Tag Archives | Charles Armstrong

STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX VOLUME 1

The Evolution of Modesty • The Phenomena of Sexual Periodicity • Auto-Erotism
By Havelock Ellis
Read by Charles Armstrong
12 hours 42 minutes

Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) was a pioneering figure in modern sexual studies. In the early years of the 20th century, through his seven volumes of Studies in the Psychology of Sex, he paved the way for a more scientific and less judgemental attitude towards the subject, unhampered by the restrictions of religious or moral conventions. Ellis (simultaneously with Sigmund Freud) helped Western society to consider sexual behaviour, in all its many forms, with fresh eyes. Continue Reading →

STUDIES IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SEX VOLUME 2

Sexual Inversion – Homosexuality
By Havelock Ellis
Read by Charles Armstrong
16 hours 29 minutes

The seven volumes of Studies in the Psychology of Sex by Havelock Ellis (1859-1939) which appeared between 1900 and 1928 were each a landmark in the more open considerations of sexual impulse in the Western world. And none more so than Volume 2 which appeared in 1900. It examined homosexuality, though Ellis more frequently used the term ‘sexual inversion’ which, at the time, had broader (but not derogatory) implications. Continue Reading →

A PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAY ON PROBABILITIES

By Pierre-Simon Laplace
Read by Charles Armstrong
5 hours 03 minutes

Pierre-Simon, Marquis de Laplace (1749-1827) is often described as the ‘French Newton’, though he lived a century later.His working life took him through the French Revolution, the Napoleonic era – during which he enjoyed various political positions – and afterwards, to the Bourbon Restoration. Continue Reading →

REFLECTIONS ON VIOLENCE

By Georges Sorel
Read by Charles Armstrong
8 hours 41 minutes

More than a century after Reflections on Violence first appeared (1908) it remains a remarkably controversial essay. The concept of violence as a means to an end (social, religious, political or for aggrandisement) is hugely challenging as a philosophical subject – yet it is, of course, universally (and frequently) pursued. The French thinker and political theorist Georges Sorel (1847-1922), fired up by his interest in Marxism and his anger at the injustice of the Dreyfus case, faced this challenge and in the seven chapters of Reflections on Violence he explored the question. Continue Reading →

DISCOURSE ON METAPHYSICS ON THE ULTIMATE ORIGIN OF THINGS

By Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Read by Charles Armstrong
5 hours 15 minutes

This Leibniz collection contains some of the philosopher’s most important works and ideas, spans three decades and illuminates the fascinating intellectual journey undertaken by him in his quest for truth. A prodigious polymath, Leibniz was a mathematician, philosopher, physicist and statesman and engaged with a sweeping range of ideas and disciplines, striving throughout his life to be at the cutting edge of scientific thinking. These Principal Essays are arranged in chronological order. Continue Reading →

Navigation