Ayn Rand and Business

Book Description

Rand celebrated business, especially the heavy industries that dominated America in her lifetime, and the entrepreneurs who founded and built them. Ayn Rand and Business interprets the fiction and philosophy of this self-proclaimed "radical-for-capitalism" for today's business reader.

Download Description

"In an astonishing journey, Ayn Rand transformed herself from a shopkeeper's daughter to one of the world's leading advocates of laissez-faire capitalism. She celebrated business, especially the heavy industries that dominated America, and the entrepreneurs who founded and built them. She constructed a philosophy known as Objectivism-strict adherence to reality, reason, and self-interest-to prove that her epic image of business was the right one. Ayn Rand and Business is both relevant and valuable to today's business readers, providing insightful lessons for managers, traders, and entrepreneurs alike. Rand wrote about topics including the free agent marketplace and the necessity of creating one in order to lead it, corporate strategies, individual achievement, and the relationship between employer and employee. Ayn Rand, author of The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged, was one of the most controversial figures of her time and influenced many through her novels and philosophy. "

Customer Reviews:

Useful but slanted.......2003-11-16

This book does a decent job of showing how application of Ayn Rand's philosophy can improve your performance at work and your company's performance, but the authors have some incorrect notions of the scope of Ayn Rand's philosophy and it's proponents. The book can best be enjoyed by skipping the first section of the book which doesn't really pertain to the subject of the book. For the essence of her philosophy, I'd recommend Ayn Rand's "For the New Intellectual".

Excellent Intro to Rand.......2002-08-25

This book is an excellent introduction to Rand's philosophy examined from the point of view of its applications in business. Not a how-to, really, but a good launching point for further study and consideration. Well-written and very readable.

Insightful!.......2002-04-16

Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism celebrates the underlying principles of capitalism: reason, independence and just plain selfishness. Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni lay out the fundamentals of Objectivism and attempt to describe how you can integrate its beliefs into your life and your business. The book is written in the spirit of Rand's own outlook: It is anchored in practicality, well organized and goal-oriented. Even so, some executives might lose patience with the philosophic nature of the work. We advise such readers to move on. However, we from getAbstract recommend this book to intellectually curious readers in search of a moral, ethical, or even philosophic foundation for their business life.

APPLIED OBJECTIVISM.......2002-02-14

When I first scanned "Ayn Rand and Business," I was a little skeptical about where this book was going and where its authors were coming from. But after reading it, I say it is stupendous.

I'd subtitle it "Applied Objectivism," in the same sense that one would speak of applied electronics where principles are applied to create all kinds of devices and equipment run by electricity. "Ayn Rand and Business" applies the principles of Objectivism to the business of marketing, capitalization, management, customer service, etc.

The book presents a brief biography of Ayn Rand covering her years in Russia, her coming to America, her struggles, her triumphs, the Objectivist "movement," that started with NBI (Nathaniel Branden Institute), the 1968 "break" between Branden and Rand and the ensuing excommunications, schisms and rifts that led to the sad decline in the "movement" and the quantity of her writings.

But, more importantly, the focus of the book is on the application of Objectivist principles to business life. (And to personal life, which comes before but also runs parallel with business life.) The authors take the Objectivist values and virtues, explain them so very clearly and illustrate them with concrete examples how they apply in the business world. They use characters from Ayn Rand's novels as models, but they also use real-life business people who practice these virtues and values.

Their presentation of Objectivist principles is clear and concise. This is not a treatise, but outside of the business focus, the book could be considered an excellent introduction to Objectivism. They deal with all of the heavy philosophical subjects and issues in what we used to refer to as "layman's terms."

You don't have to be a philosopher to understand Ayn Rand. Her writing is crystal clear. Nonetheless, jumping into metaphysics and epistemology cold turkey may not be the best way to get an introduction to Objectivism or any other philosophy. When, as a kid, I started to read about relativity and physics, many books that put those ideas in "layman's terms" were invaluable. "Ayn Rand and Business" does this superbly.

