Charlton Heston has narrated 10 audiobooks on Listento.it by 11 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 10 ratings. The most-rated is Baruch Spinoza.
Baruch Spinoza
Summary
A Portuguese Jew living in Holland, Spinoza was excommunicated because of the unorthodox view he took of God. Spinoza wrote in the rationalist style of a geometric proof to develop his idea of God as the infinite, indwelling cause of all things, a unified causal system that is virtually synonymous with nature. In this system, there is no free will, for all things are necessary and inevitable, and all objects, including humans, are part of God's active self-expression. Our minds can participate in the eternity of God by focusing on natural laws and the way all things follow from God or nature. Human fulfillment is possible, he believed, only by rejecting our finite, flawed selves and identifying with the eternal within us. Spinoza believed that by doing so we can love God with an immediate devotion without asking anything in return. The Giants of Philosophy is a series of dramatic presentations, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall world view of history's greatest philosophers. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life.
©1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products (P)1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products
Friedrich Nietzsche
Summary
Nietzsche condemned nearly all of the religious and philosophical thought of his day to blunt terms (e.g., God is dead). He says the only reality is this world of life and death, conflict and change, creation and destruction. For centuries, religious ideas have given meaning to life in the western world; but as they now collapse, humanity faces a grave crisis of nihilism and despair. The basic character of life in this world is to exhibit a primal tendency he calls "will to power". He glorifies those who are strong enough to face this reality: for they alone can live joyfully, without God and without any hope of ultimate salvation. The "overman" is his new ideal, the symbol of creativity incarnate. Man is fundamentally only an animal that has developed in an unusual way. Yet a "higher humanity" can emerge if the most talented, creative, and strongest individuals flourish and prevail, rising above the life of the "common herd" that typifies mankind. Nietzsche rejects democratic ideals, believing that they ignore human differences and hinder the exceptionally talented. Conflict, mastery, and creativity are essential to life and its development. The "will to power" brings about new forms of competition and superiority, as artists and other creative types pave the way for the "enhancement" of human life. The Giants of Philosophy is a series of dramatic presentations, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall world view of history's greatest philosophers. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life.
©1991 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products (P)1991 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products
David Hume
Summary
David Hume (1711-1776) represented the culmination of the British philosophy of sense-experience. Although he lived in the age of reason, Hume had profound doubts about our ability to know anything in the world with certainty. This skepticism colored his view of science and gave rise to his devastating attack on proofs of the existence of God. Hume believed that values are neither objective nor universal, but nevertheless was optimistic about human nature and our ability to achieve decency in our actions. The Giants of Philosophy is a series of dramatic presentations, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall world view of history's greatest philosophers. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life.
©1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products (P)1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products
Immanuel Kant
Summary
Immanuel Kant's "transcendental" philosophy transcends the question of "what" we know to ask "how" we know it. Before Kant, philosophers had debated for centuries whether knowledge is derived from experience or reason. Kant says that both views are partly right and partly wrong, that they share the same error; both believe that the mind and the world, reason and nature, are separated from one another. Kant says that our reason organizes our sense perception to produce knowledge. The mind is a creative force for understanding the manifold of new, unconceptualized sense impressions with which the world bombards us. The Giants of Philosophy is a series of dramatic presentations, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall world view of history's greatest philosophers. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life.
©1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products (P)1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products
Jean-Paul Sartre
Summary
Jean-Paul Sartre, a French philosopher, is perhaps the best known advocate of existentialism. In this view, no external authority gives life meaning: mankind is radically free and responsible. In every moment we choose ourselves, with no assurance that we have a continuing identity or power. We set up determinisms to ease our minds, but in the face of the finality of death, only through our present consciousness do we establish our own authentic existence. Sartre's existentialism faces the evil in human existence and sees that humans are responsible for it. The Giants of Philosophy is a series of dramatic presentations, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall world view of history's greatest philosophers. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life.
©1991 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products (P)1991 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products
Aristotle
Summary
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was Plato's student, but revised his teacher's ideas to be more consistent with ordinary experience. He thought human beings are one with the rest of nature, yet set apart from it by their ability to reason. Aristotle systematized the laws of thought, gave a complete account of nature and God, and developed an attractive view of the good life and the good society. He also provided the first systematic expositions of physics, biology, psychology, and the standards of literature. The Giants of Philosophy is a series of dramatic presentations, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall world view of history's greatest philosophers. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life.
©1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products (P)1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products
Soren Kierkegaard
Summary
For Kierkegaard, truth is a subjective reality which we must live, not something to simply consider and discuss. His self-consciousness and self-examination highlight the practical demands of existence, and he opposes the speculative thinking of philosophical idealists. Kierkegaard says much of life's meaning depends not on external conditions, but on our internal choices about relating to them. He urges us to live with purpose and emphasizes that our task is not knowing but doing. In Either/Or, he concentrates on sensual indulgence versus duty and the avant garde versus tradition. In Sickness unto Death, Kierkegaard diagnoses a spiritual disease throughout society: despair. Kierkegaard argues that we are estranged from the source of our very being as we try to escape the moral responsibility of the self. The Giants of Philosophy is a series of dramatic presentations, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall world view of history's greatest philosophers. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life.
©1991 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products (P)1991 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products
Plato
Summary
Plato was the first great philosopher of the West to organize and record the issues and questions that define philosophy. A student of Socrates, Plato preserved the teachings of his mentor in many famous "dialogues" that deal with classic issues like law and justice, perception and reality, death and the soul, mind and body, reason and passion, and the nature of love. The most famous of all Platonic doctrines is the "theory of forms", the idea that there are changeless, eternal forms on which existing things are modeled. The Giants of Philosophy is a series of dramatic presentations, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall world view of history's greatest philosophers. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life.
©1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products (P)1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products
St. Augustine
Summary
St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.) was the first great systematic Christian philosopher. He attempted to combine the philosophical insights of Plato with the faith explicated in the Bible. Augustine thought of Plato's eternal forms as ideas in the mind of God; he believed that the Eternal Christ provides the light of knowledge to the human mind. For Augustine, every time we make a judgment of relative value, we implicitly acknowledge an absolute standard of value, which is God. His Confessions constitutes one of the timeless statements of faith and self-surrender. The Giants of Philosophy is a series of dramatic presentations, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall world view of history's greatest philosophers. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life.
©1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products (P)1990 Carmichael & Carmichael, Inc. and Knowledge Products
Carnival of the Animals
Summary
This star-studded rendition of Ogden Nash's humorous verses backed by a full-orchestra performance of Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals will surely delight adults and children of all ages. Performed by Ted Danson, Audrey Hepburn, Charlton Heston, James Earl Jones, Arte Johnson, Walter Matthau, Dudley Moore, Deborah Raffin, Lynn Redgrave, Joan Rivers, William Shatner, Jaclyn Smith, Lily Tomlin, and Betty White. Music performed by Mona Golabek and Renee Golabek. Conducted by Lalo Schifrin.
Public Domain (P)1993, 2017 Dove Audio / Phoenix Books