Search results for ""Author Patrick Grant""

The Art of the Personal offers a strikingly original, meticulously researched interpretation of what it means to be a person, and is highly relevant for the times in which we live. The 238 excerpts are selected from 21 books published by Patrick Grant during the past 50 years. The excerpts reach across a wide range of topics, including psychology, aesthetics, literary theory, Biblical criticism, political theory, the Northern Ireland Troubles, Sri Lanka, the place of religion in ethnic conflict, the perennial philosophy and the history of spirituality, among others. The excerpts are arranged under general headings, which are introduced and interpreted by brief essays. This format invites an interactive, dialogical response, as the book makes a case for an understanding of the person as situated within the complex networks of discourse by which its threshold status is constituted but not defined, and to which the art of dialogue is indispensable.

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Benjamin Whichcote once said that “only madmen and fools arepleased with themselves: no wise man is good enough for his ownsatisfaction.” While Whichcote’s wise man accepts thisdisparity, the madmen and fools suffer from a deluded self-satisfactionwhich, one can assume, might make them dangerous. The twenty-four briefchapters of Imperfection develop this governing idea as itrelates to the present state of the God debate, modern ethnic conflictsin which religion is a marker of identity, and the idea of freedom inrelation to the uncertainties of self-determination. Human beings are imperfect creatures who nonetheless have ideas aboutperfection. Grant argues that the most interesting and creative thingspeople do are shaped in the gap between these two poles. Aretrospective view of his work over forty years, Imperfectiondisplays the scope of his insights and reveals an important Canadianpublic intellectual.

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTELLERUtterly brilliant. We all need to read this book' CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN''Patrick's book is fascinating and sobering and makes a compelling argument for going back to basics' JOE LYCETTWe used to care a lot about our clothes. We didn't have many but those we had were important to us. We'd cherish them, repair them and pass them on. And making them provided fulfilling work for millions of skilled people locally. ?Today the average person has nearly five times as many clothes as they did just 50 years ago. Last year, 100 billion garments were produced worldwide, most made from oil, 30% of which were not even sold, and the equivalent of one bin lorry full of clothing is dumped in landfill or burned every single second. Our wardrobes are full to bursting with clothes we never wear so why do we keep buying more?In this passionate and revealing book about loving clothes but despairing of a broken global system Patrick Grant considers the crisis of consumption and quality

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