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The Veil of Isis: An Essay on the History of the Idea of Nature
Pierre Hadot
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Description for The Veil of Isis: An Essay on the History of the Idea of Nature
Paperback. Nearly twenty-five hundred years ago the Greek thinker Heraclitus supposedly uttered the cryptic words 'Phusis kruptesthai philei.' Drawing on the work of ancients and later thinkers such as Goethe, Rilke, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger, this book traces successive interpretations of Heraclitus' words. Translator(s): Chase, Michael. Num Pages: 432 pages, 18 halftones. BIC Classification: HPJ. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly. Dimension: 216 x 141 x 29. Weight in Grams: 534.
Nearly twenty-five hundred years ago the Greek thinker Heraclitus supposedly uttered the cryptic words Phusis kruptesthai philei. How the aphorism, usually translated as Nature loves to hide, has haunted Western culture ever since is the subject of this engaging study by Pierre Hadot. Taking the allegorical figure of the veiled goddess Isis as a guide, and drawing on the work of both the ancients and later thinkers such as Goethe, Rilke, Wittgenstein, and Heidegger, Hadot traces successive interpretations of Heraclitus' words. Over time, Hadot finds, Nature loves to hide has meant that all that lives tends to die; that Nature wraps herself in myths; and (for Heidegger) that Being unveils as it veils itself. Meanwhile the pronouncement has been used to explain everything from the opacity of the natural world to our modern angst. From these kaleidoscopic exegeses and usages emerge two contradictory approaches to nature: the Promethean, or experimental-questing, approach, which embraces technology as a means of tearing the veil from Nature and revealing her secrets; and the Orphic, or contemplative-poetic, approach, according to which such a denuding of Nature is a grave trespass. In place of these two attitudes Hadot proposes one suggested by the Romantic vision of Rousseau, Goethe, and Schelling, who saw in the veiled Isis an allegorical expression of the sublime. Nature is art and art is nature, Hadot writes, inviting us to embrace Isis and all she represents: art makes us intensely aware of how completely we ourselves are not merely surrounded by nature but also part of nature.
Product Details
Publisher
Harvard University Press United States
Number of pages
432
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2008
Condition
New
Weight
534g
Number of Pages
432
Place of Publication
Cambridge, Mass., United States
ISBN
9780674030497
SKU
V9780674030497
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 4 to 8 working days
Ref
99-2
About Pierre Hadot
Pierre Hadot was Professor Emeritus at the College de France. His books include Philosophy as a Way of Life and Plotinus.
Reviews for The Veil of Isis: An Essay on the History of the Idea of Nature
[Hadot] is an extraordinary guide to the history of the idea of nature from Heraclitus to now. You will find yourself in the company of a wise Greek, a pagan, a philosopher who believes that a role of philosophy is to teach us how to live. - Ian Hacking, London Review of Books