I Think, Therefore I Am is the ideal way to take the fear out of philosophy. Written in an accessible and entertaining style,I Think, Therefore I Am explains how and why philosophy began, and how the ways in which we live, learn, argue, vote and even spend our money have their origins in philosophical thought.

Do you know why we are able to see light and hear sound? What is the Earth made of? How does the body produce energy? And, most important, does any of this matter? In I Used to Know That: Science, Marianne Taylor will answer those questions and more and will tell you why the answers are vital to us and to the scientists working on the cutting edge of scientific research. In this book, you will learn about: Physics-Energy and Electricity: How electricity is generated; how heat moves from one place to another; the relationship between electricity and magnetismForces: The four fundamental forces; the origins of the universe; the composition and behavior of planets, stars and galaxies; the basic laws of mechanical physics Waves, Radiation and Space: How waves behave and how they affect us; the electromagnetic spectrum; radioactivity Chemistry-The Periodic Table: How to read the table; how atoms work; chemical bonds and reactionsFuels, Air and Pollution: Chemicals, both helpful and dangerous, in the air; crude oil and its useful chemicals; live cycle assessments Metals: The Earth’s structure; metals and alloys; construction materials Organic Chemistry: Natural polymers and their usefulness; nutrition; which chemicals are harmful Biology-Human (and Other) Bodies: The body’s systems-circulatory, skeletal, muscular, nervous, digestive, reproductive, respiratory and sensoryCell Biology: The structure of a cell; how photosynthesis works; what hormones do Evolution and Environment Ecology: The origins of life; how the eukaryotic cell evolved; mutation and natural selection; population, predation and extinction Genetics: what chromosomes are; how you inherit genetic traits; reproduction and cloning I Used to Know That: Science is a necessary read for anyone who wants to understand the modern scientific world and how the general principles of physics, chemistry, and biology affect our everyday lives.

New essays connecting recent scientific studies with traditional issues about the self explored by Descartes, Locke and Hume. Leading philosophers offer contrasting perspectives on the relation between consciousness and self-awareness, and the notion of personhood. Essential reading for philosophers, neuroscientists, cognitive scientists and psychologists.

Descartes' ideas not only changed the course of Western philosophy but also led to or transformed the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, physics and mathematics, political theory and ethics, psychoanalysis, and literature and the arts. This book reprints Descartes' major works, Discourse on Method and Meditations, and presents essays by leading scholars that explore his contributions in each of those fields and place his ideas in the context of his time and our own. There are chapters by David Weissman on metaphysics and psychoanalysis, John Post on epistemology, Lou Massa on physics and mathematics, William T. Bluhm on politics and ethics, and Thomas Pavel on literature and art. These essays are accompanied by others by David Weissman and by Stephen Toulmin that introduce the idea of intellectual lineages, discuss the period in which Descartes wrote, and reexamine the premises of his philosophy in light of contemporary philosophical, political, and social thinking.

Here Scruton explains the connection between good wine and serious thought with a heady mix of humour and philosophy. We are familiar with the medical opinion that a daily glass of wine is good for the health and also the rival opinion that any more than a glass or two will set us on the road to ruin. Whether or not good for the body, Scruton argues, wine, drunk in the right frame of mind, is definitely good for the soul. And there is no better accompaniment to wine than philosophy. By thinking with wine, you can learn not only to drink in thoughts but to think in draughts. This good-humoured book offers an antidote to the pretentious clap-trap that is written about wine today and a profound apology for the drink on which civilisation has been founded. In vino veritas.

You Think, Therefore I Am-is a thoroughly original and profound reflection on the main philosophical questions that have been around for the last 2500 years. In a short essay, that can be read through in a lunch break, the author goes back to Descartes to affirm that existence starts, indeed, with the consciousness of thinking, the famous cogito ergo sum, but that our thinking depends on belonging to a thinking species and acquiring, through learning, the instruments of thought. The title of this essay-You think, therefore I am (cogitatis, ergo sum)-reflects that principle. The author's vision of the world is summarized in the last paragraph of this essay: I am a thinking being, of the species Homo Sapiens Sapiens, with free will to decide upon my future, in God, with inalienable rights to life, liberty, propriety and the pursuit of happiness and with my personal vision of the world. Finally Dr. Couto challenges the reader to develop their own vision of the world, by writing down their thoughts to the very some questions that are addressed in this essay.