filosofie: humanisme - a common reader

Richard Sennett en Spinoza

July 9th, 2014 | by Janantoon | published in FILOSOFIE, FOCUS | Comments Off on Richard Sennett en Spinoza

Richard Sennett blijft me bezig houden. Dit boekje, De mens als werk in uitvoering, had ik al langer, maar ik las het nu pas. Het werd uitgegeven naar aanleiding van de Spinozalens die in 2010 aan Sennett werd uitgereikt. Sinds 1999 kent de Stichting Internationale Spinozaprijs tweejaarlijks de Spinozalens toe aan een internationaal vermaard denker […]

John Gray, Straw Dogs

January 1st, 2010 | by Maarten | published in Boeken Maarten | Comments Off on John Gray, Straw Dogs

Straw Dogs is an exciting, radical work of philosophy, which sets out to challenge our most cherished assumptions about what it means to be human. From Plato to Christianity, from the Enlightenment to Nietzsche, the Western tradition has been based, according to John Gray, on arrogant and erroneous beliefs about human beings and their place in the world. Liberal and marxist viewpoints present humankind as a species whose destiny is to transcend natural limits and conquer the earth; even in the present day—despite Darwin’s discoveries—nearly all schools of thought take as their starting point the belief that humans are radically different from other animals. Gray argues that this belief in human difference is an illusion.

Straw Dogs explores how the world and human life would look once humanism has been abandoned. Gray examines philosophical issues such as the nature of the self, free will, morality, progress and the value of truth. Drawing his inspiration from art, poetry and the frontiers of science as well as philosophy, he presents a post-humanist view of the world and of human life. An exhilarating, sometimes disturbing and wholly provocative book, Straw Dogs leads readers to question their deepest beliefs.

Thomas More, Utopia

January 1st, 2010 | by Maarten | published in Boeken Maarten | Comments Off on Thomas More, Utopia

More’s Utopia is a complex, innovative and penetrating contribution to political thought, culminating in the famous ‘description’ of the Utopians, who live according to the principles of natural law, but are receptive to Christian teachings, who hold all possessions in common, and view gold as worthless. Drawing on the ideas of Plato, St Augustine and Aristotle, Utopia was to prove seminal in its turn, giving rise to the genres of utopian and dystopian prose fiction whose practitioners include Sir Francis Bacon, H.G. Wells, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. At once a critique of the social consequences of greed and a meditation on the personal cost of entering public service, Utopia dramatises the difficulty of balancing the competing claims of idealism and pragmatism, and continues to invite its readers to become participants in a compelling debate concerning the best state of a commonwealth.

Albert Camus, Le mythe de Sisyphe

January 1st, 2009 | by Janantoon | published in Boeken Janantoon | Comments Off on Albert Camus, Le mythe de Sisyphe

Le mythe de Sisyphe Albert Camus taal: Fransgepubliceerd door: Folioeerste editie: gedrukt: 2008verworven: 2009bindwijze: paperbackisbn: 9782070322886verworven via: Amazon More Albert Camus.

Jonathan Glover, Humanity

March 30th, 2008 | by Maarten | published in Boeken Maarten | Comments Off on Jonathan Glover, Humanity

This important book confronts the brutal history of the twentieth century to unravel the psychological mystery of why so many atrocities occurred—the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Gulag, Cambodia, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and others—and how we can prevent their recurrence. Jonathan Glover finds disturbing similarities in the psychology of those involved with atrocities, yet offers hope that the development of a political and personal moral imagination can empower us to resist all acts of cruelty.