The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century

This book is an extraordinary achievement. If you can lift it, you should read it. Obviously, it isn’t for everyone, but if you are interested in old fashioned, “high” culture, I think you will be impressed. The coverage of the “hard” sciences is particularly impressive. I will contribute two “palpable” errors.On page 68, the author says “Third, there was the philosophy of Immanuel Kant (1724—1804), who argued that there were limits to reason, that human observations of the world were ‘never neutral, never free of priorly imposed conceptual judgements’, and because of that one could never know that God exists.” Actually, Kant, in the Critique of Practical Reason, claimed that he had proved the existence of God.On page 634 the author says “Just as Kant said there is no pure reason”. Actually, in his famous Critique of Pure Reason, Kant rejected most traditional metaphysics, but argued in favor of what he called “a priori synthetic judgments,” which were “pure”, that is, not empirical, but rational.Otherwise, the book was perfect.

Let's start with the positive- Peter Watson covers an amazing amount of material, spanning the entire 20th century. He focuses on different philosophical ideas and the different ways they are expressed throughout the western world. He highlights the integration between disciplines which reinforces and advances all the various fields of science discussed. The history and summaries are fascinating, and terrifying. Peter Watson is owed a great deal of gratitude for delivering such a breadth of knowledge.The negative is the focus on liberalism, and pessimism. I had never heard of Watson prior to a friend recommending the book, but I must assume he is liberal based on the exposure he gives to each side of the political aisle. There are at least 50 names the vast majority of readers will not recognize, yet he doesn't mention even once William F Buckley or Ayn Rand. Nor does he provide an intelligent summary of the conservative movement in the second half of the century.Another unfortunate aspect of the book is that most of the ideas discussed will travel the same path as Freud's, just as the author discloses in the conclusion- into the garbage and for the same reason. They are not based on reality and reason- they are rationalistic retrofitting explanations that try to fit the data into some harebrained, nonsensical theory. The pessimism and absurdism started to wear on me and I think some of the parts of the book could've been left out as the underlying themes did not change- that all is hopeless and man's mind is futile, which is of course nonsense. But all in all, even at this length, the book will keep you entertained and provide plenty of intriguing ideas that came and went over the last century. And everyone knows the horrific consequences that bad ideas can lead to, although it is still mind boggling how people can still support similar strains of thought, like milder versions of communism. Worth the read!

This book would make a great graduation gift for any high school student as he begins a liberal arts education. They would also be essential for business or engineering graduates who of necessity might have missed a humanities education altogether. Perhaps the book is too ambitious, but it is well written and a compelling read. My only criticism is that towards the end one senses his reliance on the great popular work in the sciences written in the 1990's.( Dawkins, Weinberg, Wilson, Pinker, Dyson et al - great stuff, but more essential material has been added in the last 10 years particularly in astrophysics and the neurosciences.) But the core questions as Watson defines them still hold. This is the kind of book that needs to be rewritten every 10 years and is due for an update which I very much hope is coming soon. (Also check out his more recent book "Ideas" which is even more ambitious). These books follow in the tradition of Tarnas or Jacob Bronowski and deserves to become even more admired. Few people are capable of writing, or can be trusted to write.... these kind of intellectual Uber-histories. Watson has done a wonderful job.

Peter Watson has pulled off a second miracle--essentially completing what he started in his "Ideas: ...From Fire to Freud." "The Modern Mind" has just the right depth for me--not too much and not too little. It seems that no important idea of the 20th century was skipped. The book has the speed of a good novel, and is smart without a hint of pretension. The conversational tone is that of a smart, synthetic, enthusiastic college lecturer. I keep going back to Watson with renewed excitement, and so will you. Fine bibliography suggests further reading. In short: If all first-year college students were given the opportunity to read and discuss this book during Spring semester (after completing its prequel "Ideas:..." during Fall semester)--supplemented perhaps by some primary readings--they'd come away with a really terrific grounding in world history, civilization, philosophy, religion, invention. In short, an education between covers.

The book its easily 4 stars read on dead trees. I read this in grad school in the early naughties on (gasp) paper. Remember paper? I found it slower and a bit more pedantic than it is in my memory. Could it be that I'm conditioned to read the literary equivalent of snack food? Probably, so take my thoughts with a grain or three of salt. The 3 stars I've chosen here? However this was converted to an electronic book, oof. Shoddy. It's almost like someone just OCR'd the paper edition. Names (proper names?!) are often wrong. Very jarring. "Shadow" becomes "shallow" with some regularity. Double Oof. Good book made frustrating to read on Kindle. This is all before I start talking about Kindle's horrid line break algorithm. There are canyons of white space in here reading on iOS. Triple Oof. Don't get me started.

