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Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy

Meditations (Paperback): Marcus Aurelius Meditations (Paperback)
Marcus Aurelius
R240 R144 Discovery Miles 1 440 Save R96 (40%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

How to live a better life. One of the most important books on Western philosophy - a powerful and inspirational guide for the complicated world of today

Few ancient works have been as influential as the MEDITATIONS of Marcus Aurelius. Filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound understanding of human behaviour, it remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus's insights and advice - on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others - have made the MEDITATIONS required reading for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style.

In Gregory Hays's translation Marcus's thoughts speak with a new immediacy. Never before have Marcus's insights been so directly and powerfully presented.

Genealogy and Social Status in the Enlightenment (Paperback): Stephane Jettot, Jean-Paul Zuniga Genealogy and Social Status in the Enlightenment (Paperback)
Stephane Jettot, Jean-Paul Zuniga
R2,543 Discovery Miles 25 430 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Genealogy and Social Status in the Enlightenment is at the crossroads of the history of science and the social history of cultural practices, and suggests the need for a new approach on the significance of genealogies in the Age of Enlightenment. While their importance has been fully recognised and extensively studied in early modern Britain and in the Victorian period, the long eighteenth century has been too often presented as a black hole regarding genealogy. Enlightened values and urban sociability have been presented as inimical to the praise of ancestry and birth. In contrast, however, various studies on the continental or in the American colonies, have shed light on the many uses of genealogies, even beyond the landed elite. Whether it be in the publishing industry, in the urban corporations, in the scientific discourses, genealogy was used, not only as a resilient social practice, but also as a form of reasoning, a language and a tool to include newcomers, organise scientific and historical knowledge or to express various emotions. This volume aims to reconsider the flexibility of genealogical practices and their perpetual reconfiguration to meet renewed expectations in the period. Far from slowly vanishing under the blows of rationalism that would have delegitimized an ancient world based on various forms of hereditary determinism, the different contributions to this collective work demonstrate that genealogy is a pervasive tool to make sense of a fast-changing society.

United Credit - Prosperity without Money (Paperback): Jonathon Ray Spinney United Credit - Prosperity without Money (Paperback)
Jonathon Ray Spinney
R448 R351 Discovery Miles 3 510 Save R97 (22%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

According to Jonathon Ray Spinney, our current economy is fatally flawed. American corporations are destroying community economies as well as State and Federal tax bases. Increasingly, large corporations are cutting back employee hours to part time. They are phasing out good paying jobs, hiring at lower wages, cutting benefits and health care which effectively destroys community economies. On the other end, corporations manipulate their tax liabilities and often pay little or nothing to State and Federal governments -- governments that are now struggling to deal with the increasing social/economic needs of people. People are being forced into social welfare and large corporations are contributing little or nothing into the social welfare system putting individuals, communities and governments into ever increasing debt. Now is the time to begin creating a bridge to new economic prosperity by: creating and sustaining a new economic/philosophic model based on the actual deeds and meaningful human actions of sharing and working towards a common humanitarian vision of peace and prosperity for all; eventually removing paper (valueless) money from community economies and replace it with a form of economic compensation that is rich with human purpose, social/economic equality and humanitarian advancement. The economic compensation or credit/reward that United Credit envisions would be far more valuable than money something that would never be affected by inflation, bank failures, or economic collapse. United Credit proposes a new economic philosophy and bridge ideas to creating a blanket security system that could provide for the needs of all people who are willing to enter a new humanitarian age of helping others.

Reframing Rousseau's Levite d'Ephraim - The Hebrew Bible, Hospitality, and Modern Identity (Paperback): Barbara... Reframing Rousseau's Levite d'Ephraim - The Hebrew Bible, Hospitality, and Modern Identity (Paperback)
Barbara Abrams, Mira Morgenstern, Karen Sullivan
R2,921 Discovery Miles 29 210 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Le Levite d'Ephraim, Rousseau's re-imagining of the final chapters of the Book of Judges, contains major themes of Rousseau's oeuvre and lays forth central concerns of his intellectual projects. Among the themes highlighted in the concentrated narrative are: the nature of signs and symbols and their relationship to the individual and society that produce them; the role of hospitality in constituting civil society; the textually-displayed moral disorder as foreshadowing political revolution; and finally, the role of violence in creating a unified polity. In Le Levite d'Ephraim, Rousseau explores the psychological and communal implications of violence and, through them, the social and political context of society. The incarnation of violence on the bodies of the women in this story highlights the centrality of women in Rousseau's thought. Women are systematically dismembered, both literally and figuratively, and this draws the reader's attention to the significance of these women as they are perennially re-membered inside and outside the text. This study of these themes in Le Levite d'Ephraim places it in relation to the biblical text at its origins and to Rousseau's own writings and larger cultural concerns as he grapples with the challenges of modernity.