Fans of Ayn Rand and long time readers will find nothing new, philosophically, in the book though they should be impressed by its clarity and thoroughness in explaining Objectivism. I would particularly recommend it to people who show an interest in ideas and who might be prime candidates to become Objectivists. And because it is focused on Objectivism in business, I would highly recommend it for such prime candidates in the business world.

It's not clear where the authors discovered Ayn Rand. The biographical information is silent on this subject. But it is obvious from the sources they cite and the bibliography that they know their subject. They quote from virtually every book, article and newsletter Ayn Rand ever wrote. They appear to have read every book by or about her and Objectivism.

The only flaws I see in the book are in editing. In several instances, needed words are missing or the wrong words are used. Additionally, there are a couple of instances where the wording of a sentence initially gives the opposite impression than that intended. And it is incorrectly stated that "The Objectivist" preceded "The Objectivist Newsletter." But the errors, except for the last one, are obvious to any reader and do nothing to detract from the content.

Overall, the book gets my highest rating. For a book written so clearly and favorably about Objectivism, by two people apparently unknown in the Ayn Rand "movement," to suddenly appear on the scene is remarkable. It's something to be celebrated and is an indication that, more than anything else I've seen, Objectivism is breaking through to and is reaching the common man who Ayn Rand correctly remarked is not so "common."

Freedom Book of the Month review of _Ayn Rand and Business_.......2001-12-13

Free-Market.Net's Freedom Book of the Month
--------------------------------------------
Edited by Thomas L. Knapp. (....)

November 2001

Ayn Rand and Business
by Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni
Texere 2001, hardcover, 209 pp.

One thing that separated Ayn Rand from many other philosophers was her insistence on that morality and practicality are not mutually excusive. Where other schools of thought dismiss commercial enterprise as either a necessary evil to be tolerated, or an unnecessary evil to be dispensed with, Objectivism celebrates trade as one of man's highest virtues.

_Ayn Rand and Business_ turns its sights to this unique aspect of Objectivism, and in so doing functions as an excellent guide for those interested both in the root principles of business ethics and of Objectivism.

Donna Greiner and Theodore Kinni begin with a short discussion of Ayn Rand and her work, including the movement that she began and which has experienced such tumult and schism. They don't pull any punches, but the view is positive overall.

From there, the book moves into its main body with sections on "Randian Work" and "Randian Management."

The section on work is a tour de force in the application of individualist principles to our everyday endeavors. Subdivided into chapters on key virtues and values including rationality, independence, integrity, honesty, justice, productiveness and pride, the book zooms in on how each of these values fits into our work and lives. It draws examples from real individuals and their real experiences and shows the application of Objectivist ideas to real situations.

By contrast, the section on management is more general, concentrating on three topic areas: "Winning Through Innovation," "Managing People to Their Ultimate Potential," and "Leading With Purpose."

"If there is one book that we'd like to see on the packed shelves of bookstores," the authors write, " it is _The Objectivist Manager_ by Ayn Rand. Unfortunately, Rand never wrote that book."

While it might go a bit far to proclaim that _Ayn Rand and Business_ is such an animal, the book will be of immense value to businesspeople interested in the principles of Objectivism, and to Objectivists or those interested in Ayn Rand's philosophy who have long sought to understand the real application of Rand's ideas to the world of enterprise.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Please forward and copy freely, and include the following:

Book Description

Amorous Acts illustrates the value of psychoanalytic theory for comprehending relationships, experiences, art, politics, and all sorts of human interactions. More specifically, it employs psychoanalysis to show how queer theory is operating to effect a non-heterosexist social order. Although the Lacanian subject in Love can only experience his/her self-shattering, Lacan's concept of Love is seen here as politically useful. This study breaks down Lacanian Love into three different forms and tries to unveil the danger, as well as especially the cultural potential, of the most intense of these variations. To arrive at this position, Amorous Acts first works out the meaning of Lacan's “ethics of desire” by analyzing several modern British novels (by E.M. Forster, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, and Graham Greene), as well as some contemporary films (Breaking the Waves, Seventh Heaven, and Damage) and then by arguing with Zizek through a reading of Kieslowski's film “White”. Finally, queer theory as it has been brought into being by Foucault, Halperin, Bersani, Butler, and Edelman is put into relation with Lacan's notion of the authentic act. Queer theory engages Lacan's conception of self-shattering Love to traverse the pernicious fundamental fantasy of heterosexist reproduction.

