The Little Book of Big Ideas

150 Concepts and Breakthroughs that Transformed History

Daniel Smith

• Publisher: Michael O'Mara
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9781782438830
• eBook ISBN:
  9781782438304
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

An exploration of some of the most important and enduring ideas in human history – from religion, science, philosophy, medicine, psychology, politics, economics and art – each presented in brief, accessible form. 'Big' ideas are those concepts and theories that have radically transformed our understanding of the world we live in, our place in that world and the ways we have shaped the past and will shape the future. They are the ideas that have had a huge impact on human civilization – and they come from all disciplines of human ingenuity.Topics covered range widely and include Creation Mythology, Existentialism, The Elements, Relativity, Space Travel, Geometry, Ethics, Behaviourism, Genetics, Warfare, The Nation State, Anarchism, Capitalism, Classical Art and Architecture, The Renaissance – and much more.This concise, accessible and multi-faceted book provides an essential introduction to 150 of the most important principles of Western thought.

PART ONE

THE COSMOS AND RELIGION

‘In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.’

Carl Jung

The cosmos describes the universe as seen as an ordered whole, as opposed to an amalgam of bewildering chaos. Since the dawn of time our species has sought to make sense of our world and, crucially, how we fit into it. We have utilized different mechanisms to do so, perhaps most notably religious faith and scientific investigation, both of which are considered in the chapter that follows. Yet religion and science have often seemed at odds with each other in this quest. Richard Dawkins, for example, calls faith ‘the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence.’ Others, though, have believed there is space for both. Einstein took a nuanced approach. While rejecting the idea of a personal god, he once wrote: ‘Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious.’ That greatest of science communicators, Carl Sagan, meanwhile, summarized our deep fascination with matters of the universe in Cosmos: ‘The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us – there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation of a distant memory, as if we were falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.’

THE UNIVERSE

The universe comprises all that may be sensed, measured and detected – although, of course, in actuality we know that the vast majority of it remains unsensed and uncharted. It includes all living things, all physical and celestial objects, atmospheres, galaxies, vacuums and voids, as well as concepts such as space and time.

The idea of a physical universe governed by basic scientific laws (as opposed to the notion of a personal universe the nature of which is subject to individual consciousness) was in circulation among, for example, ancient Chinese, Greek and Indian thinkers. Although the descriptions of its origins and nature were largely speculative, human thought was nonetheless unleashed from the shackles of introspection and localization and directed outwards into the unknown of the cosmos. Man, in other words, could begin to perceive of himself within the ‘Big Picture’.

There have been long-running fundamental debates as to whether the universe is essentially unchanging or in constant flux, whether it is finite, whether time is linear, or not, and if there is other life like us out there. Most of these ‘big questions’ remain up for grabs.

Yet even as the mysteries of the universe abound, we have been able to calculate (although we still lack definitive empirical evidence) its rough age (13.8 billion years) and size (at least 93 billion light years across). We have some understanding of how our own galaxy is organized, how time and space may be bent, how black holes are created, how the Big Bang may have birthed the universe – all immense achievements of intellectual imagination. We have much more to find out, of course, but humanity may never have a bigger idea than that which acknowledged, thousands of years ago, that there is more to the universe than what we can see and feel ourselves.

CREATION MYTHOLOGY

There are, perhaps, two questions above all others that have preoccupied humanity from the moment we could cognitively formulate them: where did we come from and why are we here? Despite our rapid advances in scientific understanding, the answers remain as elusive as ever – for all that the likes of Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Einstein and their ilk have progressed knowledge. For instance, even if you accept the Big Bang theory of cosmological creation (see here), who can say with any certainty what, if anything, existed prior to the Big Bang, much less whether we now inhabit the world as a result of pure cosmological chance or with some higher purpose attached to our existence?

