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_Theodicy_ by Leibniz is amazingly relevant and readable considering how long ago it was written. This book is far better than many other works of philosophy which came much later. Very few authors have been able to tackle the problem of the relationship between the existence of evil and the existence of God with as much skill and clarity as Leibniz. The issues discussed in this book are still very relevant today, and the questions concerning evil and the existence of God still have not been answered. That is what makes this work so timeless; if I had been told that it was written yesterday I would have believed it, so relevant are the questions and so readable is the style. This is a must-read for even the most modern and scientifically-minded philosophers. Leibniz adresses questions that are completely independent of science, and can never be answered through science alone. The only way to solve the ancient problem of evil is to continue to think about it in the same way as Leibniz, even though we may never find a solid answer.

This, and other of Leibniz's writings are, ..... I don't know. Profound? That is an understatement! Paradigm shifting? At least a few? These are some of the most powerful and poignant thoughts put into writing. This is the man who discovered the calculus with meaning (as opposed to Newton, who also gets credit, but had a different basis).

Leibniz gets some bad neglect in history, largely because Voltaire undermined his thoughts by creating a ridiculous straw-man of Leibniz's ideas - maybe Voltaire just couldn't grasp it! It is some of the hardest writing to read, especially since there was nothing before this like it. (for this reason, I recommend, if new to Leibniz, to NOT read an introduction or such. Many "scholars" still give Voltaire's slant on Leibniz. Read for yourself and then judge).

For hundreds of years Leibniz was put on the back shelf because Newton reigned supreme. But guess what? It turns out that Leibniz was right in his charges against Newton. The death of classical physics and the rise of the quantum started with Leibniz - it just took the world a while to catch up.

Also, if you have to deal with someone who gives that trite argument "If God is all powerful, If God is all good, How is there evil in the world," Plop, this book on his/her lap. Why people expect and easy and quick answer to this question is beyond me. Leibniz's answer, his treatment of free will and determinism, the soul and the individual - truly, if grasped, will change some part of your mind for the better.

Leibniz's argument for the origin of evil in human freedom is perhaps the most famous of all the theodicies, and obviously if you want to read the source then this is it. The argument is easy to grasp and convincing - which made me wonder exactly why it required a book of this length (about 400 pages). The answer is that Leibniz sets out his argument within the first fifty pages and the rest of the book is devoted to meeting arguments that other thinkers (particularly Bayle) had made about theodicy. Leibniz really over did the treatment of Bayle's objections, to such a point that Leibniz himself admitted around page 300 that he was growing tired of refuting Bayle.

Fortunately this edition contains almost all of the original appendicies (bar one which set out the formal argument in Scholastic Latin), the first of which is the main arguments of the book stripped down into analytic logical arguments. This takes only 9 pages and to be honest, it's almost worth skipping the rest of the book and just reading this, as it contains all the important points. At the very least I find it very useful when I want to come back and remind myself what was said.

I have nothing to add to the previous reviews concerning the importance of Leibniz's thought as expressed in this book. I would like to add this caveat, however: this translation is not a critical edition. Leibniz quotes numerous passages in Greek and Latin (he was enormously erudite), but these passages are not translated in this edition. Neither does the editor/translator identify where the quoted passages are from (this would be useful if one wanted to look up the original context of a passage that Leibniz is quoting). Fortunately, the quotations are usually not necessary to understand the argument, which is somewhat repetitive in any case.

The other disadvantage of this volume is that the index contains only proper names and not ideas. This is unfortunate, since much of the work is not clearly organized and the discussion of a given issue is often scattered throughout the book.

But since this is the best edition of the Theodicy currently available in English, one has to live with these disadvantages.

Here is how the dispossession of the Utes really happened. Should be required reading in history classes. Fascinating account. Highly recommend!!