The Prince: A Revised Translation Backgrounds Interpretations Marginalia (Norton Critical Editions)

Average customer rating:

How one can rule them all with power.
Good information
Accomadation
A Truely Overrated Book
Awesome book

The Prince: A Revised Translation Backgrounds Interpretations Marginalia (Norton Critical Editions)
Niccolo Machiavelli
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0393962202

Amazon.com

When Lorenzo de' Medici seized control of the Florentine Republic in 1512, he summarily fired the Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Signoria and set in motion a fundamental change in the way we think about politics. The person who held the aforementioned office with the tongue-twisting title was none other than Niccolò Machiavelli, who, suddenly finding himself out of a job after 14 years of patriotic service, followed the career trajectory of many modern politicians into punditry. Unable to become an on-air political analyst for a television network, he only wrote a book. But what a book The Prince is. Its essential contribution to modern political thought lies in Machiavelli's assertion of the then revolutionary idea that theological and moral imperatives have no place in the political arena. "It must be understood," Machiavelli avers, "that a prince ... cannot observe all of those virtues for which men are reputed good, because it is often necessary to act against mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion, in order to preserve the state." With just a little imagination, readers can discern parallels between a 16th-century principality and a 20th-century presidency. --Tim Hogan

Book Description

A classic of the Western tradition, Machiavelli`s The Prince has influenced political and philosophical thought since its publication four centuries ago. In this new edition of Machiavelli`s momentous book, Angelo M. Codevilla provides a translation uniquely faithful to the original, and especially sensitive to the author`s use of verbal imprecision, including puns, double meanings, and the subjunctive mood.

Download Description

Here is the world's most famous master plan for seizing and holding power. Astonishing in its candor The Prince even today remains a disturbingly realistic and prophetic work on what it takes to be a prince... a king... a president.

When, in 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post in his beloved Florence, he resolved to set down a treatise on leadership that was practical, not idealistic. In The Prince he envisioned what would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values; his prince would be man and beast, fox and lion. Today, this small sixteenth-century masterpiece has become essential reading for every student of government, and is the ultimate book on power politics.

Customer Reviews:

How one can rule them all with power........2007-10-14

Published in 1532, dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici, The Prince by Machiavelli is an advanced political science treatise in defence of civilization against barbarianism by way of a single specially disciplined sovereign ruler, a prince.

The Prince by Machiavelli is a brief but complex political management system designed to be run by a prince administered using a series of protocols for any given situation based on Machiavelli's interpretation of the history of the rise and fall of world governments with an emphasis on the Roman Empire and current trends in 16th century monarchy rule.

Machiavelli's analysis of the historical record paved the way for princes to develop awareness of the problem of emergent barbarianism both internal and external. Machiavelli highlighted the need for a prince to always remain liked but indicated that being wanted did not necessarily mean being kind and showed how a cruel prince could also be beneficial to the state which would function, sometimes better, under ruthlessness depending on certain conditions.

Machiavelli was able to successfully understand the different types of principalities and how princes come to power and how they could retain that power tactically. He often cited historical sources to prove his points. The Prince teaches how to acquire cities and how they should be ruled especially after being annexed. In this respect it is also a war treatise although it deals with gain by means other than war. However this is not unusual for a warfare discourse. There are methods of determining strength and calculating a response and so The Prince is a strategic book that has its bases in game theory. The different types of soldiers and how they behave is given a considerable amount of coverage and how a prince should treat them.

The character of a prince becomes a central theme especially concerning how a prince is to be perceived by others. Religion is dealt with and for its time The Prince surprisingly declared Popes potential enemies that could, and would, undermine a monarchy if it was to their advantage. Machiavelli was able to show how a fortress is important for defence but that attack can, and does, come from within. He also had a system to increase a prince's popularity and noted areas in which a prince could socially falter. The book rounds up with a directive to implement these ideas when fortune should arise and to be always on guard against barbarianism which can come from within.

