History of Ideas
“Intellectual
history is very far from being a straight line – that is part of its
attraction.”
Introduction
What John
Maynard Keynes said of Newton:
“He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago.”
“Intellectual history is very far from being a straight line – that is part of its attraction.”
“This is perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from a history of ideas: that intellectual life – arguably the most important, satisfying and characteristic dimension to our existence – is a fragile thing, easily destroyed or wasted.”
“He was the last of the magicians, the last of the Babylonians and Sumerians, the last great mind which looked out on the visible and intellectual world with the same eyes as those who began to build our intellectual inheritance rather less than 10,000 years ago.”
“Intellectual history is very far from being a straight line – that is part of its attraction.”
“This is perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from a history of ideas: that intellectual life – arguably the most important, satisfying and characteristic dimension to our existence – is a fragile thing, easily destroyed or wasted.”
Prologue
The Discovery of Time
People started finding evidence that man had existed before the fates given by the bible. “It was from these events that the modern conception of time dates, with a sense of the hitherto unimagined antiquity of mankind gradually replacing the traditional chronology laid down by the bible.”
Axes:
Various theories arose about what they were in Europe; such an example is petrified lightning. But at the beginning of the age of exploration, it was noticed that the hunter-gatherer tribes in America, Africa and the Pacific used similar objects. So the conception of these objects being man-made arouse.Scientists started believing, little by little, that Earth and men were much older that what the genesis claimed. Evidence found in objects and in bodies supported this fact.
“The view gained ground that there has been a series of creations and extinctions throughout human history.”
Robert Chambers: “It was Chambers (and not Darwin) who introduced the general idea of evolution to the wider public.”
“The idea of cultural evolution paralleled that of biological evolution.”
“One could now envisage a cultural history independent of the written record.”
People started finding evidence that man had existed before the fates given by the bible. “It was from these events that the modern conception of time dates, with a sense of the hitherto unimagined antiquity of mankind gradually replacing the traditional chronology laid down by the bible.”
Axes:
Various theories arose about what they were in Europe; such an example is petrified lightning. But at the beginning of the age of exploration, it was noticed that the hunter-gatherer tribes in America, Africa and the Pacific used similar objects. So the conception of these objects being man-made arouse.Scientists started believing, little by little, that Earth and men were much older that what the genesis claimed. Evidence found in objects and in bodies supported this fact.
“The view gained ground that there has been a series of creations and extinctions throughout human history.”
Robert Chambers: “It was Chambers (and not Darwin) who introduced the general idea of evolution to the wider public.”
“The idea of cultural evolution paralleled that of biological evolution.”
“One could now envisage a cultural history independent of the written record.”
Part 1: From Lucy to Gilgamesh
Chapter 1
Ideas Before Language
Type of
stone tools:
Each of the improvements of tools came with a growth in brain size:
Homo Erectus is believed to be:
- Omo industrial
complex
- Oldowan
- Acheulian (these were the first real weapons)
Each of the improvements of tools came with a growth in brain size:
- Change in
stone technology (first tools)
- Control and
use of fire
- Standardization of hand ax
Homo Erectus is believed to be:
- The first
hunter
- The inventor
of better tools that enabled him to spread
- Inventor of cooking
Chapter 2
The Emergence of Language and the Conquest of Cold
“The acquisition of language is perhaps the most controversial and interesting aspect of early humans intellectual life.”
Language is the most important characteristic that separates homo Sapiens to other animals.
Man, in the early ages, used to live (hunt) in social groups of around 60-80 people. Paleontologists think that this is what helped man’s social intelligence grow.
Many of the changes that are seen in early human life are difficult to imagine without language.
Other evidence of language:
“By ‘communication’ we mean proto-languages, which probably lacked both tenses and subordinate clauses, where the action and thought is displaced from the face-to-face and now.”
The Bering strait – uniting Eurasia and America.
