At the End of an Age

239 Pages·2002·26.809 MB·English

by  John Lukacs

AttheEnd ofanAge
BooksbyJohnLukacs
TheGreatPowersandEasternEurope
Tocqueville: TheEuropeanRevolution
andCorrespondencewithGobineau (editor)
AHistoryoftheColdWar
DeclineandRiseofEurope
ANewHistoryoftheColdWar
HistoricalConsciousness
ThePassingoftheModernAge
ASketchoftheHistoryofChestnutHillCollege, 1924-1
TheLastEuropeanWar, 1939-1941
1945: YearZero
Philadelphia: PatriciansandPhilistines, 1900-1950
OutgrowingDemocracy: AHistoryofthe
United StatesintheTwentiethCentury
Budapest 1900: AHistoricalPortraitofa
CityandItsCulture
ConfessionsofanOriginalSinner
TheDuel: 10May-31 July;TheEighty-Day
StruggleBetweenChurchillandHider
TheEndoftheTwentiethCenturyandthe
EndoftheModernAge
DestinationsPast
GeorgeE KennanandtheOriginsofContainment,
1944-1946: TheKennan-LukacsCorrespondence
TheHitlerofHistory
AThreadofYears
FiveDaysinLondon,May 1940
AStudent'sGuidetotheStudyofHistory
John Lukacs
At End
the
of an
Affe
Yale University Press • New Haven & London
Copyright© 2002byJohnLukacs.
Allrights reserved.
Thisbookmaynotbereproduced,inwholeor
inpart, includingillustrations, inanyform
(beyondthatcopyingpermittedbySections 107
and 108 oftheU.S. CopyrightLawandexceptby
reviewersforthepublicpress),withoutwritten
permissionfromthepublishers.
DesignedbySoniaShannonandsetinGalliardtype
byKeystoneTypesetting, Inc.
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
byRR. Donnelley&Sons.
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Lukacs,John, 1924-
Atdieendofanage / JohnLukacs.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1. CIiSviBlNiza0t-i3o0n0,-M09o2d9e6r-2n—(cl1o9t5h0:—alkP.hiplaopseorp)hy.
2. Postmodernism. 3. Scienceandcivilization.
4. Dualism. 5. Monism. I.Tide.
CB430 .L85 2002 2001046558
—
121 dC2I
Acataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefrom
theBritishLibrary.
Thepaperinthisbookmeetstheguidelinesfor
permanenceanddurabilityoftheCommitteeon
ProductionGuidelinesforBookLongevityofthe
CouncilonLibraryResources.
987654321
10
Formychildren
Contents
A
BriefIntroduction ix
AFewAcknowledgments x
ONE • AT THE END OF AN AGE
Convictions: Apersonalenvoi. • The evolutionof
"modern." • Main features ofthe ModernAge. •
Contradictorydualities. • "Post-modern." • Theneed
to rethinkthecurrentideaof"Progress."
i
TWO • THE PRESENCE OF HISTORICAL THINKING
Myvocation. • The historicityofourdiinking. •
Professionalhistory. • Justice/Truth. •
The appetite forhistory. • Historyandthenovel. •
Historyatthe end ofahistorical age.
45
THREE • THE QUESTION OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
Evolutionofmydoubts. • The historyofscience. • Cosmological
absurdities. • The collapse ofdeterminism. • Darwin, Marx,
Freud, Einstein. • Theendingofmaterialism.
85
Contents
FOUR • AN ILLUSTRATION
1959. • The limitsofknowledge. • The limits ofobjectivity. • The
limits ofdefinitions. • The limits ofmathematics. • The
inevitabilityofrelationships. • Inevitable unpredictability.
• Insufficientmaterialism. • Thelimits ofidealism.
145
FIVE • AT THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE
Timeliness, andlimitations ofmyargument. • Heisenbergand
Duhem. • Atthe centeroftheuniverse. • Conditions of
A
belief. • necessityforChristians.
189
Index 227
viii
A
BriefIntroduction
This book is an essay, without scientific or scholarly presump-
—
tions. Its shortcomingsincludetheconditionthatitis though
—
only in a few instances a conclusion of certain convictions
expressed intwo orthree earlier books ofmine (HistoricalCon-
sciousness, firstpublishedin 1968, twicereprintedsince; ThePass-
ing oftheModernAge, 1970; and Confessions ofan Original Sin-
ner, 1990, reprinted 2000), of which only the first could be
considered a scholarly volume. What compelled me to turn to
thispresentbookissetforth, briefly, inthefirstpagesofthefirst
four ofits five chapters, wherefore there is no reason for a fur-
ther Introduction.
—
However I tend to muse upon what John Morley wrote
130 years ago: "And a man will be alreadyin no mean paradise,
ifat the hourofsunset a good hope can fall on him like harmo-
nies ofmusic, that the earth shall still be fair, and the happiness
ofevery feeling creature still receive a constant augmentation,
andeachgoodcause yetfindworthydefenders, whenthe mem-
oryofhisownpoornameandpersonalityhaslongbeen blotted
out ofthe briefrecollection ofmen for ever." Oh JVIorley! Talk-
ing through his beard! What a Victorian beard that was! Of
course there are optimistic and pessimistic beards. (Somewhat
A
BriefIntroduction
later Morley decided to shave offhis beard entirely.) And 130
years later can I (beardless) have such a "good hope," at the
hour ofsunset ofa life that occurs together with the going out
ofthe lights ofan entire great age and with the swift coming of
the incalculable darkness ofanewone?
Notlike Morley^ man.
—
But: perhaps which is whyIwrote this book.
A
FewAcknowledgments
"Atthe hourofsunset"fewerandfewerfriends remain, and
they become more and more precious as the years pass. Philip
Bell, Bob Ferrell, Don Detwiler, Joanna Shaw Myers: I bur-
dened each ofthem with the wearisome task ofreading a par-
ticular chapter ofthe first drafts ofmy manuscript. Their com-
—
ments were invaluable as was that ofyet another old friend,
the Norwegian physicist Torger Holtsmark. Then the entire
manuscriptwasreadbyJacquesBarzunandbymywife, Stepha-
nie, andbymysonPaul. Theirpatientandprecisecriticisms and
reminders were notmarginal: theywere essential.
I am indebted also to Stephen Breediove, research librarian
ofthe La Salle University Library, who, marvelously, procured
for me books and articles from often far distant and very ob-
scure origins and places; and to Dr. Helen Hayes, who had to
struggle (again) with the typing ofa clear copy from an excep-
tionallyconfusing, scribbled-overmanuscript.
1999-2001
x
ONE
At End anAge
the of
"Acivilization disappears with the kind of
man, the typeofhumanity, thathas issued
from
it."
GeorgesBemanos