The Seekers: The Story of Man's Continuing Quest to Understand His World (46 page)

Karl Marx has, of course, inspired a vast literature—hagiographic and polemical. Franz Mehring,
Karl Marx
(trans. Edward Fitzgerald, 1926), is a readable sympathetic account by a follower, whose efforts were encouraged by Marx’s daughter. See also Saul K. Padover,
Karl Marx, An Intimate Biography
(1978), and Isaiah Berlin,
Karl Marx: His Life and Environment
(3d ed., 1963). A selection of Marx’s writings, not elsewhere so conveniently collected, is Emile Burns (ed.),
A Handbook of Marxism
(Gollancz, London, 1935). These are also brought together in the less accessible
Karl Marx: Selected Works
(Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute, Moscow, 2 vols., 1935). All readers should have a taste of
Das Kapital,
English trans.
Capital: A Critique of Political Economy,
Vol. I (trans. S. Moore and E. Aveling) (1886), Vols. 2 and 3, ed. F. Engels, first published posthumously in German; in English trans. E. Untermann (1908, 1909, rev. trans., 1952). One of Marx’s basic essays,
Grundrisse; Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy
has appeared in Vintage paperback (trans. Martin Nicolaus, 1973). For a historical assessment of Marx and his critics, see F. A. Hayek,
Capitalism and the Historians
(1954).

To share some of the excitement of the invention (and discovery) of modern anthropology, read Edward B. Tylor,
Primitive Culture: Researches into the Development of Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Language, Art, and Custom
(first ed., 1871; reprinted, 1929) and
Anthropology
(abridged with foreword by Leslie A. White, 1960), and share the seminal insights of Franz Boas, in
The Mind of Primitive Man
(1911; revised and enlarged, 1938) and
Anthropology and Modern Life
(1928). On Oswald Spengler, see H. Stuart Hughes,
Oswald Spengler: A Critical Estimate
(1952), and on his problems and the reception of his works, see Erich Heller,
The Disinherited Mind
(expanded ed., Harvest paperback, 1975), “Oswald Spengler and the Predicament of the Historical Imagination,” and in Pitirim A. Sorokin,
Modern Historical and Social Philosophies
(1950). No student of history should miss the stimulus and poetic inspiration of Spengler’s
Decline of the West
(trans. Charles F. Atkinson, 2 vols. in one, 1932), which sparkles with insights even for those who do not share the dogmas. And for a partial view,
Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life
(1932). Arnold J. Toynbee, more accessible, more plausible, and less poetic than Spengler, is introduced by William H. McNeill,
Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life
(1989), who knew Toynbee and worked with him. Toynbee’s major work,
A Study of History
(12 vols., 1935-61), was popularized in a one-volume edition (revised and abridged by the author and Jane Caplan, 1972), and in contrast to Spengler, was widely quoted and commented on. The one-volume edition is coherent and persuasive.

The story of revolutionary ideas and enthusiasms in this century would be a history of Western culture. H. G. Wells’s wonderfully readable
Outline of History
in many editions (1920-71; new ed., Raymond Postgate and G. P. Wells) helps us share the excitement and the promise, and still rewards us with an unfashionably wide perspective. For a passionate personal view of the world in revolution, see the Modern Library volume
The Collected Works of John Reed,
which includes
Ten Days That Shook the World
and his writings on revolutions in Mexico. See also John Steinbeck,
A Russian Journal
(1948; Bantam paperback, 1970). The chronicle of the rise and fall of ideologies is brilliantly collected by Richard Crossman,
The God That Failed
(1950). The passions of the age are dramatized in Arther Koestler,
Darkness at Noon
(1940), and the writings of Ernest Hemingway, notably,
For Whom the Bell Tolls
(1940), and André Malraux (see Part VII below).

Part VII. Sanctuaries of Doubt

The certitudes of ideology, social science, and destiny have bred questions that themselves have become ways of finding meaning. These were doubts about wholesale units of history, about the nature of truth and philosophy, about the homogeneity of society and experience. Witty and ingenious authors even made a literature of the modern bewilderment. Carlyle and Emerson found a refuge in biography, which they popularized in essays and lectures. This tradition owed much to Plutarch, whose
Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
can be sampled in Modern Library (2 vols.). A representative selection of Carlyle’s writings is G. M. Trevelyan (ed.),
Carlyle: An Anthology
(1953) or in
The Norton Anthology of English Literature,
Vol. II (44th ed., 1979). The classic biography is by Carlyle’s literary executor James A. Froude (abridged and edited by John Clubbe, 1979), notorious for its frankness,
The Life of Carlyle.
And see Froude’s suggestive
My Relations with Carlyle
(1971). The individual works have been often reprinted. For Carlyle’s place in European historiography, see the useful anthology, Fritz Stern (ed.),
The Varieties of History: From Voltaire to the Present
(Vintage, 1973).

