Philosophy audiobooks

Aristoteles - Abridged

By: Fritz Mauthner

Narrated by: Michael Kommant

Length: 2 hours 30 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Fritz Mauthner, der große Sprachkritiker zeigt hier, dass das Lebenswerk des berühmtesten Philosophen, der Stolz zweier Jahrtausende, nicht mehr als ein Gesellschaftsspiel war. Er nennt Aristoteles einen Denker ohne schöpferische Kraft und bescheinigt ihm keine philosophische Persönlichkeit gewesen zu sein... Read more

Platon und seine Lebensanschauung - Abridged

By: Rudolf Eucken

Narrated by: Michael Kommant

Length: 1 hour 19 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Plato bildet die Höhe der gesamten griechischen Geistesarbeit, indem in ihm ihre beiden Hauptrichtungen, das Erkenntnisverlangen und der Gestaltungstrieb, das wissenschaftliche und das künstlerische Streben, sich miteinander verbinden und durcheinander steigern. Seine Lebensanschauung hat den eigentümlichen Typus des grie-chischen Idealismus... Read more

Le bonheur, désespérément - Abridged

By: André Comte-Sponville

Narrated by: André Comte-Sponville

Length: 1 hour 48 minutes

Abridged: Yes

"Qu'est-ce que je serais heureux si j'étais heureux !" Cette formule de Woody Allen dit peut-être l'essentiel : que nous sommes séparés du bonheur par l'espérance même qui le poursuit. La sagesse serait au contraire de vivre pour de bon, au lieu d'espérer vivre. C'est où l'on rencontre les leçons d'Epicure, des stoïciens, de Spinoza, ou, en... Read more

Freiheit - Abridged

By: Wilhelm Vossenkuhl

Narrated by: Wilhelm Vossenkuhl

Length: 58 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Vossenkuhl ist Inhaber des Lehrstuhls I für Philosophie an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in München. Er beschäftigt sich in dieser Folge der Reihe "uni-auditorium" mit der Frage "Was ist Freiheit?" Es gibt mehrere Arten der Freiheit, die des Willens und die des Handelns. Es ist uns selten bewusst, dass Freiheit sehr... Read more

Philosophische Grundbegriffe: Philosophie - Erkenntnis - Wahrheit - Gut - Abridged

By: Rafael Ferber

Narrated by: Detlef Kügow

Length: 4 hours 56 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Diese kleine Denkschule für Studierte und interessierte Laien führt den Leser verständlich und anspruchsvoll zugleich in die wichtigsten Grundbegriffe der Philosophie ein: Philosophie, Erkenntnis, Wahrheit und das Gute. Inhalt, Methode und Geschichte dieser Disziplin werden auf originelle Weise philosophierend nahe gebracht. Read more

Das neue Weltbild des Physikers Burkhard Heim - Abridged

By: Burkhard Heim

Narrated by: Detlef Kügow

Length: 4 hours 37 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Englische Zeitungen sahen in ihm den "neuen Einstein". "Steht den Deutschen ein neues Weltbild bevor?" fragte der Stern 1957 in einem Artikel über den fast blinden und tauben sowie Handlosen Physiker Burkhard Heim. Es sieht so aus, als könnte die Frage heute mit "ja" beantwortet werden. Heim vollendet Einsteins Ansätze zu einer einheitlichen... Read more

Das Philosophenportal - Abridged

By: Robert Zimmer

Narrated by: Martin Umbach & Anja Buczkowsky

Length: 5 hours 53 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Die Kurzbesichtigung von 16 zentralen Werken der Philosophiegeschichte als Hörbuch enthält folgende Themen: Platon: Der Staat Augustinus: Bekenntnisse Machiavelli: Der Fürst Montaigne: Essais Descartes: Abhandlung über die Methode Pascal: Gedanken Locke: Zwei Abhandlungen über die Regierung Kant: Kritik der reinen Vernunft... Read more

Identität - Abridged

By: Wilhelm Vossenkuhl

Narrated by: Wilhelm Vossenkuhl

Length: 1 hour 2 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Vossenkuhl ist Inhaber des Lehrstuhls I für Philosophie an der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in München. Er beschäftigt sich in dieser Folge der Reihe "uni-auditorium" mit der Frage "Wer bin ich?" Mit dieser Frage beschäftigten wir uns meistens dann, wenn es uns besonders schwer fällt, darauf zu antworten. Wie können wir... Read more

Sternstunden der Philosophie - Abridged

By: Otto Böhmer

Narrated by: Achim Höppner & Anja Buczkowsky

Length: 4 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Bei Pascal war es eine Eingebung wie durch "Feuer", bei Schopenhauer der Anblick von Galeerensklaven, bei Wittgenstein ein Theaterstück, bei Heidegger ein Feldweg. Diese kleine Geschichte der "Erweckungserlebnisse" großer Denker von Platon bis Heidegger ist zugleich eine kurzweilige Einführung in Grundgedanken der abendländischen... Read more

Einführung in das Werk Theodor Adornos - Abridged

By: Christoph Demmerling

Narrated by: Christoph Demmerling

Length: 51 minutes

Abridged: Yes

Die Dichte von Adornos Texten erfordert eine Art von Aufmerksamkeit, die der Aufmerksamkeit beim analytischen Hören eines Musikstücks vergleichbar ist. Auch deshalb, und nicht nur, weil die Musik ein wichtiges Sujet der philosophischen Arbeit Adornos ist, würde sich die von ihm gelegentlich gebrauchte Formulierung "mit den Ohren denken" als... Read more

Lost Triumph

By: Tom Carhart

Narrated by: Michael Prichard

Length: 9 hours 5 minutes

Abridged: No

A fascinating narrative-and a bold new thesis in the study of the Civil War-that suggests Robert E. Lee had a heretofore undiscovered strategy at Gettysburg that, if successful, could have crushed the Union forces and changed the outcome of the war.



