{"title":"Mara van der Lugt","description":"\u003cp\u003eMara van der Lugt's work navigates the intricate landscape where \u003cem\u003ephilosophy\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003epsychology\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003espirituality\u003c\/em\u003e intersect. Her writing invites readers to explore profound questions about existence, faith, and the human condition with clarity and depth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom contemplative reflections to critical examinations of belief, her books offer thoughtful perspectives that challenge and inspire. Ideal for those drawn to exploring hope and doubt, certainty and mystery within the realms of religion and thought.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"dark-matters-by-mara-van-der-lugt-9780691206622","title":"Dark Matters","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn intellectual history of the philosophers who grappled with the problem of evil, and the case for why pessimism still holds moral value for us today.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, philosophers engaged in heated debates on how God could have allowed evil and suffering in a creation that is supposedly good. \u003ci\u003eDark Matters\u003c\/i\u003e traces how the competing philosophical traditions of optimism and pessimism arose from early modern debates about the problem of evil, making a compelling case for rediscovering pessimism as a source of compassion, consolation, and perhaps even hope.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBringing to life one of the most vibrant eras in the history of philosophy, Mara van der Lugt discusses legendary figures such as Leibniz, Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau, Kant, and Schopenhauer. She also introduces readers to less familiar names such as Bayle, King, La Mettrie, and Maupertuis. Van der Lugt describes how the earliest optimists and pessimists were deeply concerned with finding an answer to the question of the value of existence, one that does justice to the reality of human suffering, though they were fundamentally divided over what such an answer should look like.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA breathtaking work of intellectual history by one of today's leading scholars, \u003ci\u003eDark Matters\u003c\/i\u003e reveals how the crucial moral aim of pessimism is to find a way of speaking about suffering that offers consolation and does justice to the fragility of life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003ci\u003eDark Matters\u003c\/i\u003e is history of philosophy at its best - scholarly, argumentative, and lively. Van der Lugt traces the ways in which the problem of theodicy - of justifying the works of God in a world full of evil - was transformed across the eighteenth century into the choice between optimism and pessimism, understood not as psychological expectations of the future but as philosophical alternatives in the face of suffering. - John Robertson, University of Cambridge\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis beautifully written and carefully argued book deploys a hermeneutics of sympathy for those philosophers who wonder whether life is worth living at all. The effects are a kind of alchemy: while one contemplates the most awful thoughts, van der Lugt's expert and gentle guidance creates the joy that comes from knowing one is not wholly alone in the world. - Eric Schliesser, University of Amsterdam\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47000587174124,"sku":"9780691206622","price":69.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/2053363482434.jpg?v=1763287261"},{"product_id":"hopeful-pessimism-by-mara-van-der-lugt-9780691265605","title":"Hopeful Pessimism","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhy 'hopeful pessimism' is not a contradiction in terms but a powerful source of moral and political commitment\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe climate debate is rife with calls for optimism. While temperatures rise and disasters intensify, we are asked to maintain optimism and hope, as if the real threat is pessimism and despair. In this erudite and engaging book, Mara van der Lugt argues that this is a mistake: crude optimism can no longer be a virtue in a breaking world, and may well prove to be our besetting vice. In an age of climate change and ecological devastation, the virtue we need is hopeful pessimism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on thinkers that range from J. R. R. Tolkien and Mary Shelley to Albert Camus and Jonathan Lear, van der Lugt invites us to rethink what we thought we knew about optimism and pessimism, hope and despair, activism and grief. She shows that pessimism is closely linked to a tradition of moral and political activism, and offers a different way to think about pessimism: not as synonymous with despair but as compatible with hope. Gently yet fiercely, van der Lugt argues that what we need to avoid is not pessimism but fatalism or self-serving resignation. Pessimism does not imply the loss of courage or the lack of a desire to strive for a better world; on the contrary, these are the very gifts that pessimism can bestow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat \u003cem\u003eHopeful Pessimism\u003c\/em\u003e asks instead is that we strive for change without certainties, without expecting anything from our efforts other than the knowledge that we have done what we are called upon to do as moral agents in a time of change.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"NewSouth Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47000637866220,"sku":"9780691265605","price":89.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/2643193482434.jpg?v=1763292197"},{"product_id":"begetting-by-mara-van-der-lugt-9780691240503","title":"Begetting","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn investigation of what it means to have children morally, philosophically and emotionally.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e‘Do you want to have children?’ is a question we routinely ask each other. But what does it mean to create a child? Is this decision always justified? Does anyone really have the moral right to create another person? In \u003ci\u003eBegetting\u003c\/i\u003e, Mara van der Lugt attempts to fill in the moral background of procreation. Drawing on both philosophy and popular culture, van der Lugt does not provide a definitive answer on the morality of having a child; instead, she helps us find the right questions to ask.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eMost of the time, when we talk about whether to have children, what we are really talking about is whether we \u003ci\u003ewant\u003c\/i\u003e to have children. Van der Lugt shows why this is not enough. To consider having children, she argues, is to interrogate our own responsibility and commitments, morally and philosophically and also personally. What does it mean to bring a new creature into the world, to decide to perform an act of creation? What does it mean to make the decision that life is worth living on behalf of a person who cannot be consulted?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThese questions are part of a conversation we should have started long ago. Van der Lugt does not ignore the problematic aspects of procreation — ethical, environmental and otherwise. But she also acknowledges the depth and complexity of the intensely human desire to have a child of our own blood and our own making.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47423833145580,"sku":"9780691240503","price":124.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780691240503.jpg?v=1774769834"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/mara-van-der-lugt.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}