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Title: The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World by Daniel J. Boorstin ISBN: 0375704752 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.12
Rating: 3
Summary: Just not enough
Comment: After reading The Discoverers and The Creators, The Seekers may disappoint you with its lack of depth. What's written is a joy to consume (Mr. Boorstin has a tremendous may with the English language), but the deep analysis found in the first two installments of the trilogy is absent here. How surprising, considering Mr. Boorstin's obvious intellect and professed interest in the subject! To put it quite simply, I was left wanting more. I don't regret buying the book, but I do wish the author had spent more time writing it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wonderful introduction to Western philosophy
Comment: Boorstin's research and meticulous care have made this a classic introduction to Western ways of thinking. Although his preference for the atheist philosophy of Bertrand Russell is noticeable, Boorstin thankfully does not take any specific philosophical position. Dogma, especially repressive dogma, is the only position which is cast negatively. Toleration is essential in any history of ideas, especially an introductory history of philosophy such as this, and this toleration is maintained quite well in The Seekers. In addition, biographical details are presented in such a way that they add to the meaning of the documentation of the ideas without explaining the ideas away as the results of the life experiences detailed.
Since reading this book, I have begun to study philosophy on a deeper level, and have found that Boorstin slightly misinterprets Kierkegaard's book Either/Or (the first part of Either/Or, which Mr. Boorstin quotes extensively, is Kierkegaard's view of the aesthetic life, which Kierkegaard disapproves of; but Boorstin uses these quotations to represent the substance of Kierkegaard's philosophy). There may be similar errors which I have not noticed in the explanations of the ideas of other philosophers whom I have not studied extensively, but overall this is an excellent book and I would definitely recommend it to all.
Rating: 4
Summary: The journey is the reward
Comment: Boorstin is a master story teller. I felt like I was sitting with a friend by a comfortable fire, being challenged to think, but regularly regaled with irony, satire and laughter. The motto of the book might be "The road is always better than the end." Another theme is that seeking brings us together, that fulfills us. The people who think they have found the final answer are the menace to our humanity, because there is no answer to find. Of course, this is the puzzle. How can one maintain their interest in 'seeking' if they realize the danger of 'finding'? Boorstin doesn't provide simple answers.
Boorstin starts with the Biblical conversations with God recorded by the Jewish tradition. To summarize these discussion, Boorstin spends a fair amount of time with the story of Job and the omnipresent fact that bad things happen to innocent people. He concludes that the ancient Hebrews taught their children that no one knows what God knows, so the innocent must push on, must keep the faith.
With this said, he poses the same question (do you know what God knows?) to the Greek tradition, starting with Socrates. Socrates became famous for demonstrating much the same point, interviewing those who claim to know truth, then proving their knowledge was an illusion. Plato, Socrates admirer and evangelist, tried to answer Socrates with his utopian Republic. In Plato's view, no one but philosophers knew the 'truth.' Showing no respect for his elders, Aristotle, a student of Socrates and Plato, chose something of a middle road: scientists know a few things that are true. In this triad of forceful personalities, the rest of the book finds it's structure.
Following Gibbon's outline of history, Boorstin then builds a bridge (Part II) between the ancient and modern world, quickly reviewing 1000 years of dialog between empiricists (the scientists who know at least one thing) and fundamentalists (those that know what God knows). This bridge involves Greek, then Christian evangelists, scholars and reformers until about 1500, when Hobbes, St. Thomas More and Descartes renew the Socratic debate.
Boorstin makes a case for the pivotal role Descartes plays, bridging the intuition and empiricist in his famous 'I think therefore I [know I] exist'. Descartes is followed by the evangelists of this synthesis: Voltaire (the civilized know) and Rousseau (the uncivilized know). The section on Rousseau is hilarious and well worth the price of the book (The section on Kirkegaard is equally funny.)
Avoiding the temptation to side with any particular advocate, Part III describes a variety of utopian enthusiasts. For a while, I thought the title should have been the 'utopians'. In these utopias, the old question about "God allowing bad thing to happen to innocent people" is solved by banishing suffering. In Utopia, society is so perfected that nothing can upset the universal joy. The luminaries for this post 1800 era include Marx (historians know how to accomplish this), Kierkegaard (we will regret knowing), Lord Acton (joy through revolutionary discontinuities) and William James (knowledge is a river, impossible to divide). The last three personalities Boorstin mentions, Malraux, Bergson and Einstein seem to be Boorstin's personal favorites. They were all active during and after World War I & II and probably had an impact on his life. Only Voltaire gets similar approval.
Boorstin's favorable review of materialists like Voltaire, Marx and Malraux was a bit hard to swallow.. . He ignores the Scottish Enlightenment and Hume, where his hero Voltaire got the ideas which made him famous. Additionally, he tersely dismisses the contributions of Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian philosophers, all of whom greatly enriched Europe. It would have been better to ignore the subject. But, the story telling is wonderful. Maybe a logical 'whole' isn't all that important.
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Title: The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination by Daniel J. Boorstin ISBN: 0679743758 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: October, 1993 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself by Daniel J. Boorstin ISBN: 0394726251 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: February, 1985 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Americans: The Democratic Experience by Daniel Joseph Boorstin ISBN: 0394710118 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: August, 1974 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Americans, the Colonial Experience (A Caravelle Edition) by Daniel J. Boorstin ISBN: 0394705130 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: April, 1964 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Hidden History by Daniel J. Boorstin, Ruth F. Boorstin ISBN: 0679722238 Publisher: Vintage Books Pub. Date: May, 1989 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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