The Ethics of Enough

What is “moral” in the modern age? What is truly “ethical”? Adler skillfully separates “real” good from “apparent” good, and shows how excesses—like gluttony, or the lust for power—simply mistake the means for the ends. Drawing on the entire Western philosophical tradition, he tackles (and solves) some of the thorniest ethical problems facing the world today. This clear and straightforward book is geared toward the lay reader rather than the philosophy student.

Poems of Bo Juyi

The Tang Dynasty was the golden age of Chinese poetry, and Bo Juyi is generally acclaimed as one of China’s greatest poets. For him, writing poetry was a way to expose the ills of society; his was the poetry of everyday human concerns. His poems have an appealing style, written with a deliberate simplicity. They were extremely popular in his lifetime, in both China and Japan, and they continue to be read in both countries today.

And Why World Governments Keep Creating Inflation, Bubbles, and Busts

In responding to the financial crash of 2008, both the Bush and the Obama Administrations have relied on prescriptions developed by John Maynard Keynes, the most important economist since Marx. But should we be relying on Keynes? What did Keynes actually say? Hunter Lewis concludes in his criticism of Keynesian economics that he did not. If Keynes economics was wrong then so are the economic policies of virtually all world governments today, and are opposed to libertarian ideas like those of Ron Paul and the Tea Party movement.

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.

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.

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.

Counterculture and the Politics of Hope

The "New Age," contrary to its stereotype of crystals, incense, and Tarot cards, describes important cultural movements of the 18th through 20th centuries which share a preoccupation with political change, experimental art, sex, new ideas about medicine, primitivism, and the familiar axis of love/nature/peace/spirituality. Green analyzes the influence of Gandhi, Tolstoy, Jung, William Blake, Gary Snyder, Rachel Carson, and many others, presenting an immense amount of diverse material in a coherent, imaginative, and convincing form.

Letters and Essays on Travel

From one of the last century's greatest storytellers, Lawrence Durrell, comes a sumptuous collection of essays that describe the author’s unique and cherished approach to life, with its pagan enjoyments as well as its intellectual pursuits. The book contains Durrell's articles about the Mediterranean and Aegean islands he loved so much, along with passages from his letters.

Selected Travel Writings of Rosita Forbes, 1919-1937

This book is an anthology of the travel writings of Rosita Forbes, the fascinating English writer and explorer of the 1920s and 1930s. It includes selections from eight of her travel books, an introduction to her life and work, and will introduce her to a new generation of readers.

A Memoir

John Julius Norwich’s life has reflected an appetite for living, enlivened by a sense of personal theater. Trying to Please is an engaging and amusing memoir that describes a glamorous but vanishing world. From the monasteries on Mt. Athos to a camel trek across the Sahara, the book shows how Norwich’s passions for history, travel, and music have combined with simpler pleasures like friendship and a close family. A remarkable life and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

The author covers an immense amount of material, both historically and chronologically. He delves into Aztec civilization, the ancient settlers of the Southwest, the Five Nations of the Iroquois League, the Plains Indians, the “Diggers” of the Northwest, the builders of Mesa Verde, and other First Nations. Numerous hand-drawn illustrations throughout, including a map showing the distribution of tribes across the US. An attractive volume aimed at children but equally fascinating for adults.

The Adventures of Two Boys Who Lived as American Indians

In 1902, Ernest Thompson Seton founded a group called the Woodcraft Indians, and went on to become one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America. Although written in the third person, it records Seton's adventures in the woods of Ontario in 1876, when he and a friend developed games that were later incorporated in Boy Scout rituals still in use today. The book is generously illustrated with over 300 of Seton’s own detailed drawings.

A pioneer in the personal growth field and a lifelong peace advocate, Ken Keyes, Jr., contracted polio at age 27 which confined him to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Yet he looked upon it as a blessing: “I view my so-called ‘handicap’ as another gift my life has offered me.” This deceptively simple little book contains three secrets—three prescriptions from this self-described “happiness doctor”—which are at once obvious and profoundly life-changing.

An Historical Perspective: CE 330-1453

Robert Byron believed that the very summit of ancient Greek civilization was not to be found in 5th century BCE Athens, but in post-classical Byzantium, also called Constantinople by the Romans. Byzantine civilization was truly glorious, as we see by looking through Byron’s fresh eyes.

Great Economic Arguments and How They Reflect Our Personal Values

Are the rich necessary? Is capitalism to blame for the recent economic crash? Is Wall Street greed corruping our politics? Lewis addresses these and other provocative questions in a clear, objective, and easy-to-follow journey through the great economic arguments of our day. In an always lively, point-counterpoint style, he challenges conventional positions on both sides of each issue.

Although Durrell spent much of his life beside the Mediterranean, he wrote relatively little about Italy; it was always somewhere that he was passing through on the way to somewhere else. Sicilian Carousel is his only piece of extended writing on the country and, naturally enough for the islomaniac Durrell, it focuses on one of Italy's islands. Sicilian Carousel came relatively late in Durrell's career, and is based around a slightly fictionalized bus tour of the island.

