Swinburne's book is essential reading. I originally bought the book to see how he deviates away from the Thomistic doctrines of Analogy. I was very glad to see that his tough minded philosophical explications of God-Talk are defensible without much fallback to analogy(or from what he says). From my perspective, Swinburne is tops in the Philosophy of Religion.

This tome is a must-read classic for any serious philosophy of religion student. Swinburne is fair, concise, and clear. The Coherence of Theism will likely be influential for some time to come. Simply outstanding!

I, too, have only ever seen this produced, and never found it in print... but it's just brilliant. And FUNNY. How do you build a farce around the idea that "bad faith makes the world go 'round?" Well, Sartre manages it... I'll stop before this turns into an essay, and just recommend that anyone who has a chance to see this performed by a cast of any distinction at all should jump at it.

My first trip to England in the early 70's was the highpoint of my theater-going experiences. I was lucky enough to see Alec Guiness in "Voyage Round My Father," the Peter Brook production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and a young Ian McClellan playing the lead in "Kean." All were unforgettable, but this play still sticks in my mind as being among the negelected masterpieces of 20th century playwrighting. Sartre understood theater history and he understood role-playing, appearance vs. reality and all the other critical saws that are discussed in high-school English classes. Yet in this play these tired themes are perfectly expressed and therefor renewed and made infinitely interesting by the manner in which the playwright unfolds them. There is a gradual peeling away of pretense and bravado on the part of the protagonist (the play might as well be a monologue), and the audience comes to understand that behind all the masks, what Sartre finally wants to show us is humanity stripped of its skin. He exposes the viscera, the protruding bones, the raw psychic flesh that we are all heir to. Kean, by play's conclusion, has degenerated into a knd of erstwhile Truman Capote, having sacrificed his soul in the process of gaining notoriety. He also shares Capote's substance abuse weaknesses, though his alcoholism is merely a symptom of his inner malaise. Sartre is saying a great deal about art, about the effect of fame and about the human condition in this work. It is a play that should be revived every fifth year either on the West End or on Broadway, in my opinion. It is apparently hard to come by. I can't even swear that it reads as well as it plays (I've seen two productions, but haven't been able to find it in print myself). If you ever have the opportunity to see the play, by all means avail yourself of a rare theatrical treat.

The book suggests it is for scholars and post-graduate researchers. I admire the thought of being a scholar, but this is book for anyone with an interest in the structure of the ancient Germanic world. Every phrase is dissected. Alternative interpretations of text, possible errors, conflicting theories on every facet of the text of Tacitus's monumental work fill page after page. In the process, one sees beyond Tacitus into minute details of the Germanic past, the very nature of their existence. References to other scholarly works is vast! Critique is refined, balanced, meticulous. Who knows, maybe even a Frenchman would like this book. Now. I said it.

In this Clarendon Ancient History Series edition, James Rives has given us much more than another translation. Enough background materials and commentary are provided to give a reader all that is needed for an informed understanding of this important historical text.

Conflicting theories are treated in an even-handed manner and the author's conclusions are well reasoned. The actual text is an easy to read, yet pleasingly accurate version of the original Latin in which the surviving copies of the Germania were written.

A hefty price for a paperback, but in this instance it is one justified by the wealth of information the book contains.

Very highly recommended and informative reading for bibliophiles and students of publishing history, British Wood-engraved Book Illustration 1904-1940: A Break With Tradition by Joanna Selborne is a simply fascinating look at a unique graphic art and an historically important aspect of publishing history -- the art and practice wood-engraved book illustration. From the variety of methods that book illustrators used to transcend older nineteenth-century practices, to detailed publishers' and print societies' archives, British Wood-engrave Book Illustration 1904-1940 presents virtually all there is to know about this striking and specialized illustrative craft over the course of the first four decades of the 20th Century.

Is "Realism" Dead? Well, if you like to have an idea about the answer of this question, and if you are really interested in philosophy of science, then this book is for you. Why?

First, Ilkka Niiniluoto is an analytical thinker and here in this book he does his best to write very clearly. [Note that, although he has a tendency to be extremely formal, he does not dive into complex logical proofs in this book.]

Second, in the first chapter of the book he presents an excellent characterisation of "The Varieties of Realism" this chapter alone is a reason to buy this book. The book is organised according to this characterisation and this makes it easy to browse the book, and to read the parts that interest you [but I am sure that Ilkka Niiniluoto will be happier if you read the book from the beginning to the end].

