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What does it mean to be human? Is there something that makes us distinct from computers, other great apes, Martians, gods? Is there philosophical, ethical, or political value in continuing to think in terms of a common human nature? Or should we rather throw this concept into the dustbin of history? A paradox of the concept of human nature is that it holds both the promise of universal equality--insofar as it takes us all to share a common nature--while all too often rationalizing exploitation, oppression, and even violence against other individuals and other species. Most appallingly, differences in skin color and other physiological traits have been viewed as signs of a lesser humanity, or...
"This edited collection assembles a set of essays investigating the past, present, and future historiography of scholars who write about the cultural and intellectual history of early modern Europe. Contributors examine how scholars in recent decades have broken down traditional boundaries imposed on this period by exploring shifting conceptions of periodization, geography, genre, and evidence"--
Saint Antoninus of Florence was a Dominican friar and archbishop of Florence from 1446 to 1459. He composed one of the most comprehensive manuals of moral theology, the Summa, which has long been counted among the more copious, influential, and rewarding medieval sources. St Antoninus of Florence on Trade, Merchants, and Workers gives an orientation to the life and teaching of Saint Antoninus, focusing on his writings on economic ethics, and includes a critical edition of his original Latin text with an English translation. The book provides an extensive introduction to his thought, situating it in its intellectual and social context, and elucidates the development of medieval economic and m...
This collection of articles published between 1964 and 2000 represents a panoramic view of Greek and Roman literature and philosophy, ranging from detailed discussions of texts to general literary and philosophical issues. It also delves into problems in the transmission of ancient works and their reception in modern contexts, including modern English literature. These articles will appeal mainly to Classical scholars and students of ancient philosophy, as well as to lovers of literature and of the intellectual history of Western Europe. All articles have been republished in their original form, with an emphasis on basing every discussion firmly on the available evidence.
Now in paperback, Forming Humanity reveals bildung, or ethical formation, as the key to post-Kantian thought. Kant’s proclamation of humankind’s emergence from “self-incurred immaturity” left his contemporaries with a puzzle: What models should we use to sculpt ourselves if we no longer look to divine grace or received authorities? Deftly uncovering the roots of this question in Rhineland mysticism, Pietist introspection, and the rise of the bildungsroman, Jennifer A. Herdt reveals bildung, or ethical formation, as the key to post-Kantian thought. This was no simple process of secularization, in which human beings took responsibility for something they had earlier left in the hands o...
A ground-breaking volume of innovative conversations between science and religion which move beyond hackneyed positions of either conflict or dialogue.
In Debating the Stars, Ovanes Akopyan sheds new light on the astrological controversies that arose in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries after the publication of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola’s Disputationes adversus astrologiam divinatricem (1496). This treatise has often been held responsible for a contemporary reassessment of the status of astrology, a discipline that attracted widespread fascination in the Renaissance. Akopyan’s reconstruction of the development of Pico’s views demonstrates that the Disputationes was a continuation of rather than a drastic rupture with the rest of his legacy. By investigating the philosophical and humanist foundations for Pico’s attack on astrological predictions, Akopyan challenges the popular assumption that the treatise was written under Girolamo Savonarola’s spell. He shows instead how it was appropriated ideologically by pro-Savonarolan circles after Pico’s death. This book also offers a comprehensive study of the immediate reception of the Disputationes across Italy and Europe and reveals that the debates initiated by Pico’s intervention pervaded all of the European intellectual oikumene.
This volume offers a detailed interpretation of Plato’s texts and Platonic philosophy in its various forms and shapes as a living force in the history of philosophy, from the Hellenistic age, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance Italy, to modern England, America, Japan, and Israel. Most of the contributions here deal with the afterlife and influence of Plato’s dialogues in later Greek philosophy and in various places and periods, and approach a number of dialogues and issues from new perspectives, shedding new light on some ancient problems. These studies represent no single approach, and illustrate, in their various ways, some different methods of approaching the original and ever-surprising author that Plato has always been.
The belief that God eternally and unalterably decrees the election of one part of humankind and the reprobation of the rest has not aged well, but in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the doctrine of predestination was publicised and popularised to an extent unparalleled in the history of Christianity. Why was this? How successfully was the doctrine able to mix with other ideas, and to what effect? And did belief in predestination encourage confidence or despair? Practical Predestinarians is a study of the ways in which the doctrine of predestination was understood and communicated by churchmen in late Tudor and early Stuart England. It connects with debates about the 'popularity' of Protestantism during England's 'long reformation', as well as with the question of whether predestination tended toward inclusive or divisive, and conformist or subversive, applications. Intersecting with recent debates about the popular reception of Protestant preaching, this book focusses upon the pastoral message itself - it is therefore an investigation into the public face of English Calvinism.
Throughout Italy's history, prophetic voices-poets, painters, philosophers-have bolstered the struggle for social and political emancipation. These voices denounced the vices of compatriots and urged them toward redemption. They gave meaning to suffering, helping to prevent moral surrender; they provided support, with pathos and anger, which set into motion the moral imagination, culminating in redemption and freedom. While the fascist regime attempted to enlist Mazzini and the prophets of the Risorgimento in support of its ideology, the most perceptive anti-fascist intellectual and political leaders composed eloquent prophetic pages to sustain the resistance against the totalitarian regime. By the end of the 1960s, no prophet of social emancipation has been able to move the consciences of the Italians. In this Italian story, then, is our story, the world's story, inspiration for social and political emancipation everywhere.