Description
The modern age is characterised by excess. But this goes directly against the great European tradition, stretching back to Athens and Jerusalem, which is all about moderation and restraint, and whose core idea is that the right measure can be found in the real world, although it is not visible. You have to seek it out. There is a right measure in everything: the right size clothes, the right amount of food and drink, the right balance between work and play, joy and sorrow, freedom and equality. Tact is a form of moderation. So is reasonableness. Ultimately, good and evil are nothing more than knowing where to draw the line.
This insight, this wisdom, has been swept away by the ideologies of Enlightenment and Romanticism, which dominate the modern world. They are both ideologies of boundlessness, or in other words, excess.
The Enlightenment seeks salvation in unlimited economic and technological progress, the infinite satisfaction of desires. Romanticism seeks happiness in endless experimentation and endless introspection, in search of the infinite Self. The result is a world thrown off balance and people without purpose or direction. Yet the answer is so simple: the right measure.
Our ancestors knew it. We have forgotten it. This book dusts off tradition and brings it back to life. |
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Reviews
“In The Invisible Measure, legal philosopher Andreas Kinneging pleads for a relearning of the language that the European Tradition offers us.” - Nederlands Dagblad
Author Biography
Prof. Dr. Andreas Kinneging (born 1962) is Professor of Legal Philosophy at Leiden University. For Geography of Good and Evil he won the Socrates Prize for best Dutch philosophy book of 2006.
Uitgeverij Prometheus
Prometheus Publishers is a Dutch publisher that publishes a wide variety of quality fiction and non-fiction titles. Prometheus’s catalogue balances established talents with new voices that we introduce into the literary market. Amongst our fiction authors are renowned Dutch-language authors such as Connie Palmen, Griet Op de Beeck, Tom Lanoye, Tim Krabbé, and Esther Verhoef. Prometheus also publishes the Dutch translations of great international voices like Umberto Eco, Sandro Veronesi, Margaret Atwood, and Zadie Smith. Our non-fiction catalogue is filled with experts from across the scientific spectrum. Ranging from history to psychology and from physics to literary studies, Prometheus offers exciting new insights into a wide range of disciplines. Prometheus also publishes a philosophical series with musings on subjects that are relevant to our society today.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Uitgeverij Prometheus
- Publication Date February 2020
- Orginal LanguageDutch
- ISBN/Identifier 9789035138797
- FormatHardback
- Pages640
- ReadershipGeneral
- Publish StatusPublished
- Copyright Year2020
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