Library Catalog
Amazon cover image
Image from Amazon.com

Fears and Symbols : An Introduction to the Study of Western Civilization / Elemér Hankiss.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Budapest ; New York : Central European University Press, [2022]Copyright date: ©2001Description: 1 online resource (333 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9789633865170
Subject(s): Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter One. Fear and the Social Sciences -- Chapter Two. The World of Symbols -- Chapter Three. An Alien World? -- Chapter Four. The Garden of Eden -- Chapter Five. The Image of the World -- Chapter Six. The Moral Universe -- Chapter Seven. The World of Guilt -- Chapter Eight. The Rational World -- Chapter Nine. The World of Beauty -- Chapter Ten. The World of Play -- Chapter Eleven. The World of Jokes -- Chapter Twelve. The World of Trivialities -- Chapter Thirteen. Symbols and Civilization -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: This is a serious scholarly work that is, at the same time, somewhat unorthodox. On the one hand, it elaborates a systematic theory of civilization. It surveys the major theories of civilization and develops a new hypothesis, according to which existential fear has been a major factor in the generation of human culture. The author argues that in order to mitigate this fear and anxiety, human beings and communities have surrounded themselves not only with the walls of their houses and cities, with tools and weapons, laws and institutions, but also with protective spheres of symbols: myths and religions, values and belief systems, ideas and scientific theories, moral and practical rules of behavior, and a multitude of everyday rituals and trivialities. In a word, with the brilliant construct: civilization. It is, on the other hand, an unorthodox book in that it studies an unusually wide range of examples and shows that the struggle for safety and freedom, for a meaningful life and human dignity, is present not only in the great symbolic systems of humankind but also in the most trivial of everyday activities and aspects of human existence; in tragedies as well as jokes, in the sacred as well as the profane, in the symbolism of medieval cathedrals as well as in that of contemporary shopping malls, in the great drama of Sin and Salvation as well as in the trivial mythology of perfumes. Ultimately, our trivialities are not trivial at all. 
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9789633865170

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter One. Fear and the Social Sciences -- Chapter Two. The World of Symbols -- Chapter Three. An Alien World? -- Chapter Four. The Garden of Eden -- Chapter Five. The Image of the World -- Chapter Six. The Moral Universe -- Chapter Seven. The World of Guilt -- Chapter Eight. The Rational World -- Chapter Nine. The World of Beauty -- Chapter Ten. The World of Play -- Chapter Eleven. The World of Jokes -- Chapter Twelve. The World of Trivialities -- Chapter Thirteen. Symbols and Civilization -- Bibliography -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

This is a serious scholarly work that is, at the same time, somewhat unorthodox. On the one hand, it elaborates a systematic theory of civilization. It surveys the major theories of civilization and develops a new hypothesis, according to which existential fear has been a major factor in the generation of human culture. The author argues that in order to mitigate this fear and anxiety, human beings and communities have surrounded themselves not only with the walls of their houses and cities, with tools and weapons, laws and institutions, but also with protective spheres of symbols: myths and religions, values and belief systems, ideas and scientific theories, moral and practical rules of behavior, and a multitude of everyday rituals and trivialities. In a word, with the brilliant construct: civilization. It is, on the other hand, an unorthodox book in that it studies an unusually wide range of examples and shows that the struggle for safety and freedom, for a meaningful life and human dignity, is present not only in the great symbolic systems of humankind but also in the most trivial of everyday activities and aspects of human existence; in tragedies as well as jokes, in the sacred as well as the profane, in the symbolism of medieval cathedrals as well as in that of contemporary shopping malls, in the great drama of Sin and Salvation as well as in the trivial mythology of perfumes. Ultimately, our trivialities are not trivial at all. 

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Jul 2022)

Previous
Back to results
Next
Close