The Two Greatest Ideas: How Our Grasp of the Universe and Our Minds Changed Everything (Soochow University Lectures in Philosophy, 1)

**T****wo simple yet tremendously powerful ideas that shaped virtually every aspect of civilization** This book is a breathtaking examination of the two greatest ideas in human history. The first is the idea that the human mind can grasp the universe. The second is the idea that the human mind can grasp itself. Acclaimed philosopher Linda Zagzebski shows how the first 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. This second great idea governed our perception of reality up until the dawn of the twenty-first century. 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 minds can grasp each other, will help us gain an idea of the whole of reality. "In The Two Greatest Ideas, Linda Zagzebski tells the history of two hugely impactful ideas and their crucial role in shaping human culture over the last two thousand years. These ideas, Zagzebski argues, underlie virtually all of the intellectual innovations of human civilization, yet are so simple they are almost invisible. The first idea is that the human mind is capable of grasping the universe. The second is that the human mind is capable of grasping itself. Based on a series of lectures given in 2018 at Soochow University, Zagzebski offers an ambitious, big-history narrative of the emergence and influence of these two ideas and the tension and conflict between them. The idea that the human mind can grasp the universe had a significant influence on culture in many parts of the world in the first millennium BCE, giving rise to physics, mathematics, philosophy, and most major religions. In the early modern period, however, particularly in the West, the idea that the human mind can grasp itself supplanted some of the wider focus and popularity of the idea that human mind can grasp the universe, revealing something important was missing, namely, the subjectivity of minds. This transformation was reflected in radical changes in philosophy, political thought, art, literature, religion, and science. In this book, Zagzebski provides a new frame for understanding the intellectual underpinnings of Western culture and thought through an illuminating exploration of the history and contemporary legacy of these two great ideas (including reflections on their history in Eastern thought). Zagzebski also reveals the deep roots of some familiar divisions in contemporary culture (e.g. autonomy versus harmony, and rights versus responsibilities) as they relate to the great ideas. The book then concludes with a discussion of what reconciling the two great ideas might entail, including the possibility of a third great idea"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 12 Chapter 1. The Two Greatest Ideas: An Overview of the Narrative 16 A Vignette of Two Ideas in Two Buildings: The Roman Pantheon and Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum 36 Chapter 2. The World Precedes the Mind: The Primacy of the First Great Idea (First Millennium BCE to the Renaissance) 40 The Two Great Ideas in a Narrative 40 The Origin of Mathematics, Science, and Metaphysics 45 Art and Architecture 54 Epic Poetry 60 Morality as Harmony with the Universe 65 The Transcendence of the Mind 70 A Vignette of the Unity of Knowledge: Pythagoras, Kepler, and String Theory 75 Chapter 3. The Mind Precedes the World: The Primacy of the Second Great Idea (The Renaissance to the 20th Century) 79 The Big Shift: Philosophy Confronts Empirical Science 79 Art and the Rise of Subjectivity 93 The Novel 99 Autonomy and the Changing Ground of Morality 104 The Twentieth Century: The Attack on the Second Great Idea 112 A Vignette of the Extreme of Nonobjectivity: Malevich’s Black Square 116 Chapter 4. The Moral Legacy: Autonomy vs. Harmony with the World 118 Persons and Selves 118 Autonomy and Rights 130 The Two Great Ideas and Political Conflicts 141 A Vignette of the Utopian Self: Ralph Waldo Emerson 151 Chapter 5. Can We Grasp All of Reality? 154 Can the Eye See Itself? 154 Reality from the Inside Out 163 Reality from the Outside In 176 A Vignette of the Person and the Self: “Borges and I” 189 Chapter 6. The Future: A Third Greatest Idea 191 Intersubjectivity 191 “I,” “You,” and Disagreement 205 The God’s-Eye View: What Is the Whole of Reality? 212 A Vignette of Dante and Beatrice in Paradise 219 Notes 224 Bibliography 244 Index 264 "Two simple yet tremendously powerful ideas that shaped virtually every aspect of civilizationThis book is a breathtaking examination of the two greatest ideas in human history. The first is the idea that the human mind can grasp the universe. The second is the idea that the human mind can grasp itself. Acclaimed philosopher Linda Zagzebski shows how the first 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. This second great idea governed our perception of reality up until the dawn of the twenty-first century.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 these two powerful 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 minds can grasp each other, will help us gain an idea of the whole of reality"-- Provided by publisher T wo simple yet tremendously powerful ideas that shaped virtually every aspect of civilization This book is a breathtaking examination of the two greatest ideas in human history. The first is the idea that the human mind can grasp the universe. The second is the idea that the human mind can grasp itself. Acclaimed philosopher Linda Zagzebski shows how the first 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. This second great idea governed our perception of reality up until the dawn of the twenty-first century. 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 minds can grasp each other, will help us gain an idea of the whole of reality.