内容简介

　　本书分为四册《西方的起源》《帝国的兴衰》《自由的黎明》《现代的诞生》，为读者提供西方人文经典阅读的必要知识，挑选在社会文化变革之际显示思想力量的文本，进行深入浅出的导读，引导出更为广阔深入的思考。所涉经典贯串三千年西方思想演变史，从影响西方世界最为深远的古希腊，一路走过罗马帝国的兴衰、早期基督教的兴起，穿过并不完全黑暗的中世纪、璀璨丰富的文艺复兴，最终抵达我们生活的现代。通过本书，可以与柏拉图、但丁、莎士比亚、卢梭等七十余位人类历史上的智者，《奥德赛》《理想国》《堂吉诃德》等九十余部西方最重要的经典著作展开对话。作者认为，人文经典阅读贵在自己独立的思考，阅读是必须的准备，思考才是真正目标。

　　作者简介

　　徐贲，江苏苏州人，1950年出生，作家、人文学者。美国马萨诸塞州大学文学博士，美国加州圣玛丽学院英语系荣休教授。主要著作包括《经典之外的阅读》《阅读经典：美国大学的人文教育》《人文启蒙的知识传播原理》《与时俱进的启蒙》《通往尊严的公共生活》《知识分子与公共政治》《明亮的对话：公共说理十八讲》等。

Content introduction

This book is divided into four volumes, The Origin of the West, the Rise and Fall of Empires, the Dawn of Freedom and the Birth of Modernity, to provide readers with the necessary knowledge of Western humanistic classics, select texts that show the power of thought at the time of social and cultural change, and conduct a simple introduction to guide broader and deeper thinking. The classics involved span the evolution of Western thought for three thousand years, from ancient Greece, which had the most profound influence on the Western world, all the way through the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of early Christianity, through the not completely dark Middle Ages, the bright and rich Renaissance, and finally arrived at our modern life. Through this book, you can have a dialogue with more than 70 wise men in human history, including Plato, Dante, Shakespeare, Rousseau, and more than 90 of the most important Western classics, such as The Odyssey, the Republic, and Don Quixote. The author believes that the reading of humanistic classics is valued in their own independent thinking, reading is a necessary preparation, thinking is the real goal.

About the author

Xu Ben, born in 1950 in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, is a writer and humanist. Doctor of Letters, University of Massachusetts, USA, emeritus Professor of English, St. Mary's College, California, USA. His major books include Reading Beyond the Classics, Reading the Classics: Humanistic Education in American Universities, Knowledge Dissemination Principles of Humanistic Enlightenment, Enlightenment with The Times, Public Life Towards Dignity, Intellectuals and Public Politics, and Bright Dialogue: Eighteen Lectures on Public Reasoning.