Author: Sharon Schuman Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 161149463X Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 259
Book Description
Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World argues that our most cherished ideas about freedom—being left alone to do as we please, or uncovering the truth—have failed us. They promote the polarized thinking that blights our world. Rooted in literature, political theory and Mikhail Bakhtin’s theories of language, this book introduces a new concept: dialogic freedom. This concept combats polarization by inspiring us to feel freer the better able we are to see from the perspectives of others. To say that freedom is dialogic is to apply to it an idea about language. If you and I are talking, I anticipate from you a response that could be friendly, hostile, or indifferent, and this awareness helps determine what I say. If you look bored or give me a blank stare, I might not say anything at all. In this sense language is dialogic. The same can be said of freedom. Our decisions take into account the voices of others to which we feel answerable, and these voices coauthor our choices. In today’s polarized world, prevailing concepts of freedom as autonomy and enlightenment have encouraged us to take refuge in echo chambers among the like-minded. Whether the subject is abortion, terrorism, or gun control, these concepts encourage us to shut out the voices of those who dare to disagree. We need a new way to think about freedom. Freedom and Dialogue in a Polarized World presents riveting moments of choice from Homer’s Iliad, Dante’s Inferno, Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Melville’s “Benito Cereno,”Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Kafka’s “In the Penal Colony,” and Morrison’s Beloved, in order to advocate reading for and with dialogic freedom. It ends with a practical application to the debate about abortion and an invitation to rethink other polarizing issues.
Author: Gregory Kramer Publisher: Shambhala Publications ISBN: 0834824442 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 306
Book Description
Insight Dialogue is a way of bringing the tranquility and insight attained in meditation directly into your interactions with other people. It’s a practice that involves interacting with a partner in a retreat setting or on your own, as a way of accessing a profound kind of insight. Then, you take that insight on into the grind of everyday human interactions. Gregory Kramer has been teaching the practice (which he originated) for more than a decade in retreats around the world. It’s something strikingly new in the world of Buddhist practice—yet it’s completely grounded in traditional Buddhist teaching. Kramer begins with a detailed presentation of the central Buddhist teaching of the Four Noble Truths seen through an interpersonal lens. Because dukkha (suffering or unsatisfactoriness) is often most forcefully felt in our relations with others, interpersonal relationships are a wonderfully useful place to practice. He breaks the Noble Truths down into component parts to observe how they manifest particularly in relationship to others, using examples from his own life and practice, as well as from his students’. He then goes on to present the practice as it’s taught in his workshops and retreats. There are a few basic steps to the practice, deceptively simple to describe: (1) pause, (2) relax, (3) open, (4) trust emergence, (5) listen deeply, and (6) speak the truth. The sequence begins following a period of meditation, and includes periods of speaking, listening, and mutual silence. Kramer includes numerous examples of people’s experience with the practice from his retreats, and shows how the insight gained from the techniques can be brought into real life. More than just testimonials for how well the practice "works," the personal stories demonstrate the problems that arise, the different routes the practice can follow, and the sometimes surprising insights that are gained.
Author: P. Fiddes Publisher: Springer ISBN: 0230389821 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 276
Book Description
If imagination is understood to be a human response to the self-revelation of God, what practical results might this have for the work both of literary criticism and theology? Both theologians and creative writers find human existence to be characterised by basic tension between freedom and limit, which accounts for a sense of 'fallenness', and which a dialogue between literature and Christian doctrine can do much to illuminate. Such a dialogue is worked out in studies of the poetry of William Blake and Gerard Manley Hopkins, and the novels of D.H. Lawrence, Iris Murdoch and William Golding.
Author: Verena Kast Publisher: ISBN: 9780880642026 Category : Imagination Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Imagining has long been used as a therapeutic tool. Carl Jung developed the concept further by introducing Active Imagination, in which the creative powers of the unconscious produce images which are then addressed by the ego. While Jung never described this method in book form, Kast explains it thrillingly to the lay reader.
