Paul Oskar Kristeller – författare

Vad är konst? Varför räknas måleriet och skulpturen, arkitekturen, musiken och poesin till de »sköna« konsterna? Och vilken betydelse har detta haft för för hur vi uppfattar vad som är konst och vad som inte är konst? Den amerikanske teoretikern Paul Oskar Kristeller redogör redan i början av 1950-talet för hur en av de viktigaste förutsättningarna för det moderna konstbegreppet växer fram genom en tämligen långsam och vindlande process. Denna process resulterar mot slutet av 1700-talet i att en rad mänskliga aktiviteter klassificeras i det som han kallar konstarternas moderna system under rubriken »de sköna konsterna«. Enligt Kristeller ligger de fem konstarterna även till grund för all form av modern estetik. Kristeller är inte heller mindre lyhörd för sin egen tid än att kunna se hur detta system håller på att lösas upp i den både konstnärliga och teoretiska praktiken. Idag ser vi att hans försiktiga profetia har slagit in på ett sätt som även har konsekvenser för bland annat undervisningen på våra konsthögskolor, för att inte tala om debatten på kultursidorna.

Despite our admiration for Renaissance achievement in the arts and sciences, in literature and classical learning, the rich and diversified philosophical thought of the period remains largely unknown. This volume illuminates three major currents of thought dominant in the earlier Italian Renaissance: classical humanism (Petrarch and Valla), Platonism (Ficino and Pico), and Aristotelianism (Pomponazzi). A short and elegant work of the Spaniard Vives is included to exhibit the diffusion of the ideas of humanism and Platonism outside Italy. Now made easily accessible, these texts recover for the English reader a significant facet of Renaissance learning.

Renaissance Thought and Its Sources presents the fruits of an extraordinary lifetime of scholarship: a systematic account of major themes in Renaissance philosophy, theology, science, and literature, show in their several settings. Here, in some of Paul Oskar Kristeller's most comprehensive and ambitious writings, is an exploration of the distinctive trends and concepts of the Renaissance, grounded in detailed historical investigation.All of these fourteen essays were originally delivered as lectures. Part One identifies the classical sources of Renaissance thought and exposes its essential physiognomy, indicating its humanist, Aristotelian, and Platonist traditions. The next two parts present Renaissance thought in the historical context of the Latin and Greek Middle Ages. Part Four offers a thematic study of Renaissance thought, examining its characteristic conceptions of man's dignity, destiny, and grasp of truth. Part Five forms a summary from the perspective of a central theme of Renaissance intellectual life and of the entire Western tradition: the relation of language to thought and the seemingly insoluble contest between our literary and philosophical traditions.The reader of "Renaissance Thought and its Sources" enjoys the results of meticulous study in a concise yet comprehensive format.Throughout, Kristeller achieves a graceful blending of sever historical scholarship and adherence to humane values that the editor calls "nearly a lost art in our times."

This study charts the continuing influence of medieval scholastic thought in Renaissance civilization. In the three essays, Paul Oskar Kristellar illustrates the way medieval ideas and issues remained active in Renaissance philosophy, theology, literature and in education, both secular and religious. In his first essay, Kristeller explains the conflicts in various Renaissance literatures - between rigorous scholastic writings and eloquent humanist ones, between texts written in Latin and those in the vernacular - by appealing to a notion of literary genre which aligns different types of text with distinct audiences. The second essay considers the influence of St Thomas Aquinas during the Italian Renaissance, showing that he was widely read and respected by major humanists, and contributed to the debates over the distinction between philosophy and theology and the relative importance of the intellect and the will. The final essay suggests that monks and friars play a more important role in Renaissance thought than is usually realized. They made monastic libraries available to humanist scholars, and actively engaged in the intellectual disputes of their time.

This volume treats a fascinating but much neglected period in the history of ancient philosophy between the third and first centuries BC. "Greek Philosophers of the Hellenistic Age" is based on primary sources: the Greek and Latin writings of the philosophers and the fragments, paraphrases, and testimonies from their lost works. The eight chapters discuss: Epicurus; Zeno, the founder of the Stoic school and his successor, Cleanthes; Pyrrho, the founder of Skepticism and Arcesilaus, the philosopher who introduced it to the Platonic Academy; Chrysippus, the third head of the Stoic school and its most important representative; Carneades and Philo of Larissa, second and third representatives of Skepticism in the Platonic Academy, respectively; Panaetius, the first leader of Middle Stoicism; Posidonius, the second leader of Middle Stoicism; and Antiochus of Ascalon, the head of the Academy who led it back from Skepticism and prepared Middle Platonism, which paved the way for Neoplatonism.

Written by an eminent authority on the Renaissance, these classic essays deal not only with Paul Kristeller's specialty, Renaissance humanism and philosophy, but also with Renaissance theories of art. The focus of the collection is on topics such as humanist learning, humanist moral thought, the diffusion of humanism, Platonism, music and learning during the early Renaissance, and the modern system of arts in relation to the Renaissance. For this volume the author has written a new preface, a new essay, and an afterword.

Italian Renaissance thought has been gaining ever-increasing recognition as seminal to the thought of the whole Renaissance period, affecting in many subtle ways the development and understanding of artistic, literary, scientific, and religious movements. The importance, then, of this detailed and careful survey of Italy's leading Renaissance philosophers and the intricate philosophical problems of the time can scarcely be exaggerated.Based upon the 1961 Arensberg Lectures, given at Stanford University, this collection of essays offers a genuinely unified interpretation of Italian Renaissance thought by describing and evaluating the philosophies of eight pivotal figures: Petrarch, Valla, Ficino, Pico, Pomponazzi, Telesio, Patrizi, and Bruno. The essays not only discuss the life, writings, and main ideas of these eight thinkers, but also establish through a connective text, the place each of them occupies in the general intellectual development of the Italian Renaissance.

Kairos nr 2: Varför räknas måleriet och skulpturen, arkitekturen, musiken och poesin till de »sköna« konsterna? Och vilken betydelse har detta haft för för hur vi uppfattar vad som är konst och vad som inte är konst? I Kairos nr 2 redogör den amerikanske teoretikern P.O. Kristeller för hur en av de viktigaste förutsättningarna för det moderna konstbegreppet växer fram genom en tämligen långsam och vindlande process. Kristeller beskriver hur detta system håller på att lösas upp i den både konstnärliga och teoretiska praktiken. Idag ser vi att hans försiktiga profetia har slagit in på ett sätt som även har konsekvenser för bl. a. undervisningen på våra konsthögskolor, för att inte tala om debatten på kultursidorna. Skriftserien Kairos används som kurslitteratur vid högskolor och universitet och genom nytryckningar säkerställer vi att den alltid finns tillgänglig. Serien, som kommer att omfatta 14 nummer 2008 (under våren 2008 kommer Kairos nr 13, Koreografier och under hösten Kairos nr 14, Ljudkonst), varav två dubbelvolymer, säljs hos välsorterade bokhandlare, i museishoppar och genom nätbokhandeln.