Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher EducationYale University Press, 01.10.2008 - 286 Seiten 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. |
Im Buch
Ergebnisse 1-5 von 64
Seite xi
... tradition of disciplined insight and the aspiration to holiness . Together they propose the question : Is all of actuality more like a mathematical equation or is it more like a complicated and surprising poem , reflecting , as Robert ...
... tradition of disciplined insight and the aspiration to holiness . Together they propose the question : Is all of actuality more like a mathematical equation or is it more like a complicated and surprising poem , reflecting , as Robert ...
Seite 9
... tradition handed down by father and mother . Unlike Strauss , however , Nietzsche wanted to resolve the tension rather than maintain it , the tension perhaps being too much for his nerves . He proposed to do so through a new kind of man ...
... tradition handed down by father and mother . Unlike Strauss , however , Nietzsche wanted to resolve the tension rather than maintain it , the tension perhaps being too much for his nerves . He proposed to do so through a new kind of man ...
Seite 10
... tradition of Athens , and preeminently Aristotle , had created the foundations for a variety of disciplines— physics , zoology , medicine , meteorology , ethics , metaphysics , logic . Is- lamic scholars living in and around Alexandria ...
... tradition of Athens , and preeminently Aristotle , had created the foundations for a variety of disciplines— physics , zoology , medicine , meteorology , ethics , metaphysics , logic . Is- lamic scholars living in and around Alexandria ...
Seite 11
... 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 religion . The central Western tradition ...
... 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 religion . The central Western tradition ...
Seite 12
... Tradition is both cognitive and democratic ; it extends the vote beyond the minority living at any given moment . Each work to be examined here challenges the reader , including this writer , sometimes with its difficulty , sometimes ...
... Tradition is both cognitive and democratic ; it extends the vote beyond the minority living at any given moment . Each work to be examined here challenges the reader , including this writer , sometimes with its difficulty , sometimes ...
Andere Ausgaben - Alle anzeigen
Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher Education Jeffrey Hart Eingeschränkte Leseprobe - 2008 |
Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe: Toward the Revival of Higher Education Jeffrey Peter Hart Keine Leseprobe verfügbar - 2001 |
Häufige Begriffe und Wortgruppen
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