Strictly for hard-core philosophy fans.
Battler defines progress, provides its interpretations and considers a new way of measuring it in his sequel to an earlier work.
What is progress? It may seem a simple question—after all, isn’t today’s society more progressive than, say, the Middle Ages? The entire concept of “progress” depends upon the parameters used to describe it. For example, Karl Marx thought that progress could be measured by comparing socio-economic systems. If the people were freer in each succeeding system, he thought, then that’s progress. Battler (The 21st Century: The World Without Russia, 2004) rejects this premise and others in favor of linking the ideas of force and progress—not force as typically defined, as something to be wielded in conflict, but the force of collective change. Finally, he presents his theory of progress and momentum as a key contributor to humankind’s gradually increasing life expectancy. The guide comprises three sections. The first—a historical look at how great thinkers defined progress—is the most readable. In the second section, the author contrasts the forces created by humans and by nature. This section is the most inaccessible; it contains opaque concepts, theories and formulas intended for the dedicated philosophy scholar. The third section, about progress, force and other concepts, is slightly more reader-friendly. Although well-written, this is an extremely dense book and not meant, as the author himself points out, for the casual philosophy fan. To his credit, the author tries to make the book more readable by frequently explaining concepts and summarizing conclusions. Still, the text remains out of reach for most. It’s a pity. The ideas and theories presented here deserve greater exposure and debate.
Strictly for hard-core philosophy fans.Pub Date: March 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1480008250
Page Count: 376
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
