The World of the Imagination

The World of the Imagination
Author: Eva T. H. Brann
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 828
Release: 1991
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780847677764

In this book, Eva Brann sets out no less a task than to assess the meaning of imagination in its multifarious expressions throughout western history. The result is one of those rare achievements that will make The World of the Imagination a standard reference.

The World as Imagination

The World as Imagination
Author: Edward Douglas Fawcett
Publisher:
Total Pages: 670
Release: 2015-07-06
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781330797761

Excerpt from The World as Imagination: Series I "Ideas," coloured by emotions, "rule the world." The crisis through which Europe is passing is, above all, the fruit of false ideas; false conceptions of the standing of the individual, of the State, and of the meaning of the World-System regarded as a whole. Sooner or later a reconstruction of philosophical, religious, ethical, etc., beliefs, in the interests of ourselves and our successors, will be imperative. The World as Imagination is simply an experiment in this direction; that of bettering thought about the more important problems of life. Experiments of the kind will be numerous; and, in the end, let us hope, one or some of them will hit the mark. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Soul of Beauty

The Soul of Beauty
Author: Ronald Schenk
Publisher: Bucknell University Press
Total Pages: 188
Release: 1992
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 9780838752142

The problem explored in The Soul of Beauty is the split in modern consciousness between the world of perception and appearance on the one hand, and the world of action and meaning on the other. We see in one way and find truth in another. The work presents this dualism as a problem in the modern sense of beauty. The intent of the book is the recovery of beauty as that which brings together such contemporary splits as perception and action, appearance and meaning, matter and spirit, subject and object. Beauty is imaged in two paradigms. The first presents beauty as a matter of appearance which holds meaning - beauty as truth. The second holds that beauty is subjective experience, which in its modern sense is divorced from knowledge and practical action - beauty as relative experience. The paradigms are formed through an imaginative and historical exploration of the tradition of beauty in Western consciousness. The prototype of the first paradigm - beauty as appearance - is seen in the goddess Aphrodite, who reflects the Greek sense of divinity in form itself. This paradigm is then founded upon the tradition of Plato in the Phaedrus and the Symposium, Plotinus, Dionysius, and Ficino. The major elements of this paradigm are depicted in beauty as: (1) source in a hierarchical universe, (2) universal mediator, (3) object of love, (4) human perception, (5) human knowledge, (6) light, and (7) unity, goodness, and being. The suggestion is made that the paradigm of beauty as appearance is relevant for psychology as a study of soul because it brings together perception and meaning. The paradigm of beauty as a subjective experience focuses historically upon beauty as a spiritual, conceptual (proportion), methodological (linear perspective), and subjective phenomenon. In the tradition of proportion and subjectivism, knowledge is gained through perception that occurs via an organizing system, such as mathematics, or a concept, such as proportion, rather than through the direct perception of appearance. Meaning is separated from perception, and the organizing system or concept, not appearance, becomes the ground of knowledge. It is suggested that this paradigm, reflected in scientific and conceptual psychology, is problematic for psychology as a study of soul. Instead, psychology conducts its endeavors in the service of identification with the divine, control over the physical world, and certainty of consciousness. The final portion of the work examines the recovery of beauty as appearance in contemporary psychology through the notion of "image" in Jung's later thought and the phenomenon of psychotherapy. The work concludes with a presentation of psychology as an aesthetic enterprise bringing together meaning and appearance, spirit and matter, art and science, subject and object.

The Iconic Imagination

The Iconic Imagination
Author: Douglas Hedley
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2016-02-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441176071

Is it merely an accident of English etymology that 'imagination' is cognate with 'image'? Despite the iconoclasm shared to a greater or lesser extent by all Abrahamic faiths, theism tends to assert a link between beauty, goodness and truth, all of which are viewed as Divine attributes. Douglas Hedley argues that religious ideas can be presented in a sensory form, especially in aesthetic works. Drawing explicitly on a Platonic metaphysics of the image as a bearer of transcendence, The Iconic Imagination shows the singular capacity and power of images to represent the transcendent in the traditions of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Islam. In opposition to cold abstraction and narrow asceticism, Hedley shows that the image furnishes a vision of the eternal through the visible and temporal.

Merleau-Ponty and the Face of the World

Merleau-Ponty and the Face of the World
Author: Glen A. Mazis
Publisher: SUNY Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2016-09-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 143846231X

Assesses Merleau-Ponty’s contribution to ethics as calling for a poetic interplay between perception and imagination, and between silence and solidarity, that reveals our place in the world, and our obligations to ourselves and others. Before his death in 1961, Merleau-Ponty worried about what he saw as humanity’s increasingly self-enclosed and manipulative way of experiencing self, others, and the world—the consequences of which remain apparent in our destructive inability to connect with others within and across cultures. In Merleau-Ponty and the Face of the World, Glen A. Mazis provides an overall consideration of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy that brings out what he sees as a corrective prescription for ethical reorientation that is fundamental to Merleau-Ponty’s thought. Mazis begins by analyzing the key role that silence plays for Merleau-Ponty as a positive, powerful presence rather than a lack or emptiness, and then builds on this to explore the ethical significance of the face-to-face encounter in his thought as one of solidarity rather than obligation. In the last part of the book, Mazis traces the development of what he calls “physiognomic imagination” in Merleau-Ponty’s work. This understanding of imagination is not fancy or make-believe, but rather brings out the depths of perceptual meaning and leads to an appreciation of poetic language as the key to revitalizing both ethics and ontology. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s published works, lecture notes, unpublished writings, and the work of many phenomenologists and Merleau-Ponty scholars, Mazis also offers incisive readings of Merleau-Ponty’s work as it relates to that of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Gaston Bachelard, and Emmanuel Levinas.

Christ the Form of Beauty

Christ the Form of Beauty
Author: Francesca Aran Murphy
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 274
Release: 1995-03-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780567097088

Reveals the importance of the sacramental imagination as the key to the renewal of Christology and of modern Christian literature.

Teach What You Believe

Teach What You Believe
Author: Deacon Michael E. Bulson
Publisher: Paulist Press
Total Pages: 214
Release: 2007
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0809144816

More homilies by a deacon for deacons?and anyone else who preaches. These homilies, which reflect the author's firm commitment to social justice, are followed by discussion questions.