Discuss Stanley Rosen's "The Ancients and the Moderns"

Our next book topic - by agreement of those attending previously - is to discuss a book by the contemporary philosopher Stanley Rosen called "The Ancients and the Moderns", with the subtitle "Rethinking Modernity". This book covers the period in the history of philosophy from the origins of German idealism to the post modernists (mostly - there is one early chapter on Descartes). Throughout, Rosen's own Platonist perspective appears as counterpoint to the modern debate.

I recommend reading the whole work, which is just under 240 pages, but we can concentrate our discussion on 2 of the chapters specifically, chapter 1 and chapter 10. The first is titled "A modest proposal to rethink Enlightenment" and lays out his plan or main line of argument, while the second is titled "Nietzsche's revolution" and covers the reception and influence of Nietzsche in "late modernity", and Rosen's take on that.

While we take those two chapters and their arguments as our starting point, we may discuss more broadly the whole period of intellectual history it covers and our own take on that history. Briefly, that topic is systematic German idealism of the early 19th century, its real or perceived failures, the historical perspective on philosophy it opened, and the various reactions since to the (again, perceived) failure of that brand of modern philosophy.

You can find the work we are discussion on Amazon, here -

http://www.amazon.com/Ancients-Moderns-Rethinking-Stanley-Rosen/dp/1587310244

It is inexpensive if you buy it used, which is what I would recommend. It originally appeared in 1989