"Red Twilight: The Last Free Days Of The Ute Indians" is a remarkable eye-witness testament to the plight of the Ute Indians. Val FitzPatrick was born January 4, 1886 and lived to the age of 102. All his life was spent in northwestern Colorado and gave him an intimate knowledge of the Northern Utes (especially the Whiteriver band) after their encounter with the white man's culture. FitzPatrick provides the modern reader with a window into a yesteryear of the western frontier during the time of white settlers displacing the Utes from the homelands. This is an account more accurate and compelling than those of the newspaper journalists of the day were able to print. Very highly recommended for personal and academic Native American studies collections, Red Twilight is enhanced with a rare oral history by one of the Ute warriors who fought in the Battle of Milk Creek; excerpts from the diary of early cowboy Wils Rankin (nephew of Joe Rankin, scout of the ill-fated Major Thornburg); and a special section describing life on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in the 1950s and 60s.

Red Twilight: The Last Free Days Of The Ute Indians is a remarkable eye-witness testament to the plight of the Ute Indians. Val FitzPatrick was born January 4, 1886 and lived to the age of 102. All his life was spent in northwestern Colorado and gave him an intimate knowledge of the Northern Utes (especially the Whiteriver band) after their encounter with the white man's culture. FitzPatrick provides the modern reader with a window into a yesteryear of the western frontier during the time of white settlers displacing the Utes from the homelands. This is an account more accurate and compelling that those of the newspaper journalists of the day were able to print. Very highly recommended for personal and academic Native American studies collections, Red Twilight is enhanced with a rare oral history by one of the Ute warriors who fought in the Battle of Milk Creek; excerpts from the diary of early cowboy Wils Rankin (nephew of Joe Rankin, scout of the ill-fated Major Thornburg); and a special section describing life on the Uintah-Ouray Reservation in the 1950s and 60s.

This book is unique - it tells the story of the removal of the Ute Indians from a sympathetic viewpoint, and by one who was there. Val FitzPatrick was a settler in northwest Colorado when the Utes were displaced into Utah and forced from their ancestral homelands. The real story is different from what white history records.

Well written, great reading, and fascinating first-hand stories. If you like reading about the West and its history or American Indians, you can't go wrong here. The author was there and is a great writer. He personally knew the Utes. Winner of an award from the Utah Humanities Council and used in their diversity program. I also highly recommend FitzPatrick's other book, "The Arbuckle Cafe: Classic Cowboy Stories."

Insightful book on our broken political process, made an enjoyable read due to Hillsman's slightly subversive sense of humor.
Provides a great insider's view of campaigns from Nader to Ventura.
No one else is covering this territory as well as this author.

After the press has built up its latest darling political candidates and subsequently torn them back down again we are often left with a bad taste in our mouths. This book lays the blame on our political system itself. But what I found most interesting were the behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Bill's experiences on various campaign trails. Those are the stories the press all too often overlooks and the ones voters want to know about most.

Bill Hillsman builds an interesting case for revamping our political system. His experience from the national to the local political arenas is impressive. He is funny and witty and provides a great read! This book is lots of fun for everyone interesting in learning how elections are really won and lost!! Have fun.

I highly recommend this book. This book works because while it points out the fault of both political parties it shares awesome stories of the little guy winning. The information about Ventura is fascinating and heart warming. I also found the info about McCain to be very interesting. I was surprised to find out how close he was to running as an independent candidate. You will also learn what the parties did to keep him from running.

this is a great book to have it is very easy to read and learn the samoan language.

I have personally used this book many times at work to find the meaning of Samoan words. It is written very well, with all of the diacritical marks - including the ÿokina (glottal stop) and kahako (macron), to allow for correct pronounciation. The book is beautifully bound in a neat hard cover, with burgundy red as the main colour, and with a yellow flower motif running down the side, and a yellow title line, "Samoan Dictionary". Go check it out! Itÿs worth the price. Soifua! -Kaliko Trapp, Hilo, Hawaiÿi

This is the best Samoan dictionary I've used! Besides its qualities already mentioned, it also has sample sentences for each word. It gives all definitions for the words, and definitions are precise. Don't settle for anything less!

