The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World (45 page)

For an incisive essay on how the Greeks related their myths to their history, see Bernard Knox,
Backing into the Future
(1994). To help us place the ancient Greek historian in our tradition, see R. G. Collingwood,
The Idea of History
(1961), M. I. Finley,
The Use and Abuse of History
(1975),
The Ancient Greeks
(1963). For scholarly assessment of the ancient historians, see Arnoldo Momigliano,
Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography
(1977) or
The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography
(1990). The standard introductory work is J. B. Bury,
The Ancient Greek Historians
(1909). The historians have been widely and variously translated, and have invited the best talents. Herodotus and Thucydides are both available in
Great Books of the Western World,
Vol. 6. M. I. Finley offers an attractive brief selection in
The Greek Historians
(1959). The George Rawlinson translation of Herodotus is most widely relied on, and often edited and reprinted. Thucydides is most often read in the Benjamin Jowett or Richard Crawley translation. The Thomas Hobbes translation (David Grene, ed., 2 vols., 1959) has a special interest because of the eminent translator’s boasted sympathy with the author. An illuminating original view is F. M. Cornford,
Thucydides Mythistoricus
(1971). A rewarding selection from ancient Greek literature is found in
The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces
(Bernard Knox, ed., Vol. 1, 4th ed., 1979).

For Virgil, an excellent introduction is the essay by Jasper Griffin in
The Oxford History of the Classical World
(1988), Ch. 15 or, more extensively, Jasper Griffin,
Virgil
(1986). Virgil’s
Eclogues, Georgics,
and the
Aeneid
are in
Great Books of the Western World
(trans. James Rhoades), Vol. 13. Virgil, like Homer, has challenged the talents of translators in every generation. John Dryden’s free translation of the
Aeneid
in 1697 was long standard. We now can read Virgil in C. Day Lewis’s modern verse (1966), and Robert Fitzgerald’s among others. The most widely used translation of Virgil is that of R. A. B. Mynors in the Oxford Classical Texts Series. T. S. Eliot’s essay “What Is a Classic?” in his
On Poets and Poetry
(1951) helps us place Virgil in the tradition.

Sir Frederick Pollock dismisses Thomas More from his respected
History of the Science of Politics
(1923) as “a Platonic or ultra-Platonic fancy, bred of the Platonism of the Renaissance. Even more than the
Republic
of Plato it belongs to the poetry as distinguished from the philosophy of politics.” Still, the appealing “poetry of politics” has often had more influence than the “philosophy.” More’s
Utopia,
often reprinted, is accessible in an Everyman Library edition (1928) and selections are in
The Norton Anthology of English Literature
(Vol. I, 4th ed., 1979), with helpful notes. For Bacon and the rise of Western science, see Reference Notes to
The Discoverers,
Bk. III, esp. Parts X and XI. A readable scholarly biography is Fulton H. Anderson,
Francis Bacon
(1962).
The Advancement of Learning
and
The New Atlantis
are in a Bacon volume in World’s Classics (Oxford University Press). A useful selection of major works is E. A. Burtt (ed.),
English Philosophers from Bacon to Mill
(Modern Library, 1997). For a wider view, see the suggestive John Hale,
The Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance
(1994).

For Descartes, readable biographies are Elizabeth Haldane,
Descartes: Life and Times
(1905), and J. R. Vrooman,
René Descartes
(1970). For the legacy of Descartes, Jacques Maritain offers stimulating suggestions in
The Dream of Descartes
(1946) and
Three Reformers: Luther, Descartes, Rousseau
(1970), as does Albert B. Balz,
Descartes and the Modern Mind
(1952). A selection of Descartes’s works is found in
Great Books of the Western World,
Vol. 31 (trans. Elizabeth S. Haldane and G. R. T. Ross).

Part V. The Liberal Way

In the United States today, while “conservatism” has become an icon, the great tradition of liberalism, which for centuries has given meaning and purpose to people and societies in the West, lacks outspoken champions. We would do well to recall some of the Seekers in that tradition, who are suggested in this part. Spokesmen for the liberal spirit have been eloquent in our Western culture. Few have been as durable as John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), whose essays “On Liberty” and “Representative Government” though widely reprinted are too seldom read. The tradition encompasses a wide variety of Seekers who have hoped that the fulfillment of liberty in society will somehow add meaning and purpose to human life.

The writings of the surprising and widely misunderstood Niccolò Machiavelli suggest some of the roots of the communal search for meaning in the modern nation.
The Prince
is in
Great Books of the Western World
(Vol. 23);
The Prince and the Discourses
are in Modern Library (1940). The comprehensive biography is Pasquale Villari,
The Life and Times of Niccolò Machiavelli
(new ed., 1968). For a recent view, see Sebastian de Grazia,
Machiavelli in Hell
(1989). A balanced brief introduction is Neal Wood’s article in
The International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
(Vol. 9). John Locke’s life is readable in Maurice Cranston,
John Locke
(1957), and his life and works are surveyed in Richard I. Aaron,
John Locke
(3d ed., 1971). A helpful interpretation is John W. Yolton,
John Locke and the Way of Ideas
(1963). For the basic writings, see E. A. Burtt (ed.),
English Philosophers from Bacon to Mill
(Modern Library) and
Great Books of the Western World
(Vol. 35), and
Of Civil Government
(Everyman). For an important recent reinterpretation, see Peter Laslett (ed.),
Two Treatises of Government
(1964).

Voltaire, one of the wittiest and most persuasive of the Seekers, was also one of the most versatile and productive. A convenient introduction is Ben Ray Redman (ed.),
The Portable Voltaire
(Penguin Books, 1977). For readable scholarly biography, see Theodore Besterman,
Voltaire
(1969), and Gustave Lanson (intro. by Peter Gay),
Voltaire
(1966). A stirring essay is John Morley,
Voltaire
(1973). For his life and works, see the comprehensive Ira O. Wade,
The Intellectual Development of Voltaire
(1969). And for special aspects, see: A. Owen Aldridge,
Voltaire and the Century of Light
(1975); Peter Gay,
Voltaire’s Politics: The Poet as Realist
(1977); T. D. Kendrick,
The Lisbon Earthquake
(1956). Voltaire’s wide acquaintance with leading thinkers of his day gives his letters a wider than biographical significance, as in Theodore Besterman (trans. and ed.),
Selected Letters
(1963). Besides the voluminous
Complete Works
(Theodore Besterman, ed.), individual works have been frequently translated and reprinted.
Candide
(trans. Richard Aldington) and
Philosophical Letters
are brought together in Modern Library (1997).
The Age of Louis XIV
and
The History of Charles XII
are in the Everyman Library. For the range of Voltaire’s thought, see
The Philosophy of History
(1965) and
Philosophical Dictionary
(2 vols., 1962). And for a suggestive sequel, John R. Saul,
Voltaire’s Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West
(Vintage, 1993).

For a new perspective on Diderot and Encyclopedism, we owe much to Robert Darnton,
The Business of Enlightenment: A Publishing History of The Encyclopédie, 1775-1800
(1979), of wider significance than its title suggests. We can find new insights in P. N. Furbank,
Diderot: A Critical Biography
(1992). And see Lester G. Crocker (ed.),
Diderot, Selected Writings
(1966); and Jonathan Kemp (ed.),
Diderot, Interpreter of Nature: Selected Writings
(1979).

Rousseau has incited a copious, romantic, and polemical literature. We are therefore grateful to Maurice Cranston for his ample, balanced, and perceptive
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,
in progress: Vol. I, Early Life: 1712-1754 (1982), and Vol. II, Noble Savage: 1754-62 (1991). For a sense of Rousseau’s idiosyncrasies we should all taste his
Confessions,
often reprinted, e.g. Everyman (2 vols., 1941) and in Penguin (1953).
The Social Contract
(trans. G. D. H. Cole) and
Émile
are in Everyman Library.
The Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
and
The Social Contract
are in
Great Books of the Western World
(Vol. 38). There are few historical polemics as stirring as Irving Babbitt,
Rousseau and Romanticism
(1919), which alerts us to the contemporary moral and immoral implications of Rousseau’s ideas.

