Know Thyself: Western Identity from Classical Greece to the Renaissance
Written by Ingrid Rossellini
Narrated by January LaVoy
3/5
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About this audiobook
A lively and timely introduction to the roots of self-understanding—who we are and how we should act—in the cultures of ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, and Middle Ages and the Renaissance
"Know thyself"—this fundamental imperative appeared for the first time in ancient Greece, specifically in Delphi, the temple of the god Apollo, who represented the enlightened power of reason. For the Greeks, self-knowledge and identity were the basics of their civilization and their sources were to be found in where one was born and into which social group. These determined who you were and what your duties were. In this book the independent scholar Ingrid Rossellini surveys the major ideas that, from Greek and Roman antiquity through the Christian medieval era up to the dawn of modernity in the Renaissance, have guided the Western project of self-knowledge. Addressing the curious lay reader with an interdisciplinary approach that includes numerous references to the visual arts, Know Thyself will reintroduce listeners to the most profound and enduring ways our civilization has framed the issues of self and society, in the process helping us rediscover the very building blocks of our personality.
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Reviews for Know Thyself
1 rating1 review
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5While I enjoyed the short chapters on Dante, Petrarch, and The Roman Renaissance, as topics I always love to read about, the rest of the books held very little that was new information to me. Except for perhaps the Crusades, I remember very little from school. However, that’s due to my own research and interests, and not the fault of the book. It does state that this is an introduction, so this might be a great place to start, find things that interest you and then move forward. I would have loved it if it had a new angle on Western Identity and the human element and not just gather major historical events from secondary sources and make a summary of it all.