About-Face

Much of the material included in each superbook (of supernotational aphorisms/maxims) in this volume is, of course, complementary, since their author's structural and thematic integrity has remained fairly consistent throughout. But if that were only the case he could have settled for one such superbook instead of two, the latter of which gradually emerged in its own right with a thematic and stylistic integrity of its own that, in many instances, not only went beyond but corrected and even contradicted some of the material already broached, thereby justifying its inclusion as a separate superbook that, nonetheless, was not unrelated, in most respects, to its predecessor. Some incidental material in the four supernotebooks of the first superbook and two of the second was not used or could not, for various reasons, be used, but what has been extracted from them has undergone sufficient rewriting and revision, not to say expansion, as to justify the concept of 'superbook', the intent of which is to draw a firm line under the biconical criteria which characterize not only this volume but other recent titles by John O'Loughlin, and all in the interests of a fresh approach to both logic and civilization that should enhance, rather than diminish, the capacity of the human mind to embrace morality and the complexities of moral issues to a degree and in a way arguably never before broached in the history of serious theoretical, or philosophical, endeavour.

Dettagli