The Philosophic Spirit:Its Meaning and Presence (Studies in Historical Philosophy)

by: Donald Phillip Verene (Author)

Publisher: ibidem Press

Publication Date: 2023/3/21

Language: English

Print Length: 170 pages

ISBN-10: 3838217810

ISBN-13: 9783838217819

Book Description

The philosophic spirit has persisted as part of the human spirit and human culture for over twenty-five centuries. This book presents examples of this spirit from its beginnings in Greek thought through the mode age. Among these examples are an account of Empedocles jumping into the volcano of Mt. Etna to join the gods, Plato’s quarrel with the poets, St. Anselm’s famous argument for the existence of God, Descartes’s Archimedean proof of his own existence, and Kant’s description of the perfect island of the Understanding. Attention is also given to Cassirer’s concept of symbolic forms and Whitehead’s theory of actual entities. The volume concludes with a discussion, based on the thought of Giambattista Vico, of a way to approach philosophy through a balance between the Ancient and the Modes.

About the Author

The philosophic spirit has persisted as part of the human spirit and human culture for over twenty-five centuries. This book presents examples of this spirit from its beginnings in Greek thought through the mode age. Among these examples are an account of Empedocles jumping into the volcano of Mt. Etna to join the gods, Plato’s quarrel with the poets, St. Anselm’s famous argument for the existence of God, Descartes’s Archimedean proof of his own existence, and Kant’s description of the perfect island of the Understanding. Attention is also given to Cassirer’s concept of symbolic forms and Whitehead’s theory of actual entities. The volume concludes with a discussion, based on the thought of Giambattista Vico, of a way to approach philosophy through a balance between the Ancient and the Modes.