Download or read book Hobbes in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2020-07-03 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Hobbes is the founder of the modern theory of the state. He gained worldwide fame with his thesis that Man is not, by nature, a peaceful or sociable being but rather always pursues, egoistically, first and foremost his own welfare and advantage. Were there no state, with their laws, judges and police, we would live in a constant "war of all against all". Not because Man is essentially wicked but because such behaviour is dictated by our nature as predatory animals: "Man is an arrant wolf to Man". With this oft-cited phrase, however, Hobbes in fact provided the first modern legitimation for the state. The state, he argued, is necessary and in the interest of all insofar as it provides human beings with mutual protection from the fraud, theft and murder which they would otherwise commit upon one another and secures a peaceful coexistence for everyone. Only the state creates the security of law for all who live in it. Hobbes also warns us against quitting too lightly this condition of life in an established state or endangering it by entering into civil war: "I also show that the condition of Man outside civil society is that of a perpetual war of all against all." The book "Hobbes in 60 Minutes" explains, with the aid of some 70 important passages quoted from Hobbes's principal writings Leviathan and De Cive, the philosopher's key notion of "the state of Nature" and the famous theory of the state he developed as a proposal for transcending this state. The book is published as part of the popular series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes".
Download or read book Great Thinkers in 60 minutes Volume 3 written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-01-11 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes Volume 3" comprises the five books "Confucius in 60 Minutes", "Buddha in 60 Minutes", "Epicurus in 60 Minutes", "Descartes in 60 Minutes", and "Hobbes in 60 Minutes". Each short study sums up the key idea at the heart of each respective thinker and asks the question: "Of what use is this key idea to us today?" But above all the philosophers get to speak for themselves. Their most important statements are prominently presented, as direct quotations, in speech balloons with appropriate graphics, with exact indication of the source of each quote in the author's works. This light-hearted but nonetheless scholarly precise rendering of the ideas of each thinker makes it easy for the reader to acquaint him- or herself with the great questions of our lives. Because every philosopher who has achieved global fame has posed the "question of meaning": what is it that holds, at the most essential level, the world together? For Confucius it is the search for the Dao, for the right path that leads us human beings to one another. For the Buddha it is a radical liberation from our needs and the approach, through meditation, to Nirvana. For Epicurus, by contrast, the meaning of life consists in the letting-be of our pleasures and the imbeddedness of existence in our bodies. Descartes, for his part, considers thinking to be the decisive quality of Man, allowing him to explore and master the world. Hobbes, finally, sees the central element of meaning to consist in humans' peaceful coexistence thanks to the founding of states, i.e. in a political act. In other words, the meaning of the world and thus of our own lives remains, among philosophers, a topic of great controversy. One thing, though, is sure: each of these five thinkers struck, from his own perspective, one brilliant spark out of that complex crystal that is the truth.
Download or read book Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes Volume 5 written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-01-12 with total page 614 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes Volume 5" comprises the five books "Adorno in 60 Minutes", "Habermas in 60 Minutes", "Foucault in 60 Minutes", "Rawls in 60 Minutes", and "Popper in 60 Minutes". Each short study sums up the key idea at the heart of each respective thinker and asks the question: "Of what use is this key idea to us today?" But above all the philosophers get to speak for themselves. Their most important statements are prominently presented, as direct quotations, in speech balloons with appropriate graphics, with exact indication of the source of each quote in the author's works. This light-hearted but nonetheless scholarly precise rendering of the ideas of each thinker makes it easy for the reader to acquaint him- or herself with the great questions of our lives. Because every philosopher who has achieved global fame has posed the "question of meaning": what is it that holds, at the most essential level, the world together? For Adorno it is the dialectical development of civilization from the Stone Age up to capitalism along with the alienation of Man from Nature that goes with it. Habermas, by contrast, sees in this historical process of development the chance to gradually improve society through the emancipatory power of language in communicative action. Foucault remains sceptical here and reveals to us the rigid structures in which we, as modern individuals, are trapped. Rawls develops a complex and compelling procedure for the creation of an ideally just state of affairs. Popper, finally, establishes a quite new theory of science whereby every scientific truth has only a provisional character so that it must eventually be relieved and replaced by better truths. In other words, the meaning of the world and thus of our own lives remains, among philosophers, a topic of great controversy. One thing, though, is sure: each of these five thinkers struck, from his own perspective, one brilliant spark out of that complex crystal that is the truth.
