Reviews (18)

A Spiritual Classic from a Great Scientific Mind
I first picked up Pascal's Pensees because I was intrigued by his reputation as a genius of physics and mathematics.I was not very far into it before I realized that I was reading a Christian spiritual classic, in its own right. Religion of the Heart and of the Head
Before actually reading "Pensees," I knew Blaise Pascal and his "Pensees" only from snippets of quotes such as, "The heart has its reason of which reason knows nothing" and from "Pascal's Wager": better to risk believing in God and living with Him for all eternity and being wrong, then risk not believing in God and living apart from Him in all eternity and because you were wrong. Pascal's Pensees
For thousands of years humanity has been searching for the presence of an invisible God.Blaise Pascal's "Pensees" is an excellent book describing why God's presence in our lives is so important.Even though I disagree with Pascal's reasoning concerning the defense and support of the Christian faith, he comes across as someone interested in the well-being and happiness of others, which makes it possible for "Pensees" to be beneficial to people of all faiths.
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Subjects:  1. Apologetic works    2. Apologetics    3. Catholic Church    4. Christianity - Theology - Catholic    5. Doctrines    6. Early works to 1800    7. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    8. Literature: Classics    9. Philosophy    10. Philosophy / Religious    11. Philosophy of religion   

Reviews (5)

"Reader, thou hast here an honest book..."
Montaigne is considered the father the personal essay. And within them, it seems, there is not a topic he didn't cover. After serving in the Bordeaux Parlement, in 1570 "he retired to his chateau...to read, think, and write." This is where his essays are born, late in his life, and soon to be suffering from kidney stones, which would take his life (he discusses his mistrust of doctors in "Of The Resemblance Of Children To Their Fathers")
An enlightened consciousness
Michel de Montaigne is considered by many to be the inventor of the literary form of the essay, so the collection from which these excerpts come is important in several ways. Montaigne was a humanist and a skeptic in his philosophical approach, and essentially looked at his own experience as the first topic for examination always.
A Portrait of a Fascinating Bibliomaniac
"My library is in the third story of a tower; on the first is my chapel, on the second a bedroom with ante-chambers, where I often lie to be alone; and above it there is a great wardrobe...Adjoining my library is a very neat little room, in which a fire can be laid in winter, and which is pleasantly lighted by a window." Montaigne, On Three Kinds of Relationships
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Subjects:  1. Essays    2. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Literature: Classics    5. Literary Collections / Essays    6. Other prose: 16th to 18th centuries   

Editorial Review

When Lorenzo de' Medici seized control of the Florentine Republic in 1512, he summarily fired the Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Signoria and set in motion a fundamental change in the way we think about politics. The person who held the aforementioned office with the tongue-twisting title was none other than Niccolò Machiavelli, who, suddenly finding himself out of a job after 14 years of patriotic service, followed the career trajectory of many modern politicians into punditry. Unable to become an on-air political analyst for a television network, he only wrote a book. But what a book Read more

Reviews (241)

It Takes Courage To Know One's Motives
For a book as brief as THE PRINCE, its impact on history has been at least as great as almost any other work. Over the centuries, it has gotten a bad reputation as some sort of guidebook for evil.But back when it was first written in the 16th century, Machiavelli indeed intended it as a guidebook, but neither for evil or for good.Rather he wrote it for a specific purpose. It was written expressly for the ruler princes of the Italian city-states who he believed could best benefit. Although its precepts are generalized to fit most country's ruling elite to a certain extent, the advice was tailored to fit the only government with which he was most familiar, his own. His motivation for writing has been construed as a bald grab for power, with Machiavelli as Mephistopheles and the grabber as a power hungry Dr. Faustus.The truth is more prosaic.His sole concern was the security of Italy.Concepts such as good, evil, war, peace, love, and hate were irrelevant only insofar as they productively led to this security.Those who read THE PRINCE today and try to follow his advice will find that such advice simply cannot be applied when the host country can reasonably call itself democratic.Consider an American politician who reads Chapter 17: "Of Cruelty and Clemency, and Whether It Is Better to Be Loved or Feared." Machiavelli could not have conceived of a leftist judiciary ruled by the edicts of Political Correctness which would not inconvenience even one's enemies to protect one's friends or even oneself.In the 16th century, rulers could and often did take actions that were harmful to a few for the betterment of the many. Similarly such a politician today may read Chapter 18: "In What Ways Princes Must Keep Faith." Here Machiavelli argues that since the world is often run by unscrupulous and faithless dealers, one need not be overly concerned with keeping one's word given to those reprobate leaders.Can you imagine what some politicians would say when they realize that they are dealing with world leaders who may not always be honest but we must act nobly in any case?Despite the resurgence in interest in THE PRINCE, such interest is likely to remain in the academic arena until such time as our governmental system of checks and balances is replaced by one with which Machiavelli is more familiar.

