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Explores the philosophy of history of Henri Bergson and shows its relevance to contemporary historical thought. Henri Bergson is famous for his explorations of time as duration, yet he rarely referred to history in his writings. Simultaneously, historians and philosophers of history have generally disregarded Bergson’s ideas about the nature of time. Modernity has brought change at an ever-accelerating rate, and one of the results of this has been a tendency toward presentism. Only the here and now matters, as past and future have been absorbed by the “omnipresent present” of the digital age. In highlighting the role of history in the work of Bergson, Bergson and History shows how his ...
In Vestiges of a Philosophy: Matter, the Meta-Spiritual, and the Forgotten Bergson, John Ó Maoilearca examines the seemingly very different but nonetheless complementary ideas of philosopher Henri Bergson and his occultist sister, Mina Bergson (aka Moina Mathers), to tackle contemporary themes in current materialist philosophy, memory studies, and the relationship between mysticism and philosophy.
This book brings together two of the most important figures of twentieth-century criticism, Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, to consider a topic that was central to their thinking: the place of and reason for art in society and culture. Thijs Lijster takes us through points of agreement and disagreement between the two on such key topics as the relationship between art and historical experience, between avant-garde art and mass culture, and between the intellectual and the public. He also addresses the continuing relevance of Benjamin and Adorno to ongoing debates in contemporary aesthetics, such as the end of art, the historical meaning of art, and the role of the critic.
This book presents a theory of the morality of human relations deeply drawn from widespread spiritual traditions, offering an account of the full range of sociality that comprises our moral life. Bennett Gilbert argues that the dynamic character of our choices and actions is developed as the center of philosophical inquiry into ethics. Relying on the tradition of philosophical personalism, the author reads moral life in terms of the central worth and value of human personhood. This fully relational concept supports a picture of the clash and cooperation of two great moral forces, power and compassion. By combining hermeneutics, first-person philosophy, moral philosophy, and existential philosophy of history, Power and Compassion is a philosophical exploration of the ways in which we use our moral force to create meaningfulness in our collective experience.
Twenty-First-Century Symbolism was the winner of the 2023 R. Gapper Book Prize. How do the writings of Verlaine, Baudelaire, and Mallarmé speak to our time? Why should we continue to read these poets today? How might a contemporary reading of their poetry differ from readings delivered in previous centuries? Twenty-First-Century Symbolism argues that Verlaine, Baudelaire, and Mallarmé prefigure a view of human subjectivity that is appropriate for our times: we cannot be separated from the worlds in which we live and evolve; human beings both mediate and are mediations of the environments we traverse and that traverse us, whether these are natural, urban, linguistic, or technological environments. The ambition of the book is therefore twofold: on the one hand, it aims to offer new readings of the three poets, demonstrating their continued relevance for contemporary debates, putting them into dialogue with a philosophical corpus that has not yet played a role in the study of nineteenth century French poetry; on the other, the book relies on the three poets to establish an understanding of human subjectivity that is in tune with our twenty-first century concerns.
This Companion provides a wide-ranging and up-to-date overview of the conceptual issues that history as a discipline and mode of thought gives rise to. The book offers both historical and systematic treatments of these issues, as well as addressing their contemporary relevance. Structured in three parts – Modes and Schools of Historical Thought, Epistemology and Metaphysics of History, and Issues and Challenges in Historical Theory – it offers the reader a wide scope and expert treatment of each topic in this vibrant field that can be read in any order. An international team of experts both discuss the basis of their topic and present their own view, offering the reader a cutting-edge contribution while ensuring their chapters are of interest to both students and specialists in the field of historical theory and engaging with the very nature of historical thought, the metaphysics of historical existence, the politics of history-writing, and the intelligibility of the historical process. The volume is an indispensable companion to the study of history and essential reading for anyone interested in the reflection on the nature of history and our historical existence.
Henri Bergson (1859-1941) was one of the most celebrated and influential philosophers of the twentieth century. He was awarded in 1928 the Nobel prize for literature for his philosophical work, and his controversial ideas about time, memory and life shaped generations of thinkers, writers and artists. In this clear and engaging introduction, Mark Sinclair examines the full range of Bergson's work. The book sheds new light on familiar aspects of Bergson’s thought, but also examines often ignored aspects of his work, such as his philosophy of art, his philosophy of technology and the relation of his philosophical doctrines to his political commitments. After an illuminating overview of his l...
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