The Age of Genius
The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
The Age of Genius explores the eventful intertwining of outward event and inner intellectual life to tell, in all its richness and depth, the story of the 17th century in Europe. It was a time of creativity unparalleled in history before or since, from science to the arts, from philosophy to politics. Acclaimed philosopher and historian A.C. Grayling points to three primary factors that led to the rise of vernacular (popular) languages in philosophy, theology, science, and literature; the rise of the individual as a general and not merely an aristocratic type; and the invention and application of instruments and measurement in the study of the natural world.
Grayling vividly reconstructs this unprecedented era and breathes new life into the major figures of the seventeenth century intelligentsia who span literature, music, science, art, and philosophy--Shakespeare, Monteverdi, Galileo, Rembrandt, Locke, Newton, Descartes, Vermeer, Hobbes, Milton, and Cervantes, among many more. During this century, a fundamentally new way of perceiving the world emerged as reason rose to prominence over tradition, and the rights of the individual took center stage in philosophy and politics, a paradigmatic shift that would define Western thought for centuries to come.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this insightful history, Grayling (The Challenge of Things), a professor of philosophy and master at the New College of the Humanities in London, claims that the 17th century "is in fact the epoch in the history of the human mind." He theorizes that this period marked a momentous transition in the way people think and approach the world, that "the mindset of the best-informed people in that century changed from being medieval to being modern in so short and tumultuous a time." Recognizing the vastness of his area of focus and the impossibility of covering it all in one volume, Grayling nevertheless makes a spirited effort to address as much as possible. He ties together the wars that disrupted the status quo and transformed the geopolitical landscape, the onset of the scientific revolution that supplanted superstition, and the general flow of ideas and inspiration, showing how numerous figures in dozens of disciplines contributed to a cultural evolution. The 17th century in Europe, he concludes, "redirected the course of human history by changing humankind's perspective on the universe and itself." Grayling's style is densely academic, but his book is nonetheless informative and thoughtful.
