Amazon.com
With precisely 35 canvases to his credit, the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer represents one of the great enigmas of 17th-century art. The meager facts of his biography have been gleaned from a handful of legal documents. Yet Vermeer's extraordinary paintings of domestic life, with their subtle play of light and texture, have come to define the Dutch golden age. His portrait of the anonymous Girl with a Pearl Earring has exerted a particular fascination for centuries--and it is this magnetic painting that lies at the heart of Tracy Chevalier's second novel of the same title.
Girl with a Pearl Earring centers on Vermeer's prosperous Delft household during the 1660s. When Griet, the novel's quietly perceptive heroine, is hired as a servant, turmoil follows. First, the 16-year-old narrator becomes increasingly intimate with her master. Then Vermeer employs her as his assistant--and ultimately has Griet sit for him as a model. Chevalier vividly evokes the complex domestic tensions of the household, ruled over by the painter's jealous, eternally pregnant wife and his taciturn mother-in-law. At times the relationship between servant and master seems a little anachronistic. Still, Girl with a Pearl Earring does contain a final delicious twist.
Throughout, Chevalier cultivates a limpid, painstakingly observed style, whose exactitude is an effective homage to the painter himself. Even Griet's most humdrum duties take on a high if unobtrusive gloss:
I came to love grinding the things he brought from the apothecary--bones, white lead, madder, massicot--to see how bright and pure I could get the colors. I learned that the finer the materials were ground, the deeper the color. From rough, dull grains madder became a fine bright red powder and, mixed with linseed oil, a sparkling paint. Making it and the other colors was magical.
In assembling such quotidian particulars, the author acknowledges her debt to Simon Schama's classic study The Embarrassment of Riches. Her novel also joins a crop of recent, painterly fictions, including Deborah Moggach's Tulip Fever and Susan Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue. Can novelists extract much more from the Dutch golden age? The question is an open one--but in the meantime, Girl with a Pearl Earring remains a fascinating piece of speculative historical fiction, and an appealingly new take on an old master. --Jerry Brotton
Book Description
History and fiction merge seamlessly in this luminous novel about artistic vision and sensual awakening. Girl with a Pearl Earring tells the story of sixteen-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius ... even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil.
Download Description
Chevalier transports readers to a bygone time and place in this richly imagined portrait of the young woman who inspired one of Vermeer's most celebrated paintings. "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is the story of 16-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius, even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil.
Customer Reviews:
A work of art.......2007-09-09
After watching the movie a couple of months ago, I decided to read the novel on which it was based. I'm a big fan of visual arts and I couldn't wait to read it. Tracy Chevalier's subjective descriptive style really kept my attention. Elegant, clear, detailed... I could see, hear, feel and smell as Griet did.
The book is about Griet, a girl from a poor family in Delft, Netherlands, and the changes that take place in her. After living all of her life with her family, she's sent to work as a maid in the house of a famous painter to help support her family. At the same time she begins to realize (as others already had) that she's turning into a woman and struggles to deal with it.
At her new home, she has to learn how to deal with each of its inhabitants and still be herself. She finds relief when assisting her master with ink and the paintings, even though it endangers her position in the house. I did like the end of the book, although its resolution felt rushed.
Chevalier's details on light and shadow and color and shape are delightful.
4.5 stars.
Skillful fiction.......2007-08-28
If you have ever seen "the Dutch Mona Lisa", or the "girl with the pearl earring", by Vermeer you will have been struck by it's tenderness. Maybe it is misplaced to say so about a naturalist like Vermeer, but you get the feeling he must have liked this girl. However, nobody knows who she was or why he painted her in such an un-Vermeer-like pose.
Perfect fiction material then, and Chevalier has not wasted the opportunity. The book tells the story of a 16 year old girl in the 17th century Dutch town of Delft who becomes a maid in the Vermeer family. We follow her struggle to keep her dignity in a house full of strife, culminating in the event of her being painted (she, a maid!). I usually like first person narratives, but this is one of the best I know. The historical setting is (to me, a non-historian, but Dutch and knowing Delft) completely convincing. The story is plausible, satisfying and well composed, and the prose has a soft touch that somehow accords very well with painting itself.
The one flaw, for which I deduct a star, is that the protagonist is implausibly mature and confident for her age and social status. Another reviewer on this page remarked that the book reads better when you the girl looking back after the facts on her younger self. This is true, but a writer should not have to rely on goodwill like that.
The book reminded me of "Memoirs of a Geisha", in storyline (although it is less brutal), the ease with which the writer makes fiction feel like reality, and the way in which it makes you wish things will turn out well for a small girl in a big world.
Chevalier is wonderful.......2007-08-23
Tracy Chavalier is a master at having art history come alive and incorporate within it a beautiful story.
Words of Art.......2007-08-10
I think what makes this book so appealing to me is the fact that I was able to see a rare Vermeer collection a few years before I read this book and studied art in college, to really make me appreciate the story. One does not have to have any background in art (it simply enhanced the read), but if you're looking for beautiful words, an unconventional love story, and historical fiction --- I think this just might be the book for you. It's not a nail biter, but you certainly absorb each word and paint a picture of the story in your mind as you read. THe movie is quite good as well, but I'm always a fan of a book before the movie. Enjoy!