Download or read book Buddha in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Buddha is renowned as the founder of one of the five world religions. This is all the more astonishing because he never claimed to be a prophet. Unlike Mohammed, Moses or Jesus he promises human beings no afterlife in Paradise. Nor does he have any stories of God or God's grace. He simply shows us how we can free ourselves, by our own efforts, from fear and attain to the experience of 'Nirvana'. His concern is Man's self-salvation. He formulates his key idea in the doctrine of the 'Four Noble Truths'. To live always means also to suffer, runs the first 'Noble Truth', because, says the Buddha: "Ageing is suffering, sickness is suffering, death is suffering, to be parted from loved ones is suffering..." The second truth then explains the causes of this suffering. These are, above all, our own wishes and needs for pleasure, youth, attractiveness, health, eternal life and happiness. If we succeeded in freeing ourselves from these things then, the Buddha's third Noble Truth runs, the suffering would end. The fourth Noble Truth, finally, describes the famous 'Eightfold Path' that we need to follow in order to achieve "liberation", "awakening" and "serenity" vis-à-vis our own needs. The book "Buddha in 60 Minutes" explains this fascinating doctrine in an easy-to-follow way, especially the key idea 'nirvana'. The Buddha, indeed, arrived at his Four Noble Truths and the nirvana experience only through meditation. But his doctrine can be grasped simply through reason. Are the Four Truths correct? Is the Eightfold Path one we can actually travel? Can the nirvana experience actually help us to achieve a redeeming serenity? Here, the Buddha's key ideas are explained using over a hundred of his most important quotations. The book appears as part of the popular series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes" which has now been translated worldwide into six languages.
Download or read book Schopenhauer in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by . This book was released on 2021-02-20 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Popper in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karl Popper (1902-1994) is one of the great thinkers of the modern age. He developed his key idea, the "open society" already at age 17. Popper at the time believed passionately in Newton's theory of gravitation, by which the science of the day explained the motion of all bodies on earth and in the heavens. But during the great eclipse of 1919 observations were made that confirmed for the first time Einstein's theory of relativity. The London Times wrote: "Scientific Revolution; New Theory of the Universe; Newton's Conception Overthrown." If this is so, concluded Popper, and if a genius like Newton can prove to have been wrong and his knowledge, after two hundred years, can be replaced by a better knowledge, then perhaps there are no such things as truths "true once and for all". It was at this point that he developed his brilliant key idea: "Scientific knowledge is not knowledge; it is only conjectural knowledge." Every scientific theory must count as "true" only for so long as it cannot be refuted by some counter-example or replaced by a better theory. And just for this reason modern society must always be open to critiques and new theories. This applies also, indeed quite especially, to politics. Instead of calling, like Plato, for an ideal state, or pursuing, like Marx and Hegel, "totalitarian" philosophical-historical goals, the scientific method of trial and error must also be applied to politics. Was Popper right? Is all our knowledge merely conjectural knowledge resting on trial and error? And did Plato, Hegel and Marx really pave the way for totalitarianism? Is what we need to improve society really rather the method of "hard science"? Can we solve our problems using Popper's "piecemeal social technology"? Popper gives clear and unmistakable answers. The book appears as part of the popular series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes".
