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The Seekers (book)
Encyclopedia
The Seekers is a non-fiction work of cultural history by Daniel Boorstin published in 1998 (hardback - 1999 paperback) and is the third and final volume in the "knowledge" trilogy.
and The Creators
this book does not chronicle discoveries, inventions and creations. Instead, various religious and philosophical Western thinkers are portrayed as are their attempts to seek in their own way. The work contains 41 separate vignettes, each dedicated to a seeker. They are grouped in eight parts that are divided into three books representing what Boorstin calls the three grand epochs of seeking.
Part II. The Way of Philosophers: A Wondrous Instrument Within
Part III: The Christian Way: Experiments in Community
Part V. The Liberal Way
Part VII. The Sanctuaries of Doubt
Part VIII. A World In Process: The Meaning In The Seeking
. Michael Lind, in a New York Times Book Review (Western Civ Fights Back), noted that he was "a secular, skeptical moderate, Northeastern liberal"" yet offered a vigorous defense of Western civilization. He remarks that Boorstin may be signaling a new trend since others liberals are also speaking out, particularly against what they consider excesses of ideology: multiculturalism
, radical academia, political correctness
and affirmative action
to name a few. Roger Kimball of the Wall Street Journal praised his formidable narrative gift and a great deal of common sense. Publisher's Weekly wrote a laudatory review stating ...what Boorstin does so well is bring together many ideas that fertilize and cross-fertilize the reader's imagination and curiosity. Amazon.com, discussing Western intellectual development, asks What other author could put it so succinctly? Harry Frumerman of The Library Journal describes the book then adds The writing has a sweeping, didactic tone. A suitable but not mandatory choice for academic and larger public libraries. Amazon Editorial Reviews
, the first Prophet whose greatest contribution was not the Ten Commandments
but the idea of monotheism
and Israel's special relationship. Besides offering moral advice, the prophet addressed universal questions - "What is the purpose of life?" "What is the nature of God?" "Why does evil happen to good people?" More Old Testament
prophets followed and the concept of Yahweh
became more abstract. No longer did He reside in a physical place but was everywhere. Therefore, he was within each of us. Job
is the prophetic answer to the question of evil in our world.
Ancient Greece
gave us the philosopher: Socrates
, Plato
and Aristotle
. One factor in the rise of philosophy was the transition from oral to written knowledge. Complex thoughts could be retained, referenced and augmented. Greek society was the first to celebrate the thinker, the rationalist and this questioning attitude became a hallmark of Western Civilization
. Boorstin especially praises Aristotle for his searching and curious mind, his introduction of classification and his nascent hints at modern science. But more than that he state, I admire his appeal to common sense and experience. His academy was a place where people collected information about their world and...came to conclusions... Gergen, David Online Newshour:The Seekers
Christianity
merged the Prophet and Philosopher creating theology
and a new society. Monasteries arose in the West and Boorstin considers them the most influential institutions of the time, both preserving and spreading knowledge. From them came the university
, yet another peculiarly Western institution. Finally, the Protestant Reformation
gave individuals and not only institutions power, transforming congregations into participants. Humanism
and democracy
were its outgrowths.
(approvingly): "the three great elements of modern civilization [are] gunpowder
, printing
and the Protestant religion." The Greek Homeric epics introduce mortals to the story and even the Gods have human motivations and reactions. Herodotus
wrote the first history but elements of the epic remained. Thucydides
and his history of the Peloponnesian War
introduced a new field, political science. Others sought answers in the communal past - Virgil, Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Descartes.
In The Liberal Way Boorstin arrives at the modern world of classical liberalism - Machiavelli (the Italian way), John Locke
(the English way of limited government), Voltaire
and Rousseau (the French way of liberation), Thomas Jefferson
(the American experiment), Hegel (the ideal German) - each sought meaning within the framework of their own society. All sought to define the individual within the framework of society and increasingly, the State.
