Kategoria BISAC: Philosophy >> Social

This is more than a literary critique -- it is a work of perception, of analysis that reveals a portrait of Kundera the novelist as one of the greatest demystifiers of our time. This significant work deals with all of Milan Kundera's novels up to his most recent work, Slowness, which marks the beginning of a new phase of his writing. It is the first work that studies Kundera as a novelist, rather than a philosopher or intellectual guide, and the only one that diverges from the beaten path in examining and in reflecting on the composition and style of these novels, to discern the...

G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche are often considered the philosophical antipodes of the nineteenth century. In Infinite Autonomy, Jeffrey Church draws on the thinking of both Hegel and Nietzsche to assess the modern Western defense of individuality--to consider whether we were right to reject the ancient model of community above the individual. The theoretical and practical implications of this project are important, because the proper defense of the individual allows for the survival of modern liberal institutions in the face of non-Western critics who value communal goals...

Human liberation has become an epochal challenge in today's world, requiring not only emancipation from oppressive structures but also from the oppressive self. It is a multidimensional struggle and aspiration in which knowledge - self, social and spiritual - can play a transformative role. 'Knowledge and Human Liberation: Towards Planetary Realizations' undertakes such a journey of transformation, and seeks to rethink knowledge vis-a-vis the familiar themes of human interest, critical theory, enlightenment, ethnography, democracy, pluralism, rationality, secularism and...

What a strange invention marriage is wrote Kierkegaard. Is it the expression of that inexplicable erotic sentiment, that concordant elective affinity of souls, or is it a duty or a partnership . . . or is it a little of all that?

Like Kierkegaard a few decades later, many of Germany s most influential thinkers at the turn of the eighteenth century wondered about the nature of marriage but rejected the easy answers provided by biology and theology. In "Uncivil Unions," Adrian Daub presents a truly interdisciplinary look at the story of a generation of philosophers, poets, and...

The series St Andrews Studies in Philosophy and Public Affairs originates in the Centre for Ethics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, University of St Andrews and is under the general editorship of John Haldane. The series includes monographs, collections of essays and occasional anthologies of source material representing study in those areas of philosophy most relevant to topics of public importance, with the aim of advancing the contribution of philosophy in the discussion of these topics. In this volume, the author sets aside the usual division between theories of punishment that do or do...

Despite a Global Economy in total disarray, and nations teetering on the brink of debt default, many people still retain a touching faith in the system that brought us to this sorry pass. In 'The Outline of Sanity' G K Chesterton's questions the most basic assumptions of both Capitalism and Socialism, showing that each leads to a soul-less sterile society, where individual humans become 'units' of consumption or production, with everyone a faceless servant of the Rich or of the State. With his usual wit and eloquence, Chesterton demolishes the philosophic basis of both...

While narrative has been one of the liveliest and most productive areas of research in literary theory, discussions of the nature of emotional responses to art and of the cognitive value of art tend to concentrate almost exclusively on the problem of fiction: How can we emote over or learn from fictions? Narrative, Emotion, and Insight explores what would happen if aestheticians framed the matter differently, having narratives--rather than fictional characters and events--as the object of emotional and cognitive attention. The book thus opens up new possibilities for approaching...

G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche are often considered the philosophical antipodes of the nineteenth century. In Infinite Autonomy, Jeffrey Church draws on the thinking of both Hegel and Nietzsche to assess the modern Western defense of individuality--to consider whether we were right to reject the ancient model of community above the individual. The theoretical and practical implications of this project are important, because the proper defense of the individual allows for the survival of modern liberal institutions in the face of non-Western critics who value communal goals...