Modernity on Endless Trial

Modernity on Endless Trial
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 270
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780226217406
ISBN-13 : 022621740X
Rating : 4/5 (06 Downloads)

Synopsis Modernity on Endless Trial by : Leszek Kolakowski,

Leszek Kolakowski delves into some of the most intellectually vigorous questions of our time in this remarkable collection of essays garnished with his characteristic wit. Ten of the essays have never appeared before in English. "Exemplary. . . . It should be celebrated." —Arthur C. Danto, New York Times Book Review "This book . . . express[es] Kolakowski's thought on God, man, reason, history, moral truth and original sin, prompted by observation of the dramatic struggle among Christianity, the Enlightenment and modern totalitarianism. It is a wonderful collection of topics." —Thomas Nagel, Times Literary Supplement "No better antidote to bumper-sticker thinking exists than this collection of 24 'appeals for moderation in consistency,' and never has such an antidote been needed more than it is now." —Joseph Coates, Chicago Tribune "Whether learned or humorous, these essays offer gems in prose of diamond hardness, precision, and brilliance." —Thomas D'Evelyn, The Christian Science Monitor A "Notable Books of the Year 1991" selection, New York Times Book Review—a "Noted with Pleasure" selection, New York Times Book Review—a "Summer Reading 1991" selection, New York Times Book Review—a "Books of the Year" selection, The Times.

Is God Happy?

Is God Happy?
Author :
Publisher : Basic Books
Total Pages : 354
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780465075744
ISBN-13 : 0465075746
Rating : 4/5 (44 Downloads)

Synopsis Is God Happy? by : Leszek Kolakowski

The late Leszek Kolakowski was one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. A prominent anticommunist writer, Kolakowski was also a deeply humanistic thinker, and his meditations on society, religion, morality, and culture stand alongside his political writings as commentaries on intellectual—and everyday—life in the twentieth century. Kolakowski’s extraordinary empathy, humor, and erudition are on full display in Is God Happy?, the first collection of his work to be published since his death in 2009. Accessible and wide ranging, these essays—many of them translated into English for the first time—testify to the remarkable scope of Kolakowski’s work. From a provocative and deeply felt critique of Marxist ideology to the witty and self-effacing “In Praise of Unpunctuality” to a rigorous analysis of Erasmus’ model of Christianity and the future of religion, these essays distill Kolakowski’s lifelong engagement with the eternal problems of philosophy and some of the most vital questions of our age.

Metaphysical Horror

Metaphysical Horror
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 140
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0226450554
ISBN-13 : 9780226450551
Rating : 4/5 (54 Downloads)

Synopsis Metaphysical Horror by : Leszek Kolakowski

'A modern philosopher who has never once suspected himself of being a charlatan,' writes Leszek Kolakowski at the start of this endlessly stimulating book, 'must be such a shallow mind that his work is probably not worth reading.' For over a century, philosophers have argued that philosophy is impossible or useless, or both. Although the basic agenda dates back tot he days of Socrates, there is still disagreement about the nature of truth, reality, knowledge, good and God. This may make little practical difference to our lives, but it leaves us with a feeling of radical uncertainty described by Kolakowski as 'metaphysical horror'. Is there any way out of this cul-de-sac? This trenchant analysis confronts these dilemmas head on. Philosophy may not provide definitive answers to the fundamental questions, yet the quest itself transforms our lives. It may undermine most of our certainties, yet it still leaves room for our spiritual yearnings and religious beliefs. Kolakowski has forged a dazzling demonstration of philosophy in action. It is up to readers to take up the challenge of his arguments.

Main Currents of Marxism

Main Currents of Marxism
Author :
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages : 1324
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0393060543
ISBN-13 : 9780393060546
Rating : 4/5 (43 Downloads)

Synopsis Main Currents of Marxism by : Leszek Kołakowski

The commanding study of Marxism, now in one masterful volume with a new preface and epilogue by the author.

Mourning Happiness

Mourning Happiness
Author :
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Total Pages : 560
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0801448174
ISBN-13 : 9780801448171
Rating : 4/5 (74 Downloads)

Synopsis Mourning Happiness by : Vivasvan Soni

"A work of rare scope and power that grapples with the big questions: Is happiness the proper end of life, as the Greeks conceived it to be, or is life, as it appears since the early English novel, an endless trial?"--Adam Potkay

All that is Solid Melts Into Air

All that is Solid Melts Into Air
Author :
Publisher : Verso
Total Pages : 388
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0860917851
ISBN-13 : 9780860917854
Rating : 4/5 (51 Downloads)

Synopsis All that is Solid Melts Into Air by : Marshall Berman

The experience of modernization -- the dizzying social changes that swept millions of people into the capitalist world -- and modernism in art, literature and architecture are brilliantly integrated in this account.