Stunning.......2007-07-19
This book is absolutely gorgeous. Chevalier paints with words as Vermeer painted with paint. Her prose and descriptions actually take on the same quality as Vermeer's paintings, luminous, quiet, and very strikingly beautiful. The character Griet is complex and interesting. The descriptions in this book are breath taking. Read this!!! Oh, and I am a teenager. Teenagers will love it too.
Book Description
This is the first comprehensive biography in half a century of John Locke - “a man of versatile mind, fitted for whatever you shall undertake”, as one of his many good friends very aptly described him. Against an exciting historical background of the English Civil War, religious intolerance and bigotry, anti-Government struggles and plots, and the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Roger Woolhouse interweaves the events of Locke's rather varied life with detailed expositions of his developing ideas in medicine, theory of knowledge, philosophy of science, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, and economics. Chronologically systematic in its coverage, this volume offers an account and explanation of Locke's ideas and their reception, while entering at large into the details of his private life of intimate friendships and warm companionship, and of the increasingly visible public life into which, despite himself, he was drawn - Oxford tutor, associate of Shaftesbury, dutiful civil servant. Based on broad research and many years' study of Locke's philosophy, this will be the authoritative biography for years to come of this truly versatile man whose long-standing desire was for quiet residence in his Oxford college engaged in the study and practise of medicine and natural philosophy, yet who, after years in political exile, finally became an over-worked but influential public servant and who is seen now as one of the most significant early modern philosophers. Roger Woolhouse is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of York. He is the author of many journal articles and books on early modern philosophy, including The Empiricists, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and, with R.Francks, Leibniz's “New System”.
Customer Reviews:
Well Balanced.......2007-09-01
This is a fascinating biography of the great Locke. It is well balanced in details of both the life and movements of Locke, as well as providing some concise discussion on his various works.
I was left the thought as to just how Locke's works may have developed if he, like all in his age, did not have the threat of religious politics breathing down his neck. I tend to believe he would have been a lot closer to Hume if he had both lived in Hume's age and had Hume courage ( and lack of political ambition!)
A great biography that almost demands to be finished in one sitting.
Amazon.com
"I do not presume to have discovered the best philosophy," Spinoza once wrote, "but I know that I understand the true one." Understanding the philosophy of Spinoza is not easy, to be sure, but The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza is intended to help. Aimed at the novice and the specialist alike, it contains 10 essays contributed by scholars who are among the foremost authorities on Spinoza's thought. "Taken as a whole," editor Don Garrett writes, "the essays in this volume present a detailed, coherent, and--I believe--accurate portrait of one of the most original and fruitful thinkers that humankind has yet produced."
The Companion is almost certainly the best anthology on Spinoza's philosophy presently available, and his major work, Ethics, is naturally at its center. Among the high points in Jonathan Bennett's compendious essay on Spinoza's metaphysics is his discussion of "size neutrality"--the claim that small things differ from large ones only in size--which is memorably described as "a blank check that philosophers wrote on Nature's bank and that did not visibly bounce until late in the 19th century." Other essays on Ethics deal with Spinoza's views on epistemology, the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mind, and--unsurprisingly--ethics. Concerning other aspects of Spinoza's work, Edwin Curley's essay, delightfully titled "Kissinger, Spinoza, and Genghis Khan," argues that Spinoza's political philosophy is essentially Machiavellian; Spinoza's contributions to theology and Bible scholarship are carefully dealt with by the late Alan Donagan and Richard H. Popkin. --Glenn Branch
Book Description
Benedict (Baruch) de Spinoza has been one of the most inspiring and influential philosophers of the modern era, yet also one of the most difficult and most frequently misunderstood. The essays in this volume provide a clear and systematic exegesis of Spinoza's thought informed by the most recent scholarship. They cover his metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of science, psychology, ethics, political theory, theology, and scriptural interpretation, as well as his life and influence on later thinkers.
Customer Reviews:
A Good Book - Not a Good Beginning.......2005-09-06
This is one of the best ordained books on Spinoza ever written. It has texts on the most important topics of Spinoza's philosophy, on the correct order, and with important commentaries concerning the entire spinozistic community.
There are however disadvantages in this books. One of them is Michael della Rocca's text on Spinoza's metaphysical psychology. It is a very bold article, with several bold statements; however, the order of della Rocca's philosophising is completely upside down, and some of his premisses prove that he did not understand the scope of Spinoza's metaphysics at all. Besides, it is too long and not very explanatory for people entering Spinoza's philosophy.
The same cannot be said on the brilliant texts by Don Garrett, by Edwin Curley (with the most famous title in the history of Spinoza's political studies), and of the always brilliant Wim Klever (who should be more translated in the english language).
Bottom line: I believe this is probably the most important book concerning the whole of Spinoza's philosophy in the english language. However, the manner how certain problems are introduced and resolved are far from being consensuous and some of them seem highly questionable. From this, one must conclude that this book is not adequate for people just entering Spinoza's philosophy: better to start with Spinoza himself, with some introductory guides, and with the old, but still excellent book by Stuart Hampshire.
An essential aid to students of Spinoza........2000-06-11
This fine volume in the Cambridge "Companions" series is an essential aid to readers of Baruch Spinoza. Edited by Don Garrett, it includes ten essays on Spinoza's life and thought by ten world-class Spinoza scholars (including the late Alan Donagan, to whom the book is dedicated).
