The theoretic life - a classical ideal and its modern fate :
General Material Designation
[Book]
Other Title Information
reflections on the liberal arts /
First Statement of Responsibility
Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
Cham, Switzerland :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Springer,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
[2018]
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
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1 online resource
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
Intro; Dedication; Acknowledgments; Contents; About the Author; List of Figures; Part I: The Emergence of the Theoretic Life in Classical Greek Philosophy; Chapter 1: The New Barbarism: The Contest Between Classical Humanist Culture and Techno-Economic Pragmatism; References; Chapter 2: In Pursuit of the Noble: The Classical Birth of the Liberal Arts; 2.1 The Noble and the Useful Distinguished; 2.2 The Hierarchy of Arts and Sciences; 2.3 The Supreme and Most Noble of the Arts and Sciences; 2.4 The Exaltation and Influence of the Liberal Arts; 2.5 The Subordination of the Mechanical Arts
Text of Note
2.6 Humanism as the Center of the Classical Liberal Arts TraditionReferences; Chapter 3: The Political and the Theoretic Life -- The Challenge of Socrates; 3.1 Nietzsche Against the "Theoretical Man"; 3.2 The Political Nature of the Ethical Quest; 3.3 The Good in Contention; 3.4 The Rhetor-Statesman or the Philosopher-Statesman?; References; Chapter 4: Aristotelian Teleology: The Bridge Between Natural Philosophy and the Problem of "The Good Life"; 4.1 Aristotle and Plato; 4.2 Natural Teleology; 4.3 Man Within Nature -- Is There a Natural Human Telos?; 4.4 The Supreme Good
Text of Note
9.2 Rene Descartes9.3 Benedict Spinoza; The Ethical-Political Implications of Modern Anti-Teleology; References; Chapter 10: The Enlightenment as a Baconian Revolution; References; Chapter 11: Metaphysics Dethroned: Hume, Kant, and the "Self-Limitation of Reason"; 11.1 David Hume's Skeptical Empiricism; 11.2 Kant's Critical Philosophy; 11.3 A Critique of the Critique: Kant's Anti-Metaphysical Revolution and Its Tension with Post-Newtonian Physics; References; Chapter 12: Progressivism, Commerce, and the Triumph of Machine Civilization; 12.1 The Idea of Progress
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
In this work, Alexander Rosenthal Pubul presents a broad examination of the ancient philosophical question: "What is the good life?", while addressing how the liberal arts can help us to answer this question. Greek philosophy distinguished between the "noble" (what is good in itself), from the merely "useful" (good for something else). From thence follows the distinction between the liberal arts which pursue such noble goods and the mechanical arts which are only instrumental. For Aristotle, the most noble and excellent good is wisdom itself. Hence the theoretic life devoted to the love of wisdom for its own sake - philosophy - is the highest and the most excellent. This work theorizes the origins of modernity in a rebellion against this Greek conception resulting in a complete inversion of the classical hierarchy. Sir. Francis Bacon reconceiving the purpose of knowledge as power, enthroned technology over philosophy and the liberal arts. The unfolding of the modern Baconian revolution progressively sidelines the liberal arts, as practical economic and technical utility become the standard of value. In assessing this problem, the book engages in a capacious journey across disciplines like philosophy, history, art, politics, and science. It is also a veritable tour across the Western intellectual tradition including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Thomas Aquinas, Bacon, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Dewey, Berdyaev, Einstein, and Heidegger. It pleads the urgent need to preserve the humanizing cultural ideals of the ancient classics against the modern tyranny of utility and the dangers of a new barbarism.
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Springer Nature
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com.springer.onix.9783030022815
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Title
Theoretic Life - a Classical Ideal and Its Modern Fate : Reflections on the Liberal Arts.