Modern Europe and the Enlightenment (Hardcover): Modern Europe and the Enlightenment (Hardcover)
R3,444 Discovery Miles 34 440 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In June 2019, in an interview given to the Financial Times, Russian President Vladimir Putin baldly declared that the liberal idea had outlived its purpose as the public turned against immigration, open borders and multiculturalism. If liberalism has indeed come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population then evidence should show that it is in retreat. Ipso facto, so should Enlightenment values that underpin liberal democracy. A key aim of the book is to garner evidence. Is the liberal idea characterised by Putin accurate or rather a caricature divorced from reality? Modern Europe and the Enlightenment explores whether the policy stance on the issues outlined above, and a host of similar topics being tackled by European governments, are consonant with Enlightenment values. The Enlightenment covered an array of issues on every aspect of life wherein reason was rigorously applied to solve problems, gain understanding and discover facts. It was a successor to the scientific revolution. The assumption is that the Enlightenment left a profound legacy on Western Europe, which lingers till the present day. The following broad areas of Enlightenment values are covered: reason, human rights, religion and secularism, freedom of expression, political and economic open-mindedness, race, and womens issues. The book examines the extent to which Enlightenment values are adhered to in various parts of modern Europe delineated into Western Europe, the progenitor of the Enlightenment; former communist countries that have joined the European Union; and former communist countries that are not in the EU. Discussion also focuses on the modern Counter-Enlightenment movement.

The War on the West - How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason (Hardcover): Douglas Murray The War on the West - How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason (Hardcover)
Douglas Murray
R445 Discovery Miles 4 450 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 'The most important book of the year' Daily Mail The brilliant and provocative new book from one of the world's foremost political writers 'The anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high time that we revise them in turn...' In The War on the West, international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the history of humankind is one of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the blame for it? It's become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws and crimes is called hate speech. What's more it has become acceptable to discuss the flaws and crimes of Western culture, but celebrating their contributions is also called hate speech. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning; however, some is part of a larger international attack on reason, democracy, science, progress and the citizens of the West by dishonest scholars, hatemongers, hostile nations and human-rights abusers hoping to distract from their ongoing villainy. In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows the ways in which many well-meaning people have been lured into polarisation by lies, and shows how far the world's most crucial political debates have been hijacked across Europe and America. Propelled by an incisive deconstruction of inconsistent arguments and hypocritical activism, The War on the West is an essential and urgent polemic that cements Murray's status as one of the world's foremost political writers.

Vico and China (Paperback): Daniel Canaris Vico and China (Paperback)
Daniel Canaris
R2,925 Discovery Miles 29 250 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

While the resonance of Giambattista Vico's hermeneutics for postcolonialism has long been recognised, a rupture has been perceived between his intercultural sensibility and the actual content of his philological investigations, which have often been criticised as being Eurocentric and philologically spurious. China is a case in point. In his magnum opus New Science, Vico portrays China as backward and philosophically primitive compared to Europe. In this first study dedicated to China in Vico's thought, Daniel Canaris shows that scholars have been beguiled by Vico's value judgements of China without considering the function of these value judgements in his theory of divine providence. This monograph illustrates that Vico's image of China is best appreciated within the contemporary theological controversies surrounding the Jesuit accommodation of Confucianism. Through close examination of Vico's sources and intellectual context, Canaris argues that by refusing to consider Confucius as a "filosofo", Vico dismantles the rationalist premises of the theological accommodation proposed by the Jesuits and proposes a new functionalist valorisation of non-Christian religion that anticipates post-colonial critiques of the Enlightenment.

