Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment

Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment PDF Author: Peter H. Reill
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520931009
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
This far-reaching study redraws the intellectual map of the Enlightenment and boldly reassesses the legacy of that highly influential period for us today. Peter Hanns Reill argues that in the middle of the eighteenth century, a major shift occurred in the way Enlightenment thinkers conceived of nature that caused many of them to reject the prevailing doctrine of mechanism and turn to a vitalistic model to account for phenomena in natural history, the life sciences, and chemistry. As he traces the ramifications of this new way of thinking through time and across disciplines, Reill provocatively complicates our understanding of the way key Enlightenment thinkers viewed nature. His sophisticated analysis ultimately questions postmodern narratives that have assumed a monolithic Enlightenment—characterized by the dominance of instrumental reason—that has led to many of the disasters of modern life.

Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment

Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment PDF Author: Peter H. Reill
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520931009
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 402

Get Book Here

Book Description
This far-reaching study redraws the intellectual map of the Enlightenment and boldly reassesses the legacy of that highly influential period for us today. Peter Hanns Reill argues that in the middle of the eighteenth century, a major shift occurred in the way Enlightenment thinkers conceived of nature that caused many of them to reject the prevailing doctrine of mechanism and turn to a vitalistic model to account for phenomena in natural history, the life sciences, and chemistry. As he traces the ramifications of this new way of thinking through time and across disciplines, Reill provocatively complicates our understanding of the way key Enlightenment thinkers viewed nature. His sophisticated analysis ultimately questions postmodern narratives that have assumed a monolithic Enlightenment—characterized by the dominance of instrumental reason—that has led to many of the disasters of modern life.

History and Nature in the Enlightenment

History and Nature in the Enlightenment PDF Author: Mr Nathaniel Wolloch
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN: 1409482251
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
The mastery of nature was viewed by eighteenth-century historians as an important measure of the progress of civilization. Modern scholarship has hitherto taken insufficient notice of this important idea. This book discusses the topic in connection with the mainstream religious, political, and philosophical elements of Enlightenment culture. It considers works by Edward Gibbon, Voltaire, Herder, Vico, Raynal, Hume, Adam Smith, William Robertson, and a wide range of lesser- and better-known figures. It also discusses many classical, medieval, and early modern sources which influenced Enlightenment historiography, as well as eighteenth-century attitudes toward nature in general.

Enlightenment Is Your Nature

Enlightenment Is Your Nature PDF Author: Osho
Publisher: Watkins Media Limited
ISBN: 1786781026
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
Explores and explains the fundamental difference between psychology, therapy and meditation. "Enlightenment” in Western cultures has long been associated with the 18th century movement that brought about a new “age of reason.” As Zen, Buddhism, and other eastern wisdom traditions have captured the imagination of the West, “enlightenment” has come to be known as a specific state of consciousness attained by an individual on a spiritual or meditative path. However, the Judeo-Christian context, with its belief in a divine power “out there” and separate from the individual, hinders most Westerners’ ability to comprehend “enlightenment” in the Eastern sense. Our theistic conditioning leads to such common misunderstandings as perceiving enlightenment as the attainment of supernatural powers, or as something achievable only by those who are somehow “special.” In this work, Osho deconstructs these misunderstandings and offers a radically different view of enlightenment, freed from all spiritual and religious beliefs – including the distortions of asceticism and renunciation that have arisen in Eastern and Western cultures both. Taking the reader step by step through the history of how both East and West have approached the mysteries of the human mind and spirituality, Osho offers a simple science of consciousness that he calls “the psychology of the buddhas.” It is a science that in very clear terms shows how one can, through awareness and taking full responsibility for one’s life, go beyond all limited belief systems, habits, and superstitions of the mind. That process, he says, brings us back to our nature – and that is enlightenment.

Nature Based Awakening

Nature Based Awakening PDF Author: Dayton Mason
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 91

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Book Description
After searching for spirituality for nearly two decades, and growing weary of attending endless retreats, techniques, and teachers. Dayton Mason had finally had enough and decided to call off searching and meditating altogether, and simply to rely upon the trees and nature's built-in guidance. What followed was a profound, natural alignment into a state of pure ego-less consciousness, reality, bliss and one with all that is. Nature-Based awakening is Dayton's story and it unpacks the idea and process of enlightenment. The book also explains the narrative of the ego-life, explores spiritual roadblocks for the modern seeker, gives helpful tips and tools for interacting with nature on a spiritual level for awakening purposes and even gives the reader a detailed guide for those who need help after awakening, should it occur. This book is a sincere, but simple and joyful approach for the tired spiritual warrior looking to awaken to reality.

