Secrets of the Oracle : : A History of Wisdom from Zeno to Yeats / / W. David Shaw.

What is wisdom? Where does it come from? Where can we find it? And what does it mean in our lives? In Secrets of the Oracle, David Shaw explores these questions by turning to the works of wisdom writers, whose words retain their meaning and transformative power even centuries after they were written...

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Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter UTP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2015
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Place / Publishing House:Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2016]
©2009
Year of Publication:2016
Language:English
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource
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Other title:Frontmatter --
Contents --
Acknowledgments --
Introduction --
Part One. An Owl For Apollo: Wisdom And The Poets --
1. Descent Of The Owl: Philosophy Among The Poets --
2. Tennyson And Zeno: Three Infinities --
3. How Poets Die To Time: The Sublime Oracle --
4. Making Peace With Time: The Beautiful Oracle --
5. The Ruins Of Time: The Grotesque Oracle --
Part Two. Homage To Wisdom: From Delphi To Zen --
6. Wisdom And The Logos: John's Gospel To Four Quartets --
7. Gnostic Wisdom: Parable And Koan --
8. Paradox And Oracle: Crucible Versus Mirror --
9. Copy-Speech And Counter-Love: Wordsworth And Frost --
10. 'A River Runs Through It' And Joyce'S 'The Dead' --
Part Three. Owls, Bulls, And Serpents: Wisdom Or Guile? --
11. The Wise Owl: George Eliot's Arrested Wit --
12. The Serpent Of Irony: Wisdom Or Guile? --
13. Groucho Marx To Bernard Shaw: The Irish Bull --
14. Oracles Of Wit: Oscar Wilde And Northrop Frye --
Part Four. Wisdom At Gettysburg: Rewriting The Oracles --
15. From Delphi To Gettysburg: Changing The Covenant --
16. Coleridge And Huxley: Experiment Or Decree? --
17. Evolving Oracles: Newman, Browning, And Shakespeare --
18. An Underground Oracle: 'Look In Your Heart And Write' --
Works Cited --
Index --
Backmatter
Summary:What is wisdom? Where does it come from? Where can we find it? And what does it mean in our lives? In Secrets of the Oracle, David Shaw explores these questions by turning to the works of wisdom writers, whose words retain their meaning and transformative power even centuries after they were written.Wisdom literature exists in two shaping forms - the aphorism, geared towards the past, and the oracle, a revolutionary impulse looking to the future. Secrets of the Oracle discusses both types of wisdom, finding them in the works of poets and philosophers from Tennyson and Zeno to Yeats and George Berkeley, from Browning and Schleiermacher to T.S. Eliot and F.H. Bradley. The book also discusses the contribution to wisdom of Jesus and the author of Ecclesiastes, of Abraham Lincoln and Norman Maclean. Part celebration of wisdom found and part lament for wisdom lost, Secrets of the Oracle is convincing in its assertion that wisdom articulates what is and offers creative visions of the future.
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9781442685307
9783110667691
9783110490954
DOI:10.3138/9781442685307
Access:restricted access
Hierarchical level:Monograph
Statement of Responsibility: W. David Shaw.