Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher EducationYale University Press, 1 Eki 2008 - 286 sayfa 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. |
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73 sonuçtan 1-5 arası sonuçlar
Sayfa ix
... mind . He would say , " History must be told . ” He explained in various ways that history is to a civilization what personal memory is to an individual : an essential part of identity and a source of meaning . He also said that the ...
... mind . He would say , " History must be told . ” He explained in various ways that history is to a civilization what personal memory is to an individual : an essential part of identity and a source of meaning . He also said that the ...
Sayfa x
... mind . He meant that the citizen , the product of a genuine liberal arts education , should understand his civili- zation in the large , its shape and texture , its narrative and its major themes , its important areas of thought , its ...
... mind . He meant that the citizen , the product of a genuine liberal arts education , should understand his civili- zation in the large , its shape and texture , its narrative and its major themes , its important areas of thought , its ...
Sayfa xi
... 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 ...
... 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 ...
Sayfa 3
... mind to the experience of contradiction . Thus Emile Durkheim was struck by the apparent para- dox of the fact that the suicide rate rose not during periods of economic depression but during periods of rising prosperity . This ...
... mind to the experience of contradiction . Thus Emile Durkheim was struck by the apparent para- dox of the fact that the suicide rate rose not during periods of economic depression but during periods of rising prosperity . This ...
Sayfa 4
... we will see later on , the strong and competing claims of Athens and Jerusalem may be cen- tral to the conflicts within the mind of the troubled prince . Let us begin by reflecting for a moment on the 4 THE GREAT NARRATIVE.
... we will see later on , the strong and competing claims of Athens and Jerusalem may be cen- tral to the conflicts within the mind of the troubled prince . Let us begin by reflecting for a moment on the 4 THE GREAT NARRATIVE.
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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