Download or read book Arendt in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2020-12-06 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) is rightly viewed as the world's most important female philosopher. No other thinker, female or male, had such a personal experience of the age of totalitarianism or analysed it so precisely and objectively. Arendt still attracts worldwide attention with her discoveries of "the rule of Nobody" and "the banality of Evil". In our modern mass societies, she argues, we obey authority far too easily and seldom take responsibility for ourselves. A typical modern man in this respect, she goes on, was the Nazi functionary Eichmann, who organized the transport of millions of human beings into extermination camps simply because it was "part of his job" to do it. Arendt was present at his trial for war crimes and made an amazing discovery. Eichmann was not, as many contended, a "perverted monster". Rather, "The trouble with Eichmann was precisely that so many were like him, and that the many were neither perverse nor sadistic but were, and still are, terribly and terrifyingly normal". It was here that Arendt formulated her brilliant but controversial thesis of "the banality of Evil". Because it was the "banal" mentality of "doing one's daily duty" of Eichmann and many others that made the horrors of Nazism possible. Still today we obey authority far too easily. But each citizen, Arendt argues, should be able, if need be, to think and act against all laws and rules. Should classes in such "civil disobedience" be part of our children's education? Is there an Eichmann in all of us? How much "civic courage" can and must still be demanded even of the modern individual? Hannah Arendt gives clear, trenchant answers to these questions. The book is published as part of the popular series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes.
Download or read book Habermas in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2020-10-09 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Habermas's great philosophical discovery is a rousing and a modest one. Rousing because almost two centuries after the great philosophers of history Hegel and Marx he attempts once again to discover a meaning and purpose for human history; modest because he describes without bombast humanity's ability to shape its own future and deduces this ability from a phenomenon we encounter in our daily life: language. It is no longer, as in Hegel, the World-Spirit nor, as in Marx, class struggle that forms the motor of development but rather human speech. Agreement achieved through language will, says Habermas, eventually unite humanity.The wish for such an ever greater agreement, based on an unforced exchange of views, is inherent in the structure of our speech. Because as soon as anyone speaks with anyone else anywhere on earth, he must, consciously or unconsciously, raise four universal validity-claims, such as the claim to be understood. What begins so simply is developed by Habermas in an hypothesis of great breadth. In communicative action, and thus in language, there inheres a stubborn claim to rationality, even if it is constantly suppressed. Does language really compel us to rationality? Does it really have such emancipatory power or is it, in the end, just a tool? And if language really causes humanity to draw closer together, why are there still wars? Habermas answers all these questions. The book "Habermas in 60 Minutes" explains the core of his philosophy using over 60 key quotations and many examples. The chapter "Of What Use is Habermas's Discovery to Us Today?" points up the meaning of his Critical Theory for our present world and for our personal lives. The book appears as part of the popular series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes".
Download or read book Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes Volume 4 written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-01-11 with total page 702 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes Volume 4" comprises the five Books "Schopenhauer in 60 Minutes", "Nietzsche in 60 Minutes", "Wittgenstein in 60 Minutes", "Kafka in 60 Minutes", and "Arendt in 60 Minutes". Each short study sums up the key idea at the heart of each respective thinker and asks the question: "Of what use is this key idea to us today?" But above all the philosophers get to speak for themselves. Their most important statements are prominently presented, as direct quotations, in speech balloons with appropriate graphics, with exact indication of the source of each quote in the author's works. This light-hearted but nonetheless scholarly precise rendering of the ideas of each thinker makes it easy for the reader to acquaint him- or herself with the great questions of our lives. Because every philosopher who has achieved global fame has posed the "question of meaning": what is it that holds, at the most essential level, the world together? For Schopenhauer it is the "blind will" that drives on every entity in the world. For Nietzsche it is "will to power" that urges human beings to a radical individual realization of the self. Wittgenstein, for his part, sees in language and our day-to-day "language games" the central element that marks our existence and society as a whole. Kafka, by contrast, discovered a very secret and fragile dimension of our lives: the dimension of inter-human relations and this relation's dark side. Arendt, finally, provides us, with her thesis of "the banality of evil", a marvellous insight into the morality - and amorality - of entire societies. In other words, the meaning of the world and thus of our own lives remains, among philosophers, a topic of great controversy. One thing, though, is sure: each of these five thinkers struck, from his own perspective, one brilliant spark out of that complex crystal that is the truth.