25 years ago, I arrived at my school site as a Peace Corps volunteer in Samoa. I soon figured out that the key to having a good experience was to learn Samoan. This dictionary was a dear friend in that process. While I was immersed in Samoan every day, I used this dictionary and whatever written matter I could find for a couple of hours every day to supplement the spoken Samoan I was learning. My Samoan eventually got to be pretty good for a Palagi, and this dictionary was a great help. Faafetai tele lava ia G. B. Milner.

WOW, this is a great book. I really love the colorful, handwritten style. It has really inspired me too. I love this one so much I bought several other SARK books

Add this to your SARK collection even though there is repetition here. Some things just deserve repeating.

i can't believe that this book has been out long enough to be renewed! with the extra pages and it being all in color...it's fantastic! thank you again sark!

Wow! I loved the first copy she wrote and Sark has outdone herself again! Creativity is where it is at. Dream your dreams and they do come true. An inspiring mind elevator!

This book is really a discourse on why we feel pain. For people of a more "intellectual bent", this book may be the perfect opening into Yogananda's other books and works. According to this book, there really is no pleasure. So what do we feel when we have sex or eat an ice cream cone? First of all, the mind is just fine as it is. That is, you will not add anymore pain. But by association in thought (thinking), one creates an "excitation" in the brain. This is a desire and it causes pain because we want the desired object. Now here is the hard part. The so-called pleasure is really just the removal of the WANT created by the association in the mind. I thought about writing a book review. Somebody calls. I feel upset (pain). But the pain is caused by my having thought about the book review in the first place. I created an "excitation" or spark in the brain. Then this excitation was not fulfilled. Great pain. But even if somebody doesn't call, and I do write this review, THE FEELING OF PLEASURE IS ONLY THE RESULT OF REMOVING THE ORIGINAL EXCITATION FROM MY BRAIN! So, there really isn't any pleasure. There is the pain of not satisfying the excitation and there is the neutral feeling of satisfying the excitation (which will uninevitably arise again). How do we get out of this quagmire of pain. Quite simple. Order this book from Amazon. com.

In this small book, PARAMAHANSA YOGANANDA clearly states a simple and profound truth that is the core philosophy of all of the world's great spiritual systems. As Douglas Ainslie says in his introduction "this small book offers the clue to the universe....between these narrow covers is to be found the flower of the Vedas and the Upanishads, the essence of Patanjali,...and the thought of Shankara, greatest mind that ever dwelt in mortal body........This is the deliberate attempt of one who has at last found in the East, after many wanderings, the solution to the riddles of the world......The essential point to be remarked about Paramahansa's teaching,....is that it is not speculative , but practical, even when dealing with the utmost reaches of metaphysics."

The author was a great Yogi who lived and taught in the West for over 30 years. The example of his life and work have not only turned many people god-ward, but has also shown them the way to SELF-REALIZATION through Kriya Yoga and his prolific inspired teachings. His wisdom, insight and remarkable innovations in the field of human development and religion are legendary.The main theme of this book is "bliss", our deepest need and how to find it.

Parmahansa Yogananda established the Self-Realization Fellowship as the sole authorized representative and spiritual path for his great work.

Also Recommended:

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI........SANCTUARY OF THE SOUL........THE DIVINE ROMANCE...............MAN'S ETERNAL QUEST..................JOURNEY TO SELF-REALIZATION.....................WHISPERS FROM ETERNITY..................WHERE THERE IS LIGHT ....etc....all by the same author.

Yogananda's maiden voyage on the sea of authorship, THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION, surprises the reader us with paradoxes. In 1920, when still at his teacher's ashram in India, Yogananda received an invitation to speak to an International Congress of Religious Liberals in Boston, sponsored by the American Unitarian Association, thus beginning his three decades of teaching and work on this continent. "Science" and "religion" are usually discussed as opposites or adversaries, as are "reason" and "faith," but this expansion of his 1920 address to that congress brings the yoga approach: revealing the unities - in the most ancient and universal "unitarian" approach.

