Modern Renaissance Books - Page 6

Epitome of Copernican Astronomy & Harmonies of the World (Great Minds Series)

Johannes Kepler

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A small sample.. 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This is a republication of an old translation.

If you haven't read Kepler's own words, then this book will be both more and less than you expected. It is both a mathematical and philosophically speculative text, which in some sections can get quite technical.(Warning: the title is a bit deceiving. Only part of the Epitome is included.)

I would only give 3 stars to this book, except that english translations of Kepler's works are very few, and this book is the most financially accessible of those currently on the market. I therefore recommend it as a good first exposure.

There's no substitute to reading the original words of great thinkers, especially in gaining insight into their way of approaching the world.

Editorial Review:

The brilliant German mathematician Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), one of the founders of modern astronomy, revolutionised the Copernican heliocentric theory of the universe with his three laws of motion: that the planets move not in circular but elliptical orbits, that their speed is greatest when nearest the sun, and that the sun and planets form an integrated system. This volume contains two of his most important works: "The Epitome of Copernican Astronomy" (books 4 and 5 of which are translated here) is a textbook of Copernican science, remarkable for the prominence given to physical astronomy and for the extension to the Jovian system of the laws recently discovered to regulate the motions of the Planets; and "Harmonies of the World" (book 5 of which is translated here) expounds an elaborate system of celestial harmonies depending on the varying velocities of the planets.

Renaissance Thought and the Arts

Paul Oskar Kristeller

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A Thorough Masterpiece 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 16 people found this review helpful.

"Renaissance Thought and the Arts" presents a brilliant introduction into Renaissance culture. The collection of separately published articles, first edited in 1965 and now added by a precious afterword, makes up a well-rounded unit. The late Kristeller, one of the most respected writers on humanism, explains in the first section (ch. 1-3) the concept of Renaissance and provides a fundamental insight into its thought and literature. In the first chapter he argues convincingly against tendences to define Renaissance by a certain set of ideas and exposes the problems that are central to humanistic thought, simultaneously giving an overview over the different literary genres inherited from ancient literature. In the second chapter on the moral philosophy of those times, he emphasizes its impact on the modern concept of human dignity. Thereupon, he demonstrates how humanism, originated and developed in Italy, hence spread out into entire Europe, whereas some scholars had claimed that humanistic ideas emerged in different European countries simultaneous and independently. Some other important aspects of Renaissance philosophy are discussed in the second section (ch. 4-6) on Platonism and Aristotelism, the most impressive essay being that on the place of man in the universe. At the heart of the final section on the arts (ch. 7-10) is the comprehensive study which describes in detail the development of our concept of the arts, and its predecessors in ancient times and the middle Ages. Thus Kristeller profoundly explores the history of the principal problem of aesthetics, that is the essence of art, which he touches also in the afterword on creativity and tradition, prudently distinguishing the significance of each for aesthetic value and appreciation.

Throughout, Kristeller displays an overwhelming richness of insight, stylistic masterhip and exemplaric knowledge that make this book a joy to read. It is useful as a leader during the first steps to understanding Renaissance culture as well as a treasure for any scholar who is concerned with the topics involved.

Editorial Review:

Written by an eminent authority on the Renaissance, these classic essays deal not only with Paul Kristeller's specialty, Renaissance humanism and philosophy, but also with Renaissance theories of art. The focus of the collection is on topics such as humanist learning, humanist moral thought, the diffusion of humanism, Platonism, music and learning during the early Renaissance, and the modern system of arts in relation to the Renaissance. For this volume the author has written a new preface, a new essay, and an afterword.

Romanticism Comes of Age

Owen Barfield

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Owen Barfield is unique in havin combined the work of a solicitor wit the profession of literature. In the latter his speciality has been the province of speech and words, and the history and philosophy of meaning. His works on these subjects have long won enthusiastic recognition in university circles, but are now reaching a wider public. He has been described by C. S. Lewis as 'the wisest of my unofficial advisers' and T. S. Eliot wrote of his Saving the Appearances that it was 'one of the few books which made me proud to be director of the firm which published them.' He has always been interested in the relation between poetry, philosophy, science and religion, and at the Goethe Centenary he gave a Broadcast talk on the BBC on the third programme on Goethe's scientific writings. He has recently returned from the USA, where he has spent two years as a visiting professor of Philosophy and Letters at Drew University and of English Literature at Brandeis. He early encountered the work of Rudolf Steiiner and soon recognized the immense contribution that Steiner had made towards a true understanding of the world and of man. The essays in this volume are at once the fruit of his study of Steiner's work and a new approach to that work from the angle of English literature. They form perhaps the best introduction to Steiner's work for the English literary mind. Owen Barfield, who died in 1997 shortly after entering his hundredth year, was one of the seminal minds of the twentieth century, of whom C. S. Lewis wrote "he towers above us all." His books have won respect from many writers other than Lewis, among them T. S. Eliot, J. R. R. Tolkein, and Saul Bellows, and John Lukacs. He was born in North London in 1898 and received his B.A. with first-class honors from Wadham College, Oxford, in 1921. He also earned B.C.L., M.A., and B.Litt. degrees from Oxford and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He served as a solicitor for twenty-eight years until his retirement from legal practice in 1959. Barfield was a visiting professor at Brandeis and Drew Universities, Hamilton College, the University of Missouri at Columbia, UCLA, SUNY-Stony Brook, and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. His books include seven others published by The Barfield Press: Romanticism Comes of Age, Worlds Apart: A Dialogue of the 1960s, Unancestral Voice, Speaker's Meaning, What Coleridge Thought, The Rediscovery of Meaning, and History, Guilt and Habit.