Utterly brilliant and masterly examination of 20th Century thought and almost unreadable due to the complexity of the topic. Written for experts only.

Peter Watson has such a breadth of knowledge it's awe -inspiring. He really does survey the scene in a coherent and focused way. Takes time to read; short sections need to be digested. Certainly can't be read like a best seller but well worth the effort.

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Wer Watson hat, braucht eigentlich keine Freunde mehr. Die Mega-Schwarte wird Euer treuer Begleiter der nächsten Wochen und Monaten sein. Am besten also einbunkern und Außenwelt-Kontakt vermeiden. Die größten Ideen des 20. Jahrhunderts werden nochmal nach ihrem Gehalt abgeklopft, was kann es Spannenderes geben?Dazu zählt Watson aber nicht nur Surrealismus, Schönberg, Sartre und Joyce, sondern auch die Relativitätstheorie, die Erfindung von Plastik, den Dopplereffekt, die Chicago School und natürlich die "Chaoplexity" (?).Besonders interessant fand ich seine Skepsis gegenüber den französischen Poststrukturalisten Foucault, Derrida oder Lacan (Kapitel 35).Gewohnt meinungsstark vertritt Watson wie auch schon in Teil I seiner "Ideen"-Serie seine Standpunkte. Einige Ansichten mögen streitbar sein (der wichtigste englischsprachige Lyriker ist für ihn Philip Larkin). Mit Freud geht er hart ins Gericht. Er hält ihn für einen Scharlatan, der heute keiner wissenschaftlichen Prüfung mehr standhalten würde. Psychoanalyse und Marxismus sind für ihn ohnehin nur pseudowissenschaftliche Ideologien, welche die Geisteswissenschaften im Vergleich zu den naturwissenschaftlichen Himmelstürmern zurückgeworfen hätten. Das ist nur eines dieser Schlaglichter, die bei mir hängengeblieben sind und über die ich gerne nachgegrübelt habe.Manche Kapitel sind in der Tat etwas dröge, bei anderen läuft Watson zu Höchstform auf (vor allem, wenn er gegen seinen Lieblingsfeind Freud oder die erwähnten Franz-Philosophen wettert). Nicht zufällig beginnt das Mammutwerk mit der Gegenüberstellung von Psychoanalyse und Plancks Quantentheorie. Dazwischen kommt es zu brillanten Symbiosen, wenn etwa der Wert der Literatur mit Darwin (Memes) erklärt wird: "Great books – Their survival is no accident; their thoughts are the fittest!" Watson vertritt eher konservative Ansichten, die heute rar geworden sind. Vor allem die Kapitel über die Bedeutung eines Kanons (Kapitel 26 "Cracks in the Canon" sowie Kapitel 41 "Cultural Wars") fand ich sehr spannend und nahezu prophetisch geschrieben, wenn man die Konfliktlinien unserer (westlichen) Gegenwart betrachtet.Natürlich kann ein solches enzyklopädisches Unterfangen nicht den Ansprüchen der Vollständigkeit genügen, wie einige pedantische Vorkritiker monierten. Darum ging es meines Erachtens auch gar nicht. Watsons Ziel war es die großen Jahrhundert-Ideen kritisch zu beleuchten, um einen fruchtbaren Dialog zwischen Geistes- und Naturwissenschaftlern zu ermöglichen. Das ist ihm grandios gelungen!In Kombination mit Teil 1 der Ideen-Saga hat man einen grundsoliden Wissensfundus intus, der reichen sollte, um mindestens bis zur 64.000 Euro-Frage zu kommen. So ein Wissenseifer verdient Anerkennung. Hut ab, Mr. Watson!

This is a discovery browsing a public library in a small suburb of a small but civilized city of Adelaide, and after reading so many books of modern history, this one encompass all aspects of human ideas from science, politics, religion, historical events, economics, trivia, literature, poetry, music art and all what makes our lives so interesting and rich. The Western world could not have had a better summarising writer with knowledge, non unsympathetic but not excessively admiring all aspects of our culture. I highly recommend to all.