This is a journey into the soul of Western society towards the distorted roots of our advanced and developed culture, which has grown to its elevated position of wealth and economic security at the expense of other cultures. The author weaves memories, stories, political and economic analysis and philosophical and psychological ideas into a rich textual fabric.
First published in 1950, this is a late work by Charles Baudouin, world-famous French psychologist, and takes its title from the opening chapter which examines the transformation of the myth of Progress, characteristic of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, into the myth of Modernity, characteristic of the time of writing. The author has little sympathy for a development which he regards as essentially vulgar; the myth of Progress, he says, had its aspiration and gave man reasons for reaching out for better things, but the myth of Modernity ‘seems to give humanity reasons only for fleeing from itself, reasons for unhappiness, inasmuch as the man who runs away from himself is an unhappy man’. This chapter is characteristic of those that follow – on Baudelaire, Verlaine and other literary topics; on Art and the Epoch, The Prestige of Action, Technique versus Mysticism, Opinion and Tolerance, etc. A broad humanity and a gentle irony are the characteristic features of this stimulating book, now available again to be enjoyed in its historical context.
Discusses how a person's view of the world influences how a person lives and argues that Christians are called not only to personal faith but to a biblical worldview
Richard Stivers’ concern is with the social construction of evil, that is, with how modern societies, in a partly unconscious way, create evil as a category of the sacred and how symbols, myths, and rituals of evil are related to this. He is interested, moreover, in how modern societies provoke individuals to commit evil actions. This fascinating and stimulating book is the first attempt to work out in detail how the concepts of the sacred, symbol, myth, and ritual form a cultural configuration in modern technological societies, and not just in traditional societies.
MySearchLab provides students with a complete understanding of the research process so they can complete research projects confidently and efficiently. Students and instructors with an internet connection can visit www.MySearchLab.com and receive immediate access to thousands of full articles from the EBSCO ContentSelect database. In addition, MySearchLab offers extensive content on the research process itself–including tips on how to navigate and maximize time in the campus library, a step-by-step guide on writing a research paper, and instructions on how to finish an academic assignment with endnotes and bibliography. This book explores reproductive, household, and office technology in order to challenge popular notions of technology as progressive for women. It argues that technology gives its benefits differentially, depending on such critical social issues as race, gender, and class. Topics in this provocative analysis include the social construction of technology, the status of women, reproductive technology, office technology, household technology, the myth of progress, and implications for social change. A provocative read for anyone interested in women's issues with regard to household, workplace, and reproductive technological breakthroughs.
Franco Ferrarotti examines the ways in which we have come to cope with the problems unforeseen by the early idealists of the industrial age. Beginning with a detailed critique of the Enlightenment concept of the individual and how it compares to present day values, beliefs, and attitudes, he proceeds to demonstrate how current technology influences the lives of individuals in the work place and in the community at large. The influence of science and industrial progress on our development as human beings is critically analyzed. Finally, Ferrarotti gives some suggestions as to how we may find a way out of the dilemmas facing modern society and speculates on the fates of those societies currently in transition. While many writers have dealt with specific aspects of the modern industrial age, Ferrarotti faces squarely the general problem of the social and political impact of technologically based life.
Humanism, modernity, and scientific rationality are examined critically in these collected essays. Developments in logic and philosophy are surveyed in the perspective of the closing century. Other essays include Musil and Mach, and Wittgenstein's place on the cultural map of the times.
This volume offers an original perspective on divine providence by examining philosophical, psychological, and theological perspectives on human providence as exhibited in virtuous human behaviours. Divine providence is one of the most pressing issues in analytic theology and philosophy of religion today, especially in view of scientific evidence for a natural world full of indeterminacies and contingencies. Therefore, we need new ways to understand and explain the relations of divine providence and creaturely action. The volume is structured dynamically, going from chapters on human providence to those on divine providence, and back. Drawing on insights from virtue ethics, psychology and cognitive science, the philosophy of providence in the face of contingent events, and the theology of grace, each chapter contributes to an original overall perspective: that human providential action is a resource suited specifically to personal action and hence related to the purported providential action of a personal God. By putting forward a fresh take on divine providence, this book enters new territory on an age-old issue. It will therefore be of great interest to scholars of theology and philosophy.
The digital revolution is changing the world in ecologically unsustainable ways: (1) it increases the economic and political power of the elites controlling and interpreting the data; (2) it is based on the deep assumptions of market liberalism that do not recognize environmental limits; (3) it undermines face-to-face and context-specific forms of knowledge; (4) it undermines awareness of the metaphorical nature of language; (5) its promoters are driven by the myth of progress and thus ignore important cultural traditions of the cultural commons that are being lost; and (6) it both by-passes the democratic process and colonizes other cultures. This book provides an in-depth examination of these phenomena and connects them to questions of educational reform in the US and beyond.
Despite the doom and gloom of financial crises, global terrorism, climate collapse, and the rise of the far-right, a number of leading intellectuals (Steven Pinker, Hans Rosling, Johan Norberg, and Matt Ridley, among others) have been arguing in recent years that the world is getting better and better. But this “progress narrative” is little more than a very conservative defence of the capitalist status quo. At a time when liberal democracy appears incapable of stemming the tide of the far-right populism, and when laissez-faire capitalism is ill-equipped to deal with socio-economic problems like climate change, inequality, and the future of wok, the real advocates of progress are those willing to challenge these established paradigms. The Glass Half-Empty argues that, without criticising the systems of capitalism, the changes needed to make a better world will always fall short of our expectations. The "progress narrative" needs to be challenged before we stumble into a potentially catastrophic future, despite having the means to build a truly better world.
The Morality of Terrorism: Religious and Secular Justifications examines ""terrorist tradition"" from its origin in the revealed religions to its present manifestations, which are largely secular though not exclusively so. Important common themes running through all the essays are the moral climate that produces terrorism, the doctrines terrorists used to justify themselves, and the moral predicaments terrorists create. The book is organized into three parts. The essays in Part I focus on religious terror. Topics covered include the successful efforts of Jewish terrorists in the first century to provoke a popular uprising; the myths of Prometheus and Satan; and the myths and fantasies in the minds of terrorists and how these myths are related to the ramshackle world of Western civilization. Part II deals with various forms of state terror. It includes essays such as the French Reign of Terror and Nazi terrorism. Part III, devoted to rebel terror, includes essays such as terrorists' justifications and their abilities to demonstrate sincerity though suffering; and responses to rebel terrorism by communities deeply committed to protecting individual rights.
