The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time by Will Durant (PDF)

Description

A wise and witty compendium of the greatest thoughts, greatest minds, and greatest books of all time—listed in accessible and succinct form—by one of the world’s greatest scholars.From the “Hundred Best Books” to the “Ten Greatest Thinkers” to the “Ten Greatest Poets,” here is a concise collection of the world’s most significant knowledge. For the better part of a century, Will Durant dwelled upon—and wrote about—the most significant eras, individuals, and achievements of human history. His selections have finally been brought together in a single, compact volume. Durant eloquently defends his choices of the greatest minds and ideas, but he also stimulates readers into forming their own opinions, encouraging them to shed their surroundings and biases and enter “The Country of the Mind,” a timeless realm where the heroes of our species dwell. From a thinker who always chose to exalt the positive in the human species, The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time stays true to Durant’s optimism. This is a book containing the absolute best of our heritage, passed on for the benefit of future generations. Filled with Durant’s renowned wit, knowledge, and unique ability to explain events and ideas in simple and exciting terms, this is a pocket-size liberal arts and humanist curriculum in one volume.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Will Durant, who died in 1981, has been a guiding light in education since he published “The Story of Philosophy: The lives and opinions of the world’s greatest philosophers from Plato to John Dewey” in 1926, and thereby introduced philosophy to America. He is a learned man with a charming, witty, easy to read and human style that is both endearing and inspirational.This book contains five articles previously published long ago in un-named magazines. Surprisingly (and unforgivably) John Little, founder and director of The Will Durant Foundation, who compiled and edited this delightful little book, does not bother to disclose the date and original place of publication. This is a great pity for many reasons. It is also not clear how much editing Mr. Little has done to the original essays. I have been able to track Durant’s first essay to “The Rotarian” magazine of February 1955. That version is somewhat different from what appears in the book. It is ironic that such a scholar as Durant would be reproduced in such an unscholarly way.Durant’s list of ten “greatest” thinkers is the least idiosyncratic, a list that most educated people will probably agree. He defines his criteria and then briefly introduces Confucius, Plato (who subsumes Socrates in a cute twofer), Aristotle, Aquinas (OK, OK, so the Western bias is clear already), Copernicus, Bacon, Newton, Voltaire (!), Kant, Darwin, He is generous in his description of other great thinkers who do not make his list and the reasons why. Buddha and Christ were teachers not thinkers, Spinoza’s thinking was too esoteric to have influenced any but the most intellectual. Democritus, Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius, and others – even Mary Wollstonecraft and Susan Anthony, get a passing nod. Personally, I was disappointed that Heraclitus, Franklin, Jefferson and Einstein failed to merit even such “honorable mention”.Durant admits that his list of ten “greatest” poets is quite personal. Fair enough; there are no objective criteria that would support another approach. His favorites: Homer, David, Euripides, Lucretius, Li Tai Po, Dante, Shakespeare, Keats, Shelly and Whitman. This section is nicely embellished with some of his favorite passages by these great writers. In his defense of nominating tragic Keats, Durant also produces a credible list of other great poets but strangely omits Cervantes. Elsewhere in the book poor Emerson is trashed for being “a trifle thin today”. Ouch.Next are presented Durant’s 100 “best” books for an education, in which he provocatively promises a first class education to anyone who will devote seven hours a week for four years to his proposed reading program. Wonderful, thrilling idea. His approach mixes original material with survey texts. While Herodotus, Solomon and Homer are timeless, old texts on science are not likely to be useful. The reader might benefit from his own efforts to find more modern publications to fill these parts in Durant’s program. As bad, Durant’s approach is shamelessly parochial. Asia and Africa are grouped together in one of his 12 sections. The Middle East (including Persia and the terrific contributions of Islam) seem ignored altogether. One could probably find a more recent outline to achieve the excellent goal that Durant proposes. Still, Durant’s perspective that education is a lifelong process that begins when college finishes is wonderfully refreshing, especially today when college is seen as a stepping stone for career, like a trade school.Durant’s ten “peaks” of human progress is also excellent and thought provoking. These include: speech, fire, animal domestication, agriculture, social order, morality, tools, science, education and writing/printing. A critic could nit-pick that agriculture, horticulture and tool development are part of science or that social order and morality are overlapping. A more legitimate comment would be that his list mixes actual peak events (discovery of fire, urbanization, even plant and animal domestication) with processes that span the full timeframe of humanity (tool development, education, science). Still, the list is, as intended, thought provoking and useful.The final chapter presents 12 vital dates in world history, and is intellectually the most muddled part of the book, as it mixes up personalities and dates. Many of the dates are placeholders for Great Teachers, Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, Christ, Mohammed, even Sir Francis Bacon and might have been more usefully approached in a different way. Certainly the first three of these (and others such as Moses, Zoroaster, Patanjali and indeed the development of the Vedas) might have better been combined as one date in a thoughtful essay on the Axial Age. Only the invention of the Egyptian calendar in 4241 BC, the printing press in 1554, steam in 1769, and the discovery of the New World in 1492 seem to fit the topic well. Oddly, Durant adds the failed French Revolution to this list, but ignores the successful American Revolution. Hammurabi is ignored, as is Marathon. Personally, it seems that the Magna Carta and the Bill or Rights deserve some mention too.This book makes for easy reading and would make a delightful gift to any student or educated person. It also provides an excellent template for discussion, in which you and your friends each prepare your own lists first, compare them with each other and with Durant’s. The light style and breezy manner of this work contrasts dramatically from the book that made him famous, “The Story of Philosophy”, which is dense, profound and very slow reading. Greatest Minds and Ideas will be enjoyed by all educated people. By contrast “The Story of Philosophy” is suited to dedicated philosophers looking for a good sample of some of the deepest thinkers of our culture.

