Synopses & Reviews
This book deals with issues at the intersection of philosophy, theology, religious studies and Buddhist studies; in moral philosophy, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics. It is written by a philosopher but in a quasi-autobiographical style, reflecting the relations between the form of a person's life and the nature of their philosophical reflections. It deals with questions of spirituality, moral feeling, the distinction between theistic and nontheistic religion, the impact of the Death of God controversy, and the nature of Buddhist forms of meditation and their relation to perception and action.
Review
"This is an extraordinary book, quite unlike anything else I have read, except perhaps Robert Pirsig's justly famous and successful Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." David Bastow, University of Dundee
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-289) and index.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. A philosophy that is not a philosophy; 2. Contrary states; 3. ' ... you hear the grating roar ...'; 4. The energy for war; 5. The division of the soul; 6. 'Wandering between two worlds ...'; 7. Kant's aesthetic ideas; 8. And his rational ones; 9. Arnold's recast religion; 10. Theism, non-theism and Haldane's fork; 11. Erotic reformations; 12. A language of grasping and non-grasping; 13. '... sinne/like clouds ecclips'd my mind'; 14. Concentration, continence and arousal; 15. Uneasily, he retraces his steps ...