Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2014 -

What is the problem with beauty anyway?  According to Konstan (classics, New York Univ.), the problem is beautys wide connotation.  Fashion models are beautiful, as are children, paintings, sunsets, and scientific theories.  Beautiful things come in different shapes and sizes.  But do they have something in commonsome core quality that makes them beautiful?  In approaching this question, Konstan takes as his starting point the Greek notion of beauty and then turns his attention to beauty as presented in biblical texts and Latin literature.  He argues that by carefully inspecting classical textsand what a close inspection he gives these textsone sees a survival of Greek ideas over ages and across cultures.  The textual evidence that this book brings to bear on its argument is wide ranging: from Homer to the Tanakh to Roman and early Christian writings.  Though Konstan's mastery of the primary literature will impress readers, his display of erudition is not for mere showmanship.  He has a story to tell, a story about the idea of beauty as it has been transmitted from generations past to the present.  Artists, classicists, philosophers, and admirers of beauty will have much to learn from Konstans compelling narrative.  A scholarly tour de force!Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.

This hefty volume in the "Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy" series comprises an introduction and 32 essays by international scholars specializing in the entire spectrum of topics on the last great philosophical system of ancient Hellenistic philosophy: Neoplatonism.  Although sometimes thought of as merely a metaphysical "curiosity," Neoplatonism was much more, as the essays in this volume demonstrate conclusively.  It was a significant intellectual force for almost 300 yearsa system with a strong historical influence that extended from early Christian theology throughout the Middle Ages and up to the present.  Neoplatonism has influenced not only philosophy, but also literature, mysticism, and spiritualism. The editors make a special effort to emphasize heretofore neglected interests of the Neoplatonists in the areas of ethics, aesthetics, political theory, physics, medicine, and biology.  All of the essays are engagingly written, with a view to appealing to non-scholarly readers without compromising genuine scholarship.  This definitive volume is one of the most comprehensive source books of secondary information on this fascinating philosophical movement.  It includes copious notes and an extraordinary bibliography. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-level undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers.