Complete Works of Seneca — Seneca

Complete Works of Seneca -- Seneca

The Tragedies

The Madness of Hercules
The Trojan Women
The Phoenician Women
Pheedra
Thyestes
Hercules on Oeta
Agamemnon
Oedipus
Medea
Octavia

The Epistles

To Marcia, on Consolation
To My Mother Helvia, on Consolation
To Polybius, on Consolation
The Moral Epistles

The Essays

On Anger
On the Shortness of Life
The Pumpkinification of the Divine Claudius
On the Firmness of the Wise Person
On Clemency
On the Happy Life
On Leisure
Natural Questions
On Benefits
On Tranquility of Mind
On Providence

The Latin Texts

List of Latin Texts

The Biography

Introduction to Seneca – John W. Basore

Seneca’s Page

#delphicompleteworks #seneca

The Divine Within — Aldous Huxley

The Divine Within -- Aldous Huxley

1 – The Minimum Working Hypothesis (1944)

2 – Seven Meditations (1943)

3 – Religion and Temperament (1943)

4 – Who Are We? (1955)

5 – The Philosophy of the Saints (1944)

6 – Religion and Time (1943)

7 – Some Reflections on Time (1946)

8 – On a Sentence from Shakespeare (1944)

9 – Man and Reality (1942)

10 – Reflections on Progress (1947)

11 – Further Reflections on Progress (1947)

12 – Substitutes for Liberation (1952)

13 – Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer–I (1942)

14 – Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer–II (1942)

15 – Reflections on the Lord’s Prayer–III (1942)

16 – Distractions–I (1941)

17 – Distractions–II (1941)

18 – Idolatry (1943)

19 – Action and Contemplation (1941)

20 – Knowledge and Understanding (1956)

21 – The Sixth Patriarch (1946)

22 – Notes on Zen (1947)

23 – The “Inanimate” Is Alive (1957)

24 – Readings in Mysticism (1942)

25 – Symbol and Immediate Experience (1960)

26 – Shakespeare and Religion (1964)

27 – The Yellow Mustard

28 – Lines

Aldous’ Page

#philosophy #aldoushuxley

Complete Works of Aldous Huxley — Aldous Huxley

Complete Works of Aldous Huxley -- Aldous HuxleyThis is hardly “The Complete Works”.   See Aldous’ page for a more complete list.

The Novels

Crome Yellow
Antic Hay
Those Barren Leaves
Point Counter Point
Brave New World
Eyeless in Gaza
After Many a Summer
Time Must Have a Stop
Ape and Essence
The Genius and the Goddess
Island

The Translation

A Virgin Heart by Remy de Gourmont

The Shorter Fiction

Limbo
Mortal Coils
Little Mexican
Two or Three Graces
Brief Candles
Miscellaneous Short Stories

The Short Stories

List of Short Stories in Chronological Order
List of Short Stories in Alphabetical Order

The Poetry Collections

The Burning Wheel
The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems
Leda
The Cicadas and Other Poems

The Poems

List of Poems in Chronological Order
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

Selected Non-Fiction

The Olive Tree and Other Essays
What are You Going to Do About it?
The Perennial Philosophy
Science, Liberty and Peace
The Devils of Loudun
The Doors of Perception
Heaven and Hell
Brave New World Revisited

The Memoir

The Art of Seeing

Aldous’ Page

#delphicompleteworks #philosophy #aldoushuxley

Walden — Henry David Thoreau

Walden -- Henry David ThoreauAfter reading Into the Wild, where this book gets a fair bit of mentioning, one just had to see what all the fuss was about.

It certainly starts off incredibly well with the first 25% of the book — being mostly one chapter titled, “Economy” — explaining the ins and outs of what leads Thoreau to Walden Pond and away from a normal life and the cost of doing so.   And it is very clear in this first quarter that Thoreau is a very capable writer who can get straight to the heart of the matter and keep the reader’s attention.

But then we begin the second chapter, “Where I Lived and What I Lived For”, and thus the tedium begins: word after word of pointless, boring tedium.   Was it so utterly dull for him sitting by the pond, day after day after day with no one to talk to, that he just sat and wrote words for hour upon hour and simply spewed them forth upon pages enough to make up a reasonable amount to call it a book in order to sell it so he didn’t have to get a real job?

I just found myself reading paragraph after paragraph with a totally numbed out mind, noticing only a few words of interest here and there but mostly it’s just babble: babble, babble, babble, babble, blah, blah, blah.   I tried, i really did, but i just cannot see why people so rave about this book.

Maybe chapter 3 onwards is back to the standard of chapter 1, but i simply could not get through chapter 2.

So, inevitably, it got …

Deleted.

Henry’s Page

#philosophy #henrydavidthoreau #whataloadofcrap

The Doors of Perception: And Heaven and Hell — Aldous Huxley

The Doors of Perception: And Heaven and Hell -- Aldous HuxleyOne day i’ll get around to reading this again, it’s been nearly 30 years and it just popped up in Kindle Daily Deals for 99p so i couldn’t turn it down.

I’m hoping to digitally rebuild my Aldous Huxley collection that i used to have years ago in real books – maybe when i’ve got a load i’ll have a good Huxley binge, but until then they can sit and gather some digital dust.

Aldous’ Page

#philosophy #aldoushuxley

A Child at Heart — Christopher Phillips

A Child at Heart -- Christopher PhillipsThose of us interested in longevity and remaining young, fit and healthy as long as possible, realise early on that it all begins in the mind.   If the mind is not on board for an extended lifespan then the brain and body simply isn’t going to go there.

While this book doesn’t look specifically into the longevity benefits of a youthful mind it still has plenty to teach us.   This book is a wonderfully detailed look at the minds of all stages and ages of life and how we interact with each other — and Christopher isn’t shy of giving plenty of thoughts on what is wrong with our current view and treatment of young people and how that is impacting on adults and society as a whole.   As Christopher is a parent himself this book does give a few thoughts on parenting without being preachy about anything and i would definitely recommend it for parents or aspiring parents.

But Christopher is also very clearly a Socratic philosopher, and this book, i feel, continues the ideas of Socrates in how society, not just parents, should relate to and listen to young people.   I do find it incredibly disheartening that after more than 2000 years since Socrates execution for simply doing what Christopher prescribes in this book that adults still aren’t engaging with young people and giving them their rightful place within society.   And then adult society has the audacity to blame young people for causing the problems.

Whether you’re a parent, a philosopher, a youth worker, or someone simply interested in creating a better world, this book is a very good read and well worth getting a copy.

Christopher’s Page

#philosophy #christopherphillips