12 books found
The term rationalism, dating from around the middle of the 17th century, is usually understood as the philosophical outlook which stresses the power of reason over faith, emotion or instinct. This text collects together those figures who have championed the cause of rationalism over three centuries, including theists, pantheists, atheists, materialists, agnostics, secularists, monists, and positivists. It contains not only philosophers but teachers of science, political theorists, historians, and artists. Each entry in the book lists the subject's birth and death dates, details of their education and occupation, and evidence of their rationalist views. European, American and minor figures are included.
In this highly original study Joseph Mali explores how four attentive and inventive readers of Giambattista Vico's New Science (1744) - the French historian Jules Michelet (1798-1874), the Irish writer James Joyce (1882-1941), the German literary scholar Erich Auerbach (1892-1957) and the English philosopher Isaiah Berlin (1909-97) - came to find in Vico's work the inspiration for their own modern theories (or, in the case of Joyce, stories) of human life and history. Mali's reconstruction of the specific biographical and historical occasions in which these influential men of letters encountered Vico reveals how their initial impressions and interpretations of his theory of history were decisive both for their intellectual development and their major achievements in literature and thought. This new interpretation of the legacy of Vico's New Science is essential reading for all those engaged in the history of ideas and modern cultural history.
Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph.D. - Claremont) under the title: Q, the Essenes, and the Dead Sea Scrolls: a study in Christian origins.
by Joseph Blenkinsopp
2017 · Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
The essays deal with developments during the period from the liquidation of the Judean state to the conquests of Alexander the Great. This was a critical time in the Near East and the Mediterranean world in general. It marked the end of the great Semitic empires until the rise of Islam in the seventh century A.D.,decisive changes in religion, with appeal to a creator-deity in Deutero-Isaiah, Babylonian Marduk cult, and Zoroastrianism.For the survivors of the Babylonian conquest in a post-collapse society the issue of continuity, with different groups claiming continuity with the past and possession of the traditions, there developed a situation favourable to the emergence of sects. The most pressing question, however, was what to do faced with the overwhelming power of empire, first Babylonian, then Persian. Finally, with the extinction of the native dynasty and the entire apparatus of a nation-state, the temple became the focus and emblem of group identity.
Offering a uniquely broad-based overview of the role of language choice in the construction of national, ethnic and religious identity, this textbook examines a wide range of specific cases from various parts of the world in order to arrive at some general principles concerning the links between language and identity. It will benefit students and researchers in a wide range of fields where identity is an important issue and who currently lack a single source to turn to for an overview of sociolinguistics.
Volume three of one of the greatest literary biographies of our time Joseph Frank’s award-winning, five-volume Dostoevsky is widely recognized as the best biography of the Russian novelist in any language and one of the greatest literary biographies ever written. In this monumental work, Frank blends biography, intellectual history, and literary criticism to illuminate Dostoevsky’s works and set them in their personal, historical, and ideological context. More than a biography in the usual sense, this is a cultural history of nineteenth-century Russia, providing both a rich picture of the world in which Dostoevsky lived and a major reinterpretation of his life and work. This volume begins with the writer’s return to Saint Petersburg after a ten-year Siberian exile and traces how his engagement in the cultural and social ferment of Russia in the early 1860s led to his discovery of the themes that would underlie his mature masterpieces.