Topics covered are various and pretty much exhaustive. W.N.A. Klever opens the volume with a summary of Spinoza's life and works; the closing piece by Pierre-Francois Moreau traces the influence of "Spinozism" from Spinoza's death through the twentieth century. The eight essays in between discuss, in turn, Spinoza's metaphysics (Jonathan Bennett), his theory of knowledge (Margaret D. Wilson), his natural science and methodology (Alan Gabbey), his metaphysical psychology (Michael Della Rocca), his ethical theory (Don Garrett), his political theory (Edwin Curley, in a piece strikingly entitled "Kissinger, Spinoza, and Genghis Khan," in which he argues that Spinoza was essentially Machiavellian), his theology (Alan Donagan), and his influence on Biblical scholarship (Richard H. Popkin).
The resulting collection is a clear and thorough examination of every essential aspect of Spinoza's thought. My recommendation to new readers of Spinoza: begin with Roger Scruton's fine little book in the "Past Masters" series, and then go on to this one.
Customer Reviews:
Completely inadequate.......2007-10-04
Completely inadequate. Many of the reproductions are too dark, and important details can't be seen. In many pictures there are small white dots, obviously the result of poor printing. In the magnificent "Servant Handing Her Lady a Letter," the dyes have dripped so badly that the reproduction might as well be a comic book. Abrams should be miles above this level of quality. The photo editor, Uta Hoffman, should have an eye exam.
ISBN: 0894682199 is a better choice.......2005-09-29
ISBN: 0894682199 is a better choice, because it was highly prized and awarded like no other book about Vermeer. Colors here are rendered not very accurately. This book, like others by Harry N Abrams, tends to show the light background in the upper left hand corner of the "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" painting as light blue. In fact, that background is multicolored in a kind of pinkish summary tone. Similar problems have other pictures, though all Vermeer's paintings are reproduced as plates.
Good brief volume.......2005-08-26
A fine book on Vermeer with good repros and short but to the point commentary on each painting by the author. I've seen Vermeers in the Rijksmuseum in the original, and although no color plate can do justice to them, these are pretty decent. Vermeer's rich, saturated colors and use of transparent and translucent glazes are impossible to really reproduce in print, at least at a reasonable cost, not to mention his amazing treatment of specular highlights. But the plates in this book are still pretty good.
The book shows all known Vermeers, of which there are less than forty, usually with several paragraphs of commentary on each painting. The author does a good job of placing each painting in the context of Vermeer's overall oeuvre while discussing the painting's special or unique points. No doubt you'll recognize many of your favorite Vermeers here.
Vermeer's masters are still a mystery although Carel Fabritius, Rembrandt's most famous student, and others have been proposed, but without conclusive proof. We may never know who trained him, but one thing is for sure, early on after being certified as a master of the guild, Vermeer turned from the more dramatic subject of historical paintings to painting the intimate and understated works he's known for, in which people are treated almost like inanimate objects in a still life and the light permeates whole volumes of space with liquid effect. Forever a girl stands in front of a virginal, or pours milk from a pitcher, while the light dances and plays around her.
Someone once noted that Vermeer's spaces are quite empty and uncluttered, but this makes sense if you think about it. Since Vermeer was fascinated by light, and the way different surfaces and textures reflected light, Vermeer would not wish to clutter up any space and interfere with the propagation and reflection of light throughout the space. Vermeer was nothing if not a painter of light and lighting effects which he treated more like a dynamic and fluid medium which literally molded the space it touched rather than simple lighting in that sense.
Vermeer also often liked to pose his models playing musical instruments or reading letters, using the act of reading a private communication to create a more intimate mood or identification with the person.
The author also provides a brief introduction and history of Vermeer's life and work, which is about five pages long in this large paperback format, so it's probably more like ten pages in a normal book. Overall, a brief but very well done book on Vermeer.
The best vermeer book........2005-07-30
If you're looking for a vermeer book, this is definitely the one to go for. It has everything: LARGE, beautiful, full color reproductions of all of Vermeer's work, a biography of his life, and very good commentaries on each painting. Plus, it's affordable. Highly recommended.
Excellent value and beautiful prints.......2005-07-09
a wonderful coffee table book that I turn to often
Book Description
This book brings together a comprehensive collection of the writings of one of the greatest philosophers in the Western tradition. Along with five of John Locke's major essays, seventy shorter essays are included that stand outside the canonical works that Locke published during his lifetime. For the first time students will be able to fully explore the evolution of Locke's ideas concerning the philosophical foundations of morality and sociability, the boundary of church and state, the shaping of constitutions, and the conduct of government and public policy.
Amazon.com
As he seeks to unlock the secrets of such things as joy and sorrow, Antonio Damasio pursues a unifying theory in Looking for Spinoza. Why Spinoza? The philosopher, whom Damasio calls a "protobiologist," firmly linked mind and body, paving the way for modern ideas of neurophysiology. Damasio examines this linkage, which ran counter to all scientific and religious thinking of Spinoza's day, and lays out the reasoning and evidence behind its truth. As he has in his previous books on the subject (Descartes' Error and The Feeling of What Happens), Damasio is careful to use clear examples from life to explain the often dry and difficult science of the brain. When he wants readers to understand, for instance, brain stem control of emotions, he offers an Oliver Sacks-style case study of a man whose stroke left him unable to keep from bursting into tears or laughter at inappropriate times.