Author: Angela Y. Davis Publisher: City Lights Publishers ISBN: 087286586X Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 210
Book Description
What is the meaning of freedom? Angela Y. Davis' life and work have been dedicated to examining this fundamental question and to ending all forms of oppression that deny people their political, cultural, and sexual freedom. In this collection of twelve searing, previously unpublished speeches, Davis confronts the interconnected issues of power, race, gender, class, incarceration, conservatism, and the ongoing need for social change in the United States. With her characteristic brilliance, historical insight, and penetrating analysis, Davis addresses examples of institutional injustice and explores the radical notion of freedom as a collective striving for real democracy - not something granted or guaranteed through laws, proclamations, or policies, but something that grows from a participatory social process that demands new ways of thinking and being. "The speeches gathered together here are timely and timeless," writes Robin D.G. Kelley in the foreword, "they embody Angela Davis' uniquely radical vision of the society we need to build, and the path to get there." The Meaning of Freedom articulates a bold vision of the society we need to build and the path to get there. This is her only book of speeches. "Davis' arguments for justice are formidable. . . . The power of her historical insights and the sweetness of her dream cannot be denied."—The New York Times "One of America's last truly fearless public intellectuals." —Cynthia McKinney, former US Congresswoman "Angela Davis offers a cartography of engagement in oppositional social movements and unwavering commitment to justice." —Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Women's Studies, Hamilton College "Angela Davis deserves credit, not just for the dignity and courage with which she has lived her life, but also for raising important critiques of a for-profit penitentiary system decades before those arguments gained purchase in the mainstream." —Thomas Chatterton Williams, SFGate "Angela Davis's revolutionary spirit is still strong. Still with us, thank goodness!" —Virginian-Pilot "Long before 'race/gender' became the obligatory injunction it is now, Angela Davis was developing an analytical framework that brought all of these factors into play. For readers who only see Angela Davis as a public icon . . . meet the real Angela Davis: perhaps the leading public intellectual of our era." —Robin D. G. Kelley author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original "There was a time in America when to call a person an 'abolitionist' was the ultimate epithet. It evoked scorn in the North and outrage in the South. Yet they were the harbingers of things to come. They were on the right side of history. Prof. Angela Y. Davis stands in that proud, radical tradition." —Mumia Abu-Jamal, author of Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A. "Behold the heart and mind of Angela Davis, open, relentless, and on time!" —June Jordan "Political activist, scholar, and author Angela Davis confronts the interconnected issues of power, race, gender, class, incarceration, conservatism, and the ongoing need for social change in the U.S. in her book, The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues." —Travis Smiley Radio Angela Y. Davis is professor emerita at the University of California and author of numerous books. She is a much sought after public speaker and an internationally known advocate for social justice. Robin D.G. Kelley is the author of many books and a professor at the University of Southern California.
Author: Nelson Mandela Publisher: Little, Brown ISBN: 0759521042 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 598
Book Description
"Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand history – and then go out and change it." –President Barack Obama Nelson Mandela was one of the great moral and political leaders of his time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. After his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela was at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is still revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality. Long Walk to Freedom is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela told the extraordinary story of his life -- an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph. The book that inspired the major motion picture Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
Author: Ayn Rand Publisher: Ayn Rand Institute Press ISBN: 0996010130 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 84
Book Description
About this Edition This 2021-2022 Digital Student Edition of Ayn Rand's Anthem was created for teachers and students receiving free novels from the Ayn Rand Institute, and includes a historic Q&A with Ayn Rand that cannot be found in any other edition of Anthem. In this Q&A from 1979, Rand responds to questions about Anthem sent to her by a high school classroom. About Anthem Anthem is Ayn Rand’s “hymn to man’s ego.” It is the story of one man’s rebellion against a totalitarian, collectivist society. Equality 7-2521 is a young man who yearns to understand “the Science of Things.” But he lives in a bleak, dystopian future where independent thought is a crime and where science and technology have regressed to primitive levels. All expressions of individualism have been suppressed in the world of Anthem; personal possessions are nonexistent, individual preferences are condemned as sinful and romantic love is forbidden. Obedience to the collective is so deeply ingrained that the very word “I” has been erased from the language. In pursuit of his quest for knowledge, Equality 7-2521 struggles to answer the questions that burn within him — questions that ultimately lead him to uncover the mystery behind his society’s downfall and to find the key to a future of freedom and progress. Anthem anticipates the theme of Rand’s first best seller, The Fountainhead, which she stated as “individualism versus collectivism, not in politics, but in man’s soul.”
Author: Nicholas J. Pappas Publisher: Algora Publishing ISBN: 162894059X Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 216
Book Description
The notion of 'freedom' is essential to America's view of itself as a democratic and individual-based society. In this philosophical dialogue, characters assess the many facets, implications and apparent contradictions inherent in this deceptively complex idea. Seventy-nine short segments provide food for thought even in stolen moments of reading pleasure. The book sparkles with intellectually stimulating views. Drawing on the tradition of the Platonic dialogue, 'On Freedom' explores what freedom is and what it means through the discussions of two characters (Director and Friend). Topics include Slavery, Responsibility, Anarchy, Wealth, Love, Courage, Authority, Inhibition, Happiness, Discipline, Vigilance. The characters arrive at no simple or absolute definition of freedom. But that doesn't mean they don't finish with a better idea of what freedom is than when they started. If anything, they come to appreciate the need for clarity about their subject. And they come to see that such clarity necessarily involves complexity. Readers with no philosophical training can enjoy this book, while readers with a philosophy background can enjoy the way it treats an old, familiar theme with a lighter touch. Families will value 'On Freedom' for enabling younger readers, too, to explore philosophic ideas of general interest and importance.
Author: Sharon Schuman
Author: Gregory Kramer
Author: P. Fiddes
Author: J. F. Her
Author: Verena Kast
Author: J. F. Her
Author: Angela Y. Davis
Author: Nelson Mandela
Author: Ayn Rand
Author: Nicholas J. Pappas