Follow @WRLBooks “Beginning of modern thought.” Witold Gombrowicz starts his guide through modern philosophy with characteristic concision. The “First Lesson” is a description of Kant’s contributions to philosophy, with some explanation of Descartes to see where Kant is coming from. Gombrowicz — playwright, diarist, novelist, and thinker — leaps through
Fifty years ago, Terry Eagleton—one of the foremost and polemical cultural critics and literary theorists—was appointed Fellow in English at Jesus College, Cambridge shortly after graduating from the university himself with a First in English. He was the youngest fellow in the history of the college since the eighteenth century,
Follow @yaleRELIbooks As 2013 draws to a close, we reflect on the superlatives of the past year. Everyone is busy writing up their own “Best of 2013” lists and “Year in Review” articles. Amidst all of the reflection on our high points, we cannot escape recollections of our lows. In
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. – Søren Kierkegaard We constantly seek to delay the inconveniences of mortality for as long as humanly possible, as can be seen in the launch of Google’s startup Calico as well as the deluge of anti-aging products and
Arthur C. Danto, a celebrated art critic and philosopher, died on October 25th in New York. Danto was Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Columbia University and served as The Nation’s art critic from 1984 to 2009. Danto famously once declared the “end of art.” While some have taken his controversial declaration to mean that people in
Follow @yaleRELIbooks Jennifer Michael Hecht, author of Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It, felt the terrible effects of suicide twice in two years. The loss of two friends and fellow poets, the second of which seemed prompted by the first, inspired Hecht to write a column for The Best American
One morning in 19th-century India, the followers of Sri Ramakrishna were gathered for breakfast. Ramakrishna, a mystic and spiritual teacher, had died the preceding year, and a monastic order had been established with his followers continuing in their devout practice. One devotee, the future Swami Vivekanada, began to “playfully imitate”
By his own estimation David Bentley Hart has written “either an extremely ambitious or extremely unambitious book,” though he tends toward latter. In The Experience of God, Hart sets out to write something akin to a definition of God, so indeed the concept is vast. Still, Hart tackles it with
Follow @yaleRELIbooks Jennifer Banks— I had been acquiring religion books for Yale University Press for five years or so when my grandmother’s passing brought me back to the Catholic Church I’d attended as a child. I sat in the back row at her funeral, with my two-year-old daughter and four-month-old