Damasio also defines his terms, which is crucial, as he means something very specific when he says feeling ("always hidden, like all mental images") instead of emotion ("actions or movements... visible to others as they occur in the face, in the voice, in specific behaviors"). Using an impressive array of biological and psychological research, Damasio makes a compelling case for his idea of the feeling brain as crucial for survival and sense of self. But this isn't just a book about brain science. It's a record of an intellectual journey, a diary of Damasio's musings about history, philosophy, and Spinoza's life, all wrapped up in a simply astonishing explanation of a subject most of us don't give a thought to--the feelings that we live by. --Therese Littleton
Book Description
Completing the trilogy that began with Descartes' Error and continued with The Feeling of What Happens, noted neuroscientist Antonio Damasio now focuses the full force of his research and wisdom on emotions. He shows how joy and sorrow are cornerstones of our survival. As he investigates the cerebral mechanisms behind emotions and feelings, Damasio argues that the internal regulatory processes not only preserve life within ourselves, but they create, motivate, and even shape our greatest cultural accomplishments.
If Descartes declared a split between mind and body, Spinoza not only unified the two but intuitively understood the role of emotions in human survival and culture. So it is Spinoza who accompanies Damasio as he journeys back to the seventeenth century in search of a philosopher who, in Damasio's view, prefigured modern neuroscience.
In Looking for Spinoza Damasio brings us closer to understanding the delicate interaction between affect, consciousness, and memory--the processes that both keep us alive and make life worth living.
Customer Reviews:
The Feeling Biologist.......2006-08-30
On the plus side:
It is good to have an advocate for the role of emotions and feelings in rational thought. There can be no doubt that both emotions and feelings have a crucial role to play in learning, discovery, persuasion, belief and insight; the challenge, which Dammassio is not equipped or inclined to meet, is to define the boundaries of the proper role of emotions in rational thought. It is not clear to me how Dammassio would advise members of a jury to weigh the evidence before them 'dispassionately'. Or perhaps he would advise that they shouldn't?
Despite the eccentricity of ascribing 'emotions' to single cell organisms, I appreciate Dammassio's distinction between emotions - dispositions organisms adopt, more or less automatically, in response to stimuli which serve to promote restoration of homeostasis, and feelings - dispositions of the mind in which perceptions of emotions expressed in the body, in turn modify those same emotions, and for which mental events can also act as stimuli. This sets up the suggestive and useful idea of the 'brain-body loop', including the 'as-if brain-body loop' where the stimulus is mental.
This conception allows Dammassio to explain how the whole body participates in thinking, by mediating processes in the brain. A feeling causes a change in the body (e.g. a tightening of the stomach in response to some cause of anxiety) which in turn produces the sensation of that same emotion (e.g., you feel your stomach tighten, alerting you to your anxiety). This is a very useful idea, and needs in fact the body is able to play this mediating role in brain activity of all kinds, not just feelings and emotions. Dammassio provides a strong argument for understanding the whole person as the appropriate unit for understanding thinking, not just the brain.
On the minus side:
What is it with this mixture of positivistic, almost Lockean, exposition of human biology, based on 'the latest discoveries of science', in the tradition of Comte, social Darwinism, Ernst Haeckel, Konrad Lorenz, Desmond Morris, Robert Ardrey and company, with, on the other hand, semi-biographical eulogies over the seventeenth century rationalist philosopher Spinoza? It's like the song-and-dance routines put on for pre-match and half-time entertainment at the football. I suspect that Dammassio is relying on a weakness of Spinoza to which he makes a passing reference, namely, that by simply saying that thought and extension are two attributes of the one substance, the difficulty of explaining how thought arises from the activity of material beings is simply by-passed. For this is just what Dammassio does.
Like any number of positivists before him, Dammassio finds that 'the latest discoveries of science' have at last given us an understanding of how mental images are formed ... all except for just that last step unfortunately, but that last link in the chain will doubtless be discovered within the next decade or two. Dammassio has the same problem as John Locke: if you see thought as simply the product of one material system interacting with other material systems, then you can push the boundary back further and further (either by speculation or by scientific investigation) but sooner or later you get to that point, and you either insert the homunculus to watch the "movie-in-the-brain" (as Dammassio calls it) or you just hope that that last step will be explained by new discoveries of modern science, just around the corner. Dammassio is sophisticated enough to avoid highlighting the contradiction with any reference to a homunculus, or a yet-to-be-discovered 'control centre' somewhere in the brain, so his ruse seems to be to insert a eulogy to Spinoza in lieu of an explanation.
And these 'mirror neurons', introduced to explain empathy, are complete fiction. This is not a claim that needs to be argued, the idea is pure fantasy and the claim to have found the location where they to be found is outrageous. No-one in the field believes it. 'Mirror neurons' are a disturbing step from biological explanation of biological phenomena to biological explanations of social phenomena, and with that, the incipient justification for medical intervention and social engineering as the cure for social problems.
All this could be harmless enough. If the object is to improve understanding of the working of the nervous system for the purpose of curing psychiatric illness or brain injury, it is a very worthwhile exercise. But the 'mirror neurons' alert us to the inevitable wider agenda.
For Dammassio, all social institutions are "mechanisms for exerting homeostasis at the level of the social group", and in fact all social, political and ethical phenomena are "extensions" of these processes within the organism, and have their "forerunners" in the social behaviour of wolves, birds and so on. In other words, puerile social Darwinism of the worst order.
Faced with self-serving naïvité of this breathtaking order, and with obvious fictions like the 'mirror neurons' making their appearance in what is presented as hard neuroscientific fact, one is then somewhat hesitant about accepting as good coin the rather appealing ideas about the role of body maps and emotions in the mediation of thought.
Dammassio also cleverly plays with the idea that all the phenomena of culture and human society are somehow less real than the facts of biology, self-aggrandizing illusions of animals who kid themselves that they have become something more. Thus consciousness and mind are "what we call mind and consciousness," (this phrase 'what we call' is used several times). Dammassio is clever enough not, like say Desmond Morris, to be explicit in this ploy, he just suggests to the reader without spelling it out.
The Mind is shaped by Nature to ensure survival of the Body.......2005-03-01
Spinoza was a remarkable 17th century philosopher whose Jewish family fled the Portuguese Inquisition to find refuge in Holland.
Spinoza held that `the mind' is simply a bodily process: it is not a separate entity from the body. Furthermore, he claimed that emotions, including spiritual emotions, are a body's signals to the brain: their purpose is to make the brain adjust the body's activities in ways that will bring it back to a state of balance with its environment.
Spinoza built up a strong case for saying so in various publications. This idea was a direct challenge to the religious authorities. He received 39 lashes and excommunication from his own synagogue for his pains. After his death, even the tolerant Dutch authorities banned publication of Spinoza's works.
Nevertheless, his ideas lived on and became a driving force of the Enlightenment a century later.
Antonio Damasio is Van Allen Distinguished professor at University of Iowa College of Medicine. As a neuroscientist in the forefront of modern research, he specializes in finding out how the brain detects both emotion and feeling. The brain is receiving billions of reports every second from every cell in the body. Neuroscientists can record these signals in particular circuits in the brain. The brain integrates these reports and the result is perceived as an emotion.
`Background' emotions work at a subconscious level and are noticed as states of well-being, instinctive dislikes -- and so on. `Primary' emotions are basic ones such as fear, disgust, sadness and happiness. `Social' emotions include shame, pride, envy and indignation.
In turn emotion gives rise to feeling -- an internalized emotion of emotion. All these processes can be recorded as neural maps in the brain as they occur. These emotions and feelings manipulate the body to behave in ways that enhances its self-preservation.
Damasio interweaves his neural science narrative cleverly with the thread of Spinoza's philosophy. There is a lot still to discover, but neural science is vindicating Spinoza's hypothesis: that our mental life is shaped by nature to serve the optimum survival of the physical body.
There is a powerful lesson to be drawn: this mental life is designed to work in forager groups in the African Savannah. Our lives today are so far removed from these conditions that we are continuously stressed by emotional signals occurring in inappropriate ways.
Today, we medicate our feelings with alcohol, drugs, and New Age therapies. However, the insights provided by neuroscience point the way to how we might structure our lives in ways that bring our bodies back into a state of harmony with our natures.
Damasio does not venture into how we might do this, but we at www.naturaleater.com will be tackling this question of evolutionary psychology on our website very shortly.
The clarity of truth.......2004-07-16
As his 2 other previous books, this book has the clarity and consistency of truth. The insight it gives on our personal mental world is simply beautiful. This is just one of those books that everyone should read.
darn good book........2004-06-06
Basicially, Damasio's book provides a solid, testable, specific, plausible and elegant hypothesis about emotion and feeling. I found the book to be fascinating and enlightening.
While I do not agree with everything he says -
(specifically his evidence regarding the difference between 'feeling' and 'emotion' seems to me to point toward 'feeling' occuring earlier, at least in some form)
the science is there to be tried and tested.
The other thing I didn't like about it was the writing style was too much in the philosophical vein for my personal tastes... but then science is philosophy, and the style is conciously chosen for that reason.
Overall a great read, though. The ideas presented far, far *far* outweigh the minor complaints I have about the book.
A survey of the impact of feelings on daily lives.......2004-05-03
Joy, sorrow and the feeling brain are considered in Antonio Damasio's Looking For Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, And The Feeling Brain, a survey of the impact of feelings on daily lives. Such feelings have often been considered too private for science to explain and have been largely ignored: neuroscientist Damasio draws on his own research and experience with neurological patients to consider how emotions support survival itself.
Amazon.com
Remarkably, given his importance in Western philosophy, there has never been a substantial English-language biography of Baruch (or, as he was later known, Benedictus) Spinoza (1632-1677) until now. Spinoza: A Life makes up for the lack, delving into the archival records of 17th-century Amsterdam to flesh out Spinoza's world in rich detail. The subject himself doesn't even appear until the third chapter; Nadler first provides historical background on the treatment of Jews during the Spanish Inquisition and their eventual resettlement in the Dutch Republic. Later chapters explore Spinoza's relationship to the Jewish community and the possible reasons for his excommunication in 1656, as well as the emergence of his philosophical system. Academically rigorous without becoming ponderous, Spinoza: A Life is splendid both as biography and history, and a worthy introduction to Spinoza's philosophy.