“Early man then set about developing on the two landmasses, each for the most part unaware of the other’s existence. The similarities and the differences in the course of that independent existence tell us a great deal about humanity’s fundamental nature.” The Bering Strait was open between 20,000 and 12,000 years ago.
Both sides of the Bering Strait show equal signs of similar vegetation and, Native Americans and Esquimos are similar to Mongolians.
The only ones who survived and adapted successfully to the cold weather over the 53 degree North Parallel was Homo Sapiens, not the Homo Erectus nor Homo Neanderthalensis.
That Hom sapiens were able to move north, was probably because of a climate change.
Why is early man’s discovery of the new world important?
“No less intriguing and controversial that the emergence of language is the emergence of consciousness.”
For archeologists Civilization implies:
“The acquisition of language is perhaps the most controversial and interesting aspect of early humans intellectual life.”
Language is the most important characteristic that separates homo Sapiens to other animals.
Man, in the early ages, used to live (hunt) in social groups of around 60-80 people. Paleontologists think that this is what helped man’s social intelligence grow.
Many of the changes that are seen in early human life are difficult to imagine without language.
Other evidence of language:
- Tailored clothing
- Conquest of the cold (Siberia) and Australia.
“By ‘communication’ we mean proto-languages, which probably lacked both tenses and subordinate clauses, where the action and thought is displaced from the face-to-face and now.”
The Bering strait – uniting Eurasia and America.
“Early man then set about developing on the two landmasses, each for the most part unaware of the other’s existence. The similarities and the differences in the course of that independent existence tell us a great deal about humanity’s fundamental nature.” The Bering Strait was open between 20,000 and 12,000 years ago.
Both sides of the Bering Strait show equal signs of similar vegetation and, Native Americans and Esquimos are similar to Mongolians.
The only ones who survived and adapted successfully to the cold weather over the 53 degree North Parallel was Homo Sapiens, not the Homo Erectus nor Homo Neanderthalensis.
That Hom sapiens were able to move north, was probably because of a climate change.
Why is early man’s discovery of the new world important?
- It was an early advance in early human’s capabilities.
- The parallel development of the old world and the new world compare how and in what areas they developed.
- Insights on the development of language.
“No less intriguing and controversial that the emergence of language is the emergence of consciousness.”
- Self / not self
- Present / future
For archeologists Civilization implies:
- Writing
- Cities with monumental architecture
- Organized religion
- Specialized occupations
Chapter 3
The Birth of the Gods, the Evolution of House and Home
For archeologists the greatest idea has been agriculture - the domestication of plants and animals. Because it produced man’s greatest transformation in the way they live.
The warming of the planet brought the transition between the Pleistocene and the Holocene. The trigger that made our world possible.
There is a consensus about how agriculture began but not in why. The theories fall into two types:
We are certain that agriculture began, independently, in two areas of the world (maybe more):
Principal ‘founder crops’:
Most general sequence of domestication:
Goats – sheep – pigs and cattle.
“Much more controversial are the reasons for why agriculture developed, why it developed then, and why it developed where it did.”
Some say that before agriculture, but after sedentism and cultivation, religion came along. This means that communities and houses were made. (findings of the symbolic figures of the woman and the bull).
“From this, we may infer that early man, roughly 12,000 – 10,000 years ago, underwent a profound psychological change, essentially a religious revolution, and that this preceded domestication of plants and animals.”
The psychological change: desire for domination over the animal kingdom, both in religion and agriculture.
“It was sedentism which allowed the interval between births to be reduced, boosting population, as a result of which villages grew, social organization became more complicates, and perhaps, a new concept of religion was invented, which in some ways reflected the village situation, where leaders and subordinates would have emerged.” Once these changes occurred, agriculture emerged.
The evolution from circular houses to rectangular ones seem to be a consequence of domestication and farming. They needed more storage space, and had more family members. This brought along pottery and ovens.
Megalithic ideas: great stones, usually placed in a circle (like Stonehenge), sometimes with mass tombs under them. Mostly in northern Europe (Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, Britain, Denmark, Malta). These seem to be related to religion and a place of worship for the great goddess, symbol of fertility and regeneration.