Reading Philosophy - Selected Texts with a Method for Beginners (Paperback, 2nd Edition): S Guttenplan Reading Philosophy - Selected Texts with a Method for Beginners (Paperback, 2nd Edition)
S Guttenplan
R900 Discovery Miles 9 000 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

A key introductory philosophy textbook, making use of an innovative, interactive technique for reading philosophical texts Reading Philosophy: Selected Texts with a Method for Beginners, Second Edition, provides a unique approach to reading philosophy, requiring students to engage with material as they read. It contains carefully selected texts, commentaries on those texts, and questions for the reader to think about as they read. It serves as starting points for both classroom discussion and independent study. The texts cover a wide range of topics drawn from diverse areas of philosophical investigation, ranging over ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, aesthetics, and political philosophy. This edition has been updated and expanded. New chapters discuss the moral significance of friendship and love, the subjective nature of consciousness and the ways that science might explore conscious experience. And there are new texts and commentary in chapters on doubt, self and moral dilemmas. Guides readers through the experience of active, engaged philosophical reading Presents significant texts, contextualized for newcomers to philosophy Includes writings by philosophers from antiquity to the late 20th-century Contains commentary that provides the context and background necessary for discussion and argument Prompts readers to think through specific questions and to reach their own conclusions This book is an ideal resource for beginning students in philosophy, as well as for anyone wishing to engage with the subject on their own.

Modern Europe and the Enlightenment (Paperback): Modern Europe and the Enlightenment (Paperback)
R963 Discovery Miles 9 630 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In June 2019, in an interview given to the Financial Times, Russian President Vladimir Putin baldly declared that the liberal idea had outlived its purpose as the public turned against immigration, open borders and multiculturalism. If liberalism has indeed come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population then evidence should show that it is in retreat. Ipso facto, so should Enlightenment values that underpin liberal democracy. A key aim of the book is to garner evidence. Is the liberal idea characterised by Putin accurate or rather a caricature divorced from reality? Modern Europe and the Enlightenment explores whether the policy stance on the issues outlined above, and a host of similar topics being tackled by European governments, are consonant with Enlightenment values. The Enlightenment covered an array of issues on every aspect of life wherein reason was rigorously applied to solve problems, gain understanding and discover facts. It was a successor to the scientific revolution. The assumption is that the Enlightenment left a profound legacy on Western Europe, which lingers till the present day. The following broad areas of Enlightenment values are covered: reason, human rights, religion and secularism, freedom of expression, political and economic open-mindedness, race, and womens issues. The book examines the extent to which Enlightenment values are adhered to in various parts of modern Europe delineated into Western Europe, the progenitor of the Enlightenment; former communist countries that have joined the European Union; and former communist countries that are not in the EU. Discussion also focuses on the modern Counter-Enlightenment movement.

How to Give - An Ancient Guide to Giving and Receiving (Hardcover): Seneca How to Give - An Ancient Guide to Giving and Receiving (Hardcover)
Seneca; Edited by James S. Romm
R465 R368 Discovery Miles 3 680 Save R97 (21%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Timeless wisdom on generosity and gratitude from the great Stoic philosopher Seneca To give and receive well may be the most human thing you can do-but it is also the closest you can come to divinity. So argues the great Roman Stoic thinker Seneca (c. 4 BCE-65 CE) in his longest and most searching moral treatise, "On Benefits" (De Beneficiis). James Romm's splendid new translation of essential selections from this work conveys the heart of Seneca's argument that generosity and gratitude are among the most important of all virtues. For Seneca, the impulse to give to others lies at the very foundation of society; without it, we are helpless creatures, worse than wild beasts. But generosity did not arise randomly or by chance. Seneca sees it as part of our desire to emulate the gods, whose creation of the earth and heavens stands as the greatest gift of all. Seneca's soaring prose captures his wonder at that gift, and expresses a profound sense of gratitude that will inspire today's readers. Complete with an enlightening introduction and the original Latin on facing pages, How to Give is a timeless guide to the profound significance of true generosity.

Tragedy and Nation in the Age of Napoleon (Paperback): Clare Siviter Tragedy and Nation in the Age of Napoleon (Paperback)
Clare Siviter
R2,935 Discovery Miles 29 350 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Napoleon's biographers often note his fondness for theatre, but as we approach the bicentenary of the Emperor's death, little remains known about the nature of theatre at the time. This is particularly the case for tragedy, the genre in which France considered itself to surpass its neighbours. Based on extensive archival research, this first sustained study of tragedy under Napoleon examines how a variety of agents used tragedy and its rewriting of history to make an impact on French politics, culture and society, and to help reconstruct the French nation after the Revolution. This volume covers not just Napoleon's efforts, but also those of other individuals in government, the theatrical world, and the wider population. Similarly, it uncovers a public demand for tragedy, be it the return of Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire to the Comedie-Francaise, or new hits like Les Templiers (1805) and Hector (1809). This research also sheds new light on Napoleonic propaganda and censorship, exposing their incoherencies and illustrating how audiences reacted to these processes. In short, Tragedy and Nation in the Age of Napoleon argues that Napoleonic tragedy was not simply tired and derivative; it engaged its audiences, by chomping at the poetic bit, allowing for a retrial of the Revolution, and offering a vision of the new French nation.

