BY WILL DURANT
The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
Heroes of History
The Story of Philosophy
Transition
The Pleasures of Philosophy
Adventures in Genius
BY WILL AND ARIEL DURANT
The Story of Civilization
I. OUR ORIENTAL HERITAGE
II. THE LIFE OF GREECE
III. CAESAR AND CHRIST
IV. THE AGE OF FAITH
V. THE RENAISSANCE
VI. THE REFORMATION
VII. THE AGE OF REASON BEGINS
VIII. THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV
IX. THE AGE OF VOLTAIRE
X. ROUSSEAU AND REVOLUTION
XI. THE AGE OF NAPOLEON
Interpretations of Life
The Lessons of History
The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
WILL DURANT
Compiled and edited by John Little
Simon & Schuster
NEW YORK LONDON TORONTO SYDNEY
SIMON & SCHUSTER
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Copyright © 2002 by John Little, Monica Ariel Mihell, and William James Durant Easton
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Simon & Schuster and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
For information regarding special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or business@simonandschuster.com
DESIGNED BY PAUL DIPPOLITO
Manufactured in the United States of America
7 9 10 8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Durant,Will, date.
The greatest minds and ideas of all time/Will Durant; compiled and edited by John Little.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. Civilization—History. 2. Intellectual life—History. I. Little, John R., date. II. Title.
CB69.D86 2002
909—DC21 2002075852
ISBN: 978-0-743-23553-2
eISBN-13: 978-1-439-10714-0
www.SimonandSchuster.com
If a man is fortunate he will, before he dies, gather up as much as he can of his civilized heritage and transmit it to his children.And to his final breath he will be grateful for this inexhaustible legacy, knowing that it is our nourishing mother and our lasting life.
—WILL DURANT
Keeping the above observation of Will Durant’s in mind, I should dedicate this compendium of the peaks of our human heritage to all children, and more prejudicially, to my children: Riley,Taylor, Brandon, and Benjamin; that they may learn and experience the noble strain in humanity and learn that man is capable of such great things that even the gods might be envious.
—JOHN LITTLE
And to Edward and Benny Easton,whose grandparents worked so hard through so many decades to deliver this gift to them.
Contents
Introduction ·
CHAPTER ONE
A Shameless Worship of Heroes ·
CHAPTER TWO
The Ten “Greatest” Thinkers ·
CHAPTER THREE
The Ten “Greatest” Poets ·
CHAPTER FOUR
The One Hundred “Best” Books for an Education ·
CHAPTER FIVE
The Ten “Peaks” of Human Progress ·
CHAPTER SIX
Twelve Vital Dates in World History ·
Index ·
The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time
Introduction
In 1968, shortly after winning the Pulitzer Prize for literature, Will Durant and his wife, Ariel, consented to a television interview to be conducted in their home in Los Angeles, California. The interviewer, who fancied himself something of an intellectual, posed to Durant the following question:
If I were to ask you to name the person who has most influenced our century (the 20th century) would it be Karl Marx?
Durant paused for a moment and then replied:
Well, if you use the word in its largest sense,we would have to give the greatest share of influence to the technical inventors, to men like Edison. Doubtless the development of electricity has transformed the world even more than any Marxian propaganda. Then, if you think in terms of ideas, I think the influence of Darwin is still greater than the influence of Marx, but in a different field. The basic phenomenon of our time is not Communism; it’s the decline of religious belief,which has all sorts of effects on morals and even on politics because religion has been a tool of politics. But today in Europe it ceases to be a tool, it has very little influence in determining political decisions—whereas 500 years ago, the pope was superior in influence to any civil ruler on earth.
Later, during the same interview, the interviewer turned to his subject and asked:
Dr. Durant, of all the characters populating The Story of Civilization, whom would you have most liked to have known?
Durant contemplated the question seriously and then, poker-faced, replied, “Madame De Pompadour.”
The interviewer was dumbfounded.
“Why is that?” he asked.
A twinkle came to Durant’s eyes as he answered, “Well, she was beautiful, she was charming, she was luscious—what else do you want?”
I cite these two anecdotes not simply to reveal Durant’s views on the influence of inventors and biologists on human history, nor even his tendency to use wit to disarm journalists who took themselves or their vocations too seriously (he once noted that humor is akin to philosophy for they are both viewpoints born of a large perspective of life), but rather to show that his opinion on assessing the significance of individuals and events from human history was something that was constantly sought after—sometimes twice in the same interview.
It is entirely understandable that Durant should find himself asked to answer such questions.Any time a man spends over half a century researching and writing an eleven-volume integral history of civilization, it is natural that people are going to want to know what conclusions he has drawn from the enterprise; to know what eras, individuals, and achievements stood out in his mind as being the greatest or most significant.Who, for example, would Durant rate on his Roll of Honor of human thought as the greatest thinkers in human history? Who would he rate as the truly great poets; the ones that plucked notes upon heartstrings that continue to resonate hundreds and thousands of years after their passing? And what would be the absolute best books one should read in order to receive a meaningful—and useful—education? Over the course of Durant’s career, he responded to the increasing public demand for such qualified assessments by putting pen to paper and crafting a series of essays containing his personal ranking of “The Ten Greatest Thinkers,” “The Ten Greatest Poets,” “The One Hundred Best Books for an Education,” “The Ten Peaks of Human Progress,” and “Twelve Vital Dates in World History.” Certain of these essays were published in periodicals; others were presented as lectures to standing-room-only attendees. However, unless you happened to purchase those magazines, or were fortunate enough to attend one of those lectures, it would not have been possible to learn of his conclusions in these matters. Fortunately, all of these essays have been brought together in The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time.