Tales from the Kingdom of Lailonia and The Key to Heaven

Tales from the Kingdom of Lailonia and The Key to Heaven
Author :
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Total Pages : 204
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0226450392
ISBN-13 : 9780226450391
Rating : 4/5 (92 Downloads)

Synopsis Tales from the Kingdom of Lailonia and The Key to Heaven by : Leszek Kołakowski

This volume contains two unusual and appealing satirical works by the well-known European philosopher Kolakowski. The first, Tales from the Kingdom of Lailonia, is set in a fictional land. Each story illustrates some aspect of human inability to come to terms with imperfection, infinitude, history, and nature. The second, The Key to Heaven, is a collection of seventeen biblical tales from the Old Testament told in such a way that the story and the moral play off each other to illustrate political, moral, or existential foibles and follies.

Under God

Under God
Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Total Pages : 451
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781416543350
ISBN-13 : 141654335X
Rating : 4/5 (50 Downloads)

Synopsis Under God by : Garry Wills

One of our most distinguished political commentators--author of Reagan's America--offers a rich, original look at why religion and politics will never be separate in the United States.

The Devil in History

The Devil in History
Author :
Publisher : University of California Press
Total Pages : 334
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780520282209
ISBN-13 : 0520282205
Rating : 4/5 (09 Downloads)

Synopsis The Devil in History by : Vladimir Tismaneanu

The Devil in History is a provocative analysis of the relationship between communism and fascism. Reflecting the author’s personal experiences within communist totalitarianism, this is a book about political passions, radicalism, utopian ideals, and their catastrophic consequences in the twentieth century’s experiments in social engineering. Vladimir Tismaneanu brilliantly compares communism and fascism as competing, sometimes overlapping, and occasionally strikingly similar systems of political totalitarianism. He examines the inherent ideological appeal of these radical, revolutionary political movements, the visions of salvation and revolution they pursued, the value and types of charisma of leaders within these political movements, the place of violence within these systems, and their legacies in contemporary politics. The author discusses thinkers who have shaped contemporary understanding of totalitarian movements—people such as Hannah Arendt, Raymond Aron, Isaiah Berlin, Albert Camus, François Furet, Tony Judt, Ian Kershaw, Leszek Kolakowski, Richard Pipes, and Robert C. Tucker. As much a theoretical analysis of the practical philosophies of Marxism-Leninism and Fascism as it is a political biography of particular figures, this book deals with the incarnation of diabolically nihilistic principles of human subjugation and conditioning in the name of presumably pure and purifying goals. Ultimately, the author claims that no ideological commitment, no matter how absorbing, should ever prevail over the sanctity of human life. He comes to the conclusion that no party, movement, or leader holds the right to dictate to the followers to renounce their critical faculties and to embrace a pseudo-miraculous, a mystically self-centered, delusional vision of mandatory happiness.

Science and Religion

Science and Religion
Author :
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages : 272
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781509518968
ISBN-13 : 1509518967
Rating : 4/5 (68 Downloads)

Synopsis Science and Religion by : Yves Gingras

Today we hear renewed calls for a dialogue between science and religion: why has the old question of the relations between science and religion now returned to the public domain and what is at stake in this debate? To answer these questions, historian and sociologist of science Yves Gingras retraces the long history of the troubled relationship between science and religion, from the condemnation of Galileo for heresy in 1633 until his rehabilitation by John Paul II in 1992. He reconstructs the process of the gradual separation of science from theology and religion, showing how God and natural theology became marginalized in the scientific field in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In contrast to the dominant trend among historians of science, Gingras argues that science and religion are social institutions that give rise to incompatible ways of knowing, rooted in different methodologies and forms of knowledge, and that there never was, and cannot be, a genuine dialogue between them. Wide-ranging and authoritative, this new book on one of the fundamental questions of Western thought will be of great interest to students and scholars of the history of science and of religion as well as to general readers who are intrigued by the new and much-publicized conversations about the alleged links between science and religion.