The Wisdom of the Jewish Mystics is a selection of the most important writings, commentary, and ideas of the Jewish mystical tradition through the ages. The sayings are drawn primarily from the great Hasidic writers, like the Baal Shem Tov, who produced a new genre of mystical literature for laypeople. In his introduction, Dr. Unterman explains the background of kabbalistic thought and distills the quintessence of the mystics’ wisdom.

In his introduction to the anthology The Wisdom of the Sufis, Kenneth Cragg offers the Western reader valuable insight into the religion and richly poetic literature of the Middle East, and the esoteric, deeply experiential inner tradition of Islam. Bishop Cragg’s selections of prayers and legends concern the task, search, and goal of the Sufi mystic—the dervish—and his introduction explains the unlikely growth of mysticism out of medieval orthodox Islam.

Voice of a New Age Revolution

The name of Mahatma Gandhi is one of the most widely recognized in the world. His Autobiography has been translated into all major languages. The film "Gandhi" remains popular. Yet many mysteries surround this man, especially about his inner life and personal relationships. This book covers these topics.

Being a Study of Certain Types of Civility

Do we want to be persons of culture, civility, and manners? Even in the contemporary world, where this question is not much asked, most people would respond with a resounding YES. Well, if you want to be cultured, civil, and mannered, not just another everyday barbarian, it will take some work, some training, and a good place to start is with Harold Nicolson’s very readable and entertaining book.

A Companion to the Landscape of Rhodes

Reflections on a Marine Venus explores life on a magical and enchanting island (Rhodes) right after World War II. It is about Greece when it was a demi-paradise. But it is also about the distillation of life and experience, the savoring of all the exquisite pleasures, physical, sensual and intellectual, available on one lovely island at one time.

1700-1789

This is a study of the 18th century. Nicolson called his book “a gallery of portraits,” e.g. Saint Simon, elegant, a social climber; the dashing “Prince” Potemkin; Count Cagliostro, practitioner of “black arts”; Thomas Paine, inflamer of the masses; Jacques Casanova, lover, pornographer, and “con man.” This single masterful volume synthesizes, through people and events, the 18th century ideals of reason and liberty, the attack on superstition, tradition and authority which shook the world and produced a revolution in values.

In Bitter Lemons, Durrell tells the perceptive, often humorous, story of his experiences on Cyprus between 1953 and 1956—first as a visitor, then as a householder and teacher, and finally as Press Advisor to a government coping with armed rebellion. Here are unforgettable pictures of the sunlit villages and people, the ancient buildings, mountains and sea—and the somber political tragedy that finally engulfed the island.

166 Poems

Constantine Cavafy is considered the greatest of modern Greek poets. His poems treat historical, philosophical, and erotic themes, sometimes altogether, and share a unique “voice.” This volume includes a fresh translation by noted classical scholar Alan Boegehold, a translation that captures the style as well as the meaning of the Greek, and a foreword discussing Cavafy’s distinctive values.

Memoirs

A fixture in Washington society, Joseph Alsop knew intimately everyone who mattered in American politics, including all the presidents of his day, but was especially close to John and Jacqueline Kennedy. He also visited Churchill in London, de Gaulle in Paris, Adenauer in Bonn, and writes entertainingly about these and other larger-than-life figures. No journalist since Henry Adams so brilliantly described the habits of the great and near-great of his day, in government and elsewhere.

The Epic Story of the Rich Rich, the Grandees of America and the Magnificoes, and How They Spent Their Fortunes

The Big Spenders was Lucius Beebe’s last and many think his best book. In it he describes the consumption of the Gilded Age. Beebe enjoys it all immensely, and so do we his readers, whether it is James Gordon Bennett buying a Monte Carlo restaurant because he was refused a seat by the window, Spencer Penrose leaving a bedside memo reminding himself not to spend more than $1 million the next day.

The Bubble Years and Beyond

Why is America in financial crisis today? This book, better than any to date, explains it all—how we got here and where we are going. The how we got here is brilliantly described in a collection of pieces from Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, the Wall Street insider’s Bible. The where we are going is treated in Jim Grant’s up-to-the-minute introduction. No fan of Greenspan or Bernanke, Grant tells the unvarnished truth about America.

A Narrative of “Decadence” in England after 1918

Children of the Sun is a story of brilliant and later famous young people who deliberately chose “decadence” as an alternative lifestyle. The setting is England between World War I and World War II. The cast of characters includes Evelyn Waugh, Randolph Churchill, W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, and Cecil Beaton among others.

This little book contains some of the greatest wisdom literature of the ages. Everyone, and especially young people, should be familiar with it. Both Epicureanism and Stoicism taught that if we want to be happy and productive, we must strengthen and train our willful and wayward minds. There are echoes of the Buddha’s Dhammapada. The passages selected are both beautiful and moving.