At the same time as these megalithic ideas, in other parts of Europe, the same principle was evolving. There are four main entities:
The culture of fire: five new substances which laid the basis for civilizations
Smelting was discovered around 4,300bc. The earliest iron instruments date to 5000bc, but these weren’t smelted.
Iron production – carburization, by which iron is transformed into steel, seems to have developed after 1200bc.
“In terms of ideas, three uses to which metals were put seem to have been the most profound. These were the dagger, the mirror, the coins.”
With the control of metals, emerged trade between them, as they were of more value. In 3000bc, this brought the creation of money. “Money became the link between people, creating a nexus that had not been possible under the barter system.”
Democracy later arose in cities with market economies and strong currencies.
“Counting had existed before money but the emergence of the market, and a money economy, encouraged rational and logical thinking.”
For archeologists the greatest idea has been agriculture - the domestication of plants and animals. Because it produced man’s greatest transformation in the way they live.
The warming of the planet brought the transition between the Pleistocene and the Holocene. The trigger that made our world possible.
There is a consensus about how agriculture began but not in why. The theories fall into two types:
- Environmental/Economic
- Religious theories
We are certain that agriculture began, independently, in two areas of the world (maybe more):
- Middle East
- Mesoamerica
Principal ‘founder crops’:
- Emmer wheat
- Barley
- Einkorn wheat
Most general sequence of domestication:
Goats – sheep – pigs and cattle.
“Much more controversial are the reasons for why agriculture developed, why it developed then, and why it developed where it did.”
- Theory 1: switch to agriculture for ritualistic or social reasons. Food as luxury.
- Theory 2: population crisis in prehistory and this switch precipitated the evolution of agriculture (to cope with the overpopulation crisis).
- Theory 3: sedentism was made because it allowed people to breed more often, increase numbers
Some say that before agriculture, but after sedentism and cultivation, religion came along. This means that communities and houses were made. (findings of the symbolic figures of the woman and the bull).
“From this, we may infer that early man, roughly 12,000 – 10,000 years ago, underwent a profound psychological change, essentially a religious revolution, and that this preceded domestication of plants and animals.”
The psychological change: desire for domination over the animal kingdom, both in religion and agriculture.
“It was sedentism which allowed the interval between births to be reduced, boosting population, as a result of which villages grew, social organization became more complicates, and perhaps, a new concept of religion was invented, which in some ways reflected the village situation, where leaders and subordinates would have emerged.” Once these changes occurred, agriculture emerged.
The evolution from circular houses to rectangular ones seem to be a consequence of domestication and farming. They needed more storage space, and had more family members. This brought along pottery and ovens.
Megalithic ideas: great stones, usually placed in a circle (like Stonehenge), sometimes with mass tombs under them. Mostly in northern Europe (Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, Britain, Denmark, Malta). These seem to be related to religion and a place of worship for the great goddess, symbol of fertility and regeneration.
At the same time as these megalithic ideas, in other parts of Europe, the same principle was evolving. There are four main entities:
- The great goddess (the main one)
- Bird or snake goddess
- Vegetation goddess
- Male god
The culture of fire: five new substances which laid the basis for civilizations
- Pottery
- Metals
- Glass
- Terra-cotta
- Cement
Smelting was discovered around 4,300bc. The earliest iron instruments date to 5000bc, but these weren’t smelted.
Iron production – carburization, by which iron is transformed into steel, seems to have developed after 1200bc.
“In terms of ideas, three uses to which metals were put seem to have been the most profound. These were the dagger, the mirror, the coins.”
With the control of metals, emerged trade between them, as they were of more value. In 3000bc, this brought the creation of money. “Money became the link between people, creating a nexus that had not been possible under the barter system.”
Democracy later arose in cities with market economies and strong currencies.
“Counting had existed before money but the emergence of the market, and a money economy, encouraged rational and logical thinking.”
