
Beauty
A Very Short Introduction
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Narrated by:
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Chris MacDonnell
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By:
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Roger Scruton
About this listen
Beauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred, profane; it can be exhilarating, appealing, inspiring, chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with indifference.
In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, the renowned philosopher Roger Scruton explores the concept of beauty, asking what makes an object - either in art, in nature, or the human form - beautiful and examining how we can compare differing judgments of beauty when it is evident all around us that our tastes vary so widely.
Is there a right judgment to be made about beauty? Is it right to say there is more beauty in a classical temple than a concrete office block, more in a Rembrandt than in an Andy Warhol Campbell's Soup Cans?
Forthright and thought-provoking and as accessible as it is intellectually rigorous, this introduction to the philosophy of beauty draws conclusions that some may find controversial but, as Scruton shows, help us to find greater sense of meaning in the beautiful objects that fill our lives.
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Fascism
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Kevin Passmore
- Narrated by: Pam Ward
- Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Fascism is notoriously hard to define. How do we make sense of an ideology that appeals to streetfighters and intellectuals alike? That is overtly macho in style, yet attracts many women? That calls for a return to tradition while maintaining a fascination with technology? And that preaches violence in the name of an ordered society? In the new edition of this Very Short Introduction, Kevin Passmore brilliantly unravels the paradoxes of one of the most important phenomena in the modern world
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Brings Clarity to a Resurging Topic
- By Fernanda Araujo on 03-24-20
By: Kevin Passmore
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Selling Luxury
- Connect with Affluent Customers, Create Unique Experiences Through Impeccable Service, and Close the Sale
- By: Robin Lent, Genevieve Tour
- Narrated by: Jo Anna Perrin
- Length: 3 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Connect with affluent customers, create unique experiences through impeccable service, and close the sale.
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Focused Too Much On Items & Not Enough On Services
- By Michelle O on 03-12-24
By: Robin Lent, and others
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Music as an Art
- By: Roger Scruton
- Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Roger Scruton is a polymath. He has written authoritatively on a huge range of subjects from the environment to wine, from cosmology to the Middle East. He is also an accomplished musician (organ and piano) and a composer of works including an opera and a song cycle. This is Scruton’s second major work on music for Bloomsbury - the first being Understanding Music (Continuum, 2009).
By: Roger Scruton
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Continental Philosophy
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Simon Critchley
- Narrated by: Stephen Bowlby
- Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In this enlightening Very Short Introduction, Simon Critchley shows us that Continental philosophy encompasses a distinct set of philosophical traditions and practices, with a compelling range of problems all too often ignored by the analytic tradition. He discusses the ideas and approaches of philosophers such as Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Habermas, Foucault, and Derrida. He also introduces key concepts such as existentialism, nihilism, and phenomonology, by explaining their place in the Continental tradition.
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narrator and book 5 star
- By Wesley Bishop on 10-11-24
By: Simon Critchley
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Hegel
- A Very Short Introduction
- By: Peter Singer
- Narrated by: Christine Williams
- Length: 3 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Hegel is regarded as one of the most influential figures on modern political and intellectual development. After painting Hegel's life and times in broad strokes, Peter Singer goes on to tackle some of the more challenging aspects of Hegel's philosophy. Offering a broad discussion of Hegel's ideas and an account of his major works, Singer explains what have often been considered abstruse and obscure ideas in a clear and inviting manner.
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Great introduction
- By I'm all ears on 02-17-22
By: Peter Singer
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Art and Faith
- A Theology of Making
- By: Makoto Fujimura, N.T. Wright - foreword
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Conceived over 30 years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura's broad and deep exploration of creativity and the spiritual aspects of "making". What he does in the studio is theological work as much as it is aesthetic work. In between pouring precious, pulverized minerals onto handmade paper to create the prismatic, refractive surfaces of his art, he comes into the quiet space in the studio, in a discipline of awareness, waiting, prayer, and praise.
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A theological vision for vocation and creativity
- By Adam Shields on 09-11-21
By: Makoto Fujimura, and others
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Against the Tide
- By: Roger Scruton
- Narrated by: Kris Dyer
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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The definitive edition of the late Sir Roger Scruton's philosophical and political essays and reviews, now collected in one volume, edited by Mark Dooley. The philosopher Roger Scruton was the leading conservative thinker of the post-war years. In this audiobook are assembled the very best of his essays and commentaries, arranged thematically. The selection has been made and edited by Mark Dooley, Scruton’s literary executor.