Book Description
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) was one of the most important philosophers of all time; he was also arguably the most radical and controversial. This is the first complete biography of Spinoza in any language and is based on detailed archival research. More than simply recounting the story of Spinoza’s life, the book takes the reader right into the heart of Jewish Amsterdam in the seventeenth century and, with Spinoza’s exile from Judaism, right into the midst of the tumultuous political, social, intellectual and religious world of the young Dutch Republic. Though the book will be an invaluable resource for philosophers, historians, and scholars of Jewish thought, it has been written for any member of the general reading public with a serious interest in philosophy, Jewish history, seventeenth-century European history, and the culture of the Dutch Golden Age. Spinoza: A Life has recently been awarded the Koret Jewish Book Award.
Customer Reviews:
Rationalist, existialist...or Vulcan?.......2007-06-06
Emotions are to be avoided, religion is inherently illogical, only rational philosophy can bring you contentment, free-will is a myth; these are the tenants of Spinoza and, yes, the credo of all Vulcans. All these years of trying to get a sense of Spinoza and 3/4 through the book the image of Mr. Spock came floating through the text. Think about it, if Spinoza was successful in changing the metaphysical paradigm of western civilization, we'd all be Vulcans today. Seriously, this is a good book for any serious Spinozists, and puts into context the genius and guts that was Spionza as well as the remarkable period of tollerance which was the golden age of the Dutch Republic. I would suggest reading Yirmiyahu Yovel's, "Spinoza and Other Heretics" for anyone interested in getting a sense of the Pre-converso environment of the Marranos.
Spinoza: A life.......2007-03-15
The book give a great details about the life during the inquisition time in Spain Portugal & Holland..
Is has a very good view about the terrible consequences of fanatics in the Catholic religion, and show why the world was intellectually almost paralyzed during the dark ages of the religion terror.
However, the book only give small inside about the wonderful philosophical thinking of Spinoza, is more a historic book than a philosophical one..
The most enlightened of Philosophers.......2006-09-19
Steven Nadler skillfully guides the reader not only through Spinoza's life but also through the turbulent times of the 17th century Holland. All the more useful ride to enable us to see the courage of an outstanding man, citizen, a brilliant philosopher who taught us that GOD is Nature and us. Great reading!
lost in facts.......2006-05-28
I simply could not relate to this book, a reaction which may or may not reflect an adequate idea.
By the name of Spinoza !.......2005-09-01
Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677), an early figure of European Enlightenment like a Netherlands Descartes or Giordano Bruno, - he fought with his publications for the inauguration of modern times, influenced by sober reason - but still caught in the historical context of a society, which was ruled by the dictatorial interests of confessions and government cabals.
During Spinoza's lifetime (only 45 years) Amsterdam probably has been Europe's most alive, free and multi-cultural large city - the true mother of Nieuw Amsterdam = New York. As freely however, that anyone could philosophize, whatever he liked to sermonize - no, that wasn't possible staying completely unpunished.
Many of the perforce secret supporters of Spinoza (publishers, booksellers, authors) landed in the prison or in banishing. Most glaringly is the story of the brothers Johan and Cornelis de Witt, who had protected Spinoza, providing him with food, money and legal support: A furious mob of Monarchists and Calvinists in 1672 got them out of prison and carried out a lynching court in the style of that time: they mangled the bodies and pulled out the hearts, showing them full of triumph to the audience - many of the members of the aristocracy, sitting in carriages. A very anarchistic version of almost forgotten Inca- and Aztec-rites. Only with strive Spinoza's friends could prevent him from posting a placard near the site of the massacre, reading ULTIMI BARBARORUM (You are the greatest of all barbarians).
Spinoza's family, Jewish, harassed by the Inquisition, had escaped Spain like thousand others to find refuge in the Netherlands, which showed more toleration. Spinoza's first thinking results, which regarded the Bible as an historical writing collection of different humans (thus by no means written by God), led him to be excommunicated from the Dutch community of Portuguese Jews. The autocratic Sephardim rabbinical leadership wrote 1656 in beautiful calligraphic letters: "As to the judgement of the angels and statement of the holy we banish, curse, bewitch and condemn Baruch de Spinoza. Beware of operating with him verbally or in writing, beware of proving him the smallest favor, beware of reading his books..."
The remainder of his life (like an early forerunner of the famous Anne Frank, who was hidden by Amsterdam citizens from Nazi pursuance) Spinoza hid mostly in small grave chambers of rooms and he lost all the wealth of his family business. Secretly he was supported by friends. Additional he earned money by lens grinding (but the sharpening of glass caused an early death: the inhaled dust destroyed his lungs). Convinced of the correctness of his thinking he as long as possible continued writing, persistently and annoyingly - however anonymous.
He did not want to die in public at stake like his forerunner Giordano Bruno in Rome 1600. Spinoza was fascinated by the hypothesis of a Pantheism, first developed by the efforts of Giordano Bruno. In his "Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect" he defined God as ruled by the same causes like nature ("deus, siva natura"). At that time neither the Jews nor the Christians had been ready to accept such dogmatic changes or at least to tolerate such opinions (which of course weakened the religious authorities).