For a biographical introduction to Ralph Waldo Emerson, see Mark Van Doren’s article in
Dictionary of American Biography.
For his place in the traditions of American literature, F. O. Matthiessen,
American Renaissance
(1941), and for detail, Robert D. Richardson,
Emerson: Mind on Fire
(1955). Representative selections are Mark Van Doren (ed.),
The Portable Emerson
(1946) or
Selected Writings
(Modern Library) or its predecessor
Complete Essays and Other Writings
(Modern Library; Brooks Atkinson, ed., 1940).

The writings of William James have a captivating charm that encourages us to believe that we can all be (or at least can understand) philosophers. For his biography and his place in the phenomenal James family, see R. W. B. Lewis’s admirable
The Jameses
(1991), and for a suggestive informal approach, Jacques Barzun,
A Stroll with William James
(1983). His copious writings have been often printed separately. A good selection is by John J. McDermott (ed.),
Writings of William James
(comprehensive ed., Modern Library, 1968) or
Writings (1902-1910)
(Library of America). And no one should fail to sample
The Varieties of Religious Experience
(Modern Library). James’s lively spirit is so pervasive that almost any of his writings conveys the electrifying spirit of the man. His pioneering in psychology appears in his
Principles of Psychology
(2 vols., 1901) or the shorter version (ed. Gordon Allport, 1961; rpt. 1985), and his illuminating spirit, especially in
Pragmatism
(1907) and in
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
(1979). Louis Menand (intro. and ed.) has provided an excellent anthology of the texts of pragmatism and its background (Vintage, 1997). For the biography, the best avenue is Ralph Barton Perry,
The Thought and Character of William James
(2 vols., 1935), supplemented by
The Letters of William James,
edited by his son, Henry James (2 vols., 1920), and Linda Simon,
Genuine Reality: A Life of William James
(1998).

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., known to lawyers as the Great Dissenter, should be more widely read by students of American culture. An admirable, if slightly hagiographic, biography by his disciple Justice Felix Frankfurter is found in the
Dictionary of American Biography,
Supp. I. For representative essays and opinions, see Max Lerner (ed.),
The Mind and Faith of Justice Holmes
(1948; Modern Library, 1954). His classic
The Common Law
(1881), which should be read by all American law students at the beginning of their studies, has much to tell the layman about the lawyer as Seeker, as does his
Collected Legal Papers
(1920). A subtle and readable account of the shaping years is Mark DeWolfe Howe,
Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
(2 vols., 1957-63). A popular biography that usefully attracted the attention of students of American culture is Catherine Drinker Bowen,
Yankee from Olympus
(1944). For a suggestive Anglo-American dialogue, see Mark De Wolfe Howe (ed.),
The Holmes Pollock Letters
(2d ed., 2 vols., 1961).

The best introduction to Edward O. Wilson is his own readable books. His vivid autobiography is
The Naturalist
(1995). All his books reward the layman with intimate insight into the naturalist as Seeker:
On Human Nature
(1978),
Biophilia
(1984), and especially
The Diversity of Life
(1992).

An admirable introduction to the literature of bewilderment is Martin Esslin,
The Theatre of the Absurd
(rev. ed., 1973) or Richard N. Coe,
Samuel Beckett
(1970). For the writings see John Calder (ed.),
A Samuel Beckett Reader
(1967).
Waiting for Godot
(1954) is in several reprints. For other authors and special topics, see Kenneth McLeish,
The Penguin Companion to Arts in the Twentieth Century
(1988). For the underlying ideas behind, see Albert Camus,
The Myth of Sisyphus
(1942). A creative and challenging Seeker whom I have only touched on is the tantalizing Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), accessible in José Blanco (ed.),
Fernando Pessoa, A Galaxy of Poets
(1985);
A Centenary Pessoa
(Eugenie Lisboa and L. C. Taylor, eds., 1995); or George Monteiro (ed.),
The Man Who Never Was: Essays on Fernando Pessoa
(1982). His English poems were collected in
Poemas Ingleses
(1935). One of his most piquant and puzzling works is his
Book of Disquietude
(trans. Richard Zenith, 1995).

