Helen Plum Library

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed. Because on this ordinary domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. How do they know? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque...

This book is a multi-faceted exploration and critique of the human condition as it is presently manifested. It addresses science and philosophy, explores the underlying nature of reality, the state of our society and culture, the influence of the mainstream media, the nature of free will and a number of other topics. Each of these examinations contributes an angle to an emerging idea gestalt that challenges present mainstream views and behaviors and...

"As scientists continue to explore how the brain works, using ever more sophisticated technology, it seems likely that new findings will radically alter the traditional understanding of human nature. One aspect of human nature that is already being questioned by recent developments in neuroscience is free will. Do our decisions arise from purely mechanistic processes? Is our feeling of self-control merely an illusion created by our brains? If so,...

"Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness" is Henri Bergson's doctoral thesis which was first published in 1889. In the work Bergson introduces us to his theory of duration, a response to Kant's ideas regarding free will as something only possible outside of time and space. Bergson argues that the traditional concept of free will is merely confusion among philosophers caused by an illegitimate translation of the unextended...

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian. He is an important figure in Western philosophy, and in the history of the Scottish Enlightenment. Hume first gained recognition and respect as a historian, but academic interest in Hume's work has in recent years centered on his philosophical writing. His "History of England" was the standard work on English history for many years, until Macaulay's "The History of England from the Accession...

Success by Choice Not By Chance gives a road map which clearly shows the potential for any one to succeed in life whether they came from Tupelo, Mississippi or was born on Wall Street. This book is about Ernie Tucker who defied the laws of success and has lived a charmed life by following the principles of having faith, repetition, imagination and above all persistence. He says success has no room for excuses it is all up to you. It is a choice one...

In The Ladder, I claim that Plato was right. All human beings are born into a kind of cave, the darkness of which symbolizes our natural ignorance. What we call philosophy is just a determined attempt to escape the cave and break out into the light of day. The ladder referred to in the title is the power of human reason, which provides the means of reaching that light. Has anyone ever succeeded in reaching it? I do not know. All I know for sure is...

Volume 2 of the definitive English translation of one of the most important philosophical works of the 19th century, the basic statement in one important stream of post-Kantian thought. Corrects nearly 1,000 errors and omissions in the older Haldane-Kemp translation. For the first time, this edition translates and locates all quotes and provides full index.

Materialism asserts that the universe and everything within it, including ourselves, is a deterministic machine, trapped until the end of time on the rigid tracks of inviolable laws. Only the mechanisms of physics, forces, electrical charges, and so on, are consequential; nothing else matters. Experiences, such as the taste of honey, feelings, thoughts, and choices, everything concerning the mind is an illusion, or is at best a useless and absurd...

The Message of a Master is the story of a seemingly miraculous change that takes place in a man after he meets a true master of life. He learns, and shares with us, teachings that allow him to develop his powers so that he can accomplish anything he desires.