《西方思想史》西方思想简史

The Dual Legacy, adapted from The Passion of the Western Mind by Richard Tarnas.

The author summarizes the characteristics of classic Greek thought. As he concludes, it emerged from the archaic mythological consciousness, influenced by the mystery religion, forged through a dialectic with skepticism, naturalism, and secular humanism, and committed to reason, empiricism, and mathematics. According to the author, the Greeks identified the world as a question to be answered. The unique synthesis of Greek thoughts recognized the difference between phenomenal and the truth, recognized the connection between an ordered cosmos and human cognitive faculties. It is both ideal and rational. It combined secular skepticism and metaphysical idealism.

It is dual. It resulted from the complex interaction of two sets of assumptions and impulses. For the rational part, the author named a list a Presocratic philosophical tradition:

(1) Naturalistic empiricism from Thales;

(2) Rationalism from Parmenides;

(3) Mechanistic materialism from Democritus;

(4) Skepticism, individualism, and secular humanism from Democritus

The ideal part is visible in the Platonic synthesis. However, both shared an affirmation that "the final measure of truth was found not in hallowed tradition, nor in contemporary convention, but rather in the autonomous individual human mind."

The author reviewed that the two parts set an inner tension within the Greek inheritance, making it unstable yet highly creative, each undermining the others tendency to crystallize into dogmatism, and in combination elicited new and fertilized intellectual possibilities.

Vocabulary:

(1) Preceded adj. 之前的 (2) Conductive adj. 传导的 (3) Contemporaneous adj. 同时期的 (4) Empiricism n. 经验主义 (5) Tenet n. 教义 (6) Conviction n. 判定，坚定的信念 (7) Exert v. 实施 (8) Emanate v. 产生 (9) Immanent adj. 内在的 (10) Anthropomorphic adj. 拟人的 (11) Complementary adj. 互补的 (12) Antithetical 相反的，对立的 (13) Bifurcation n. 分歧 (14) Allegiance n. 拥护