Thursday, July 26, 2012

Western Philosophy

Interesting chart here dividing western thought into various phases.  Click on the plus sign (+) to open up the trees.  A couple of things:
  • My impression has been that the Romans didn't add much to Greek thought.  That their main contribution was to spread Greek thought to a wider audience.  This chart seems to agree with that.
  • I'm still not sure where the dividing line between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment is.  In September we read from Locke and Rousseau, so I'll probably try to figure it out then.
  • There are three (fairly complicated) branches listed under Modernity.  The Great Books doesn't go deeply into 20th century thought so most of that will be uncovered here.  I've sometimes wondered how modern thought would be summed up to future societies.  From this chart, I'd say it would be kind of messy. 

6 comments:

  1. The 2nd edition of the Great Books added 6 volumes of 20th century material.

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    1. Very true. I've got the first edition and I'm only working off of that list. I'll still stand by my comment on about the difficulty of summing up philosophical thought though.

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  2. The chart focuses on pure philosophy. Rome does have things to offer in literature and social science

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  3. The Romans weren't abstract thinkers Practical.

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    1. That's been my sense too. That they concentrated on more concrete matters. I don't mean to dismiss them, though. The Roman era is one of the most important elements in all of western history.

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    ReplyDelete