The first chapter, Thick Description: Toward and Interpretive Theory of Culture, is frequently referenced by social scientists. First, the book altered how anthropologists perceived their work – The Interpretation of Cultures is an epistemological work. The longevity of the book (excerpts are still read in social science classes) has multiple attributions. How many Westerners are truly fascinated enough by the details of Indonesian culture to read 400 plus pages on the topic (certainly not I). Yet, it is certain that, if The Interpretation of Cultures were mere anthropological description, the book probably would not have survived. The book is structured around anthropological description, with Geertz relying on field data he gathered mostly in the 1950’s and 1960’s. The late Clifford Geertz was lauded for his 1973 anthropological volume, and I do not find this to be hype. The Interpretation of Cultures is an academic classic.
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Byron’s energies, as the essayist William Hazlitt noted in a review of Don Juan written days before Byron’s death, are directed against the listlessness and despair that would otherwise drag him down. The poem is full of vitality, but as everywhere in Byron vitality, it is a response to an intensely pessimistic view of life and of the world. In fact, in one of those letters, to his friend Douglas Kinnaird, his expression of self-delight with the first two cantos captures that voice perfectly: “As to Don Juan, confess, confess-you dog and be candid-that it is the sublime of that there sort of writing-it may be bawdy but is it not good English? It may be profligate but is it not life, is it not the thing? Could any man have written it who has not lived in the world?-and tooled in a post-chaise?- in a hackney coach?-in a gondola?-against a wall?- in a court carriage?-in a vis a vis-? on a table?-and under it?” Unlike the Satanic self-dramatizing that was the source of his fame in the 19th century, in Manfred and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage especially, Don Juan shows Byron at his most self-aware, and the voice of the poem is very close to the voice of his letters. By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on Februĭon Juan is nowadays regarded as Byron’s crowning achievement and his greatest long poem. In his study, Otto gives detailed descriptions of a peculiar affective dimension of religious life. It has influenced the work of Mircea Eliade, Max Scheler, Gerardus van der Leeuw, C.S. Keywords: Rudolf Otto atmosphere Dewey Kant Levinas phenomenologyĪmong the classics in philosophy of religion is Rudolf Otto's 1917 book Das Heilige (The Idea of the Holy). I then illustrate the yet unexhausted potential of these very claims by arguing that the numinous in Otto's sense plays an irreducible role in the ethical reflections of such distinct authors as Kant and Levinas. Drawing on those discussions helps defend some of Otto's claims about the relation between the non-rational, affective dimension and reason against the prevalent accusation of unscientific mysticism. Therefore, I draw on discussions in phenomenology and pragmatism, despite the fact that Otto's own epistemological framework is rooted in a different tradition. I argue that this notion is best understood in terms of an atmospheric quality impacting on the subject's feeling body. Received Jaccepted August 31, 2017Ībstract: In this paper, I investigate the non-rational, affective dimension of religious experience that Rudolf Otto attempted to address with his notion of the numinous. Rudolf Otto's "The Idea of the Holy" Revisited |