The Age of Genius: The Seventeenth Century and the Birth of the Modern Mind

By A. C. Grayling

What happened to the European mind between 1605, when an audience watching Macbeth at the Globe might believe that regicide was such an aberration of the natural order that ghosts could burst from the ground, and 1649, when a large crowd, perhaps including some who had seen Macbeth forty-four years earlier, could stand and watch the execution of a king? Or consider the difference between a magus casting a star chart and the day in 1639, when Jonathan Horrock and William Crabtree watched the transit of Venus across the face of the sun from their attic, successfully testing its course against Kepler's Tables of Planetary Motion, in a classic case of confirming a scientific theory by empirical testing.

In this turbulent period, science moved from the alchemy and astrology of John Dee to the painstaking observation and astronomy of Galileo, from the classicism of Aristotle, still favoured by the Church, to the evidence-based, collegiate investigation of Francis Bacon. And if the old ways still lingered and affected the new mind set – Descartes's dualism an attempt to square the new philosophy with religious belief; Newton, the man who understood gravity and the laws of motion, still fascinated to the end of his life by alchemy – by the end of that tumultuous century 'the greatest ever change in the mental outlook of humanity' had irrevocably taken place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Mar 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781408843291

A. C. Grayling

A. C. Grayling is the Founder and Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and its Professor of Philosophy. Among his many books are The God Argument, Democracy and Its Crisis, The History of Philosophy, The Good State and The Frontiers of Knowledge. He has been a regular contributor to The Times, Guardian, Financial Times, Independent on Sunday, Economist, New Statesman, Prospect and New European. He appears frequently on radio and TV, including Newsnight and CNN News. He lives in London.

Reviews for The Age of Genius

[randymetcalfe · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Grayling’s positive argument here is that events in the 17th century combined to make it a turning point in human history. Before the century began, the absolute right of monarchs, the fervent and often unquestioning belief in religious authority (whether Catholic or Protestant), the ongoing influence of the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic worldview, and the pernicious longing for magical solutions and routes to knowledge (whether through alchemy or the Cabala), were pervasive. By century’s end, the mainstream view was utterly reformed, though even today vestiges of magical thinking, religious fundamentalism and anti-science persist. Grayling wants to canvas the main areas of the 17th century’s development. That is a huge task and perhaps beyond the reach of a single popular history of ideas and events. But still a worthy goal.Depending on your predispositions, you may find some sections of this book more or less interesting. I did not find much of interest in the detailing of the nearly endless wars in Europe. And the following section on the pervasive influence of charlatanism and so-called magical thinking was also dull to me. However, the book picked up considerably when Grayling traced the rise of science, from Francis Bacon to Galileo. Fascinating. Unfortunately the next section on politics was less interesting to me, though I can well imagine that a discussion on Hobbes and Locke might be the central interest for other readers.Because of its broad approach, I don’t think this book especially successful. This, despite the fact that I agree with Grayling’s overall argument and admire his presentation of especially the philosophers and scientists with whom I assume he is most familiar. (It’s always interesting to read him on Descartes.) So, dip into this book and read the section(s) you might be most interested in. And then turn to more in-depth accounts of those, including Grayling’s own.