We live in an era rife with cultural conflict. The 21st century is by no means free of wars, terrorism, riots, famine, nor epidemics. We may attempt to solve the challenges of our times by uniting the humanistic disciplines of philosophy, science, and technology. Our modern reality requires a fundamental understanding of the problems beleaguering our existence. Science and literature are key tools for gaining this insight. The wisdom accumulated throughout the centuries by scientists, philosophers, and writers is a solid foundation on which modern man can build the future. Our ability to learn from those who have come before is precisely what led Protagoras to declare that “Man is the measure of all things.” The 33 works in this book possess foundational importance and continue to influence our modern world. The reader of these texts is well-positioned to understand causes and plot new paths away from the problems that plague us.

Edwin A. Abbott. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Aristotle. Ethics

Aristotle. Poetics

Dale Breckenridge Carnegie. The Art of Public Speaking

Gilbert Keith Chesterton. Eugenics and Other Evils

Gilbert Keith Chesterton. What’s Wrong With The World

René Descartes. Discourse on the Method

Epictetus. The Golden Sayings of Epictetus

The Meditations Of The Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Sigmund Freud. Dream Psychology

Hermann Hesse. Siddhartha

David Hume. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Lao Tzu. Tao Te Ching

Confucius. Analects

Swami Abhedananda. Five Lectures On Reincarnation

The Song Celestial, Or Bhagavad-Gita (From the Mahabharata)

David Herbert Lawrence. Fantasia of the Unconscious

Niccolò Machiavelli. The Art of War

Niccolò Machiavelli. The Prince

Benedictus de Spinoza. The Ethics

John Mill. On Liberty

John Mill. Utilitarianism

Prentice Mulford. Thoughts are Things

Thomas More. Utopia

Friedrich Nietzsche. Thus Spake Zarathustra

Friedrich Nietzsche. Beyond Good and Evil

Friedrich Nietzsche. The Antichrist

J. Allanson Picton. Pantheism

Plato. The Republic

Plato. The Apology Of Socrates

Plato. Symposium

Sun Tzu. The Art of War

Vatsyayana. The Kama Sutra

Voltaire. Candide

H. G. Wells. A Modern Utopia

Frances Bacon. The New Atlantis