The Vehement Passions

The Vehement Passions PDF Author: Philip Fisher
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400824893
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 279

Book Description
Breaking off the ordinary flow of experience, the passions create a state of exception. In their suddenness and intensity, they map a personal world, fix and qualify our attention, and impel our actions. Outraged anger drives us to write laws that will later be enforced by impersonal justice. Intense grief at the death of someone in our life discloses the contours of that life to us. Wonder spurs scientific inquiry. The strong current of Western thought that idealizes a dispassionate world has ostracized the passions as quaint, even dangerous. Intense states have come to be seen as symptoms of pathology. A fondness for irony along with our civic ideal of tolerance lead us to prefer the diluted emotional life of feelings and moods. Demonstrating enormous intellectual originality and generosity, Philip Fisher meditates on whether this victory is permanent-and how it might diminish us. From Aristotle to Hume to contemporary biology, Fisher finds evidence that the passions have defined a core of human nature no less important than reason or desire. Traversing the Iliad, King Lear, Moby Dick, and other great works, he discerns the properties of the high-spirited states we call the passions. Are vehement states compatible with a culture that values private, selectively shared experiences? How do passions differ from emotions? Does anger have an opposite? Do the passions give scale, shape, and significance to our experience of time? Is a person incapable of anger more dangerous than someone who is irascible? In reintroducing us to our own vehemence, Fisher reminds us that it is only through our strongest passions that we feel the contours of injustice, mortality, loss, and knowledge. It is only through our personal worlds that we can know the world.

The Christian Life

The Christian Life PDF Author: Francis L. B. Cunningham OP
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725227312
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 852

Book Description
"The proper study of mankind," said Alexander Pope, "is man'' -an apt summary of the spirit of his age of rationalism. All of Christian tradition protests against this mockery of the true state of things; divine revelation contradicts it outright; a just philosophy recoils from so limited an approach to reality. That distilled wisdom of Catholicism which is theology knows one subject and one subject only: God. But theology first considers God as he is the cause of all things and their exemplar; in this vision it considers all of reality, which is more true in divine thought than when seen directly in itself. Now the theologian turns to study God as he is the end and perfecting goal of creatures in their return to him from whom they first came forth; in particular he will study the creature who alone holds the reins of his own conduct: man. (from the Introduction) This edition is a scanned facsimile of the original edition published in 1959 by Priory Press

Hobbes

Hobbes PDF Author: Bernard Gert
Publisher: Polity
ISBN: 0745648827
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 196

Book Description
Thomas Hobbes was the first great English political philosopher. His work excited intense controversy among his contemporaries and continues to do so in our own time. In this masterly introduction to his work, Bernard Gert provides the first account of Hobbes’s political and moral philosophy that makes it clear why he is regarded as one of the best philosophers of all time in both of these fields. In a succinct and engaging analysis the book illustrates that the commonly accepted view of Hobbes as holding psychological egoism is not only incompatible with his account of human nature but is also incompatible with the moral and political theories that he puts forward. It also explains why Hobbes’s contemporaries did not accept his explicit claim to be providing a natural law account of morality. Gert shows that for Hobbes, civil society is established by a free-gift of their right of nature by the citizens; it does not involve a mutual contract between citizens and sovereign. As injustice involves breaking a contract, the sovereign cannot be unjust; however, the sovereign can be guilty of ingratitude, which is immoral. This distinction between injustice and immorality is part of a sophisticated and nuanced political theory that is in stark contrast to the reading often incorrectly attributed to Hobbes that “might makes right”. It illustrates how Hobbes’s goal of avoiding civil war provides the key to understanding his moral and political philosophy. Hobbes: Prince of Peace is likely to become the classic introduction to the work of Thomas Hobbes and will be a valuable resource for scholars and students seeking to understand the importance and relevance of his work today.

George Campbell

George Campbell PDF Author: Arthur E. Walzer
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791455777
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 188

Book Description
This introductory book on George Campbell discusses details of his life and his intellectual milieu, including his role in the Scottish Enlightenment in Aberdeen. In addition, Arthur E. Walzer provides a thorough examination of Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, the most important work in rhetorical theory of the Enlightenment. Brief analyses of Campbell's Dissertation on Miracles and Lectures on Pulpit Eloquence are also given.

Why Milton Matters: A New Preface to His Writings

Why Milton Matters: A New Preface to His Writings PDF Author: J. Wittreich
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230601421
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Book Description
Wittreich demonstrates why Milton may prove to be the poet for the new millennium, in a book of interest to scholars and general readers. It engages the canonical Milton, as well as the Milton of popular culture, and uses the tools of theory- especially affective stylistics and reception history, to read Milton in his historical moment and our own.

A Passion for Cultural Studies

A Passion for Cultural Studies PDF Author: Ben Highmore
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137019204
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 163

Book Description
The culture that infiltrates our lives can provoke a range of feelings and afflictions – culture can move you, get under your skin and stir up your emotions. Ben Highmore uses these feelings, or 'passions', to explore the culture that surrounds us and uses it as a basis to introduce and explain the key ideas, debates and theories that are central to cultural studies. Impressively accessible and packed with absorbing examples from everyday life, this compact book is the ideal entry-point into cultural studies. The chapters examine problematic and complex issues that are core to cultural studies, looking at the experience of migration, the nature of the media, the lure of commodities, the world of taste and the culture of love. Cleverly written in a way that's easy to follow and enjoyable to read, the text gives a sense of the discipline as a way of thinking rather than an amalgamation of theories, and whets the appetite of all those interested in cultural studies. Whether you're a student who's new to the field, or a seasoned scholar seeking a fresh idea about what cultural studies can do, this clear and concise text encourages you to become truly passionate about cultural studies.

Marking Time

Marking Time PDF Author: Paul Rabinow
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140082799X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 167

Book Description
In Marking Time, Paul Rabinow presents his most recent reflections on the anthropology of the contemporary. Drawing richly on the work of Michel Foucault, John Dewey, Niklas Luhmann, and, most interestingly, German painter Gerhard Richter, Rabinow offers a set of conceptual tools for scholars examining cutting-edge practices in the life sciences, security, new media and art practices, and other emergent phenomena. Taking up topics that include bioethics, anger and competition among molecular biologists, the lessons of the Drosophila genome, the nature of ethnographic observation in radically new settings, and the moral landscape shared by scientists and anthropologists, Rabinow shows how anthropology remains relevant to contemporary debates. By turning abstract philosophical problems into real-world explorations and offering original insights, Marking Time is a landmark contribution to the continuing re-invention of anthropology and the human sciences.
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Rits Blog by Crimson Themes.