Part VIII. A World in Process: The Meaning in the Seeking

The cheerful seeking spirit, finding “scientific” and materialist answers unsatisfying, ingeniously devised ways to see the meaning in the seeking. This way of seeking came to be known as “the process philosophy.” Lord Acton opened this path for the liberal spirit in his appropriately uncompleted history of liberty, and in his other writings. An admirable, sympathetic biography is Gertrude Himmelfarb,
Lord Acton
(1952). Representative selections are Acton,
Essays in the Liberal Interpretation of History
(intro. William H. McNeill, 1967) and
Essays on Freedom and Power
(G. Himmelfarb, ed., 1948). Acton’s ideas are accessible in his
Lectures on Modern History
(J. N. Figgis and R. V. Laurence, eds., 1906) or
Lectures on the French Revolution
(J. N. Figgis and R. V. Laurence, eds., 1959).

André Malraux is one of the most versatile and eloquent of modern Seekers. He was a brilliant novelist, penetrating art historian and essayist, and effective political figure. For his biography, see Axel Madsen,
Malraux
(1976) or Malraux,
Anti-Memoirs
(trans. T. Kilmartin, 1968). For his view of East-West cultural relations,
The Temptation of the West
(trans. R. Hollander, Vintage, 1961). His writings, despite their political message, remain alive and readable:
The Conquerors
(1928);
The Royal Way
(1935; Vintage);
Man’s Fate
(trans. H. M. Chevalier, Modern Library, 1934);
Man’s Hope
(trans. S. Gilbert and A. MacDonald, 1938). And explore his illuminating
Voices of Silence
(trans. S. Gilbert, 1951).

For the process philosophy, most accessible to the layman are the writings of Henri Bergson or Alfred North Whitehead. See Bergson’s
Creative Evolution
(Modern Library, 1911),
Time and Free Will
(1960), or
The Two Sources of Morality and Religion
(1935). Or see H. A. Larrabee (ed.),
Selections from Bergson
(1949). For a sharp critique: Bernard Russell,
The Philosophy of Bergson
(1914). Whitehead offers a cogent interpretation of the rise of modern science in
Science and the Modern World
(1931).

Albert Einstein himself was fluent and articulate in words as well as equations. An admirable selection of his writings on science, religion, and world affairs is his
Ideas and Opinions
(intro. Alan Lightman, Modern Library, 1994). His readable and revealing “Autobiographical Notes” can be found in
Albert Einstein: Philosopher-Scientist
(ed. Paul A. Schlipp, 2d. ed., 1951; in Library of Living Philosophers), along with essays about him by philosophers and scientists and his own response. The comprehensive biography is Ronald W. Clark,
Albert Einstein: The Life and Times
(1971). And note Philipp Frank,
Einstein
(G. Rosen trans., 1947), written from personal acquaintance. Of the many popular biographies the most helpful are: Jeremy Bernstein,
Einstein
(1973); Lincoln Barnett,
The Universe and Dr. Einstein
(foreword by Einstein, 1948); Peter Michelmore,
Einstein: Profile of the Man
(1962). Gerald Holton, on the editorial board of Einstein’s collected papers, has given us several readable and suggestive essays:
Einstein, History and Other Passions
(1995); his Introduction, “Einstein and the Shaping of Our Imagination,” in
Albert Einstein: The Centennial Symposium in Jerusalem
(ed. G. Holton and Yehuda Elkana, 1982). Especially related to my chapter is his “Einstein’s Search for the
Weltbild,
” in
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society
(1981), with essays by Robert H. Dicke, Steven Weinberg, and John A. Wheeler. For Einstein’s own statement of leading scientific ideas, see Albert Einstein,
Relativity
(1920); (with Leopold Infeld)
The Evolution of Physics
(1938). Serious students of physics and qualified mathematicians may wish to consult the essays on Einstein by Martin J. Klein and Nandor L. Balazs in
Dictionary of Scientific Biography
(1971), Vol. IV. Einstein’s wide influence beyond the world of physics, suggested by Holton’s essays (above), is illustrated by José Ortega y Gasset, “The Historical Significance of the Theory of Einstein,” in his
The Modern Theme
(Harper Torchbook, 1961), where he treats Einstein as the prophet of “finitism,” the message that “now, all at once, the world has become limited.” In the lay public Einstein has inspired wit as well as awe, for example in Alan Lightman’s whimsical novella,
Einstein’s Dreams
(1993), and the delightful “Documentary Comic Book,”
Einstein for Beginners
(1979), by Joseph Schwartz and Michael McGuinness. Also revealed in the extensive illustrated exhibit
E
=
MC
²
at the Centre Georges Pompidou (1979) in Paris, accompanied by a copiously illustrated catalog. Not to be overlooked are Harry Woolf (ed.),
Some Strangeness in the Proportion: Centennial Symposium to Celebrate the Achievements of Albert Einstein
(1980), and David Cassidy,
Einstein and Our World
(1995).