An Introduction to Western Thought & Culture

James A Rice

h21*w15.2 cm  324pages ISBN:962-7156-01-9  324pages

TABLE of CONTENTS

Preface
Acknowledgements
A Note from the Publishers
Foreword

I) Ideas that Helped Shape the Greek Mind 1-29

The Greek worldview: Myths and legends, gods and heroes;
The myth of Prometheus and Pandora;
The epic poems of Homer;
The struggle for Troy: The Iliad;
The long journey home: The Odyssey;
Conclusions;
Sophocles and the Theban plays: Morality and a civic religion;
Antigone;
Pursuit of wisdom and excellence: The birth of reason;
Three valuable tools the Greeks passed on;
Know thyself: The teachings of Socrates;
Apology;
Crito;
Plato and the divine spark;
Plato's Republic;
Aristotle and the scientific method;
Aristotle's magical trick

II) The Western Religious Mind and Philosophy of the medieval Period     31-48

The monotheistic tradition I: Origins of the Jewish faith
The monotheistic tradition 11: Jesus and the New Testament
Spreading the Gospel: The evangelical message of Paul
Decline and fall of the Roman Empire: The ancient world comes to an end
Medieval philosophers: Augustine of Hippo - struggle between fate and freedom
The mystery of free will
Thomas Aquinas: A restatement of natural theology
A view of the universe
The theological legacy of Aquinas

III) The Renaissance 49-80

Some things that helped
Three inventions that changed the world
The printing press
The compass
The light cannon
The age of discovery
A shift in the balance of power
The Italian Renaissance
Machiavelli and The Prince
Power, spiritual and temporal
The Protestant Reformation
Political effects of the Reformation
Intellectual impact of the Reformation
A scientific revolution
Evolution of the worldview
A new scientific method
Figures and ideas of the new science: Working on a cosmic mystery project
Nicolaus Copernicus
Johannes Kepler
Galileo Galilei
Isaac Newton
Law of universal gravitation
The science of light, the riddle of colour
Postscript

IV) The Age of Enlightenment 81-114

 The renewal of reason...
 ...And of secularism
A new spirit of tolerance
An age of liberty...
...And a utopian ideal
Development of social contract and a tale of three revolutions
Thomas Hobbes
The English Civil War
Rene Descartes
The feeling of being there
Locke's view of liberty: Rights that are inalienable
David Hume
Hume's philosophy of knowledge
Immanuel Kant
A look up at the starry sky
The categorical imperative
Universal rules: Rules to live by
Kant's notion of human rights
The American Revolution
Liberty in practice: The American experiment
Slavery: America's enduring curse
Equal rights for women
Rousseau and the General Will
The French Revolution and the idea of utopia
Conclusions

V) Forces, ideas that Shaped the 19th Century 115-164

Ascent of political liberalism
The romantic spirit
Back to nature
Accumulation of the wealth of nations: New developments in agriculture...
 ...And the forces of mass production
The industrial revolution
An age of steam
Roots of productivity, roots of alienation
Radical changes in the workplace and in society
Dark side of the revolution
An age of empire, an age of exploitation
Western colonisation is Asia: A case study
A labour theory of value
Jeremy Bentham and an idea of utilitarianism
Bentham's theory of law
John Stuart Mill on liberty
Beginnings of feminism: On the subjection of women
Hegel: A whole new theory of history...
...And an idea of the State
Karl Marx and the Communist Manifesto
Marx's concept of history
The idea of alienation
The labour theory of value and the phenomenon of exploitation
The race to the bottom
A will to power: The philosophy of Nietzsche
Charles Darwin on the origin of species
A study of finches
Lamark's own theory of evolution
We live in a competitive world
The great chain of being
The science of genetics
Mendel's pea plant experiment
A new synthesis...
...And the evolution of evolution

VI) The 20th Century: A Return to the Wasteland 165-204

Einstein and the theory of relativity
Relativity in motion...
...Of light
...And the relativity of time
Quantum mechanics
The bottom line here
Freud: A journey to the inside of the mind
The id, ego and superego
Let's talk about sex!
Provisional diagnosis
Bertrand Russell and the analytical tradition
Wittgenstein and a philosophy of language
Tell them I've had a wonderful life...
Words like pictures...
...Or like a set of tools
Applications in computer architecture and robotics
The rise and fall of totalitarianism
Mechanised death in the trenches of Europe: The First World War
A generation, lost
The god that failed: Communism and its legacy
The myth of race: Origins and rise of fascism

VII) The 20th Century: Emergence from the  Trauma of Two Wars 205-257

Black rain
Changes in the United States I: The civil rights movement
Letter from Birmingham jail
Difference made legal
On political obligation
Changes in the United States II: The Vietnam War and the antiwar movement
The Idea of Human Rights - Law: The establishment of internationally recognised standards
Women's rights are human rights
Women's rights: International standards
An interference into the internal affairs of the State?
The Idea of Human Rights - Morality: Whether rights are universal
Genocide in Bosnia
Killing our sisters for honour
Female genital mutilation
The Idea of Human Rights ...And politics: Looking through the haze of 'Asian values'
Singapore's spin on things
Mahathir's Malaysia
A government of generals: Burma's SLORC
The interests of self and of the community
Reality checkpoint
The future, and does the future really need us anyway?
Exponential advances in computers...
...And genetic engineering
We can make designer crops...
...And designer babies too!
Living in an uncertain age?
...Ain't no coming back
Afterword

Appendix 259-302
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951)
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966)
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966)

Index 303

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JAMES RICE was educated at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. He also read law at the University of Cambridge from where he received MA and LLM degrees. Mr Rice has lived in Hong Kong since 1992 and has worked as an associate at the firm of Pam Baker & Company where he provided advocacy work on behalf of asylum-seekers and migrant workers. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Lingnan University.