Why read New Worlds, Ancient Texts?

Book cover of New Worlds, Ancient Texts: The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery

Book description

Describing an era of exploration during the Renaissance that went far beyond geographic bounds, this book shows how the evidence of the New World shook the foundations of the old, upsetting the authority of the ancient texts that had guided Europeans so far afield. What Anthony Grafton recounts is a…

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Why read it?

1 author picked New Worlds, Ancient Texts as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Karl Giberson

Author

I was captured by the first sentence in this book: “Between 1550 and 1650 Western thinkers ceased to believe that they could find all important truths in ancient books.” I think this is the greatest intellectual revolution in history—when we stopped looking back in time for the truth about the world and started looking forward.

We stopped believing that ancient thinkers—Moses, Aristotle, Galen—had privileged access to knowledge. We realized that Newton was better equipped to understand the world than Aristotle and that Darwin knew more than Moses. This realization made science possible, but it’s a fragile insight.

From Karl's list on being terribly wrong losing faith changing beliefs.