Candide - Voltaire

Candide
by
Voltaire

In "Candide", Voltaire satirizes the idea of philosophical optimist, championed by philosophers like Gottfried Leibniz, who argued that at the point of creation, God had before him a choice of many possible worlds. God, in his infinite wisdom, necessarily chose to create the best of all possible worlds.

Through Candide's tribulations, Voltaire presents the reader with the many forms of evil and suffering in our world. He ridicules the notion that we live in the best of all possible worlds, illustrating plainly how individuals must endure unspeakable indignity in the course of their lives. Like Candide, we are forced to re-examine our personal philosophy of life when faced with evil.

What, then, is the cause of evil, original sin, or bad karma? Voltaire is not interested in that question. Instead, he focuses on the individual's response to evil, as he advocates a practical, pragmatic way of looking at life, one that is not caught up in "metaphysico-thelogo-cosmolonigology" ( la métaphysico-théologo-cosmolonigologie ) or needless philosophizing. The value of life is in the living. Only when Candide realizes this fact does he arrive at a state of emotional equilibrium.

Beneath its absurdist veneer, Voltaire's "Candide" masks a great deal of philosophical thought, which makes you stop and ponder.


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The Mummy - Anne Rice

The Mummy
by
Anne Rice

The Mummy is the story of an immortal Eygptian king, Ramses, who drank the elixor of life and now has to forever walk the earth. A lover of the great Queen Cleopatra, Ramses interred himself in a tomb after her death hoping to never be disturbed from his grief. Awakened by an English Archeologist who is murdered shortly after unearthing the ancient king, the mummy is sent to Edwardian England to the archeologist's daughter Julie.

He is displayed for polite society. When a murderer tries to kill Julie too the Mummy awakens and saves her life. Julie and Ramses begin to fall in love but he decides that he must put his past to rest. The two soon to be lovers, and friends set out on a ship to Eygpt. However, once there Ramses comes face to face with his past in a way no one could ever imagine. His actions change his world forever and let loose a creature of unstoppable evil on a helpless population. "

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THE ANTICHRIST by F. W. NIETZSCHE

THE ANTICHRIST
 by
F. W. NIETZSCHE

is a book by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published in 1895. Although it was written in 1888, its controversial content made Franz Overbeck and Heinrich Köselitz delay its publication, along with Ecce Homo. The German title can be translated into English as both "The Anti-Christ" and "The Anti-Christian." The English word "Christian" is called a weak noun in German and, in the singular nominative case, it is translated as "der Christ." Given the content of the book, the title is likely to imply both connotations (the same way as the word "Antichristianity" would in English).

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PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENSE

PSYCHIC SELF-DEFENSE


After finding herself the subject of a powerful psychic attack, Dion Fortune wrote this detailed instruction manual for safeguarding yourself against paranormal malevolence. Fortune explores the elusive psychic element in mental illness and, more importantly, details the methods, motives, and physical aspects of psychic attack, and how to overcome this energy. The revised edition of this New Age classic includes an index and an additional explanatory note for contemporary readers

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THE MYSTICAL QABALAH

THE MYSTICAL QABALAH

The Mystical Qabalah, explores all aspects of the Qabalah, including the esoteric sciences of astrology and tarot, which form the basis of the Western Mystery Traditions. It provides a key to the practical working of this mystical system for both novice and initiate alike.

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The Machinery of the Mind

The Machinery of the Mind By Violet Firth

(Dion Fortune)

This little volume will assist those without any previous knowledge who desire to gain a clear idea of the way in which modern psychology regards the human mind. It succeeds in the difficult task of presenting the rudiments of the modern view of the mind in an easy, lucid and attractive form. This book will succeed in planting certain fundamental concepts in untrained minds so that they may serve as a basis for future studies.

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Al Azif - The Cipher Manuscript known as "Necronomicon"

The Cipher Manuscript known as "Necronomicon"

By

Al Azif 

Exact authentic print of English translation of Ancient text known to mankind as Al Azif, secret blasphemous knowledge by mad and cursed Abdul Al Hazred. Clandestine manuscript handled with care now available in quality print, with formulas, incantations, spells, abhorrent Elder Gods names and cosmic power signs and gestures. Never before published in complete edition with all hidden pages

Alhazred was a mad poet of Sanaá, in Yemen, who is said to have flourished during the period of the Ommiade caliphs, circa 700 A.D. He visited the ruins of Babylon and the subterranean secret of Memphis and spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of Arabia—the Roba El Khaliyeh or "Empty Space" of the ancients—and "Dahna" or "Crimson" desert of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited by protective evil spirits and monsters of death. Of this desert many strange and unbelievable marvels are told by those who pretend to have penetrated it. In his last years Alhazred dwelt in Damascus. Of his final death or disappearance (738 A.D.) many terrible and conflicting things are told. He is said by Ebn Khallikan (12th cent. biographer) to have been seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses. Of his madness many things are told. He claimed to have seen the fabulous Irem, or City of Pillars, and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than mankind. He was only an indifferent Moslem, worshipping unknown entities whom he called Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu.

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A HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY – BERTRAND RUSSELL

A HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
by
BERTRAND RUSSELL

Since its first publication in 1945? Lord Russell's A History of Western Philosophy has been universally acclaimed as the outstanding one-volume work on the subject -- unparalleled in its comprehensiveness, its clarity, its erudition, its grace and wit. In seventy-six chapters he traces philosophy from the rise of Greek civilization to the emergence of logical analysis in the twentieth century. Among the philosophers considered are: Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the Atomists, Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Cynics, the Sceptics, the Epicureans, the Stoics, Plotinus, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Benedict, Gregory the Great, John the Scot, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Occam, Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, the Utilitarians, Marx, Bergson, James, Dewey, and lastly the philosophers with whom Lord Russell himself is most closely associated -- Cantor, Frege, and Whitehead, co-author with Russell of the monumental Principia Mathematica.

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Is There a God? – Bertrand Russell

Is There a God?
by
Bertrand Russell

The question whether there is a God is one which is decided on very different grounds by different communities and different individuals. The immense majority of mankind accept the prevailing opinion of their own community. In the earliest times of which we have definite history everybody believed in many gods.

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