The letters of Alessandra Strozzi provide a vivid and spirited portrayal of life in fifteenth-century Florence. Among the richest autobiographical materials to survive from the Italian Renaissance; the letters reveal a woman who fought stubbornly to preserve her family's property and position in adverse circumstances; and who was an acute observer of Medicean society. Her letters speak of political and social status; of the concept of honor; and of the harshness of life; including the plague and the loss of children. They are also a guide to Alessandra's inner life over a period of twenty-three years; revealing the pain and sorrow; and; more rarely; the joy and triumph; with which she responded to the events unfolding around her.This edition includes translations; in full or in part; of 35 of the 73 extant letters. The selections carry forward the story of Alessandra's life and illustrate the range of attitudes; concerns; and activities which were characteristic of their author.
#313638 in Books 1990-03-13Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .85 x 5.98l; 1.21 #File Name: 0520069781224 pages
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Shin Buddhist PhilosophyBy Upasaka Heng HeThis is a whole philosophical system built on the foundation of Shinran's spirituality: that is; the insight into the fundamental finitude and incompleteness of human nature.19 of 26 people found the following review helpful. Let "the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah show us the way"By Bruce P. BartenTanabe Hajime wrote his Preface for PHILOSOPHY AS METANOETICS in October 1945; a year after delivering his final series of lectures on which this book is based at Kyoto Imperial University. Though he fell ill in November 1944; he left his sickbed just long enough to deliver lectures until "It was with a great sigh of relief that I completed the final lecture in December; after which I spent the rest of the winter in bed." (p. lix). The book uses some Greek words to describe the kind of change involved in religious experiences that parallel the philosophy which gave Tanabe Hajime the strength to complete his final year before retirement in the midst of "the hunger and poverty of the vast majority of the people in sharp contrast with the luxury enjoyed by a very few owing to the maldistribution of food and goods;" (p. lxi); notably; "Since metanoesis implies remorse and sorrow; it is necessarily accompanied by feelings of shame and guilt." (p. lx).The Japanese Ministry of Education sent Tanabe to study in Europe in 1922; where he spent a year in Berlin before going to Freiburg to study with Husserl. Heidegger tutored him privately in German philosophy. Numerous thinkers familiar from this tradition are mentioned in this book; including Walter Kaufmann; who did not get a Ph.D. until 1947; a year after the Japanese version of the book was published. Kaufmann's English translations of THE WILL TO POWER; ECCE HOMO; and THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA by Nietzsche were used for the University of California Press translation of this book into English in 1986: "that one wants nothing to be different; not forward; not backward; not in all eternity" (p. 298).The first paragraph of Tanabe's Preface states an extreme condition about which philosophers have frequently had a desire to complain. "All public opinion; except for propaganda in favor of the government's policy; was suppressed. Freedom of thought was severely restricted; and the only ideas given official recognition were those of the extreme rightists." (p. il). In a democratic society; a similar complaint is heard whenever rightists feel they have some mandate from the last election or public reaction to events such as 9/11. While I did not play a large part in the movement opposing the Vietnam war as an undesirable aspect of American foreign policy; I was subject to what Tanabe called "a radical self-awareness" (p. l) of how weak the American position in Vietnam as a global superpower desiring peace with honor fit the dialectical basis for a religious situation; where "anything I achieve apart from true zange can only be immediately contradicted by reality itself. ... This is in fact the basic principle that shapes history. In terms of its concrete content; metanoetics is a radical historicism in that the continuous repetition of zange provides basic principles for the circular development of history." (p. lii).Bitter experience is the basis for the insight; "Quite by accident I was led along the same path that Shinran followed in Buddhist doctrine; although in my case it occurred in the philosophical realm." (p. lii). Chapters 6 and 7 are based on the three stages of religious transformation of the Pure Land Shin sect established by Shinran (1173-1262).Tanabe Hajime was originally a student in mathematics who discovered that he did not have the ability to solve problems in mathematics at a university level. He turned to philosophy; only to end his career with `a philosophical method of "destruction" more radical than even the methodical skepticism of Descartes. It cannot be treated on the same level as philosophy up to the present inasmuch as it is a philosophy achieved through a death-and-resurrection process of transformation.' (p. lv). "In the radical self-consciousness of being driven to the extreme; reason can only be torn to shreds in absolute disruption; after which such self-affirming reason is no longer of any use to us. Absolute criticism means that reason; faced with the absolute crisis of its dilemma; surrenders itself of its own accord." (p. lvi). Basing everything on "a relationship of reciprocal mediatory transformation between the absolute and the self" (p. lvii); the only possibility of irony is that a rightist campaign identifying flip-flops always works to put together a democratic majority of voters who can't figure out the message. Nevertheless; anyone interested in advanced oriental thought in a world dominated by superpower politics should find plenty of food for thought in this book.
