Nineteenth-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) championed individual strength of will and independent, reasoned deliberation above the irrational impulses that animated most of society. In The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims,
Jeremy Bentham's work on The Principles of Morals and Legislation emerges from its historic roots in hedonism and teleology as a scientific attempt to assess the moral content of human action by focusing on its results or consequences. Proceeding from the
The 20th century has witnessed the blossoming of Western culture: new technology; communications & transportation systems; social, political, educational, agricultural & medical advances. But with these changes have come the strains & tensions
Originally published in 1845, this concise critique formed the basis of thirty later lectures delivered in 1848 by Ludwig Feuerbach, one of Germany’s most influential humanist philosophers. In The Essence of Religion Feuerbach applied the analysis expou
My only merit must lie in the faithfulness with which I represent to you the humble experience of an ordinary fellow-mortal.When Scenes of Clerical Life, George Eliot's first novel, was published anonymously in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1857, it w
Published as part of George Eliot’s fictional debut, Amos Barton is an honest and expressive work, displaying the same warm irony and keen observations that distinguish so many of her later novels. Parson Amos Barton is responsible not only for the spir
First published in Blackwood's Magazine in 1859, The Lifted Veil is now one of George Eliot's most widely read and critically discussed short stories. A dark fantasy drawing on contemporary scientific interest in the physiology of the brain, mesmerism, ph
George Eliot’s third novel, Silas Marner (1861) is a powerful and moving tale about one man’s journey from exile and loneliness to the warmth and joy of the family.The story opens as Silas Marner, falsely accused of theft, loses everything, includi
Horror was my familiar. Published the same year as her first novel, Adam Bede, this overlooked work displays the gifts for which George Eliot would become famous—gritty realism, psychological insight, and idealistic moralizing. It is unique from all her
