descartes's meditactions
Descartes' contributions to philosophy have established him and indeed, many agree that he is the first modern philosopher. In fact, in the history of philosophy, Descartes marks the moment of a fundamentally new philosophical perspective. His treatise, Meditations on First Philosophy, was published in 1641 and this is the work that he is most renowned for nowadays. Because what we experience rationally is what we consider real and we claim that such "activities" as dreaming are a different "state of affairs", Descartes sought to illuminate such claims which we base our knowledge on. His method may appear reductive at first, as he suggests to set aside whatever knowledge that is obtained without control, but thereon, he requests analytical judgement that is to be applied to any knowledge in a step by step process. That is to say, knowledge is to be subjected to a division process with an emphasis on the basic elements which need to be simple and distinct. Because of such thinking, Descartes has often been regarded a skeptic but, as we shall see, skepticism, in the philosopher's vision, is the instrument by which philosophical investigation is conducted.
Secret the Power by Rhonda Byrne
Rhonda Byrne's The Secret: The Power (2010) is truly an incredibly bad book, simplistic, repetitive and divorced from real history, politics or economics, yet it has sold 19 million copies. A cynic might say that the real secret to wealth is writing a bestselling book that millions will buy. Her 2006 book The Secret sold more over 19 million copies and was translated into 46 languages, and she was also a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show and many others on the daytime TV chat circuit. Like all self-help writers, she has a talent for publishing the same advice repeatedly in new books that claim to offer even greater insights than past philosophers and religious teachers and in 2007 Byrne wrote The Secret Gratitude Book, followed a year later by The Secret: Daily Teachings. Her latest offering is about 250 pages long and quickly appeared on the bestseller lists, which indicates the type of strong cult following that all publishers desire. Byrne's central thesis is that human beings can change their entire lives and have everything they want simply by wishing for it, including money, wealth, happiness, careers, and romantic relationships.