The Primacy of Persons and the Language of Culture: Essays

Voorkant
University of Missouri Press, 1993 - 343 pagina's

Building upon the scholarship of Michael Polanyi, William Poteat has dedicated himself to offering an alternative model to the Cartesian dichotomy of mind and matter that has dominated Western thought for centuries. These essays, collected by James Nickell and James Stines, cover a wide range of subjects, from Poteat's analysis of the epistemological crisis brought on by the Cartesian program to his first attempts at formulating an alternative to the mind-body dichotomy.

These essays relentlessly diagnose the present situation of Western thought by making explicit the philosophical presuppositions to which it is committed. They include theological affirmations, reflections on epistemology, conceptual analyses, as well as dialogues with other writers in the field of cultural criticism and linguistic theory such as George Steiner, Noam Chomsky, and Walker Percy. Most significant is Poteat's bold affirmation of the primacy of persons and his analysis and critique of our cultural misconstructions of human awareness.

The Primacy of Persons and the Language of Culture provides an excellent introduction to the scholarship of William Poteat. It should be of particular interest to scholars of philosophy and theology, as well as others who share Poteat's deep concern for the state of human culture.

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Inhoudsopgave

Introduction
1
Paradigms in Communication
23
Further Polanyian Meditations
74
The Incarnate Word and the Language of Culture
92
Faith and Existence
117
On the Meaning of Grace
125
The Absence of
131
A Critique
142
What Is a Poem About?
193
PART THREE The Ambivalent Language of Culture
199
Anxiety Courage and Truth
279
Tragedy and Freedom
288
Notes toward the Definition of Freedom
302
Christianity and the Intellectual
314
Can and Should a College Be Christian? Defining
329
Index
337

God and the PrivateI
169
An Analysis
178

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