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Precient opinions which used to be controversialist hot-takes and have aged poignantly over the decades
- By Hans L. on 02-04-24
By: Roger Scruton
What listeners say about Beauty
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- S. Walker
- 04-20-20
Edifying and thoughtfull
Scruton is many respects a Kantian. His meditation on beauty is a call to rational humanity and our shared universal experience of good and evil.
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- Christopher K.
- 02-13-20
Brilliant
Roger Scruton outlines the desecration of our most important societal constructions. It awoke an anger in me for the disgusting moronics of “modernism”. I think it would be better termed “anti reality soft feelyism”. Freaking morons!
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-10-19
A Must-Read
For the artist concerned with the observation of the beautiful, and creation in its service; or for the considered and thoughtful citizen of the world, Scruton’s work on beauty is required reading. This is no trite pop-culture puff piece, however. This is a deep dive into the underpinnings of thought and behavior, sacredness, and perception. This work will require reflection, and maybe multiple reads. In the end, however, if beauty is of concern to the reader, this work will serve as a guidebook to deeper understanding.
Chris MacDonnell’s narration is spot-on and perfect for this work.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Samuel F Tomaino
- 12-20-23
Contemplation of Beauty
This took me on a journey, an art gallery of the mind to consider the meaning and the priceless value of beauty in the world. May my eye be sharper to behold it and my feet swifter to find it.
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- Robert P
- 05-28-22
Beauty is more than the eye of the beholder
It is a well written and well thought out work. I think I will need to listen a couple times to get the full meaning of what he has to offer. To some degree beauty is still subjective but it is something that we should give respect to and even some element of reverence to. I really enjoyed the discussion of the body as an incarnation that we don’t necessarily own. Therefore, we need to give it the proper respect and honor. In many ways beauty is to be respected, worked hard for, maintained, and sacrificed for. It may not be as high in importance as truth and justice. However, we need to continue integrate the concept of beauty to our outlook and philosophy.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Zachary
- 07-12-22
I'm a better person
I see what's worth valuing much more clearly now. I have a sense for the kinds of things that eclipse my soul, and those that enrich it.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Adam Shields
- 05-03-19
Introduction to Beauty
I listened to this on audiobook, which was fine, but may not have been the best choice. While this is part of the Very Short Introduction series, it is still a book that is ultimately philosophy. About 2/3 of the way through I picked up the kindle edition, both because I know I need to re-read the book, but also because Scruton was referencing a number of paintings and many of those are in the Kindle edition.
The pictures are black and white even in the kindle version, so the reader cannot really get a full sense of what is being shown, which does matter for a discussion of the artistry and beauty of the paintings, but it at least is a reference.
I have been wanting to read more about beauty for a while and consistently when I look around, Scruton’s book Beauty is recommended as one of the best introductions. The Very Short Introduction series is very uneven, but Beauty is an example of what all of the books should be like. He is not avoiding discussion of the academics, but the point of the book is to talk about the actual subject. A number of the other Very Short Introduction books I have read have been about the academic study of the subject, not the actual subject. I do not really want to read about what academics have argued about over African History, I actually wanted to understand something about African History.
Beauty is a philosophical account of beauty written for the layperson. It is still philosophy and I need to reread it. I have been introduced to a number of the ideas previously in the work of Makoto Fujimura, Brian Zahnd, NT Wright and others. But much of my reading has only briefly touched on the role of beauty, and mostly thought about it from a theological perspective. Scruton talks a surprising amount about the Christian conception of beauty historically and how that developed in the Western world, but he is not writing about theology.
This is still a mostly aesthetic conception, thinking about how we perceive beauty, how we think about beauty with regard to the human form, how erotic beauty is different from pornography, how beauty exists in form and nature, etc. I want to know that, but I also want to understand how beauty works in ideas, and functions, and community. But I do think that Scruton is right that we think of beauty first as visual pleasure and then we expand that idea to other subjects. Understanding how aesthetic beauty works allows us to understand how an idea might be beautiful.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-18-20
Excellent!
Very good book! This book shows the importance of the beauty and how is is been lost in the modern futile world...
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- Douglas Osborne
- 01-16-24
A Perfect Introduction
The best introductions constitute a set of adequacy constraints for a complete theory. Scruton's introduction to beauty does that, and in so doing shows why beauty demands our attention and deserves a central place in any conception of live well lived.
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