Charlton Heston

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...

Aurelius Augustinus was a key figure in the transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. He lived at a time when no distinction was made between philosophy and theology, and the purpose of both was to show the way to wisdom, happiness, and blessedness. Augustinian thought is perhaps best capsulated in Anselm's famous maxim: "I believe in order to understand." Augustine believed the principal business of life is to arrive at the blissful...

A Portuguese Jew living in Holland, Spinoza sought a life of "supreme and unending happiness". Unable to find deep satisfaction in the usual pleasures of social life, politics or business (or in riches, fame, or sensual pleasure), Spinoza sought a more stable source of contentment. And he found this contentment in God, though not the God of Moses or the Christian Trinity. Spinoza wrote in the rationalist style of a geometric proof to develop his...

For Kierkegaard, truth is a subjective reality which we must live, not simply something to consider and discuss. His self-consciousness and self-examination highlight the practical demands of existence, and he opposes the speculative thinking of philosophical idealists (especially Hegel). Kierkegaard urges the reader to commit to make choices about how to live. In Either/Or, he concentrates on sensual indulgence versus duty, the avant garde versus...

In the late 13th century, this quiet reflective Dominican scholar concentrated his work on philosophical concerns that today would be considered to be partly theological. He combined the work of Aristotle with Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and pagan thought to reconcile reason and faith; he believed we can know that God exists, but not what god is like. Thomas's masterpiece, the Summa Theologiae (Summa Theologica), contains over 10,000 objections and...

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. Building on an insight from Hume, Kant says that our reason organizes our sense perception to produce knowledge. The mind is a creative force for understanding...

Hegel created a vast speculative and idealistic philosophy, where truth is found not in the part but in the whole. Nature is an organic whole shot through with rationality akin to the reason in ourselves. Hegel's famous "dialectic" is an organic process of growth and development in three stages: beginning, advance and resolution. It has two sides: the rational patterns that determine all growth in the world and the logical form of reason. Each person...

Tom Berenger, Charlton Heston and James Coburn star in this exciting Western adventure which traces the troubled Utah settlement of the early Mormon church. In the 1800s, thousands of Mormons set out on a treacherous trail for the promised land of Utah. Among them was young Miles Utley (Berenger), one of controversial prophet Brigham Young's (Heston) loyal followers and trained protectors. But when sharpshooter Miles averts an assassination attempt...

Two teenagers journey into the Alaskan wilderness to rescue their father, a bush pilot whose plane has crashed.

Charlton Heston is the powerful, brooding owner of a plantation in the wild and treacherous South American jungle. Eleanor Parker is his charming American mail-order bride. But Heston is wary of the beautiful and talented Parker, and wonders why she would leave America for the rigors of jungle life. They’re both threatened by the advance of billions of relentless killer ants who are making their way across the jungle — cutting a path of creeping...