Machiavelli and Us

Louis Althusser, Francois Matheron, Gregory Elliott

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Althusser's best book, and the best book on Machiavelli 5 out of 5 stars.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in Machiavelli, Lenin, Gramsci, or Althusser. Althusser reads Machiavelli's *philosophy* - which, for Althusser, is always the intervention of politics into theory - and specifies what exactly made Machiavelli such a solitary, singular thinker. For those of you who associate Althusser with structuralism, you are in for a big shock. It is here that Althusser develops his 'aleatory materialism' and theory of the conjuncture to the utmost, reading Machiavelli together with Epicurus to delineate Machiavelli's materialist position in philosophy as a thinker of the conjuncture. But he also specifies the necessity for an encounter to endure, and it is here perhaps that a non-structuralist, non-economistic reworking of his theses on the 'last instance' and 'reproduction' in the famous ISAs paper might become possible.

In this book Althusser argues that there is no contradiction between the Prince and the Discourses, that Machiavelli is neither monarchist or republican but instead that he observes power from the perspective of the people, and that Machiavelli's problem is the problem of the constitution of Italy as a national-popular state out of the 'void' of the then-existing mess that was Italy's political landscape. His analysis of Machiavelli's concepts of fortuna and virtu is very important, and too nuanced to summarise here. It's only 100 pages of main text plus endnotes, then another essay 'Machiavelli's Solitude' (an earlier version of which appeared in the journal _Economy and Society_ in 1988) which is 15 pages, and the translator Gregory Elliott provides an worthwhile introduction of 9 pages + notes, where, among other things, Elliott contrasts Althusser's book with that of Skinner for the benefit of English readers.

SO - it's short, but well worth reading. Keep an eye out for the next volume of Althusser writings, due out soon, which contains other important writings from the period 1978-86 (including much more in the way of insights into the development of Althusser's materialism), including 'Marx in his limits', where Althusser develops his theory of the state and provides a strident critique of Gramscian discourse on hegemony and the state that informed the political practice of the Eurocommunists.

Editorial Review:

'We do not publish our own drafts, that is, our own mistakes, but we do sometimes publish other people's,' Louis Althusser once observed of Marx's early writings. Among his own posthumously released drafts, one, at least, is incontestably neither mistake nor out-take: the text of his lecture course on Machiavelli, originally delivered at the cole normale suprieure in 1972, intermittently revised up to the mid-1980s, and carefully prepared for publication after his death in 1990. Though only appearing as an occasional reference in the Marxist philosopher's oeuvre, Machiavelli was an unseen constant presence. For together with Spinoza and Marx, Machiavelli was a veritable Althusserian passion. Machiavelli and Us reveals why, and will be welcomed for the light it sheds on the richly complex thought of its author.

Giordano Bruno: Cause, Principle and Unity: And Essays on Magic (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy)

Giordano Bruno

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The ... Science 5 out of 5 stars.
27 of 29 people found this review helpful.

Giordano Bruno is not only a writer of marvelous wit and virtuosity, and the only one since Plato to breathe life into the philosophical dialogue, but also a thinker of great consequence, imagination and purity. While he is generally seen to stand at the threshold between the medieval and the modern, cabilistic magic and scientific rationality, it is wrong to regard him merely as an anticipation of Leibniz and Spinoza. In certain respects, indeed, he goes farther in freeing thought from the residues of Scholasticism, and if his understanding of the coincidence of absolute potentiality and absolute actuality as the ground of Being points the way to Schelling, the freer winds of his thinking, with its wondrous openness towards the possibilities of the body as the possibilities of life, make him a kindred spirit of Nietzsche.

