Perfection by Michael J Hyde
Takes you on an excursion through Western philosophy, religion, science, and art. Eloquently and engagingly, this title delves the canon of Western thought, drawing on figures from St Augustine and John Rawls to Leonardo da Vinci and David Hume to Kenneth Burke and Mary Shelley.
"An expansive and daring book about the complexity of the human project, its possibilities, its limitations, and its inscrutable ambiguity" --Walter Brueggeman, Professor Emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary
Hyde (communication ethics, Wake Forest Univ.) argues that humans "embody a metaphysical desire for perfection," and he aims to show this by reviewing the pertinent thinking of a very large number of writers, from ancient history to the present, in philosophy, religion, science, and the arts--in a sense, the entire "Western canon." His review of the pertinent thinking of the included writers is interesting, engaging, and informative in a way that draws the reader in. To flesh out his inquiry, Hyde goes into detail in two "case studies" that illustrate the metaphysical desire for perfection: "The Rhetorical Situation of Terri Schiavo" and the recent motion picture As Good as It Gets . VERDICT This book should be of interest to a large readership from scholars to lay readers; highly recommended for philosophy and cultural studies collections in most libraries. -- Library Journal, 2010
Hyde (communication ethics, Wake Forest Univ.) argues that humans "embody a metaphysical desire for perfection," and he aims to show this by reviewing the pertinent thinking of a very large number of writers, from ancient history to the present, in philosophy, religion, science, and the arts--in a sense, the entire "Western canon." His review of the pertinent thinking of the included writers is interesting, engaging, and informative in a way that draws the reader in. To flesh out his inquiry, Hyde goes into detail in two "case studies" that illustrate the metaphysical desire for perfection: "The Rhetorical Situation of Terri Schiavo" and the recent motion picture As Good as It Gets . VERDICT This book should be of interest to a large readership from scholars to lay readers; highly recommended for philosophy and cultural studies collections in most libraries. -- Library Journal, 2010
Michael J. Hyde is University Distinguished Professor of Communication Ethics in the Department of Communication and is on the faculty of the Program for Bioethics, Health and Society in the School of Medicine, Wake Forest University. He is the author of The Life-Giving Gift of Acknowledgment, The Ethos of Rhetoric, and award-winning The Call of Conscience. He and his wife live in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781602582446 |
| ISBN 10 | 1602582440 |
| Title | Perfection |
| Author | Michael J Hyde |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Baylor University Press |
| Year published | 2010-02-01 |
| Number of pages | 340 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |