dice el chiste leer "Historia intelectual del siglo xx" para conocer la historia de las ideas en el significativo siglo que pasó, es como comprar un avión para que le den a uno el maní el chiste en realidad aplica sobre el sexo y el matrimonio pero no encontré mejor analogía.
El problema: el texto, en la sexta edición de Crítica que fue la que leí, se desarrolla enpáginas en Times New Romana espacio sencillo cada página tienemás texto que un libro convencional por lo que la lectura equivale a unaspáginas que describen, con un nivel de detalle que por momentos lleva a la desesperación aún del lector más juicioso, cada personaje imaginable del mundo del arte, la cultura o la ciencia cuidadosamente seleccionados eso si hay que reconocérselo a Watson para reflejar la evolución de las ideas durante el siglo xx.
Y qué tiene eso de malo Creanme! el libro llega a ser insoportable por capítulos enteros,
Si eres como soy yo de los que te interesa el desarrollo de las ideas científicas, económicas o políticas, desesperarás en los capítulos dedicados al arte, la literatura y la filosofía.
Si por el contrario lo que te interesa más el arte por ejemplo, tal vez te encontrarás capítulos muy densos y difíciles de entender, dedicados al desarrollo "modernos" de las ideas en evolución, genética, geología y tal vez peor! física contemporánea.
Tal vez el texto es mejor como un libro de referencia, algo para leer dependiendo del interés de cada uno, Sin embargo, lamentablemente no esta diseñado como tal, o al menos así lo sentí yo,
"Historia intelectual del siglo xx" es un libro para ser leído como una obra integral con múltiples y muy diversas referencias cruzadas entre los capítulos, de modo que no deja mucha escapatoria: o lo lees de forma íntegra y desesperas en los apartes más irrelevantes de la historia o te conformas con leer los capítulos que te interesan, sin entender mucho el contexto que presentan todos los demás capítulos.
Lo bueno: el capítulo
de conclusión!
Como sucede con "Ideas", el otro proyecto quijotesco de Watson lea sitelinkaquí mi reseña sobre ese libro que si amerita cada una de suspáginas, el capítulo que cierra este volumen es maravilloso.
Cada frase, cada párrafo presenta una síntesis asombrosa de todo lo descrito en el resto del libro con excesivos detalles,
Leer ese capítulo final justificó el sacrificio en mi caso demes de lectura abandonando todas las lecturas que tenía pendientes de pasar por el "desierto" de muchos de los capítulos más inhóspitos del texto.
Para los que me conocen tal vez solo a través de mis reseñas y creen que pueden llegar a disfrutar de las mismas cosas de las que yo disfruto, les recomiendo muy especialmente los siguientes capítulos:
Capítulo.
E m c
Capítulo, El contraataque.
Capítulo. La evolución de la evolución,
Capítulo. La edad dorada de la física,
Capítulo. Inquisiciones.
Capítulo. El Colossus.
Capítulo. Luz de agosto.
Capítulo. Fuerzas de la naturaleza.
Capítulo. Igualdad, libertad y justicia en la Gran Sociedad,
Capítulo. La longue durée
Capítulo, Safarí genético.
Conclusión.
De modo que si tienen muchas horas disponibles y les gustan los retos de lectura, lean este libro de Watson,
Si por el contrario son más prácticos, escojan algunos de los capítulos que recomiendo arriba no todos!, la conclusión especialmente, y no pierdan el tiempo con una obra, por decirlo menos, excesiva.
From Freud to Babbitt, from Animal Farm to Sartre to the Great Society, from the Theory of Relativity to counterculture to Kosovo, The Modern Mind is encyclopedic, covering the major writers, artists, scientists, and philosophers who produced the ideas by which we live.
Peter Watson has produced a fluent and engaging narrative of the intellectual tradition of the twentieth century, and the men and women who created it.
This is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read, I am always curious about the history of ideas and how influential ideas can be so pervasive in our lives as to be almost invisible.
This book starts with the discovery and rediscovery in some instances of the gene, quantum, and subconscious inand works its way through the century as people wrestle with Freud, Darwin, and Marx.
Along the way, Watson identifies science, the free market, and mass media as the most important forces, At the end he suggests a new canon which is the combined story of the origin of the universe through to today informed by advances in science and anthropology and illuminated by culture and history.
It has changed the way I think about the way that I think, One approaches a massive tome with big ambitions under the assumption that the author probably covered the territory rather well, but it's rare to find something as satisfying in multiple dimensions as 'The Modern Mind.
' Jacket blurbs and some reviews suggest dipping into this work in encyclopedic fashion, in a manner similar to dabbling with 'The Autobiography of Mark Twain.