Third, chapters [(2)Realism in ontology, (3) in Semantics, (4) in Epistemology, (5) in Theory Construction, (6) in Methodology, (7) Internal Realism, (8) Relativism, (9) Social Constructivism, (10) Realism, Science, and Society] give good & brief overviews of the relevant issues. Particularly, I found his chapter on Theory Construction very useful.

Fourth, Ilkka Niiniluoto defends realism forcefully. I guess anti-realists have to deal with this book before going any further.

Briefly, it is a good book. Whether you are a realist or anti-realist, you will benefit from this book.

[Once again note that this book is not for the layman!!!]

This edition of Dickens' Great Expectations is considered one of, if not THE scholarly edition now in print. It contains a cogent introduction to the novel and an exhaustive appendix. Although the price will keep many, if not all, from purchasing the book it is definetly look for from a library--looking in a university's library is probably the best bet for finding a copy.

Justin's Epitome is one of our five major classical sources on Alexander the Great, but he never made it into an English translation until the publication of this book by Yardley and Heckel. That alone makes it unique.

Justin's account itself is brief (about 30 pages in print) but Heckel's excellent commentary makes up the remaining 200 pages of this publication. For everyone seriously interested in Alexander Heckel's superb commentary is a 'must have'.

This shouldn't be the first book you should buy about Alexander. But once you have read Bosworth, Green or Hammond, once you have tasted the original accounts of Arrian or Curtius - this is your next step on the ladder of true in dept analysis.

This is an atlas put out by Oxford that depicts wonderfully global flows of everything from cars to copper. Inexplicably, it has not been updated since 1972 --and so much has changed since then.

But that too, makes the old edition fun to look at --to see how much the world has changed. Eg, under global sales of autos, there are huge think bands emanating from michigan and reaching all around the globe denoting the volume of exports of autos from the US. The flows out of Europe are also very large.

--And from Japan/Asia they are tiny. Korea I don't even think registered. What a difference a few years makes.

I'd be interested to see what the flows are now, as so many Toyota plants [eg] are based in the US and other local markets.

This book is crying out to get back into print.

If by chance an Oxford editor reads this, I would suggest more attention to human labor force flows, and would include, by way of comparison, maps from the earlier edition ['then and now' comparisons].

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Charlotte Bronte was the productive sister. Emily Bronte graced us with one powerful, brillient masterpiece. What about Anne, the forgotton Bronte sister? The Tenant of Wildfell Hall proves Anne Bronte has no trouble matching her sisters in talent. Brilliently executed, this novel engrosses your mind, leaving it immune to distractions.

This novel begins through the eyes of an English countryman, Mr. Markham, and continues switching to the viewpoint of Helen, a mysterious newcomer to Mr. Markham's small gossip-ridden community, and then back to Mr. Markham. The entire book is in first-person narrative- an excellent oppertunity for Bronte to flex her descriptive muscles. I found the characters to be well-developed and symbolic, especially Arthur Huntingdon. At first we are led to despise him, even wish for his death, yet as the story unfolds we pity him, even understand why Helen once loved him.

Bronte's message is clear- society torments women. This book is bold in it's suggestions, considering it was created in 19th century England. I suggest you buy it; it is a book to read more than once

'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' is written by the least remembered Bronte sister. Many people at the time, including her sister - Charlotte, thought that this book tackled inappropriate subject matter, but I disagree. It is a passionate book about a woman's struggle to free herself and her son from her dissolute husband. She flees to a broken down mansion where she attracts the attention of a young farmer. In order to clear the gossip surrounding her dwelling in Wildfell Hall, she offers him her diary to read, which takes up the main part of the narrative. This book is extremely readable and deserves much more attention than it actually receives. The female protagonist is a likeable woman, whose plight obtains sympathy with the reader. It has been described as a feminist book, before its time and when Helen Huntingdon shut the door on her husband it 'resounded throughout the whole of England'.