All of this doubt leaves room for myriad possible explanations. Traditional narratives that have attempted to explain the origins of the world and our species come under the umbrella term of ‘creation myths’. Most are the products of distinct cultural and historical perspectives, striving to express profound truths and explain the ‘meaning’ of our existence. In terms of content and structure, they tend to fall into two distinct categories: those that claim to be literal, historical accounts of creation and those that are metaphorical stories full of symbolic meaning.

The story as told in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, is among the most famous of all creation myths. It depicts the wise and loving creator-God making the world and everything in it out of nothing over a period of six days (with a day of rest on the seventh). Often creation myths have shared characteristics, making it possible to categorize them under a few broad headings. The biblical story described above might be considered an ‘ex nihilo’ narrative, in which a divine figure creates the cosmos (i.e. an ordered world) out of ‘nothing’ or out of formless chaos. Such a theme is evident in other cultures, including ancient Egyptian mythology, the classical Indian Vedas and the Qur’an.

Popular creation motifs

Other popular motifs include creation by:

• the dismemberment and dispersal of a primordial being

• the division of a primordial union into ‘world parents’ (e.g. Mother Earth and Father Sky)

• the metamorphosis of a progenitor, usually over the course of a journey through several worlds before eventual arrival at our own

• the disturbance of matter (sand, mud etc.) at the bottom of a primordial sea caused by a divinely sent diving creature, resulting in the creation of terrestrial order

• the cracking of a primordial egg

All these stories attempt to impose a sense of order on our existence. For many cultures, creation myths have offered a sense of solace, a notion of how the individual fits into the world, and even a framework for how we should behave.

POLYTHEISM

Polytheistic belief systems express belief in more than one god. Ancient Egypt and Greece, as well as pre-Christian Roman civilization, all had polytheistic traditions, and polytheistic belief was also widespread across other African, Asian and pre-Columbine American societies.

In polytheistic traditions, gods and goddesses are often delineated by different character traits and functions. In the Greek tradition, for example, Zeus was god of the sky, Aphrodite the goddess of love, Athena the goddess of wisdom, Hades god of the underworld and so on. In Egypt, meanwhile, the characters or functions of gods were typically reflected in an association with a particular animal or natural phenomenon. (Ra, king of the gods, was, for instance, associated with the sun.)

It may be that some polytheistic systems arose out of earlier animist beliefs, in which supernatural powers are attributed to animals, plants, natural phenomena and inanimate objects as a way to rationalize the world and events that occur within it. Thus, polytheism is sometimes seen as an evolutionary step from primitive animism to more sophisticated forms of organized religion. Some academics also argue that polytheism evolved out of aspects of ancestor worship and totemism, developing ideas of clan- or tribe-based spirits into a more complex system that seeks not only to explain natural phenomena but also to establish a cosmological framework in which believers may function.

Polytheism retains a foothold in the modern world, for instance in the many millions of Hindu adherents spread across the planet. The less prescriptive nature of much polytheistic teaching in comparison to the doctrines of monotheism (see next section here) has an enduring attraction for some. Consider the wry words of one great American cultural critic: ‘It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods’ (H. L. Mencken).

MONOTHEISM

Monotheism is a belief system based around the notion of a single god. Most modern-day religious adherents hold monotheistic convictions. The ‘Abrahamic religions’ (those that share the Hebrew stories featuring Abraham) – Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism – are all monotheistic.

In most monotheistic faiths, the divinity shares certain characteristics, including omnipotence and omniscience. The divinities tend, also, to be creator-Gods imbued with benevolence towards their creation and who seek a personal relationship with each individual. Monotheism has sometimes been used as a marker of social progress away from earlier polytheistic beliefs, yet the evidence to back up this assertion is disputed. Indeed, many cultures flirted with the notion of monotheism many centuries before the emergence of the Abrahamic religions.

