Ideas and Men: The Story of Western Thought

608 Pages·1960·57.217 MB·English

by  Crane Brinton

3deas and Men
PRENTICE-HALL HISTORY SERIES
Donald C. McKay, Editor
Harvard University
I D E A S (i^ M E N • The Story of
WESTERN THOUGHT
Crane Brinton
MCLEAN PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT & MODERN HISTORY
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Prentice-Hall. Inc. englewood cliffs, n.
j.
Copyright, 1950, by
PRENTICE-HALL, INC.
Englewood Cliffs, N. J.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS
BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY
FORM, BY MIMEOGRAPH OR ANY OTHER
MEANS, WITHOUT PERMISSION IN WRIT-
ING FROM THE PUBLISHERS.
First printing /""f, 1950
Second printing September, 1950
Third printing February, 795/
Fourth printing hdy, 1951
Fifth printing October, 1952
Sixth printing September, 195J
Seventh printing May, 1954
Eighth printing November, 7955
Ninth printing June, 1957
Tenth printing November, ig^g
Eleventh printing March, i960
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
44923-C
My
To Wife
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank the following publishers for permission to quote
from copyright works:
Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc., for permission to quote from Machi-
avelli, The Prince, translated and edited by Thomas G. Bergin, copyright
1947.
Benziger Brothers, Inc., New York, N. Y., for permission to quote
from the Complete American Edition of the Summa Theologica.
George Routledge & Sons, London, for permission to quote from
F. A. Wright, A History of Later Greef( Literature page 169.
,
Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., for permission to quote
from the Loeb Classical Library edition of Diogenes Laertius, translated
by R. D. Hicks.
Longmans, Green & Company, New York, for permission to quote
from The Bacchae of Euripides translated by Gilbert Murray.
The Macmillan Company, for permission to quote from Oscar Levy,
Cotnplele Worlds of Frederic Nietzsche.
Oxford University Press, for permission to quote from the Social
Contract (Galaxy Edition of the World's Classics), and from Thucydides,
Peloponnesian War, edited by Sir R. W. Livingston (World's Classics).
Crane Brinton
Contents
INTRODUCTION
1. 3
The Limits of Intellectual History 7
The Role of Ideas 11
....
Contemporary Importance of Intellectual History 17
Some Patterns of Intellectual History 22
THE HELLENIC FOUNTAINHEAD
2. 29
Greek Formal Thought 36
The Classical Culture 55
THE CRISIS OF GREEK CULTURE 66
3.
How Deep Did the Classical Culture Go? 69
Greek Religion as a Measure of Culture 73
The Crisis of the Fourth Century , 87
ONE world: the LATER CLASSICAL
4.
CULTURE
95
The Jewish Element 97
The Hellenistic Element 108
The Roman Element 122
THE DOCTRINE OF CHRISTIANITY
5. • • • • 134
The Growth of Early Christianity 135
Christian Belief 154
The Reasons for the Triumph of Christianity 157
The Christian Way of Life 162
vii
CONTENTS
THE MIDDLE AGES~
6. I 175
The Institutions of Medieval Culture 177
Medieval Theology and Philosophy 183
Medieval Theories of Human Relations 200
7. THE MIDDLE AGES ~ II . 214
Medieval Culture 220
An Evaluation of Medieval Culture 241
MAKING THE MODERN WORLD:
8.
HUMANISM
256
The Terms "Renaissance" and "Reformation" 259
The Range of Humanism 261
The Nature of Humanism 268
The Political Attitudes of Humanism 285
MAKING THE MODERN WORLD:
9.
PROTESTANTISM
298
The Nature of Protestantism 309
The Protestant Spectrum 316
MAKING THE MODERN WORLD:
10.
RATIONALISM
334
Natural Science 336
Philosophy 348
Political Ideas 354
Making the Modern World—A Summary 362
11. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY: A NEW
COSMOLOGY
36^
The Agents of Enlightenment 369
The Faith of the Enlightened 376
The Program of the Enlightenment 388
....
The Enlightenment and the Christian Tradition 399
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE
12.
DEVELOPED COSMOLOGY
409
Adjustments and Amendments in the New Cosmology . . 410
The Victorian Compromise 426
viii
CONTENTS
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: ATTACKS
13.
FROM LEFT AND RIGHT
447
Attacks from the Right 453
Attacks from the Left 474
Summary 489
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: THE ANTI-
14.
INTELLECTUAL ATTACK
491
A
Anti-Intellectualism: Definition 503
Contemporary Anti-IntellectuaHsm 507
MID-TWENTIETH CENTURY: SOME
is:.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
5^7
A Brief Summary 530
Our Present Discontents 536
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY 55I
• » . • ^
IX