The Ascent of Man — Part 0
A History of Man’s Major Milestones: Ideas, Inventions and Discoveries
In the span of a few million years, Home Sapiens have climbed the ladder of being, from near the bottom to the top. From essentially being a prey in the food chain, today man is the ultimate predator — at its apex. Humans have developed an extraordinary capacity to show grace, benevolence, kindness and love to all beings. However, humanity has also accumulated vast powers with which we can obliterate the earth, and along with it all living beings.
What were the key enablers for man to acquire such awesome power? I am aware that there have been many intellectual giants over the centuries, who have pursued this quest. There are great books for one to read. I am very eager to learn more about our ancestors. Rummaging through my collection I found a thick tome authored by Peter Watson titled “Ideas: A History of Thought and Inventions, from Fire to Freud.” This book had remained dormant on my shelf. As I flipped the pages I got absorbed deeply into it. Was this serendipity, accident, or pre-ordained?
I want to share with the readers the wealth of knowledge and information that I acquired as I read this book from cover to cover during the Covid-19 lockdown. Watson’s book is heavy, both in physical weight, and the informational content — is nearly 800 pages. I took it as a challenge to read this book. It required considerable expenditure of my time, and self discipline.
I recognize that there are many readers like me, who are interested in knowing more about our great ancestors, but never had the time to invest for self study. The material I plan to cover will be in a series of blog posts, summarizing key thoughts I gathered as I ploughed through this book.
My goal is to distill the essence of what I gained from this book. You may call this a “Cliff Notes” version. I am hoping that this will stimulate and inspire you to devote some of your time exploring this subject of our ancestor’s accomplishments and what we are made of — a sort of discovery of the “self.”
A bit about me; I am a physicist by training. Midcourse in my career in experimental physics I morphed into a “rocket scientist.” Nearly all of my education (high school and college) was devoted to the STEM subjects, with very little history, philosophy or classics. Fortunately, at my late father’s insistence, I studied Sanskrit, an old Indian language. I will touch upon the importance of Sanskrit later.
I felt that the absence of liberal arts as a part of my undergraduate education had left a “hole.” I missed out on reading Plato’s Republic, Kalidasa’s Shakuntala, or Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. My goal was to fill this “hole” through self-learning.
I cannot emphasize enough the value of a strong foundation in liberal arts education. My interest in classics and liberal arts sprouted during my graduate studies in Columbia University. The innumerable book shops on Broadway, which remained open late at night, were a haven for exploration. Ever since, for the past thirty plus years, I hoped to fill at least a part of the “hole” I mentioned earlier. I know there are many readers who have similar educational backgrounds, and remain interested in knowing a bit more about our ancestral history.
I want to keep these pieces short and easy to read. Therefore, I plan to write them in several parts, each covering material from several chapters of Watson’s book. The rich details presented in this book cannot be easily condensed or summarized. Distilling the essence is subjective.
I have not set any time limit for this project, though I recognize this is an ambitious goal. I want my readers to freely provide feedback and comments, and share their understanding. It may grow to become a collaborative venture — a sort of community forum of amateur historians.
I seldom read introductions when I start a book. With the goal of reading this book “cover to cover”, I decided to cover the introduction and prologue. Watson’s introduction to this book jumps right into some provocative questions — immediately I was totally absorbed.
Watson introduces the reader to a selected collection of theories and arguments, which the scholars before us had formulated. This is a grand sweep of time.The approach in this book is definitely not the conventional version of history; kings, military battles and conquests, or the rise and fall of empires: Greek, Persian, Roman, Indian and Chinese. What then is history?
Watson explains what he means by “ideas.” He provides a sharp criterion for his selection and inclusion in this book. Major inventions which were epochal in nature are included in the discussions. How a given idea(s) subsequently influenced the course of mankind’s ascent is discussed.