Chapter 4
Cities of Wisdom
Another great idea, put alongside farming is writing. But in the history of progress, something even more fundamental and important was the Sumerian invention of the Chariot.
Sumerian invented many of man’s firsts:
School, clock, farmer almanacs, library, legal code, arch, historian, literature and love songs.
The reason?
Civilization. Which began after man began to live in the cities. Cities provided a more competitive and experimental environment than before.”
“The city is the cradle of culture, the birth place of nearly all our most cherished ideas.”
According to research the first cities were around 3400bc in Mesopotamia.
The first city is generally held to be Eridu (Persian gulf).
Reasons for the development of cities?
Early urban areas were divided into three:
Religion also could have made way for the development of proto-writing.
Much of the words has begun as pictographs.
“In these early phrases, the uses of writing were limited and, because of its basis in trade consisted just as much of numbers as of words.”
But a system of signs is one thing and doesn’t fully amount to writing as we know it. For writing there are three other necessary developments:
“Trade was still the main reason for writing, but it was not that its use was extended to religion, politics and history/myth – the beginnings of imaginative literature.”
Major developments in writing:
Topics found in texts:
“We should never forget that in antiquity, before writing, people performed prodigious feats of memory.”
Once there was writing, early forms of written literature evolved. Stories or narratives (which later appeared in the bible). Example: Gilgamesh-
Types of authority in early cities:
The first king known is Sargon 2,340-2284bc in the Acadian state (ancient middle east)
“Cities have been the forging houses of ideas, of thought of innovation, in almost all the ways that have pushed life forward.”
Another great idea, put alongside farming is writing. But in the history of progress, something even more fundamental and important was the Sumerian invention of the Chariot.
Sumerian invented many of man’s firsts:
School, clock, farmer almanacs, library, legal code, arch, historian, literature and love songs.
The reason?
Civilization. Which began after man began to live in the cities. Cities provided a more competitive and experimental environment than before.”
“The city is the cradle of culture, the birth place of nearly all our most cherished ideas.”
According to research the first cities were around 3400bc in Mesopotamia.
The first city is generally held to be Eridu (Persian gulf).
Reasons for the development of cities?
- Cooler and dryer conditions appeared, so people moved to places with better irrigation systems.
Early urban areas were divided into three:
- Inner city: with walls, there were the temples, rulers and private houses.
- Suburbs: smaller houses, communal gardens, and cattle pens.
- Commercial center: were native and foreign merchants resided.
Religion also could have made way for the development of proto-writing.
Much of the words has begun as pictographs.
“In these early phrases, the uses of writing were limited and, because of its basis in trade consisted just as much of numbers as of words.”
But a system of signs is one thing and doesn’t fully amount to writing as we know it. For writing there are three other necessary developments:
- Personal names
- Grammar
- Alphabet
“Trade was still the main reason for writing, but it was not that its use was extended to religion, politics and history/myth – the beginnings of imaginative literature.”
Major developments in writing:
- Lists
- Switching from a pictographic system to a syllabary to a full alphabet.
Topics found in texts:
- Religious, literature, account of kings, father’s instructions, battles and conquests, records of building activity, cosmogonies and magic.
“We should never forget that in antiquity, before writing, people performed prodigious feats of memory.”
Once there was writing, early forms of written literature evolved. Stories or narratives (which later appeared in the bible). Example: Gilgamesh-
Types of authority in early cities:
- En: high priest; administered the corporate entity or municipality, interceded with the gods, and distributed food.
- Lugal: great man; overseer, fortress commander and foreign affairs.
The first king known is Sargon 2,340-2284bc in the Acadian state (ancient middle east)
“Cities have been the forging houses of ideas, of thought of innovation, in almost all the ways that have pushed life forward.”
Part 2: Isaiah to Zhu Xi. The Romance of the Soul
Chapter 5
Sacrifice, Soul, Saviour: 'The Spiritual Breakthrough'
“Of all the beliefs and practices in ancient religion, sacrifice –both animal and human, and even of kings – is the most striking, certainly from a modern standpoint.”
