science Fiction490

Fantasy Fiction83

Short Stories260

Anthologies37

Single Author Collections142

Published before 180020

Published 1800-1900207

Published 1900 onward207

General483

Anthologies44

Single author156

Ballads & Epics43

Narratives13

Multi-version601

Non-Fiction427

War & Military170

Animals62

Art, Design & Architecture43

Biography & Autobiography360

Memoirs187

Business & Economics31

Crafts & Hobbies15