Language, Truth, and Literature: A Defence of Literary Humanism
Author: Richard Gaskin File Type: pdf According to the literary humanist, works of imaginative literature have an objective meaning which is fixed at the time of their production and which is the same for all readers, then and thereafter, not subject to the vagaries of individual readers responses. Such works refer to the real world and make statements about that world which are of cognitive as well as aesthetic value the two kinds of value are indeed intimately connected. Richard Gaskin offers a defence of literary humanism, so understood, against assault from two directions. On the one hand, some analytic aestheticians have argued that works of literature do not bear referentially on the world and do not make true statements about it others hold that such works do not make a contribution to knowledge others again allow that works of literature may have cognitive value, but deny that this depends on their having truth or reference. On the other hand, reception-theorists and deconstructionists have rejected the humanists objectivist conception of literary meaning, and typically take a pragmatist and anti-realist approach to truth and meaning. This latter, poststructuralist treatment of literature has often been accompanied by a radical politicization of its study. In defending literary humanism against these various forms of attack, Gaskin shows that the reading and appreciation of literature is a cognitive activity fully on a par with scientific investigation, and that we can and should engage in it disinterestedly for the sake of what can be learnt about the world and our place in it.
Author: Vincent Depaigne
File Type: pdf
This book provides an account and explanation of a fundamental dilemma facing secular states the legitimacy gap left by the withdrawal of religion as a source of legitimacy. Legitimacy represents a particular problem for the secular state. The secular in all its manifestations is very much linked to the historical rise of the modern state. It should not be seen as a category that separates culture and religion from politics, but rather as one that links these different dimensions. In the first part of the book, Depaigne explains how modern constitutional law has moved away from a substantive legitimacy, based in particular on natural law, towards a procedural legitimacy based on popular sovereignty and human rights. Depaigne examines three case studies of constitutional responses to legitimacy challenges which articulate the three main sources of procedural legitimacy (people, rights, and culture) in different ways the neutral model (constitutions based on the displacement of culture) the multicultural model (constitutions based on diversity and pluralism) and the asymmetric model (constitutions based on tradition). Even if secularization can be considered European in its origin, it is best seen today as a global phenomenon, which needs to be approached by taking into account the particular cultural dimension in which it is rooted. Depaignes detailed study shows how secularization has moved either towards nationalization linked to a particular national identity (as in France and, to some extent, in India)-or towards de-secularization, whereby secularism is displaced by particular cultural norms, as in Malaysia.
Author: Christopher Hill
File Type: epub
The masterful account of Britains reshaping as a modern nationIn 1530 England was a backward economy. Yet by 1780 she possessed a global empire and was on the verge of becoming the worlds first industrialized power. This book deals with the intervening 250 years, and explains how England acquired this unique position in history.Esteemed historian Christopher Hill recounts a story that begins with the break with Europe before hitting a tumultuous period of war and revolution, combined with a cultural and scientific flowering that made up the early modern period. It was in this era that Britain became home to imperial ambitions and economic innovation, prefiguring what was to come. Hill excavates the conditions and ideas that underpin this age of extraordinary change, and shows how, and why, Britain became the most powerful nation in the world.**ReviewThe commanding interpreter of seventeenth-century England. *Guardian* Wide-ranging, popular and immensely prolific the dominant figure in studies of the period. *Daily Telegraph* The dean and paragon of English historians. E.P. ThompsonAbout the Author Christopher Hill (1912-2003), born in York, was a historian and academic specializing in seventeenth-century English history. As a young man he witnessed the growth of the Nazi party firsthand during a prolonged holiday in Germany, an experience he later said contributed to the radicalization of his politics. He was master of Balliol College, University of Oxford, his alma mater, from 1965 to 1978. His celebrated and influential works include Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution The World Turned Upside Down and A Turbulent, Seditious and Fractious People John Bunyan and His Church.
