Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher EducationYale University Press, 01 հոկ, 2008 թ. - 286 էջ Although the essential books of Western civilization are no longer central in our courses or in our thoughts, they retain their ability to energize us intellectually, says Jeffrey Hart in this powerful book. He now presents a guide to some of these literary works, tracing the main currents of Western culture for all who wish to understand the roots of their civilization and the basis for its achievements. Hart focuses on the productive tension between the classical and biblical strains in our civilization, between a life based on cognition and one based on faith and piety. He begins with the Iliad and Exodus, linking Achilles and Moses as Bronze Age heroic figures. Closely analysing texts and illuminating them in unexpected ways, he moves on to Socrates and Jesus, who internalized the heroic, continues with Paul and Augustine and their Christian synthesis, addresses Dante, Shakespeare's Hamlet, Moliere, and Voltaire, and concludes with the novel as represented by Crime and Punishment and The Great Gatsby. Hart maintains that the dialectical tensions suggested by this survey account for the restlessness and singular achievements of the West and that the essential books can provide the substance and energy currently missed by both students and educated readers. |
From inside the book
Արդյունքներ 66–ի 1-ից 5-ը:
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... human intelligence but rather try to extend genuine education as widely as possible . If history must be told , various narratives about Western civilization can attempt to " cover the facts . " The most central , the one that goes ...
... human intelligence but rather try to extend genuine education as widely as possible . If history must be told , various narratives about Western civilization can attempt to " cover the facts . " The most central , the one that goes ...
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... human mind . Athens and Jerusalem are at once actual and symbolic . In their symbolic meaning , “ Athens ” represents a philosophic - scientific approach to actuality , with the goal being cognition , while " Jerusalem " represents a ...
... human mind . Athens and Jerusalem are at once actual and symbolic . In their symbolic meaning , “ Athens ” represents a philosophic - scientific approach to actuality , with the goal being cognition , while " Jerusalem " represents a ...
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... human understanding . The dominant Islamic tradition , in contrast , evolved a tradition of compartmentalized truths . For Islamic thought during its decisive phase , a proposition might be true in science and philosophy but false in ...
... human understanding . The dominant Islamic tradition , in contrast , evolved a tradition of compartmentalized truths . For Islamic thought during its decisive phase , a proposition might be true in science and philosophy but false in ...
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... Humanity , " wrote C. S. Lewis , " does not pass through phases as a train through stations : being alive , it has the privilege of always moving yet never leaving anything behind . Whatever we have been , in some sense we still are ...
... Humanity , " wrote C. S. Lewis , " does not pass through phases as a train through stations : being alive , it has the privilege of always moving yet never leaving anything behind . Whatever we have been , in some sense we still are ...
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... not a prince of Greece alone but of philosophy itself, an explorer of the human essence and of the cosmos. Plato thought he saw beyond Homer to universal truths that remained only implicit in the Chapter Two - Athens: The Heroic Phase.
... not a prince of Greece alone but of philosophy itself, an explorer of the human essence and of the cosmos. Plato thought he saw beyond Homer to universal truths that remained only implicit in the Chapter Two - Athens: The Heroic Phase.
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Aaron Abraham Achilles Aeneas Agamemnon Alceste ancient areté Aristotle Athens Athens and Jerusalem Augustine beauty beginning Bronze Age Brunetto C. S. Lewis Canto Célimène century certainly chapter Christian civilization cognition Commandment Confessions cosmos course culture Dante Dante's death Divine Comedy Dostoyevsky Egypt Egyptian empire Enlightenment epic everything Exodus experience figure Gatsby Gatsby's Genesis Greek philosophy Hebrew Bible Hector hero heroic holiness Homer Horeb human idea Iliad important Inferno intellectual Israelites Jesus killed King literature live Logos Lord magical mind Molière monotheism monotheistic moral Moses move murder narrative Nick novel Numbers Odysseus passage Paul perhaps Pharaoh pilgrim Dante Plato play poem poet Prince Hamlet Prophets Raskolnikov religious Rendsburg Roman scene seems sense Shakespeare Sinai society Socrates speak spirit student T. S. Eliot tell tension things Thou thought tion tradition Troy truth Ulysses universe Virgil voice Voltaire Western words