The West - A New History of an Old Idea (Hardcover): Naoise Mac Sweeney The West - A New History of an Old Idea (Hardcover)
Naoise Mac Sweeney
R691 R569 Discovery Miles 5 690 Save R122 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

Many of us assume Western Civilization derives from a cultural inheritance that stretches back to classical antiquity, a golden thread that binds us from Plato to NATO. But what if all this is wrong? What if the Western world does not have its ultimate origins in a single cultural bloodline but rather a messy bramble of ancestors and influences? What if The West is just an idea that has been invented, co-opted, and mythologised to serve different purposes through history? As battles over privilege, identity and prejudice rock the cultural wars, it's never been more important to understand how the concept of The West came to be. This book tells a bold, empowering new story of how the idea of the West was created, how it has been used to justify imperialism and racism, and also why it's still a powerful ideological tool to understand our world. Told through the lives of fourteen fascinating historical figures -- from a powerful Roman matriarch to an Islamic scholar, from a crusading Greek soldier to a founding father of the United States, from a slave girl in the new Americas to a British prime minister -- it casts a new light on how the West was invented, embraced, rejected and re-imagined to shape our world today.

Enlightenment Virtue, 1680-1794 (Paperback): James Fowler, Marine Ganofsky Enlightenment Virtue, 1680-1794 (Paperback)
James Fowler, Marine Ganofsky
R2,925 Discovery Miles 29 250 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In a speech delivered in 1794, roughly one year after the execution of Louis XVI, Robespierre boldly declared Terror to be an 'emanation of virtue'. In adapting the concept of virtue to Republican ends, Robespierre was drawing on traditions associated with ancient Greece and Rome. But Republican tradition formed only one of many strands in debates concerning virtue in France and elsewhere in Europe, from 1680 to the Revolution. This collection focuses on moral-philosophical and classical-republican uses of 'virtue' in this period - one that is often associated with a 'crisis of the European mind'. It also considers in what ways debates concerning virtue involved gendered perspectives. The texts discussed are drawn from a range of genres, from plays and novels to treatises, memoirs, and libertine literature. They include texts by authors such as Diderot, Laclos, and Madame de Stael, plus other, lesser-known texts that broaden the volume's perspective. Collectively, the contributors to the volume highlight the central importance of virtue for an understanding of an era in which, as Daniel Brewer argues in the closing chapter, 'the political could not be thought outside its moral dimension, and morality could not be separated from inevitable political consequences'.

The War on the West - How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason (Paperback): Douglas Murray The War on the West - How to Prevail in the Age of Unreason (Paperback)
Douglas Murray
R334 R271 Discovery Miles 2 710 Save R63 (19%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER 'The most important book of the year' Daily Mail The brilliant and provocative new book from one of the world's foremost political writers 'The anti-Western revisionists have been out in force in recent years. It is high time that we revise them in turn...' In The War on the West, international bestselling author Douglas Murray asks: if the history of humankind is one of slavery, conquest, prejudice, genocide and exploitation, why are only Western nations taking the blame for it? It's become perfectly acceptable to celebrate the contributions of non-Western cultures, but discussing their flaws and crimes is called hate speech. What's more it has become acceptable to discuss the flaws and crimes of Western culture, but celebrating their contributions is also called hate speech. Some of this is a much-needed reckoning; however, some is part of a larger international attack on reason, democracy, science, progress and the citizens of the West by dishonest scholars, hatemongers, hostile nations and human-rights abusers hoping to distract from their ongoing villainy. In The War on the West, Douglas Murray shows the ways in which many well-meaning people have been lured into polarisation by lies, and shows how far the world's most crucial political debates have been hijacked across Europe and America. Propelled by an incisive deconstruction of inconsistent arguments and hypocritical activism, The War on the West is an essential and urgent polemic that cements Murray's status as one of the world's foremost political writers.