Sacrifices seem to have started at the time of the great civilizations.
Sacrifice is:
Sacrifice originates at the time when man regarded all he experiences as forms (rivers, mountains).
It came from a time when the world was observed but not understood. Only mysterious forces could explain the pattern.
Most of these sacrifices started out as harvest sacrifices (fertility, good crops)
Sacrifice, after the great goddess, the bull, and the sacred stones, was the next most important core idea of religion. After this was the concept of the ‘sky god’.
With the concept of the sky god, came the concept of ascension and afterlife, which later turned into the concept of the soul.
Clues for after live have been: (or rebirth)
The final – and most important- of these core beliefs is that at this time of great civilizations, the man gods changed sex; they became male.
Probably one of the main reasons for this is that city life was more male oriented. Everything seemed to favor men (male kings, male priests).
“As the world’s religions can be reduced to core elements, then those elements are: a belief in the great goddess, in the bull, in the main sky gods (the sun and the moon), in sacred stones, in the efficacy of sacrifice, in an afterlife, and in a soul of some sort which survives death and inhabits a blessed spot…. Among these great civilizations, however, this picture is no longer true and the reason for that state of affairs is without question one of the greatest mysteries in the history of ideas.”
But at this time all of the great philosophies emerged (Chinese, Greece, Indian, Palestine, Iran)
These are also candidates for the most momentous change in history.
All of these religions centered on one individual. But this didn’t always used to be so. Example: Israelite religion started off as polytheistic.
These changes from polytheistic to just one god brought enormous consequences.
Yahweh:
god of the Hebrews. He was eternal, omnipotent, and omniscient. He emerged as one god, and jealous of other gods.
From this the prophets emerged. The prophets’ main concern: Israel’s internal spirituality.
Fist prophets: Elijah and Elisha (introduced the idea of individual conscience)
Also with Hebrewism came Zoroastrianism: life after death, judgment, heaven and paradise were all Zoroastrian ideas, also hell and the devil.
“It is no accident that Judaism, and therefore, Christianity and Islam, share many features with Zoroastrianism.”
Israelites were captured by Babylonians which later were captured by Persians, who believed in Zoroastrianism. So it was no accident.
Buddha:
Was not a god or a prophet, but he offered a new way of life, to find a higher purpose, because he was dissatisfied with the merchant class, the local priesthood and their obsession with sacrifice and tradition.
This shows that condition in India were parallel to those in Israel.
Traditional religion of India: Hinduism.
First change in Hinduism: when the Aryan people brought with them a sacred text: Rig Veda (songs of knowledge)
The Veda talks about a world soul: a mystical entity that is both a sacrifice and a form of body, which gives the world order.
People later became dissatisfies with the Veda, and started to compose a new series of texts, that were secretly passes, they were called Upanishads. The Upanishads believed in salvation from the human condition itself. This was the beginning of Hinduism.
Buddha’s idea: we can gain release from dukkha (suffering) on this earth by “living a life of compassion for all living beings, speaking and behaving gently, kindly and accurately and by refraining from anything like drugs or intoxicants that cloud the mind.”
Buddhism developed notions similar to Christianism.
Greeks:
Plato: one the their greatest thinkers was also a mystic.
His influences: Socrates and Pythagoras.
Pythagoras: believed that the souls were fallen, defiled gods, now imprisoned in the body as in a tomb and doomed to the cycle of rebirth.
Plato thought the same thing, but also added that they could be liberated and even regain its divine status through reason.
China
Confucius:
The last mystical of prophets.
“There are uncanny parallels between the teachings of Confucius, Buddha, Plato and the Israelite prophets. They stem from a similarity in the wider social and political context.
In China, there were two kinds of deities: ancestors and sky gods.
