| Fame Contributor(s): Rowlands, Mark (Author) |
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ISBN: 1844651576 ISBN-13: 9781844651573 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $46.50 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: August 2008 Annotation: One of the most distinctive cultural phenomena of recent years has been the increasing fame of fame. Mark Rowlands argues that our obsession with fame has transformed it: no longer associated with excellence or achievement in a field of endeavour, it is now unconnected to any discernible distinction, allowing a person to be famous simply for being famous. To understand this new form of fame, simultaneously fascinating and worthless, Rowlands shows that we have to understand a dispute that began in ancient Greece between Plato and Protagoras and was continued in a remarkable philosophical experiment in eighteenth-century France. Somewhat like contestants on a reality TV show, we find ourselves, unwittingly, playing out the consequences of this experiment. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Philosophy | Epistemology - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social |
| Dewey: 303.372 |
| Series: Art of Living (McGill-Queen) |
| Physical Information: 0.4" H x 5.4" W x 8.3" (0.40 lbs) 160 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: One of the most distinctive cultural phenomena of recent years has been the rise and rise of fame. In this book, Mark Rowlands argues that our obsession with fame has transformed it. Fame was once associated with excellence or achievement in some or other field of endeavour. But today we are obsessed with something that is, in effect, quite different: fame unconnected with any discernible distinction, fame that allows a person to be famous simply for being famous. This book shows why this new fame is simultaneously fascinating and worthless. To understand this new form of fame, Rowlands maintains, we have to engage in an extensive philosophical excavation that takes us back to a dispute that began in ancient Greece between Plato and Protagoras, and was carried on in a remarkable philosophical experiment that began in eighteenth-century France. Somewhat like contestants on a reality TV show, today we find ourselves, unwittingly, playing out the consequences of this experiment. |