THE PHILOSOPHY OF CIVILIZATION

by Albert W. Schweitzer ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 1949

With Dr. Schweitzer building up an enthusiastic following, the publication of this in America in a one volume edition, will prove a provocative challenge to the more serious among these readers. A brilliant and learned appraisal of the failure of present day philosophy to vitalize and spiritualize our civilization and a review of the world view and ethics of ancient philosophies, from the Greco-Roman to the moderns. Schweitzer believes that our civilization lacks an ethical principle, that man has lost his freedom through specialization and over organization of our society, and lost too his power of concentration and ability to think- and he presents his ideas on restoration of civilization. The second section deals with religious and philosophic world views, starting with the ethics of Socrates, Epicurus, Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, going on to the philosophies of the Renaissance and post-Renaissance periods, the age of rationalism, with Kant, Spinoza, Fichte, Goethe, Hegel, etc., to the later utilitarian, biological and sociological ethics. He closes with the western struggle for a world-view, and the task of our generation to reach a truer and more serviceable basis. Not for a quick-see!

Pub Date: Oct. 4, 1949

ISBN: 1163818283

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1949

Categories: NONFICTION