by Adeel Zeerak ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 10, 2012
An interesting but ultimately unconvincing argument.
An in-depth comparison of Islam with other dominant worldviews.
Zeerak makes the case that Islam is the most complete and relevant philosophy for living. The author contrasts the history and teachings of Islam with the philosophies that polarized most of the 20th century—communism and capitalism. Zeerak associates capitalism with unfettered greed and inevitable inequality. He’s more sympathetic to communism and socialism but points to many of the paradoxes that have made communal systems of governance so difficult to apply in the real world. The book portrays Islam as a sort of middle ground, one that combines the charity of communism with the spirit of self-determination inherent in capitalism. It also compares Western feminism with Muslim teachings about women and their role in society. Zeerak details not only the spiritual aspects of Islam, but also the social, political and economic philosophies that have risen from it. The book’s greatest success is that it presents Islam as a dynamic, adaptive, and ultimately humanitarian, faith that has something to offer followers in every aspect of their daily lives. In this way, it amends much of the false and reductive rhetoric that has been applied to the faith in the wake of 9/11. However, less successful is his argument that all philosophies of living err to the point of irrelevance when compared with a Muslim way of life. Zeerak offers readers a number of straw-man arguments that do little to bolster his point. The work also quotes liberally from outside sources, some of which have a questionable authority. It becomes difficult to trust these sources when they identify feminism as a plot by the New World Order to reduce global population. Many Muslims may find a lot to agree with in this book, but outsiders to the faith will be less swayed by his arguments.
An interesting but ultimately unconvincing argument.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477517109
Page Count: 306
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 18, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Adeel Zeerak
by Albert Camus ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 26, 1955
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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by Albert Camus ; translated by Justin O'Brien & Sandra Smith
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by Albert Camus ; translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy & Justin O'Brien
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by Albert Camus translated by Arthur Goldhammer edited by Alice Kaplan
by Stephen Batchelor ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 18, 2020
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.
A teacher and scholar of Buddhism offers a formally varied account of the available rewards of solitude.
“As Mother Ayahuasca takes me in her arms, I realize that last night I vomited up my attachment to Buddhism. In passing out, I died. In coming to, I was, so to speak, reborn. I no longer have to fight these battles, I repeat to myself. I am no longer a combatant in the dharma wars. It feels as if the course of my life has shifted onto another vector, like a train shunted off its familiar track onto a new trajectory.” Readers of Batchelor’s previous books (Secular Buddhism: Imagining the Dharma in an Uncertain World, 2017, etc.) will recognize in this passage the culmination of his decadeslong shift away from the religious commitments of Buddhism toward an ecumenical and homegrown philosophy of life. Writing in a variety of modes—memoir, history, collage, essay, biography, and meditation instruction—the author doesn’t argue for his approach to solitude as much as offer it for contemplation. Essentially, Batchelor implies that if you read what Buddha said here and what Montaigne said there, and if you consider something the author has noticed, and if you reflect on your own experience, you have the possibility to improve the quality of your life. For introspective readers, it’s easy to hear in this approach a direct response to Pascal’s claim that “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Batchelor wants to relieve us of this inability by offering his example of how to do just that. “Solitude is an art. Mental training is needed to refine and stabilize it,” he writes. “When you practice solitude, you dedicate yourself to the care of the soul.” Whatever a soul is, the author goes a long way toward soothing it.
A very welcome instance of philosophy that can help readers live a good life.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-300-25093-0
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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