Bøker av Ben-Ami Scharfstein

Scharfstein describes the extraordinary powers that have been attributed to language everywhere, and then looks at ineffability as it has appeared in the thought of the great philosophical cultures: India, China, Japan, and the West. He argues that there is something of our prosaic, everyday difficulty with words in the ineffable reality of the philosophers and theologians, just as there is something unformulable, and finally mysterious in the prosaic, everyday successes and failures of words.

States that the problems encountered with context are insoluble. This title explains why this problem lays an intellectual burden on us that, while remaining inescapable, can become so heavy it destroys the understanding it was created to further.

Combining a deep knowledge of psychology, cultural anthropology, art history, and the history of religions - not to mention philosophy, this book demonstrates the unpredictability of writing and thought and how they can teach us about our experiences.

Draws on neuroscience and psychology to understand the way we both perceive and conceive of art, including its resistance to verbal exposition. This book probes the distinction between accepting a tradition and defying it through innovation, which leads to a consideration of the notion of artistic genius.