Philosophy, Logic, & Ethics

“How Much Land Does a Man Need?” is a short story by Leo Tolstoy, the great 19th-century Russian novelist and short story and essay writer best known for War and Peace (1867) and Anna Karenina (1879). Published in 1886, the story was translated into English in 1906 by Louise and Aylmer Maude in a collection of Tolstoy’s short fiction titled Twenty-Three Tales (1906). This translation has been reprinted many times and is the one this... Read How Much Land Does a Man Need Summary

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How the Mind Works is a 1997 non-fiction book by Steven Pinker, who presents his ideas on how the human mind developed and how it produces the feats we take for granted every day, such as talking, walking, and making friends. Pinker is a cognitive neuroscientist who studies language acquisition in children. He approaches the study of the mind from a psychological and cognitive perspective, but he did extensive research for the book and brings... Read How The Mind Works Summary

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How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence (2018) was written by Michael Pollan after curiosity and a personal desire to experience psychedelics for himself prompted exploration into psychedelic research. Pollan uses multiple forms of narrative to weave a story that’s part history, part memoir, part biomedical nonfiction, and part travelogue. The book follows the history of LSD and psilocybin as well as... Read How to Change Your Mind Summary

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How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery (2015) is a nonfiction book by Kevin Ashton about creativity. Ashton has led three start-ups and was a pioneer in the use of radio-frequency identification (RFID) in inventory systems, underscoring his business credibility in this area. His thesis extends into the creative process involved in any field, including art and medicine. Ashton’s main point strikes an open and democratic tone: Being creative is... Read How to Fly a Horse Summary

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How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed (1992) by Croatian essayist and journalist Slavenka Drakulić details life in Communist Eastern Europe, especially the former Yugoslavia (which after 1989 would become eight distinct countries, including Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, and Montenegro). Drakulić wrote this collection in response to the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and dissolution of the USSR; in her view, there was more political coverage than reflections of how communism affected quotidian life. In... Read How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed Summary

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I and Thou is a book of existentialist philosophy composed by Martin Buber. First published in 1923, the book explores the meaning of human relationships, and how relationships bring us ever closer to God. Critics consider the book to be one of the most significant philosophical texts of the 20th century. Buber was a writer and philosopher best known for his contributions to religious existentialism and the philosophy of dialogue. Before World War II, Buber... Read I and Thou Summary

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Susan Sontag’s 1978 book Illness as Metaphor is an 87-page work of critical theory exploring the language we use to describe disease and its victims. The work was originally published in the New York Review of Books as three long-form essays. Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor while undergoing treatment for breast cancer, though not mentioned in the text. This genre—critical theoretical examinations of social and cultural events or phenomena—was where Sontag established her reputation. Illness... Read Illness As Metaphor Summary

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah was written in 1977 by American writer Richard Bach and is a philosophical novel that questions the nature of reality. This novel was a follow-up to Bach’s bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), which has similar themes and imagery. Illusions suggests that all of reality is a construct of the imagination and can facilitate or hinder a person on their path to having the life that they want. One... Read Illusions Summary

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism is a nonfiction work by historian and political scientist Benedict Anderson. First published in 1983, the book provides a highly influential account of the rise of nationalism and the emergence of the modern nation-state. Anderson sees the nation as a social construct, an “imagined community” in which members feel commonality with others, even though they may not know them. The strength of patriotic feeling and... Read Imagined Communities Summary

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In his 2016 psychological thriller I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Iain Reid writes about the struggles of depression, social anxiety, and loneliness. Jake, a former physics postdoctoral student and avid writer, works as a janitor in a rural high school. As he contemplates suicide, Jake fictionalizes his memories into a story with characters who represent different aspects of his identity as a way to help him make his decision. In addition to this narrative, Reid... Read I'm Thinking of Ending Things Summary