Watson treats language as a major idea. According to Watson “ideas are conceived in language.” This was an eye opener for me. We believe ideas are mental in nature, involving cognition, thought and imagination. Watson provides a rationale for why he believes ideas are conceived in language. Watson believes that “languages reflect the way people think.” In the introduction he gently touches on the “history and structure of the world’s most influential languages: Chinese, Sanskrit, Arabic, Latin, French and English.”
Another example of an ‘idea’ which I categorize as a milestone, is the ‘invention of the first hand axes stone tools over two and a half million years ago. Watson passionately discusses how stone tools greatly enabled man to take the first step, in climbing the ladder of beings. One could also place this epoch as the beginning of man’s intellectual development (growth and expansion of the brain.) This process was set in motion over millions of years ago, and is still continuing. Man’s preoccupation with the “mystery of birth and death” and his attempts to accommodate them in his developing intellect, is a big part of the history of ideas. Religions were developed to address the mystery of “afterlife.”
Watson provides many examples of how, “numerous figures in the past have viewed intellectual history as a tripartite system — — organized around three grand ideas, ages or principles.” Some examples from the Introduction are presented below.
God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit — Joachim of Fiore (c.1135–1202)
Printing, Gunpowder and Magnet — Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
The belief in Providence, the recognition of parenthood and and the instinct to bury the dead-Vico’s discussions of instincts — (1668–1744)
Gun powder, printing and protestant religion — Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)
Arthur Lovejoy was a professor of philosophy at The Johns Hopkins University, around the 1930s. Watson describes the contributions of Lovejoy in a very engaging way.
A major philosophical construct called “The Great Chain Of Being” had been used by many scholars as a way to understand the universe. Lovejoy critically reviewed this construct. Watson credits him for his outstanding scholarship and insightful writings.` Lovejoy was the first editor of the very influential “Journal of the History of Ideas.” Many thinkers of the time contributed to this journal.
Watson briefly addresses some of the “failures” in the History of Ideas-namely our lack of understanding of man’s psychological state- “psychohistory.” Watson expresses his disappointment with our lack of understanding of the origins of consciousness.
I suspect Watson included “Freud” as a part of the title to his book to convey to the reader the importance of understanding the levels of consciousness. The mind is a mysterious gift. Mind’s dimensions and potential so far appear unfathomable. Modern neuroscience may in the future throw some light on this great mystery.
Watson starts the Introduction with what he calls the “Paradox of Newton.” Apparently, even after the appearance of his famous book “Principia Mathematica” and the discovery of the “Universal Law of Gravitation,” Newton was “striving to uncover the exact plan of Solomon’s Temple, which he considered the ‘best guide to the topography of heaven.”
From our modern view it is incomprehensible that Newton could be a rational thinker while still dabbling with astrology, numerology and alchemy. This theme of “paradox” — the conflict between scientific rationality and theological pronouncements — had big repercussions throughout history. Watson discusses this topic extensively. All of us live with our own versions of “ paradox” to different degrees and flavors..
The Prologue titled “The Discovery of Time” is just as engaging as the long Introduction. The story of Genesis had held captive man’s concept of time; by this I mean the creation story — Adam and Eve. Any thought that questioned this version of the creation story was considered heretic, and subjected to most severe punishments. This included being sent to exile and burning at the stake.
Watson discusses the early contributions of paleontologists, archaeologists and geologists who remained skeptical of this version of the creation story. These individuals produced incontrovertible scientific evidence establishing man’s antiquity and earth’s geological evolution. The “Discovery of Time” is essentially the discovery of the antiquity of man. This was a direct challenge to the creation story. The prologue provides the essential distillation of this history. As we will subsequently see, this provides the critical background of the major conflicts in man’s ascent.
In Part 1 I will cover a sizable ground — from “Ideas Before Language” to “The Birth of Gods, the Evolution of House and Home.” If I may, I would like to solicit reader’s comments of Part 0 so that I can make adjustments for Part 1.
