|
Books > Social sciences > Psychology > Cognition & cognitive psychology
|
Buy Now
Dragons for Sale - Studies in Unreason (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R617
Discovery Miles 6 170
You Save: R152
(20%)
|
|
|
Dragons for Sale - Studies in Unreason (Hardcover)
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
|
Fear and ignorance have run rampant throughout human history,
stifling creativity and unleashing unspeakable cruelty. Those
sinister mythical dragons that often stood in the path of truth and
knowledge seem to return century after century as each new
generation succumbs to its own insecurities, misled by those who
would feed off the fear of others. With great savoir vivre Robert
E. Wheeler guides us through the twists and turns of our many and
varied foibles, all the while aiming the clear light of reason on
the root causes of human misery. His compassion and insight, humor
and lively command of the language combine to explore a gallery of
"rancid ascetics"; "gloating sadists"; "pontificating hierophants";
"saints, gnomes, and rogues"; "spurious religiosity"; "swaggering
unreason"; "oratorical hokum"; and "mystical ballyhoo"; as well as
the "whiplash of mass emotion" and the "torrential madness of
hysteria-dominated crowds" to arrive at a "fuller, richer, and more
abundant life" in which we will "no longer tolerate the coexistence
of natural affluence and spiritual squalor". No longer blinded by
fear, which undermines our reason, we can recover from our
"allergic reaction to truth", turn away from magic - that
"shuddering attempt to master a terrifying universe" - and stop
behaving like "screaming moppets that want someone to pluck the
moon from the sky for them". Guided by Wheeler's firm grasp of
cultural history and modern psychology, Dragons for Sale exposes
the roots of such mental maladies as witchcraft and its
persecution, asceticism and unbridled hedonism, the crusades and
millenarianism, nazism's monumental conceit, and the tactics of
McCarthyism, as well as the more mundaneconsequences of belief in
nostrum vendors and bogus messiahs. Books once regarded as the
well-springs of wisdom - e.g., the Sibylline books and the Malleus
Maleficarum (the witch hunter's handbook) - are discussed and
assessed, uncovering the origins of our sexual misconceptions as
readers examine the "seamier side of the Age of Reason" and learn
how many beliefs act as "psychological toxins". When we realize
that not even the learned have a monopoly on truth and that our
collective anxieties should not be allowed to undermine our reason,
only then may we realize our unparalleled potential for growing
into healthy, fulfilled human beings.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
You might also like..
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(3)
(1)
