A concise, yet engaging introduction to the field of ethics, this volume offers a systematic study of the foundations of moral responsibility. Montague Brown guides the reader on an examination of a wide range of ethical positions, including relativism, emotivism, egoism, utilitarianism, Kantian formalism, and natural law.

Brown explains not only the history behind the development of each position, but also the roles science, democracy, and religion play in moral thinking today.

Students and teachers of philosophy, ethics, and religion, as well as the general reader, will find that this book tackles the serious issues and offers an insightful, accessible introduction to major ethical positions and the great moral philosophers.

A Greek king and a Buddhist monk engage in a transformational philosophical dialogue.

The legendary conversation between the Greek King Milinda, traditionally identified as Menander, and the Buddhist monk Nagasena is believed to have taken place after Alexander’s campaign in India. The earliest versions of this dialogue originate from the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, known as Greater Gandhara, where Buddhism had taken root as early as the reign of Emperor Ashoka in the third century BCE. While the historical authenticity of this exchange remains uncertain, the dialogue—known in Pali as Milindapañha—has endured for over two millennia and is regarded as one of the most revered texts in Theravada Buddhism.

Throughout their conversation, Milinda and Nagasena explore fundamental questions about the nature of the world, kingship, and the sources of knowledge. Milinda’s probing inquiries drive the dialogue, while Nagasena offers insights grounded in Buddhist teachings, gradually transforming the Greek king from a curious skeptic into a committed Buddhist.

This edition features a modern English translation of one of the most renowned works of ancient Buddhist philosophy, alongside the original Pali text.

The appellation “polymath” is often lightly bestowed, but it can be applied with confidence to the celebrated philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine. Quine’s areas of interest are panoramic, as this lively book amply demonstrates.

Moving from A (alphabet) to Z (zero), Quiddities roams through more than eighty topics, each providing a full measure of piquant thought, wordplay, and wisdom, couched in easy and elegant prose—“Quine at his unbuttoned best,” in Donald Davidson’s words. Philosophy, language, and mathematics are the subjects most fully represented; tides of entries include belief, communication, free will, idiotisms, longitude and latitude, marks, prizes, Latin pronunciation, tolerance, trinity. Even the more technical entries are larded with homely lore, anecdote, and whimsical humor.

Quiddities will be a treat for admirers of Quine and for others who like to think, who care about language, and who enjoy the free play of intellect on topics large and small. For this select audience, it is an ideal book for browsing.

Over the course of his life, W. V. Quine, one of the twentieth century’s great philosophers, engaged and inspired, interviewed and critiqued countless scholars, critics, and students. The qualities that distinguished him in any discussion are on clear display in this volume, which features him in dialogue with his predecessors and peers, his critics and students.

The volume begins with a number of interviews Quine gave about his perspectives on twentieth-century logic, science and philosophy, the ideas of others, and philosophy generally. Also included are his most important articles, reviews, and comments on other philosophers, from Rudolf Carnap to P. F. Strawson. The book, which contains many previously unpublished manuscripts, concludes with a selection of small pieces, written for a broader public, that give a glimpse of the philosopher’s wide interests, his sense of humor, and his warm relations to friends. The result is a wide-ranging, in-depth, and finely nuanced portrait of the humanity underlying this great twentieth-century thinker’s philosophy.

Through the first half of the twentieth century, analytic philosophy was dominated by Russell, Wittgenstein, and Carnap. Influenced by Russell and especially by Carnap, another towering figure, Willard Van Orman Quine (1908–2000) emerged as the most important proponent of analytic philosophy during the second half of the century. Yet with twenty-three books and countless articles to his credit—including, most famously, Word and Object and "Two Dogmas of Empiricism"—Quine remained a philosopher's philosopher, largely unknown to the general public.

Quintessence for the first time collects Quine's classic essays (such as "Two Dogmas" and "On What There Is") in one volume—and thus offers readers a much-needed introduction to his general philosophy. Divided into six parts, the thirty-five selections take up analyticity and reductionism; the indeterminacy of translation of theoretical sentences and the inscrutability of reference; ontology; naturalized epistemology; philosophy of mind; and extensionalism. Representative of Quine at his best, these readings are fundamental not only to an appreciation of the philosopher and his work, but also to an understanding of the philosophical tradition that he so materially advanced.

John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that her letters “give me more entertainment than all the speeches I hear. There is more good Thoughts, fine strokes and Mother Wit in them than I hear in the whole Week. An Ounce of Mother Wit is worth a Pound of Clergy.” The Quotable Abigail Adams invites you to enjoy Abigail Adams’s wit and wisdom on a wide range of subjects, drawn from writings throughout her lifetime. Abigail shared her penetrating and often humorous observations with correspondents ranging from friends and neighbors to family members to heads of state, offering lively opinions on human nature, politics, culture, and family life. Selected and arranged by topic, these quotations provide an entertaining introduction to the thought and character of America’s founding mother. They are accompanied by a biographical introduction, source notes, chronology, and a comprehensive index, making this book the primary resource for those meeting this remarkable woman for the first time as well as for her longtime admirers.

“The Service of this Government is not a Bed of Roses, in any department of it.”

“A Nation which does not respect itself, cannot expect to receive it from others.”

“Gentlemen are not half as particular as the Ladies are in their details.”

“No woman of sense will ever make her Husband an object of Ridicule; for in proportion as she lowers him she lessens herself.”

“A woman may forgive the man she loves an indiscretion, but never a neglect.”

“There is no musick sweeter in the Ears of parents, than the well earned praises of their children.”

“Better is a little contentment than great Treasure; and trouble therewith.”

“Time, which improves youth, every year furrows the brow of age."