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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
[Introduction To] Language As Bodily Practice In Early China: A Chinese Grammatology, Jane Geaney
[Introduction To] Language As Bodily Practice In Early China: A Chinese Grammatology, Jane Geaney
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Jane Geaney argues that early Chinese conceptions of speech and naming cannot be properly understood if viewed through the dominant Western philosophical tradition in which language is framed through dualisms that are based on hierarchies of speech and writing, such as reality/appearance and one/many. Instead, early Chinese texts repeatedly create pairings of sounds and various visible things. This aural/visual polarity suggests that texts from early China treat speech as a bodily practice that is not detachable from its use in everyday experience. Firmly grounded in ideas about bodies from the early texts themselves, Geaney’s interpretation offers new insights into three …
[Introduction To] When Souls Had Wings: Pre-Mortal Existence In Western Thought, Terryl Givens
[Introduction To] When Souls Had Wings: Pre-Mortal Existence In Western Thought, Terryl Givens
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The idea of the pre-existence of the soul has been extremely important, widespread, and persistent throughout Western history--from even before the philosophy of Plato to the poetry of Robert Frost. When Souls Had Wings offers the first systematic history of this little explored feature of Western culture.
Terryl Givens describes the tradition of pre-existence as "pre-heaven"--the place where unborn souls wait until they descend to earth to be born. And typically it is seen as a descent--a falling away from a happier and untroubled state into the turbulent and sinful world we know. The title of the book refers to …
[Introduction To] Inventing Leadership: The Challenge Of Democracy, J. Thomas Wren
[Introduction To] Inventing Leadership: The Challenge Of Democracy, J. Thomas Wren
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The tension between ruler and ruled in democratic societies has never been satisfactorily resolved, and the competing interpretations of this relationship lie at the bottom of much modern political discourse. In this fascinating book, Thomas Wren clarifies and elevates the debates over leadership by identifying the fundamental premises and assumptions that underlie past and present understandings.