Descriere: The True, the Good, and the Beautiful are as timeless a trio of concepts as Western culture has to offer. Since before Socrates, humankind has explored these virtues in an attempt to describe and categorize them. Our definitions of these concepts, moreover, have unceasingly changed over the ages and across continents. Every known civilization has developed its own interpretations of them and so has confronted difficult questions: Is truthfulness inherent or inculcated? Is beauty achieved or a gift bestowed by the gods? Is goodness a birthright or determined by society? In Truth, Beauty, and Goodness Reframed, Howard Gardner explores the meaning of these virtues in a contemporary world of vast technological change and relativistic understandings of human nature. Today's technologically saturated era poses profound challenges to once uncontroversial assertions of what is good. Our search for truth is besieged by a miasma of blogs, forums, and open-source references that obscure the origins of information, and tabloids, cable news, and talk radio that proffer the most convenient, popular, and profitable truths. Our understanding of beauty is bombarded by air-brushed advertisements and photoshopped portrayals of perfection. And the concept of the good is increasingly politicized and debated as we determine who is a terrorist and who is a freedom fighter, which liberties are inexorable and which are negotiable in the name of national security. In this incisive and elucidating study, Gardner reveals that while the concepts of truth, beauty, and the good are changing faster than ever, they are--and will remain--cornerstones of our society. These virtues, though in flux and under attack, are essential to the human experience. While they may be obscured and exploited, we must continue to pursue truth, beauty, and goodness to ever-greater heights. This insightful, illuminating analysis provides an approachable primer on the foundations of ethics and virtue in this modern age.
Autori: Howard Gardner (Author) | Editura: BLACKSTONE AUDIO BOOKS | Anul aparitiei: 2011 | ISBN: 9781441780522 | Categorie: Unabridged
Karen Armstrong
The History of God: The 4,000 Year Quest
"Strange as it may seem, the idea of 'God' developed in a market economy in a spirit of aggressive capitalism," Karen Armstrong asserts in her fascinating work A History of God. Armstrong considers herself a "historian of ideas," and with this broad view she gives a compelling account of the correspondences among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the historical, philosophical, intellectual, and social developments through the ages that both shaped them and were shaped by them. Religion is "highly pragmatic," Armstrong finds. Any particular idea of God must work for the people who develop it. Consequently, as the times have changed, so have our ideas about God. "Understanding the ever-changing ideas of God in the past and their relevance and usefulness in their time," she says, "will help us to develop a new concept for the future." Today an increasing number of people have difficulty with the idea of a God that behaves as a larger version of themselves. Armstrong sees this as inevitable, and welcomes believers to a notion of God that "works for us in the empirical age."
Old English Poems, Prose and Lessons: Anglo-Saxon Language
This set of two CD-Roms is comprised of readings in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) by Stephen Pollington of texts and lessons found in the audiotape First Steps in Old English . CD 1 Tracks include: 1. Deor. 2. Beowulf - The Funeral of Scyld Scefing. 3. The Arrival of the English - Bede. 4. Two Extracts from the Laws of King Ine. 5. The Danes' Harrying - Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Entry AD997. 6. Durham 7. The Ordeal 8. Charm Against a Dwarf 9. Charm Against Wens 10. Charm Against Waterelf Sickness 11. The Nine Herbs Charm 12. Leechdoms 13. Beowulf's Greeting 14. The Battle of Brunanburh 15. The Wanderer. CD 2: Learning Old English - includes Reading Exercises, A Guide to Pronunciation, Conversational Old English.
Juanita Bynum