Passionate Intelligence: Imagination and Reason in the Work of Samuel Johnson

by Arieh Sachs

Overview

Originally published in 1967. Professor Sachs shows the inner coherence of Samuel Johnson's thought by pointing out the interconnectedness of his remarks on religious, moral, aesthetic, political, and psychological subjects. Reason and imagination, the central concepts in the Johnsonian ethos, are elucidated with reference to "vacuity," "attention," "novelty," "diversity," and other words to which Johnson attached special significance. Johnson emerges as an original thinker of the English Christian-humanist heritage; he "is to be read in the same spirit as Pascal." Primarily concerned with the relation between Johnson's ideas and the long tradition of which they are the culmination, Sachs also emphasizes the relevance of Johnson's thought to the twentieth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421435404
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	12/01/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	146
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Arieh Sachs was a senior lecturer in English at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He studied at Johns Hopkins University, Cambridge University, and the Sorbonne.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1. The Vacuity of Life
Chapter 2. Cosmic Hierarchy
Chapter 3. The Art of Forgetfulness
Chapter 4. Idle Solitude and Diabolical Imagination
Chapter 5. The General and Particular
Chapter 6. The Fotly of Utopia
Chapter 7. The Rationality of Faith
Abbreviations in Notes
Index