Buddha's Nature

Buddha's Nature PDF Author: Wes Nisker
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 9780553106015
Category : Meditation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Buddha said that "everything we need to know about life can be found inside the body". Yet most people's spirituality -- whether Buddhist, Christian, or Jewish -- is cut off completely from their body. In this provocative and groundbreaking San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, Wes Nisker brings readers to a deep understanding and acceptance of their biology and its important role in their spiritual evolution. Using the "Four Foundations of Mindfulness", a traditional Buddhist meditation, the author shows how cutting-edge science is proving the very tenets first offered by the Buddha.Most important, Nisker offers a practical program -- complete with meditations and exercises -- so readers can take their own evolutionary journey into their bodies to find the origins of emotions, desires, and thoughts. Nisker provides a liberating way for each of us to incorporate into our lives the understanding, proven by the latest scientific evidence and foretold in the great traditional teachings of the Buddha, that we are not separate from nature and the evolving universe. Our biology is not our destiny, but our way to enlightenment.

Nature and Culture

Nature and Culture PDF Author: Lester G. Crocker
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421435799
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 578

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Book Description
Originally published in 1963. Perhaps the most generative ethical question of eighteenth-century France was how to live a virtuous and happy life at the same time. During the Age of Enlightenment, Christianity fell out of vogue as the dominant and authoritative moral code. In place of Christianity's emphasis on sin and redemption in light of a supposed afterlife, present happiness became recognized as an appropriate end goal among French Enlightenment thinkers. French intellectuals struggled to find equilibrium between nature (a person's individual goals and needs) and culture (the political, economic, and social organization of humans for a collective good). Enlightenment discourse generated a unique cultural moment in which thinkers addressed the problems of humans' moral coexistence through the dichotomy of nature and culture. Lester Crocker addresses these questions in an overview of ethical thought in eighteenth-century France.

Enlightenment Now

Enlightenment Now PDF Author: Steven Pinker
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525427570
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 578

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Book Description
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR "My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. By the author of the new book, Rationality. Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing. Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature--tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking--which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.

Human Nature, Cultural Diversity, and the French Enlightenment

Human Nature, Cultural Diversity, and the French Enlightenment PDF Author: Henry Vyverberg
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019505864X
Category : Enlightenment
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
In this work, Henry Vyverberg traces the evolution and consequences of a crucial idea in French Enlightenment thought--the idea of human nature. Human nature was commonly seen as a broadly universal, unchanging entity, though perhaps modifiable by geographical, social, and historical factors. Enlightenment empiricism suggested a degree of cultural diversity that has often been underestimated in studies of the age. Evidence here is drawn from Diderot's celebrated Encyclopedia and from a vast range of writing by such Enlightenment notables as Voltaire, Rousseau, and d'Holbach. Vyverberg explains not only the age's undoubted fascination with uniformity in human nature, but also its acknowledgment of significant limitations on that uniformity. He shows that although the Enlightenment's historical sense was often blinkered by its notions of a uniform human nature, there were also cracks in this concept that developed during the Enlightenment itself.

Evolutionary Enlightenment

Evolutionary Enlightenment PDF Author: Andrew Cohen
Publisher: SelectBooks, Inc.
ISBN: 1590792297
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
In Evolutionary Enlightenment, Andrew Cohen redefines spiritual awakening for our contemporary world—a world characterized by exponential change and an ever-expanding appreciation for the processes of evolution. Cohen’s message is simple, yet profound: Life is evolution, and enlightenment is about waking up to this fundamentally creative impulse as your own deepest, most authentic self. Through five tenets for living an enlightened life, Cohen will empower you to wholeheartedly participate in the process of change as your own spiritual practice. Evolutionary Enlightenment not only makes deep sense of life today; it will show you how to play an active role in shaping the world of tomorrow.

Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul

Wilderness, The Gateway To The Soul PDF Author: Scott Stillman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781732352209
Category : Wilderness areas
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
We live in times of quiet desperation. As our culture removes itself from the natural world, we have lost the truth of who we are. Could Wilderness be our only hope? Come along on a spiritual journey, away from a chaotic world of details, obligations, smartphones and noisy machines, to a place that is unspoiled, untamed, and free. Mostly solo, Stillman guides us into the heart of American Wilderness where we uncover timeless wisdom, ancient magic, and a Gateway to the Soul. Could our truth be hidden deep in the cracks and fissures of the Earth? You'll adore this love letter to Mother Earth because it captures the essence of what wilderness and solitude can offer to the human soul. It's hard to put down. Get it now.