Political Power and Political Reality vs. False Appearances
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)wrote THE PRINCE as a "how to" book.While this book was written in Renaissance Italy, THE PRINCE is a timely classic of political thought that has been badly distorted by shallow media men and historians too cowardly to carefully examine political reality.
A great little book...
I love this little book. I only wish Mr. Machiavelli had written more - much more. One word says it all: honest. This book tells it like it is. Not for the politically correct, but for those who appreciate an honest take on politics and government. If you love books that say it like it is, no matter the politics, then you'll likely enjoy this small book. Amazingly refreshing for 1530 AD. Like I said above, I only wish Mr. Machiavelli had written more. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Early works to 1800    2. General    3. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    4. History - General History    5. Political Science    6. Political ethics    7. Politics/International Relations    8. History of ideas, intellectual history    9. Political Science / Reference    10. Political science--Early works to 1800   

Subjects:  1. History    2. History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical    3. History - General History    4. History: World    5. Philosophy    6. Religious    7. Renaissance    8. Theology    9. Ancient Greek & Roman philosophy    10. History / Renaissance    11. Renaissance & Humanist philosophy   

Reviews (8)

Shame on the University of Chicago
This is not a review of Ms. Yates's writing.Instead, I am awarding the single star to the physical book perpetrated by the University of Chicago Press in 1991.The good news is that this edition doesn't cost very much.The bad news is that the 1991 edition is a bad reproduction of an earlier edition.The ink bleeds all over some of the pages.There are diagonal streaks on many pages.Sometimes the ink is light grey on one side of a diagonal streak, while it is dark and smudged on the other side.Parts of letters that landed in the streak are missing.A note on the back of the title page claims only that "The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the ... Standard ... for Library Materials."Does this less than ringing endorsement mean that the paper is acidic and will soon deteriorate?If so, it won't be much of a loss.

A Place to Start
This book isn't a biography of Bruno or anything close.The opinions put forth in this book are rationalistic nonsense, as another reviewer has stated, and they lack soul or understanding.This book is good for one thing:exposing yourself to Bruno's influences and using it as a bibliography for other works.This is the only defense I will give this book.

Ian Myles Slater on: Re-thinking the Past
I'm going to begin this review by explaining what the book is NOT about, since a number of reviewers seem to have been disappointed by what it contains. I will also include where to find information on some these topics.
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Subjects:  1. History & Surveys - Modern    2. Philosophy    3. Renaissance    4. Renaissance Philosophy    5. European archaeology    6. Italy    7. Philosophy / Modern    8. Unexplained phenomena   

Reviews (2)

Useful, profound, and life changing
Useful to the scholar. Thought provoking as intellectual work. Life changing in world view. There is an alternative to secularism or post-modernism.

