A critical exploration of the life's work of one of the twentieth century's most important philosophers and poets, Kahlil GibranThrough his fiction, essays, poems, and art, Kahlil Gibran inspired a devoted international following and transformed...
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A critical exploration of the life's work of one of the twentieth century's most important philosophers and poets, Kahlil GibranThrough his fiction, essays, poems, and art, Kahlil Gibran inspired a devoted international following and transformed modern Arabic literature. In this book, Joseph P. Ghougassian brings together the philosophical elements present across Gibran's diverse writings, including his bestselling work The Prophet, as well as other significant works such as The Broken Wings, which tells the story of doomed young lovers, and the collection of aphorisms in Sand and Foam. Excerp
Cover Page; Title Page; Dedication; Contents; Preface; Table of abbreviations of titles; CHAPTER ONE: A Short History of Lebanon Under the Ottoman Conquest; Footnotes; CHAPTER TWO: Life of Kahlil Gibran; Footnotes; CHAPTER THREE: The Contribution of the Writer; 1. The Meaning of Gibran's Publications; 2. Gibran's Innovation in Modern Arabic Literature; 3. The Foreign Influences; Friedrich Nietzsche; The Bible; Buddhism; William Blake; Footnotes; CHAPTER FOUR: Gibran's Philosophy of Aesthetics; 1. The Essence of Poetry; Truth, the goal of poetry; Inspiration, the mode of poetic thinking
The function of the poetThe fate of the poet in society; 2. The Essence of Art; Gibran's art; The manifoldness of beauty; Footnotes; CHAPTER FIVE: Gibran's Philosophy of Law and Society; 1.Humanistic Social Contract; The zeitgeist of modern society; Nature versus artificiality; Spiritual awakening, a remedy; Historical implications; 2.Gibran on the Issue of Law; Scepticism towards man-made law; Absurdity of the laws' sanctions; Man-made laws and the plea of uniqueness; Natural laws versus manmade laws; 3.Parables on Authority; Footnotes; CHAPTER SIX: Love the Quintessence of Human Existence
1.ErosCritics of the prevailing misconceptions; Gibran's sexual life; 2.Agape; Love, the essence of existence; Love is disinterestedness; Love knows no time and no space; Love is stronger than death; Love commands universality; Love, hate, forgiveness; Love gives delicious pain; Love develops genuine bonds of intersubjectivity; Love guarantees freedom; Love and the plea of uniqueness; Conclusion; Footnotes; CHAPTER SEVEN: Gibran's Philosophy of Religion; 1.Critics of Organized Religion; Simony; Despotism; Machiavellianism; Spiritual distortion; Intrinsic versus extrinsic religion
2.Nature of Authentic ReligionHome est naturaliter animal religiosum; Is there such a thing as an absolute God?; Faith; Immanence of God; Transcendence of God and God's relation to man; Death and immortality; Reincarnation; 3.Some Comments on Jesus the Son of Man; Footnotes; CHAPTER EIGHT: Evaluation of Gibranism; 1. Weaknesses in Gibran; 2. Relevancy of Gibranism; Bibliography of and on Gibran; Index; Copyright Page
