• The Essence of Socrates

    Edited with an Introduction by Hunter Lewis
    Axios Press, 2017. Paperback, 118 pages. $12.00
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    Socrates is important to us for many reasons. First, he recognized the value of logic and showed us how to use it to discover truth.  Second, he led an exemplary and courageous life which cannot fail to inspire anyone who reads about it.

    Fortunately his pupils Plato and Xenophon recorded his sayings for posterity. Indeed the connection between Socrates and Plato is so close that this little book could alternatively have been titled The Essence of Plato.

  • The Essence of Edward Gibbon on Christianity

    Edited with an Introduction by Hunter Lewis
    Axios Press, 2017. Paperback, 119 pages. $12.00
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    Edward Gibbon (1737–1794)  became world famous as the author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Of the early Christian era, he wrote: “The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.” He described the theme of his work as “the triumph of barbarism and religion.”

  • The Essence of David Hume on Religion, Morals, and Economics

    Edited by Henry Lewis and Hunter Lewis with Introductions by Hunter Lewis
    Axios Press, 2014. Paperback, 405 pages. $12.00
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    Axios’s Essence of … Series takes the greatest works of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence. Selected passages flow together to create a seamless work that will capture your interest from page one. This newest volume in the series is dedicated to David Hume who is ranked as one of the greatest Western philosophers and economists. You will find three main sections on Hume (Religion, Morals, and Economics) as well as a section on his life.

  • The Essence of Spinoza’s Ethics

    Edited with an Introduction by Hunter Lewis
    Hunter Lewis, 2012. Paperback, 219 pages. $12.00
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    Axios’s Essence of … Series takes the greatest works of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence. Selected passages flow together to create a seamless work that will capture your interest from page one. Goethe: ” [In his] Ethics …, I found the serenity to calm my passions….” This new edition makes Spinoza’s own words understandable by everyone.

  • The Essence of Kant’s Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals

    Edited with an Introduction by Hunter Lewis
    Axios Press, 2012. Paperback, 62 pages. $12.00
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    Axios’s Essence of … Series takes the greatest works of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence. Selected passages flow together to create a seamless work that will capture your interest from page one. Kant may be the greatest Western philosopher. In this extraordinary little book, one of the most influential in history, he offers an ethics based on universal logic. This edition makes his own words both readable and understandable.

  • The Essence of George Fox’s Journal

    Edited with an Introduction by Hunter Lewis
    Axios Press, 2012. Paperback, 260 pages. $12.00
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    Axios’s Essence of … Series takes the greatest works of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence. Selected passages flow together to create a seamless work that will capture your interest from page one. George Fox founded The Religious Society of Friends, better known as Quakers, a form of Christianity which has had an immense influence throughout the world. The story contained in his journal is gripping and hard to put down.

  • The Essence of Jane Addams’s Twenty Years at Hull House

    Edited with an Introduction by Hunter Lewis
    Axios Press, 2012. Paperback, 221 pages. $12.00
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    Axios’s Essence of … Series takes the greatest works of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence. Selected passages flow together to create a seamless work that will capture your interest from page one. Jane Addams was arguably the most influential woman in American history. Her mission as a public intellectual, social activist and reformer shines forth brightly in her inspiring and easy-to-read autobiography. In her time, she was as famous as a president.

  • The Essence of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations

    Edited with an Introduction by Hunter Lewis
    Axios Press, 2011. Paperback, 480 pages. $12.00
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    Axios’s Essence of … Series takes the greatest works of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence. Selected passages flow together to create a seamless work that will capture your interest from page one. Usually regarded as a bible of free market capitalism, this famous work is also a stinging indictment of what is today called crony capitalism.

  • The Essence of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

    Edited by Hunter Lewis and Stuart Kellogg with an Introduction by Hunter Lewis
    Axios Press, 2011. Paperback, 125 pages. $12.00
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    Axios’s Essence of … Series takes the greatest works of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence. Selected passages flow together to create a seamless work that will capture your interest from page one. Aristotle formulated a unique way of looking at the good life. The motto: moderation in all things is completely Aristotelian, although he would probably have added: moderation in all things including moderation.

  • The Essence of Machiavelli’s The Prince

    Edited with an Introduction by Carlo Celli
    Axios Press, 2011. Paperback, 116 pages. $12.00
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    Axios’s Essence of … Series takes the greatest works of practical philosophy and pares them down to their essence. Selected passages flow together to create a seamless work that will capture your interest from page one. Before Machiavelli, writers described human beings as they ought to be, not as they are. Machiavelli was brutally realistic, not to mention cynical and amoral. Must reading for anyone managing a business, organization, or nation.