Author: Richard Tarnas

Publisher: Pimlico

Pub. in: July, 1996

ISBN: 0712673326

Pages: 544

Measurements: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.5 inches

Origin of product: USA

Order code: BA14018

Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0712673327

The title of the book says it all, and not to be overlooked. This is a book that seeks to ascertain the passion that underpins the development of the western mind. Tarnas does a tremendous job of what is the Herculean task of tracing the roots of that development from the Ancient Greeks, through the birth of Christianity, the middle ages, the enlightenment and the birth of the modern world.

Make no mistake. This is NOT a text defining the means by which modernist science came to be the one and only defining truth of the cosmos. Those with a modern western mindset or scientific predilection might be lulled into this impression in the early chapters. But such an initial misunderstanding, to be fair to Tarnas, would be more due to the bias of the modern mind, rather than a function of the text. For throughout the development of his narrative, Tarnas is painstaking in his description of the interplay of the spiritual, the philosophical, and the empirical/scientific. I noted that a prior viewer fell into this trap, no doubt expecting Tarnas to conclude with a denunciation of the spiritual and philosophical vestiges of prehistory, depositing these schools into the waste bin of History, whilst announcing the triumph of the modernist worldview. Far from it. Tarnas' penultimate analysis examines what he calls "the crisis in modern science" and the emergence of postmodern thought, both of which undermined the roots of certainty. Yet the postmodernist too may be dismayed when Tarnas concludes in his epilogue with a broad sweep of the hand, finally positing an essentially spiritual teleological thrust to the very human development he has traced. It may be anathema to those within the dominant modernist science and postmodernist schools, where spirituality and grand narrative are respectively derided - but it is nonetheless a brave attempt to make sense of it all beyond the respective materialist and relativist stranglehold of the modern and postmodern discourses.

But it is not necessary to agree with Tarnas' worldview to benefit from this fine text. The 95% of the book that traces the history of the interplay between the often opposing spiritual/metaphysical and skeptical/empirical/scientific forces within western history is well worth the journey. I highly recommend the text for anybody wanting a broad overview of some of the most influential minds of the western world in the last three millennia.

It may be a little light on the twentieth century history of science. So, if you want a History of Science from the modernist perspective read John Gribbin's "Science: a History" or Andrew Gregory's "Eureka!" If you want a summative account of the modernist perspective on History/Evolution, read Bill Bryson's "A Brief History of Everything." But if you want something that broadens the horizons, Tarnas may be the man for you.

(From quoting Marcus Anthony, Hong Kong)

Target readers: A must read for anyone hoping to understand the big picture of our unique historical epoch and the critical challenges we face as a people.

Better with Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us :

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