The Romantic Life
Five Strategies to Re-Enchant the World
- Philosophy
- Publisher: Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2022
FritzSearch.com earns a commission on purchases made through Bookshop.org links.
Publisher's Description
The world is disenchanted. Rationalization, intellectualization, and scientism rule the day. We used to see the world as a magical place, but now it's just a material space. How did we get here? The shift comes in part from the rise of a certain kind of secularism, one that reduces human experiences to whatever is explainable through observation. Love? It's just a biological drive. Joy, a rush of adrenaline. Beauty, an influx of dopamine. If you can't test it, it isn't true; or so the thinking goes. The Romantic Life draws upon eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Romanticism to provide five strategies to re-enchant the world, five ways to imbue the world with meaning, truth, and beauty. According to the Romantics, far from being useless, encounters with "impractical" things like the imagination, nature, symbolism, sincerity, and the sublime give our lives a richness and depth that cannot be attained on a purely material account of the world. By learning from their example, we can come to see "into the life of things," as William Wordsworth called it. We can be re-enchanted.
Endorsements (4)
“The rare book on a perennial theme that combines clear reasoning and solid scholarly research with a lot of heart—perfect for these all-too-often cynical times.”
“Within the contemporary resurgence of philosophy-as-practice, The Romantic Life relentlessly pursues a form of life grounded in poetic meaning and action. What Massimo Pigliucci did for Stoicism or Catherine Wilson for Epicureanism, Andrew Yost accomplishes for Romanticism, showing us how to find meaning in a disenchanted world.”
“What can the Romantics teach us ‘moderns’? Nothing less than how to live a full and meaningful life. In a style that is as accessible as it is sincere, Andrew Yost draws on his profound knowledge and love of Romantic philosophy, poetry, and art in order to challenge the wonderless cynicism of our disenchanted, secular age. An impassioned mix of cultural critique and practical wisdom, The Romantic Life is spiritual nourishment for world-weary souls.”
See something wrong on this page? Report a problem