As critic, Kenneth Burke's preoccupations were at the beginning purely esthetic and literary; but after Counter-Statement (1931), he began to discriminate a "rhetorical" or persuasive component in literature, and thereupon became a philosopher of language and human conduct. In A Grammar of Motives (1945) and A Rhetoric of Motives (1950), Burke's conception of "symbolic action" ...(展开全部)

As a classical treatise on motivations that compel human beings initiate and engage in any undertaking, Kenneth Burke unfolds a systematic elaboration on "basic forms of through which, in accordance with the nature of the world as all men necessarily experience it, are exemplified in the attributing of motives. These forms of though can be embodied profoundly or trivially, trut...(展开全部)

Differentiation from animals helped to establish the notion of a human being, but the disappearance of animals now threatens that identity. This is the argument underlying Electric Animal, a probing exploration of the figure of the animal in modern culture. Akira Mizuta Lippit shows us the animal as a crucial figure in the definition of modernity—essential to developments in th...(展开全部)

Differentiation from animals helped to establish the notion of a human being, but the disappearance of animals now threatens that identity. This is the argument underlying Electric Animal, a probing exploration of the figure of the animal in modern culture. Akira Mizuta Lippit shows us the animal as a crucial figure in the definition of modernity—essential to developments in th...(展开全部)

Exploring key concepts and metaphors, Bernard Faure guides readers to an appreciation of some of the more elusive aspects of the Chinese traditions of Chan Buddhism and Japanese Zen. Faure focuses on Chan's insistence on "immediacy"--its denial of all traditional meditations, including scripture, ritual, good works--and yet shows how these mediations have always been present in...(展开全部)

Exploring key concepts and metaphors, Bernard Faure guides readers to an appreciation of some of the more elusive aspects of the Chinese traditions of Chan Buddhism and Japanese Zen. Faure focuses on Chan's insistence on "immediacy"--its denial of all traditional meditations, including scripture, ritual, good works--and yet shows how these mediations have always been present in...(展开全部)

This is the first comprehensive History of Renaissance Rhetoric. Rhetoric, a training in writing and delivering speeches, was a fundamental part of renaissance culture and education. It is concerned with a wide range of issues, connected with style, argument, self-presentation, the arousal of emotion, voice and gesture. More than 3,500 works on rhetoric were published in a tota...(展开全部)

When Leviathan first appeared in 1651, it was recognized as a work of extraordinary scope, uniting metaphysical, theological, and political arguments into a single distinctive outlook. Contending that modern readers do the book an injustice by neglecting its metaphysical and theological themes, David Johnston supports his claim with a detailed examination of the text as a whole...(展开全部)