The Prince remains a classic essential in the development of game theory. There are many parallels between this work and the Art of War by Sun Tzu. In fact Machiavelli wrote another book using that very same title. Machiavelli sees power brought into the grasp of one hand by adapting military tactics internally within government operations as opposed to outwardly using them to defeat the enemy. This work is all about controlling what has been gained.

The Prince and its author Machiavelli are often condemned for not only tolerating mistreating people but for advising it in a lot of circumstances especially to prove authority and to take any possible threatening might away from the people. Proponents argue that without a rule of law with stiff penalties people would become barbaric and the system would deteriorate into even more unbearable situations. It is completely open about dealing out harsh measures to guarantee the survival of the state by any means necessary. However The Prince does contain methodologies that incorporate and use control based on kindness but these methods are few and far between.

Overall this book's influence on politics and business cannot be underestimated. Ultimately it is a must read being a very powerful book about being very powerful.

Good information.......2007-10-10

Many of Macchavelli's principal relate to both the Political world and the business world. It should be in every library.

This could be quite hard for those who lack the concentration, it can a valuable book for those who want to obtain a leadership position.

Accomadation.......2007-10-02

The first item was lost in the mail. I contacted Amazon and they sent me another one right away.

A Truely Overrated Book.......2007-09-19

"The Prince" is essentially a "how-to" guide for royalty durring the 1400's in Italy. I'm not going to make this review very long... a short review for a short book. It gets one star. Why? It's a very out dated classic. The advice and philosophical ramblings handed out in this book is quite specific to its time and place, and unlike, say The Communist Manefesto, for example, are no long relevant to us. In fact, it would probably be downright criminal today to run your country in the way Machiavelli suggests you do. This book would be a good read if you are interested in the history of Italian principalities durring this time period. Other than that, there is really no reason to read it. The morality of the book is actually very objectionable, and on top of that... its REALLLLLY borring.

It's probably considered to be a classic work of literature because it is just old. That's all. If I wrote some crap right now about the mythical underpants gnomes, and it survived for 600 years, people in 2600 BC would probably be saying "FIVE STARS for the Underpants Gnome Chronicals. This a great relic from the year 2007! Such insight into their ideology and beliefs...."

Awesome book.......2007-09-06

This book is for serious philosophical readers.

Machiavelli broke down a raw and ruthless political idea. I read the Art of War before this book, and they are similar. However, Machiavelli is much more aggressive. If you're reading this book for entertainment, it can be dry at times. Nonetheless, the information in this book is timeless, and should be an enjoyment for interested readers only.

Georges Bataille and the Mysticism of Sin

Average customer rating:

Georges Bataille and the Mysticism of Sin
Peter Tracey Connor
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Medical Ethics | Physician & Patient | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Book Description

When Sartre referred to Georges Bataille as a "new mystic," he meant the label as an insult. Sartre considered mysticism to be a less rigorous mode of inquiry than philosophy -- especially dangerous where the writings of mystics adapt philosophical terminology for different purposes. In Georges Bataille and the Mysticism of Sin, Peter Connor argues that literary scholars, eager to represent Bataille as a philosopher or as an early deconstructionist, have tended to neglect or misunderstand Bataille's interest in mysticism. Connor's study corrects this distorted view of Bataille, giving us a more complete picture of the complex and influential writer.

With careful attention to Bataille's historical and intellectual context, Connor raises many important questions: What drew Bataille to the mystics? How did he conceive of their thought in relation to his own? And what is the connection between mysticism and morality? This last question raises an especially interesting issue for Bataille, an atheist whom readers generally associate with images of transgression and sin. Through examination of Bataille's writings -- including Inner Experience and his underappreciated final book, Tears of Eros -- Connor shows the surprising connection between Bataille's mysticism and his sense of personal and political ethics. Mysticism, Connor argues, lies at the heart of Bataille's double identity as an intellectual and as a kind of anarchic prophet.

