The Persistence Of Reality

These books invite the reader on a journey through the most famous paintings in the history of art. Detailed, informative, & stimulating portraits of the individual artists are documented alongside beautiful glossy illustrations & detailed keys to the paintings.

The latest volume of Culture and Civilization gathers contemporary exponents of critical theory, specifically those based in the Frankfurt School of social thinking. Collectively, this volume demonstrates the continuing intellectual viability of critical theory, which challenges the limits of positivism and materialism. We may question how the theoretical framework of Marxism fails to coordinate with the conditions that defined labor forces, as did Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, or deliberate on the conditions that justify the claims we make through public discourse, as did Jurgen Habermas. Or, like Axel Honneth, we may reflect on recognition theory as a means of addressing social problems. Whatever our objective, the focus of critical theory continues to be the consciousness of established "positive" interests that, without debate, may sustain injustices or conditions which the public may not have chosen to impose. Throughout the hardship of punitive dismissal and exile in the 1930s and 40s, and the shock of the New Left in the 1960s and 70s, and finally the later linguistic and pragmatic turn, the Frankfurt School has sustained the idea that people escape disaffection and alienation when their knowledge of the social and political world is dialectically mediated through creative interaction. This new volume in the Culture and Civilization series continues the tradition of critical thought.

Preliminary Material /Kees W. Bolle and Mircea Eliade -- Preface /Mircea Eliade -- Foreword /Kees W. Bolle -- Introduction: Tantrism Within the Perspective of the History of Religions /Kees W. Bolle and Mircea Eliade -- The “Orthodox” Praehistory /Kees W. Bolle and Mircea Eliade -- The “Unorthodox” Praehistory /Kees W. Bolle and Mircea Eliade -- Tantra and Tantrism /Kees W. Bolle and Mircea Eliade -- Śrī Aurobindo /Kees W. Bolle and Mircea Eliade -- The Persistence of Religion /Kees W. Bolle and Mircea Eliade -- Bibliography /Kees W. Bolle and Mircea Eliade.

Is postmodernity over? Does postmodernism still have anything important to say? Pragmatism, Technology, and the Persistence of the Postmodern argues “yes” to both. Despite the claims of a number of scholars that “postmodern” is over and done with, Andrew Wells Garnar demonstrates its continued relevance by carefully examining the use of information and communication technologies. These technologies illustrate many important postmodern concepts, thus showing the continued significance of postmodern philosophy. Garnar reconstructs these concepts with the tools of classical pragmatism. By engaging with pragmatists as well as with the thought of Jean-François Lyotard, Albert Borgmann, and others, this book produces a revitalized vision of both pragmatism and the postmodern. This version of pragmatism reflects the tenor of the times in a more nuanced way, while also showing how the postmodern continues to play out in contemporary life. Pragmatism, Technology, and the Persistence of the Postmodern shows how a pragmatic conception of technology opens up possibilities for working within postmodernity to materially address social and technical problems.