David Rintoul
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Demosthenes (384-322 BCE) is regarded as one of the greatest orators of Classical times. This view has persisted through the centuries even though his rousing speeches warning of the dangers of Macedonian expansion - firstly guided by Philip II and then Alexander the Great - failed to stem the course of continued military success.
A contemporary of Plato and Aristotle, it is said that Demosthenes undertook arduous measures to cure himself of a stammer...
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Here, in this second collection of Socratic Dialogues from Plato's Early Period, read by David Rintoul as Socrates with a full cast, are contrasting six works. Often, as with Gorgias, which opens the recording, Socrates combats the popular subjects of sophistry and rhetoric, in direct conversation with Gorgias (a leading sophist teacher), and with one of his pupils, Callicles.
In Meno, Socrates encounters another Gorgias pupil, Meno, and a debate...
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One of the finest German medieval epic poems, The Lay of the Nibelungs is perhaps best known now as one of the principal sources for Wagner's four-part music drama The Ring of the Nibelung. It is easy to see how Wagner was enthralled by the story and the poetry for the power of the tale drives the narrative: intense love, loyalty, jealousy, murder, duty, honour and massacre are all interwoven into a classic.
Many of the figures known to us by Wagner's...
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Xenophon was a friend of Socrates, and yet his concise memories of the iconic philosopher have lived under the shadow of the more voluminous accounts by Plato. Yet Xenophon's two works - Apology and Memorabilia - are, in many ways, more entertaining and more accessible, and they present a different view of the man who embodies a clear mind, temperate, ethical living, sharp intellect and humour.
For example, in Apology - the account of Socrates' trial...
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The Consolation of Philosophy is one of the key works in the rich tradition of Western philosophy, partly because of the circumstances in which it was written.
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c480-c524) was of aristocratic Roman birth and became consul and then master of offices at Ravenna, one of the highest posts under the Ostrogothic Roman ruler Theodoric. But Boethius was unjustly charged with treason in 524, and this led to house arrest,...
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The Republic is perhaps the single most important, the most studied and the most quoted text of all of Plato's Socratic Dialogues. Through the medium of Socrates, Plato outlines his view and ideas concerning the ideal working of the city-state.
Socrates narrates a conversation that took place the previous day with Cephalus, Glaucon, Thrasymachus and others. The dialogue is organised into 10 books and covers a broad range of topics, including the...
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The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom.'
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century because his humanistic, atheistic, if pessimistic views chimed with a new secularism that was emerging from a Western society dominated by religion. Despite his rather forbidding image (and a few outdated views), he is one of the most approachable German philosophers, and this is certainly evident...
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It was a strong face, certainly - the eyes pale grey and very cold, the mouth was hard, the dark hair-grey-streaked now - still fell in the authentic comma over the forehead. This is how John Pearson reacted to his first encounter with the real James Bond, an encounter probably unique in the annals of thriller writing. He went on to write the bestselling authorised biography of Ian Fleming. At the time, like most of the world he assumed that James...
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When perpetual bachelor Gunder Jomann goes to India for two weeks and comes home married, the town of Elvestad is stunned. On the day the Indian bride is supposed to arrive, the battered body of a woman is found in a meadow on the outskirts of town. None of the "good people of Elvestad" can believe that anyone among them would be capable of such a brutal murder. But in his quiet, formal way, Inspector Konrad Sejer understands that good people can...
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Here are three important but very different Dialogues from the Middle Period. Symposium, the most well-known in this collection, is concerned with the theme of love. In the house of Agathon, a group of friends - each very different in personality and background - meet to consider and discuss various kinds of love. Each one, Phaedrus, Pausanias, Eryximachus, Aristophanes (the playwright) and Agathon (a prize-winning tragic poet), presents his particular...
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Aion is one of the major works of C.G. Jung's later years.
The title comes from the Greek word for aeon or age and refers to the age of Christianity, for, in Aion, Jung is concerned with the collective psychic development that the Christian era represents. How did it come about when it did? What psychic change did it represent? In exploring these questions, Jung (1875-1961) draws upon Christian symbolism and, in particular, the figure of Christ...
12) The Maxims
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There's no fool like an old fool....
The world is full of pots calling kettles black....
We can no more set a term to our passions than to our life.
These are just three of the aphorisms that made the collection of maxims by François, Duc de la Rochefoucauld, an enduring influence upon succeeding generations following their initial publication in 1665. The effect continued up to the present day - his admirers have included figures as varied as...
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The two sizeable volumes of Parerga and Paralipomena hold a special place in the output of Arthur Schopenhauer.
Parerga means 'supplementary to a main work', and Paralipomena suggests a further supplement, but these two books were anything but a casual addition to his major opus, The World as Will and Idea. For a start, it was the publication of Parerga and Paralipomena in 1851 which brought Schopenhauer to the attention of the general public, decades...
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Here are the Socratic Dialogues presented as Plato designed them to be - living discussions between friends and protagonists, with the personality of Socrates himself coming alive as he deals with a host of subjects, from justice and inspiration to courage, poetry and the gods.
Plato's Socratic Dialogues provide a bedrock for classical Western philosophy. For centuries they have been read, studied and discussed via the flat pages of books, but the...
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Episode 3: The Mission. The deciphered letter assures: The Jesus-Video exists. The hunt for the recording that will unhinge the known world begins. Though it's not just Stephen Foxx and his opponent John Kaun searching for answers, soon the Vatican is interested in the ominous video as well. The hunt leads everyone to the one city that three world religions dispute over: into the Judean mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, the historical...
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Episode 2: The Holy City. The manual of a modern video camera in a 2000-year-old tomb can mean only one thing: In the lifetime of Jesus Christ, this camera could have been used and might have made recordings of great historical impact. Meanwhile, Stephen Foxx deciphers parts of a message that was found together with the manual and which he kept secret from the multimillionaire John Kaun. The few deciphered pieces are enough to come to one conclusion:...
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Episode 1: Keeper of the Legacy. Even after moving to the US, Stephen Foxx and Judith Menez are still pursued by their past and the existence of the Jesus video is both a blessing and a curse. Meanwhile, the orthodox ascetic Samuel Barron, one of the richest men alive, has his own agenda: After years of planning, Barron intends to send his son Michael and three companions back in time. 2000 years in the past, to be precise. This is Episode 1 of 4...
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Episode 4. Exodus. Stephen Foxx and his companions are only one step ahead of their enemies in their hunt for the Jesus-Video. Finally, in the ruins of a seemingly abandoned cloister the two groups clash. While Stephen Foxx and his team learn the last remaining secrets surrounding the video, John Kaun's mercenaries launch an assault on the cloister. Now, Stephen and Judith are not only trying to find the video, but they have to fight for their lives....
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His true identity has never been revealed.
His victims faced the abyss of human insanity.
His name is Jack the Ripper.
London, 1888. In the poor district of Whitechapel, women are found dead, their bodies brutally disfigured. The victims' ripped throats are proof of a bestiality and cruelty, which has never been seen before. The investigation of the police leads to no satisfying results. Soon, the public calls the culprit "Jack the Ripper" - a...
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Episode 3: The Last Supper. While Michael and his companions try to track down Jesus Christ, Judith's brother Yehoshuah is kidnapped by the Mossad. Stephen and Judith have to return to Israel and try to find him. But this isn't a simple kidnapping. All evidence suggests that someone is planning an assault on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem - a guaranteed start to a Third World War. The Apocalypse seems to be within reach ... This is Episode 3 of 4 of...