Archiv der Kategorie: Renaissance

Manual of a Christian Knight – Desiderius Erasmus

We get some sense of things which were moving deeply in Erasmus’ life from his “Manual of a Christian Knight.” We find here a characteristic criticism of religious forms taking the place of religious substance. We find a tremendous emphasis upon the intelligence which in no way lessens the emphasis on vital piety. Prayer and knowledge are to work together in the life of the Christian knight. The inner is to give force and power to the outer. The outer is never to take the place of the inner. The warfare and the weapons and the true wisdom of the Christian are discussed. There is many a pithy judgment: “The way to … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Praise of Folly – Desiderius Erasmus

Erasmus reached England after a stay in Italy early in the summer of 1510. Soon afterwards, in Thomas More’s house at Bucklersbury, he rapidly wrote his famous satire, the Encomium Moriae, or “Praise of Folly,” in which Folly celebrates her own praises as the great source of human pleasures. He had been meditating this piece on the long journey from Rome; it is a kaleidoscope of his experiences in Italy, and of earlier memories. As to the title, Moria, the Greek word for “folly,” was a playful allusion, of course, to the name of his wise and witty host. This “Praise of Folly” is a satire, not only in the modern but in … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Complaint of Peace – Desiderius Erasmus

Desiderius Erasmus was a very human man. A humanist, who was no more humane than the rest of the wits and cynics of his time, there was in him a plenty of human weaknesses and uglinesses. Nevertheless he does strike occasionally a note that is genuinely human, universally true, accordant with all the race of men. And this is eminently so of the “Complaint of Peace.” The complaints which he puts in the mouth of Peace might have come from the lips of Divae Paris with as much verisimilitude as they did when Erasmus echoed them many centuries ago.

The Complaint of Peace.

Format: eBook.

The Complaint of Peace.

ISBN: 9783849653811.

Excerpt … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Colloquies, Volume 2 – Desiderius Erasmus

Erasmus’ services to a new way of learning took various forms. He wrote school-books, bringing out his view that boys were kept too long over grammar, and ought to begin reading some good author as soon as possible. His own “Colloquies” were meant partly as models of colloquial Latin; the book was long a standard one in education. These lively dialogues are prose idylls with an ethical purpose,—the dramatic expression of the writer’s views on the life of the day. Thus the dialogue between the Learned Lady and the Abbot depicts monastic illiteracy; that between the Soldier and the Carthusian brings out the seamy side of the military calling. Lucian has influenced the … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Colloquies, Volume 1 – Desiderius Erasmus

Erasmus’ services to a new way of learning took various forms. He wrote school-books, bringing out his view that boys were kept too long over grammar, and ought to begin reading some good author as soon as possible. His own “Colloquies” were meant partly as models of colloquial Latin; the book was long a standard one in education. These lively dialogues are prose idylls with an ethical purpose,—the dramatic expression of the writer’s views on the life of the day. Thus the dialogue between the Learned Lady and the Abbot depicts monastic illiteracy; that between the Soldier and the Carthusian brings out the seamy side of the military calling. Lucian has influenced the … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Method, Meditations and Philosophy of Descartes – René Descartes

This edition includes the quintessential works of Descartes, to whom modern learning is indebted for some of the most potent factors in its advancement. These are: in Mathematics, the invention of the Binomial Theorem and the application of Algebra to Geometry in the Analytical Geometry; in Physics, the suggestion of the evolution of the universe through Vortices and the discovery of the laws of the Refraction of Light; in Physiology, the doctrine of the Animal Spirits and the theory of the Mechanism of the soul’s operation in the body; in Philosophy, the finding of the ultimate reality in subjective consciousness and the deducting thence of an argument for, if not … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Fable of the Bees – Bernard de Mandeville

Mandeville’s philosophy gave great offence at the time, and has always been stigmatized as false, cynical and degrading. His main thesis is that the actions of men cannot be divided into lower and higher. In the Fable he shows a society possessed of all the virtues “blest with content and honesty,” falling into apathy and utterly paralyzed. The absence of self-love is the death of progress. The so-called higher virtues are mere hypocrisy, and arise from the selfish desire to be superior to the brutes. He endeavours to show that all social laws are the crystallized results of selfish aggrandizement and protective alliances among the weak.

The Fable of the Bees

Essential Writings – Nicholas Barbon

Nicholas Barbon was an English economist, physician, and financial speculator. He is widely conceived as one of the first proponents of the free market. This edition includes his most prominent essays:

An Apology For The Builder
A Discourse Of Trade
A Discourse Concerning
Coining The New Money Lighter

Essential Writings

Format: Paperback.

Essential Writings

ISBN: 9783849687793

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Biography of Nicholas Barbon (from Wikipedia):

Nicholas Barbon was the eldest son of Praise-God Barebone (or Barbon), after whom the Barebone’s Parliament of 1653—the predecessor of Oliver Cromwell’s Protectorate—was named. Praise-God’s reputed Christian name was “Unless-Jesus-Christ-Had-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned”, a variant of his son’s middle name. He became a religious separatist with Millenarianist beliefs, with … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

On the Law of War and Peace – Hugo Grotius

“On The Law of War and Peace” was translated into many languages, and most law schools adopted it as the basis of the right of nations. Princes and statesmen consulted the book, and just as Alexander the Great always had a copy of Homer’s ‘Iliad,’ so the great Gustavus Adolphus always had with him a copy of Grotius’ work, to remind himself that even the most successful general must respect some laws. Grotius’ strength lies in his moderation and in the fact that he quotes copiously from the best authorities to fortify his views .

On the Law of War and Peace

Format: Paperback.

On the Law of War and … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Wisdom of the Ancients – Sir Francis Bacon

Bacon published this interesting little work in 1609. It contains thirty-one fables abounding with a union of deep thought and poetic beauty. In most fables he explains the common but erroneous supposition that knowledge and the conformity of the will, knowing and acting, are convertible terms.

The Wisdom of the Ancients

Format: Paperback

The Wisdom of the Ancients.

ISBN: 9783849691844

Available at amazon.com and other venues.

Biography of Francis Bacon (from Wikipedia):

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban, PC KC (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, orator, and author. He served both as Attorney General and as Lord Chancellor of England. After … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...