Passionate Intelligence: Imagination and Reason in the Work of Samuel Johnson

Arieh Sachs

ISBN 10: 142143539X / ISBN 13: 9781421435398

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press 2019-12-27, 2019

About this Item

Seller Inventory # 6666-WLY-9781421435398

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Passionate Intelligence: Imagination and Reason in the Work of Samuel Johnson
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press 2019-12-27
• Publication Date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 142143539X
• ISBN 13: 9781421435398
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Originally published in 1967. Professor Sachs shows the inner coherence of Samuel Johnson's thought by pointing out the interconnectedness of his remarks on religious, moral, aesthetic, political, and psychological subjects. Reason and imagination, the central concepts in the Johnsonian ethos, are elucidated with reference to "vacuity," "attention," "novelty," "diversity," and other words to which Johnson attached special significance. Johnson emerges as an original thinker of the English Christian-humanist heritage; he "is to be read in the same spirit as Pascal." Primarily concerned with the relation between Johnson's ideas and the long tradition of which they are the culmination, Sachs also emphasizes the relevance of Johnson's thought to the twentieth century.

About the Author

Arieh Sachs was a senior lecturer in English at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He studied at Johns Hopkins University, Cambridge University, and the Sorbonne.