The very word "religion" has roots in "unity:" the Latin 'religare', which dictionaries often define unpleasantly as to restrain or to tie back; Yogananda cites the more yogic definition: to bind. To someone accustomed to the term "yoga" with its common roots in "to yoke together" or "to unite," the positive implications become apparent for religion as a force of LIBERATION rather than of restraint. If you are among the thousands who shun the contemporary uses of "religious" and say, with many of my friends, "I am not so much a religious person as a spiritual person," you will appreciate Yogananda's use of this more universal and positive meaning of "religious."

In this tightly reasoned essay on how ancient spiritual revelations from yoga science can elevate modern religion to liberating heights, Yogananda offers to even the most intellectual of audiences the best of reasons 1) why devotion to Truth and the experience of Spirit must logically go hand-in-hand and 2) how the airy realms of spirituality are pressingly practical: "...religion necessarily consists in the permanet removal of pain and the realization of Bliss or God."

He moves forward to show the differences between the basic four approaches to spiritual realization (as described by another reviewer, below) and provides more fundamentals about meditation and esoteric yoga practice than his 1920 audience could possibly have coped with. It is more accessible to our new, better-initiated century. The Science of Religion is an introduction to the universality of yoga, meditation, and the experience of the Divine, and -- although lacking the fascinating annecdotes of his Autobiography of a Yogi or the inspirational upliftment of such later books as Where There is Light and The Divine Romance -- The Science of Religion is a powerfully reasoned call to the intellect to open its heart along with its mind.

RECOMMENDATION: Especially good gift for your intellectual, agnostic friends - or those who have been alienated by narrow, orthodox, negativity-based presentations of religion.

Religion or faith in fundamental principles, is the foundation upon which the edifice of reasoning, or science is built upon. While it is religion which binds us into courses of action consistent with those fundamental principles, it is science that enables us to stay clear of inconsistent systems of guiding principles, and to practically attain the goals posited by our principles.

The Science of Religion by Paramahansa Yogananda arrives by analysis at inner happiness or bliss as the goal that binds all men. Thus, from the standpoint of the etymological meaning of the word religion as that which binds (from religio-onis in Latin), the author says that the pursuit of bliss is universal religion, as it motivates all human actions.

Having arrived at universal religion, the author then goes on to present the practical means of attaining the goal, i.e.,the science. He outlines the four broad classes of methods that have been evolved to attain bliss, or God: the methods of reasoning, devotion, meditation, and life-force control. He points out the limitations of the first three methods, and recommends the method of life-force control (which acts directly upon the vital organs of the body, slowing them down) to sever the identification of human consciousness with the body that underlies all human suffering.

I was skeptical when I got this book that it probably was a sales pitch for someone else's 'money making system.' I was so pleasantly surprised to find one great suggestion after another with real resources. The brainstorming sessions using my own experience to get ideas, then applying these suggestions was such a powerful combination, I'm sure to be successful as I try these new ways to generate income.

I will be financially free, sooner than I ever expected, now that I've read this book!

This book will give you insight into so many ways you can amplify what you get paid for your time or just plain make something else work for your wage (i.e. your money, your computer, your car - whatever).

This book tells you how, gives you ideas and opens up pathways that are already available to you, but you weren't aware of.

Well worth the investment of $25 and change...

This book is full of very doable projects to keep a flow of money coming in from several resources. In this time of an uncertain economy, you must take a look at income alternatives if you want to keep your home, fed and be able to afford the rising cost of gas!

The "Idea Fest" area of the book is a brainstorming tool that shows you just how rich in resources you already are! The resource section is well worth the price of admission.

Once you master this method of making income, teach it to your kids!!!

The one who dies with the most toys wins... C'mon - they're dead! How do they win? I loved this part of the book and looking a financial strategy differently. I want to be financially free now - so that I can LIVE! That single thought alone was paradigm-shifting for me.

I love thinking of the things I want to talk about and write about and all the ways that will serve me financially.

Great concepts!!! Thanks!

This book was a great help during a tough time with stomach problems. It's easy to read and has many ideas on preventing stomach problems and curing them, naturally and with Rx. Great book!

