Reviews for Aufklärung in Deutschland

The average rating for Aufklärung in Deutschland based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-08-04 00:00:00 Harold Velie 'Not reading this book,' says the author, 'is unlikely to do anyone any harm': a strikingly modest claim in view of the deluge of self-important grand theories currently pouring from the presses. Describing it as an 'excursion' on some issues raised by Michel Foucault's essay, 'What is Enlightenment?', Thomas Osborne has produced a rigorously argued but deflationary contribution to social theory. Treating enlightenment (lower case) as an attitude or ethos, Aspects side-steps the overheated - and unproductive - debates between those for and against the historical Enlightenment (upper case) understood as a philosophical doctrine. Osborne considers enlightenment at work in three fields of endeavour - scientific, therapeutic and aesthetic - an admittedly arbitrary division which makes no claim to be exhaustive. He argues that these activities are characterized by a certain ethical commitment to (different kinds of) truth, demanding a certain asceticism, a willingness to submit to self-criticism. His view of science, for example, differs from rationalist foundationalists (for whom it is grounded in epistemological assumptions) and from relativist postmodernists (for whom it is merely in the service of a political or moral ideology). These global critiques miss the extent to which science is already critical of itself - less dogmatic or more principled than is usually imagined. He elaborates similar types of argument in relation to the 'psy disciplines' and to the work (and lives) of artists. Aspects ends with a fascinating discussion of the nature of intellectual vocation (particularly in the 'English' tradition) and of the university, as a place designed to produce not well-rounded individuals but rather to cultivate somewhat specialized human capacities, such as the art of judgement. This is an original, not to say courageous, book which has much to offer anyone uneasy about current trends in social theory. Review originally published in New Formations 38 (Summer 1999).

Review # 2 was written on 2016-07-18 00:00:00 Kevin Corbett Duck's truck has run out of petrol and stops for help at Goat's house, but then spots Frog and wonders where he is off to? He's off to take a boat trip with Sheep and Goat! Duck excitedly jumps abroad, but unfortunately sets sail too soon and Goat is left behind, the boat soon bobs out of control and it is left to Goat, safely ashore, to save the day! This book is action packed, keep up... fast paced rhyme and awesome phonics!!