John Carroll (author)
Encyclopedia
John Carroll is Professor of Sociology at La Trobe University
, and author of Puritan, Paranoid, Remissive, Guilt, Ego and Soul, Humanism: The Rebirth and Wreck of Western Culture, and Intruders In The Bush: The Australian Quest For Identity.
Humanism is Carroll's most ambitious work to date. Predicated on the view that Western culture is in a declining mode, Humanism traces this decline to an epistemological tyranny of reason and its subjection of other forms of knowing and understanding being. Carroll's often bleak diagnosis is primarily based on unique readings of canonic theological, philosophical and artistic texts including those by Sophocles
, Calvin
, Holbein
, Donatello
, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Poussin
, Henry James
and John Ford
. The heart of the book's analysis is highly indebted to Nietzsche's critique of "Socratic" culture in the The Birth of Tragedy
.
Humanism appears, at first glance, to have diagnostic affinities with works inspired by American neoconservatism
, for example Allan Bloom
's The Closing of the American Mind.That said, Carroll's work illustrates tendencies that do not easily fit with conservatism as it is traditionally defined. In the prescriptive works, The Western Dreaming and The Existential Jesus for example, Carroll rereads Gospel narratives and the ontology of Christ through a Heideggerian and non-theistic lens.
La Trobe University
La Trobe University is a multi-campus university in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1964 by an Act of Parliament to become the third oldest university in the state of Victoria. The main campus of La Trobe is located in the Melbourne suburb of Bundoora; two other major campuses are...
, and author of Puritan, Paranoid, Remissive, Guilt, Ego and Soul, Humanism: The Rebirth and Wreck of Western Culture, and Intruders In The Bush: The Australian Quest For Identity.
Humanism is Carroll's most ambitious work to date. Predicated on the view that Western culture is in a declining mode, Humanism traces this decline to an epistemological tyranny of reason and its subjection of other forms of knowing and understanding being. Carroll's often bleak diagnosis is primarily based on unique readings of canonic theological, philosophical and artistic texts including those by Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
, Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
, Holbein
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...
, Donatello
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...
, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Poussin
Poussin
Poussin refers to:*Charles Jean de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian mathematician*Charles-Louis-Joseph-Xavier de la Vallée-Poussin Belgian geologist and mineralogist, father of Charles Jean*Nicolas Poussin , French painter...
, Henry James
Henry James
Henry James, OM was an American-born writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr., a clergyman, and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James....
and John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
. The heart of the book's analysis is highly indebted to Nietzsche's critique of "Socratic" culture in the The Birth of Tragedy
The Birth of Tragedy
The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music is a 19th-century work of dramatic theory by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It was reissued in 1886 as The Birth of Tragedy, Or: Hellenism and Pessimism ...
.
Humanism appears, at first glance, to have diagnostic affinities with works inspired by American neoconservatism
Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism in the United States is a branch of American conservatism. Since 2001, neoconservatism has been associated with democracy promotion, that is with assisting movements for democracy, in some cases by economic sanctions or military action....
, for example Allan Bloom
Allan Bloom
Allan David Bloom was an American philosopher, classicist, and academic. He studied under David Grene, Leo Strauss, Richard McKeon and Alexandre Kojève. He subsequently taught at Cornell University, the University of Toronto, Yale University, École Normale Supérieure of Paris, and the University...
's The Closing of the American Mind.That said, Carroll's work illustrates tendencies that do not easily fit with conservatism as it is traditionally defined. In the prescriptive works, The Western Dreaming and The Existential Jesus for example, Carroll rereads Gospel narratives and the ontology of Christ through a Heideggerian and non-theistic lens.