What a Piece of Work: On Being Human

What a Piece of Work: On Being Human
ISBN-10
1845404246
ISBN-13
9781845404246
Series
What a Piece of Work
Category
Philosophy
Pages
146
Language
English
Published
2016-10-17
Publisher
Andrews UK Limited
Author
Helen Oppenheimer

Description

This is a small book on a large subject: What is special about human beings? Hamlet mused, ‘What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how like a god!’ but went on to speak of ‘this quintessence of dust’. Helen Oppenheimer prefers to start with the dust and move to the glory: we really are animals — and from these animals has come Shakespeare. People are indeed ‘miserable sinners’ — and also magnificent creatures. The author does not disguise that she is a Christian theologian whose subject is ethics, but she writes equally for non-Christians. Her invitation to the reader is: Here is a way of looking at things that I find exciting and convincing — I hope you do too.

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