The whole literature on Thomas Jefferson, ranging from muckraking to hagiography, is vast. In it there is a rich resource of balanced and readable scholarly works. For a focused treatment of Jefferson and his fellow Seekers on the American scene, see Daniel J. Boorstin,
The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson
(new intro., 1993); and for the wider context, Boorstin,
The Americans: The Colonial Experience,
Bk. II. A good starting point for the life is the article by Dumas Malone in
The Dictionary of American Biography
or Merrill D. Peterson,
Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation
(1970), amplified by Dumas Malone’s definitive
Jefferson and His Time
(6 vols., 1948-81). For informed guidance into special topics, see Merrill D. Peterson,
Thomas Jefferson, a Reference Biography
(1986) and Silvio A. Bedini,
Thomas Jefferson Statesman of Science
(1990). Accessible editions of Jefferson’s writings are in Modern Library, Adrienne Koch and William Peden (eds.),
The Life and Selected Writings of Thomas Jefferson;
Merrill D. Peterson (ed.),
The Portable Jefferson
(1975); or Saul K. Padover (ed.),
The Complete Jefferson
(1941). The definitive edition of Jefferson’s writ-ings is edited by Julian P. Boyd and successors (1950- ). Jefferson’s life and his vision continue to be an endless source of illuminating history, recently in Stephen E. Ambrose,
Undaunted Courage
(1996), an engrossing account of the Lewis and Clark expedition. For biographies of Jefferson’s fellow Seekers on the American scene, see
The Dictionary of Scientific Biography.

The copious literature on Hegel is, not surprisingly, dominated by polemics and influenced by Hegel’s Germanic and Prussian chauvinist bias. For a balanced and sympathetic survey of his life and writings, see the brief article by the philosopher Morris R. Cohen in
Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences
(1932), Vol. VII, or that by George Liehtheim in
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
(1968), Vol. 6. For a cogent treatment of the founder of the idealist movement, see the article on Kant by Ernst Cassirer in
Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences,
Vol. VIII. Less sympathetic is Bertrand Russell’s lively treatment of Hegel (along with Kant) as part of the Idealist movement in Ch. XXII of his
History of Western Philosophy
(1945). For a readable introduction to that movement, see A. D. Lindsay,
Kant
(1934). An accessible selection of Hegel’s writings, translated into English, is in the Modern Library,
The European Philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche
(ed. Monroe C. Beardsley, 1992, with updated bibliography). The full text of Hegel’s
Philosophy of History
is available in English (trans. J. Sibree, Bohn’s Libraries, 1902).

BOOK THREE:

PATHS TO THE FUTURE

Part VI. The Momentum of History: Ways of Social Science

A striking witness to the resilience and energy of Western culture is the appearance in the same era—and almost simultaneously—of thinkers offering dogmas and ideologies proposing skeleton keys to experience and all history, while others equally eloquent and persuasive were seeking refuge in sanctuaries of doubt. Positivism and existentialism were symbols of the restless seeking spirit—demanding simple keys to experience and history, yet never quite satisfied with the latest answers. The earlier answers could be qualified, or discredited, and the Seeking spirit would remain alive and vigorous, somehow finding the meaning in the seeking.

For brief articles on leading figures in the social sciences a good source is still
The Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences
(Edwin R. A. Seligman, ed., 8 vols., 1931-35), updated by the
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
(David L. Sills, ed., 17 vols., 1968). For historical perspective on the rise of the social sciences, see Peter Gay,
The Enlightenment, an Interpretation; The Rise of Modern Paganism
(2 vols., 1966), and F. A. Hayek,
The Counterrevolution of Science: Studies in the Abuse of Reason
(1957). J. B. Bury,
The Idea of Progress . . . Its Origin and Growth
remains a useful starting point. Antoine-Nicolas de Condorcet,
Sketch for a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind
(trans. June Barraclough, 1955) is in the Noonday Press Library of Ideas. Works of Auguste Comte have been frequently reprinted and anthologized, but are not easily accessible. Basic is
Positive Philosophy
(3 vols., 1896). His
General View of Positivism
was reprinted in an official centenary edition by the International Comte Center Committee (1957). For the intellectual context of both Condorcet and Comte, see in the Modern Library,
European Philosophers from Descartes to Nietzsche
and G. P. Gooch,
History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century
(Beacon Press paperback, 1959). For a suggestive study of the relation of the Enlightenment to the romantic movement in literature, see Alfred Cobban,
Edmund Burke, and the Revolt Against the Eighteenth Century
(2d ed., 1960).