Flesh in the Age of Reason: The Modern Foundations of Body and Soul
by Roy Porter
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"How did we come to a modern understanding of our bodies and souls? ... Roy Porter charts how, through figures as diverse as Locke, Swift, Johnson, and Gibbon, ideas about medicine, politics, and religion fundamentally changed notions of self"--p. [2] of jacket.Tags
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Having been recommended this book by a professor of sociology, I had high hopes for Flesh in the Age of Reason, and I was not disappointed. Porter deftly handles multiple facets of philosophy around the time of the enlightenment, weaving together the ideas of well known theorists on the links between mind, soul, spirit and the body. From Descarte's reasoning on the duality of the mind and body, providing a vehicle for discourse still relating to religion through to later atheists' ideas, Porter never fails to bring the reader to a rounded understanding of the social, historical and philosophical contexts involved.
A great Enlightenment History...
Flesh in the Age of Reason is wonderful. I mean, I cannot give this book enough credit. One can easily find books on various aspects of Enlightenment period philosophy. Adams, Hume, Locke, et al., are easy to find. But, put into context with their day, their battles with each other, and the growth of their ideas in that context is something not as easily found.
Roy Porter passed away just after finishing and publishing this work and it is a fitting end to his career. In fact, in retrospect, it seems a fitting exploration for one on the verge of death himself. Was Porter, aware that the end of his days was approaching, was he seeking to locate that final truth? I cannot say, but he certainly gave the rest show more of us who are still shuffling about this mortal coil a great resource to assist us in our own search.
This book neatly "historicizes" the ebb and flow of Enlightenment philosophy and gives us all something to think about.
Thanks Roy Porter and R.I.P. show less
Flesh in the Age of Reason is wonderful. I mean, I cannot give this book enough credit. One can easily find books on various aspects of Enlightenment period philosophy. Adams, Hume, Locke, et al., are easy to find. But, put into context with their day, their battles with each other, and the growth of their ideas in that context is something not as easily found.
Roy Porter passed away just after finishing and publishing this work and it is a fitting end to his career. In fact, in retrospect, it seems a fitting exploration for one on the verge of death himself. Was Porter, aware that the end of his days was approaching, was he seeking to locate that final truth? I cannot say, but he certainly gave the rest show more of us who are still shuffling about this mortal coil a great resource to assist us in our own search.
This book neatly "historicizes" the ebb and flow of Enlightenment philosophy and gives us all something to think about.
Thanks Roy Porter and R.I.P. show less
Scholarly discussion of body & soul in Britain in 18th & 19th centuries. A bit too scholarly for me.
Read June 2007
Read June 2007
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Roy Sydney Porter was born December 31, 1946. He grew up in a south London working class home. He attended Wilson's Grammar School, Camberwell, and won an unheard of scholarship to Cambridge. His starred double first in history at Cambridge University (1968) led to a junior research fellowship at his college, Christ's, followed by a teaching post show more at Churchill College, Cambridge. His Ph.D. thesis, published as The Making Of Geology (1977), became the first of more than 100 books that he wrote or edited. Porter was a Fellow and Director of Studies in History at Churchill College, Cambridge from 1972 to 1979; Dean from 1977 to 1979; Assistant Lecturer in European History at Cambridge University from 1974 to 1977, Lecturer from 1977 to 1979. He joined the Wellcome Institute fot the History of Medicine in 1979 where he was a Senior Lecturer from 1979 to 1991, a Reader from 1991 to 1993, and finally a Professor in the Social History of Medicine from 1993 to 2001. Porter was Elected a fellow of the British Academy in 1994, and he was also made an honorary fellow by both the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Roy Porter died March 4, 2002, at the age of 55. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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