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Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul

3.8/5 ( ratings)

In this "readable and humane book" , the late historian Roy Porter traces the course of man's philosophical journey from the superstitious, spiritually obsessed Dark Ages to our modern perspective, based on reason and grounded in the body. He demonstrates how the explosion of rational thought and scientific innovation during the Enlightenment began to change our understanding of the flesh and its relation to the soul. No longer simply a "mortal coil," the body eventually became the location, and source, of our conscious selves. Porter examines this paradigm shift through the eyes of the great thinkers of history, from Descartes to Voltaire to Lord Byron, summarizing and explicating their beliefs "in a prose that leaps resplendently from the page" .

Language: English

Pages: 594

Format: Paperback

Publisher: W. W. Norton Company

Release: August 17, 2005

ISBN: 0393326969

ISBN 13: 9780393326963

Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul

3.8/5 ( ratings)

In this "readable and humane book" , the late historian Roy Porter traces the course of man's philosophical journey from the superstitious, spiritually obsessed Dark Ages to our modern perspective, based on reason and grounded in the body. He demonstrates how the explosion of rational thought and scientific innovation during the Enlightenment began to change our understanding of the flesh and its relation to the soul. No longer simply a "mortal coil," the body eventually became the location, and source, of our conscious selves. Porter examines this paradigm shift through the eyes of the great thinkers of history, from Descartes to Voltaire to Lord Byron, summarizing and explicating their beliefs "in a prose that leaps resplendently from the page" .

Language: English

Pages: 594

Format: Paperback

Publisher: W. W. Norton Company

Release: August 17, 2005

ISBN: 0393326969

ISBN 13: 9780393326963

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