If humanity cannot live with the dangers and responsibilities inherent in freedom, it will probably turn to authoritarianism. This is the central idea of Escape from Freedom, a landmark work by one of the most distinguished thinkers of our time, and a book that is as timely now as when first published in 1941. Few books have thrown such light upon the forces that shape modern society or penetrated so deeply into the causes of authoritarian systems. If the rise of democracy set some people free, at the same time it gave birth to a society in which the individual feels alienated and dehumanized. Using the insights of psychoanalysis as probing agents, Fromm’s work analyzes the illness of contemporary civilization as witnessed by its willingness to submit to totalitarian rule.

第二次世界大战期间，德国强调“人种论”，认为日耳曼民族是世界最优秀的民族。虽然这种说法日后被完全否定，但德国在过去两百多年从艺术、音乐到科学等领域，确实是人才辈出。
剑桥大学研究员彼得•沃森（Peter Watson）的叙述横贯1750年至今的德国现代思想与文化，将对全世界对于德国的陈旧观念发起挑战，让人们重新认识德语社会曾对世界带来的影响。
从巴洛克时代的结束、音乐家巴赫的逝世到1933年希特勒的崛起，德国从一个文化贫瘠的西方国家转变为一个重要的文化强国——甚至比法国、英国、意大利、荷兰、美国更具创造性、更有影响力。
在20世纪的最初几十年中，德国的艺术家、作家、学者、哲学家、科学家和工程师将本国的科学文化推向了难以想象的高度。
截至1933年，获得诺贝尔奖的德国人比任何其他国家都多，甚至超过了英国和美国的总和。然而，阿道夫·希特勒和第三帝国的统治使得天才锐减。这个残酷的事实使得德国取得的许多成就至今仍被阴影笼罩。
但当时，德国人是如何扭转国家大局，造就了文化领域一枝独秀的地位？
在这本兼容并包的文化与思想史中，彼得·沃森追溯历史真相，探索了德国天才的起源。他解释了德国文化为何能蓬勃发展、如何塑造了人们的生活。最重要的是，德国的科学文化如何持续影响着我们的世界。
作者还提出，德国思想是现代西方文化的巅峰。从贝多芬、康德到尼采，从歌德、瓦格纳到孟德尔、普朗克，从黑格尔、马克思到弗洛伊德、勋伯格，无数大师塑造了这种文化。
此外，尽管经历了第二次世界大战，约瑟夫·博伊斯（Joseph Beuys，艺术家）、于尔根·哈贝马斯（Juergen Habermas，哲学家）、约瑟夫·拉辛格（Joseph Alois Ratzinger，枢机主教）等重要人物保证了德国智慧至今仍兴旺发展。
《德国天才》是一部引人入胜，气魄宏大的编年史……英语目前在艺术和科学领域占据主导地位，但沃森另辟蹊径，带你回到很久以前德语一家独大的时刻。

For the last twenty years, John Corvino has traversed the US responding to moral and religious arguments against same-sex relationships. In this timely book, he shares that experience - addressing the standard objections to homosexuality and offering insight into the culture wars more generally. Is homosexuality unnatural? Does the Bible condemn it? Are people born gay (and should it matter either way)? Corvino approaches such questions with precision, sensitivity, and good humor. In the process, he makes a fresh case for moral engagement, forcefully rejecting the idea that morality is a 'private matter'. This book appears at a time when same-sex marriage is being hotly debated across the U.S. Many people object to such marriage on the grounds that same-sex relationships are immoral, or at least, that they do not deserve the same social recognition as heterosexual relationships. Unfortunately, the traditional rhetoric of gay-rights advocates - which emphasizes privacy and tolerance - fails to meet this objection. Legally speaking, when it comes to marriage, 'tolerance' might be enough, Corvino concedes, but socially speaking, marriage requires more. Marriage is more than just a relationship between two individuals, recognized by the state. It is also a relationship between those individuals and a larger community. The fight for same-sex marriage, ultimately, is a fight for full inclusion in the moral fabric. What is needed is a positive case for moral approval - which is what Corvino unabashedly offers here. Corvino blends a philosopher's precision with a light touch that is full of humanity and wit. This volume captures the voice of one of the most rational participants in a national debate noted for generating more heat than light.

“There are at least two kinds of games,” states James P. Carse as he begins this extraordinary book. “One could be called finite; the other infinite.”
Finite games are the familiar contests of everyday life; they are played in order to be won, which is when they end. But infinite games are more mysterious. Their object is not winning, but ensuring the continuation of play. The rules may change, the boundaries may change, even the participants may change—as long as the game is never allowed to come to an end.
What are infinite games? How do they affect the ways we play our finite games? What are we doing when we play—finitely or infinitely? And how can infinite games affect the ways in which we live our lives?
Carse explores these questions with stunning elegance, teasing out of his distinctions a universe of observation and insight, noting where and why and how we play, finitely and infinitely. He surveys our world—from the finite games of the playing field and playing board to the infinite games found in culture and religion—leaving all we think we know illuminated and transformed. Along the way, Carse finds new ways of understanding everything, from how an actress portrays a role to how we engage in sex, from the nature of evil to the nature of science. Finite games, he shows, may offer wealth and status, power and glory, but infinite games offer something far more subtle and far grander.
Carse has written a book rich in insight and aphorism. Already an international literary event, Finite and Infinite Games is certain to be argued about and celebrated for years to come. Reading it is the first step in learning to play the infinite game.

The Philosophical Breakfast Club recounts the life and work of four men who met as students at Cambridge University: Charles Babbage, John Herschel, William Whewell, and Richard Jones. Recognizing that they shared a love of science (as well as good food and drink) they began to meet on Sunday mornings to talk about the state of science in Britain and the world at large. Inspired by the great 17th century scientific reformer and political figure Francis Bacon—another former student of Cambridge—the Philosophical Breakfast Club plotted to bring about a new scientific revolution. And to a remarkable extent, they succeeded, even in ways they never intended.
Historian of science and philosopher Laura J. Snyder exposes the political passions, religious impulses, friendships, rivalries, and love of knowledge—and power—that drove these extraordinary men. Whewell (who not only invented the word “scientist,” but also founded the fields of crystallography, mathematical economics, and the science of tides), Babbage (a mathematical genius who invented the modern computer), Herschel (who mapped the skies of the Southern Hemisphere and contributed to the invention of photography), and Jones (a curate who shaped the science of economics) were at the vanguard of the modernization of science.
This absorbing narrative of people, science and ideas chronicles the intellectual revolution inaugurated by these men, one that continues to mold our understanding of the world around us and of our place within it. Drawing upon the voluminous correspondence between the four men over the fifty years of their work, Laura J. Snyder shows how friendship worked to spur the men on to greater accomplishments, and how it enabled them to transform science and help create the modern world.