Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver Honoring the Work of Leon R. Kass

by Levin, Yuval; Merrill, Thomas W.; Schulman, Adam; Cohen, Eric; Dresser, Rebecca; Fishbane, Michael; Flaumenhaft, Harvey; Kass, Amy; Lerner, Ralph; Levin, Yuval; Ludwig, Paul; Lund, Nelson; Mansfield, Harvey C.; McHugh, Paul; Meilaender, Gilbert; Schaub, D

• ISBN13: 9780739141601
• ISBN10: 0739141600
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-05-13
• Publisher: LEXINGTON BOOKS

Summary

Leon R. Kass has been helping Americans better understand the human condition for over four decades-as a teacher, writer, scholar, public champion of the humanities, and defender of human dignity. From bioethics to civic education, from interpreting the Bible to weighing the moral implications of modern science, Kass has offered wisdom, guidance, and instruction. In this volume, fifteen of Kass's admirers-including students, colleagues, and friends-honor his work by reflecting on the broad range of subjects to which he has devoted his life's work. Some of the essays offer interpretations of great works of literature and philosophy from Homer, Sophocles, and Plato to Rousseau, Franklin, Jane Austen, Hawthorne, and Henry James. Others examine the significance of Kass's work as a bioethicist and chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics and as on interpreter of the Book of Genesis. The essays collected in Apples of Gold in Pictures of Silver offer a sense of the breadth of Kass's interests and insights and the influence he has had on generations of scholars. The reader is further acquainted with the career of Leon R. Kass by a biographical introduction and a comprehensive listing of his published writings and the courses he has taught. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Yuval Levin is editor of National Affairs and to fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. Thomas W. Merrill is assistant professor of government at American University in Washington, D.C., and was a senior research analyst at the President's Council on Bioethics. Adam Schulman is a tutor at St. John's College, Annapolis, and was a senior research consultant at the president's Council on Bioethics.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Career of Leon Kass	p. ix
The Homecoming of Penelope	p. 1
The World through Ben's Bifocals	p. 21
Medicalizing Childhood	p. 35
Washington Square	p. 49
The Silence of the Spartan	p. 65
Torah Transformed	p. 89
Leon Kass and the Poets	p. 101
Toward a Richer Public Bioethics	p. 109
Philosophic Anthropology in Rousseau and Elizabeth Marshall Thomas	p. 123
Self-knowledge and Moral Seriousness in Jane Austen's Pride Prejudice	p. 153
From Hearth-Fires to Hell-Fires	p. 175
Fraternity in Antigone	p. 197
Children of Skeptics	p. 227
The God-Seeking Animal	p. 247
The Traditional Animal	p. 257
Courses Taught	p. 273
Published Writings of Leon R. Kass	p. 275
Index	p. 287
About the Contributors	p. 291
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