Soliloquies, BK. 5 - Augustine's Inner Dialogue (Paperback): Saint Augustine Soliloquies, BK. 5 - Augustine's Inner Dialogue (Paperback)
Saint Augustine; Volume editing by John E. Rotelle; St Augustine of Hippo; Translated by Kim Paffenroth
R487 R394 Discovery Miles 3 940 Save R93 (19%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Soliloquies is a work from Augustine's early life, shortly after his conversion, in which are visible all the seeds contained in his future writings. Here we see Augustine as a philosopher, a thinker and a budding theologian.

A Vindication of Love - Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century (Paperback): Cristina Nehring A Vindication of Love - Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century (Paperback)
Cristina Nehring
R424 R353 Discovery Miles 3 530 Save R71 (17%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

In the twenty-first century, political correctness, cynicism, prag-matism, and the commodification of sex have reduced romantic love to a discredited myth or a recreational sport--"a cause for embarrassment," says Cristina Nehring. In "A Vindication of Love," Nehring wrests romantic love from the clutches of retrograde feminists and cutting-edge capitalists, thrill-seeking convenience shoppers and safe-sex moralists. With help from lovers ranging from Heloise and Abelard to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, Nehring celebrates the wild, irreverent, and uncompromising models of love we have inherited--as she rediscovers romantic love's fearless and heroic provenance, and challenges readers to demand partnerships that fully engage body, heart, and mind.

On Consolation - Finding Solace in Dark Times (Hardcover): Michael Ignatieff On Consolation - Finding Solace in Dark Times (Hardcover)
Michael Ignatieff
R521 R425 Discovery Miles 4 250 Save R96 (18%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

As read on BBC Radio 4's 'Book of the Week', a timely, moving and profound exploration of how writers, composers and artists have searched for solace while facing loss, tragedy and crisis, from the historian and Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Michael Ignatieff. 'This erudite and heartfelt survey reminds us that the need for consolation is timeless, as are the inspiring words and examples of those who walked this path before us.' Toronto Star When we lose someone we love, when we suffer loss or defeat, when catastrophe strikes - war, famine, pandemic - we go in search of consolation. Once the province of priests and philosophers, the language of consolation has largely vanished from our modern vocabulary, and the places where it was offered, houses of religion, are often empty. Rejecting the solace of ancient religious texts, humanity since the sixteenth century has increasingly placed its faith in science, ideology, and the therapeutic. How do we console each other and ourselves in an age of unbelief? In a series of portraits of writers, artists, and musicians searching for consolation - from the books of Job and Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, and Primo Levi - writer and historian Michael Ignatieff shows how men and women in extremity have looked to each other across time to recover hope and resilience. Recreating the moments when great figures found the courage to confront their fate and the determination to continue unafraid, On Consolation takes those stories into the present, movingly contending that we can revive these traditions of consolation to meet the anguish and uncertainties of the twenty-first century.

Letters from a Stoic - The Ancient Classic (Hardcover): Seneca Letters from a Stoic - The Ancient Classic (Hardcover)
Seneca
R387 R283 Discovery Miles 2 830 Save R104 (27%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

DISCOVER THE ENDURING LEGACY OF ANCIENT STOICISM Since Roman antiquity, Lucius Annaeus Seneca's Letters have been one of the greatest expressions of Stoic philosophy. In a highly accessible and timeless way, Seneca reveals the importance of cultivating virtue and the fleeting nature of time, and how being clear sighted about death allows us to live a life of meaning and contentment. Letters from a Stoic continues to fascinate and inspire new generations of readers, including those interested in mindfulness and psychological techniques for well-being. This deluxe hardback selected edition includes Seneca's first 65 letters from the Richard M. Gummere translation. An insightful introduction by Donald Robertson traces Seneca's busy life at the centre of Roman power, explores how he reconciled his Stoic outlook with vast personal wealth, and highlights Seneca's relevance for the modern reader.

The Monk and the Philosopher - East Meets West in a Father-Son Dialogue (Paperback, New edition): Jean Fran cois Revel,... The Monk and the Philosopher - East Meets West in a Father-Son Dialogue (Paperback, New edition)
Jean Fran cois Revel, Matthieu Ricard
R298 Discovery Miles 2 980 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The most groundbreaking meeting of Eastern philosophy and Western culture to date. In this father-son dialgue, Revel and Ricard explore the most fundamental questions of human existence and the ways in which they are embraced by Eastern and Western thought. In this meeting of the minds, they touch upon philosophy, spirituality, science, politics, psychology and ethics. They raise the enduring questions: does life have meaning? Why is there suffering, war and hatred? Revel's perspective as an internationally renowned philosopher and Ricard's as a distinguished molecular-geneticist-turned-Buddhist-monk results in a brilliant, accessible and accessible conversation-the most eloquent meeting yet of Eastern & Western thought.

