The Theory of Moral Sentiments is a 1759 book by Adam Smith. It provided the ethical, philosophical, psychological, and methodological underpinnings to Smith's later works, including The Wealth of Nations (1776), Essays on Philosophical Subjects (1795), and Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue, and Arms (1763) (first published in 1896).
Source: wikipedia.com
The Theory Of Moral Sentiments was a real scientific breakthrough. It shows that our moral ideas and actions are a product of our very nature as social creatures. It argues that this social psychology is a better guide to moral action than is reason. It identifies the basic rules of prudence and justice that are needed for society to survive, and explains the additional, beneficent, actions that enable it to flourish.
Self-interest and sympathy. As individuals, we have a natural tendency to look after ourselves. That is merely prudence. And yet as social creatures, explains Smith, we are also endowed with a natural sympathy – today we would say empathy – towards others. When we see others distressed or happy, we feel for them – albeit less strongly. Likewise, others seek our empathy and feel for us. When their feelings are particularly strong, empathy prompts them to restrain their emotions so as to bring them into line with our, less intense reactions. Gradually, as we grow from childhood to adulthood, we each learn what is and is not acceptable to other people. Morality stems from our social nature.
Justice and beneficence. So does justice. Though we are self-interested, we again have to work out how to live alongside others without doing them harm. That is an essential minimum for the survival of society. If people go further and do positive good – beneficence – we welcome it, but cannot demand such action as we demand justice.
Virtue. Prudence, justice, and beneficence are important. However, the ideal must be that any impartial person, real or imaginary – what Smith calls an impartial spectator – would fully empathise with our emotions and actions. That requires self-command, and in this lies true virtue.
(Source: Adam Smith Institute)
Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste is a 1979 book by Pierre Bourdieu, based upon the author's empirical research from 1963 until 1968. A sociological report about the state of French culture, Distinction was first published in English translation in 1984. In 1998 the International Sociological Association voted Distinction as one of the ten most important sociology books of the 20th century.
(Source: Wikipedia)
What is it that we do when we enjoy a text? What is the pleasure of reading? The French critic and theorist Roland Barthes's answers to these questions constitute "perhaps for the first time in the history of criticism . . . not only a poetics of reading . . . but a much more difficult achievement, an erotics of reading . . . . Like filings which gather to form a figure in a magnetic field, the parts and pieces here do come together, determined to affirm the pleasure we must take in our reading as against the indifference of (mere) knowledge." --Richard Howard
(Source: Amazon)
Digitale Poesie beschäftigt sich künstlerisch mit Sprachgebrauch unter den Bedingungen und Möglichkeiten von Computertechnologie. Ein Rückblick auf diese Sprachkunst zwischen den Künsten bedeutet zweierlei: Zum einen wird davon ausgegangen, dass sie als künstlerisches Programm wenn nicht abgeschlossen, so jedenfalls zu einem guten Teil historisch geworden ist. Zum anderen versammelt dieses Buch Texte, die der Verfasser seit 1997 als teilnehmender Beobachter zum forschenden und poetologischen Diskurs digitaler Poesie beigetragen hat, vermittelt also auch verschiedene Interessen und Argumentationsweisen aus diesem Zeitraum. Dabei geht es um Themen wie die soziale Konstruktion der Gattung digitale Poesie, ihren Bezug zu poetischen Vorläufern, ihren gelegentlichen Hang zum Komischen oder auch die Entwicklung eines einzelnen Künstlers.[Verlagsbeschreibung]
Collecting and recontextualizing writings from the last twenty years of John Cayley's research-based practice of electronic literature, Grammalepsy introduces a theory of aesthetic linguistic practice developed specifically for the making and critical appreciation of language art in digital media. As he examines the cultural shift away from traditional print literature and the changes in our culture of reading, Cayley coins the term “grammalepsy” to inform those processes by which we make, understand, and appreciate language.Framing his previous writings within the overall context of this theory, Cayley eschews the tendency of literary critics and writers to reduce aesthetic linguistic making-even when it has multimedia affordances-to “writing.” Instead, Cayley argues that electronic literature and digital language art allow aesthetic language makers to embrace a compositional practice inextricably involved with digital media, which cannot be reduced to print-dependent textuality.
Mass-digitised collections are an increasingly important part of knowledge infrastructure for literary history and the humanities generally. This book explores the requirements and possibilities of research in this context. In investigating over 9,200 works of extended fiction identified in the largest open-access collection of mass-digitised historical newspapers internationally, it shows how data-rich approaches to literary history can revolutionise our understanding of literature in the past, including the categories and conceptual frameworks through which we perceive it.
The past several decades have seen an explosion of interest in narrative, with this multifaceted object of inquiry becoming a central concern in a wide range of disciplinary fields and research contexts. As accounts of what happened to particular people in particular circumstances and with specific consequences, stories have come to be viewed as a basic human strategy for coming to terms with time, process, and change.However, the very predominance of narrative as a focus of interest across multiple disciplines makes it imperative for scholars, teachers, and students to have access to a comprehensive reference resource.
Source: amazon.com