The Abrahamic religions

Among the Abrahamic religions, Judaism is the oldest (dating back about 3,500 years), then Christianity (about 2,000 years) and then Islam (about 1,400 years). In 14th-century-BCE Egypt, meanwhile, the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (better known as Akhenaten) dispensed with the traditional pantheon of Egyptian deities in favour of devotion to a single supreme deity: Aten. And in the 5th century BCE, Xenophanes of Colophon wrote of the ‘one God, always still and at rest, who moves all things with the thoughts of his mind.’

The monotheism of the Abrahamic religions has been challenged at various points. Some scholars believe that early Judaism elevated the ‘God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’ as the most powerful of an array of deities. Similarly, some early Christian sects are believed to have entertained the notion of multiple (though not equal) gods, while some Islamic scholars consider the Christian notion of the Holy Trinity as being inherently un-monotheistic. Nonetheless, monotheistic belief so came to dominate Western thought that there was historically little room for polytheistic faiths – as reflected in the modern Western dichotomy between monotheism and atheism, with little else on the table.

There is a necessary conflict at the heart of virtually all monotheistic belief: if a single, benevolent, omnipotent and omniscient deity created the universe and everything within it, why does he permit the existence of evil? While there has never been an entirely satisfactory answer, monotheism remains the dominant mode of religious faith across the globe today.

BUDDHISM

Buddhism is different to most other religions in that it does not involve worship of a deity. Indeed, it is sometimes described as a philosophy rather than a religion – albeit one claiming between 300 and 500 million adherents around the world. Focusing on personal spiritual development, Buddhists aim to achieve a state of perfect enlightenment.

Buddhism is based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, more commonly called Buddha – ‘the one who is enlightened’ – who was born around the 6th or 5th century BCE in what is now Nepal. When, as a young man, he saw first-hand the hardships ordinary people faced in relation to old age, ill health and poverty, Gautama concluded that suffering was the direct result of unsatisfied wants and desires – failure to fulfil them brought disappointment, while fulfilment itself only provided fleeting satisfaction. In response, he strove to live a life free of the burden of fulfilling one’s desires, instead adopting an ascetic lifestyle, eschewing all personal indulgence and rigorously practising meditation.

Buddha began to follow a ‘Middle Way’ between sensual indulgence and asceticism as the most likely path to enlightenment – something he is said to have achieved when he was around thirty-five years old. This involved breaking the chains bonding the self to the desires of the self by recognizing the individual as part of an eternal and vast reality that may be termed the ‘non-self’. Through this process of becoming one with the eternal non-self, he taught, it is possible to reach nirvana (see here).

Buddha declared that enlightenment is only to be gained through understanding of the four noble truths: dukka – suffering is a part of life; samudaya – suffering is caused by desire for worldly things; nirodha – suffering stops when the self is detached from desire; magga – there is an Eightfold Path to achieving detachment comprising right action, right intention, right livelihood, right effort, right concentration, right speech, right understanding and right mindfulness. Gautama’s philosophically rooted code for living – and personal tranquillity – continues to attract followers some 2,500 years after his life and enlightened death.

REINCARNATION

Religion, philosophy and science offer various possibilities as to what might happen to us when our earthly lives end. Some believe this life to be our ‘one shot’ – one that ends with our expiration – while many religions offer the hope of eternal life in the hereafter. An alternative theory, particularly popular among Eastern religions, is the idea of reincarnation – that the human spirit returns after death to live again in a new form or body, as part of a cyclical pursuit of perfection.

Reincarnation (from the Latin for ‘entering into flesh again’) was an idea entertained by many cultures of the ancient world. Socrates and Plato were among several of the giants of Greek philosophy who gave serious consideration to it. Socrates, for instance, wrote: ‘I am confident that there truly is such a thing as living again, that the living spring from the dead, and that the souls of the dead are in existence.’ There is also evidence to suggest it formed a significant part of Druidic belief. Today, though, it is a notion that is most commonly associated with the major religions of the Indian subcontinent – Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism. As it is stated in the Bhagavad Gita: ‘The end of birth is death; the end of death is birth: this is ordained!’