“Of all the beliefs and practices in ancient religion, sacrifice –both animal and human, and even of kings – is the most striking, certainly from a modern standpoint.”
Sacrifices seem to have started at the time of the great civilizations.
Sacrifice is:
- A gift
- A link between man and the spiritual worlds
Sacrifice originates at the time when man regarded all he experiences as forms (rivers, mountains).
It came from a time when the world was observed but not understood. Only mysterious forces could explain the pattern.
Most of these sacrifices started out as harvest sacrifices (fertility, good crops)
Sacrifice, after the great goddess, the bull, and the sacred stones, was the next most important core idea of religion. After this was the concept of the ‘sky god’.
With the concept of the sky god, came the concept of ascension and afterlife, which later turned into the concept of the soul.
Clues for after live have been: (or rebirth)
- Sun and moon continuously disappeared and reappeared.
- The trees lost their leaves and then grew new ones.
The final – and most important- of these core beliefs is that at this time of great civilizations, the man gods changed sex; they became male.
Probably one of the main reasons for this is that city life was more male oriented. Everything seemed to favor men (male kings, male priests).
“As the world’s religions can be reduced to core elements, then those elements are: a belief in the great goddess, in the bull, in the main sky gods (the sun and the moon), in sacred stones, in the efficacy of sacrifice, in an afterlife, and in a soul of some sort which survives death and inhabits a blessed spot…. Among these great civilizations, however, this picture is no longer true and the reason for that state of affairs is without question one of the greatest mysteries in the history of ideas.”
But at this time all of the great philosophies emerged (Chinese, Greece, Indian, Palestine, Iran)
These are also candidates for the most momentous change in history.
All of these religions centered on one individual. But this didn’t always used to be so. Example: Israelite religion started off as polytheistic.
These changes from polytheistic to just one god brought enormous consequences.
Yahweh:
god of the Hebrews. He was eternal, omnipotent, and omniscient. He emerged as one god, and jealous of other gods.
From this the prophets emerged. The prophets’ main concern: Israel’s internal spirituality.
Fist prophets: Elijah and Elisha (introduced the idea of individual conscience)
Also with Hebrewism came Zoroastrianism: life after death, judgment, heaven and paradise were all Zoroastrian ideas, also hell and the devil.
“It is no accident that Judaism, and therefore, Christianity and Islam, share many features with Zoroastrianism.”
Israelites were captured by Babylonians which later were captured by Persians, who believed in Zoroastrianism. So it was no accident.
Buddha:
Was not a god or a prophet, but he offered a new way of life, to find a higher purpose, because he was dissatisfied with the merchant class, the local priesthood and their obsession with sacrifice and tradition.
This shows that condition in India were parallel to those in Israel.
Traditional religion of India: Hinduism.
First change in Hinduism: when the Aryan people brought with them a sacred text: Rig Veda (songs of knowledge)
The Veda talks about a world soul: a mystical entity that is both a sacrifice and a form of body, which gives the world order.
People later became dissatisfies with the Veda, and started to compose a new series of texts, that were secretly passes, they were called Upanishads. The Upanishads believed in salvation from the human condition itself. This was the beginning of Hinduism.
Buddha’s idea: we can gain release from dukkha (suffering) on this earth by “living a life of compassion for all living beings, speaking and behaving gently, kindly and accurately and by refraining from anything like drugs or intoxicants that cloud the mind.”
Buddhism developed notions similar to Christianism.
Greeks:
Plato: one the their greatest thinkers was also a mystic.
His influences: Socrates and Pythagoras.
Pythagoras: believed that the souls were fallen, defiled gods, now imprisoned in the body as in a tomb and doomed to the cycle of rebirth.
Plato thought the same thing, but also added that they could be liberated and even regain its divine status through reason.
China
Confucius:
The last mystical of prophets.
“There are uncanny parallels between the teachings of Confucius, Buddha, Plato and the Israelite prophets. They stem from a similarity in the wider social and political context.
In China, there were two kinds of deities: ancestors and sky gods.