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German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote a strong text to explain his belief system in «The World as Will and Representation.» Rather than viewing the world as a construct within itself, Schopenhauer argued that the world exists beyond the five senses. He believed that rather than seeing an object in its true form, we only see and understand our perception of it. His ideas are classified as post-Kantian philosophy, just one strand of thought amidst other thinkers such as Hegel and Heidegger. However, Schopenhauer is generally thought to follow Kant's original ideas most closely. Still, the philosopher disagrees with Kant's view of ethics, saying that inner experiences, driven by the Will, are the most significant part of the human experience. Born in the late 1700's, Schopenhauer was immersed in philosophy at a young age. By age 25, he published his doctoral dissertation «On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reasoning.» In his most famous works, he primarily focused on the attainment of happiness. He believed that physical and emotional desires can never be satisfied, resulting in a painful human condition. Schopenhauer claimed that all actions are internally motivated by a desire to obtain pleasure, but that lasting happiness would remain unobtainable. «The World as Will and Representation» is widely hailed as Schopenhauer's greatest work, as well as one of the most contemporarily-written philosophical texts of the nineteenth century. This edition splits the work into three volumes of which this is the third.

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George Berkeley was an Irish Philosopher who is best known for putting forward the idea of subjective idealism. «A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge» is one of Berkeley's best known works and in it Berkeley expounds upon this idea of subjective idealism, which in other words is the idea that all of reality, as far as humans are concerned, is simply a construct of the way our brains perceive and according to Berkeley no other sense of reality matters beyond that which we perceive.

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A classic work of ancient Greek literature from one of the most famous of all ancient Greek philosophers, the «Phaedo» is the story of the last moments of Socrates life as recounted by Phaedo a first-hand witness to Socrates final hours. In those last moments Socrates explains that his suicide does not matter because his soul is immortal and he proceeds to give four reasons why this is so. No two greater figures than Plato and Socrates exist in the world of ancient Greek philosophy. Here they are brought together, one as the subject and the other as the author. Presented here is the classic introduction and translation of Benjamin Jowett.

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The «Meno» begins abruptly with a question of Meno, who asks, 'whether virtue can be taught.' Socrates replies that he does not as yet know what virtue is, and has never known anyone who did. 'Then he cannot have met Gorgias when he was at Athens.' Yes, Socrates had met him, but he has a bad memory, and has forgotten what Gorgias said. Will Meno tell him his own notion, which is probably not very different from that of Gorgias? 'O yes-nothing easier: there is the virtue of a man, of a woman, of an old man, and of a child; there is a virtue of every age and state of life, all of which may be easily described.' Here is presented the classic introduction and translation of Benjamin Jowett.

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Aristotle's «Nicomachean Ethics» is considered to be one of the most important treatises on ethics ever written. In an incredibly detailed study of virtue and vice in man, Aristotle examines one of the most central themes to man, the nature of goodness itself. In Aristotle's «Nicomachean Ethics», he asserts that virtue is essential to happiness and that man must live in accordance with the «doctrine of the mean» (the balance between excess and deficiency) to achieve such happiness.

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Carl, or Karl, Ludwig Michelet was a 19th century German philosopher and doctor of philosophy educated in the doctrine of Hegel to which he spent his life defending and continuing the tradition of. In this short work, «The Philosophy of Art» we find a treatise similar to Hegel's «Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics.» In his introduction to the work Michelet states that «art has for its object the production and realization of the beautiful, and the Philosophy of Art has to examine and explain the conditions of this process in relation to the highest objects and ends of human thought.» The work proceeds to examine this concept of beauty in the various forms that art can take including architecture, sculpture, painting, music and poetry.

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Arguably the most influential western philosophical mind since Aristotle, Immanuel Kant was born in 1724 in the Köningsberg, a city in Eastern Prussia where he would live his entire life. A lifelong academic, at sixteen years old Kant entered the University of Köningsberg, where he would go on to tutor for nine years, and then teach. Kant's major concerns involved both religion and science, as he sought reconciliation between the two. His writings on metaphysics and science played a major role in Enlightenment thought. In the field of epistemology, Kant also presented the idea that knowledge lies within the observer, not the object itself. He would never leave Köningsberg, but his ideas were exported all over the world. The actual events of Kant's life pale vastly in magnitude when contrasted against his advances in thought pertaining to epistemology, religion, law, and history. Any student of philosophy will find this volume, which includes Kant's introductory writings on logic and an «Essay on the Mistaken Subtlety of the Four Figures», a worthy addition.

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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a late 18th and early 19th century German philosopher, was one of the foremost thinkers of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism. He created a framework known as Absolute Idealism that was able to account for the relation of the mind, nature, art, the state, and history. Ultimately, he believed that the mind was comprised of several contradictory but unified ideas that did not cancel each other out or reduce each other's importance. According to Hegel, art revealed the fundamental nature of existence, but he felt that art and its significance were in decline. He wrote that art gives a physical and sensory depiction of the Absolute; it offers an effortless combination of form and content while giving viewers the ability to see the world in a form that doesn't actually exist. Hegel's «Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics,» divides his most basic ideas on art into five chapters with multiple parts outlining his complex, but revolutionary, mindset and opinions. Like many philosophers, Hegel's words are written with other philosophers in mind; the arguments and counterarguments are in relation to the other philosophical theories of the time. Anyone interested in art history or philosophy will find this work highly informative.

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One of the middle or transitional dialogues of the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, «Gorgias» is one of his more important writings. Plato contrasts the rhetorician and the philosopher, whose differing specialties are persuasion and refutation, respectively. The famous foreign rhetorician Gorgias has been drawn to Athens and its intellectual sophistication and is the initial reason for the discussion. However, as Plato delves into arguments both incredible and forthright, he begins to contrast two differing ways of life, ultimately insisting on a rejection of temptations and a promotion of authentic morality. Plato is fully aware of the difficulty of his dialogue, acknowledging that philosophy is a 'bitter draught,' yet it will lead to the struggle for a purity of soul that will be fundamentally necessary on Judgment Day. With the key to true happiness brilliantly argued, even if it is only with himself, Plato opposes everyone and no one as the 'one true statesman' in the remarkable «Gorgias.»

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Although born into an aristocratic family who put heavy stock in class rank, Peter Kropotkin is now known as one of the first well-known advocates for anarchist communism. At thirteen, Kropotkin, the son of a prince, became disillusioned with the world of rank and status in which he lived and began exploring alternative realms of thought. His vocal dissention landed him in a Russian prison in 1874. In 1876, he was transferred to a military hospital from which he escaped and fled to western Europe. Through his work as a professional geographer, Kropotkin's ideas and writings about society came about through observing wildlife in Siberia. These observations were what caused him to write «Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution». First published cohesively in London in October of 1902, Kropotkin responded to ideas of Social Darwinism and illustrated the phenomenon of cooperation in nature. His conclusion was that cooperation and mutual aid are in fact the most essential components of survival in both human society and wildlife habitats.

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