An Unknown World: Notes on the Meaning of the Earth

by Jacob Needleman

Overview

What is the purpose of life on Earth? Philosopher Jacob Needleman frames man's role on the planet in a completely new and fresh way, moving beyond the usual environmental concerns to reveal how the care and maintenance of a world is something vital and basic to our existence as authentic human beings.

In some of his most deeply affecting writing, Needleman draws on his childhood experiences with a terminally ill friend whose impending death forces the young boys to face questions of the meaning of existence at an early age—questions that Needleman carried with him in his explorations of science and philosophy throughout his career as a scholar of religions. The conclusions that he reaches will give all of us a new sense of the purpose of our lives and the planet we live on.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101601310
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/27/2012
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	499 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

The acclaimed author of The American Soul, The Essential Marcus Aurelius, Lost Christianity, and Money and the Meaning of Life, Jacob Needleman is a professor of philosophy at San Francisco State University and former director of the Center for the Study of New Religions at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

1 The Low Stone Wall 1

2 What Is a World? 5

3 A Mysterious Directive 12

4 The Earth Is a Living Being 16

5 Necessary Questions 22

6 The Two Faces of Wonder 28

7 The Earth Is a Sacred Book 33

8 The True Human Body 38

9 A Metaphysical Event 43

10 A Real Question Is a Seed 51

11 Mind and Nature 63

12 The Philosophy of the Earth 70

13 Crossing the Threshold 76

14 Man Is Not Yet a Self 86

15 The Two Mysteries 97

16 The Real Reconciliation 104

17 Earth, Man and the Brain 118

18 Beyond Nature 126

19 Why Is Man on Earth? 134

20 The Hope of the Earth 158

21 What Is Consciousness? 164

22 The Marriage of Fact and Meaning 174

23 Invisible Earth 185

24 The Unfinished Animal 189

Notes 199

Book Notes 203

Index 211

About the Author 221

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

2013 Nautilus Books for a Better World Silver winner as Best Ecology/Environment Book

“An immensely learned man who is unembarrassed by the big questions that many of his fellow philosophers prefer to dodge.”
—Chicago Tribune

“The first thoughtful author to present the teachings of the new spiritual renaissance to the general public.”
—San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

“For nearly four decades Jacob Needleman has confronted the central questions of our era in light of the vision that lies at the root of the world’s great spiritual traditions. Needleman’s work clarifies: it takes topics that exist in disparate threads throughout our culture—new religions, esoteric Christianity, the founding mythos of America—and frames them in a manner both sensible and deeply questioning.”
—Parabola

 

Editorial Reviews

2013 Nautilus Books for a Better World Silver winner as Best Ecology/Environment Book

“An immensely learned man who is unembarrassed by the big questions that many of his fellow philosophers prefer to dodge.”
—Chicago Tribune

“The first thoughtful author to present the teachings of the new spiritual renaissance to the general public.”
—San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

“For nearly four decades Jacob Needleman has confronted the central questions of our era in light of the vision that lies at the root of the world’s great spiritual traditions. Needleman’s work clarifies: it takes topics that exist in disparate threads throughout our culture—new religions, esoteric Christianity, the founding mythos of America—and frames them in a manner both sensible and deeply questioning.”
—Parabola

 

From the Publisher