Rebuilding post-Revolutionary Italy 2018 - Leopardi and Vico's `New Science' (Paperback): Martina Piperno Rebuilding post-Revolutionary Italy 2018 - Leopardi and Vico's `New Science' (Paperback)
Martina Piperno
R2,908 Discovery Miles 29 080 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Co-Winner of the Modern Language Association's Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies, 2018. The rediscovery of the thought of Giambattista Vico (1668-1774) - especially his New science - is a post-Revolutionary phenomenon. Stressing the elements that keep society together by promoting a sense of belonging, Vico's philosophy helped shape a new Italian identity and intellectual class. Poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837) responded perceptively to the spreading and manipulation of Vico's ideas, but to what extent can he be considered Vico's heir? Through examining the reasons behind the success of the New science in early nineteenth-century Italy, Martina Piperno uncovers the cultural trends, debates, and obsessions fostered by Vico's work. She reconstructs the penetration of Vico-related discourses in circles and environments frequented by Leopardi, and establishes and analyses a latent Vico-Leopardi relationship. Her highly original reading sees Leopardi reacting to the tensions of his time, receiving Vico's message indirectly without a need to draw directly from the source. By exploring the oblique influence of Vico's thought on Leopardi, Martina Piperno highlights the unique character of Italian modernity and its tendency to renegotiate tradition and innovation, past and future.

Lacan (Paperback, Reissue): Malcolm Bowie Lacan (Paperback, Reissue)
Malcolm Bowie
R227 Discovery Miles 2 270 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In this Modern Master on Jacques Lacan (1901-81), Malcolm Bowie presents a clear, coherent introduction to the work of one of the most influential and forbidding thinkers of our century. A practising psychoanalyst for almost 50 years, Lacan first achieved notoriety with his pioneering article on Freud in the 1930s. After the Second World War, he emerged as the most original and controversial figure in French psychoanalysis, and because a guiding light in the Parisian intellectual resurgence of the 1950s, Lacan initiated and subsequently steered the crusade to reinterpret Freud's work in the light of the new structuralist theories of linguistics, evolving an elaborate, dense, systematic analysis of the relations between language and desire, focusing on the human subject as he or she is defined by linguistic and social pressures. His lectures and articles were collected and published as Ecrits in 1966, a text whose influence has been immense and persists to this day. Knowledge of Lacan's revolutionary ideas, which underpin those of his successors across the disciplines, is useful to an understanding of the work of many modern thinkers - literary theoriest, linguists, psychoanalysts, anthropologists. Malcolm Bowie's accessible critical introduction provides the perfect starting point for any exploration of the work of this formidable thinker.

Rousseau on Stage: Playwright, Musician, Spectator 2017 (Paperback): Maria Gullstam, Michael O'Dea Rousseau on Stage: Playwright, Musician, Spectator 2017 (Paperback)
Maria Gullstam, Michael O'Dea
R2,911 Discovery Miles 29 110 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Following his opposition to the establishment of a theatre in Geneva, Jean-Jacques Rousseau is often considered an enemy of the stage. Yet he was fascinated by drama: he was a keen theatre-goer, his earliest writings were operas and comedies, his admiration for Italian lyric theatre ran through his career, he wrote one of the most successful operas of the day, Le Devin du village, and with his Pygmalion, he invented a new theatrical genre, the Scene lyrique ('melodrama'). Through multi-faceted analyses of Rousseau's theatrical and musical works, authors re-evaluate his practical and theoretical involvement with and influence on the dramatic arts, as well as his presence in modern theatre histories. New readings of the Lettre a d'Alembert highlight its political underpinnings, positioning it as an act of resistance to external bourgeois domination of Geneva's cultural sphere, and demonstrate the work's influence on theatrical reform after Rousseau's death. Fresh analyses of his theory of voice, developed in the Essai sur l'origine des langues, highlight the unique prestige of Italian opera for Rousseau. His ambition to rethink the nature and function of stage works, seen in Le Devin du village and then, more radically, in Pygmalion, give rise to several different discussions in the volume, as do his complex relations with Gluck. Together, contributors shed new light on the writer's relationship to the stage, and argue for a more nuanced approach to his theatrical and operatic works, theories and legacy.