The Battle of Gettysburg is the pivotal moment when the Union forces repelled perhaps America's... Read more

Dostoevsky in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 2 hours 7 minutes

Abridged: No

Building on his enormously successful series of Philosophers in 90 Minutes, Paul Strathern now applies his witty and incisive prose to brief biographical studies of the world's great writers. He brings their lives and ideas to life in entertaining and accessible fashion.After narrowly avoiding a firing squad when he was just twenty-eight years... Read more

Socrates in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Just a century after it had begun, philosophy entered its greatest age with the appearance of Socrates, who spent so much of his time talking about philosophy on the streets of Athens that he never got around to writing anything down. His method of aggressive questioning, called dialectic, was used to cut through the palaver of his adversaries... Read more

Rousseau in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 28 minutes

Abridged: No

In Rousseau we encounter a walking ego, a naked sensibility. Feeling triumphs over intellectual argument in his works, which are both deeply stirring and deeply inconsistent. Yet while his contemporaries Kant and Hume may have been superior academic philosophers, the sheer power of Rousseau’s ideas was unequaled in his time. It was he who... Read more

Spinoza in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 12 minutes

Abridged: No

Spinoza’s brilliant metaphysical system was derived neither from reality nor experience. Starting from basic assumptions, with a series of geometric proofs he built a universe which was also God—one and the same thing, the classic example of pantheism. Although his system seems an oddity today, Spinoza’s conclusions are deeply in accord with... Read more

Hume in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 17 minutes

Abridged: No

Hume reduced philosophy to ruins: he denied the existence of everything—except our actual perceptions themselves. I alone exist, he argued, and the world is nothing more than part of my consciousness. Yet we know that the world remains, and we go on as before. What Hume expressed was the status of our knowledge about the world, a world in which... Read more

Schopenhauer in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Schopenhauer, the "philosopher of pessimism," makes it very plain that he regards the world and our life in it as a bad joke. But if the world is indifferent to our fate, it doesn't thwart us on purpose. The world's fa├ºade is supported by what Schopenhauer calls the universal Will—blind and without purpose. This Will brings on all our misery... Read more

Thomas Aquinas in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 21 minutes

Abridged: No

We see our age as the greatest in human history, filled with seemingly unending originality. Yet such dynamism is not a necessary characteristic of great eras. Among the most long-lasting and stable civilizations was that of medieval Europe. There stasis was achieved, and with it a stability that permitted the development of structured thought... Read more

Kierkegaard in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 27 minutes

Abridged: No

Kierkegaard wasn't really a philosopher in the academic sense, yet he produced what many people expect of philosophy. He didn't write about the world, he wrote about life, about how we live, and how we choose to live. His subject was the individual and his or her existence, the "existing being." In Kierkegaard's view, this purely subjective... Read more

St. Augustine in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 13 minutes

Abridged: No

Augustine’s spiritual crisis and conversion to Christianity, detailed in his Confessions, ultimately led him to his major contribution to philosophy: the fusion of the two doctrines of Christianity and Neoplatonism. This not only provided Christianity with a strong intellectual backing but tied it to the Greek tradition of philosophy, which... Read more

Aristotle in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Aristotle wrote on everything from the shape of seashells to sterility, from speculations on the nature of the soul to meteorology, poetry, art, and even the interpretation of dreams. Apart from mathematics, he transformed every field of knowledge that he touched. Above all, Aristotle is credited with the founding of logic. When he first divided... Read more

Hegel in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 16 minutes

Abridged: No

Hegel’s dialectical method produced the most grandiose metaphysical system known to man. Its most vital element was the dialectic of the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. This sprung from Hegel’s aim to overcome the deficiencies of logic and ascend toward Mind as the ultimate reality. His view of history as a process of humanity’s... Read more

Heidegger in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 27 minutes

Abridged: No

One of two major philosophical traditions of the twentieth century was Wittgenstein's linguistic analysis. The other, diametrically opposed, came from Heidegger, and his fundamental question: "What is the meaning of existence?" For Heidegger, this question was beyond the reach of reason and was the primary "given" of every individual life. To... Read more

Marx in 90 Minutes

By: Paul Strathern

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 1 hour 23 minutes

Abridged: No

Karl Marx's devastating critique of capitalism, and his proposal of communism as the answer to the failings of the capitalist system, bore their greatest fruits in the twentieth century with the formation of the communist state in the Soviet Union. This great venture has now all but completely failed. Yet the force of the communist belief... Read more