The Theoretic Life - A Classical Ideal and Its Modern Fate : Reflections on the Liberal Arts

In this work, Alexander Rosenthal Pubul presents a broad examination of the ancient philosophical question: “What is the good life?”, while addressing how the liberal arts can help us to answer this question. Greek philosophy distinguished between the “noble” (what is good in itself), from the merely “useful” (good for something else). From thence follows the distinction between the __liberal arts__ which pursue such noble goods and the __mechanical arts__ which are only instrumental. For Aristotle, the most noble and excellent good is wisdom itself. Hence the theoretic life devoted to the love of wisdom for its own sake –philosophy - is the highest and the most excellent. This work theorizes the origins of modernity in a rebellion against this Greek conception resulting in a complete inversion of the classical hierarchy. Sir. Francis Bacon reconceiving the purpose of knowledge as __power,__ enthroned __technology__ over philosophy and the liberal arts. The unfolding of the modern Baconian revolution progressively sidelines the liberal arts, as practical economic and technical utility become the standard of value. In assessing this problem, the book engages in a capacious journey across disciplines like philosophy, history, art, politics, and science. It is also a veritable tour across the Western intellectual tradition including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Thomas Aquinas, Bacon, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Dewey, Berdyaev, Einstein, and Heidegger. It pleads the urgent need to preserve the humanizing cultural ideals of the ancient classics against the modern tyranny of utility and the dangers of a new barbarism. Front Matter ....Pages i-xix Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 The New Barbarism: The Contest Between Classical Humanist Culture and Techno-Economic Pragmatism (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 3-10 In Pursuit of the Noble: The Classical Birth of the Liberal Arts (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 11-26 The Political and the Theoretic Life – The Challenge of Socrates (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 27-36 Aristotelian Teleology: The Bridge Between Natural Philosophy and the Problem of “The Good Life” (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 37-48 The Aristotelian Revolution: The Autonomy of the Theoretic Life and the Dream of Universal Science (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 49-57 Front Matter ....Pages 59-60 The Rebirth of Time: Sir. Francis Bacon and the Origins of Modernity (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 61-70 Bacon’s New Magic: The Transfigured Aim of the Sciences (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 71-75 Technology Displaces Metaphysics – Bacon’s New Hierarchy of the Arts and Sciences (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 77-80 Breaking Aristotle’s Bridge: The Modern Philosophical Critique of Teleology (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 81-92 The Enlightenment as a Baconian Revolution (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 93-96 Metaphysics Dethroned: Hume, Kant, and the “Self-Limitation of Reason” (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 97-111 Progressivism, Commerce, and the Triumph of Machine Civilization (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 113-122 The Classical Ideal of High Culture in the Democratic Age (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 123-128 The Theoretic Life and the Challenge of American Pragmatism: Dewey and the Greeks in Contention (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 129-137 A Reply to Dewey (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 139-143 The Contemporary Crisis of the Humanities: The Attack on the Western Canon and The Long Arm of Nietzsche, Marx, and Foucault (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 145-151 The New Protrepticus: A Concluding Exhortation to the Theoretic Life (Alexander S. Rosenthal-Pubul)....Pages 153-162 Back Matter ....Pages 163-165 In this work, Alexander Rosenthal Pubul presents a broad examination of the ancient philosophical question: zWhat is the good life?y, while addressing how the liberal arts can help us to answer this question. Greek philosophy distinguished between the znobley (what is good in itself), from the merely zusefuly (good for something else). From thence follows the distinction between the liberal arts which pursue such noble goods and the mechanical arts which are only instrumental. For Aristotle, the most noble and excellent good is wisdom itself. Hence the theoretic life devoted to the love of wisdom for its own sake -philosophy - is the highest and the most excellent. This work theorizes the origins of modernity in a rebellion against this Greek conception resulting in a complete inversion of the classical hierarchy. Sir. Francis Bacon reconceiving the purpose of knowledge as power, enthroned technology over philosophy and the liberal arts. The unfolding of the modern Baconian revolution progressively sidelines the liberal arts, as practical economic and technical utility become the standard of value. In assessing this problem, the book engages in a capacious journey across disciplines like philosophy, history, art, politics, and science. It is also a veritable tour across the Western intellectual tradition including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Seneca, Thomas Aquinas, Bacon, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche, Dewey, Berdyaev, Einstein, and Heidegger. It pleads the urgent need to preserve the humanizing cultural ideals of the ancient classics against the modern tyranny of utility and the dangers of a new barbarism.