Editorial Review:

Giordano Bruno's notorious public death in 1600, at the hands of the Inquisition in Rome, marked the transition from Renaissance philosophy to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. This volume presents new translations of Cause, Principle and Unity, in which he challenges Aristotelian accounts of causality and spells out the implications of Copernicanism for a new theory of an infinite universe, as well as two essays on magic, in which he interprets earlier theories about magical events in the light of the unusual powers of natural phenomena.

Ockham's Theory Of Propositions

William Ockham

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Excellent Translation of a difficult work 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is a translation of Ockham's work titled the "Summa Logicae" (Part II). The translators are Alfred J. Freddoso (who also translated the "Concordia" by Luis de Molina) and Henry Schuurman. Much of what Ockham is dealing with in this particular work is the philosophy of language and logic. Ockham discusses the truth conditions of propositions (indicative sentences). He begins at the best place, with the most simple or basic propositions and works his way to the more complicated propositions. Past tense and future tensed propositions are dealt with as well as modal propositions. This book is not basic reading. In fact, if you do not have a background in logic you will labor through this text. However, if you do have a background in the study of logic then you will probably enjoy this book. Some of the table of contents are "On the Classification of Propositions," "What is Required for the Truth of an Indefinite Proposition and of a Particular Proposition," "On Universal Propositions," "On Past Tense and Future Tense Propositions," How to Find Out When a Proposition, One of Whose Extremes is an Oblique Case, is True or False," "On Conditional Propositions, " "On Conjunctive Propositions," "On Hypothetical Propositions and Their Properties," etc. Moreover, the book contains a very helpful introduction by Freddoso which helps to identify and explain what Ockham is dealing with in this work. This is a much needed translation of a Philosopher whose works are not translated into English like they should be.

Editorial Review:

In this work Ockham proposes a theory of simple predication, which he then uses in explicating the truth conditions of progressively more complicated kinds of propositions. His discussion includes what he takes to be the correct semantic treatment of quantified propositions, past tense and future tense propositions, and modal propositions, all of which are receiving much attention from contemporary philosophers. He also illustrates the use of exponential analysis to deal with propositions that prove troublesome in both semantic theory and other disciplines, such as metaphysics, physics, and theology. This type of analysis plays an essential role in his substantive philosophical and theological works, and in many cases then can hardly be understood without a prior acquaintance with this section of the Summa.

Oration on the Dignity of Man

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola

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Voice of the Renaissance 4 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

Pico, described by Machiavelli as a man of 'almost supernatural genius', made this breathtaking speech at the tender age of 24. It can be divided into four parts: in the first, he celebrates the dignity of man and human ability to make choices which lead to enlightenment and salvation. Secondly, he introduces the means by which one reaches enlightenment: a combination of moral philosophy, dialectic, natural philosophy, and theology, which ultimately leads man to God. He then goes on to defend his own grand project, a set of 900 theses formulated as a synthesis of Greek, Latin (Christian), Arab, Hebrew and Zoroastrian philosophy (among other things, Pico was trying to reconcile the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle). As a true Renaissance figure, he emphasizes the importance of classical dispute and rational argument. It is therefore somewhat surprising that he towards the end offers an exceedingly long rant on mysticism and the secret books of the Cabalists. The young Pico at this point gives the impression of being a little too much of a Renaissance man, trying to pursue all arts and chasing down all avenues of learning at the same time. Yet it is still a great work, one that has stood the test of time and could well inspire and guide young people who seek learning today.

Editorial Review:

An ardent treatise for the Dignity of Man, which elevates Humanism to a truly Christian level, making this writing as pertinent today as it was in the Fifteenth Century.

The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (The Storrs Lectures Series)

Carl L. Becker

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A Must Read for Everyone Interested in that Period, and Ours 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful.

I was prompted to write this review to give some balance to what a previous review stated. I encountered this book, for the first time, as an undergraduate in a history course. I was forever grateful to the professor for requiring its reading, and grateful to the author for his insightful and important work. I think this book should be mandatory reading in any history course emcompassing the period, and any course that looks to understand the genesis of the ideologies that permeate our period. I think the previous reviewer was very incorrect in her understanding of the issues and facts brought out by the book. I think the professor was serving his class, and profession, well by requiring the book. The book gives indispensable insights into the mind, and characters of the period. The thinking of that period still heavily influences contemporary American, European, and now global, political and social thought. Most readers will be very gratified having read the book, to see where their own thinking has been influenced and formed. The book is both scholarly and readable. There are great insights made that should not me be missed.

Editorial Review:

This title challenges the belief that the 18th century was essentially modern in its temper. Carl Becker demonstrates that the period commonly described as the Age of Reason was, in fact, very far from that; that Voltaire, Hume, Diderot, and Locke were living in a medieval world, and that these philosophers "demolished the Heavenly City of St. Augustine only to rebuild it with more up-to-date materials". In a new foreword, Johnson Kent Wright looks at the book's continuing relevance within the context of current discussion about the Enlightenment.