A Family's Adventures in the Wilderness

This book describes the joy of family life on a very remote mountaintop farm. There is moonlit sledding, fall garden harvesting, a world of birds and wild animals, all punctuated by the father’s long daily commute to a real world job. Values of simplicity, self-sufficiency, and being a part of nature are exemplified.

A Guide to the Landscape and Manners of the Island of Corfu

Prospero’s Cell is the story of a young man’s escape from a grey, industrialized England to a sunny Greek island. Durrell, later a world famous novelist, had it all: a new wife, a life of swimming, fishing, sailing, reading and writing, good food and wine, colorful new friends, and an historic island of captivating beauty. Then this enchanting idyll abruptly ends with the onset of World War II and evacuation to Egypt.

Graeco-Roman to Early Modern Ethics

Volume One: Ethical thought from 500 BCE, to the 18th century. The focus is primarily on Greece, Rome, and Europe, but also touches on Jewish and Muslim ethical thinkers.

Modern and Comtemporary Ethics

Volume Two: The modern period to mid-20th century.

A New Translation of Hindu Sacred Scripture

The Bhagavad Gita is a treasure of world religious, philosophical, and ethical literature. Part of the larger Mahabharata cycle, it is the most famous part of that great Indian epic. This book was Gandhi’s personal bible. His life exemplified its ideal of spiritual detachment in the very midst of intense conflict and action. The Gita was also a favorite text of Thoreau, Emerson, and T.S. Eliot.

Where Art, Angst, Love, and Strong Coffee Meet

Bruce Cook of the Washington Post Book World has written that: “Bohemia has become an acceptable, even desirable lifestyle all around America, and indeed the world over.” But to understand how this happened, how an “alternative” lifestyle became so mainstream, and also to visit what many consider to be Bohemia’s golden age, there is no better source than Gold.

For this edition of her well established book, Mary Warnock has made a number of additions, in particular a discussion of John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice. These bring up to date a well-informed and discriminating account of the main ethical problems of the 20th and 21st centuries.

An Introduction to Ethics

Alexander Skutch's Moral Foundations, offered by Axios Press in English for the first time, embodies Skutch's lifelong inquiry into the structure of moral relations and the sources of morality. Skutch—world famous naturalist, ornithologist, philosopher and author of over 30 books—believed that in order to build a satisfying moral edifice we need to establish an ample and firm foundation. Moral Foundations brilliantly lays out for the reader the myriad ways in which we are products of "harmonization," a process that unites the crude elements of the world in harmonious patterns. Not only does life depend on the harmonious integration of body and mind, it demands a high degree of concord with the environment in all its aspects. The culmination of Skutch's life's work, Moral Foundations is a tour de force of analysis, research and critical thinking and an important contribution to the study of ethics and philosophy.

The Perennial Debate about Wealth, Power, Fame, Praise, Glory, and Physical Pleasure

Is desire itself desirable? Should we let our desires run unchecked, especially the passionate desires for wealth, fame, praise, power and physical pleasure? Or should we try to eliminate them? Set up as a lively debate between the best thinkers of today and yesterday, Alternative Values offers strong arguments—some logical, some empirical, some emotional, some intuitive—on each side of this debate. An excellent guide for the young (and not so young).

An Appreciation

In addition to being one of the most prolific nature writers of our time and the world's greatest expert on Central American birds, Alexander Skutch was an inspiring moral philosopher and original thinker in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau and John Muir. Alexander Skutch: An Appreciation includes selections from Skutch's writing spanning his 70 years of contributions to ornithology, travel, nature and philosophy.

Red Herrings, Straw Men and Sacred Cows: How We Abuse Logic in Our Everyday Language

Nonsense is the best compilation and study of verbal logical fallacies available anywhere. It is a handbook of the myriad ways we go about being illogical--how we deceive others and ourselves, how we think and argue in ways that are disorderly, disorganized, or irrelevant. Nonsense is also a short course in nonmathematical logical thinking, especially important for students of philosophy and economics. A book of remarkable scholarship, Nonsense is unexpectedly relaxed, informal, and accessible.

A Re-evaluation of Emotions and Values

The Beguiling Serpent looks at emotions and emotional values in particular. On one level a sequel to A Question of Values, it is also an excellent introduction to emotions and values, and ideal course material.

Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices that Shape Our Lives

What personal values are. How we decide about them. What the alternatives are. Seventy-eight value systems featured. Used in classrooms at Harvard and around the world. Praised by educators from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, the Institute for Advanced Study, the University of Virginia, Berea College and elsewhere.

The canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, provide not only Jesus’ works but also his actions, the context within which the words are spoken. By presenting Jesus’ words without those intervening stories, we can experience Jesus’ teachings in a way that is fresh and immediate.