‘It would be a dull reader that failed to be stimulated either by the questions it raises or by the answers it gives to all sorts of questions that one would never have thought of asking’
Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph
‘In Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud, Watson gives us an astonishing overview of human intellectual development . . . For him, human thought develops as much in response to changes in the natural environment – such as shifts in climate and the appearance of new diseases – as from any internal dynamism of its own. This overarching perspective informs and unifies the book, and the result is a masterpiece of historical writing’
John Gray, New Statesman
‘This is a grand book . . . The history of ideas deserves treatment on this scale’
Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Evening Standard
‘A book like this one is to be highly valued and thoroughly read. Watson is an authoritative but unintrusive guide, gently pointing towards where the future of ideas may go, namely to the unravelling of the misconception of the “inner” self’
Glasgow Herald
‘This is a magnificently constructed book, so well indexed that it will be a valuable reference resource for years . . . Ideas is as remarkable an achievement as the progress it documents’
Brian Morton, Sunday Herald
‘Watson transmits tricky things in a palatable way’
Harry Mount, Spectator
‘Is it naïf of me to be extremely impressed, and often educated, by this cursive encyclopaedia of the growth of human genius? Watson’s book weighs a ton, but is easy to read. Anyone who has nothing to learn from it must be graced with omniscience’
Frederic Raphael, TLS Books of the Year
‘Ambitious’
New York Times
‘As one reads this thought-provoking book . . . one cannot help being impressed by so comprehensive, incisive, and stimulating a guide . . . this hugely readable, information-packed tome is better than a bargain’
Christian Science Monitor
‘It’s all here, intellectual history on a grand and gaudy scale’
Houston Chronicle
‘Watson enfolds changing conceptions of the objecive, material world, and of the subjective world of the human psyche in a confident, accessible presentation’
American Library Association
IDEAS
____________________
A HISTORY FROM
FIRE TO FREUD
____________________
Peter Watson
PHOENIX
For Bébé
There are no whole truths;
All truths are half-truths.
It is trying to treat them as
Whole truths that plays the devil.
—ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD, DIALOGUES (1953)
While it may be hard to live with generalizations, it is inconceivable to live without them.
—PETER GAY, SCHNITZLER’S CENTURY (2002)
Contents
Cover
Praise
Title Page
Dedication
Epigraph
Author’s Note
A Chronology of Ideas
Introduction: The Most Important Ideas in History – Some Candidates
Prologue: The Discovery of Time
PART ONE: LUCY TO GILGAMESH
The Evolution of Imagination
1. Ideas Before Language
Scavenging – bipedalism and meat-eating – upright posture – the oldest artefacts – changes in brain size and hand-axes – fire – ochre – burial – Neanderthals – the first ‘abstract’ idea – Berekhet Ram – ‘the cultural explosion’ – cave art – Venus figurines – ‘split houses’ – sexual imagery – textiles – beads and ritual
2. The Emergence of Language and the Conquest of Cold
The size of early groups – hunting tools – ‘tailored’ clothing – proto-languages – Siberia to Alaska: Mal’ta, Afontova Gora, Dyukhtai, Berelekh, Denali – sinodonty – the Neanderthals’ hyoid bone – the language gene – Nostratic and other mother tongues – the first sounds – the first words – the first writing?
3. The Birth of the Gods, the Evolution of House and Home
Domestication of plants and animals – ‘hot spots’ – ‘founder crops’ – increasing control of fire – cultivation of cereals – fertile crescent – drawbacks of agriculture – a more arid world – population crises in pre-history – sedentism – health crisis in pre-history – sedentary foraging – the first houses – Natufian/Khiamian cultures – the Woman and the Bull, the origin of religion – ‘fire-pits’ – first use of clay – female figurines – transition from stone to pottery – megaliths – stone temples of Malta – the Great Goddess – ‘Old Europe’ – copper smelting – bronze – iron – daggers, mirrors and coins – the intellectual impact of money
4. Cities of Wisdom
The first cities – ‘temple cities’ – temple cult – origin of writing – tokens – Vinca marks (Old European scripts) – Indian script – first pictographs – cuneiform at Shuruppak – early names and lists – syllabary and then alphabet – Ras Shamra (Ugarit) – the first schools – the first archives/libraries – the first literary texts – Gilgamesh – the ‘en’ and the ‘lugal’: rival leaders – the wheel – domestication of the horse – horses and war – the first law codes
PART TWO: ISAIAH TO ZHU XI
The Romance of the Soul
5. Sacrifice, Soul, Saviour: ‘the Spiritual Breakthrough’
Sexuality in agriculture – self-denial as the basis of sacrifice – ‘sky gods’ – concepts of the soul – Indo-Aryans and the soul in the Rig Veda – Greek ideas of the psyche and thymos – the afterlife and the underworld – Islands of the Blessed – paradise – napistu/nephesh – the ‘Axial Age’ – stone worship in the Bible – Yahweh becomes the dominant god – the prophets of Israel – Zarathustra – Mithras – Hinduism – the Buddha – Pythagoras – the Orphics – Plato – Aristotle – Confucius – Taoism
6. The Origins of Science, Philosophy and the Humanities
Homer – the Odyssey and the Iliad – myth – ‘hoplite’ infantry – coins and agriculture – Dracon – Solon as tyrant – Athenian democracy – the polis – Pericles and the golden age – the Assembly – Ionian science – Pythagoras and square numbers – the planets as ‘wanderers’ – atomic theory – Hippocrates and Asclepius: early medicine – sophistry – Protagoras and Xenophanes: scepticism leads to philosophy – Socrates – Plato – Aristotle – tragedy – Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides – history – Herodotus and Thucydides – sculpture – the Parthenon – Phidias – Myron – vase painting – Praxiteles and the female nude – Eastern influences on Greece – the birth of Greek individualism
7. The Ideas of Israel, the Idea of Jesus
Israel in exile – the invention of Judaism – circumcision, the Sabbath, the synagogue – Cyrus the Great – the creation of the Old Testament – doubts over Abraham, Noah and Moses – doubts over the Exodus, Solomon and David – pagan Yahwehism – Genesis: E, J and P sources – the Septuagint – Apocrypha – Greek and Hebrew literature compared – Sadducees, Pharisees, Zealots and Essenes – the idea of the Messiah – Herod – the idea of Jesus – discrepancies in the gospels – pagan ideas of virgin birth – the role of Galilee – the Crucifixion – the Resurrection – Jesus never intended to create a new religion – Paul and Mark