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What is civility, and why has it disappeared? Ann Hartle analyzes
the origins of the modern project and the Essays of Michel de
Montaigne to discuss why civility is failing in our own time. In
this bold book, Ann Hartle, one of the most important interpreters
of sixteenth-century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne,
explores the modern notion of civility—the social bond that makes
it possible for individuals to live in peace in the political and
social structures of the Western world—and asks, why has it
disappeared? Concerned with the deepening cultural divisions in our
postmodern, post-Christian world, she traces their roots back to
the Reformation and Montaigne’s Essays. Montaigne’s
philosophical project of drawing on ancient philosophy and
Christianity to create a new social bond to reform the mores of his
culture is perhaps the first act of self-conscious civility. After
tracing Montaigne’s thought, Hartle returns to our modern society
and argues that this framing of civility is a human, philosophical
invention and that civility fails precisely because it is a human,
philosophical invention. She concludes with a defense of the
central importance of sacred tradition for civility and the need to
protect and maintain that social bond by supporting nonpoliticized,
nonideological, free institutions, including and especially
universities and churches. What Happened to Civility is written for
readers concerned about the deterioration of civility in our public
life and the defense of freedom of religion. The book will also
interest philosophers who seek a deeper understanding of modernity
and its meaning, political scientists interested in the meaning of
liberalism and the causes of its failure, and scholars working on
Montaigne’s Essays.
What is civility, and why has it disappeared? Ann Hartle analyzes
the origins of the modern project and the Essays of Michel de
Montaigne to discuss why civility is failing in our own time. In
this bold book, Ann Hartle, one of the most important interpreters
of sixteenth-century French philosopher Michel de Montaigne,
explores the modern notion of civility-the social bond that makes
it possible for individuals to live in peace in the political and
social structures of the Western world-and asks, why has it
disappeared? Concerned with the deepening cultural divisions in our
postmodern, post-Christian world, she traces their roots back to
the Reformation and Montaigne's Essays. Montaigne's philosophical
project of drawing on ancient philosophy and Christianity to create
a new social bond to reform the mores of his culture is perhaps the
first act of self-conscious civility. After tracing Montaigne's
thought, Hartle returns to our modern society and argues that this
framing of civility is a human, philosophical invention and that
civility fails precisely because it is a human, philosophical
invention. She concludes with a defense of the central importance
of sacred tradition for civility and the need to protect and
maintain that social bond by supporting nonpoliticized,
nonideological, free institutions, including and especially
universities and churches. What Happened to Civility is written for
readers concerned about the deterioration of civility in our public
life and the defense of freedom of religion. The book will also
interest philosophers who seek a deeper understanding of modernity
and its meaning, political scientists interested in the meaning of
liberalism and the causes of its failure, and scholars working on
Montaigne's Essays.
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Democracy Reconsidered (Hardcover, New)
Elizabeth Kaufer Busch; Contributions by David Alvis, Martha Bayles, James W. Ceaser, Eric Cohen, …
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R4,198
Discovery Miles 41 980
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Democracy Reconsidered provides an enlightening study of democracy
in America's post-modern context. Elizabeth Kaufer Busch and Peter
Augustine Lawler explore some of the foundational principles of
democracy as they have been borne out in American society. The
essays included in this volume examine the lessons that novelists,
philosophers, and political theorists have for democratic societies
as they progress towards postmodern skepticism or even disbelief in
the absolute principles that form the foundation of democracies.
Led by the provocative observations of Lawler, a member of
President Bush's Council on Bioethics, the first section lays out
the predicament caused by the gravitation of democracy towards a
disbelief in absolute truth, leading to a "crisis of
self-evidence." The second section searches for tools that one
might use to restore health to the individual and community within
American democracy, including spiritual faith, creative autonomy,
and philosophic inquiry. The third section addresses the supposed
"crisis in liberal education" caused by our "crisis of
self-evidence." Included essays explore the extent to which the
professed aims of liberal education may be at odds with the
cultivation of dutiful citizens. The book closes by considering
some of the political consequences of employing content-less
freedom as the primary standard by which human behaviour is judged.
