Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Power of Beauty: On the Aesthetics of Homer, Plato, and Cicero

The Power of Beauty: On the Aesthetics of Homer, Plato, and Cicero

Gammel, Inga R.

Paperback

Philosophy

ISBN10: 8771247718
ISBN13: 9788771247718
Publisher: Aarhus Univ Pr
Published: Nov 6 2015
Pages: 178
Weight: 1.20
Height: 0.60 Width: 6.70 Depth: 9.40
Language: English
The history of man shows that beauty has always been a subject of universal interest, and through the ages up to the present day the power of beauty has continued to exert itself. Yet, notions of what constitutes the beautiful differ greatly, and the phenomenon as such remains a conundrum. The fascination of beauty gave rise to a long-standing European philosophical tradition on the idea of beauty, the beginnings of which link back to ancient Greek mythology. Above all, beauty was associated with light and brilliance. In other words: beauty is shining, a phrase used even today. However, from the dawn of Modernity the discourse on beauty slowly began to dissapear from theory and philosophy. While classical tradition dealt with the beauty of cosmos and living beings down to the beauty of rhetoric, life style, and education, modern theory trivialized the significance of beauty and finally abondoned the topic. The Power of Beauty is an attempt to put beauty on the agenda again by reviewing the very origin of this ancient idea. Refelctions on beauty and the ugly are present already in Homer's mythology, and later developed and refined in Plato's philosophy. Also Cicero's philosophical and rhetorical works are inspired by the Greek legacy. Far from being outmoded, the ancient sources not only reveal the profound knowledge and counsel present in ancient thinking, but also its elegance, charm, and wit. In this way the ancient legacy constitutes a sound challenge to the arrogrance of modern thinking.

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