0
Your cart

Your cart is empty

Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy

Not currently available

Love - A History (Paperback) Loot Price: R389
Discovery Miles 3 890

Love - A History (Paperback)

Simon May

 (sign in to rate)
Loot Price R389 Discovery Miles 3 890

Bookmark and Share

Supplier out of stock. If you add this item to your wish list we will let you know when it becomes available.

An illuminating exploration of how love has been shaped, idolized, and misconstrued by the West over three millennia, and how we might differently conceive it Love-unconditional, selfless, unchanging, sincere, and totally accepting-is worshipped today as the West's only universal religion. To challenge it is one of our few remaining taboos. In this pathbreaking and superbly written book, philosopher Simon May does just that, dissecting our resilient ruling ideas of love and showing how they are the product of a long and powerful cultural heritage. Tracing over 2,500 years of human thought and history, May shows how our ideal of love developed from its Hebraic and Greek origins alongside Christianity until, during the last two centuries, "God is love" became "love is God"-so hubristic, so escapist, so untruthful to the real nature of love, that it has booby-trapped relationships everywhere with deluded expectations. Brilliantly, May explores the very different philosophers and writers, both skeptics and believers, who dared to think differently: from Aristotle's perfect friendship and Ovid's celebration of sex and "the chase," to Rousseau's personal authenticity, Nietzsche's affirmation, Freud's concepts of loss and mourning, and boredom in Proust. Against our belief that love is an all-powerful solution to finding meaning, security, and happiness in life, May reveals with great clarity what love actually is: the intense desire for someone whom we believe can ground and affirm our very existence. The feeling that "makes the world go round" turns out to be a harbinger of home--and in that sense, of the sacred.

General

Imprint: Yale University Press
Country of origin: United States
Release date: November 2012
First published: 2013
Authors: Simon May
Dimensions: 198 x 130 x 25mm (L x W x T)
Format: Paperback
Pages: 294
ISBN-13: 978-0-300-18774-8
Categories: Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > General
Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Metaphysics & ontology
Books > Philosophy > Topics in philosophy > Metaphysics & ontology
Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy > General
Promotions
LSN: 0-300-18774-2
Barcode: 9780300187748

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..

Courage Is Calling - Fortune Favours The…
Ryan Holiday Hardcover R389 Discovery Miles 3 890
Courage Is Calling - Fortune Favours The…
Ryan Holiday Paperback R288 Discovery Miles 2 880
Sosipatra of Pergamum - Philosopher and…
Heidi Marx Hardcover R2,429 Discovery Miles 24 290
Philosophy for Girls - An Invitation to…
Melissa Shew, Kimberly Garchar Hardcover R2,445 Discovery Miles 24 450
Beyond Speech - Pornography and Analytic…
Mari Mikkola Hardcover R3,573 Discovery Miles 35 730
Ten Neglected Classics of Philosophy
Eric Schliesser Hardcover R3,744 Discovery Miles 37 440
The Oxford Handbook of Spinoza
Michael Della Rocca Hardcover R4,164 Discovery Miles 41 640
Eternity - A History
Yitzhak Y. Melamed Hardcover R3,748 Discovery Miles 37 480
After Certainty - A History of Our…
Robert Pasnau Hardcover R3,156 Discovery Miles 31 560
Sympathy - A History
Eric Schliesser Hardcover R3,761 Discovery Miles 37 610
Virtue and Law in Plato and Beyond
Julia Annas Hardcover R2,182 Discovery Miles 21 820
Nietzsche, Kant and the Problem of…
John Richardson Hardcover R2,868 Discovery Miles 28 680

See more

Partners