Download or read book Rawls in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2020-02-17 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Rawls's masterpiece A Theory of Justice was discussed all over the world already during the author's lifetime. Its very title is provocative since it is generally believed that there can be no general theory of justice: what is just for one man is unjust for another. But Rawls succeeds nonetheless in giving a definition of a just society. To do this he develops a brilliant procedure: choice from behind a "veil of ignorance". If we are to choose, absolutely fairly and objectively, how property, income and education are to be justly distributed, then the people choosing must not know in advance whether, in the society they choose, they will be rich or poor, male or female, worker or employer, educated or uneducated, talented or untalented. Because a rich man is likely to find great differences in wealth just, a poor man unjust. Only a "veil of ignorance", says Rawls, "forces each to take the welfare of others into account". Such a choice "behind a veil" could, of course, never actually take place. But if it did, says Rawls, then it would produce the only two perfectly just principles of justice that can be applied to a society: the equality principle and the "difference principle". By these the quality of every modern society can be measured. What do these principles mean in detail? And can the same thought-experiment work in other contexts? If, for example, we did not know whether, in a future society, we would be humans or animals, would we then choose a vegetarian society? Rawls surely sets off, with his Theory of Justice, a whole firework display of ground-breaking new ideas. This introduction to Rawls appears as part of the popular series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes".
Download or read book Kant in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2016-07-08 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immanuel Kant is thought to be perhaps the greatest of all philosophers. And Kant did make, in the 18th Century, two great discoveries which engage us still today. Firstly, he founded the globally acknowledged ‘categorical imperative’ in moral philosophy; secondly, he became the first philosopher to succeed in answering that question as old as humanity of how knowledge arises in our brains. In his main work, the 1000-page Critique of Pure Reason, Kant analysed the working of Man’s thinking apparatus. He posed the critical question: what can a human being know with certainty and what can he not? Working through this titanic question like a man possessed, he finally, after 11 years, produced his equally titanic answer. Our reason, he said, can provide true and certain knowledge only of that which we have already perceived through our five senses (i.e. seen, heard, smelt, tasted, or touched). For this reason one cannot prove the existence of God, say, or really have “knowledge” of Him, because He is bodiless and imperceptible. Kant thus gave researchers, for the first time, a set of logical tools which was sensationally simple and yet quite perfect, and that still remains valid today and makes all scientific results achieved worldwide mutually comparable. Every theory, however good, had thenceforth to be proven in terms of actual sense-perceptions, for example through repeatable experiments. In his second main work, the Critique of Practical Reason, he tackled the equally ambitious question: ‘what is the right way for a human being to act?’ Is there a single valid standard for morally right action? Here too Kant provided a spectacular solution that is still passionately debated, globally, today. The book Kant in 60 Minutes explains both these major works of Kant’s in a lively way, using over 80 key passages from the works themselves and many examples. The final chapter on “what use Kant’s discovery is for us today” shows the enormous importance of his ideas for our personal lives and our society. The book forms part of the popular series Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes.
Download or read book Foucault in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2021-03-08 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Foucault counts as one of the great Post-Structuralists. Already his book-titles -"History of Madness", "Discipline and Punish", "The Use of Pleasure", "The Order of Things" - show his entirely new way of looking at things. He is also one of those philosophers who have become more, not less, influential after their death. This should both please and worry us. It is pleasing that Foucault's key ideas have remained so vital and relevant but worrying also because the main one among these ideas is so disturbing. "Man is erased, like a face drawn in the sand": With this thesis of "the end of Man", Foucault does not mean that we are about to die out as a species, for example through climate change. He means only that Man as we have hitherto known him, as a free, self-determined being spontaneously enjoying his own pleasures, is vanishing. This "Man" is being dissolved into the discourses and structures of our "carceral society", in indeed just the way that a face drawn in the sand is dissolved by the incoming tide. In the 18th century there was invented a new circular prison which allowed the warder to observe all the prisoners from a single central point. This feeling of being always observed has, Foucault argues, become the model for our whole society. But Foucault shows us, besides the origin of the structures of our coercive society, also a certain model for a modern "art of living". What does this model look like? Is it still possible at all to break out, as a true individual, from this "coercive society"? Is Foucault right to universalize his "prison paradigm" and say that we all feel constantly observed? Of the disturbing present relevance of his thoughts, in any case, there can be no doubt. The most important of these thoughts are explained here using over 100 key quotes. The book appears as part of the popular series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes".
