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  1. Home
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  3. Culture and Anarchy
  • Cited by 7
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
October 2012
Print publication year:
2011
First published in:
1869
Online ISBN:
9781139136440
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139136440
Subjects:
Literature, Nineteenth-Century Philosophy, Philosophy: General Interest, English Literature 1830-1900, Philosophy
Series:
Cambridge Library Collection - Philosophy
Information

Book description

By the middle of the nineteenth century, culture was often considered to be nothing but a meaningless 'smattering of Latin and Greek'. In this work, first published in 1869, Matthew Arnold (1822–88) redefines culture as a striving for 'the best that has been thought or said', and as a contrast to 'philistinism' and the over-valuation of the practical. Critical of the uninspiring lifestyles of many of his religious and non-religious contemporaries, he raises the controversial issue of how to lead a good life, aesthetically, intellectually and morally. He introduces a middle road between classical and Judaeo-Christian ideals ('Hellenism' and 'Hebraism') which promotes the state over the individual, a position that has often prompted his critics to consider him an authoritarian thinker. A fascinating piece of social and political criticism, and an adjunct to Arnold's poetry, this work was both controversial when it was first published, and enormously influential thereafter.

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