Four Cultures of the WestHarvard University Press, 2004 M10 15 - 261 pages The workings of Western intelligence in our day--whether in politics or the arts, in the humanities or the church--are as troubling as they are mysterious, leading to the questions: Where are we going? What in the world were we thinking? By exploring the history of four "cultures" so deeply embedded in Western history that we rarely see their instrumental role in politics, religion, education, and the arts, this timely book provides a broad framework for addressing these questions in a fresh way. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 38
... issues and works for the common good of society ( Cicero , Erasmus , and Eleanor Roosevelt ) ; and the culture of art and perform- ance that celebrates the mystery of the human condition ( Phidias , Michelangelo , Balanchine ) . By ...
... issues , and movements I discuss , but I hope that my approach will stimulate them to think about these subjects in a new way . Students and the general reader may initially be bewil- dered by the swirl of names they encounter for the ...
... issues raised by another area of my research , the Protestant - Catholic conflicts of the sixteenth century . In my book on the Sistine ser- mons I had to deal directly with the relationship between " the new learning " of humanism and ...
... issue , however , that I increasingly saw as critical . These were the origins of the book . Despite encouragement from friends and colleagues , I long hesitated to write it . I am fond of my cultures , but I am also aware of my ...
... issue . What is virtue ? What is justice ? But it was with Aristotle that the pursuit was carried forward into almost every branch of knowl- edge , with massive codification of observations about the physical world and of speculation ...