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What is a horizon? A line where land meets sky? The end of the world or the beginning of perception? In this brilliant, engaging, and stimulating history, Didier Maleuvre journeys to the outer reaches of human experience and explores philosophy, religion, and art to understand our struggle and fascination with limits—of life, knowledge, existence, and death. Maleuvre sweeps us through a vast cultural landscape, enabling us to experience each stopping place as the cusp of a limitless journey, whether he is discussing the works of Picasso, Gothic architecture, Beethoven, or General Relativity. If, as Aristotle said, philosophy begins in wonder, then this remarkable book shows us how wonder—the urge to know beyond the conceivable—is itself the engine of culture.
Price: $36.95
Pages: 392
Publisher: University of California Press
Imprint: University of California Press
Publication Date:
15 February 2011
Trim Size: 9.00 X 6.00 in
ISBN: 9780520267435
Format: Hardcover
“Subtle, well-researched, and philosophically generous.”
Didier Maleuvre is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of The Religion of Reality: Inquiry into the Self, Art, and Transcendence and Museum Memories: History, Technology, Art.
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One The Archaic Age
1. Permanence: Egypt, 2500 B.C.E.
2. Astonishment: Mesopotamia, circa 1900 B.C.E.
3. Enterprise: Aegean Sea, circa 725 B.C.E.
4. Tremor: Northern Kingdom of Israel, 500 B.C.E.
Part Two The Philosophical Age
5. Exile: The Desert of Moab, 450 B.C.E.
6. Synthesis: The Hellenic Archipelago, 500 B.C.E.
7. Closure: Athens, circa 400 B.C.E.
Part Three The Theological Age
8. Distance: Nicaea, 325 C.E.
9. Trembling: Hippo, 410
10. Space: The Northern Forest, 1100
11. Perspective: Mount Ventoux, April 1336
12. Ambivalence: Florence, 1503
Part Four The Scientific Age
13. Mortuus sum: Bordeaux, 1574
14. Nothing: Regensburg, May 8, 1654
15. Night: Neuberg, November 10, 1619
Part Five The Subjective Age
16. Formless: Königsberg, 1780
17. Severance: Wetzlar, November 1772
18. Blue Yonder: Tübingen, 1810
19. Eden: Upstate New York, September 22, 1827
Part Six The Mathematical Age
20. Flatness: Murnau, Bavaria, 1908
21. No Exit: Buenos Aires, April 1941
22. Here: Woodstock, NY, August 29, 1952
23. Nowhere: The Moon, July 21, 1969, 3:58 A.M. BST
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One The Archaic Age
1. Permanence: Egypt, 2500 B.C.E.
2. Astonishment: Mesopotamia, circa 1900 B.C.E.
3. Enterprise: Aegean Sea, circa 725 B.C.E.
4. Tremor: Northern Kingdom of Israel, 500 B.C.E.
Part Two The Philosophical Age
5. Exile: The Desert of Moab, 450 B.C.E.
6. Synthesis: The Hellenic Archipelago, 500 B.C.E.
7. Closure: Athens, circa 400 B.C.E.
Part Three The Theological Age
8. Distance: Nicaea, 325 C.E.
9. Trembling: Hippo, 410
10. Space: The Northern Forest, 1100
11. Perspective: Mount Ventoux, April 1336
12. Ambivalence: Florence, 1503
Part Four The Scientific Age
13. Mortuus sum: Bordeaux, 1574
14. Nothing: Regensburg, May 8, 1654
15. Night: Neuberg, November 10, 1619
Part Five The Subjective Age
16. Formless: Königsberg, 1780
17. Severance: Wetzlar, November 1772
18. Blue Yonder: Tübingen, 1810
19. Eden: Upstate New York, September 22, 1827
Part Six The Mathematical Age
20. Flatness: Murnau, Bavaria, 1908
21. No Exit: Buenos Aires, April 1941
22. Here: Woodstock, NY, August 29, 1952
23. Nowhere: The Moon, July 21, 1969, 3:58 A.M. BST
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index