Heaven and the Flesh
Heaven and the Flesh

Author: Clive Hart

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1995-12-07

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9780521495714

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Do angels make love? Will the souls of ordinary people feel sexual pleasure in the next world? Is the aspiration to spiritual salvation helped or hindered by sexual experience? In Heaven and the Flesh Clive Hart and Kay Stevenson explore the opinions of poets and painters on such questions, from the high Renaissance to the birth of romanticism. Hart and Stevenson analyse the work not only of canonical writers and artists, such as Milton and Michelangelo, but also of lesser-known figures such as John Gore and Richard Tompson, and the sometimes anguished speculations of philosophers and theologians. As the evidence of witty pornographic poems and drawings demonstrates, the relationship between sexual desire and spiritual ascension was not always treated with full seriousness. This wide-ranging survey offers sometimes surprising insights into material both familiar and unfamiliar.

Treatise on the Question Do Women Have Souls and are They Human Beings?
Treatise on the Question Do Women Have Souls and are They Human Beings?

Author: Clive Hart

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The anonymous tract Disputatio nova contra mulieres, qua probatur eas hominess non esse (A new argument against women, in which it is demonstrated that they are not human beings), first published in 1595, rapidly grew notorious, and was reprinted many times during the 17th and 18th centuries. By selectively quoting scriptural passages, along with a few references to other works, the author attempted to prove that women have no souls, and, being little better than higher animals, will have no afterlife. Although a degree of anti-feminine spite is evident, he was less intent to denigrate women that to advance an absurd argument parallel to what he took to be the equally absurd theological propositions of the Socinian sect, that Christ was not divine. It was nevertheless inevitable that most readers would take the tract at face value. Many refutations appeared. This new edition, with complete translation, collated text, and copious quotations from many references to it, ranging from the 16th to the 20th centuries, offers the first full assessment of its impact on early modern feminist thought.

Disputatio Nova Contra Mulieres
Disputatio Nova Contra Mulieres

Author: Clive Hart

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Accompanying commentary examines questions in relation to early modern feminism, Catholic/Protestant theological debate of the 16th century, relevant literary texts, and popular belief. Includes a translation of an essay on related themes published two and a half centuries later as an addendum to Anne Gabriel Meusnier de Querlon's French version of the tract. An Appendix includes the Latin text of the Disputatio, edited from a copy of the first edition collated with the only surviving manuscript.

The Human Instinct
The Human Instinct

Author: Kenneth R. Miller

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2019-04-23

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1476790272

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From one of America’s best-known biologists, a revolutionary new way of thinking about evolution that shows “why, in light of our origins, humans are still special” (Edward J. Larson, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Evolution). Once we had a special place in the hierarchy of life on Earth—a place confirmed by the literature and traditions of every human tribe. But then the theory of evolution arrived to shake the tree of human understanding to its roots. To many of the most passionate advocates for Darwin’s theory, we are just one species among multitudes, no more significant than any other. Even our minds are not our own, they tell us, but living machines programmed for nothing but survival and reproduction. In The Human Instinct, Brown University biologist Kenneth R. Miller “confronts both lay and professional misconceptions about evolution” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), showing that while evolution explains how our bodies and brains were shaped, that heritage does not limit or predetermine human behavior. In fact, Miller argues in this “highly recommended” (Forbes) work that it is only thanks to evolution that we have the power to shape our destiny. Equal parts natural science and philosophy, The Human Instinct makes an “absorbing, lucid, and engaging…case that it was evolution that gave us our humanity” (Ursula Goodenough, professor of biology at Washington University in St. Louis).

Women and Human Development
Women and Human Development

Author: Martha C. Nussbaum

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2000-03-13

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 113945935X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this major book Martha Nussbaum, one of the most innovative and influential philosophical voices of our time, proposes a kind of feminism that is genuinely international, argues for an ethical underpinning to all thought about development planning and public policy, and dramatically moves beyond the abstractions of economists and philosophers to embed thought about justice in the concrete reality of the struggles of poor women. Nussbaum argues that international political and economic thought must be sensitive to gender difference as a problem of justice, and that feminist thought must begin to focus on the problems of women in the third world. Taking as her point of departure the predicament of poor women in India, she shows how philosophy should undergird basic constitutional principles that should be respected and implemented by all governments, and used as a comparative measure of quality of life across nations.