Tolstoy's War and Peace: Philosophical Perspectives - Paperback

by Predrag Cicovacki (Editor)

This collection of eight essays by world-renowned philosophers and literary critics thoroughly examines the philosophical perspectives of Leo Tolstoy's immortal novel War and Peace. By examining the narrative structure, as well as the struggles and destinies of the central characters, the authors offer in-- depth analyses of the multilayered topics of this work. These topics range from those of war and peace, of the possibility of historical truths, and of freedom and determination, to the issues about friendship, love, living, and dying. Underlying all these discussions is the examination of Tolstoy's preoccupation with the pursuits of truth, goodness, and beauty in a world replete with deceptions, destructions, and artificiality. Taken together, the essays suggest that Tolstoy's novel leaves open the door for the possibility of objective values and judgments, as well as for the possibility of discerning some fundamental truths regarding the value and meaning of human life. The novel's accounts of complex and multifaceted interactions among facts and values, as well as of the intrusion of the extraordinary into the ordinary, challenge readers to reflect on fundamental truths in the context of such interactions and intrusionsif they can only give full attention to what is present, rather than be carried away by constant anticipations of what may come next.

Author Biography

Predrag Cicovacki teaches philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross, where he also served as Director of Peace and Conflict Studies and as Editor-in-Chief of "Diotima: A Philosophical Review." Cicovacki is author of twelve books and editor of ten books. In 2012-13, Cicovacki was a Senior Nehru-Fulbright fellow in India. His numerous books are published in, or translated into several languages including English, Serbian, Russian, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese.