Sign-In
Cart
You Can't Be Serious: Essays in Wonder
Paperback
ISBN13: 9781772440508
Publisher: Rocks Mills Pr
Published: Jan 31 2017
Pages: 156
Weight: 0.48
Height: 0.33 Width: 5.98 Depth: 9.02
Language: English
No, despite the title, this isn't a self-help book! But You Can't Be Serious does lay foundations of hope and help for a civilization that seems bent on losing its purpose. Ranging through disciplines as diverse as science, economics, philosophy, poetry and religion in inimitably informal and conversational fashion, You Can't Be Serious involves the reader in shaping a take on the future that offers fresh coherence, meaning and delight.
Lots of wisdom ... I will be sharing in my sermons and in worship. --Richard C. Choe, Coordinating Minister, Grace United Church & St. Paul's United Church, Brampton, Ontario
[Paterson's] life as a journalist and an academic outlier ensure lively readability, and with just enough rigour to set the pace for careful response. And that's exactly what he asks of the reader. Careful, considered response. He doesn't propose easy solutions, but he does propose an excellent method for living. From the Introduction this: 'It comes down to a choice far more complicated and difficult than it might seem: a choice between raw fear and unqualified trust. Fear, it seems to me, has botched hope for far too much of human history: unqualified trust has rarely been given a fair go. Trust in what? That's a good question. But I'd also want to ask fear of what? My answer to both questions has to be: I don't know. I do know, though, that fear inhibits while trust liberates. And living in trust is not only more motivating and energizing than living in fear: it's heaps more fun. Curiosity takes me further when I trust.' The [later chapters in the book] reflect [the author's] personal life as a peripatetic story-teller, an almost gyspy journalist, whose vast range of travels as the editor of an international piping magazine (made in Scotland) pull together streams of influence about culture and story-telling. He is a very, very well-travelled author and it is in this confluence of analysis of culture, religion, and story-telling that Mike Paterson's book becomes readable to the extent I didn't want to put it down. --David Bell, All Things Literary Book Review
FROM THE AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION:
That the world's not what it was should be no surprise. What is surprising is that human activities now enfold complexities that, even if we don't understand them, seem certain to decide the fate of every living organism. We need to know that the future's now our inescapable responsibility. Not one cubic centimeter of the biosphere, atmosphere or ocean depths remains wholly untouched or unaffected by human interventions of one kind or another. Nuclear power, mass extinctions, the impacts of fertilizers, forestry, fossil fuels, and new materials: the evidence is indelibly laid down, even now, in the geological record. And, as each intervention has rippled through the whole, it's triggered unforeseen changes in places none of us have ever thought to look. Change begets more change, changes interact with each other and permeate things we never meant to mess with. And the tide's rising.
The old crusade to wrest control from nature's whim, one that's long preoccupied Western cultures, has reached its Jerusalem. And, like all victories, the outcomes, intentional and coincidental, aren't quite what we hoped or expected.
It's a bit embarrassing really. Our bluffs, our boasts of unimpeachable intellect, are all being called into question.
So what's next?
1 different editions
Also available
Also in
Philosophy
In the Beginning Was the Deed: Realism and Moralism in Political Argument
Williams, Bernard
Paperback
The American Indian Mind in a Linear World: American Indian Studies and Traditional Knowledge
Fixico, Donald Lee
Paperback
Dreaming of Cinema: Spectatorship, Surrealism, and the Age of Digital Media
Lowenstein, Adam
Paperback
Machine Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Spiritual Freedom and the Re-Animation of Matter
Lafitte, Luke
Paperback
The Sociogony: Social Facts and the Ontology of Objects, Things, and Monsters
Worrell, Mark P.
Paperback
On Quality: An Inquiry Into Excellence: Unpublished and Selected Writings
Pirsig, Wendy K.
Pirsig, Robert M.
Hardcover
Philosophy in Turbulent Times: Canguilhem, Sartre, Foucault, Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida
Roudinesco, Elisabeth
Paperback
The New Science of Giambattista Vico: Unabridged Translation of the Third Edition (1744) with the Addition of Practic of the New Science
Vico, Giambattista
Paperback
Friendship and Society: An Introduction to Augustine's Practical Philosophy
Burt, Donald X.
Paperback
The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance
Gottlieb, Anthony
Paperback
The Modes of Scepticism: Ancient Texts and Modern Interpretations
Barnes, Jonathan
Julia, Annas
Annas, Julia
Paperback
Essays V2: Moral And Entertaining On The Various Faculties And Passions Of The Human Mind (1815)
Clarendon, Edward Hyde Earl of
Paperback
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Holiday, Ryan
Hanselman, Stephen
Hardcover
The Obstacle Is the Way Expanded 10th Anniversary Edition: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph
Holiday, Ryan
Hardcover
Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
Godfrey-Smith, Peter
Paperback
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse Fifth Anniversary Limited Edition: The Global Bestseller
Mackesy, Charlie
Hardcover
The Courage to Be Ordinary: Discover Your Surprising Superpower for a Thriving Life
Kishimi, Ichiro
Paperback
The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us
Goldstein, Rebecca Newberger
Hardcover
Self-Help from the Middle Ages: What the Seven Deadly Sins Can Teach Us about Living
Jones, Peter
Hardcover
My Big TOE Awakening Discovery Inner Workings: The Complete My Big TOE Trilogy Unifying Philosophy, Physics and Metaphysics
Campbell, Thomas
Hardcover
Revolt Against the Modern World: Politics, Religion, and Social Order in the Kali Yuga
Evola, Julius
Hardcover
The Ethical Slut, Third Edition: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships, and Other Freedoms in Sex and Love
Hardy, Janet W.
Easton, Dossie
Paperback
Self-Reliance and Nature: The Complete First and Second Series of Emerson's Essays
Emerson, Ralph Waldo
Hardcover