A large city is - today like at that time - characterized by the fact, that trends in different parts of the society are not simultaneous. The aristocratic, bourgeois, working class or religious circles always have different speeds. The intellectual circles, sympathizing with Spinoza, seemed to live already in the 18th century.
Because Spinoza, inspired by Hobbes, also risked to formulate basics of a democratic society, he came immediately into conflict with the Netherlands Orangists, who controlled the state. The mob, brought to a level of puppets as well by the princes as by the clerical - the mob was not enlightenmentable by the shy and sensitive considerations of a cautiously hidden publisher.
We would have to thank Spinoza (if it would be possible) for his persistance, which helped to develop modern constitutions of states and stabilized the opinion, that a religion must not be monopolized, but, in the contrary, has to follow individual interpretations as well. With regard to September Eleven and the US-reaction against fundamentalist assaults we faster could decide, how to response. I think: not using military, but using reason: no religion should lead us to a Crusade or a "Reverse Crusade" anymore. Monopolizing trends of denominations should be stopped. By the name of Spinoza!
Book Description
Seventeenth-century Delft has traditionally been viewed as a quaint town whose artists painted scenes of domestic life. This important book revises that image, showing that the small but vibrant Dutch city produced fine examples of all the major arts—including luxury goods and sophisticated paintings for the court at The Hague and for patrician collectors in Delft itself.
The book traces the history and culture of Delft from the 1200s through the lifetime of the city's most renowned painter, Johannes Vermeer. The authors discuss at length some ninety major paintings (seventeen by Vermeer), forty drawings, and a choice selection of decorative arts, all of which are reproduced in full color. Among the paintings are state portraits, history pictures, still lifes, views of palaces and church interiors, illusionistic murals, and refined genre pictures by Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch. The rich works on paper encompass exquisite drawings by Delft artists and sketches of the town by visiting artists. Included in the decorative arts are tapestries, bronze statuary, silver, Delftware, and glass. The volume concludes with an essay that takes the reader on a walk through seventeenth-century Delft. It is accompanied by maps of the city's neighborhoods that indicate major monuments and the homes of patrons, art dealers, and painters.
Customer Reviews:
Creme de la creme.......2007-06-14
This may not be the book with which to start a Vermeer trek. But it is one to savor mid-way on the journey. And it's a fitting coda for the many books on Vermeer published since the wonderful Washington/The Hague exhibition in 1995-1996. Walter Liedtke comprensivley and colorfully provides context for Vermeer's style, technique, and themes. For all his erudition, however, Liedtke doesn't explain Vermeer's genius, which is sui generis. The combination of painterly skill, scientific observation, poetic insight, and musical/theatrical nuance all seem perfectly coordinated in this Delft Master. That Vermeer made rather extensive use of the camera obscura to inform his work is without doubt (see Philip Steadman's Vermeer's Camera), although Liedtke continues even now to insist he did not. Nonetheless, as Liedtke exhaustively details, Vermeer could not have been Vermeer without the cultural milieu in and around The Netherlands in the seventeenth century.
The quality of the hundreds of illustrations included in the book, especially those which reproduce Vermeer's paintings, is extraodinary; the cover reproduction of Vermeer's Art of Painting is alone worth the price of the volume. Note particularly the pairing of The Girl with a Pearl Earring and the Study of a Young Woman (making a good case for pendant status), as well as perhaps the best reproduction ever of The Girl with a Red Hat (although it is somewhat over-sized).
Liedkte also generously provides a trove of bibliographical citations, more than enough to keep scholars busily productive well into the next generation. No serious study of Vermeer can proceed without reference to this book. Yet, it is a good read for anyone with a reasonably sophisticated knowledge of European history of that era, and will reward amatuer art historians of the Baroque period with its pinball-like associations.
Lovers of Vermeer will make this book a centerpiece in their library, returning to it again and again for information, clarification, and, most of all, aesthetic pleasure. Liedtke's opus is the next best thing to visiting the several handfuls of museums in the USA and Europe that hold Vermeer's 36 known works.
Tongue in Cheek.......2002-06-03
Bravo to Walter Liedtke for his sense of humor, see below. The fact that 17 out of 24 did not understand his subtle comments on himself, he did write most of the book, is testimony as to lack of discernment of those who read these reviews. I have heard his lecture on the exhibition and all he says is absolutely true. Actually, his comments on himself are rather modest.
A Monument to My Genius.......2001-06-28
Words cannot describe the impact this weighty volume has had on me. From the moment I held it in my trembling hands, I was hooked. The rich, carefully crafted prose is a delight to the eye and the imagination. Its author is undoubtedly a man of breath-taking vision who has reconstructed the 17th-century past with unique skills of research and analysis. His character shines through in every page and the reader cannot help but conjure up in his or her mind a dazzling image of a dark tall handsome curator with beautifully slick and greased black hair, a whiff of moustache, and sparkling gold-rimmed glasses. Every inch a man of learning. I could go on - and I will.
