The Sleepwalkers (3 page)

This
mutation
of
the
European
mind
in
the
seventeenth
century
is
merely
the
latest
example
of
the
impact
of
the
"Sciences"
on
the
"Humanities"
–
of
the
inquiry
into
the
nature
of
Nature
on
the
inquiry
into
the
nature
of
Man.
It
also
illustrates
the
wrongheadedness
of
erecting
academic
and
social
barriers
between
the
two;
a
fact
which
is
at
last
beginning
to
gain
recognition,
nearly
half
a
millennium
after
the
Renaissance
discovered
the
uomo
universale
.

Another
result
of
this
fragmentation
is
that
there
exist
Histories
of
Science,
which
tell
one
at
what
date
the
mechanical
clock
or
the
law
of
inertia
made
their
first
appearance,
and
Histories
of
Astronomy
which
inform
one
that
the
precession
of
the
equinoxes
was
discovered
by
Hipparchus
of
Alexandria;
but,
surprisingly,
there
exists
to
my
knowledge
no
modern
History
of
Cosmology,
no
comprehensive
survey
of
man's
changing
vision
of
the
universe
which
encloses
him.

The
above
explains
what
this
book
is
aiming
at,
and
what
it
is
trying
to
avoid.
It
is
not
a
history
of
astronomy,
though
astronomy
comes
in
where
it
is
needed
to
bring
the
vision
into
sharper
focus;
and,
though
aimed
at
the
general
reader,
it
is
not
a
book
of
"popular
science"
but
a
personal
and
speculative
account
of
a
controversial
subject.
It
opens
with
the
Babylonians
and
ends
with
Newton,
because
we
still
live
in
an
essentially
Newtonian
universe;
the
cosmology
of
Einstein
is
as
yet
in
a
fluid
state,
and
it
is
too
early
to
assess
its
influence
on
culture.
To
keep
the
vast
subject
within
manageable
limits,
I
could
attempt
only
an
outline.
It
is
sketchy
in
parts,
detailed
in
others,
because
selection
and
emphasis
of
the
material
was
guided
by
my
interest
in
certain
specific
questions,
which
are
the
leitmotifs
of
the
book,
and
which
I
must
briefly
set
out
here.

Firstly,
there
are
the
twin
threads
of
Science
and
Religion,
starting
with
the
undistinguishable
unity
of
the
mystic
and
the
savant
in
the
Pythagorean
Brotherhood,
falling
apart
and
reuniting
again,
now
tied
up
in
knots,
now
running
on
parallel
courses,
and
ending
in
the
polite
and
deadly
"divided
house
of
faith
and
reason"
of
our
day,
where,
on
both
sides,
symbols
have
hardened
into
dogmas,
and
the
common
source
of
inspiration
is
lost
from
view.
A
study
of
the
evolution
of
cosmic
awareness
in
the
past
may
help
to
find
out
whether
a
new
departure
is
at
least
conceivable,
and
on
what
lines.

Secondly,
I
have
been
interested,
for
a
long
time,
in
the
psychological
process
of
discovery
²
as
the
most
concise
manifestation
of
man's
creative
faculty
–
and
in
that
converse
process
that
blinds
him
towards
truths
which,
once
perceived
by
a
seer,
become
so
heartbreakingly
obvious.
Now
this
blackout
shutter
operates
not
only
in
the
minds
of
the
"ignorant
and
superstitious
masses"
as
Galileo
called
them,
but
is
even
more
strikingly
evident
in
Galileo's
own,
and
in
other
geniuses
like
Aristotle,
Ptolemy
or
Kepler.
It
looks
as
if,
while
part
of
their
spirit
was
asking
for
more
light,
another
part
had
been
crying
out
for
more
darkness.
The
History
of
Science
is
a
relative
newcomer
on
the
scene,
and
the
biographers
of
its
Cromwells
and
Napoleons
are
as
yet
little
concerned
with
psychology;
their
heroes
are
mostly
represented
as
reasoning-machines
on
austere
marble
pedestals,
in
a
manner
long
outdated
in
the
mellower
branches
of
historiography
–
probably
on
the
assumption
that
in
the
case
of
a
Philosopher
of
Nature,
unlike
that
of
a
statesman
or
conqueror,
character
and
personality
are
irrelevant.
Yet
all
cosmological
systems,
from
the
Pythagoreans
to
Copernicus,
Descartes
and
Eddington,
reflect
the
unconscious
prejudices,
the
philosophical
or
even
political
bias
of
their
authors;
and
from
physics
to
physiology,
no
branch
of
Science,
ancient
or
modern,
can
boast
freedom
from
metaphysical
bias
of
one
kind
or
another.
The
progress
of
Science
is
generally
regarded
as
a
kind
of
clean,
rational
advance
along
a
straight
ascending
line;
in
fact
it
has
followed
a
zig-zag
course,
at
times
almost
more
bewildering
than
the
evolution
of
political
thought.
The
history
of
cosmic
theories,
in
particular,
may
without
exaggeration
be
called
a
history
of
collective
obsessions
and
controlled
schizophrenias;
and
the
manner
in
which
some
of
the
most
important
individual
discoveries
were
arrived
at
reminds
one
more
of
a
sleepwalker's
performance
than
an
electronic
brain's.