The endless cycle

Each of these four great Eastern religions shares variants of the doctrine of samsara, which dates back to at least the 1st century BCE. Samsara suggests that each human is destined to remain in an endless cycle of death and rebirth, repeatedly drifting through an earthly existence – sometimes envisaged as a suffering-laden ‘wheel of existence’ – unless the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Dedication page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• INTRODUCTION
• PART ONE: THE COSMOS AND RELIGION
• The Universe
• Creation Mythology
• Polytheism
• Monotheism
• Buddhism
• Reincarnation
• Atheism
• Heliocentrism
• Celestial Mechanics
• The Big Bang Theory
• Dark Matter and Dark Energy
• Space Exploration
• The Multiverse
• The End of the World
• PART TWO: MATHEMATICS
• Numbers
• Arithmetic
• Algebra
• Geometry
• Non-Euclidian Geometry
• Infinity
• Irrational Numbers
• Calculus
• Probability Theory
• Statistics
• Chaos Theory
• PART THREE: SCIENCE
• The Physical Sciences
• The Life Sciences
• Taxonomy
• The Scientific Method
• Causality
• Falsifiability
• The Elements
• Gravity and Newtonian Motion
• Electricity
• Evolution
• Thermodynamics
• Relativity
• Nuclear Fission
• Quantum Mechanics
• Continental Drift
• Cyberspace
• Artificial Intelligence
• Time Travel
• PART FOUR: MEDICINE AND PSYCHOLOGY
• The Idea of Medicine
• Diagnosis
• Human Dissection
• Pathology
• Surgery
• The Circulatory System
• Anaesthesia
• Germ Theory
• Immunology
• Pharmacology
• Psychiatry and the Unconscious
• Behaviourism
• DNA
• Cloning
• Euthanasia
• Transhuman Medicine
• PART FIVE: PHILOSOPHY
• Pre-Socratic Philosophy
• The Socratic Method
• Scepticism
• Materialism
• Idealism
• Ethics
• Determinism and Fatalism
• Aristotelianism
• Confucianism
• Logic
• Hedonism
• Epicureanism
• Humanism
• The Enlightenment
• Progress
• Optimism and Pessimism
• Rationalism
• Empiricism
• Utilitarianism
• The Übermensch (Superman)
• Pragmatism
• Meritocracy
• Existentialism
• Absurdism
• PART SIX: POLITICS
• The Rule of Law
• Property
• Sovereignty
• The Social Contract
• Imperialism
• War
• Pacifism
• Democracy
• Autocracy
• Machiavellianism
• Theocracy
• Liberalism
• Conservatism
• Socialism
• Social Democracy
• Anarchism
• Nationalism
• Fascism
• Internationalism
• Universal Suffrage
• Civil Society
• Feminism
• Environmentalism
• PART SEVEN: ECONOMICS
• Scarcity
• Utility
• Money
• Taxation
• Supply and Demand
• Capitalism
• The Invisible Hand
• Protectionism
• Comparative Advantage
• The Malthusian Problem
• Marxian Economics
• Keynesianism
• Spontaneous Order
• Creative Destruction
• Monetarism
• Globalization
• Conspicuous Consumption
• Game Theory
• Philanthropy
• PART EIGHT: ARTS, ARCHITECTURE AND MUSIC
• Classical Art and the Renaissance
• The Music of the Spheres
• Poetry
• Drama
• Archetypal Stories
• The Baroque
• The Novel
• Aestheticism
• Romanticism
• Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
• Realism
• Abstract Art
• Modernism
• Symbolism
• Expressionism
• Cubism
• Futurism
• Art Deco
• Surrealism
• Structuralism and Post-Structuralism
• Deconstructionism
• Pop Art
• Brutalism
• Conceptualism
• Postmodernism
• PICTURE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INDEX