Description
This magisterial reflection on the history and destiny of the West compares Greco-Roman civilization and the Judeo-Christian tradition in order to understand what both unites and divides them.
Mediation, understood as a collective, symbolic experience, gives society unity and meaning, putting human beings in contact with a universal object known as the world or reality. But unity has a price: the very force that enables peaceful coexistence also makes us prone to conflict. As a result, in order to find a common point of convergence - of at-one-ment - someone must be sacrificed.
Sacrifice, then, is the historical pillar of mediation. It was endorsed in a cosmic-religious sense in antiquity and rejected for ethical reasons in modernity, where the Judeo-Christian tradition plays an intermediate role in condemning sacrificial violence as such, while accepting sacrifice as a voluntary act offered to save other human beings. Today, as we face the collapse of all shared mediations, this intermediating solution offers a way out of our moral and cultural plight.
About the Author
Giuseppe Fornari is Professor of History of Philosophy at Bergamo University, Italy.
Book Information
ISBN 9781611863567
Author Giuseppe Fornari
Format Paperback
Page Count 641
Imprint Michigan State University Press
Publisher Michigan State University Press
Weight(grams) 815g
Mediation, understood as a collective, symbolic experience, gives society unity and meaning, putting human beings in contact with a universal object known as the world or reality. But unity has a price: the very force that enables peaceful coexistence also makes us prone to conflict. As a result, in order to find a common point of convergence - of at-one-ment - someone must be sacrificed.
Sacrifice, then, is the historical pillar of mediation. It was endorsed in a cosmic-religious sense in antiquity and rejected for ethical reasons in modernity, where the Judeo-Christian tradition plays an intermediate role in condemning sacrificial violence as such, while accepting sacrifice as a voluntary act offered to save other human beings. Today, as we face the collapse of all shared mediations, this intermediating solution offers a way out of our moral and cultural plight.
About the Author
Giuseppe Fornari is Professor of History of Philosophy at Bergamo University, Italy.
Book Information
ISBN 9781611863567
Author Giuseppe Fornari
Format Paperback
Page Count 641
Imprint Michigan State University Press
Publisher Michigan State University Press
Weight(grams) 815g