This book was great. It explained so much about the digestion system and your gut and what effects it, with specifics to IBS and Crohns. 5 stars

I bought this book hoping to figure out my own stomach problems and actually recognized symptoms my husband was having with a seldom diagnosed condition, celiac disease. Once he was diagnosed, this book was the only information I had at the time about how we would deal with it. It was a wonderful tool for us to start with.

this book is very helpful in dealing with a very personal problem. It was, in fact, more informative than my doctor. After experimenting as the book suggested, I finally found something that helped.

Bollas is a beautiful writer. This early book introduces the main themes of his writing, while avoiding the postmodern obtuseness of his some his more recent writings. A compassionate and wise observer of the human soul, he here relates his knowledge, as it has been won through the mystery and misery he has encountered.

It would prove very difficult to over-praise this wonderful book. Bollas writes with such lucidity and wit about every topic he touches that I find myself returning to these pages just to re-experience his prose. If you value psychoanalysis performed in the Winnicottian mode, then you owe it to yourself to read this book.

At once amusing and heartbreakingly honest, Christopher Bollas has the ability to cut completely through the fog of ego and object attachment and promote understanding, awareness, acceptance and curiosity. This book is on my list of Life-Changing Must Haves.

Bollas is one of the most important figures in contemporary psychoanalysis and this book is the place to start. The book teems with new discoveries and striking ideas. Most important, it functions as only the best psychoanaltyic books do: it opens the reader to the discovery of their own psyche.

What a wonderful resource! I'm a mother of 9 year old twin boys, and I've had a hard time figuring out good sports and activities for them to join, and which ones to avoid. I feel like everyday the boys come home with a different sport they want to join and it's so hard to pick. This book was a GREAT way to help us all figure out what would be the best for them to do. It's so easy to use and so easy to find what you are looking for right away. It has outlined notes and information about each sport that is extremely helpful in selecting the right sport for your kids. Both my boys are in baseball, but one of my sons has talked a lot lately about karate. After reading the section on Karate I talked to him about it, so he would know more about what to expect. Overall, I think this book is a helpful tool for parents to have, and I am sure I will use it over and over again in the next few years as the boys try out new activities and sports.

This book is a marvelous reference for any parent who is going through the activity/sports craze with their children. As a teacher and a parent of two boys I am well aware of the increased amount of activities and sports kids are getting involved with at a young age. With my boys, I have gone through the sign up process, only to find my house filled with moans and complaints when practices and game days come along. Not only is this book a helpful reference to finding out more about specific sports and activities, but it has useful information about dealing with kids wanting to quit and positive ways to get to the bottom of it. This book has been a great help to me in dealing with both my sons, finding out what they like best, and what I can expect as a parent.

Sign Me Up! is a great guide for parents for looking to find out more about after-school sports and activities. As a mother of three it is not always easy to balance everyoneýs schedules. My 10 year old daughter as already joined two different sports and quit because the physical demands where too much for her, and she was clearly not having fun. With her I have realized she needs more one on one time, and I have been looking for sports and activities that could offer her this. This kind of information is exactly what I have been finding in Sign Me Up! Not only do I feel like I know more about what each sport and activity will entail, but I can tell my kids more about what they can expect and help them make their decision before signing up. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone! Itýs wonderful for parents with kids of all ages!

In today's busy world, how do parents know when they should cut back on their child's extra-curricular activities? Not wanting to disappoint their children, many parents sign them up for more activities than they can handle. How can parents choose which activities are best suited for their children, and how can they find out more about each one?

The book, "Sign Me Up!" by Stacy DeBroff, is a wonderful place for parents to begin familiarizing themselves with all the programs that exist today. This book is more than a guide -- it's a bible! Parents should refer to this book often before making a decision to sign their children up for any activity. From this book readers will learn what an activity is about, what costs are usually involved, what to look for in a good coach or teacher, and many more answers to other important questions.

MyParenTime.com highly recommends this book -- parents will feel like they are getting advice from a good friend...important advice that will enable them to set up a healthy activity schedule for their children.