Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped Our World View"[This] magnificent critical survey, with its inherent respect for both the 'Westt's mainstream high culture' and the 'radically changing world' of the 1990s, offers a new breakthrough for lay and scholarly readers alike....Allows readers to grasp the big picture of Western culture for the first time." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Here are the great minds of Western civilization and their pivotal ideas, from Plato to Hegel, from Augustine to Nietzsche, from Copernicus to Freud. Richard Tarnas performs the near-miracle of describing profound philosophical concepts simply but without simplifying them. Ten years in the making and already hailed as a classic, THE PASSION OF THE WESERN MIND is truly a complete liberal education in a single volume. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Ideas and Gods | 13 |
Contents xi | 28 |
The Philosophers Quest and the Universal Mind | 41 |
The Problem of the Planets | 48 |
Aristotle and the Greek Balance | 55 |
The Dual Legacy | 69 |
Astronomy | 79 |
At the Threshold | 220 |
The Reformation | 233 |
The Scientific Revolution | 248 |
The Philosophical Revolution | 272 |
13 | 312 |
The Transformation of the Modern Era | 325 |
The SelfCritique of the Modern Mind | 333 |
The Crisis of Modern Science | 355 |
Crosscurrents of the Hellenistic Matrix | 85 |
The Christian World View | 91 |
Classical Elements and the Platonic Inheritance | 98 |
The Conversion of the Pagan Mind | 106 |
Contraries Within the Christian Vision | 120 |
Dualistic Christianity | 130 |
Further Contraries and the Augustinian Legacy | 138 |
The Holy Spirit and Its Vicissitudes | 155 |
The Virgin Mary and the Mother Church | 162 |
3 | 165 |
The Transformation of the Medieval Era | 171 |
The Quest of Thomas Aquinas | 179 |
Further Developments in the High Middle Ages | 191 |
Critical Scholasticism and Ockhams Razor | 200 |
The Rebirth of Classical Humanism | 209 |
Romanticism and Its Fate | 366 |
The Postmodern Mind | 395 |
At the Millennium | 411 |
Knowledge and the Unconscious | 422 |
The Evolution of World Views | 433 |
Bringing It All Back Home | 441 |
Notes | 468 |
16 | 473 |
19 | 481 |
494 | |
Acknowledgments | 513 |
516 | |
522 | |
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The Passion Of The Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas That Have Shaped ... Richard Tarnas No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
achieved activity already ancient appeared Aquinas Aristotle authority basis became become belief body Catholic cause century character Christ Christian Church classical conception concerning continued cosmos created creation critical cultural death direct divine doctrine early Earth effect elements emerged empirical entire established existence experience expression faith final force foundation fundamental further God's Greek heavens human human mind Ideas individual intellectual intelligence Italy knowledge later laws logical man's material mathematical matter meaning medieval metaphysical mind modern moral motion movement moving nature objective observation pagan particular philosophy physical planets Plato political position present principles progress radical rational reality reason recognized reflected Reformation religion religious Renaissance revelation Roman scientific secular seemed sense significance soul spiritual structure theology theory things thought tion tradition transcendent true truth ultimate understanding universe vision Western world view