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The landmark political treatise that refuted the so-called divine right of kings and established the principles of representative government "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." With these stirring words, Jean-Jacques Rousseau begins The Social Contract-the first shot in a battle of ideas that would set the stage for the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. In the feverish days of the Enlightenment, Rousseau...
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Written sometime during the 4th century BC, "Symposium" is one the most poetic and sublime works by the Greek philosopher Plato. The action of the dialogue is set during a party hosted by the poet Agathon to celebrate his first victory in a dramatic competition. The title 'Symposium', or 'Banquet' refers to the setting of the work, however the more literal translation from the Greek is a 'drinking party.' At this party several notable figures from...
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De Brevitate Vitae (English: On the Shortness of Life) is a moral essay written by Seneca the Younger, a Roman Stoic philosopher, sometime around the year 49 AD, to his father-in-law Paulinus.
The essay argues that time is best used by living in the present moment in pursuit of the intentional, purposeful life.
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Appearing as part of his Table-Talk series, a conversational series written on topics concerning every day issues, William Hazlitt wrote "On the Pleasure of Hating" in 1823 during a bitter period of his life, amidst rising controversy over his previous works, as well as the dissolution of his marriage. Disgusted with the flowery romantic literature which was flourishing in that post-French Revolution period, Hazlitt drew inspiration from the works...
5) Common sense
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Common Sense was a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine in 1775–76 advocating independence from Great Britain to people in the Thirteen Colonies. Written in clear and persuasive prose, Paine marshaled moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for egalitarian government. It was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning
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"For the first time in any modern language, a female scholar and translator reimagines The Art of War. Sun Tzu's ancient book of strategy and psychology has as much to tell us today as when it was first written 2,500 years ago. In a world forever at odds,his rules for anticipating the motivations and strategies of our competitors never cease to inspire leaders of all kinds. Michael Nylan, in her provocative introduction, sees new and unexpected lessons...
8) Genetics
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The book skillfully explains the discovery of DNA and the emergence of modern biotechnology, including how DNA is replicated, how genes are expressed and translated as cell proteins, and how the human genome is being mapped.
9) Evolution
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Outraged people claimed that Darwin's theory had made humans the relatives of monkeys. Scientists were sure that species changed over time, but no one could explain how. In the 1800s, Charles Darwin's studies of thousands of specimens of living things showed that no two individuals of any species were exactly alike. He realized that over millions of years, some individuals had traits that gave them an edge to survive and reproduce. As they reproduced,...
10) Atomic structure
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What is matter made of? Scientists have been trying to answer this question for thousands of years. The concept of the atom-the tiniest fragment of a substance that still retains the characteristics of that substance-goes back to the Greek philosopher Leucippus, who lived in about 450 b.c. In the mid-1600s, Robert Boyle provided experimental evidence that atoms did, indeed, exist. And in 1897, British physicist Joseph John Thomson discovered the first...
11) Relativity
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Since prehistoric times, people have wondered how the universe works. Early scientists studied how forces affect objects and watched how heavenly bodies move. In 1687 Isaac Newton published a set of laws that described the motion of all objects, both on Earth and in the heavens. By 1900 many physicists believed only a few questions remained to be answered. But the early 1900s brought revolutionary developments in physics. One was Albert Einstein's...
12) Cell biology
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What are cells made of? Biologists have been studying cells since the mid-1600s, when Robert Hooke viewed a slice of cork through a microscope and coined the word "cell" to describe the walled-in spaces he saw. Most cells are invisible to the naked eye. Yet they carry out the many complex processes that make life possible. As microscopes have improved, scientists have learned more and more about cells and their organelles-the structures within cells....
13) The big bang
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Where did our universe come from? People have been trying to answer this question for thousands of years. The twentieth century brough new discoveries in physics and astronomy that led scientists to develop the Big Bang theory-a detailed idea that describes how our universe formed. According to this theory, the entire universe began in a single instant, in an unimaginably powerful explosion. That explosion created all time and space, all matter and...
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How are polar bears related to pandas? For thousands of years, philosophers and scientists have tried to organize and understand, or classify, the relationships among Earth's animals and plants. Early classification systems were cumbersome and inconsistent. In the late 1720s, Carl Linnaeus began developing a classification system to describe relationships among all living things, including animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria. This organization, called...
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Since prehistoric times, people have been fascinated by electricity and magnetism. Ancient people marveled at the auroras-streaks of colored light that appear in the night sky near the poles. They wondered about the ability of materials such as amber and magnetite rock to attract or repel other objects. Many people believed magic was behind these phenomena. Then, in the 1600s, scientists began to lift the fog of superstition. Electricity and magnetism...
18) Plate Tectonics
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For hundreds of years, people found the fossils of ancient sea creatures at the tops of tall mountains. Scientists puzzled over this problem. A fish couldn't have swum up a mountain. And how could rocks on a mountain move up from the bottom of a sea? Geologists finally found the answers they needed in the 1960s, when they developed the theory of plate tectonics. This theory revolutionized our understanding of the earth. Plate tectonics explains how...
19) Germ Theory
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Since prehistoric times, people have wondered what causes disease. Early people blamed evil spirits. Later, disease was thought to be caused by an imbalance of bodily fluids. By trial and error, people discovered plants that cured certain ailments. But disease still spread through dirty, crowded cities. In 1546 an Italian physician proposed that tiny, invisible bodies cause disease. By the end of the nineteenth century, doctors had discovered the...
20) The Meditations
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"In Meditations Taken from A.S.L Farquharson's Translation. Aurelius shares his thoughts about the importance of logic over emotion and helps you to start training your mind to think rationally. By following Stoic teachings, you can live with purpose and die with dignity. Meditations shows how to become more self-disciplined, stop caring what people think, and withstand life's emotional storms."--from amazon.com.
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