Author: William R. Newman Publisher: University of Chicago Press ISBN: 0226577139 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 358
Book Description
In an age when the nature of reality is complicated daily by advances in bioengineering, cloning, and artificial intelligence, it is easy to forget that the ever-evolving boundary between nature and technology has long been a source of ethical and scientific concern: modern anxieties about the possibility of artificial life and the dangers of tinkering with nature more generally were shared by opponents of alchemy long before genetic science delivered us a cloned sheep named Dolly. In Promethean Ambitions, William R. Newman ambitiously uses alchemy to investigate the thinning boundary between the natural and the artificial. Focusing primarily on the period between 1200 and 1700, Newman examines the labors of pioneering alchemists and the impassioned—and often negative—responses to their efforts. By the thirteenth century, Newman argues, alchemy had become a benchmark for determining the abilities of both men and demons, representing the epitome of creative power in the natural world. Newman frames the art-nature debate by contrasting the supposed transmutational power of alchemy with the merely representational abilities of the pictorial and plastic arts—a dispute which found artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Bernard Palissy attacking alchemy as an irreligious fraud. The later assertion by the Paracelsian school that one could make an artificial human being—the homunculus—led to further disparagement of alchemy, but as Newman shows, the immense power over nature promised by the field contributed directly to the technological apologetics of Francis Bacon and his followers. By the mid-seventeenth century, the famous "father of modern chemistry," Robert Boyle, was employing the arguments of medieval alchemists to support the identity of naturally occurring substances with those manufactured by "chymical" means. In using history to highlight the art-nature debate, Newman here shows that alchemy was not an unformed and capricious precursor to chemistry; it was an art founded on coherent philosophical and empirical principles, with vocal supporters and even louder critics, that attracted individuals of first-rate intellect. The historical relationship that Newman charts between human creation and nature has innumerable implications today, and he ably links contemporary issues to alchemical debates on the natural versus the artificial.
Author: William B. Meyer Publisher: Springer ISBN: 3319292633 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 226
Book Description
This book is devoted to the exploration of environmental Prometheanism, the belief that human beings can and should master nature and remake it for the better. Meyer considers, among others, the question of why Prometheanism today is usually found on the political right while environmentalism is on the left. Chapters examine the works of leading Promethean thinkers of nineteenth and early and mid-twentieth century Britain, France, America, and Russia and how they tied their beliefs about the earth to a progressive, left-wing politics. Meyer reconstructs the logic of this “progressive Prometheanism” and the reasons it has vanished from the intellectual scene today. The Progressive Environmental Prometheans broadens the reader’s understanding of the history of the ideas behind Prometheanism. This book appeals to anyone with an interest in environmental politics, environmental history, global history, geography and Anthropocene studies.
Author: Aubrey Houdeshell Publisher: Running Press Adult ISBN: 0762486759 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 161
Book Description
Explore the role of the heavenly bodies—Sun, Moon, and planets—in the cosmic symphony of astrology, including their archetypes, history, associations, and roles in natal charts. The Cosmic Symposium is an astrological compendium that dives into the heavenly bodies that make up our birth charts, and therefore who we are, and honors the different archetypes, themes, and journey of each planet. Each of these astral bodies plays an equally important, yet distinct role in our lives. Rather than focusing simply on the zodiac signs or constellations, this book turns the lens on the planetary bodies that exert an overriding influence on us individually and as a collective. The unique thread spun by every planet weaves together in a cosmic orchestra to make up the complex fabric of the human experience. This comprehensive, deeply individual exploration of astrology, from author Aubrey Houdeshell and illustrated by artist Rose Ides, is also an ode to the ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who believed that, since objects in motion produce sound, the planetary bodies in orbit must also produce their own sound or music. In his understanding of the distance between the planets, he believed that the sound of each planet operating together as a whole produced a harmony: a music of the spheres. The Cosmic Symposium allows readers to revere each planet and its unique wonders, while also illustrating the role they play in the cosmic opus. Each of the planetary bodies is explored in depth, from the classical planets (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) to the modern planetary bodies (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Lilith). Using the concept of the planets as a cosmic orchestra, each individual chapter dives into the astrological archetypes of each planet, its historical context, symbolic associates with each planet, astrological magic/working with the planets, creative exercises, and pieces of related music (for the reader to create their own cosmic symphony). The final chapters place each planet within the context of the reader’s own natal chart, showing how the themes and function of each planet in our lives enable us to understand the complex experience of being human.
Author: Janice Valls-Russell Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1350125881 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 488
Book Description
Why does Bassanio compare himself to Jason? What is Hecuba to Hamlet? Is the mechanicals' staging of the Pyramus and Thisbe story funny or sad? This dictionary elucidates Shakespeare's use of mythological references in an early modern context, while bringing them to life for today's audiences and readers, at a time of renewed critical interest in the reception of the classics and fascination with classical mythology in popular culture. It is also a precious tool for practitioners who may not always know quite what to make of mythological references. Mythological figures, creatures, places and stories crowd Shakespeare's plays and poems, featuring as allusions, poetic analogies, inset shows, scene settings and characters or plots in their own right. Most of these references were familiar to Shakespeare's spectators and readers, who knew them from the writings of Ovid, Virgil and other classical authors, or indirectly through translations, commentaries, ballads and iconography. This dictionary illustrates how, far from being isolated, a mythological reference may resonate with the poetics of the text and its structure, cast light on characters and contexts, and may therefore be worth exploring onstage in a variety of ways. The 200 headings correspond to words and names actually used by Shakespeare: individual figures (Dido, Venus, Hercules), categories (Amazons, Centaurs, nymphs, satyrs), places (Colchos, Troy). Medium and longer entries also cover early modern usage and critical analysis in a cross-disciplinary approach that includes reception, textual, performance, gender and political studies.
Author: Erin Sullivan Publisher: Weiser Books ISBN: 1609253973 Category : Body, Mind & Spirit Languages : en Pages : 452
Book Description
"Geocentricity might well be egocentricity" the phenomenon of retrograde motion is based on our Earth-centered view of the solar system, but the movement and cycles of retrograde planets are based entirely on the apparent motion of the Sun through the zodiac. Sullivan organizes and explains retrograde motion from a systems-view-point the system of the Sun and planets and interprets retrograde planets natally, by progression, and in transit.
Author: Robert W. Reid Publisher: Lulu.com ISBN: 0557272645 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 345
Book Description
Three adventurers; a wealthy publisher, a soldier-of-fortune private eye, and an eccentric techie investigate the suspicious death of a friend. The case puts them on the trail of a strange serial killer who seems to have extraordinary powers. Their search leads to a secret society and astounding truths about mankind's past and future. As the human race rapidly approaches its technological singularity, these three comrades become enmeshed in the unfolding future of mankind. They are privileged to glimpse man's destiny on the other side of The Promethean Divide.
Author: William R. Newman
Author: William B. Meyer
Author: Sir John Collings Squire
Author: Sir John Collings Squire
Author: 
Author: Aubrey Houdeshell
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Author: Janice Valls-Russell
Author: Erin Sullivan
Author: Robert W. Reid