Author: Peter W. Martens
File Type: pdf
Scriptural interpretation was an important form of scholarship for Christians in late antiquity. For no one does this claim ring more true than Origen of Alexandria (185-254), one of the most prolific scholars of Scripture in early Christianity. This book examines his approach to the Bible through a biographical lens the focus is on his account of the scriptural interpreter, the animating centre of the exegetical enterprise. In pursuing this largely neglected line of inquiry, Peter W. Martens discloses the contours of Origens sweeping vision of scriptural exegesis as a way of life. For Origen, ideal interpreters were far more than philologists steeped in the skills conveyed by Greco-Roman education. Their profile also included a commitment to Christianity from which they gathered a spectrum of loyalties, guidelines, dispositions, relationships and doctrines that tangibly shaped how they practiced and thought about their biblical scholarship. The study explores the many ways in which Origen thought ideal scriptural interpreters (himself included) embarked upon a way of life, indeed a way of salvation, culminating in the everlasting contemplation of God. This new and integrative thesis takes seriously how the discipline of scriptural interpretation was envisioned by one of its pioneering and most influential practitioners. **
Author: Gilbert Murray
File Type: epub
Originally published in 1922. This volume from the Cornell University Librarys print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
Author: John Zarobell
File Type: pdf
Art and the Global Economy analyzes major changes in the global art world that have emerged in the last twenty years including structural shifts in the global art market the proliferation of international art fairs, biennials and blockbuster exhibitions and the internationalization of the scope of contemporary art. John Zarobell explores the economic and social transformations in the cultural sphere, the results of greater access to information about art, exhibitions, and markets around the world, as well as the increasing interpenetration of formerly distinct geographical domains. By considering a variety of locationsboth long-standing art capitals and up-and-coming centers of the futureArt and the Global Economy facilitates a deeper understanding of how globalization affects the domain of the visual arts in the twenty-first century. With contributions by Lucia Cantero, Mariana David, Valentin Diaconov, Kai Lossgott, Grace Murray, Chhoti Rao, Emma Rogers and Michelle Wong. **Review Anyone who cares about art or their community will gain insights for riding the tides of economic globalization from anywhere in the world. (YaleGlobal Online) From the Inside Flap For ten years I have been looking for books to include in my graduate seminar on art and economics and artists alternatives to the art market. John Zarobells Art and the Global Economy is the ideal book for my class and for any artist interested in understanding the complex relationship between the creative mind and the challenging materialistic context in which it exists.Enrique Chagoya, Artist and Professor, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University
Author: Stanley Lane-Poole
File Type: pdf
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!
Author: Amir Eshel
File Type: pdf
In the wake of World War II and the Holocaust, it seemed there was no place for German in Israel and no trace of Hebrew in Germany the two languages and their cultures appeared as divergent as the directions of their scripts. Yet when placed side by side on opposing pages, German and Hebrew converge in the middle. Comprised of essays on literature, history, philosophy, and the visual and performing arts, this volume explores the mutual influence of two linguistic cultures long held as separate or even as diametrically opposed. From Moses Mendelssohns arrival in Berlin in 1748 to the recent wave of Israeli migration to Berlin, the essays gathered here shed new light on the painful yet productive relationship between modern German and Hebrew cultures. **About the Author Amir Eshel, Stanford University, USA Rachel Seelig, The University of Toronto, Canada.
Author: David J. Yount
File Type: pdf
In this insightful new book David J. Yount argues, against received wisdom, that there are no essential differences between the metaphysics of Plato and Plotinus. Yount covers the core principles of Plotinian thought The One or Good, Intellect, and All-Soul (the Three Hypostases), Beauty, God(s), Forms, Emanation, Matter, and Evil. After addressing the interpretive issues that surround the authenticity of Platos works, Plotinus The Platonist deftly argues against the commonly held view that Plotinus is best interpreted as a Neo-Platonist, proposing he should be thought of as a Platonist proper. Yount presents thorough explanations and quotations from the works of each classical philosopher to demonstrate his thesis, concluding comprehensively that Plato and Plotinus do not essentially differ on their metaphysical conceptions. This is an ideal text for Plato and Plotinus scholars and academics, and excellent supplementary reading for upper-level undergraduates students and postgraduate students of ancient philosophy. **