yet he died in jail, victim of his own teachings. August Comte developed Positivism
, a system in which only sensory experiences were the true reality. Related to this was historical determinism in which progress occurs by outside forces unrelated to human actions. From these two arose Ideology
, a belief that the ideas expressed were true because they could be "proven". Individuals lost not only influence but also meaning. Boorstin strongly opposed ideology... the people who think they have found the final answer...are the menace to our humanity really, because I think there is no final answer. Gergen, David Online Newshour: The Seekers He first warned of the dangers of ideology in 1953 in The Genius of American Politics. In an interview with PBS he says Jefferson's greatness stems from his non-ideological nature and refusal to develop a political theory. PBS Interview
Ideology eventually led to the modern totalitarian state. Spengler
and Toynbee
sought answers in culture which displaced the nation state. Cultures could be studied and analyzed scientifically so were better models for comparison. Others looked for new meaning in violent revolution, particularly the Soviet model. Steinbeck
, Hemingway
, John Reed, Lincoln Steffens
and others praised the new State. Kierkegaard
found meaning not in history but in religious Existentialism
wherein doubt was as necessary as faith. Seekers of truth in literature wrote in new ways and a stream of consciousness style emerged. Others found solace in diversity - Edward Wilson
in biodiversity, Oliver Wendell Holmes
in diversity of opinion.
Seekers grew disenchanted with scientific history and materialism. They created process philosophy
which found meaning in the act of seeking, not in the final goal. Lord Acton, an English politician, tried to reconcile authoritarian Catholicism with liberty
which he considered a process rather than a destination. Malraux
looked outside Western absolutes for answers in art, literature and revolution. Henri Bergson
sought to explain life processes and particularly evolution (a grand process) in philosophical and physiological terms, declaring true meaning is found within the process. Boorstin concludes with Einstein
who searched for ultimate truth in the cosmological unity of universal laws.
This problem...haunted Western thought—Why would a good God allow evil in the world He had created? -- was one that Judeo-Christian man had made for himself. It was plainly a by-product of ethical monotheism...The Seekers
Dogmas of social science would...eventually be embodied in institutions whose mission it was to enforce a frozen ideology The Seekers
...the Seekers who left the most durable imprint on Western history are those who embodied the mystery of their achievement in their lives - and their deaths The Seekers
...there has been no greater obstacle to his [mankind's] learning than the stock of accumulated knowledge. The Seekers
...ideology itself is a contradiction and denial of man's endless powers of novelty and change which are suggested by the very idea of progress. NPQ
Contents
The Seekers is subtitled The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World. It is the story (or stories) of those within Western culture who have sought answers - many times without finding them. In A Personal Note to the Reader, Boorstin writes, Caught between two eternities- the vanished past and the unknown future - we never cease to seek our bearings and our sense of direction. We inherit our legacy of the sciences and the arts - works of the great Discoverers and Creators...recounted in my earlier volumes. We glory in their discoveries and creations. But we are all Seekers. We all want to know why. Man is the asking animal... Unlike the The DiscoverersThe Discoverers
The Discoverers is a non-fiction historical work by Daniel Boorstin published in 1983 and is the first in the Knowledge Trilogy that also includes The Creators and The Seekers....
and The Creators
The Creators
The Creators is a non-fiction work of cultural history by Daniel Boorstin published in 1992 and is the second volume in what has become known as the Knowledge Trilogy. It was preceded by The Discoverers and succeeded by The Seekers.-Contents:...
this book does not chronicle discoveries, inventions and creations. Instead, various religious and philosophical Western thinkers are portrayed as are their attempts to seek in their own way. The work contains 41 separate vignettes, each dedicated to a seeker. They are grouped in eight parts that are divided into three books representing what Boorstin calls the three grand epochs of seeking.
Book One: An Ancient Heritage
Part I. The Way of Prophets: A Higher AuthorityPart II. The Way of Philosophers: A Wondrous Instrument Within
Part III: The Christian Way: Experiments in Community
Book Two: Communal Search
Part IV. Ways of Discovery: In Search of ExperiencePart V. The Liberal Way
Book Three: Paths To The Future
Part VI. The Momentum of History: Ways of Social SciencePart VII. The Sanctuaries of Doubt
Part VIII. A World In Process: The Meaning In The Seeking
Praise and Criticism
The Seekers was both praised and criticized for its adulatory treatment of Western cultureWestern culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
. Michael Lind, in a New York Times Book Review (Western Civ Fights Back), noted that he was "a secular, skeptical moderate, Northeastern liberal"" yet offered a vigorous defense of Western civilization. He remarks that Boorstin may be signaling a new trend since others liberals are also speaking out, particularly against what they consider excesses of ideology: multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
, radical academia, political correctness
Political correctness
Political correctness is a term which denotes language, ideas, policies, and behavior seen as seeking to minimize social and institutional offense in occupational, gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts,...
and affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
to name a few. Roger Kimball of the Wall Street Journal praised his formidable narrative gift and a great deal of common sense. Publisher's Weekly wrote a laudatory review stating ...what Boorstin does so well is bring together many ideas that fertilize and cross-fertilize the reader's imagination and curiosity. Amazon.com, discussing Western intellectual development, asks What other author could put it so succinctly? Harry Frumerman of The Library Journal describes the book then adds The writing has a sweeping, didactic tone. A suitable but not mandatory choice for academic and larger public libraries. Amazon Editorial Reviews
Book One: An Ancient Heritage
Boorstin notes that in the beginning we sought answers from special individuals - religious prophets. He begins with MosesMoses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
, the first Prophet whose greatest contribution was not the Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue , are a set of biblical principles relating to ethics and worship, which play a fundamental role in Judaism and most forms of Christianity. They include instructions to worship only God and to keep the Sabbath, and prohibitions against idolatry,...
but the idea of monotheism
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
and Israel's special relationship. Besides offering moral advice, the prophet addressed universal questions - "What is the purpose of life?" "What is the nature of God?" "Why does evil happen to good people?" More Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
prophets followed and the concept of Yahweh
Yahweh
Yahweh is the name of God in the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Jews and Christians.The word Yahweh is a modern scholarly convention for the Hebrew , transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH and known as the Tetragrammaton, for which the original pronunciation is unknown...
became more abstract. No longer did He reside in a physical place but was everywhere. Therefore, he was within each of us. Job
Book of Job
The Book of Job , commonly referred to simply as Job, is one of the books of the Hebrew Bible. It relates the story of Job, his trials at the hands of Satan, his discussions with friends on the origins and nature of his suffering, his challenge to God, and finally a response from God. The book is a...
is the prophetic answer to the question of evil in our world.
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
gave us the philosopher: Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
and Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
. One factor in the rise of philosophy was the transition from oral to written knowledge. Complex thoughts could be retained, referenced and augmented. Greek society was the first to celebrate the thinker, the rationalist and this questioning attitude became a hallmark of Western Civilization
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
. Boorstin especially praises Aristotle for his searching and curious mind, his introduction of classification and his nascent hints at modern science. But more than that he state, I admire his appeal to common sense and experience. His academy was a place where people collected information about their world and...came to conclusions... Gergen, David Online Newshour:The Seekers
Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
merged the Prophet and Philosopher creating theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
and a new society. Monasteries arose in the West and Boorstin considers them the most influential institutions of the time, both preserving and spreading knowledge. From them came the university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
, yet another peculiarly Western institution. Finally, the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
gave individuals and not only institutions power, transforming congregations into participants. Humanism
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
and democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
were its outgrowths.
Book Two: Communal Search
Paradoxically, as seeking became individualized, attention turned to the specific community in which they dwelled for answers. In the forward he quotes Thomas CarlyleThomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
(approvingly): "the three great elements of modern civilization [are] gunpowder
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...
, printing
Printing
Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing....
and the Protestant religion." The Greek Homeric epics introduce mortals to the story and even the Gods have human motivations and reactions. Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
wrote the first history but elements of the epic remained. Thucydides
Thucydides
Thucydides was a Greek historian and author from Alimos. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC...
and his history of the Peloponnesian War
Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...
introduced a new field, political science. Others sought answers in the communal past - Virgil, Thomas More, Francis Bacon, Descartes.
In The Liberal Way Boorstin arrives at the modern world of classical liberalism - Machiavelli (the Italian way), John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
(the English way of limited government), Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
and Rousseau (the French way of liberation), Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
(the American experiment), Hegel (the ideal German) - each sought meaning within the framework of their own society. All sought to define the individual within the framework of society and increasingly, the State.