Download or read book Epicurus in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2022-08-24 with total page 114 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The philosopher Epicurus (341-270 BC) has been controversial since antiquity. His provocative key idea is of compelling simplicity. Every human being possesses, by nature, an internal compass. In order to be happy he must do what causes him pleasure and joy and avoid what causes him unpleasure and harm. He writes: "Pleasure is the starting point and goal of living blessedly [...] (It is) our first innate good, and [...] our starting point for every choice and avoidance." Already newborns follow this "pleasure principle". But this discovery, which might at first seem so obvious, struck Epicurus's contemporaries as a monstrous provocation. The notion that the highest goal of life is enjoying pleasure stands in stark contrast to the then-established teachings of Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics. These latter saw reason and a life lived by reason as the highest goal of Man. Because Epicurus accepted women into his school and even had a love affair with one of them, his contemporaries called him a "glutton" and "sex fiend". The Greek poet Timon described him as "doggish", the Stoic Epictetus as a "wastrel". Christian authors later even called him the Antichrist. But these critiques are fundamentally false, because beyond a superficial striving for pleasure, Epicurus's deeper concern was a lifelong, painstaking "care of the self". His questions, then, remain burningly relevant. What are the basic human needs whose satisfaction yields a happy life? Which needs are really necessary to life and which not? How, concretely, should we deal with these needs: for example with the need for food, drink, sexual intercourse and friendship? The book contains almost a hundred quotes from this charismatic ancient philosopher. It appears as part of the beloved series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes" which has now been translated worldwide into six languages.
Download or read book Rousseau in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2016-07-08 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rousseau possessed a brilliant mind and one that questioned every accepted value and idea. Whatever most were “for”, Rousseau was always “against”! He was against monarchy, against the church, against the status quo, against inequality, against traditional education, against marriage, and (of course) against technical progress and the destruction of Nature. Today we might call Rousseau a “professional rabble-rouser”. His contrariness was his trademark. He spent most of his life as a quasi-vagrant or a refugee. Sometimes it was the church, other times the government of one country or another that he had to flee from. But all arrest warrants were in vain. Through books like The Social Contract his radical demand for democracy prepared the ground for the French Revolution, and his famous discourses on Man’s loss of contact with, and destruction of, Nature made him a pioneer also of ecological thought. He even founded a revolutionary new philosophy of education which we know today as the “anti-authoritarian” approach to child-rearing. The book Rousseau in 60 Minutes explains the thinker’s core ideas, exemplified by over 70 quotations from his works. The seed for these ideas was planted one day when he was on in his way to see his friend Diderot in prison, reading a copy of the newspaper Mercure de France as he went. It announced a competition for the best essay on whether scientific and artistic progress had made people morally better. All the competitors answered “yes”. Except Rousseau. His answer was that Man is naturally good and became wicked only through being “socialized” and “civilized”. This provocative thesis won him the prize and brought him Europe-wide fame. Because he had hereby become the first philosopher to recognize the key problem of the whole modern world. The “noble savage” ran free through the woods, but we pass our days in cramped offices and forfeit, each day, more of our instincts and our freedom. But above all, Rousseau pointed out, modern Man lives always “in and for the gaze of other people”. That is to say, we tend to dissolve more and more into the “mainstream”. Is Rousseau right here? Have we conformed too far? Have we forfeited our instincts? And above all: What can we do about it? The book forms part of the popular series Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes.
