Name: Mysticism
Price: 370.17 ZAR
Availability: InStock
Author: Simon Critchley
ISBN: 9781681378244

Type

Physical Book

Author

Simon Critchley

Publisher

New York Review of Books

Language

English

Pages

256

Format

Paperback

Weight

0.37 kg.

ISBN13

9781681378244

Synopsis "Mysticism"

A probing, inspiring exploration of mysticism not as religious practice but as a mode of experience and way of life by one of the most provocative philosophical thinkers of our time. Why mysticism? Evelyn Underhill defined mysticism as "experience in its most intense form," and in his new book the philosopher Simon Critchley poses a simple question to the reader: Wouldn't you like to taste this intensity? Wouldn't you like to be lifted up and out of yourself into a sheer feeling of aliveness, both your life and those of the creatures that surround you? If so, it might be well worthwhile trying to learn what is meant by mysticism and how it can shift, elevate, and deepen the sense of our lives. Mysticism is not primarily a theoretical issue. It's not a question of religious belief but of felt experience and daily practice. A rough and ready definition of mysticism is that it is a way of systematically freeing yourself of your standard habits, your usual fancies and imaginings so as to see what is there and stand with what is there ecstatically. Mysticism is the practical possibility of the achievement of a fluid openness between thought and existence. This is a book about trying to get outside oneself, to lose oneself, while knowing that the self is not something that can ever be fully lost. It is also a book about Julian of Norwich, Anne Carson, Annie Dillard, and T. S. Eliot, and how writing and poetry can help to show us the way there. It is a book full of learning, puzzlement, pleasure, and wonder. It opens the door to mysticism not as something unworldly and unimaginable, but as a way of life. Mysticism as activism: start now.

Simon Critchley

(Author)

View Author's Page

Simon Critchley (Herfordshire, Reino Unido, 1960) es filósofo y desde 2004 imparte clases en la New School for Social Research de Nueva York. En 2021 la Academic Influence le nombró uno de los veinticinco filósofos contemporáneos más influyentes por su trayectoria ecléctica, a lo largo de la cual se ha dedicado a la filosofía continental, la teoría política y el estudio de figuras como David Bowie. Entre sus más de veinte obras publicadas destacan los ensayos El libro de los filósofos muertos (Taurus, 2008), Apuntes sobre el suicidio –editado en castellano por Alpha Decay en 2016 y recuperado en 2022–, En qué pensamos cuando pensamos en fútbol (Sexto Piso, 2018), La tragedia, los griegos y nosotros (Turner, 2020) y la novela El teatro de la memoria (Alpha Decay, 2016).

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