Over the last few days, I have been digging into Ideas:A History of Thought from Fire to Freud, by Peter Watson. It’s a thick book, around 750 pages, and dense. But so far, it has been a fascinating read. In short, it’s a fast moving intellectual history of damn near everything, although I think it leaves out anything that does not influence Asian, middle-Eastern, and European thought. Except for covering theories about the early migrations from Africa through Australia and the America’s, there has been virtually no mention of sub-Saharan Africa, Australia or the Americas. I believe that is because Watson selects not those ideas that are merely brilliant, but those that contribute to the larger flow of intellectual progress. And as isolated as these places were, despite the ingenius ideas they had, they could not contribute until later ages. And so far, I am roughly 170 pages in, which is covering the birth of Judaism, Christianity, and the beginnings of post-Confucian Chinese culture.
But other than this fault (if you want to even consider it a fault) the book is stimulating. It shows how certain ideas grow and grow, usually out of necessity from certain conditions, into more advanced ideas, and how they influence new ideas. Why were the Greeks so advanced in the sciences of the day? How was the Greek science culture different than the Chinese? Why is the “conquest of cold” such an important intellectual step in cultural progress? Why is the Jewish religion so different from others of the time, and how did it become so influential? Watson tries to stay away from pronouncements, but brings forth huge amounts of research of relevant experts, and goes through the trouble of discussing great points of controversy. (Although it seems like Watson is biased toward western culture and against the authenticity of Bible in parts, he discusses–and provides endnotes–arguments from other point of view)
If you want an excellent summary of history from the intellectual development perspective, and you’ve got sufficient time to plow through this book, I definitely recommend this book.
Natural Causes 