In Search of Civilization: Remaking a Tarnished Idea

Armstrong, John

ISBN 10: 1555975801 / ISBN 13: 9781555975807

Published by Graywolf Press (edition First Edition), 2011

About this Item

With dust jacket. It's a well-cared-for item that has seen limited use. The item may show minor signs of wear. All the text is legible, with all pages included. It may have slight markings and/or highlighting.

Seller Inventory # 1555975801-8-1-29

Bibliographic Details

• Title: In Search of Civilization: Remaking a Tarnished Idea
• Publisher: Graywolf Press (edition First Edition)
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1555975801
• ISBN 13: 9781555975807
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included

About this title

Synopsis

"A self-effacing, humane and unparanoid call to change our wealthy yet often barbaric world for the better." *

In this provocative cri de coeur, the philosopher John Armstrong rescues the idea of civilization from irrelevance and connects it to our search for individual happiness. "Civilization" once referred to a society's technological prowess, its political development, or its cultural achievement. In the modern era, however, the word became burdened by the legacy of colonialism and connotations of elitism. For it to have value once again, according to Armstrong, we must understand that a society balances material prosperity with spiritual prosperity if it is to merit the term "civilized"--and currently we are impoverished.

In Search of Civilization is his corrective. As he roams from anecdote to aesthetic appreciation--from the banality of an early job at an insurance company to the redemptive wonders of a seventeenth-century church spire visible out an office window, from Adam Smith's philosophy to the Japanese tea ceremony--Armstrong reminds us that culture lies within us and that its nourishment is essential to a flourishing society.

About the Author

JOHN ARMSTRONG is Philosopher-in-Residence at the Melbourne Business School and senior adviser to the vice-chancellor of Melbourne University. He is the author of several internationally acclaimed books on art, aesthetics, and philosophy.