Der Mensch als Übender, als sich durch Übungen selbst erzeugendes Wesen - Rainer Maria Rilke hat den Antrieb zu solchen Exerzitien zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts in die Form gefaßt: "Du mußt dein Leben ändern." In seinem Plädoyer für die Ausweitung der Übungszone des einzelnen wie der Gesellschaft entwirft Peter Sloterdijk eine grundlegende und grundlegend neue Anthropologie. Den Kern seiner Wissenschaft vom Menschen bildet die Einsicht von der Selbstbildung alles Humanen. Seine Aktivitäten wirken unablässig auf ihn zurück: die Arbeit auf den Arbeiter, die Kommunikation auf den Kommunizierenden, die Gefühle auf den Fühlenden. Es sind die ausdrücklich übenden Menschen, die diese Existenzweise am deutlichsten verkörpern: Bauern, Arbeiter, Krieger, Schreiber, Yogi, Rhetoren, Instrumentalvirtuosen oder Models. Ihre Trainingspläne und Höchstleistungen versammelt dieses Buch zu einer vergnüglich-instruktiven Lektüre von den Übungen, die erforderlich sind, ein Mensch zu sein.

citaatje nr. 441: Moeilijke boeken worden onderschat en overschat: onderschat door wie geen moeite wil doen en overschat door wie dat wel gedaan heeft, en dat wil weten ook. 

Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York whose impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith. He trudged around the United States and England to gain converts for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than fifty women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God. While previous accounts of his life have been distorted by hagiography or polemical expose, John Turner provides a fully realized portrait of a colossal figure in American religion, politics, and westward expansion.

After the 1844 murder of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, Young gathered those Latter-day Saints who would follow him and led them over the Rocky Mountains. In Utah, he styled himself after the patriarchs, judges, and prophets of ancient Israel. As charismatic as he was autocratic, he was viewed by his followers as an indispensable protector and by his opponents as a theocratic, treasonous heretic.

Under his fiery tutelage, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints defended plural marriage, restricted the place of African Americans within the church, fought the U.S. Army in 1857, and obstructed federal efforts to prosecute perpetrators of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. At the same time, Young's tenacity and faith brought tens of thousands of Mormons to the American West, imbued their everyday lives with sacred purpose, and sustained his church against adversity. Turner reveals the complexity of this spiritual prophet, whose commitment made a deep imprint on his church and the American Mountain West."

Bekroond met de Henri Nouwen Manuscript Prijs. Wouter is een jongen van achttien die priester wil worden. In een brief deelt hij dit mee aan zijn ouders. Hij bevindt zich immers ver van hen, in Italië - en zijn vader, die zo zijn twijfels heeft over de keuze van zijn zoon, antwoordt eveneens in briefvorm. De vader staat stil bij drie grote literaire werken van Plato, Dante en Primo Levi het zijn ijkpunten voor ons Westers denken over het Schone, het Ware en het Goede. Bovendien gaat dit boek over toekomstverwachtingen die ouders koesteren, en wat er gebeurt als hun kinderen andere, in hun ogen niet vanzelfsprekende keuzes maken

Naar een humanisering van de technologische samenleving

Typen van religieuze ervaring en zorg voor de mens

Een radicaal humanistische interpretatie van het oude testament en zijn traditie

Inleiding in het gebied van de symbolische taal door de cultuurfilosoof 

In this succinct yet ample work, Zhao Tingyang, one of China`s most distinguished intellectuals, provides a profoundly original philosophical interpretation of China`s story and also develops a Chinese worldview for the future. Over the past few decades, the question Where did China come from? has absorbed the thoughts of many of China`s best historians. Zhao, keenly aware of the persistent and pernicious asymmetry in the prevailing way scholars have gone about theorizing China according to Western concepts and categories, has tasked both Chinese and Western scholars to "rethink China." Zhao introduces what he terms a distinctively Chinese centripetal "whirlpool" model of world order to interpret the historical progression of China’s tianxia (All under Heaven) identity construction. In this book, Zhao forwards a compelling thesis not only on how we should understand China, but also on how China until recently has understood itself.

Hoe meer kennis, hoe meer liefde (naar Paracelsus)

A programme for socio-economic change in the world today.

Depressie en doodsdrift

over getallen, de maya`s, het jaar 2012, het vrouwelijk principe en Jung

This book is no less than a guide to the whole of Western philosophy. The ideas that have undergirded our civilization for 2500 years. Anthony Kenny tells the story of philosophy from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment into the modern world. He introduces us to the great thinkers and their ideas, starting with Plato, Aristotle, and the other founders of Western thought. In the second part of the book he takes us through a thousand years of medieval philosophy, and shows us the rich intellectual legacy of Christian thinkers like Augustine, Aquinas, and Ockham. Moving into the early modern period, we explore the great works of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Leibniz, Spinoza, Hume, and Kant, which remain essential reading today. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Hegel, Mill, Nietzsche, Freud, and Wittgenstein again transformed the way we see the world. Running though the book are certain themes which have been constant concerns of philosophy since its early beginnings: the fundamental questions of what exists and how we can know about it. The nature of humanity, the mind, truth, and meaning, the place of God in the universe, how we should live and how society should be ordered. Anthony Kenny traces the development of these themes through the centuries. We see how the questions asked and answers offered by the great philosophers of the past remain vividly alive today. Anyone interested in ideas and their history will find this a fascinating and stimulating read.

The classic chronicle of Chinese philosophical thought from the third millennium to the 20th century.

From the sage-kings of ancient China to the 1911 overthrow of the oldest monarchical system in the world, Chinese philosophy has evolved and influenced schools of thought around the world. In an accessible voice, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy clearly illuminates Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism, Yin-Yang, and more. For those interested in philosophy or Asian studies, this is the perfect window into ancient and modern Chinese ideology.