Socrates had an early interest in the scientific theories of Anaxagoras, who taught the world that there are an infinite number of different kinds of elementary particles (atoms), and it is the action of the mind upon these particles that produce the objects that we see. Socrates believed that the senses of the body create difficulty for the Mind to think, and thus, he came to regard the physical world as deceptive. Socrates believed that his work, which he sought to understand through critical questioning and dialogue, was given to him as a divine mission, and hence, was his duty. His total lack of interest in material possessions was evident by his being always barefoot and wearing an old cloak the whole year around. His habit of going barefoot even in winter showed his power of endurance as well. To him, the aspiration for virtue was the highest aim anyone could have.

The definitive biography of India's most loved leader and scientist Aeronautical engineer, rocket scientist, missile man, visionary, teacher and the most inspiring head of state in living memory - Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was all these and more. Unquestionably the most revered Indian leader since Mahatma Gandhi, he transcended all the boundaries and obstacles that came his way in the course of a remarkable life; and he did so with grace and humility.Arun Tiwari tells Dr Kalam's life story with a deep understanding of his formative experiences and character and reveals him as a man personifying all the glory and paradoxes of his nation: secular and religious; exalted and humble; schooled and unaffected; dynamic and calm; scientific and spiritual - an Indian above all.

This book contains the answers to the general doubts we have when we start the preparation for UPSC. From my personal experiences, I have tried to addressed some of the issues and how one can prepare. This book is divided into various chapters which have questions related to ‘before UPSC times’ i.e. when I failed in IIT even after taking a drop at Kota and my college life where I wasn’t sure as to where life will take me, ‘during UPSC times’ i.e. when I was preparing for the UPSC and ‘after UPSC’ where questions related to Mussoorie and Hyderabad academies, life of civil servants in general have been answered. I want to put a disclaimer in the beginning itself that this book doesn’t cover any part of the UPSC syllabus and this book is just to motivate and help you strategize your way to fight UPSC and any other life struggle for that matter. I would recommend readers not to ‘study’ this book but ‘read’ it which means that go through this book at leisure time. Pick up the book whenever you are in doubt, feel depressed or want to quit. This book can be your favorite companion during tough times. You will be able to learn few things from my mistakes, you might laugh at few moments, you may picture yourself as a successful candidate while reading this book. There is no compulsion to complete this book and I believe that you can pick this from any page. The size of book is because I tried addressing as much as I could in this book. Thank you. Jai Hind.

The forgotten story of Central Asia's enlightenment—its rise, fall, and enduring legacy In this sweeping and richly illustrated history, S. Frederick Starr tells the fascinating but largely unknown story of Central Asia's medieval enlightenment through the eventful lives and astonishing accomplishments of its greatest minds—remarkable figures who built a bridge to the modern world. Because nearly all of these figures wrote in Arabic, they were long assumed to have been Arabs. In fact, they were from Central Asia—drawn from the Persianate and Turkic peoples of a region that today extends from Kazakhstan southward through Afghanistan, and from the easternmost province of Iran through Xinjiang, China. Lost Enlightenment recounts how, between the years 800 and 1200, Central Asia led the world in trade and economic development, the size and sophistication of its cities, the refinement of its arts, and, above all, in the advancement of knowledge in many fields. Central Asians achieved signal breakthroughs in astronomy, mathematics, geology, medicine, chemistry, music, social science, philosophy, and theology, among other subjects. They gave algebra its name, calculated the earth's diameter with unprecedented precision, wrote the books that later defined European medicine, and penned some of the world's greatest poetry. One scholar, working in Afghanistan, even predicted the existence of North and South America—five centuries before Columbus. Rarely in history has a more impressive group of polymaths appeared at one place and time. No wonder that their writings influenced European culture from the time of St. Thomas Aquinas down to the scientific revolution, and had a similarly deep impact in India and much of Asia. Lost Enlightenment chronicles this forgotten age of achievement, seeks to explain its rise, and explores the competing theories about the cause of its eventual demise. Informed by the latest scholarship yet written in a lively and accessible style, this is a book that will surprise general readers and specialists alike.

Taking cues from Walter Benjamin’s fragmentary writings on literary-historical method, Late Colonial Sublime reconstellates the dialectic of Enlightenment across a wide imperial geography, with special focus on the fashioning of neo-epics in Hindi and Urdu literary cultures in British India. Working through the limits of both Marxism and postcolonial critique, this book forges an innovative approach to the question of late romanticism and grounds categories such as the sublime within the dynamic of commodification. While G. S. Sahota takes canonical European critics such as Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer to the outskirts of empire, he reads Indian writers such as Muhammad Iqbal and Jayashankar Prasad in light of the expansion of instrumental rationality and the neotraditional critiques of the West it spurred at the onset of decolonization. By bringing together distinct literary canons—both metropolitan and colonial, hegemonic and subaltern, Western and Eastern, all of which took shape upon the common realities of imperial capitalism—Late Colonial Sublime takes an original dialectical approach. It experiments with fragments, parallaxes, and constellational form to explore the aporias of modernity as well as the possible futures they may signal in our midst. A bold intervention into contemporary debates that synthesizes a wealth of sources, this book will interest readers and scholars in world literature, critical theory, postcolonial criticism, and South Asian studies.

Islamic Thought is a fresh and contemporary introduction to the philosophies and doctrines of Islam. Abdullah Saeed, a distinguished Muslim scholar, traces the development of religious knowledge in Islam, from the pre-modern to the modern period. The book focuses on Muslim thought, as well as the development, production and transmission of religious knowledge, and the trends, schools and movements that have contributed to the production of this knowledge. Key topics in Islamic culture are explored, including the development of the Islamic intellectual tradition, the two foundation texts, the Qur’an and Hadith, legal thought, theological thought, mystical thought, Islamic Art, philosophical thought, political thought, and renewal, reform and rethinking today. Through this rich and varied discussion, Saeed presents a fascinating depiction of how Islam was lived in the past and how its adherents practise it in the present. Islamic Thought is essential reading for students beginning the study of Islam but will also interest anyone seeking to learn more about one of the world’s great religions.