The Gift of Fire($25.10Value)

Description

I have habitually imagined - guessed'' might be the more honest word - that Reason is high, very high, a lofty and distant realm where matters of the greatest import'' dwell, and where mighty minds move among them. And accordingly, I have supposed Unreason, a complete irrationality, as low as Reason is high, the very pit, the abyss, the frozen floor of hell. Mitchell, author of Less Than Words Can Say (Little, 1979) and editor/publisher of the Undergroud Grammarian, here analyzes the link between thought and moral action. In a series of chatty but superbly written essays, he argues that we must each accept responsibility for the development of our own sense of reason and judgment; we cannot leave it to some organic entity called "humanity." In this, Mitchell follows a path trodden by such luminaries as Kierkegaard, Gabriel Marcel, and Sartre. This is the way philosophy should be written: witty, substantial, and engaging. By all means read the title essay, with its send-up of intelligence tests. Highly recommended. Terry Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.