The Adventure of the Human Intellect: Self, Society, and the Divine in Ancient World Cultures

Front Cover
Kurt A. Raaflaub
John Wiley & Sons, Apr 27, 2016 - Literary Criticism - 280 pages
The Adventure of the Human Intellect presents the latest scholarship on the beginnings of intellectual history on a broad scope, encompassing ten eminent ancient or early civilizations from both the Old and New Worlds.
  • Borrows themes from The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (1946), updating an old topic with a new approach and up-to-date theoretical underpinning, evidence, and scholarship
  • Provides a broad scope of studies, including discussion of highly developed ancient or early civilizations in China, India, West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas
  • Examines the world view of ten ancient or early societies, reconstructed from their own texts, concerning the place of human beings in society and state, in nature and cosmos, in space and time, in life and death, and in relation to those in power and the world of the divine
  • Considers a diversity of sources representing a wide array of particular responses to differing environments, circumstances, and intellectual challenges
  • Reflects a more inclusive and nuanced historiographical attitude with respect to non-elites, gender, and local variations
  • Brings together leading specialists in the field, and is edited by an internationally renowned scholar
 

Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
A Critique of the Cognitivehistorical Thesis of The Intellectual Adventure
The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient
The World of Ancient Egyptian Thought
On Speculative Thought in Ancient Mesopotamia
Self Substance and Social Metaphysics
Ancient Greece
The ThoughtWorld of Ancient Rome
List of Illustrations
Self Cosmos and Agency in Early China
Vedic India
Chronosophy in Classic Maya Thought
2 Quetzalcoatl Plumed Serpent credited with the creation
ornament that covered his eyes
Copyright

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Common terms and phrases

abstract Adventure of Ancient Akkadian Amun ancient Israel ancient Near East ancient Near Eastern Archaeology Assyrian Athenian Athens Aztec Babylonian biblical Breasted Buber Cambridge Cassirer century chapter Chicago Chinese citizens civilizations Coffin Texts concept cosmic cosmology cosmos creation culture deity developed discussion divine early earth Egypt and Mesopotamia Egyptian Egyptology elite empire Enūma eliš Epic example gods Greece Greek Hebrew Bible Henri Frankfort human hymns I-Thou IAAM ideas important Indian individual inscriptions Intellectual Adventure Irwin Judah Judean king Lévy-Bruhl literature Malden MA Marduk Maya Mesopotamian millennium modern monotheism myth mythical mythopoeia mythopoeic thought nature Oriental Institute original Oxford phenomena philosophy polis political primitive Raaflaub relations relationship religion religious Rig Veda ritual Roman Rome sacrifice shaman social society speculative thought Sumerian term texts Tezcatlipoca theology Thorkild Jacobsen tradition Trans translation universe Western Wilson Xunzi Yahweh Zhuangzi

About the author (2016)

Kurt A. Raaflaub is the David Herlihy University Professor & Professor of Classics and History Emeritus at Brown University. His previous works include The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece (2004), War and Peace in the Ancient World (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece (with J. Ober and R. W. Wallace, 2007), Geography and Ethnography: Perceptions of the World in Pre-Modern Societies (with R. J. A. Talbert, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), and The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy: A Politico-cultural Transformation and Its Interpretations (with J. Arnason and P. Wagner, Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). His numerous publications include authorship or editorship of 20 scholarly books, in addition to more than 120 articles in journals and essay collections.

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Adventure of the Human Intellect: Self, Society, and the Divine in Ancient World Cultures
Ancient World: Comparative Histories
EditorKurt A. Raaflaub
Editionillustrated
PublisherJohn Wiley & Sons, 2016
ISBN1119162610, 9781119162612
Length280 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Ancient / General
History / General
Literary Criticism / Ancient & Classical
  
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