The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time

Will Durant, who died in 1981, has been a guiding light in education since he published "The Story of Philosophy: The lives and opinions of the world's greatest philosophers from Plato to John Dewey" in 1926, and thereby introduced philosophy to America. He is a learned man with a charming, witty, easy to read and human style that is both endearing and inspirational.This book contains five articles previously published long ago in un-named magazines. Surprisingly (and unforgivably) John Little, founder and director of The Will Durant Foundation, who compiled and edited this delightful little book, does not bother to disclose the date and original place of publication. This is a great pity for many reasons. It is also not clear how much editing Mr. Little has done to the original essays. I have been able to track Durant's first essay to "The Rotarian" magazine of February 1955. That version is somewhat different from what appears in the book. It is ironic that such a scholar as Durant would be reproduced in such an unscholarly way.Durant's list of ten "greatest" thinkers is the least idiosyncratic, a list that most educated people will probably agree. He defines his criteria and then briefly introduces Confucius, Plato (who subsumes Socrates in a cute twofer), Aristotle, Aquinas (OK, OK, so the Western bias is clear already), Copernicus, Bacon, Newton, Voltaire (!), Kant, Darwin, He is generous in his description of other great thinkers who do not make his list and the reasons why. Buddha and Christ were teachers not thinkers, Spinoza's thinking was too esoteric to have influenced any but the most intellectual. Democritus, Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius, and others - even Mary Wollstonecraft and Susan Anthony, get a passing nod. Personally, I was disappointed that Heraclitus, Franklin, Jefferson and Einstein failed to merit even such "honorable mention".Durant admits that his list of ten "greatest" poets is quite personal. Fair enough; there are no objective criteria that would support another approach. His favorites: Homer, David, Euripides, Lucretius, Li Tai Po, Dante, Shakespeare, Keats, Shelly and Whitman. This section is nicely embellished with some of his favorite passages by these great writers. In his defense of nominating tragic Keats, Durant also produces a credible list of other great poets but strangely omits Cervantes. Elsewhere in the book poor Emerson is trashed for being "a trifle thin today". Ouch.Next are presented Durant's 100 "best" books for an education, in which he provocatively promises a first class education to anyone who will devote seven hours a week for four years to his proposed reading program. Wonderful, thrilling idea. His approach mixes original material with survey texts. While Herodotus, Solomon and Homer are timeless, old texts on science are not likely to be useful. The reader might benefit from his own efforts to find more modern publications to fill these parts in Durant's program. As bad, Durant's approach is shamelessly parochial. Asia and Africa are grouped together in one of his 12 sections. The Middle East (including Persia and the terrific contributions of Islam) seem ignored altogether. One could probably find a more recent outline to achieve the excellent goal that Durant proposes. Still, Durant's perspective that education is a lifelong process that begins when college finishes is wonderfully refreshing, especially today when college is seen as a stepping stone for career, like a trade school.Durant's ten "peaks" of human progress is also excellent and thought provoking. These include: speech, fire, animal domestication, agriculture, social order, morality, tools, science, education and writing/printing. A critic could nit-pick that agriculture, horticulture and tool development are part of science or that social order and morality are overlapping. A more legitimate comment would be that his list mixes actual peak events (discovery of fire, urbanization, even plant and animal domestication) with processes that span the full timeframe of humanity (tool development, education, science). Still, the list is, as intended, thought provoking and useful.The final chapter presents 12 vital dates in world history, and is intellectually the most muddled part of the book, as it mixes up personalities and dates. Many of the dates are placeholders for Great Teachers, Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, Christ, Mohammed, even Sir Francis Bacon and might have been more usefully approached in a different way. Certainly the first three of these (and others such as Moses, Zoroaster, Patanjali and indeed the development of the Vedas) might have better been combined as one date in a thoughtful essay on the Axial Age. Only the invention of the Egyptian calendar in 4241 BC, the printing press in 1554, steam in 1769, and the discovery of the New World in 1492 seem to fit the topic well. Oddly, Durant adds the failed French Revolution to this list, but ignores the successful American Revolution. Hammurabi is ignored, as is Marathon. Personally, it seems that the Magna Carta and the Bill or Rights deserve some mention too.This book makes for easy reading and would make a delightful gift to any student or educated person. It also provides an excellent template for discussion, in which you and your friends each prepare your own lists first, compare them with each other and with Durant's. The light style and breezy manner of this work contrasts dramatically from the book that made him famous, "The Story of Philosophy", which is dense, profound and very slow reading. Greatest Minds and Ideas will be enjoyed by all educated people. By contrast "The Story of Philosophy" is suited to dedicated philosophers looking for a good sample of some of the deepest thinkers of our culture.

Will Durant was an immensely learned thinker, and I've grown to greatly appreciate his work over the years. He does express his opinions with an enthusiastic flair which may throw readers expecting dry scholarly detachment, but I personally find his vigor to be a nice refreshing change. Moreover, he offers many deep insights to consider, and he does it with humility befitting a genuinely wise person.In this book, Durant specifically lists and describes what he considers the "greatest minds and ideas of all time," and I think his choices are generally good. Of course, readers may disagree with some of his choices, but it's pointless to get hung up on that, since such lists are necessarily somewhat subjective. If you recognize that his choices are only meant to be "among" the greatest, you shouldn't have any problems.The only real criticism I can offer is that Durant perhaps makes the process of becoming educated sound easier than it really is. He spent decades climbing to his lofty height, and I've logged in plenty of hours myself. Describing greatest books, minds, historical events, etc. is certainly interesting, useful, and even inspiring, but such lists don't really enable much of a shortcut. Also, as a fairly minor point, I think his pre-1900 choices of greatest books are good, but his 20th-century choices warrant updating, especially with regard to the sciences.Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who seriously wrestles with the big questions and values growth of human understanding. People who are themselves relatively well read will particularly enjoy comparing notes with Durant. Also, this book works very well in audiobook format, so don't hesitate to give that a try.

Will Durant and his wife Ariel devoted over 50 years to the study of history and philosophy; creating 11 sage volumes of "The Story of Civilization."His dedication and hard work ultimately earned him a Pulitzer Prize in literature, followed by the highest award granted by the United States government to civilians, the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Ford in 1977.Durant endeavored to make history more than just dates committed to memory and to bring our human heritage richly alive in the men and women who've walked before us and influenced our lives.Often called THE GENTLE PHILOSOPHER, his words are laced with warmth and humor as he brings these great thinkers to life!His lists include the best books for an education, the ten greatest thinkers, the ten greatest poets, twelve vital dates in human history, and the ten peaks of human progress.I have listened to this in the car and have learned that I have many books and authors with which I have yet to acquaint myself!It's read with wit, warmth, and wisdom.Highly recommended!"The most interesting thing in the world is another human being who wonders, suffers and raises the questions that have bothered him to the last day of his life, knowing he will never get the answers."Will Durant

Probably the best introducyion to philosophy ever written. Very accessible.

And in such gracious language

Why are we not taught the way Durant teaches? A true love for the developing endeavors of our race in the world, shown through heroes and art, wars and religion, moral and economics, as one logic step after the other.

Average

I just wish I could write like Will Durant. Almost every sentence is beautifully constructed and contains an original thought. And yet he is not difficult to read (even if he has the alleged failing of occasionally starting sentences with "and" like me). Reading this makes one feel though that one has missed out on a proper education because he covers more than you are likely to be familiar with if one has followed a typical modern education. Highly recommended. This is the second book by Will Durant I have read with pleasure and I may pursue some of the recommendations of the "one hundred best books" contained in this one, even if many are clearly going to be archaic.