|
William James Durant (; November 5, 1885 – November 7, 1981) was an American writer, historian, and philosopher. He is best known for ''The Story of Civilization'', 11 volumes written in collaboration with his wife Ariel Durant and published between 1935 and 1975. He was earlier noted for ''The Story of Philosophy'' (1924), described as "a groundbreaking work that helped to popularize philosophy".〔 ''The details of this book appear to be wrong – see talk page''〕 He conceived of philosophy as total perspective, or, seeing things ''sub specie totius'', a phrase inspired by Spinoza's ''sub specie aeternitatis''. He sought to unify and humanize the great body of historical knowledge, which had grown voluminous and become fragmented into esoteric specialties, and to vitalize it for contemporary application. Will and Ariel Durant were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1968 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. ==Early life== Durant was born in North Adams, Massachusetts, of French-Canadian Catholic〔("Will Durant" ), Freedom From Religion Foundation.〕 parents Joseph Durant and Mary Allard, who had been part of the Quebec emigration to the United States. In 1900 Durant was educated by the Jesuits in St. Peter's Preparatory School and, later, Saint Peter's College in Jersey City, New Jersey. Historian Joan Rubin writes of this period, "Despite some adolescent flirtations, he began preparing for the vocation that promised to realize his mother's fondest hopes for him: the priesthood. In that way, one might argue, he embarked on a course that, while distant from Yale's or Columbia's apprenticeships in gentility, offered equivalent cultural authority within his own milieu."〔Rubin, Joan Shelley. ''The Making of Middlebrow Culture'', University of North Carolina Press (1992).〕 In 1905 he began experimenting with socialist philosophy but, after World War I, began recognizing that a "lust for power" underlay all forms of political behavior.〔 However, even before the war, "other aspects of his sensibility had competed with his radical leanings", notes Rubin. She adds that "the most concrete of those was a persistent penchant for philosophy. With his energy invested in Spinoza, he made little room for Bakunin. From then on, writes Rubin, "his retention of a model of selfhood predicated on discipline made him unsympathetic to anarchist injunctions to 'be yourself'.... To be one's 'deliberate self,' he explained, meant to 'rise above' the impulse to 'become the slaves of our passions' and instead to act with 'courageous devotion' to a moral cause".〔 Durant graduated in 1907. He worked as a reporter for Arthur Brisbane's ''New York Evening Journal'' for 10 dollars a week. At the ''Evening Journal'', he wrote several articles on sexual criminals. In 1907, he began teaching Latin, French, English and geometry at Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey. He was also made librarian at the college. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Will Durant」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|