Reading the World: Ideas That Matter

by Michael Austin

Overview

These are some of the world's great thinkers, and their writings are presented here together with the writings of more than seventy others from across cultures and eras. Because ideas have long been expressed visually as well as verbally, the collection also includes fifteen images, among them Picasso's Guernica, a page from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, a still from Leni Riefenstahl's film The Triumph of the Will, and an Igbo sculpture. Organized around the universal themes of Human Nature; Law and Government; War and Peace; Wealth, Poverty, and Social Class; Science and Nature; Education; and Language and Rhetoric, the texts in this book present diverse views on ideas that matter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324103523
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/01/2026
Edition description:	5th ed.
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Michael Austin (Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara) is Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at University of Evansville. Before moving to Evansville, he was Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Newman University (Kansas), and before that, Dean of Graduate Studies at Shepherd University (West Virginia) where he taught composition, world literature, and British literature. In addition to Reading the World, he is the author of several books, including A Voice in the Wilderness: Conversations with Terry Tempest Williams.

Table of Contents

Preface     xv
Acknowledgements     xix
Timeline     xxi
Pronunciation Guide     xxvii
Reading the World
Human Nature     3
The Shaft of the Dead Man     6
from Maitrayana-Brahmana-Upanishad     9
from the Mencius     16
Man's Nature Is Evil     24
Madonna and Child     34
from Leviathan     37
The Dependent Relationship of the Ego     43
Igbo Mother and Child     53
The Individual and the Pattern of Culture     56
from The Ethics of Ambiguity     68
Law and Government     77
Hammurabi's Code     80
The Papyrus of Ani     90
1 Samuel 8-10     94
from the Agganna Sutta     100
from the Too te Ching     104
Seventeen-Article Constitution     116
from The Treasure of the City of the Ladies     122
from The Prince     130
Federalist #10     139
An Address at the Congress of Angostura     148
from The Triumph of the Will     157
The Gikuyu System of Government     160
Letter from Birmingham City Jail     172
from In Quest of Democracy     190
War and Peace     198
from The Art of War     201
from Book 2     205
from Summa Theologica     210
Methods of Waging War Practiced by the Various Nations     215
Liberty Leading the People     220
What is War?     223
Guernica     236
Warfare: An Invention-Not a Biological Necessity     239
Pacifism and the War     247
Come September     253
What Is a Just War?     268
Wealth, Poverty, and Social Class     280
Against Music     283
Luke, Chapter 16     289
from Sura Four: Women     293
from Memoirs     299
Beer Street and Gin Lane     304
from An Essay on the Principle of Population     309
from The Communist Manifesto     317
Economic and Moral Progress     337
from The Day of the Dead     346
Two Principles of Justice     353
Lifeboat Ethics: the Case against Helping the Poor     359
Science and Nature     371
from Physics     374
Cosmological Chart of the Ptolemaic Universe      387
from The Incoherence of the Philosophers     384
from On the Harmony of Religions and Philosophy     392
from Novum Organum     398
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump     404
from Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest     407
The Obligation to Endure     421
The Universe in a Grain of Sand     429
Education     444
Allegory of the Cave     447
Encouraging Learning     455
Manners to Be Observed by Teachers and Students     463
Pictures     471
from Emile, or On Education     479
from the New England Primer     491
On National Education     495
Learning to Read     506
from Knowledge Its Own End     513
Reflections on the Right Use of School Studies with a View to the Love of God     522
The Banking Concept of Education     530
Language and Rhetoric     536
from Gorgias     539
from Rhetoric     550
The Difficulties of Persuasion     557
from the Nyaya Sutras     563
from On Rhetorical Invention     570
from Institutio Oratoria     576
Freedom of Speech     582
from A Rhetoric of Motives     585
Language and the Destiny of Man     592
Population Policy     601
How to Tame a Wild Tongue     604
Nobody Mean More to Me than You, and the Future Life of Willie Jordan     616
A Guide to Reading and Writing
Reading Ideas     635
Prereading     636
Annotating     639
Identifying Patterns     642
Reading Visual Texts     644
Summarizing     647
Reading with a Critical Eye     648
Generating Ideas     652
Considering Expectations     653
Exploring Your Topic     657
Achieving Subtlety     660
Structuring Ideas     664
Thesis Statements     665
Introductions     669
Transitions     672
Conclusions     677
Supporting Ideas     680
Supporting Claims with Evidence     681
Logos: Appeals to Logic and Reason     683
Pathos: Appeals to Emotion     692
Ethos: The Writer's Appeal     694
Anticipating Counterarguments     697
Synthesizing Ideas      699
Summarizing Multiple Sources     700
Comparing and Contrasting     701
Finding Themes and Patterns     703
Synthesizing Ideas to Form Your Own Argument     707
Incorporating Ideas     773
Finding Sources     714
Evaluating Sources     716
Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing     718
Documenting Sources     723
Sample Documented Essay (MLA Format)     730
Revising, Rewriting, and Editing     735
Permissions Acknowledgments     737
Index     741