Author: Scott A. J. Johnson File Type: epub Ideas abound as to why certain complex societies collapsed in the past, including environmental change, subsistence failure, fluctuating social structure and lack of adaptability. Why Did Ancient Civilizations Fail? evaluates the current theories in this important topic and discusses why they offer only partial explanations of the failure of past civilizations. This engaging book offers a new theory of collapse, that of social hubris. Through an examination of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Roman, Maya, Inca, and Aztec societies, Johnson persuasively argues that hubris blinded many ancient peoples to evidence that would have allowed them to adapt, and he further considers how this has implications for contemporary societies. Comprehensive and well-written, this volume serves as an ideal text for undergraduate courses on ancient complex societies, as well as appealing to the scholar interested in societal collapse. **

Author: Stephen G. Miller File Type: pdf From the informal games of Homers time to the highly organized contests of the Roman world, Miller has compiled a trove of ancient sources Plutarch on boxing, Aristotle on the pentathlon, Philostratos on the buying and selling of victories, Vitruvius on literary competitions, and Xenophon on female body building. Arete offers readers an absorbing lesson in the culture of Greek athletics from the greatest of teachers, the ancients themselves, and demonstrates that the concepts of virtue, skill, pride, valor, and nobility embedded in the word arete are only part of the story from antiquity. This bestselling volume on the culture of Greek athletics is updated with a new preface by leading scholar Paul Christesen that discusses the books continued importance for students of ancient athletics.** From the informal games of Homers time to the highly organized contests of the Roman world, Miller has compiled a trove of ancient sources Plutarch on boxing, Aristotle on the pentathlon, Philostratos on the buying and selling of victories, Vitruvius on literary competitions, and Xenophon on female body building. Arete offers readers an absorbing lesson in the culture of Greek athletics from the greatest of teachers, the ancients themselves, and demonstrates that the concepts of virtue, skill, pride, valor, and nobility embedded in the word arete are only part of the story from antiquity. This bestselling volume on the culture of Greek athletics is updated with a new preface by leading scholar Paul Christesen that discusses the books continued importance for students of ancient athletics.**

Author: Sonia Sedivy File Type: pdf Beauty and the End of Art shows how a resurgence of interest in beauty and a sense of ending in Western art are challenging us to rethink art, beauty and their relationship. By arguing that Wittgensteins later work and contemporary theory of perception offer just what we need for a unified approach to art and beauty, Sonia Sedivy provides new answers to these contemporary challenges. These new accounts also provide support for the Wittgensteinian realism and theory of perception that make them possible. Wittgensteins subtle form of realism explains artworks in terms of norm governed practices that have their own varied constitutive norms and values. Wittgensteinian realism also suggests that diverse beauties become available and compelling in different cultural eras and bring a shared higher-order value into view. With this framework in place, Sedivy argues that perception is a form of engagement with the world that draws on our conceptual capacities. This approach explains how perceptual experience and the perceptible presence of the world are of value, helping to account for the diversity of beauties that are available in different historical contexts and why the many faces of beauty allow us to experience the value of the worlds perceptible presence. Carefully examining contemporary debates about art, aesthetics and perception, Beauty and the End of Art presents an original approach. Insights from such diverse thinkers as Immanuel Kant, Hans-Georg Gadamer and Arthur Danto, Alexander Nehamas, Elaine Scarry and Dave Hickey are woven together to reveal how they make good sense if we bring contemporary theory of perception and Wittgensteinian realism into the conversation. **Review Much contemporary art and art theory seem to force us to choose between art that is hard-edged, conceptual, and political and art that is soft, absorbing, and pleasurable. By tracing how perception is interwoven with thought, feeling, and action, Sonia Sedivy compellingly shows us how to have it both ways and so how to understand and hold onto the human significance of artistic beauty. -- Richard Eldridge, Charles and Harriett Cox McDowell Professor of Philosophy, Swarthmore College, USA This book offers a subtle and insightful exploration of connections between art, beauty and perception, as well as making a powerful case for the continuing importance of Wittgenstein in contemporary aesthetics. -- Peter Lamarque, Professor of Philosophy, University of York, UK Book Description An original study showing how contemporary theory of perception can revitalize current understandings of art and beauty, arguing that what is seen in an artwork is not separate either from our deepest concerns and values

Author: Amy Diana Colin File Type: pdf Paul Celan, one of the greatest poets of the post-Holocaust decades, strove to utter the unspeakable. In his literary struggle to respond to the Holocaust, he exploded literary traditions and, out of their residue, created a new poetry.