Why? This most basic of questions is one now rarely asked. The anthology What Does it All Mean: The Eternal Battle of Thoughts and Ideas once more brings this question, and others, to the forefront. The book presents philosophy and thought as interactive human experiences, motivating people to ask the questions they have been socially, culturally, religiously, and politically conditioned to avoid.Through primary source material from great thinkers, students will explore cultural identity, religion, society, politics, economics, ethics, the idea of “self” and scientific thought. The book includes the work of notables such as Homer, the Buddha, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, St. Thomas Aquinas, Locke, Hobbes, Hume, and de Tocqueville. It also features writings from the Bible, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Galileo, Einstein, J.S. Mill, Adam Smith, Marx, Richard Dawkins, and Piaget. The book engages students from the perspectives of the writers, their cultures, religious views, and scientific thoughts. It demonstrates pure philosophy is an inquisitive, open minded investigation into all aspects of human life and death in an attempt to attain ‘true’ understanding. What Does it All Mean: The Eternal Battle of Thoughts and Ideas is suitable for introductory courses as well as lower and upper division sections in ancient, modern and ethical philosophy. With its broad range of topics it is also a very useful source for humanities, history and sociology classes.