Book Three: Paths to the Future
Modern seekers abandoned traditional sources of meaning such as nations or religion and found or invented new sources. In France the Marquis de Concorcet rejected religion and power in individuals. Instead, mass movements were expounded as a new wave. The result was the French RevolutionFrench Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
yet he died in jail, victim of his own teachings. August Comte developed Positivism
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
, a system in which only sensory experiences were the true reality. Related to this was historical determinism in which progress occurs by outside forces unrelated to human actions. From these two arose Ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
, a belief that the ideas expressed were true because they could be "proven". Individuals lost not only influence but also meaning. Boorstin strongly opposed ideology... the people who think they have found the final answer...are the menace to our humanity really, because I think there is no final answer. Gergen, David Online Newshour: The Seekers He first warned of the dangers of ideology in 1953 in The Genius of American Politics. In an interview with PBS he says Jefferson's greatness stems from his non-ideological nature and refusal to develop a political theory. PBS Interview
Ideology eventually led to the modern totalitarian state. Spengler
Oswald Spengler
Oswald Manuel Arnold Gottfried Spengler was a German historian and philosopher whose interests also included mathematics, science, and art. He is best known for his book The Decline of the West , published in 1918, which puts forth a cyclical theory of the rise and decline of civilizations...
and Toynbee
Toynbee
Toynbee is a surname, and can refer to :* Joseph Toynbee, British physician, pioneer of otolaryngology,* Arnold Toynbee, British economist, son of Joseph Toynbee* Paget Toynbee, British Dante scholar...
sought answers in culture which displaced the nation state. Cultures could be studied and analyzed scientifically so were better models for comparison. Others looked for new meaning in violent revolution, particularly the Soviet model. Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
, Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, John Reed, Lincoln Steffens
Lincoln Steffens
-Biography:Steffens was born April 6, 1866, in San Francisco. He grew up in a wealthy family and attended a military academy. He studied in France and Germany after graduating from the University of California....
and others praised the new State. Kierkegaard
Søren Kierkegaard
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish Christian philosopher, theologian and religious author. He was a critic of idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel...
found meaning not in history but in religious Existentialism
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
wherein doubt was as necessary as faith. Seekers of truth in literature wrote in new ways and a stream of consciousness style emerged. Others found solace in diversity - Edward Wilson
E. O. Wilson
Edward Osborne Wilson is an American biologist, researcher , theorist , naturalist and author. His biological specialty is myrmecology, the study of ants....
in biodiversity, Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...
in diversity of opinion.
Seekers grew disenchanted with scientific history and materialism. They created process philosophy
Process philosophy
Process philosophy identifies metaphysical reality with change and dynamism. Since the time of Plato and Aristotle, philosophers have posited true reality as "timeless", based on permanent substances, whilst processes are denied or subordinated to timeless substances...
which found meaning in the act of seeking, not in the final goal. Lord Acton, an English politician, tried to reconcile authoritarian Catholicism with liberty
Liberty
Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...
which he considered a process rather than a destination. Malraux
André Malraux
André Malraux DSO was a French adventurer, award-winning author, and statesman. Having traveled extensively in Indochina and China, Malraux was noted especially for his novel entitled La Condition Humaine , which won the Prix Goncourt...
looked outside Western absolutes for answers in art, literature and revolution. Henri Bergson
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson was a major French philosopher, influential especially in the first half of the 20th century. Bergson convinced many thinkers that immediate experience and intuition are more significant than rationalism and science for understanding reality.He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize...
sought to explain life processes and particularly evolution (a grand process) in philosophical and physiological terms, declaring true meaning is found within the process. Boorstin concludes with Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
who searched for ultimate truth in the cosmological unity of universal laws.
Quotes
`...history was a literary art, because in history the subject and its audience were one. The effective historian is always telling us about ourselves... The SeekersThis problem...haunted Western thought—Why would a good God allow evil in the world He had created? -- was one that Judeo-Christian man had made for himself. It was plainly a by-product of ethical monotheism...The Seekers
Dogmas of social science would...eventually be embodied in institutions whose mission it was to enforce a frozen ideology The Seekers
...the Seekers who left the most durable imprint on Western history are those who embodied the mystery of their achievement in their lives - and their deaths The Seekers
...there has been no greater obstacle to his [mankind's] learning than the stock of accumulated knowledge. The Seekers
...ideology itself is a contradiction and denial of man's endless powers of novelty and change which are suggested by the very idea of progress. NPQ