Introduction

A book that explores the evolution of the Western mind places special demands on both reader and writer, for it asks us to enter into frames of reference that are sometimes radically different from our own. Such a book invites a certain intellectual flexibility—a sympathetic metaphysical imagination, a capacity for viewing the world through the eyes of men and women from other times. One must in a sense wipe the slate clean, attempt to see things without the benefit or burden of a preconceived outlook. Of course such a pristine, malleable state of mind can only be striven for, never achieved. Yet to aspire to that ideal is perhaps the single most important prerequisite for an enterprise such as this. Unless we are able to perceive and articulate, on their own terms and without condescension, certain powerful beliefs and assumptions that we no longer consider valid or defensible—for example, the once universal conviction that the Earth is the stationary center of the cosmos, or the even more enduring tendency among Western thinkers to conceive of and personify the human species in predominantly masculine terms—then we will fail to understand the intellectual and cultural foundations of our own thought. Our constant challenge is to remain faithful to the historical material, allowing our present perspective to enrich, but not distort, the various ideas and world views we examine. While that challenge should not be underestimated, I believe that today, for reasons that will become clear in the later chapters of the book, we are in a better position to engage this task with the necessary intellectual and imaginative flexibility than at perhaps any time in the past.

The following narrative is organized chronologically according to the three world views associated with the three major eras that have traditionally been distinguished in Western cultural history—the classical, the medieval, and the modern. Needless to say, any division of history into “eras” and “world views” cannot in itself do justice to the actual complexity and diversity of Western thought during these centuries. Yet to discuss such an immense mass of material fruitfully, one must first introduce some provisional principles of organization. Within these overarching generalities, we may then better address the complications and ambiguities, the internal conflicts and unanticipated changes that have never ceased to mark the history of the Western mind.

We begin with the Greeks. It was some twenty-five centuries ago that the Hellenic world brought forth that extraordinary flowering of culture that marked the dawn of Western civilization. Endowed with seemingly primeval clarity and creativity, the ancient Greeks provided the Western mind with what has proved to be a perennial source of insight, inspiration, and renewal. Modern science, medieval theology, classical humanism—all stand deeply in their debt. Greek thought was as fundamental for Copernicus and Kepler, and Augustine and Aquinas, as for Cicero and Petrarch. Our way of thinking is still profoundly Greek in its underlying logic, so much so that before we can begin to grasp the character of our own thought, we must first look closely at that of the Greeks. They remain fundamental for us in other ways as well: Curious, innovative, critical, intensely engaged with life and with death, searching for order and meaning yet skeptical of conventional verities, the Greeks were originators of intellectual values as relevant today as they were in the fifth century B.C . Let us recall, then, these first protagonists of the Western intellectual tradition.

Note: A detailed chronology for the events discussed in this book appears at the end of the text ( this page ), while dates of birth and death for each historical figure cited can be found next to the individual’s name in the Index. A discussion of gender and language in the text appears at the beginning of the Notes ( this page ).