"Divine"
The Italian philosopher Marsilio Ficino, who was renowned for his Latin translations of all Plato's dialogues, set out to prove that the tenets of Platonism, instead of Aristotelianism, were fundamentally compatible with Christianity. He attempted this not only by acting as the primary mover of the Florentine academy, but also through his magnanimous patron Cosimo de' Medici who apportioned Ficino the leisure to commence his monumental work, "The Platonic Theology," which is offered here for the first time in a long-awaited English translation. Marsilio Ficino's work--from what may be seen from the first of five anticipated volumes--is an artful, straightforward representation of the divine philosophy of Plato, magnificently garbed under a brilliant and definitive medieval synthesis. Of the work itself Ficino says, "the Platonic mysteries are set forth as clearly as possible...so that...we may reveal the Platonic teaching, which is in complete accord with the divine law." Like all Christian-Platonists, Ficino used Augustine as a model for his orthodox amalgamation of the teachings of Plato and Christ, and believed so strongly in it that he said, "the Platonic teaching...is related to the divine law of both Moses and Christ as the moon is to the sun." With this in mind, it may be said that the vision of Marsilio Ficino, so clearly manifested in this work, will come as a relief to anyone ardently devoted to the school of Plato and the religion of Christ. The translated works of Ficino are certainly a great benefit to those confined to the English speaking world, and the other up-and-coming volumes in new I Tatti Renaissance Library (Harvard) are likely to produce the same effects. The value of these newly translated masterpieces of western culture cannot be described. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. History & Surveys - Ancient & Classical    2. Immortality    3. Philosophy    4. Plato    5. Religious    6. Soul    7. Theology    8. Ancient Western philosophy to c 500    9. Europe    10. European history: c 500 to c 1500    11. Literary Criticism & Collections / European    12. Renaissance & Humanist philosophy   

Subjects:  1. Ancient - General    2. History    3. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    4. History: World    5. Philosophy    6. Renaissance    7. Ancient Greek & Roman philosophy    8. Literary Criticism & Collections / European    9. Renaissance & Humanist philosophy   

Reviews (1)

Vattimo's hard to accept tesis about a weak thinking.
This book is important to understand postmodernism. However, i don�t imageamerican readers accepting Vattimo�s tesis about weak subjet right to havea place in world. Why modern civilization has impossed to us the obligationof being strong and the first in every action as the only way to be allowedas a member of this society? ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Hermeneutics    2. History & Surveys - Modern    3. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    4. Literary Criticism    5. Nihilism    6. Philosophy    7. Semiotics & Theory    8. Performing Arts / General    9. Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects   

Reviews (3)

Awesome.
OK, first of all, "GangstaLawya" seems to not be taking into account the fine work of Kepler, Newton, and Einstein when he suggests that we "remain agnostic" on the issue of heliocentrism. True, Copernicus himself does not excactly refute Ptolemy here (he actually was more worried about how other astronomers and Protestant theologians would react to his heliocentric system than how the Catholic church would see it... and his model wasn't fully accepted until over a hundred years after his death), but this model was later augmented by Kepler and Newton to the point where it does work better than Ptolemy's. And with all due respect, the Ptolmaic system is extremely convoluted, needlessly complicated, and downright ugly at times... so even if there's a simpler way of looking at things that works just as well, that's still a conceptial improvement. Occam's razor, y'know?
Hawkings' intro warps the meaning of the book.
I would give this book five stars if Hawking didn't provide a sloppy introduction.My only quarrel is with the introduction, not Copernicus.
What A Joy As Well As A Work of Art
Never before did I know a man could explain the heliocentric universe as well in this book.Of Course, Copernicus explained it centuries before my birth.But, it seems so foolish to believe the geocentric view, and I'm Catholic.Read "Dialogues" by Galileo to get the full picture ofwhat these two men said, it it truly fascinating. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Astronomy    2. Astronomy - General    3. Cosmology    4. Early works to 1800    5. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    6. Science    7. Sociology    8. Solar System    9. Astronomy, Space & Time   

Reviews (1)

A Thorough Masterpiece
"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.Read more

Subjects:  1. Aesthetics, Italian    2. Arts In General (Multi-Subject)    3. Essays    4. Europe - Italy    5. History & Surveys - Medieval    6. Intellectual life    7. Italy    8. Literary Collections    9. Literary Criticism    10. Medieval    11. Philosophy    12. Philosophy, Italian    13. Philosophy, Renaissance    14. Renaissance Philosophy    15. European history: c 500 to c 1500    16. History-Europe - Italy    17. Philosophy / History, Criticism, Surveys    18. Philosophy / Medieval    19. Reference    20. Religion    21. Renaissance   