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Democracy Reconsidered (Paperback)
Elizabeth Kaufer Busch; Contributions by David Alvis, Martha Bayles, James W. Ceaser, Eric Cohen, …
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R1,794
Discovery Miles 17 940
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
|
Democracy Reconsidered provides an enlightening study of democracy
in America's post-modern context. Elizabeth Kaufer Busch and Peter
Augustine Lawler explore some of the foundational principles of
democracy as they have been borne out in American society. The
essays included in this volume examine the lessons that novelists,
philosophers, and political theorists have for democratic societies
as they progress towards postmodern skepticism or even disbelief in
the absolute principles that form the foundation of democracies.
Led by the provocative observations of Lawler, a member of
President Bush's Council on Bioethics, the first section lays out
the predicament caused by the gravitation of democracy towards a
disbelief in absolute truth, leading to a 'crisis of
self-evidence.' The second section searches for tools that one
might use to restore health to the individual and community within
American democracy, including spiritual faith, creative autonomy,
and philosophic inquiry. The third section addresses the supposed
'crisis in liberal education' caused by our 'crisis of
self-evidence.' Included essays explore the extent to which the
professed aims of liberal education may be at odds with the
cultivation of dutiful citizens. The book closes by considering
some of the political consequences of employing content-less
freedom as the primary standard by which human behaviour is judged.
Michel de Montaigne, the inventor of the essay, has always been
acknowledged as a great literary figure but has never been thought
of as a philosophical original. This book treats Montaigne as a
serious thinker in his own right, taking as its point of departure
Montaigne's description of himself as 'an unpremeditated and
accidental philosopher'. Whereas previous commentators have treated
Montaigne's Essays as embodying a scepticism harking back to
classical sources, Ann Hartle offers an account that reveals
Montaigne's thought to be dialectical, transforming sceptical doubt
into wonder at the most familiar aspects of life. This major
reassessment of a much admired but also much underestimated thinker
will interest a wide range of historians of philosophy as well as
scholars in comparative literature, French studies and the history
of ideas.
Following Fox-Genovese's lifelong discourse concerning the
individual and the community, Volume 4, Explorations and
Commitments: Religion, Faith, and Culture, contains twenty-five
essays that document her migration from a secular historian's
understanding of religion to a view of faiths informed by her
conversion to Roman Catholicism. Throughout her journey,
Fox-Genovese firmly asserted that the church offered past and
present protection to culture against the excesses of modernity by
advocating the sanctity of life, preserving the importance of the
family, and respecting genuine community.
Mirroring Fox-Genovese's recognition of the importance of religion
to the development of history and the underpinnings of a common
culture, this volume begins with a series of essays examining the
value of studying religion through a historical lens. Even prior to
her conversion, Fox-Genovese's personal blending of Marxism and
feminism led her to become an advocate for the sanctity of human
life, believing that abortion was the abhorrent nadir of a society
that valued economic gain, individual freedom from responsibility,
and untrammeled personal liberty over natural human relationships.
When Fox-Genovese converted to Catholicism in 1995, she refined
many of the previous themes that had characterized her lifelong
work to reflect the fulfillment of a Christian sense of community,
faith, feminine and familial identity, and culture. The essays in
this volume provide an intimate perspective to Fox-Genovese's faith
transformation as she investigated a variety of literary,
philosophical, economic, and socio-political issues.
Volume 4 also includes a foreword by Mark A. Noll, the Francis A.
McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame and
author of America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln
and The Civil War as a Theological Crisis.
Michel de Montaigne has always been acknowledged as a great literary figure but never thought of as a philosophical original. This book is the first to treat him as a serious thinker in his own right, taking as its point of departure Montaigne's description of himself as "an unpremeditated and accidental philosopher". This major reassessment of a much admired but also greatly underestimated thinker is for historians of philosophy and scholars in comparative literature, French studies and the history of ideas.
Montaigne's "Essays" are rightfully studied as giving birth to
the literary form of that name. Ann Hartle's "Montaigne and the
Origins of Modern Philosophy" argues that the essay is actually the
perfect expression of Montaigne as what he called "a new figure: an
unpremeditated and accidental philosopher." Unpremeditated
philosophy is philosophy made sociable--brought down from the
heavens to the street, where it might be engaged in by a wider
audience. In the same philosophical act, Montaigne both transforms
philosophy and invents "society," a distinctly modern form of
association. Through this transformation, a new, modern character
emerges: the individual, who is neither master nor slave and who
possesses the new virtues of integrity and generosity. In
Montaigne's radically new philosophical project, Hartle finds
intimations of both modern epistemology and modern political
philosophy.
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