The passion of the Western mind

What Hacker News says

1. ph4May 2020
   Sex, Ecology, Spirituality by Ken Wilber

   The Wisdom of Insecurity by Alan Watts

   The Passion of the Western Mind by Richard Tarnas

   The Nature of Consciousness: Essays on the Unity of Mind and Matter by Rupert Spira

   Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology by David Abram

   Show morethread
2. marc_ioNov 2019
   For a more contemporary – and informed – view of Astrology, please read “The Passion of the Western Mind” and “Cosmos and Psyche” (important: you must read in that order), by Richard Tarnas.
   thread
3. thirdsurfApr 2019
   This book may change your mind about the apparent connection we may really have with our cosmos: "Cosmos & Psyche", by Richard Tarnas. It did this for a Professor of Computer Science I'm friends with. Tarnas published "The Passion of the Western Mind" about a decade prior, a book on history that's now required reading at over 100 universities worldwide. Can you imagine the shock and horror of established academia, who'd lauded this man with so much praise, only to see him publish a treatise on this heretical subject? It is a beautiful read. The current state of astrology is a sad one indeed, but it may have evolved to a greater degree of understanding had it not been tortured and killed out of our societies in previous centuries.
   Show morethread
4. dcreJan 2015
   I appreciate the clarity with which you've articulated your understanding of religion, but I disagree with almost everything you've said. Since the disagreement is not really about facts, but rather attitude or orientation, it might be pretty hard for me get you to see it from my perspective, but I'll try.

   Here's the main idea: you see a fundamental gap between science and religion that in the past simply did not exist.

   > Ever hear the phrase "God of the gaps"? For a lot of people, that was - and is - how they understand God.

   This may be true of many people today, but it is an essentially modern understanding of God that cannot have been held by anyone before the Renaissance. Before the scientific worldview existed, there simply were no gaps for God to reside in. What did God mean to people then?

   Richard Tarnas's The Passion of the Western Mind[1] is a wonderful intellectual history of the West starting from the Greeks. You would probably find it interesting. It traces some of the philosophical roots of Christianity back into Greek thought, and it traces the philosophical roots of your modern worldview back into Christian thought.

   And before you dismiss me as a religious weirdo, I am a lifelong atheist who has studied a lot of math and physics.

   [1] http://www.amazon.com/The-Passion-Western-Mind-Understanding...

   Show morethread
5. igraviousMay 2016
   Life is too short for poor books :)

   I couldn't vouch for the other topics but I can say that the section on Philosophy made me raise an eyebrow! Well, that and the section on Politics & Economy is obviously US/capitalist -centric but you know that. No Communist Manifesto? Really? :)

   In case anyone happens to read the list you gave and also reads here, the following are not considered primary philosophical works:

   The Passion of the Western Mind by RICHARD TARNAS

   Ascent of Man by JACOB BRONOWSKI

   Science and Sanity by COUNT KORZYBSKI

   Science is not Enough by VANNEVAR BUSH

   What I Believe by MARK BOOTH (Ed)

   Zen Mind, Beginners' Mind by SHUNRYU SUZUKI

   Also. While Plato's Republic is a master-work his Symposium far exceeds the Timeaus. Symposium (not Timeaus) is included in the brilliant _The Classics of Western Philosophy_ which is a decent source and one stop shop of Western Philosophical Works: http://www.hackettpublishing.com/classics-of-western-philoso....

   Show morethread