THE WESTERN INTELLECTUAL TRADITION

BY J. BRONOWSKI AND BRUCE MAZLISH (PUBLISHED BY BARNES AND NOBLE, INC.  ISBN: 0-88029-069-2)  522 pages

This fine study on the development of intellectual thought (Originally published in 1960) is a literary tour-de-force.  The Western Intellectual Tradition traces the evolution of thought patterns and modes of living by examining the works of seminal thinkers from Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) to Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831).

The development of the scientific method, as manifested in both the natural and human sciences, was made possible only when medieval thinkers began to recognize that both physical and human nature follow certain recognizable patterns, which we call laws.  Previously, medieval thought imagined a static world in which change came about only by divine fiat.

The intellectual stagnation and abysmal moral state of the Christian Dark Ages bear stark witness to the deleterious effect of near universal acceptance of religious precepts, dogmas, and principles.  A slow process of scientific, intellectual, and moral progress only began when the iron fist of religion began to lose its grip on humanity.

While the authors throw an occasional bone to religion, the very nature of the subject matter, to say nothing of its presentation here, should lead any but the most staunchly unreasoning fundamentalist to the conclusion that human development and progress invariably occur in direct proportion to the decline of religion’s stranglehold on the mind.

Every chapter contains invaluable information.  For example, the Reformation is discussed with special emphasis placed on Martin Luther (1483-1546).  While Luther advocated rights for humans, he insisted that they were god-given and, judging from his writings, not applicable to Jews and other “non-desirables.”

Luther provides a starting point from which real intellectual inquiry could begin.  It was Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) who secularized the concept of human rights.  Unfortunately, he insisted that those rights could only come from the whims of a tyrant.  John Locke, the ideological father  of many of the ideas that underlie the founding of the United States, was the first thinker to reject this idea in toto, insisting that these rights are self-evident and only need to be discovered.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), by insisting that these laws are practical and functional only when adopted by the whole population, moves us ideologically another step closer to “We the people,” and to the whole American “experiment.”  Rousseau was a man of labyrinthine dimensions, an embodiment of philosophical contradictions.  On the one hand, he attacked science, the arts, and his fellow Philosophes, carrying on long-standing feuds that alienated him from virtually all his contemporaries.  On the other, he emphasized the role of a social contract as a fundamental tenet of good government.  To be sure, Hobbes and Locke had espoused similar ideas, but Rousseau gave it new life by emphasizing the sovereignty of the people.

Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) deserves to be much better known not only in the scientific and historical community, but in the free thought community as well.  Bayle was one of the first men with the courage to openly criticize the moral injunctions of the Bible.  The authors inform us that Bayle made the study of history a secular endeavor, freed “from the shackles of theology.” (pg. 244)

While the natural sciences have made life today incomparably easier and better in virtually all areas than it was in earlier times, the human sciences have not progressed in like manner.  In many ways, they have failed us.  The horrors of the twentieth century provide overwhelming evidence of this.  The authors, with great perspicacity, attribute this to the fact that, unlike the natural sciences, the human sciences have not succeeded in uniting the two modes of inquiry, i.e. the rational and the empirical.  Wishful thinking, in the form of faith, is still preferable to thoughtful reasoned inquiry to most people.

As a consequence, our analyses of society and of the individual’s role in it have been hamstrung at the most fundamental level.  Far too manly of our fellow citizens are still living by a code of ethics that was barbaric when first formulated thousands of years ago and is utterly inexcusable in the supposedly advanced world of today.  Clearly, a moral revolution must be humanity’s next great task.

Anyone interested in the evolution of Western thought will find The Western Intellectual Tradition to be stimulating reading.  It should leave little doubt in reader’s minds that the source of humankind’s greatest triumphs lies not in an imaginary spirit world, but in our own thoughts and actions, unfettered by magical thinking and superstition.