Jonathan Lear
Auteur de Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation
A propos de l'auteur
Considered one of the most independent and perceptive analysts of contemporary intellectual culture, Jonathan Lear has authored several thought-provoking works including Aristotle and Logical Theory; Aristotle: The Desire to Understand; Love and Its Place In Nature; A Philosophical Interpretation afficher plus of Freudian Psychoanalysis; and Open Minded, among others. He is a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and has been recognized as John U. Nef Distinguished Service Professor. (Bowker Author Biography) afficher moins
Crédit image: Photo courtesy the University of Chicago Experts Exchange (link)
Œuvres de Jonathan Lear
Love and Its Place in Nature: A Philosophical Interpretation of Freudian Psychoanalysis (1990) 97 exemplaires
Guerrilla Teaching: Revolutionary tacti for teachers on the ground, in real classrooms, working with real children,… (2015) 4 exemplaires
The Force of Argument: Essays in Honor of Timothy Smiley (2015) — Directeur de publication — 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
Plato's Republic: Critical Essays (Critical Essays on the Classics Series) (1997) — Contributeur — 35 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Sexe
- male
- Nationalité
- USA
- Lieux de résidence
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Études
- Rockefeller University (Ph.D., Philosophy)
- Professions
- Professor of Philosophy, University of Chicago
- Relations
- Lear, Gabriel Richardson (wife)
- Organisations
- Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
Membres
Critiques
Prix et récompenses
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Auteurs associés
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 18
- Aussi par
- 9
- Membres
- 997
- Popularité
- #25,851
- Évaluation
- 3.9
- Critiques
- 7
- ISBN
- 65
- Langues
- 6
I was at a loss until I found Lear’s book. He’s clearly spent many years contemplating Aristotle’s thought, with the result being breadth and depth of knowledge and understanding, fortuitously combined with lucidity in explication and an inspired choice of the sequence of topics. Then he adds invaluably to this by making reading suggestions at each chapter and most subheads. I followed these suggestions, so it took a while to get through the book – getting through hundreds of pages of Aristotle in the process – but Lear shines all the more when taking that approach. I highly recommend it.
This will necessarily be overly simple, but I’ll give a sense of the book’s content and flow. It starts with Aristotle’s view of man as the rational animal, having a desire to understand - the product (and reflection, more or less) of an intelligible cosmos. So this desire is integral to the nature of the cosmos. Lear very clearly explains Aristotle’s complex and nuanced causality – something pretty foreign to the modern mind but important throughout Aristotle’s thought, as is his affinity for the mean and for finding solutions through the middle of conundrums. Lear takes us through fundamental Aristotelian concepts from his Physics – the nature and structure of the physical cosmos and of time and change (critical issues in Pre-Socratic philosophy), of life (from the biological works) and the soul and mind. Then ethics and the good life (primarily from the Nicomachean Ethics and Politics), leading through the logical works (a great achievement) to the heart of the Metaphysics.
It gets dense here, but Lear’s paved the way brilliantly. This last part revolves around substance and essence; Aristotle’s God, his activity and relationship to the cosmos; the concept that all things “desire” God, however unconsciously, and are most fully actualized in pursuing this desire; and that man is most fully actualized, paradoxically, by transcending his nature (as a political and social, i.e. ethical, animal) and becoming the most God-like he can be through the contemplative life. Lear points out that some of this is conjecture on his part and varies from some common traditional understandings of the Metaphysics.
There’s much in Aristotle’s conception of God I don’t accept, and I have problems with aspects of his conceptions of the good life and the best life, along with some other things in his thought. But studying Aristotle has been richly rewarding and has given me concepts and perspectives I hadn’t even conceived of before (as with Plato). I don’t know how I would have approached Aristotle or processed much of it without Lear’s help. Perhaps the book weakens slightly at the end as Lear seems to want to tidily wrap up Aristotle’s philosophy as a self-consistent, reasonable and fairly comprehensive whole. Perhaps. But that’s a minor quibble and maybe not even a fair or accurate one. I’d have to study Aristotle longer and more deeply to better judge that. Regardless, if you’re looking for a guide to Aristotle’s philosophy, Lear’s outstanding and I imagine you could hardly find a better one than him.
… (plus d'informations)