Download or read book Heidegger in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2016-07-08 with total page 106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heidegger is without a doubt one of the most important thinkers in the history of the Western world. He called his philosophy a “fundamental ontology” because he wanted to show the very deepest foundations of Man’s understanding of himself and the world. His interest as a philosopher extended beyond the individual sciences to the underlying question of the meaning of life as a whole. His key question, then, was: “What is the meaning of Being?” But if we are to ask about the meaning of Being, and thus about the meaning of life, we must – so Heidegger argues – first look into the question of just what kind of being it is that poses such questions. This question-posing being, he says, is Man himself. Man is the only living being who can and must ask such questions. Man is constantly looking for orientation. This is why Heidegger also describes human life as a great challenge. Life does not live itself but rather requires constant decisions in order to be lived. But this also means that we can, potentially, fail to realize the meaning of our own life. Heidegger provocatively suggests that most people fail to live out their existence (as he puts it) “authentically”. He confronts us with the fact that, generally speaking, we live our lives doing “the things you’re supposed to do”. “You’re supposed” to go to school, then to university, to get a well-paid job, to take an annual holiday – and so this is what we do, how we live our lives. Instead of living authentic lives of our own, we stay within the tracks made safe and worn by others. But how do I know what life would be authentically mine? How do I make out the life that I am “destined” for? The book Heidegger in 60 Minutes uses key passages quoted from Heidegger’s own works to explain the philosopher’s famous “existential analysis” in a clearly comprehensible way. It takes the reader on an adventurous journey to the deepest structures of his or her own existence. There will surely be few readers of the chapters on the “’care’ character of human existence” or “anxiety in the face of nothingness” who will not recognize something of their own life-experience in the “existential” structures laid bare by Heidegger. In the chapter on “what use Heidegger’s discovery is to us today” it is then shown how broadly and topically relevant Heidegger’s thoughts still are for our personal lives and for the society of the 21st Century. The book forms part of the popular series Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes.
Download or read book Confucius in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Confucius (551 - 479 BC) is not only the most influential East Asian philosopher. His name is known around the world. Already 2500 years ago he posed the decisive question that still concerns us today: how do I find the "Dao", the right way in life? Whenever anyone begins a sentence with the words "Confucius says", people pay attention, expecting some timeless truth. But in fact his key idea is astonishingly up-to-the-minute. People, says Confucius, are naturally all equal. Therefore everyone, rich or poor, should have free access to culture and the chance to find his own "Dao". But how do I find my own way? Confucius's answer at first sounds simple. We must train our character, develop our best qualities, but at the same time always bear in mind other people's self-development. "What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others," says Confucius. To live out co-humanity, or "ren", is for him the highest good. He knows, however, that we are not all saints. Thus, he remarks self-critically: "Conscientiously to perform all duties and not to be overcome by wine. What one of these things do I attain to?" All of us make mistakes while searching for the "Dao". We injure others, do not always tell the truth, or make bad decisions. The important thing is to learn from such mistakes. "To make a mistake and yet to not change your ways - this is what is called truly making a mistake." Confucius's thoughts also involve much wit and irony. The book "Confucius in 60 Minutes" Confucius's key idea and the fascinating lightness of his personality are presented using over 100 of his best quotes. The book is published worldwide as part of the popular series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes", now translated into 6 languages.
Download or read book Kafka in 60 Minutes written by Walther Ziegler and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2022-08-31 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kafka is surely the most widely read, worldwide, of all German-language authors. We owe to him not just a compelling part of the global literary heritage but also a profound philosophical discovery. He has succeeded in grasping like no other writer the radical dependency, for his very being, of Man upon Man: "(We) are tied together by ropes," writes Kafka, "and it's bad enough when the ropes around an individual loosen and he drops somewhat lower than the others into empty space; ghastly when the ropes break and he falls." His stories allow us profound insight into the abysmal depths of interpersonal relations and into their fundamental structure: an insight from which no one can turn away. Even if in our actual lives we do not find ourselves turned into a giant beetle or suddenly condemned to drowning by our own father, we somehow feel, as readers, the force of these excommunications. Kafka was fully aware of the cathartic effect of his books: "A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us". Here, Kafka's philosophical truth is revealed using five selected short stories, novellas and novels from his body of work. What does his protagonists' fate consist in? On what do they always founder and fail? Is there some recurrent or constant reason for this failure? How is it that we seem to recognize all this so well from our dreams or even our real experiences? Could it be that Kafka provides us, in the end, with a key to the understanding of the basic structure of interpersonal relations? The book contains over a hundred quotations from Kafka's best-known works. It appears as part of the popular series "Great Thinkers in 60 Minutes".