Average customer rating:

Emerson and Self-Reliance
George Kateb
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Ethics & Morality | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Political | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0742521451

Book Description

Ralph Waldo Emerson was a great moral philosopher. One of his principle contributions is the theory of self-reliance, a view of democratic individuality. Nietzsche was Emerson's best reader, and George Kateb provides an accessible reading of Emerson that is friendly to the interests of Nietzsche and to later Nietzscheans such as Weber, Heidegger, Arendt, and Foucault.

J. M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading: Literature in the Event

Average customer rating:

J. M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Reading: Literature in the Event
Derek Attridge
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0226031179

Book Description

Nobel Prize-winning novelist J. M. Coetzee is one of the most widely taught contemporary writers, but also one of the most elusive. Many critics who have addressed his work have devoted themselves to rendering it more accessible and acceptable, often playing down the features that discomfort and perplex his readers.

Yet it is just these features, Derek Attridge argues, that give Coetzee's work its haunting power and offer its greatest rewards. Attridge does justice to this power and these rewards in a study that serves as an introduction for readers new to Coetzee and a stimulus for thought for those who know his work well. Without overlooking the South African dimension of his fiction, Attridge treats Coetzee as a writer who raises questions of central importance to current debates both within literary studies and more widely in the ethical arena. Implicit throughout the book is Attridge's view that literature, more than philosophy, politics, or even religion, does singular justice to our ethical impulses and acts. Attridge follows Coetzee's lead in exploring a number of issues such as interpretation and literary judgment, responsibility to the other, trust and betrayal, artistic commitment, confession, and the problematic idea of truth to the self.

The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction

Average customer rating:

required reading for anyone who cares about literature
Matchless

The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction
Wayne C. Booth
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Ethics | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0520062108

Book Description

In The Company We Keep, Wayne C. Booth argues for the relocation of ethics to the center of our engagement with literature.
But the questions he asks are not confined to morality. Returning ethics to its root sense, Booth proposes that the ethical critic will be interested in any effect on the ethos, the total character or quality of tellers and listeners. Ethical criticism will risk talking about the quality of this particular encounter with this particular work. Yet it will give up the old hope for definitive judgments of "good" work and "bad." Rather it will be a conversation about many kinds of personal and social goods that fictions can serve or destroy. While not ignoring the consequences for conduct of engaging with powerful stories, it will attend to that more immediate topic, What happens to us as we read? Who am I, during the hours of reading or listening? What is the quality of the life I lead in the company of these would-be friends?
Through a wide variety of periods and genres and scores of particular works, Booth pursues various metaphors for such engagements: "friendship with books," "the exchange of gifts," "the colonizing of worlds," "the constitution of commonwealths." He concludes with extended explorations of the ethical powers and potential dangers of works by Rabelais, D. H. Lawrence, Jane Austen, and Mark Twain.

Customer Reviews:

required reading for anyone who cares about literature.......2004-12-25

In his usual thorough, encyclopedic way, Booth discusses many of the issues concerning the effects of fiction in the real world on real people. And as usual, he bends over backward to be fair to everybody. He gives patient, exhaustive treatments of all arguments and claims, even the most idiotic, showing their inadequacies. But people who put forth idiotic arguments do not do so because they are stupid but because they are committed, and committed people do not respond to reason, however patient and thorough. Still, there is much thought-provoking material here, and the book should be read by all readers interested in the personal and social effects of literature. Booth is weakest when dealing with philosophical issues (because he is not a philosopher). His confusions about subjectivism and relativism are cases in point. For a competent discussion of these and the other ethical (i.e. value-theoretic) issues, readers would be better advised to get A Book Worth Reading. But as a compendium of arguments "clearing away the dead wood" and for his many thought-provoking discussions, Booth is impossible to beat.

Matchless.......2004-08-15

Muddled in endless cultural anxieties, or battling feverishly in various intellectualized ghettos of fashionable cultural politics and so many psychoanalyticalisms or poststructuralisms, most contemporary literary critics and historians fail to provide us with truly original substantive insights based on a union of thorough close reading, historical contexting and ethical speculation.

