{"product_id":"the-function-of-cynicism-at-the-present-time-hardcover","title":"The Function of Cynicism at the Present Time - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eHelen Small\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCynicism is usually seen as a provocative mode of dissent from conventional moral thought, casting doubt on the motives that guide right conduct. When critics today complain that it is ubiquitous but lacks the serious bite of classical Cynicism, they express concern that it can now only be corrosively negative. \u003cem\u003eThe Function of Cynicism at the Present Time\u003c\/em\u003e takes a more balanced view. Re-evaluating the role of cynicism in literature, cultural criticism, and philosophy from 1840 to the present, it treats cynic confrontationalism as a widely-employed credibility-check on the promotion of moral ideals--with roots in human psychology. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHelen Small investigates how writers have engaged with Cynic traditions of thought, and later more gestural styles of cynicism, to re-calibrate dominant moral values, judgements of taste, and political agreements. The argument develops through a series of cynic challenges to accepted moral thinking: Friedrich Nietzsche on morality; Thomas Carlyle v. J. S. Mill on the permissible limits of moral provocation; Arnold on the freedom of criticism; George Eliot and Ford Madox Ford on cosmopolitanism; Bertrand Russell, John Dewey, and Laura Kipnis on the conditions of work in the university. \u003cem\u003eThe Function of Cynicism\u003c\/em\u003e treats topics of present-day public concern: abrasive styles of public argument; debasing challenges to conventional morality; free speech, moral controversialism; the authority of reason and the limits of that authority; nationalism and resistance to nationalism; and liberty of expression as a core principle of the university.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHelen Small, \u003cem\u003eMerton Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford\u003c\/em\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHelen Small is Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. She is the author of \u003cem\u003eThe Value of the Humanities\u003c\/em\u003e (OUP, 2013) and \u003cem\u003eThe Long Life\u003c\/em\u003e (OUP, 2007) (winner of the Truman Capote Prize for Literary Criticism (2008) and the British Academy's Rose Mary Crawshay Prize (2008)), and editor of \u003cem\u003eThe Public Intellectual\u003c\/em\u003e (Blackwell, 2002). She has written widely on literature and philosophy, nineteenth-century fiction and public moralism, and the relationship between the Humanities, Sciences, and Social Sciences. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 288\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.9 x 9.3 x 6.2 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 29, 2020\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42163220152455,"sku":"9780198861935","price":87.21,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/5ae9e1b5525e971bcea30cdaf6020d9d.webp?v=1733295681","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/the-function-of-cynicism-at-the-present-time-hardcover","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}