Overview

He saw an infinite universe when the world insisted on walls. He refused to unsee it, even at the cost of his life.The Wisdom of Giordano Bruno: Fire, Philosophy, and the Courage to See traces the extraordinary intellectual journey of one of history's most daring and controversial thinkers. Born in 1548 near Mount Vesuvius, trained as a Dominican friar in Naples, and burned at the stake in Rome in 1600, Giordano Bruno lived a life defined by relentless philosophical inquiry and an absolute refusal to compromise with orthodoxy. His vision of an infinite universe populated by countless worlds, animated by a single living intelligence, shattered the closed cosmos of medieval thought and anticipated discoveries that would not be confirmed for centuries. This book follows Bruno from his early formation in the shadow of Vesuvius through his years of wandering across Europe - Geneva, Paris, London, Wittenberg, Prague - to his fateful return to Italy and his prolonged trial before the Roman Inquisition. Along the way, it examines the full range of his philosophical achievement: his radical cosmology, his transformation of the ancient art of memory into a vehicle for metaphysical insight, his theory of an animate and self-organizing matter, his satirical critiques of institutional religion, and his haunting meditation on the soul's passionate quest for the infinite. The Wisdom of Giordano Bruno: Fire, Philosophy, and the Courage to See neither reduces him to a martyr for science nor dismisses him as a speculative mystic, but engages with the full complexity of a thinker who drew on ancient philosophy, Hermetic wisdom, and Renaissance magic to construct a vision of reality that remains compelling. Explores Bruno's revolutionary cosmology of an infinite universe with no center, no boundary, and innumerable inhabited worlds Examines his transformation of classical memory arts into a philosophical method for grasping the structure of reality Traces his years of exile across Europe, from the courts of Henri III and Elizabeth I to the prisons of the Roman Inquisition Analyzes his metaphysics of universal unity, living matter, and the world soul Presents his ethical vision grounded in intellectual courage, productive engagement, and the rejection of institutional dogma Four centuries after his execution, Bruno's questions about infinity, freedom of thought, and the cost of holding unpopular truths have lost none of their urgency.

Full Product Details

9798195120795

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Countries Available