Flight From The Absolute

What we see is much influenced by how we look. In the culture wars presently gripping the West this is a critical issue. One of the key issues is the definition of the term "religion." What is a religion? Can one "do without a religion?" How one defines this term has a wide-ranging effect on matters as diverse as ethics, the origins debate, sexuality, freedom of expression, euthanasia, the environment, biotechnology and artificial intelligence. In the Anthropology of Religion one observes that all civilisations are rooted in a worldview, a religion. Pursuing the logic, one can go on to begin to make out the dominant religion in the West. What are its characteristics? What is its cosmology? Which elite groups are involved in its propagation and what are its myths, its rituals and methods of recruitment? Where may it lead us?

Sometimes a small change in the way we define a basic term can have major repercussions on the way we look at the world around us. What happens, for example, if you change the way you look at concepts such as "religion" or "myth"? How might this affect the way we perceive forces shaping the modern and postmodern West? While chapter 1 pursues postmodernism's ethical implications, the issue of euthanasia and the fate reserved for those deemed "unproductive" or incapable of self-fulfilment, following chapters look at a fundamental question: Can a society function without myth? Modern ideologues claim that by the twentieth century much of the West had finally escaped the prison of religion. Many educated Westerners view themselves as secular, free of religion and myth. But this conflicts with an observation supplied by Social Anthropology, that myth is inevitable and plays a critical role in the development of any civilization. This volume looks at a fundamental issue, re-examining the materialistic cosmology shared by modern and postmodern belief systems. It takes a deconstructive look at a cultural monument that many would consider untouchable, that is the theory of evolution. Flight v2 looks at this issue from two angles. First, that of Social Anthropology, asking questions such as: What roles do origins myths play in society? How do they "make sense" of the world? Can parallels be drawn between myth and the theory of evolution? Secondly, we examine parallels between the way myths gain prestige (and shield their beliefs from criticism) and how evolution is marketed. To grasp how evolution's sacred aura has been built up, advances in philosophy of science are examined. For example, when evolutionists oppose criticism of evolution in education, claiming that evolution is science, what does this really mean? If we bring a restricted definition of science into the origins debate, what might be the repercussions?

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Winner.... Premio Municipal de la Novela 2021 Premio Nacional de Literatura Argentina 2018 Premio Literario de la Academia Argentina de Letras 2017 Best Novel Award by La Nación 2016 A provocative multigenerational exploration of creative genius, madness, and family relationships. With the ambition and density of style of Vladimir Nabokov or Olga Tokarczuk, this is a story both profound and handled with a light touch. The Absolute is a sprawling historical novel about the Deliuskin-Scriabin family, made up of six generations of geniuses and madmen. Beginning in the mid-18th century in Russia, across Europe and ending in late 20th-century Argentina, the characters’ lives play out in different branches of art, politics and science in such radical ways that they transform the world and its reality. The narrator’s ancestor, Frantisek Deliuskin, invents a new form of music in the 18th century; his son, Andrei Deliuskin, makes some marginal annotations to the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola that are later interpreted by Lenin as an instruction manual to carry out the Russian Revolution of 1917; Esau Deliuskin, following the course of his father, creates a socialist utopian society; and down through the generations to the narrator, whose creation takes him back in time and space to the moment of the Big Bang. The Absolute is a monumental work about the creation of art and about family, about spiritual traditions and about throwing oneself into the world not to capture life but to create it, in and through words. “This is a masterpiece at a time when masterpieces seem impossible and at the same time challenges the very idea of a masterpiece. … It’s the novel one should read if they want to know what an artist is.” —La Nación

The first book in English to offer an extended comparative analysis of Heidegger and Deleuze. Those familiar with Heidegger's and Deleuze's thinking will find a detailed, well-researched book that comes to an innovative conclusion, while those new to both will find a clear, well-written exposition of their key concepts.