' No way. The author is telling an important story of theth century, one that deserves a straightforward read, even if such a read sounds daunting atpages.
When I give this five, it means five solid, one of the most fascinating nonfiction books I've ever read,
One of Watson's critical points is disclosed in the introduction, He charges the culturalliterati side of the intellectual elite with making itself obsolete by ignoring or at best passing over the achievements of science in the past century.
In the conclusion, Watson expands upon this by saying the traditional philosophy and liberalartsstudies intellectuals got so hung up with Marx and Freud, they forgot where the important work was coming from.
When some in thes complained there were no "public intellectuals" any longer, they didn't realize that this function was no longer served by the likes of Sartre and Daniel Bell, but by the likes of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Steven Jay Gould.
In essence, the liberalarts vanguard ceded this space to the scientists,
But don't think that Watson gives literature or traditional philosophy short shrift in his review of theth century, He gives all dimensions of intellectual pursuits equal opportunity, And he covers the important literature coming out of Africa, India, and the Middle East, But in so doing, he comes to an important and critical conclusion, Watson and his editors went out of their way to be multicultural along several fronts, only to find that most scientific, literary, philosophical "new ideas" of theth century did indeed come out of the realm of "dead white guys" the Western world.
Watson gives fair shakes to everyone from Noam Chomsky to Edward Said who criticize this outlook, but he still comes to the conclusion that the Western nations increased their lead in new ideas during the last century.
The biggest factor influencing this, Watson says, is the role of religious fundamentalism, or even openminded traditionalism of the Hindu or Confucian variety, Where emotional attachment to traditional faith endures, he says, new ideas wither on the vine, This is particularly true of Islam since thes, he says, which is a shame, You don't have to fully subscribe to Samuel Huntington's 'Clash of Civilizations' to realize that Islam has a problem with reinvention,
Watson's coverage of the early century and the postWWperiod is exciting and refreshing, particularly in the way he looks to movements like Dada as deliberate infusions of primitivism into a culture that has been too hung up in its own selfexamination.
Watson does not go so far as to say barbarism is a nice antidote to too much classicism, though it's clear he likes the whimsical subversion of Dada, the Beats, situationism, punks, etc.
Later in the book, he gently chides Allan Bloom for his book "Closing of the American Mind," for its assumption that rock music was a horrible dumbdowner for classical music, and that the cultural world of the Greeks and Romans represented a pinnacle that was never recovered.
Watson doesn't poke direct fun of Bloom, but suggests he should hang out with the barbarians a little more,
For someone who thinks both Freud and Marx were stultifying timewasters for the academic mainstream, Watson gives the psychoanalysts and classanalysts fair coverage throughout the book.
He also gives existentialists and postmodernists proper due, though he clearly thinks they wasted a lot of time in the past century, Sometimes, Watson covers the likes of Hayek and Friedman enough to make one think he might be libertarian, though he makes clear in the conclusion that he is not a laissezfaire capitalist of the Austrian school.
In that sense, my views are very close to Watson's, He says that Marx provided an interesting way of looking at inequality and exploitation, before Lenin and Stalin destroyed anything worthy in Marx's views, He says that Freud and Jung provided an interesting way of examining consciousness, though thes studies of neuralnetworks and selforganizing sentience not to mention the biochemical basis of mental disease, pretty much trashed most Freudian theory.
Watson provides a careful analysis of how modernist and postmodernist culture affected intellectual development in the lastyears of theth century, without becoming one of those pessimistic handwringers who think television and the Internet have dumbed us down.
His conclusion, 'The Positive Hour,' is downright optimistic in the face of the tough environmental and economic challenges our species faces in thest century.
If the traditional culturalliterate academia would tone down the Foucault and Derrida a little bit and study their science and math, Watson suggests, we'd all be a little better off.
In that sense, I could chide Watson for not covering enough 'sciencecentered fiction' among the authors that have done just what he suggested Vonnegut, LeGuin,and Pynchon in the early years, followed by Stephenson, Gibson, Powers, Sterling, D.
F. Wallace, etc. at century's end. If Watson would have covered a little more punk, cyberpunk, and futurenihilist literatureculture of thes throughs, his conclusion might have been even more optimistic about our chances to continue our development as a species.
The trick is to listen to the classicists a little less, and the barbarians a little more, I found myself so much in agreement with many of Watson's points, I almost hated to finish this marvelous, whimsical, and occasionally downright humorous review of intellectual pursuit.
.
Uncover The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History Of The 20th Century Documented By Peter Watson Format Ebook
Peter Watson