On the Illusion of Thinking as Acting
June 18, 2006
“As a student and later a teacher at Columbia, Zweig was surrounded by figures who seemed to raise abstraction to the level of action. Lionel Trilling, Jacques Barzun, Robert K. Merton — these were the men who invented the Morningside Heights style of what you might call dramatic thinking. In books like “Sincerity and Authenticity,” “Darwin, Marx, Wagner” and “On the Shoulders of Giants,” they showed ideas affecting culture and society in a way that gave you the illusion of acting on the world simply by thinking as you read…” (NYT Sunday Book Review)This is On the Illusion of Thinking as Acting in The Japery, a part of The New Pantagruel. Previously: If You are a Real Calvinist, I Am a Condemnable Idolater! | Next: Berman on Rationalist Naivete | TrackBack (0) | Comments (0)
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