Ideas

出版者:HarperCollins

作者:Peter Watson

页数:848

出版时间:2005-8-30

价格:USD 29.95

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9780066210643

具体描述

In this hugely ambitious and stimulating book, Peter Watson describes the history of ideas, from deep antiquity to the present day, leading to a new way of understanding our world and ourselves. The narrative begins nearly two million years ago with the invention of hand-axes and explores how some of our most cherished notions might have originated before humans had language. Then, in a broad sweep, the book moves forward to consider not the battles and treaties of kings and prime ministers, emperors and generals, but the most important ideas we have evolved, by which we live and which separate us from other animals. Watson explores the first languages and the first words, the birth of the gods, the origins of art, the profound intellectual consequences of money. He describes the invention of writing, early ideas about law, why sacrifice and the soul have proved so enduring in religion. He explains how ideas about time evolved, how numbers were conceived, how science, medicine, sociology, economics, and capitalism came into being. He shows how the discovery of the New World changed forever the way that we think, and why Chinese creativity faded after the Middle Ages. In the course of this commanding narrative, Watson reveals the linkages down the ages in the ideas of many apparently disparate philosophers, astronomers, religious leaders, biologists, inventors, poets, jurists, and scores of others. Aristotle jostles with Aquinas, Ptolemy with Photius, Kalidasa with Zhu Xi, Beethoven with Strindberg, Jefferson with Freud. Ideas is a seminal work.

作者简介

Peter Watson is the author of War on the Mind, Wisdom and Strength, The Caravaggio Conspiracy, Ideas, and The German Genius. Educated at the universities of Durham, London, and Rome, he has written for the Sunday Times, the Times, the New York Times, the Observer, and the Spectator. He lives in London.

读后感

思想是什么, 这本身就是一个非常难以定义的东西, 但是作者想为思想立传, 这就是非常困难地事情. 历史学家在写史之前一定要给自己一个明确的对象和目标. 像这本思想史, 就很容易写成哲学史或者是通史, 我认为作者写着写着就陷入了后者. 内容丰富, 但是缺乏流动, 弹性和深度. 私...  

与作者的《20世纪思想史》相比，这本书的质量要逊色不止一筹。20世纪以前的科学哲学宗教艺术文学史太过于庞杂，作者的学养和笔力不足以贯通，显得心有余而力不足。 19世纪之前的历史，可分成九个阶段： 渔猎；畜牧；农耕；希腊的商业科学哲学时代；从亚历山大到罗马帝国灭亡时...  

这套书最大的特点就是广博，以百万文字呈现泱泱几千年人类思想的发展演变历史，是一项庞大的工程。有人说更像是文献汇编，我觉得即便作为文献综述，也是高质量完成的作品。时间上从史前、古代欧亚、中世纪、文艺复兴、工业革命到现代，类型上语言、文字、宗教、科学、哲学、人...  

这种摘册成史的书特别适合我等人文知识素养浅薄的人来看。 因为本质是讲历史所以故事性很强，历史故事本身就很有趣啊！结构稳重分明有起伏，语言精准朴实，每章节主线清晰并逐渐展开本书的总主题，于是伴随着作者的引导有种像是探索故事的情境，很有听说书和探险小说的乐趣。 ...  

用户评价

比较类的思想史，印象深的还是在原始概念，中古中亚范围，和现代世界的多元映象挺深，越到后面，越融合得成熟

比较类的思想史，印象深的还是在原始概念，中古中亚范围，和现代世界的多元映象挺深，越到后面，越融合得成熟

比较类的思想史，印象深的还是在原始概念，中古中亚范围，和现代世界的多元映象挺深，越到后面，越融合得成熟

比较类的思想史，印象深的还是在原始概念，中古中亚范围，和现代世界的多元映象挺深，越到后面，越融合得成熟

比较类的思想史，印象深的还是在原始概念，中古中亚范围，和现代世界的多元映象挺深，越到后面，越融合得成熟