Reviews (1)

reunified field
Karsten Harries has so much to say it's easy to lose track what he's trying to affirm: the possibility of objective truth; the presence of God in the notion of the infinite; the presence of the infinite in the imagination of human beings; the dead-end subjectivity of postmodern thought. It's all here, a bit hard to get to on occasion due to the density of Mr Harries logic, but clearly stated and passionately argued. At the heart of Infinity and Perspective is the early rennaissance philosopher Cusanus, cardinal, politician, and theologian. Harries admires Cusanus for his ability to connect the real world to the imaginary and human behavior to divine cognition. That feels a lot like what Harries himself tries to attempt in this book: to find a center when the center has not held, and a defense of truth as spiritual presence. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1401-1464    2. General    3. History    4. History & Surveys - Modern    5. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    6. Infinite    7. Nicholas,    8. Perspective (Philosophy)    9. Philosophy    10. Renaissance Philosophy    11. of Cusa, Cardinal,    12. History / General    13. History of specific subjects    14. Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present    15. Modernism    16. Postmodernism    17. Western philosophy, c 500 to c 1600   

Reviews (2)

The ... Science
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 merelyas 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.

A Good Look at Giordano Bruno's Philosophy
This book consists of 2 parts.The first part "Cause, Principle and Unity" is about his theory of an infinite universe.While you may either agree or disagree with him on certain points, I think (maybe you, too) will find the idea of a "world-soul" intriguing.This part consists of 5 dialogues.Read more

Subjects:  1. Early works to 1800    2. History & Surveys - Modern    3. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    4. Magic    5. Metaphysics    6. Philosophy    7. Metaphysics - Early works to 1800    8. Philosophy / General    9. Philosophy of science    10. Renaissance & Humanist philosophy   

Reviews (1)

Renaissance Thought and its Sources
This is one of the most important books in the study of Italian Renaissance (14th-16th century). For those who would like a readable but scholarly introduction to the Renaissance, this is it. The book is intended to explain the intellectual origin, spiritual inspiration and mental struggles of the great Renaissance scholars and artists. My professor once said to my class " this book is worth its weight in gold!" Though that might be a slight exageration, the book is certainly a worthwhile read. This book is one of the rare academic but mind racing, heart pounding books that one cannot put down until finish. Don't let the scholarliness intimidate you, push yourself to read it and you will see what I mean. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Europe - Italy    2. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    3. Philosophy    4. History of ideas, intellectual history    5. Philosophy / General   

Subjects:  1. History & Surveys - Modern    2. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    3. Modern Philosophy    4. Philosophy    5. Philosophy, Modern    6. Modern Western philosophy, c 1600 to the present   

Reviews (1)

Unique and invaluable
The return of this book to print is a great boon to anyone interested in Machiavelli, or who has ever struggled through the Discourses wondering just what Old Nick is getting at.Read more

Subjects:  1. 1469-1527    2. 1469-1527.    3. Ab urbe condita    4. Ancient - Rome    5. Discorsi sopra la prima deca d    6. Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio    7. Early works to 1800    8. History & Surveys - Medieval    9. Livy.    10. Machiavelli, Niccolo,    11. Machiavelli, Niccoláo,    12. Philosophy    13. Political    14. Political science    15. Philosophy / Political    16. Political science & theory    17. Renaissance & Humanist philosophy   

Reviews (2)

Essential for Understanding Modernity
Even though this book is not easy to read, it is essential reading for understanding modernity as it emerged in print culture in the West. As Ong argues, print culture advanced the visualist tendencies that have characterized philosophic thought in Western culture. As Ong himself generously notes (page 338), his own extensive discussion of visualist tendencies "turns" on the "discerning and profound treatment of visual-aural opposition . . . in the works of Louis Lavelle. Because the relevant works by Lavelle are not readily available today, interested readers may want to see Andrea Wilson Nightingale's _Spectacles of Truth in Classical Greek Philosophy: Theoria in Its Cultural Context_ (2004). Ong also discusses the spatialization and quantification of thought in medieval logic, and quantification of thought also advanced remarkably in modernity. These are but two themes that Ong develops in this rich study.

