The History of Western Thought

The Passion of the Western Mind: Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View
A book published on March 16, 1993
by Richard Tarnas

"The most lucid and concise presentation I have read, of the grand lines of what every student should know about the history of Western thought. The writing is elegant and carries the reader with the momentum of a novel... It is really a noble performance."

--Joseph Campbell,
author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Here are the great minds of Western civilization and their pivotal ideas, from Plato to Hegel, from Augustine to Nietzsche, from Copernicus to Freud. Richard Tarnas performs the near-miracle of describing profound philosophical concepts simply but without simplifying them. Ten years in the making and already hailed as a classic, THE PASSION OF THE WESTERN MIND is truly a complete liberal education in a single volume.

Amazon.com Customer Reviews

Review by Stephanie P.

5 out of 5 stars – Excellent book for class
April 27, 2013

I bought this book as a requirement for one of my classes. At first reading about the book and skimming through it before school started I was very hesitant and already hated it. It seemed difficult to read and I could not imagine reading the whole thing in a semester.

Once I got into my class however, my teacher took the book very slow and discussed everything in detail. He had such a passion for this book that it was hard not to fall in love with it as well. It was difficult to get into at first. Even after I got into it I still had some trouble following. But I have never been more involved in any book I've read before. When first starting I had to have a dictionary beside me and look up a lot of words. Towards the middle I had caught on to most of the language Tarnas used. I filled the pages with notes in the margins, and thoughts about what was discussed. None of my other text books look like that. I unfortunately did not get time to finish this in class, but with how excellent it has been so far I do not intend to ever sell this and continue reading it over the summer.

A word of advice for anyone else having to read this for school: take it slow, reread everything until you understand it, and have a dictionary ready. Or if you have a kindle get the kindle version and use the dictionary on there. But don't give up on the book so quickly. It really is a gem that I am glad I had the opportunity to read.

Review by Paul A. Baier

5 out of 5 stars -- Skeptical at first, but read it cover to cover and took notes
December 19, 2015

This Herculean book is an important and valuable effort of the collective Western mind over the last 2,500 [years]. The immense amount of material is manageable because of Tarnas' superb writing. His summary of different philosophical views from Socrates to post-modernism is excellent, similar in a sense to Will Durant's book "The Story of Philosophy," where the reader feels like she gets an unbiased summary. He has strong views about what happens after the current postmodern crisis and one may find his Epilogue to be a bit much. I was left wondering about the Eastern Mind - does it go through the same the evolutionary stages toward archetypal awareness, and, if not, why not? My copy has underlines on nearly every page and I have gone back and written summary notes. I recommend this book. Professor Tarnas, nice work

 

Review by Thames

5 out of 5 stars – delicious prose
March 19, 2010
 

Many readers that find disagreement with Jungian psychoanalysis and various things falling under the rubric of "New Age" have been turned off by this wonderful book. The diligent author really did do such an "excellent job gathering information, seasoning it with something mystical and cooking it with humanism"(as one reviewer below comically and aptly puts it)! And it is also from my perspective unfortunate he served as the final entree "the half-backed idea of a 'feminist rebirth'". This book might be spoiled for many thoughtful readers due to author Richard Tarnas bringing anti-enlightenment views to bare on our passionate intellectual history. But this book is so delightfully well written the prose goes down like a crème brûlée prepared by a master chef. So granted the author's spin is in the wrong direction, I still enjoyed this trip through intellectual history very much even if it may be cause for possible indigestion. I'd advise the prospective reader that you don't have to savor every taste, much less swallow everything you are served, to still enjoy such a well prepared feast for the intellect. I devoured most of this meaty, content stuffed book-especially savoring the portions on "postmodernism" and Existentialism. And Romanticism. One blurb among the several thousand included in the first pages of the book is correct in it's claim that the summary of postmodernism is worth the price alone. The dish on the Greeks was superb and latter in the evening I still even had room for Hegel which went down surprisingly well. 4.5 star meal for the mind, using the Amazon rating system, not a mere 1.

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