⭐The author, of course, is wonderful, and the books are great reading

⭐Phenomenal.This is a collection of six essays which do not disappoint. Buzzfeed would be proud at Durant’s lists of “ten greatest thinkers” “ten greatest poets” “One hundred best books for an education” “ten peaks of human progress” and “twelve vital dates in world history”Chapter 4, the 100 best books for an education is a good review of his choice of 100 books. But what is most beautiful is his intro on his ideal library and his conclusion on why we should read. Despite his wide reading he remained an optimist. We should look towards his writings for hope that humanity can get better. He certainly believed it.Chapter 5’s “ten peaks on human progress” is the best part of the book. Durant does for humanity what St. Paul did for 1st century Christianity/Judaism. They both surveyed the literature of their time and boiled it down to the reasons it was written. I find myself going back to what Durant said is progress. His optimism is contagious. I want to work toward the things he talks about. His writing offers compelling reasons to live!This was the first “complete” work I read of Durant’s and I’d say it was actually not quite the best intro to his work, though chapter 5 can stand by itself really well.I am currently reading his first book “transition” (1927) about his transition out of studying to be a priest and the dual autobiography he wrote with his wife. Fascinating, widely read scholar.

⭐Will Durant was an immensely learned thinker, and I’ve grown to greatly appreciate his work over the years. He does express his opinions with an enthusiastic flair which may throw readers expecting dry scholarly detachment, but I personally find his vigor to be a nice refreshing change. Moreover, he offers many deep insights to consider, and he does it with humility befitting a genuinely wise person.In this book, Durant specifically lists and describes what he considers the “greatest minds and ideas of all time,” and I think his choices are generally good. Of course, readers may disagree with some of his choices, but it’s pointless to get hung up on that, since such lists are necessarily somewhat subjective. If you recognize that his choices are only meant to be “among” the greatest, you shouldn’t have any problems.The only real criticism I can offer is that Durant perhaps makes the process of becoming educated sound easier than it really is. He spent decades climbing to his lofty height, and I’ve logged in plenty of hours myself. Describing greatest books, minds, historical events, etc. is certainly interesting, useful, and even inspiring, but such lists don’t really enable much of a shortcut. Also, as a fairly minor point, I think his pre-1900 choices of greatest books are good, but his 20th-century choices warrant updating, especially with regard to the sciences.Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who seriously wrestles with the big questions and values growth of human understanding. People who are themselves relatively well read will particularly enjoy comparing notes with Durant. Also, this book works very well in audiobook format, so don’t hesitate to give that a try.

⭐I preferred lessons of history. Some great selections from Durant. He writes well and gives an entertaining summary of those he’s considered and ruled out, then interesting anecdotes from politics, the arts and sciences. Sometimes these meander a bit or are obscure and less interesting but in general it was a good value read.

⭐I started the book out of curiosity. I was supposed to read it, enjoy it, close it and feel a little more educated. Nothing went to plan and I feel so good for it. The author shares with us not only information but also a growth mindset… this book is just one step in our lifelong study journey. I believe in study as a condition of self development. Durant is from now on my list of private tutor.

⭐This is a great book. For those of you beginning to understand philosophy and wanting to see the philosophy to underpin western civilisation this is the best book to start with. It was inside is an easy to understand style and is short but not too short giving you enough to ponder on.I would like to say that the service I received from the seller was exceptional. The book was delivered in good quality and in a short space of time.Making me through this book as I believe many of these ideas have the capacity to change a life.

⭐This is a great read for anyone, who like me, wishes to know more about history’s great thinkers but doesn’t know where to start. I can’t remember the last time I learned so much in such a short space of time. It is lively, thought provoking while at the same time challenging with some of it’s selections. My only criticism is that it’s too short! But maybe that is no bad thing; makes you feel you want to learn more.This little gem should be on everybody’s bookshelf.

⭐This is a great compilation of authors, thinkers and books. What I love about the book is how each of them is described in a simple and compelling way. This is not going to be a great book by itself, but it’s going to open the doors to find them.

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