Walter Ong on Ramus is still required reading
A review of Walter Ong's famous study, Ramus, method, and the Decay of Dialogue, may seem odd now more than fourty years after the book first appeared (1958, republished 1983). Back then it was more than positivelyreceived by great renaissance scholars like Wilbur S. Howell, R.R. Bolger,Neal W. Gilbert, John E. Murdoch and others. Murdoch wrote that"anyone with the slightest interest in the Renaissance should turn,and return, to this work". The book not only gives a rich introductionto Ramus the man and his work, but also relates Ramus' writings and thesocalled "ramistic movement" which it effectuated to its widerhistorical and intellectual context, or rather contexts: the pedagogicaltraditions of the West, medieval scholasticism, the dialectic of RudolphAgricola and so forth. Ongs discussion of ramism in the light oforality/literacy-themes connected to the use of printing technology, makesthe book seem strikingly modern. Certainly, the book has been turned andreturned to. However, Ong's study is perhaps still in need ofrecommendation. It is an eloquent book, but it is not easily read. It hasbeen criticised by scholars on renaissance rhetoric (Monfasani, Fumaroli)and/or ramism (Bruy�re, Meerhoff), sometimes justly so, sometimes on thebasis of a misreading or a less than kind interpretation of what the authorsays. Brian Vickers in his excellent and influential In Defence of Rhetoric(1988) almost gives us the impression that the book has actually beenoutdistanced by its critics - which it certainly has not. Even if Ong'sviews on spesific points have been refined (for instance by Kees Meerhoffin his discussion of ramist teachings on rhetorical figures in Ramus, DuBellay et les autres, 1986), his voluminous study also contains insights aswell as information which will be found nowhere else. To refer it wouldrequire more than thousand words. I recommend every student of rhetoric,early modern philosophy and renaissance culture to get hold of the book,and read it. I recommend the publisher to republish it. It is still wanted. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1515-1572    2. General    3. History    4. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    5. History: World    6. Logic    7. Philosophy    8. Ramus, Petrus,    9. Europe    10. European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland)    11. History / General    12. Media studies    13. Rhetoric    14. c 1500 to c 1600   

Reviews (9)

A Wonderful Book
Here it is, Machiavelli's work in its sinister glory for all to behold.The truth of man's corruption and dishonesty is exposed for all the world to see.
Iran
Machiavelli was only political philosopher who introduced political doctrines to a ruler.
Revenge is best when served cold...just like gazpacho
Bah!
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Subjects:  1. 1469-1527    2. Early works to 1800    3. General    4. History & Surveys - Modern - Renaissance Era    5. Literature - Classics / Criticism    6. Machiavelli, Niccolo    7. Machiavelli, Niccolo,    8. Machiavelli, Niccoláo,    9. Political science    10. Politics/International Relations    11. Literary Collections / Essays    12. Machiavelli, Niccolò    13. Other prose: 16th to 18th centuries    14. Other prose: classical, early & medieval   

Reviews (5)

Remarkable Insights;Insanity Abounds
Although she probably did not intend the work to serve such a purpose, Dame Frances Yates' book is certainly key to understanding the history of sixteenth and early seventeenth century Western Civilization.For between these covers, we find the essential truth that Elizabethan England represented the joining of forces of Hermetic Western occult traditions with Jewish cabalistic mysticism.These streams of thought resulted in a messianic view of Elizabethan England as a kind of British Israel mystique, to use the author's phrase.With this, we see England shorn of the traditional Faith of her people now allied with the international bankers and tradesmen of the Low Countries and Asia Minor, in defiant opposition to Christian Spain and the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.These insights are remarkable and essential to the understanding of this crucial epic of history.For these insights, we are forever grateful.
Compelling and Insightful Work on the Esoteric Tradition
Frances Yates was a scholar of world renown most famous for her text, The Art of Memory, and the biographical study, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. In this work, The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age, what has been known as `occult philosophy' in the Renaissance, revived by Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, she explores the "Christianized" version of the Jewish Cabala, and its manifestation and influential affects on religious and philosophical ideas, including the arts, during the Elizabethan Age.