Rivca Gordon Books

This book points to a sad fact. Heroism as a worthy goal and commitment in life has pretty much vanished from almost all public discourse and from much of human consciousness in Western societies. One major reason for this vanishing, as the book repeatedly shows, are the neo-liberal views that underlie and influence much contemporary life. These views ignore the existence of evil and hence the need to fight evil for justice to prevail. This leads to the conclusion that, since there is no evil, who needs heroes! Some chapters of the book describe attitudes which ignore the existence of evil and disregard the need to encourage heroes who will struggle against evil. Other chapters describe the vanishing of heroism in the arts. However, the book also presents a worthy challenge–the challenge of creating a better world where human grandeur is cherished. To attain such a goal, the nihilism, mediocrity, bad faith, and banality that prevail in many Western societies and often accord with politically correct approaches should be rejected. This challenge is inspired by quite a few heroes, many of them unsung heroes. A few of these heroic worthy struggles and heroic deeds are described in this book.

The existentialists presented a philosophical approach which raised questions and illustrated ideas that addressed the grounds and essence of human existence. Among the questions were those that related to the essences of truth, being, human existence, freedom, and of love. The major purpose of this book, is the attempt to counter the expansive reign of the “passion for the mediocre”. The authors hold that the widespread acceptance of mediocrity effaces all excellence, degrades everyday human existence, and ruins spiritual life. The manner here of countering mediocrity is to present and carefully think about the thought-provoking questions and enlightening ideas which existentialists brought up and studied. The first section of this book looks at the relevance of three existentialist ideas for life in society. These being beauty, the revolt of the masses, and friendship. In the second section the book brings forth ideas that should enrich educational thought and enhance teaching. The last part addresses learning as a personally enhancing process.

This book shows how the beautiful landscape paintings of Meindert Hobbema, a seventeenth-century painter of the Dutch Golden Age, are in accord with the thought of Martin Heidegger, a twentieth-century philosopher, on beauty and truth. Since little is known about Hobbema's life, this work concentrates on ideas that are central to Heidegger's philosophy of art and beauty and the way these ideas are attuned to Hobbema's landscapes. Heidegger holds that the beauty of a great work of art calls out from that work and is firmly linked to the disclosure of hidden truths concerning essences of beings. This book illustrates in detail that beauty and such truths indeed call out from Hobbema's paintings.