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132 reviews for:
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope
Sarah Bakewell
4.08 AVERAGE
132 reviews for:
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope
Sarah Bakewell
4.08 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
medium-paced
encyclopedic, but also inspiring history of humanism. hope!
I love reading about humanism and about history; I liked the book at first, but as it went I on I started to get bored with it. Maybe sticking it out would have led to more interesting tales, but I will look for a different read on the topic instead
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
“For Petrarch, books are sociable: ‘They speak with us, advise us and join us together with a certain living and penetrating intimacy.’ The ancients make just as good companions as people who consider themselves alive because, as he writes, they can still see their breath in the frosty air.” -p.34
“Thus, to use language well is about more than adding decorative twiddles; it is about moving other people to emotion and recognition. It is a moral activity, because being able to communicate well is at the heart of humanitas—of being human in the fullest way.” -p.51
“Dispute and contradiction, not veneration and obedience, are the essence of intellectual life.” -p.93
“George Eliot believed that reading imaginative fiction brought real moral benefits, because of the way it enlarged the circle of our sympathy, or what we would now call ‘empathy.’ In an essay, she wrote, ‘The greatest benefit we owe to the artist, whether painter, poet, or novelist, is the extension of our sympathies…. A Picture of human life such as a great artist can give, surprises even the trivial and the selfish into that attention to what is apart from themselves, which may be called the raw material of moral sentiment.’” -p.161
“War comes from human emotional drives, but so do science, art, love, and the spirit of cooperation. These are forms taken by human creative energies. We need to learn not how to remove our passions but how to direct them to ends more constructive than war or fanaticism. ‘It is not the weakening of impulse that is to be desired, but the direction of impulse towards life and growth rather than towards death and decay [Russell].’ Or, as one might say, toward hope rather than despair.” -p.298
“Gentile, who was the author of the main theoretical parts, explained that a Fascist state does not aim at increasing human happiness or well-being, and it is not interested in the idea of progress. If life were always gradually improving, why would anyone be motivated to fight or die for a transcendent, glorious purpose? Peace is not desirable, either: there is nothing good about making compromises and seeking equilibrium with other nations, as Erasmus, Kant, or Russell would have wished. The same goes for individual development or freedom, the goals sought by a Mill or a Humboldt. Far from the liberal vision of the state as intervening mainly to stop individuals from hurting one another, the Fascist state does sometimes want to hurt people, to advance national interests. Instead, it offers comething bigger than happiness or well-being: it offers self sacrifice. The state, becoming the ultimate source of value for each person, plays a role similar to that of God: Fascism is avowedly ‘a religious conception.’ As with most monotheistic gods, the state demands a ‘discipline and an authority which descend into and dominate the interior of the spirit without opposition.’ Through submission, individuals gain true free-dom, ‘the only kind of liberty that is serious.’” -p.304~305
“Thus, to use language well is about more than adding decorative twiddles; it is about moving other people to emotion and recognition. It is a moral activity, because being able to communicate well is at the heart of humanitas—of being human in the fullest way.” -p.51
“Dispute and contradiction, not veneration and obedience, are the essence of intellectual life.” -p.93
“George Eliot believed that reading imaginative fiction brought real moral benefits, because of the way it enlarged the circle of our sympathy, or what we would now call ‘empathy.’ In an essay, she wrote, ‘The greatest benefit we owe to the artist, whether painter, poet, or novelist, is the extension of our sympathies…. A Picture of human life such as a great artist can give, surprises even the trivial and the selfish into that attention to what is apart from themselves, which may be called the raw material of moral sentiment.’” -p.161
“War comes from human emotional drives, but so do science, art, love, and the spirit of cooperation. These are forms taken by human creative energies. We need to learn not how to remove our passions but how to direct them to ends more constructive than war or fanaticism. ‘It is not the weakening of impulse that is to be desired, but the direction of impulse towards life and growth rather than towards death and decay [Russell].’ Or, as one might say, toward hope rather than despair.” -p.298
“Gentile, who was the author of the main theoretical parts, explained that a Fascist state does not aim at increasing human happiness or well-being, and it is not interested in the idea of progress. If life were always gradually improving, why would anyone be motivated to fight or die for a transcendent, glorious purpose? Peace is not desirable, either: there is nothing good about making compromises and seeking equilibrium with other nations, as Erasmus, Kant, or Russell would have wished. The same goes for individual development or freedom, the goals sought by a Mill or a Humboldt. Far from the liberal vision of the state as intervening mainly to stop individuals from hurting one another, the Fascist state does sometimes want to hurt people, to advance national interests. Instead, it offers comething bigger than happiness or well-being: it offers self sacrifice. The state, becoming the ultimate source of value for each person, plays a role similar to that of God: Fascism is avowedly ‘a religious conception.’ As with most monotheistic gods, the state demands a ‘discipline and an authority which descend into and dominate the interior of the spirit without opposition.’ Through submission, individuals gain true free-dom, ‘the only kind of liberty that is serious.’” -p.304~305
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I'll be returning to this book again and again. So much material, well presented. It piqued my curiosity about history, thinkers and writers. Where we've been, how we got here, where we're going.
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Beginning with Petrarch and Bocaccio, this is a good overview of humanism through the centuries. Topics/people discussed include Lorenzo Valla, Erasmus, Voltaire, Hume, John Stuart Mill, Darwin, etc. It's a good introduction.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced