Murphy, Peter (2005) France's Mediterranean antipodes. In: Peressini, Mauro, and Hadj-Moussa, Ratiba, (eds.) The Mediterranean Reconsidered: representations, emergences, recompositions. Mercury Series . Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, pp. 249-260.

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Abstract

[Extract] Some of the most powerful and least sentimental philosophy of the modern age owed its bite to a familiarity with the classical Mediterranean world. Nietzsche's tragic agon, Lukás' epic totality, and Arendt's vita activa (1958) were signature ideas of a cast of brilliant minds who kept their distance from the demoralizing and despiritualizing drive of liberal modernity, and yet did so in a way that did not pine for a golden age in the past. Tragedy, epic, and praxis were all directed toward greatness achieved through the unification of soul and form. The soul found its forms through balance, equilibrium, and grace (Murphy, Civic Justice; Carroll). It did so even in the face of the worst imaginable suffering. The great Mediterranean love of form differed from traditional religious worldviews that emphasized the integrative power of norms in human lives.

Item ID:	22577
Item Type:	Book Chapter (Research - B1)
ISBN:	0-660-19403-1
ISSN:	0361-1854
Date Deposited:	26 Sep 2014 06:30
FoR Codes:	16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1608 Sociology > 160806 Social Theory @ 50% 20 LANGUAGE, COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE > 2002 Cultural Studies > 200204 Cultural Theory @ 50%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970120 Expanding Knowledge in Language, Communication and Culture @ 50% 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970116 Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society @ 50%
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