The Great Ideas Today [antikvár]

The Great Ideas Today attempts to relate the outstanding events of contemporary life and thought to the accumulated wisdom of the past. To the extent that it succeeds in doing this, it reveals the relevance of the great books to the contemporary scene and throws the light of the great ideas on the main currents of our life today. The result is a better understanding of both the present and the past. The debate between Sen. Barry Goldwater and Sen. Jacob K. Javits, with which the book opens (Part I), explores the issues between the conservative and progressive factions in American political life. While these issues have particular reference to questions of domestic and foreign policy that confront the United States today, the opposition between the conservative and liberal approaches to political problems is not a new one. Both Senator Goldwater and Senator Javits can, therefore, find support for their positions in the great political documents of the past. Their references to the great books enable the reader to view the current issues in a wider perspective. The relevance of the great books and the great ideas to the pressing problems of our own time is, perhaps, more amply demonstrated in Part II, which deals with the problems of war and peace in our divided world; with the social, morál, and economic problems that arise from the advancing techniques of automation; and with the problems of freedom and regulation that have become so vexed in the sphere of commercial television. Here the authors of the great books speak to us with an astounding directness and a clarifying insight about matters which we might have supposed concerned our generation for the first time. The five essays that constitute Part III review the most recent advances made in the arts and sciences. Here the main emphasis is upon new departures in scientific research or theory and upon novelty in form and substance in literature. These developments have their roots in the tradition of the great books and the great ideas. The Notes to the Reader, appended to each of the five essays, call the reader's attention to relevant traditional materials, while the essays themselves enable him to keep abreast of the advancing front in major fields of inquiry and creative work. Part IV of The Great Ideas Today moves in still another direction to enlarge the picture. It presents four originál works, which serve to build up the reader's basic library. One of these-the essay by Martin Luther-is a great monument in the history of the Christian religion. vii