Publisher's Synopsis
The readings in this volume explore the tensions between the individual and society and the even greater tensions between solitude and community. The first two readings reveal these tensions already present in the earliest classic of the Western tradition-Homer's Iliad-in sharp contrast to the ideal harmony between society and the individual epitomized in the Confucian classics of the Eastern tradition. Excerpts from Max Weber, W.E.B. Du Bois, Ruth Benedict, and Dominique Zahan provide examples of classic analytical descriptions of human society from sociological and anthropological perspectives. Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria Stewart, Olaudah Equiano, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton reflect the solitude inflicted by oppression. Alisdair MacIntyre and Octavio Paz offer very different theoretical visions of community as antidotes to the dehumanizing fragmentation of modern societies. Fictional narratives by Marie de France, Marguerite de Navarre, and Gabriel García Márquez create their own communities through imagination. The readings suggest a tentative conclusion that a healthy interplay between solitude and society may lead us to achieve true community, but only if each individual in the community is free to develop to his or her own full potential. Society, Solitude, and Community is the fourth in the 10-volume series, Lynchburg College Symposium Readings, 3rd edition. Each volume presents primary texts organized around an interdisciplinary, liberal arts theme such as education, politics, social issues, science and technology, morals and ethics. The series has been developed by Lynchburg College faculty for use in the Senior Symposium and the Lynchburg College Symposium Readings Program (SS/LCSR). While these programs are distinctive to Lynchburg College, the texts are used on many college campuses across the nation, as well as by readers interested in significant original texts on important topics.