Anne is the Bronte we never read in school and most of us don't read afterwards, which is a big loss for those who don't, because she's at least as talented as her two older sisters. "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" can hold its own against "Jane Eyre" or "Wuthering Heights" any day in the week, but it was panned in its own time, in large part because of its "unladylike" topic of alcoholism. Anne Bronte knew alcoholism first hand through her brother Bramwell who drank himself to death, and her revulsion of the alcoholic personality is central to this book. The heroine of "Tenant", Helen Graham, is a headstrong and independent young woman, who marries Arthur Huntington against the advice of her family. She is one of those who loves not wisely but too well, because Arthur, a selfish and irresponsible womanizer, cares about nothing but satisfying his own wishes and desires. Helen wants to help Arthur turn his life around, which Arthur couldn't care less about, and his drinking and adultery right under her nose eventually repels her to the point where she despises him as much as she once loved him. It is only when she sees him attempting to influence her young son to become a chip off the old block, that she realizes her responsibility as a mother to save her son from his father trumps her duty as a wife to stand by her husband. With the help of her brother, she runs away with her son to the anonymity of life in a small village. Here she meets Gilbert Markham, who falls in love with her, but realizes that their relationship has no future as long as her husband is alive. Arthur's ultimate death from alcoholism not only frees Helen from an abusive and degrading marriage, it also leaves her free to find happiness with Gilbert. Anne Bronte pulled no punches in writing this book and that is probably what so perturbed readers of her own era; too bad for them, because they were unable to appreciate this book for what it is, one of the unrecognized classics of English literature.

Hume is rightfully an important philosopher. Philosophy had been mainly a metaphysical/rationalistic field until Hume (in addition to Locke and Berkeley) came along. His basic philosophy is this: induction is the only principle by which we can have knowledge, but induction is fundamentally flawed. Thus, there is no belief of which we can be totally certain of. Hume even questions whether we can be as sure as Descartes was when he asserted "Cogito Ergo Sum". To Hume, one could consistently maintain that the "self" was just a bunch of thoughts in succession. Hume believed that there were no strict identities in nature, but only resemblences which the mind tends to treat as identities. He also treated ideas as imperfect images of our experiences.

The problem I have with Hume is on resemblence and his treatment of ideas. I agree with him that there are resemblences in nature which humans tend to treat as the same--but then what is this resemblence based on? The nominalists have to account for why resemblence is there in the first place. Perceived identity must have its basis in reality somehow. And his treatment of ideas is just plain wrong--our ideas are not just images, although they can include images.

I obviously can't give a complete criticism of Hume's philosophy in a review, so if anyone wants to discuss this with me just email me. But I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in philosophy--any complete philosophical theory must challenge or incorporate Hume if it is to succeed.

This is a superb edition of one of the basic works in Western philosophy. Designed to be used by both casual and serious students of philosophy, this edition contains the text of Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (EHU) and a series of other sections that provide background and further directions for studying Hume. Included are an excellent precis of the EHU, a first rate annotated bibliography concerning works by and about Hume, considerable background material on Hume, and excellent notes to the text of the EHU.

The EHU is a concise and charmingly written presentation of Hume's views of the nature and particularly the limitations of human knowledge. The EHU presents Humes basic concepts of human thought, human pattern recognition, and then proceeds to Hume's revolutionary analysis of the problem of induction. Hume exposes our limitations in establishing certain cause and effect relations. Hume's analysis of this problem and its corollaries leads to ultimate skepticism about our ability to know the external world with certainty and undermines much of the basis for religion. Hume presents his ideas in an attractive style that owes much to famous 18th century essayists like Addison.

A fundamental work and very readable work.

This is a good edition of the first but fundamental book published by Hume in 3 volumes (1 and 2 in 1739; 3 in 1740) dedicated to the methodical study of knowledge, passions and moral, through experience and practical observation. It is with Hume that empiricism (following Locke and Berkeley) reaches its complete expression as a "modern" classical system, against previous dogmatic visions of philosophy. According to Kant, Hume awoke him from the dogmatic dream......
With Hume, english illustration comes to a definitive expression. Through his opus, empiricism is systematized and acquires a new dimension that expands its influence on all fields of philosophy. Previous conceptions about the theory of knowledge, ethics, politics, esthetics, and the philosophy of religion, all are transformed or renovated by Hume. In spite of his critics, Hume's system dwelled with different topics of modern interest: positivism, psychology, nominalism, critical skepticism, determinism, agnosticism, moral philosophy, political economy, etc.
No serious philosopher after Hume, has been able to avoid a careful look at his system. So if you are a student or scholar of the subject matter, I highly recommend this edition of Hume's seminal work.