Instead critics today impose a theoretical template upon works as if they are writing only for their present-day colleaques and the hidden forces of tenure and promotion. Nor do these critics seem to have an unparalleled mastery of many, many, many books--wide, volumnious reading that used to be called "generalism"--and those books' inner workings.

Yes, all critics write from their own cultural bias and historical location. Yes, all texts hew from particular milieus.

Yet, Professor Booth demonstrates that there is such a thing as original thinking about literature and literary technique that *does not* make the mistake of imposing a speculative template at the expense of unexpected analytical power and unique theses.

Professor Booth has a lifelong project that bears up to present day and future inquiry. He writes for the ages. Literally, he has read most major and minor British, American, and major European fiction from the Renaissance forward and the major theories that arise around them, including the "classical" Greco-Roman theories that undergird so much of current critical thinking in Western European and American academies.

This undergirding "classical" thought is largely unknown, yes, to many junior scholars raised on the isms and jargons of today. These junior scholars simply could not tell you in a clearly worded summary free of jargon what Aristotle or Plato said about narrative, rhetoric, dramatic presentation, or lyric sensibility; nor could they give you a picture of critical investigations of point of view from Henry James forward. But they know their queer theory and postcolonialism. And as well they should. Yet, oh for the day when junior scholars were encouraged to know more than their own small camp of influence.

When Professor Booth makes general claims about technical trends in the writing of novels and short fiction he makes these based on wide and deep critical reading. He has an uncommon and penetrating mind that thankfully has little to prove in terms of the current obsession with cultural identity and social politics. Yet, he has much to *convey* in terms of what might be called the "cultural politics of technique."

Thus, his writings from *Rhetoric of Fiction* on are hardly apolitical or ahistorical. What he has is a knack for coming up with original theses--unique arguments borne of close reading and cultural-historical contexting that defy easy theoretical cheapening.

Today, we read critics and immediately place them into some theoretical school or camp... and there are so many speculative ghettos.

Professor Booth's originality of thought will not suffer from such ghettoization.

Sadly, and without exaggeration, there are no literary critics or historians that possess his elegant authority today. And few *write* with both clarity and depth--*explaining* terms while never sacrificing analytical power.

Professor Booth wrote through the time when French structuralisms, poststructuralisms, deconstructionisms, feminisms, race-theorisms, queer-theorisms and psychoanalyticisms, postcolonialisms and a host of other isms defined literary criticism and began, as it were, to eclispe unexpected de-provincialized readings of fiction. The "theory" became more important than the criticism.

Some critics beholden to these camps rise out of them to forge truly intellectual thought.

*How* the works may do what they do is as important as what they can be said to convey politically and socially. In this book, Professor Booth's picture of characters as ethical engines, as social actors fraught with obligations, responsibilities, human effects, and errors is matchless.

Henry David Thoreau and the Moral Agency of Knowing

Average customer rating:

Thoreau's Response to Post- Modernism

Henry David Thoreau and the Moral Agency of Knowing
Alfred I. Tauber
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Metaphysics | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Modern | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0520225279

Book Description

In his graceful philosophical account, Alfred I. Tauber shows why Thoreau still seems so relevant today--more relevant in many respects than he seemed to his contemporaries. Although Thoreau has been skillfully and thoroughly examined as a writer, naturalist, mystic, historian, social thinker, Transcendentalist, and lifelong student, we may find in Tauber's portrait of Thoreau the moralist a characterization that binds all these aspects of his career together.
Thoreau was caught at a critical turn in the history of science, between the ebb of Romanticism and the rising tide of positivism. He responded to the challenges posed by the new ideal of objectivity not by rejecting the scientific worldview, but by humanizing it for himself. Tauber portrays Thoreau as a man whose moral vision guided his life's work. Each of Thoreau's projects reflected a self-proclaimed "metaphysical ethics," an articulated program of self-discovery and self-knowing. By writing, by combining precision with poetry in his naturalist pursuits and simplicity with mystical fervor in his daily activity, Thoreau sought to live a life of virtue--one he would characterize as marked by deliberate choice. This unique vision of human agency and responsibility will still seem fresh and contemporary to readers at the start of the twenty-first century.

