Jacob Klein Lectures and Essays

by Jacob Klein, William A. Darkey, George Albert Brown

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0960369023
• ISBN13: 9780960369027
• Release Date: May 2013
• Publisher: St. John's College Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Don't pay too much!

The below reviews are good. This is about the price. DO NOT pay $100 for this. The book is still in print. Just contact the book store at either the Annapolis or Santa Fe campus of St. John's College and have them mail you a copy. The college press still prints this in limited quantities.

klein

I am told that Klein liked to sit silently on his porch in Maryland in a white suit and sip mint juleps, as if the white Russian from Germany were some sort of Southern gentleman. That aside, there is no better guide to the transformation of ancient to modern science than Jacob Klein. Klein filled out many of Husserl's speculations, and Klein's essays (and Algebra book) are a necessary supplement to Husserl's Crisis. To point out a small gem: The ratios that constituted the harmonia mundi in, for instance, Plato's Timaeus, were transformed by Copernicus and Galileo into the equations of planetary movement. This is accomplished by a transformation of the theory of proportions in Proclus' commentary on the first book of Euclid. At bottom of the symbolic transformation is the conflation of intentio prima and intentio secunda. And further: this is the problem at the base of Kant's schematism, the problem of how "x" can be "this x" and "any x" at the same time, according to Klein. Considering that there is a straight line from this achievement in symbolization and the computers that today run on symbolic logic, one could more precisely specify, with the help of Klein, the precise mechanism of Seinsvergessenheit that is the domination through symbolization of modern science.

First-rate speculations from a true philosopher

I cannot but recommend all of Klein's works, among which this one. This work is a collection of essays and lectures on matters of liberal education, ranging from Vergil, to the principles underlying the philosophy of Leibniz, to fascinating analyses of Plato's dialogues. Klein spent the better part of his career as a tutor at St. John's College, teaching the Great Books. His knowledge of Greek, combined with an acute mind, and a very wide reading, makes him an unparalleled expositor of the ideas that have shaped and reshaped the Western world. As each chapter attacks a different problem, the book is a convenient read. The various chapters are connected by Klein's brilliance, but otherwise do not depend essentially upon each other. Nevertheless, I could not point out a single topic that was not of value.