Two Greatest Ideas: How Our Grasp of the Universe and Our Minds Changed Everything

The two greatest ideas in human history are the idea that the human mind can grasp the universe and the idea that the human mind can grasp itself. These ideas have shaped civilization but have also led to conflicts and moral and political rifts. This book explores how the interplay of these ideas has divided us and imagines a future when a third great idea will help us gain an idea of the whole of reality.

Format: Hardback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 16 November 2021
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Two simple yet tremendously powerful ideas that shaped virtually every aspect of civilization are the subject of this book. The first is the idea that the human mind can grasp the universe, which unleashed a cultural awakening that swept across the world in the first millennium BCE, giving birth to philosophy, mathematics, science, and virtually all the major world religions. It dominated until the Renaissance, when the discovery of subjectivity profoundly transformed the arts and sciences. The second great idea governed our perception of reality until the dawn of the twenty-first century.

Acclaimed philosopher Linda Zagzebski explores how the interplay of the two ideas led to conflicts that have left us ambivalent about the relationship between the mind and the universe, and have given rise to a host of moral and political rifts over the deepest questions human beings face. Should we organize civil society around the ideal of living in harmony with the world or that of individual autonomy? Zagzebski explains how the two greatest ideas continue to divide us today over issues such as abortion, the environment, free speech, and racial and gender identity.

This panoramic book reveals what is missing in our conception of ourselves and the world and imagines a not-too-distant future when a third great idea, the idea that human beings can grasp each other, will help us gain an idea of the whole of reality.

Weight: 482g
Dimension: 149 x 224 x 33 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691199610