Customer Reviews:

Thoreau's Response to Post- Modernism.......2002-03-13

This is a book for two kinds of readers. Those who are particularly drawn to Thoreau will find a provocative thesis on which to hang all of his various pursuits. Tauber approaches him as a historian and philosopher of science, and shows how Thoreau was reacting against a rising tide of positivism - a form of radical objectivity -- to preserve his individualistic perspective on the world. Whether he was doing natural history or cultural history, Thoreau collected facts and assembled them to uniquely construct his own view of nature or culture. But Thoreau is only a foil for Tauber's larger purposes. Tauber's major theme is that all knowledge is value-laden and we choose the values by which to know the world and live in it. The fact/value distinction, so important in much of philosophy of science, is brought together here. This thesis is of interest, not only to understand Thoreau, but for a very much wider set of concerns. Tauber is charting out a post-critical understanding of the nature of knowledge, building on two philosophies: Michael Polanyi's "tacit mode" of understanding and Emanuel Levinas's ethical metaphysics. The first argues that the conditions that make knowing possible are not "foundational" or can ever be made explicit, but rather are embedded in individual experience and common social life; from this source, explicit knowledge is created. The second thesis maintains that values determine how we encounter the world and ultimately know it. These themes are not novel to contemporary philosophy, but when posed in present debates about the nature of reality, the claims of relativism, and the problematic status of the self, Tauber's synthesis offers a way out of the maze of postmodernism to new assertions about the primacy of the person. Thoreau is used to demonstrate how the postmodern challenge has its origins in the romanticism and that the responses offered then, when understood in the light of 20th century developments, takes on new significance. This is an ambitious book: The Thoreau lover will find some of the philosophy challenging and the philosophically inclined will find the focus on Thoreau potentially distracting. But each will find their efforts well paid: the first will understand Thoreau in a new way, and the second will see a philosophy enacted in a rarely realized illustration.

Ethics and Narrative in the English Novel, 18801914

Average customer rating:

Ethics and Narrative in the English Novel, 18801914
Jil Larson
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0521792827

Book Description

Drawing on interdisciplinary work in the field of ethics by a diverse range of thinkers, including Martha Nussbaum, Richard Rorty, Emmanuel Levinas and Paul Ricoeur, Jil Larson offers new readings of late-Victorian and turn-of-the-century British fiction. Focusing on novels by Thomas Hardy, Sarah Grand, Olive Schreiner, Oscar Wilde, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad, Larson explores the conjunction of ethics and fin-de-siècle history and culture through a consideration of what narratives from this period tell us about emotion, reason, and gender, aestheticism, and such speech acts as promising and lying.

Download Description

A revitalisation of the field of ethics and literature has recently gained the attention of scholars in philosophy and literary studies. Drawing on interdisciplinary work in this field by a diverse range of thinkers, including Martha Nussbaum, Emmanuel Levinas and Paul Ricoeur, Jil Larson offers new readings of late-Victorian and turn-of-the-century British fiction to show how ethical concepts can transform our understanding of narratives, just as narratives make possible a valuable, contextualised moral deliberation. Focusing on novels by Thomas Hardy, Sarah Grand, Olive Schreiner, Oscar Wilde, and Henry James, Larson explores the conjunction of ethics and fin-de-siËcle history and culture through a consideration of what narratives from this period tell us about emotion, reason, and gender, aestheticism, and such speech acts as promising and lying. This book will be of interest to scholars of nineteenth century and modernism, and all interested in the conjunction between narrative, ethics and literary theory.

Acting Beautifully: Henry James and the Ethical Aesthetic (SUNY Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture)

Average customer rating:

Acting Beautifully: Henry James and the Ethical Aesthetic (SUNY Series in Psychoanalysis and Culture)
Sigi Jottkandt
Manufacturer: State University of New York Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0791465578

Book Description

Addresses ethical and aesthetic issues in three major works by Henry James.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books