Publisher Description

This book carries fourteen essays that develop a conception of human culture, which is humane and traditionalist. Focusing particularly on notions of beauty and the aesthetic, it sees within our culture intimations of the transcendent, and in two essays the nature of religion is directly addressed. A number of essays also explore the relation between politics and tradition.

Author Biography

Anthony O'Hear is Weston Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Department of Education at the University of Buckingham.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Section One, Art: 1. Evolution and Aesthetics. 2. Historicism and Architectural Knowledge, 3. Prospects for Beauty, 4. Kantian Distinterestedness, 5. The real or the Real: Chardin or Rothko?; Section Two, Culture: 6. Two Cultures Revisited, 7. Art and Censorship, 8. To Swim with Strong Strokes in the Lake of Antique Poetry, 9. Art and Technology, 10. Science and Religion; Section Three, Politics: 11. Democracy and Openness, 12. Hayek and Popper: The Road to Serfdom and The Open Society, 13. Criticism and Tradition in Popper, Oakeshott and Hayek, 14. The Open Society Revisited, 15. Britain and Europe: An Oakeshottian Meditation.

Review

"The essays are informed with a wide erudition, marking the author out as a significant contemporary link in a long chain of Western thought." "The Landscape deserves to be read, both by specialists and nonspecialists, for the richness of its content, its even tone, and its mode of presentation. It admirably lives up to the famous ideal, made popular in eighteenth-century Britain, of taking philosophy out of its confined closet into the wide space of the public domain." -- Tej N. Dhar University of Kashmir, India The European Legacy

Long Description

The fourteen essays in this book develop a conception of human culture, which is humane and traditionalist. Focusing particularly on notions of beauty and the aesthetic, it sees within our culture intimations of the transcendent, and in two essays the nature of religion is directly addressed. A number of essays also explore the relation between politics and tradition.

Review Quote

"The Landscape deserves to be read, both by specialists and nonspecialists, for the richness of its content, its even tone, and its mode of presentation. It admirably lives up to the famous ideal, made popular in eighteenth-century Britain, of taking philosophy out of its confined closet into the wide space of the public domain."

Details