Lives of The Mind
Lives of the Mind: The Use and Abuse of Intelligence from Hegel to Wodehouse is a book that explores intellect and rationality through western history. Kimball posits that intelligence “is neither good nor bad in itself but rather takes its virtue, its moral coloring, from its application”. He examines a variety of figures, ranging from Plutarch to Kierkegaard to Descartes, illuminating the benefits and dangers of genius as it relates to culture, common sense, and reality.
Read more about this topic: Roger Kimball
Famous quotes containing the words lives and/or mind:
“Now you courtly dames and knights,
That study only strange delights,
Though you scorn the home-spun gray
And revel in your rich array;
Though your tongues dissemble deep
And can your heads from danger keep:
Yet for all your pomp and train,
Securer lives the silly swain.”
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“Complacency is a state of mind that exists only in retrospective: it has to be shattered before being ascertained.”
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