In this instant New York Times bestseller, Angela Duckworth shows anyone striving to succeed that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent, but a special blend of passion and persistence she calls “grit.” “Inspiration for non-geniuses everywhere” (People). The daughter of a scientist who frequently noted her lack of “genius,” Angela Duckworth is now a celebrated researcher and professor. It was her early eye-opening stints in teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience that led to her hypothesis about what really drives success: not genius, but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance. In Grit, she takes us into the field to visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll. “Duckworth’s ideas about the cultivation of tenacity have clearly changed some lives for the better” (The New York Times Book Review). Among Grit’s most valuable insights: any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal; grit can be learned, regardless of IQ or circumstances; when it comes to child-rearing, neither a warm embrace nor high standards will work by themselves; how to trigger lifelong interest; the magic of the Hard Thing Rule; and so much more. Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that—not talent or luck—makes all the difference. This is “a fascinating tour of the psychological research on success” (The Wall Street Journal).

Fifteen classic essays illuminate a broad cross-section of the intellectual history of the Renaissance. The Journal of the History of Ideashas, over the years, published many important articles on the Renaissance; this selection provides a significant index of American scholarship in the field in the first twenty-five years of the journal's publication. Apart from the quality of the papers, the main criterion of selection has been their diversity. The editors aimed to present a broad cross-section of the intellectual history of the Renaissance, and have on the whole preferred comprehensive rather than monographic studies. The so-called problem of the Renaissance is represented by FERGUSON; the historical thought of the period by WEISINGER, BARON, and REYNOLDS; its social, moral and religious thought by ADAMS, RICE and TRINKAUS; humanism by GRAY; philsophy and science by CASSIRER, RANDALL and BOUWSMA; literature by TUVE; the visual artsby SCHAPIRO; and music by LOWINSKY. First published 1968.

The Passion of Infinity generates a historical narrative surrounding the concept of the irrational as a threat which rational culture has made a series of attempts to understand and relieve. It begins with a reading of Sophocles' Oedipus as the paradigmatic figure of a reason that, having transgressed its mortal limit, becomes catastrophically reversed. It then moves through Aristotle's ethics, psychology and theory of tragedy, which redefine reason's collapses in moral-psychological rather than religious terms. By changing the way in which the irrational is conceived, and the nature of its relation to reason, Aristotle eliminates the concept of an irrationality which reason cannot in principle dissolve. The book culminates in an extensive reading of Kierkegaard's pseudonyms, who, in a critical retrieval of both Greek tragedy and Aristotle, prescribe their apparently pathological age a paradoxical task: develop a finite form of subjectivity willing to undergo an unthinkable thought ‐ allow the transcendence of a god to enter into the mind as well as the marrow, to make a tragic appearance in which a limit to the immanence of human reason can again be established.

The book transcends conventional social scientific method, political theory and its understanding of global governance to make the study of the philosophical essence of the international legal system fully accessible.

This study examines the impact of the medieval Muslim philosophers al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) on Leo Strauss. Through meticulous source analysis, Georges Tamer critically evaluates Strauss's interpretation of their works. Furthermore, he explores how Islamic philosophy shaped Strauss's understanding of Maimonides and Plato, providing a compelling solution to the modernity crisis he identified. Offering fresh perspectives on the evolution of Strauss's thought and his distinctive approach to Arabic sources, Tamer sheds light on the pivotal role of al-Fārābī, the most significant Muslim philosopher in Strauss's view, including key aspects of al-Fārābī's political philosophy and his nuanced take on Plato's ideas. Islamic Philosophy and the Crisis of Modernity is a valuable addition to current scholarship on Strauss. Both philosophically erudite and philologically rigorous, Tamer presents the reader with a balanced perspective on Strauss's insights without being overly reverential or dismissive.