The scholarship of A.K. Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) is legendary. Indeed, he has been called one of the greatest intellectuals ("intellect"-the habit of first principles) of the modern era-and with good reason. The scope and penetration of his studies are beyond compare. Altogether his work is a veritable summa of the world's religions and cultures. But the awesome range and depth of his knowledge were never used for the purpose of anything like a personal philosophy. In expounding in unparalleled fashion the 'normal' and traditional doctrine of life, art, and worship as an expression of the common metaphysical doctrines of the world's sacred traditions, Coomaraswamy handled the diversity of his material as the varying dialects of a single, universal Truth.

What is Civilisation? brings together some twenty previously unpublished and uncollected papers of their author, many of them being among his most famous and seminal. It therefore represents a major addition not only to Coomaraswamy's published work but of those works that authentically interpret without compromise or distortion the metaphysical, spiritual, and symbolic dimensions of the Philosophia Perennis.

Books in the Fons Vitae Coomaraswamy series include: 

The Bugbear of Literacy ; Figures of Speech, Figures of Thought ; Guardians of the Sundoor

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