Nobility of Spirit: A Forgotten Ideal [Hardcover]

Rob Riemen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 2008

In the pages of this slim, powerful book Rob Riemen argues with passion that “nobility of spirit” is the quintessence of a civilized world. It is, as Thomas Mann believed, the sole corrective for human history. Without nobility of spirit, culture vanishes. Yet in the early twenty-first century, a time when human dignity and freedom are imperiled, the concept of nobility of spirit is scarcely considered.

 

Riemen insists that if we hope to move beyond the war on terror and create a life-affirming culture, we must address timeless but neglected questions: What is a good society? Why art? Why culture? What is the responsibility of intellectuals? Why anti-Americanism? Why nihilism? Why the cult of death of fundamentalists? In a series of three essays, the author identifies nobility of spirit in the life and work of Baruch Spinoza and of Thomas Mann; explores the quest for the good society in our own time; and addresses the pursuit of truth and freedom that engaged figures as disparate as Socrates and Leone Ginzburg, a Jewish Italian intellectual murdered by Nazis.

 

“The forces now aligned against humanistic values are manifold,” observes George Steiner in the foreword to the book. In this imaginative and compelling volume, Riemen addresses these forces and speaks to every reader who believes in the power of classical ideas to restore Western civilization’s highest values.

(20080610)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Written with such elegance, erudition and skill, a singular reflection of fundamental problems, virtues and vices, of our time.”—Ivan Klima

(Ivan Klima 20081022)

“Rob Riemen''s essays spring from a deep and firm conviction—they are like water from artesian wells and this is, I think, the main reason why they are so important and refreshing.”—Adam Zagajewski

(Adam Zagajewski )

“The author’s vast cultural knowledge, his firm commitment to liberal ideals and the agility of his pen make these essays an invaluable guide to orient us amid the great political and cultural problems—and the ideological confusions—of the world in which we live.”—Mario Vargas Llosa

(Mario Vargas Llosa )

“Rob Riemen has written a rare and much needed book, one which we appreciate not because we necessarily agree with its views, but for its commitment to ideas and its passion for imagination. It is a timely reminder of how imaginative knowledge can become a way of questioning, connecting to and changing the world as well as ourselves.”—Azar Nafisi

(Azar Nafisi )

"Mr. Riemen''s Nobility of Spirit is intended as a meditation on the forces that threaten civilization and, no less important, on the forces that are desperately needed to sustain it."—Darrin M. McMahon, Wall Street Journal

(Darrin M. McMahon Wall Street Journal )

"Agree or disagree with Riemen''s profound, ambitious and high-minded plea, you will be thinking about his words for a long time. It''s been ages since a work of non-fiction moved us this way. Read it."—The Elegant Variation (Blog)

(The Elegant Variation (Blog) )

About the Author

Rob Riemen, an essayist and cultural philosopher, is founder of the Nexus Institute, an international center devoted to intellectual reflection and to inspiring Western cultural and philosophical debate. He lives in the Netherlands.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (June 16, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300136900
• ISBN-13: 978-0300136906
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,142,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for troubled times, October 20, 2008

By 

Mark Sarvas "TEV" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nobility of Spirit: A Forgotten Ideal (Hardcover)

This slim volume stands as the most stirring redoubt against the ascendant forces of know-nothingness that I've come across in a long time. A full-throated, unapologetic defense of the virtues of Western Civ - in which "elite" is not and never should be a dirty word - this inspiring exploration of high art and high ideals is divided into three sections: The first looks at the life of Riemen's great hero Thomas Mann as a model for the examined life. The second imagines a series of conversations from turning points in European intellectual history, populated with the likes of Socrates, Nietzsche and others. The final section, "Be Brave," is nothing less than an exhortation to dig deep, especially in times of risk. The notion of nobility of the spirit might strike some modern ears as quaint but it seems more desperately necessary than ever before, and there are worse ways to read the accessible Nobility of Spirit than as a crash refresher in the Great Thinkers, free of academic jargon and cant. As a meditation on what is at stake when the pursuit of high ideals is elbowed aside by the pursuit of fleeting material gain, however, Nobility of Spirit might well be the most prescient book I've yet read on what's at stake in the current election cycle and in the developing global situation. Agree or disagree with Riemen's profound, ambitious and high-minded plea, you will be thinking about his words for a long time.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A most noble and brave challenge to expand the humanist philosophy, March 1, 2009

By 

Larry Mullins "Larry Mullins" (St. Augustine, Florida) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Nobility of Spirit: A Forgotten Ideal (Hardcover)

Rob Riemen informs us that "there is no civilization without prosperity and security." And, on the same page, [46] he declares that a civilized society is one in which no violence is needed to bring about political change. Obviously, then, civilization as we know it is in profoundly serious peril. Riemen discusses the horror of 9/11, but the global economic crisis occurred after the publication of his book, "Nobility of Spirit, a Forgotten Ideal." Now the prosperity and security of civilization are both under ferocious siege.

Regarding 9/11, too many of those who would call themselves intellectuals "... legitimize what should never be legitimized: mass murder. Intellectuals who subordinate the distinction between good and evil to their political ideology." Riemen points out that this has kind of value-impoverished intellectualism has historically paved the way to religious and political totalitarianism. Nazism, the Taliban, Communism, virtually all fundamentalism flourished when evil was sanctioned because it was committed in the name of good. Riemen quotes Camus three separate times with the same conversational lament about the failure of intellectuals: "Don't you think we are all responsible for the lack of values? And if we, who come from Nietzschean thought, nihilism, or historical materialism, were to openly declare that we were wrong, that moral values do exist, and from now on we will do all that is necessary to establish and clarify them, don't you think this will offer the beginnings of some hope?" [pp 57, 69, and 75] Riemen calls this conversation unforgettable, "because it expresses the essence of what civilization is, how it can be lost, what the task of intellectuals is, and what their betrayal means." Indeed, this is the theme of his book.

How then can the humanist philosophy be expanded to better address the threat to civilization and safeguard human dignity? Riemen, quoting Mann, suggests " ... through a new humanism - a religious humanism that respects the impenetrable human secret, does not deny the human tragedy or human's demonic depths; that acknowledges that the truth can be know only through our consciences, as the absolute standard to which we must aspire ... " The values to which we must aspire are repeated several time throughout the book: truth, beauty and goodness, the classic triad of Socrates and Plato. Riemen describes these MetaValues as "transcendental values that encircle the enigma of human existence like cherubs in the lost paradise." He quotes Goethe: "Freedom lies not in refusing to acknowledge anything above us, but rather in revering something above us." Reimen's new religious humanism boldly defies the arbitrary logic-tight barriers between humanism, a system of thought that is based on the values, characteristics, and behavior that are believed to be best in human beings, and the mysterious wellspring in the human psyche from whence springs all that is good, true and beautiful. Not exactly fare for the pulpit, but a bravely expanded humanism that perhaps could enrich rather than challenge a personal religious belief in a higher power.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A really forgotten ideal, January 9, 2009

By 

Dimitrios Antoniou "Architect" (Athens, Greece) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nobility of Spirit: A Forgotten Ideal (Hardcover)

An incredible book that continues the philosophical line of Mann, Goethe, Spinoza, and Socrates. It is a real intellectual inspiration. The subject is food for thought, and most of it is already there.I strongly recommend it.