The Cave and the Light

July 22, 2013
In his sweeping new book, historian Herman (How the Scots Invented the Modern World) contends that Plato and Aristotle had vastly different conceptions about the world, and that the various followers and interpreters of each thinker, throughout the ages, shaped the course of Western civilization. According to Herman, Plato views “the world through the eyes of the artist and religious mystic,” using intuition and ideals to understand the workings of the world, while Aristotle “observes reality through the... eyes of science,” using reason and logic as guides. Beginning with biographies of each thinker and unusual facts, the book traces the rise and fall of their respective philosophies. While Plato was dominant in the ancient world, with St. Paul linking the philosopher’s idea of the forms to early Christianity, Aristotle, through Thomas Aquinas, was prominent in the Middle Ages. While Aristotle’s authority caused science to stagnate in the Middle Ages, Plato’s ideas—especially those described in The Republic—were sometimes used to justify totalitarianism, influencing 20th-century communism, fascism, and Nazism. Examining mathematics, politics, theology, and architecture, the book demonstrates the continuing relevance of the ancient world. 46 illus. Agent: Glen Hartley, Writers Representatives.

July 15, 2013
The author of Freedom's Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II (2012) returns with a sweeping intellectual history viewed through two ancient Greek lenses. Herman, who has taught history at an assortment of universities, whips his thesis for all it's worth--which is considerable. After telling us the little that's known of the biographies of his principals, he marches steadily forward through the history of philosophy and culture, showing how Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" and his beliefs about our imperfect knowledge and about ideal government have waxed and waned, inspiring great art, noble theories and, in ways, totalitarian governments. He does the same for Aristotle, noting the ways his approach to the world has led to tremendous advances in science and technology, as well as egregious excess. "This book will show that Plato and Aristotle are alive and all around us," he writes. "Their influence is reflected in every activity and in every institution...as well as on the Internet. They have taken us to the moon and probed the innermost secrets of the human heart." Throughout, the author sprinkles allusions to contemporary events and popular culture, from Playboy to The Da Vinci Code to the Kardashians. (Sometimes he alludes to things long gone on the popular radar--Dragnet, for example.) On the journey, we meet just about every notable in intellectual history and learn how, in the author's view, they leaned toward (or antedated, learned from or rejected) the two long-gone Greeks. Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Epicurus, Cato, Cicero, Abelard, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Luther, Calvin, da Vinci, Bacon (Roger and Francis), Locke, Rousseau, Byron, Coleridge, Darwin--these and countless others dance in the bright light of Herman's narrative beam. Herman's own preferences quietly emerge now and then. He appears to embrace the value of a spiritual life and has some unhappy words for Karl Marx. Breezy and enthusiastic but resting on a sturdy rock of research.

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October 1, 2013

Plato and Aristotle differed in several fundamental respects, but their work is inarguably fundamental to the intellectual history of the Western world. Herman, a Pulitzer finalist for Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry That Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age, traces the differences in their approaches and philosophy, both in their contemporary settings as well as in their reception and use in the following millennia. Plato (and more precisely the Neoplatonists) is the key to later spirituality and darker fascistic impulses; Aristotle is the basis for more practical and scientific systems. Herman's method to history is somewhat conservative in its focus on the work of well-known intellectual figures, but this makes for a good story with a dramatic and engaging narrative style. The sharp distinctions he tends to draw between Platonists and Aristotelians are more persuasive for the later Roman Empire and the Middle Ages when looking at texts that would have been available that make the influences clearer. By the 19th and 20th centuries, the record of influences is much less easy to disentangle. Ultimately, Herman concludes that we need the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle in concert to build a rational and great civilization. VERDICT This well-written and convincing work of popular history will appeal to a wide range of readers. [See Prepub Alert, 4/1/13.]--Margaret Heller, Loyola Univ. Chicago Libs.

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