Eros And The Good

Plato defined eros as the yearning for things beautiful and good. It is on this original sense that philosopher James Gouinlock bases this insightful study of ethics and wisdom. Gouinlock argues that the only fruitful way to evaluate the norms of social life is to understand them as natural forces, not as arbitrary matters of convention or derivatives of some abstract theory. The good life and the meanings of life consist in the recognition and pursuit of values that are already resident in natural experience. Successful pursuit of them requires teaching, the accumulation of wisdom, and the cultivation of virtue. Above all is eros, the motivating force that drives us to search for life's most precious goods. In so doing we acquire a "wisdom according to nature." Inspired by Greek philosophy, Gouinlock's approach avoids the pitfalls of moral systems that evolve out of abstract theorizing and tend to ignore well-established practice and conviction. Gouinlock makes the important point that social practices, like natural forces, though subject to change in varying degrees, are rarely amenable to radical overhaul. The real values of common life occur in a difficult, demanding, and often-perilous environment. This is not a context in which anything goes, for it possesses inherent constraints as well as opportunities. As Gouinlock shows in detail, there is much wisdom to be gained from understanding the distinctive functions of nature in the conduct of life. Written with clarity and eloquence, this original and fully developed philosophy of life makes fundamental philosophical arguments accessible to educated lay readers as well as to professional philosophers.

[Eros Is More] is a beautifully masterful collection. - Aracelis Girmay

Two innovative spiritual teachers show how to use desire and passion—eros—as a gateway to realizing our fullest potential What do desire and passion have to do with our spiritual journey? According to A. H. Almaas and Karen Johnson, they are an essential part of it. Conventional wisdom cautions that desire and passion are opposed to the spiritual path—that engaging in desire will take you more into the world, into egoic life. And for most people, that is exactly what happens. We naturally tend to experience wanting in a self-centered way. The Power of Divine Eros challenges the view that the divine and the erotic are separate. When we open to the energy, aliveness, spontaneity, and zest of erotic love, we will find it inseparable from the realm of the holy and sacred. When this is understood, desire and passion become a gateway to wholeness and to realizing our full potential. Through guided exercises, the authors reveal how our relationships become opportunities on the spiritual journey to express ourselves authentically, to relate with openness, and to discover dynamic inner realms with another person. Through embodying the energy of eros, each of us can learn to be fully real and alive in all of our interactions.

Cupid and Psyche Apuleius - Cupid and Psyche is a story from the Latin novel Metamorphoses, also known as The Golden Ass, written in the 2nd century AD by Apuleius. It concerns the overcoming of obstacles to the love between Psyche (Soul or Breath of Life) and Cupid (Desire), and their ultimate union in a sacred marriage.

Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality is a controversial book that lays bare the meanings Greeks gave to sex. Contrary to the romantic idealization of sex dominating our culture, the Greeks saw eros as a powerful force of nature, potentially dangerous, and in need of control by society: Eros the Destroyer, not Cupid the Insipid, fired the Greek imagination.The destructiveness of eros can be seen in Greek imagery and metaphor, and in the Greeks' attitudes toward women and homosexuals. Images of love as fire, disease, storms, insanity, and violence?Top 40 song clichfor us?locate eros among the unpredictable and deadly forces of nature. The beautiful Aphrodite embodies the alluring danger of sex, while femmes fatales like Pandora and Helen represent the risky charms of female sexuality. And homosexuality typifies for the Greeks the frightening power of an indiscriminate appetite that threatens the stability of culture itself.In Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality, Bruce Thornton offers a uniquely sweeping and comprehensive account of ancient sexuality free of currently fashionable theoretical jargon and pretentions. In its conclusions the book challenges the distortions of much recent scholarship on Greek sexuality. And throughout it links the wary attitudes of the Greeks to our present-day concerns about love, sex, and family. What we see, finally, are the origins of some of our own views as well as a vision of sexuality that is perhaps more honest and mature than our own dangerous illusions.

When we or our loved ones fall ill, our world is thrown into disarray, our routines are interrupted, our beliefs shaken. David Morris offers an unconventional, deeply human exploration of what it means to live with, and live through, disease. He shows how desire—emotions, dreams, stories, romance, even eroticism—plays a crucial part in illness.

The Duchamp scholars represented here are the leading European and American critics of their generation - a number of whom have staked out opposing territories, making for a particularly animated critique of this fascinating artist and his provocative work. Eric Cameron, Herbert Molderings, and Francis Naumann probe the philosophical implications of Duchamp's skepticism, eroticism, and paradoxical acceptance of contradiction. William Camfield and Thierry de Duve investigate the events that led to the creation of Duchamp's infamous Fountain.Jean Suquet's rigorous yet poetic reading of the Large Glassappears here in English for the first time, as does Andreacute; Gervais's exhilarating voyage through Duchamp's puns, aphorisms, and wordplays. Carol James offers a fresh interpretation of Duchamp's late works as readymades. With an eye on today's art practices and theoretical debates, Craig Adcock and Rosalind Krauss examine to what extent scientific models explain Duchamp's art or are challenged by it. And Molly Nesbit uncovers important evidence of how the gender-based teaching of drawing in the Third Republic might have nurtured Duchamp's - or Rrose Seacute;lavy's - peculiar use of mechanical drawing. Thierry de Duve is Director of Studies, Association de preacute;figuration de I'Ecole des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. The Essays: Given, Eric Cameron.Marcel Duchamp: A Reconciliation of Opposites, Francis Naumann.Possible, Jean Suquet.Marcel Duchamp's Fountain: Aesthetic Object, Icon, or Anti-Art? William Camfield.Given the Richard Mutt Case, Thierry de Duve.Objects of Modern Skepticism, Herbert Molderings.An Original Revolutionary MessagerieRrose, or What Became of Readymades, Carol James.Duchamp's Way: Twisting Our Memory of the Past "For the Fun of It," Craig Adcock.The Language of Industry, Molly Nesbit.Connections: Of Art and Arrhe, Andreacute; Gervais.Where's Poppa? Rosalind Krauss. Copublished with the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Sometimes life is unfair. Sometimes life just plain sucks. You do what you can to get by, but sometimes even that isn't enough. Meet Gloria, aging porno star, drug addict, failed wife and mother—seduced into a monstrous world of depraved sex and violent deceit, battling to save her immortal soul and that of her only daughter from Inferno … and you thought your life was hell.