The Adventure of the Human Intellect
Self, Society, and the Divine in Ancient World Cultures

Kurt A. Raaflaub (Edited by), KA Raaflaub (Author)

9781119162551, Wiley

Hardback, published 27 May 2016

280 pages
24.6 x 17.3 x 2 cm, 0.567 kg

"...a modern remake of the classic. ...Raaflaub has further raised the bar for the present volume, including chapters not just on ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Israel, but also on Greece, Rome, China, India, the Mayans, the Aztecs, and Native North Americans. ...A truly global work that will be a welcome addition to a range of intellectual history and World-Civ courses. ...an excellent resource, well put together and comprehensive in all the right ways." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review

The Adventure of the Human Intellect presents the latest scholarship on the beginnings of intellectual history on a broad scope, encompassing ten eminent ancient or early civilizations from both the Old and New Worlds.

• Borrows themes from The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man (1946), updating an old topic with a new approach and up-to-date theoretical underpinning, evidence, and scholarship
• Provides a broad scope of studies, including discussion of highly developed ancient or early civilizations in China, India, West Asia, the Mediterranean, and the Americas
• Examines the world view of ten ancient or early societies, reconstructed from their own texts, concerning the place of human beings in society and state, in nature and cosmos, in space and time, in life and death, and in relation to those in power and the world of the divine
• Considers a diversity of sources representing a wide array of particular responses to differing environments, circumstances, and intellectual challenges
• Reflects a more inclusive and nuanced historiographical attitude with respect to non-elites, gender, and local variations
• Brings together leading specialists in the field, and is edited by an internationally renowned scholar

Notes on Contributors vii

Subject Areas: History [HB]