Magnificent.......2001-04-08
This is a catalogue published in conjunction with the exhibition "Vermeer and the Delft School" held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, from March 8 to May 27, 2001 and The National Gallery, London, from June 20 to September 16, 2001. It is written by Walter Liedtke, Curator in the Department of European Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York with contributions from eight other art curators and historians. This is a hefty book reflecting this monumental ehibition which includes 15 of the 35 known works attributed to Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) who spent his entire life in Delft. Other prominent 17th Century artists include Pieter de Hooch, Gerard Houckgeest and one of my favorites, Carel Fabritius, who was killed in a munitions explosion in 1654 at the age of 32. The catalogue is 640 pages containing 526 illustrations with 225 colorplates. The quality of the colorplates is good. The history of Delft and the development of "The Delft School" is thoroughly researched. In addition to the artists mentioned there are many beautiful paintings by artists who are relatively unknown. This is a catalogue where the interested reader will spend the rest of his life perusing. There is much to be mined here. The exhibition is worth a journey.
Book Description
A drama of ideas as urgent and compelling as Copenhagen;a dance of personalities as colorful as in Wittgenstein's Poker.
Philosophy in the late seventeenth century was a dangerous business. No careerist could afford to know the reclusive philosopher known as an "atheist Jew," Baruch de Spinoza. Yet the wildly ambitious young genius Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz became obsessed with Spinoza's writings, wrote him clandestine letters, and ultimately called on Spinoza in person at his home in The Hague.
Both men were at the center of the intense religious, political, and personal battles that gave birth to the modern age. One was a hermit with many friends; the other, a socialite no one trusted. One believed in a God whom almost nobody thought divine; the other defended a God in whom he probably did not believe. Their characters and ways of life defined their philosophies. In this exquisitely written philosophical romance of attraction and repulsion, greed and virtue, religion and heresy, Matthew Stewart dramatizes a titanic clash of beliefs that still continues today.
Customer Reviews:
Baruch Wins by a Knockout!.......2007-08-30
So many reviews already! Mine will be brief. Matthew Stewart's exegesis of Spinoza is brilliant, the clearest I've ever encountered, and should be taken as a challenge from the past by all adherents of "Intelligent Design". Leibniz is portrayed less sympathetically, indeed as a bit of an intellectual opportunist, as if Voltaire had not already convinced all the world that "Pangloss" was a hapless fool. Even if you, dear reader, are utterly indifferent to the theological/philosophical issues of the 17th C (which are still with us), you may well find this book as sprightly and engrossing as any historical novel.
Of Course We Should Care!.......2007-08-18
If you are honest enough to ask "why do I exist?" or "is there a God?" then you should care. These "old philosophers" affirm the enduring and ever-present tension between the power of reason to understand and the necessity of faith (or an approximation of such) to carry on and to cope. It is rational to struggle with such notions, irrational not to. To peer under the context and understand the motivations, personalities, and failings of those who rose to intellectual heights is to assure oneself of an appreciation of how the greatest of us have sought answers. To suppose such things not worth a care is to sleep through life.
Do we really care what old philosophers have to say?.......2007-05-18
The book is quite readable for the layperson. It is historically interesting, especially the interplay of notables of the era. There is too much repetition of the basic philosophic positions of the principals. The philosophy of both men has for the most part been dicarded by modern thinkers. It would be more interesting if the author had spent more space explaining how more latter day thinkers appraise the contributions of Leibniz and Spinoza. On the whole it was good. R Stageman
Opposing Views on Religion.......2007-05-14
On the back of the paperback's cover, the author, Matthew Stewart, is described as philosopher having sold off his consulting business to live a life of contemplation in Santa Barbara. Intriguing and interesting! Stewart has woven together the ideas and story behind two very distinct minds and world viewpoints. A life of contemplation has been very good for him.
Spinoza, the heretic, lived a simple life not seeking luxury or fame. His atheistic view of an inanimate God is largely viewed as the start of modernity. Leibniz was everything Spinoza was not. He was paragon of superlatives. Fashion-conscious, materialist, well-educated, and overly ambitious seemed to be intrigued with the ideas of Spinoza. After recognizing the consequence of Spinoza's ideas, he defended traditional beliefs. Leibniz was largely forgotten by the world after his death, even though he invented calculus at roughly the same time as Newton and influenced the philosophy of Kant.
I do wish the author took the time to use modern words when presenting some of the philosophical concepts. The language of the late 1600s and early 1700s is hard to conceptualize. For example, Leibniz postulated that the universe is composed of countless conscious centers of spiritual force or energy, known as monads. What the heck is a monad? A small complaint in an otherwise wonderfully executed and researched book.
lots of interesting facts.......2007-05-13
Matthew Stewart's scholarship has yielded an amazing harvest of very interesting facts not learned in a history of philosophy course.
It's sad to learn how human all too human Leibniz was. What a waste of a sharp mind.
But philosophy as soap opera is no better than other soap operas. Wittgenstein likened a gathering of philosophy professors to an outbreak of bubonic plague.
Book Description
First published in 1689, John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding is widely recognised as among the greatest works in the history of Western philosophy. The Essay puts forward a systematic empiricist theory of mind, detailing how all ideas and knowledge arise from sense experience. Locke was trained in mechanical philosophy and he crafted his account to be consistent with the best natural science of his day. The Essay was highly influential and its rendering of empiricism would become the standard for subsequent theorists. This Companion volume includes fifteen new essays from leading scholars. Covering the major themes of Locke’s work, they explain his views while situating the ideas in the historical context of Locke’s day and often clarifying their relationship to ongoing work in philosophy. Pitched to advanced undergraduates and graduate students, it is ideal for use in courses on early modern philosophy, British empiricism and John Locke.
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