Casanova - Enlightenment Philosopher (Paperback): Ivo Cerman, Susan Reynolds, Diego Lucci Casanova - Enlightenment Philosopher (Paperback)
Ivo Cerman, Susan Reynolds, Diego Lucci
R2,911 Discovery Miles 29 110 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The stereotype of Casanova as a promiscuous and unscrupulous lover has been so pervasive that generations of historians have failed to take serious account of his philosophical legacy. This has recently changed, however, as the publication of the definitive edition of his memoirs and the majority of his longer treatises has heralded a surge of interest in the writer. This book constitutes an interpretive turn in Casanova studies in which the author is positioned as a highly perceptive and engaged observer of the Enlightenment. Drawing primarily on Casanova's large body of manuscripts and lesser-known works, the contributors reveal a philosopher whose writings covered topics ranging from sensual pleasure to suicide. Analysing Casanova's oeuvre from the perspective of moral philosophy, contributors show how several of his works - including his historical writings and satirical essays on human folly - contribute to the Enlightenment quest for a secular morality. A major feature of this book is the first English annotated translation of Federico Di Trocchio's seminal article 'The philosophy of an adventurer', which paved the way for a re-evaluation of Casanova as a serious philosopher. In subsequent chapters contributors uncover the Italian context of Casanova's anticlericalism, analyse the sources of his views on suicide and explore the philosophical dialogues contained in his recently published manuscripts. Casanova: Enlightenment philosopher marks a turning point in literary and philosophical studies of the eighteenth century, and is an indispensable resource for analysing and interpreting the work of this previously overlooked Enlightenment thinker.

John Millar and the Scottish Enlightenment - Family Life and World History (Paperback): Nicholas B. Miller John Millar and the Scottish Enlightenment - Family Life and World History (Paperback)
Nicholas B. Miller
R2,910 Discovery Miles 29 100 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

During the long eighteenth century the moral and socio-political dimensions of family life and gender were hotly debated by intellectuals across Europe. John Millar, a Scottish law professor and philosopher, was a pioneer in making gendered and familial practice a critical parameter of cultural difference. His work was widely disseminated at home and abroad, translated into French and German and closely read by philosophers such as Denis Diderot and Johann Gottfried Herder. Taking Millar's writings as his basis, Nicholas B. Miller explores the role of the family in Scottish Enlightenment political thought and traces its wider resonances across the Enlightenment world. John Millar's organisation of cultural, gendered and social difference into a progressive narrative of authority relations provided the first extended world history of the family. Over five chapters that address the historical and comparative models developed by the thinker, Nicholas B. Miller examines contemporary responses and Enlightenment-era debates on polygamy, matriarchy, the Amazon legend, changes in national character and the possible futures of the family in commercial society. He traces how Enlightenment thinkers developed new standards of evidence and crafted new understandings of historical time in order to tackle the global diversity of family life and gender practice. By reconstituting these theories and discussions, Nicholas B. Miller uncovers hitherto unexplored aspects of the Scottish contribution to European debates on the role of the family in history, society and politics.

The Children of Athena - Greek writers and thinkers in the Age of Rome, 150 BC–AD 400 (Hardcover): Charles Freeman The Children of Athena - Greek writers and thinkers in the Age of Rome, 150 BC–AD 400 (Hardcover)
Charles Freeman
R909 R731 Discovery Miles 7 310 Save R178 (20%) Ships in 9 - 15 working days

A compelling and fascinating portrait of the continuing intellectual tradition of Greek writers and thinkers in the Age of Rome. In 146 BC, Greece yielded to the military might of the Roman Republic; sixty years later, when Athens and other Greek city-states rebelled against Rome, the general Lucius Cornelius Sulla destroyed the city of Socrates and Plato, laying waste to the famous Academy where Aristotle had studied. However, the traditions of Greek cultural life would continue to flourish during the centuries of Roman rule that followed, in the lives and work of a distinguished array of philosophers, doctors, scientists, geographers, travellers and theologians. Charles Freeman's accounts of such luminaries as the physician Galen, the geographer Ptolemy and the philosopher Plotinus are interwoven with contextual 'interludes' that showcase a sequence of unjustly neglected and richly influential lives. Like the author's The Awakening, The Children of Athena is a cultural history on an epic scale: the story of a rich and vibrant tradition of Greek intellectual inquiry across a period of more than five hundred years, from the second century BC to the start of the fifth century AD.

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