The Triumph and Tragedy of the Intellectuals ─ Evil, Enlightenment, and Death

Redner presents the fourth and final volume in his tetralogy. This work is more closely concerned with ideas, ideologies, ideologues, and intellectuals in general. Collectively they portray the contemporary predicament of humanity and what historically led up to it, mostly focusing on the twentieth century. Like the other volumes, this work ranges over the whole of civilization. The book works itself out as a historical process of the rise and fall of the intellectuals, their triumph and tragedy. It runs in reverse chronology--first the tragedy and then the triumph: it begins with the horrors of the twentieth century that they instigated; then it goes back to the period of the Enlightenment that gave birth to them; finally, it reaches back still further into history to show how intellectuals learned to die without the hope of immortality that both philosophy and religion had held out since the start of western civilization. Ten chapters are divided into three parts: evil and the tragedy of the intellectuals; Enlightenment and the triumph of the intellectuals; death and afterlife. Annotation ©2016 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)