The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude

Etienne de la Botie

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Editorial Review:

a selection from Part I: I see no good in having several lords; Let one alone be master, let one alone be king. THESE WORDS Homer puts in the mouth of Ulysses, as he addresses the people. If he had said nothing further than "I see no good in having several lords," it would have been well spoken. For the sake of logic he should have maintained that the rule of several could not be good since the power of one man alone, as soon as he acquires the title of master, becomes abusive and unreasonable. Instead he declared what seems preposterous: "Let one alone be master, let one alone be king." We must not be critical of Ulysses, who at the moment was perhaps obliged to speak these words in order to quell a mutiny in the army, for this reason, in my opinion, choosing language to meet the emergency rather than the truth. Yet, in the light of reason, it is a great misfortune to be at the beck and call of one master, for it is impossible to be sure that he is going to be kind, since it is always in his power to be cruel whenever he pleases. As for having several masters, according to the number one has, it amounts to being that many times unfortunate. Although I do not wish at this time to discuss this much debated question, namely whether other types of government are preferable to monarchy, still I should like to know, before casting doubt on the place that monarchy should occupy among commonwealths, whether or not it belongs to such a group, since it is hard to believe that there is anything of common wealth in a country where everything belongs to one master. This question, however, can remain for another time and would really require a separate treatment involving by its very nature all sorts of political discussion.

FOR THE PRESENT I should like merely to understand how it happens that so many men, so many villages, so many cities, so many nations, sometimes suffer under a single tyrant who has no other power than the power they give him; who is able to harm them only to the extent to which they have the willingness to bear with him; who could do them absolutely no injury unless they preferred to put up with him rather than contradict him. Surely a striking situation! Yet it is so common that one must grieve the more and wonder the less at the spectacle of a million men serving in wretchedness, their necks under the yoke, not constrained by a greater multitude than they, but simply, it would seem, delighted and charmed by the name of one man alone whose power they need not fear, for he is evidently the one person whose qualities they cannot admire because of his inhumanity and brutality toward them. A weakness characteristic of human kind is that we often have to obey force; we have to make concessions; we ourselves cannot always be the stronger. Therefore, when a nation is constrained by the fortune of war to serve a single clique, as happened when the city of Athens served the thirty Tyrants one should not be amazed that the nation obeys, but simply be grieved by the situation; or rather, instead of being amazed or saddened, consider patiently the evil and look forward hopefully toward a happier future.

Our nature is such that the common duties of human relationship occupy a great part of the course of our life. It is reasonable to love virtue, to esteem good deeds, to be grateful for good from whatever source we may receive it, and, often, to give up some of our comfort in order to increase the honor and advantage of some man whom we love and who deserves it....

The Vocation of Man

Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Peter Preuss

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FROM PREFACE: "WHATEVER in the New Philosophy is useful beyond the limits of the schools will form the contents of this work, set forth in that order in which it would naturally present itself to unscientific thought. The more profound arguments by which the subtle objections and extravagances of overrefined minds are to be met, whatever is but the foundation of other Positive Science, - lastly, whatever belongs to Pedagogy in its widest sense, that is, to the deliberate and arbitrary Education of the Human Race,- shall remain beyond the limits of our task. These objections are not made by the natural understanding; - Positive Science it leaves to Scholars by profession; and the Education of the Human Race, in so far as that depends upon human effort, to its appointed Teachers and Statesmen. This book is therefore not intended for philosophers by profession, who will find nothing in it that has not been already set forth in other writings of the same author. It ought to be intelligible to all readers who are able to understand a book at all. To those who wish only to repeat, in somewhat varied order, certain phrases which they have already learned by rote, and who mistake this business of the memory for understanding, it will doubtless be found unintelligible.It ought to attract and animate the reader, and to elevate him from the world of sense into a region of supersensuous thought; - at least the author is conscious that he has not entered upon his task without such inspiration. Often, indeed, the fire with which we commence an undertaking disappears during the toil of execution; and thus, at the conclusion of a work, we are in danger of doing ourselves injustice upon this point. In short, whether the author has succeeded in attaining his object or not, can be determined only by the effect which the work shall produce on the readers to whom it is addressed, and in this the author has no voice. I must, however, remind my reader that the "I" who speaks in this book is not the author himself; but it is his earnest wish that the reader should himself assume this character, and that he should not rest contented with a mere historical apprehension of what is here said, but that during reading he should really and truly hold converse with himself, deliberate, draw conclusions and form resolutions, like his imaginary representative, and thus, by his own labour and reflection, develope and build up within himself that mode of thought the mere picture of which is presented to him in the book."