 | |
| Author | Daniel Boorstin |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Bernard Klein |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | History |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1998 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover |
| Pages | 298 (hbk) 349 (pbk) |
| ISBN | 0-375-70475-2 (pbk) |
| Preceded by | The Creators |
The Seekers is a 1998 non-fiction work of cultural history by Daniel Boorstin and is the third and final volume in the "knowledge" trilogy.
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 knowwhy. Man is the asking animal... Unlike The Discoverers 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 I. The Way of Prophets: A Higher Authority
Part II. The Way of Philosophers: A Wondrous Instrument Within
Part III: The Christian Way: Experiments in Community
Part IV. Ways of Discovery: In Search of Experience
Part V. The Liberal Way
Part VI. The Momentum of History: Ways of Social Science
Part VII. The Sanctuaries of Doubt
Part VIII. A World In Process: The Meaning In The Seeking
The Seekers was both praised and criticized for its adulatory treatment of Western culture. 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. [1] He remarked that Boorstin might be signaling a new trend, since other liberals were also speaking out, particularly against what they considered 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." Publishers 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, asked, "What other author could put it so succinctly?" Harry Frumerman of The Library Journal described the book then added "The writing has a sweeping, didactic tone. A suitable but not mandatory choice for academic and larger public libraries." Amazon Editorial Reviews
Boorstin notes that in the beginning we sought answers from special individuals - religious prophets. He begins with Moses, 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.
Paradoxically, as seeking became individualized, attention turned to the specific community in which they dwelled for answers. In the forward he quotes Thomas Carlyle (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.
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 Revolution yet he died in jail, victim of his own teachings. Auguste 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.
...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 Seekers
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
The meaning of life pertains to the significance of living or existence in general. Many other related questions include: "Why are we here?", "What is life all about?", or "What is the purpose of existence?" There have been many proposed answers to these questions from many different cultural and ideological backgrounds. The search for life's meaning has produced much philosophical, scientific, theological, and metaphysical speculation throughout history. Different people and cultures believe different things for the answer to this question.
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing of some form of truth or knowledge through communication with a deity or other supernatural entity or entities.
Discourse analysis is a technique used to inspect a language, how language is used, and how the words transfer their message in a social context or situation.
In the interdisciplinary fields of sociology, social ontology, and communication theory, social constructionism serves as a theoretical framework that suggests various facets of social reality—such as concepts, beliefs, norms, and values—are formed through continuous interactions and negotiations among society's members, instead of the pure objective observation of physical reality. The theory of social constructionism posits that much of what individuals perceive as 'reality' is actually the outcome of a dynamic process of construction influenced by social conventions and structures.
Yusuf is a prophet mentioned in the Quran and corresponds to Joseph, a person from the Hebrew and Christian Bible who was said to have lived in Egypt before the New Kingdom. Of Jacob's children, Joseph reportedly had the gift of prophecy. Although the narratives of other prophets are presented in a number of surahs, Joseph's complete narrative appears in only one: Yusuf. Said to be the most detailed narrative in the Quran, it contains more details than its biblical counterpart.
Governmentality is a concept first developed by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in the later years of his life, roughly between 1977 and his death in 1984, particularly in his lectures at the Collège de France during this time.
Dhikr is a form of Islamic prayer in which phrases or prayers are repeatedly chanted in order to remember God. It plays a central role in Sufi Islam, and each Sufi order has usually adopted a specific dhikr, typically accompanied by specific posture, breathing, and movement. In Sufi Islam, dhikr refers to both the act of this remembrance as well as the prayers used in these acts of remembrance. Dhikr can be performed in solitude or as a collective group. It can be counted on a set of prayer beads or through the fingers of the hand. A person who recites the Dhikr is called a Dhakir, literally "he who remembers." The content of the prayers includes the names of God, or a dua taken from the hadiths or the Quran.
Problematization is a process of stripping away common or conventional understandings of a subject matter in order to gain new insights. This method can be applied to a term, writing, opinion, ideology, identity, or person. Practitioners consider the concrete or existential elements of these subjects. Analyzed as challenges (problems), practitioners may seek to transform the situations under study. It is a method of defamiliarization of common sense.
In Islam, prophecy is the principle that God has appointed exemplary individuals, i.e. prophets and messengers to communicate His guidance to humanity. This is one of the five principles of the Twelver Principles of Religion.
Aqidah is an Islamic term of Arabic origin that literally means "creed". It is also called Islamic creed and Islamic theology.
Waḥyu is the Arabic word for revelation. In Islamic belief, revelations are God's Word delivered by His chosen individuals – known as Messenger prophets – to mankind.
Tawassul is an Arabic word originated from wa-sa-la- wasilat. The wasilah is a means by which a person, goal or objective is approached, attained or achieved. In another version of the meaning of tawassul in another text: Tawassul is an Arabic word that comes from a verbal noun, wasilah, which according to Ibn Manzur in Lisān al-'Arab means "a station of King, a rank, or act of devotion". In other words, it refers to a position of power due to one's proximity to the king or sovereign. While the tawassul or tawassulan is the use of wasilah for this purpose. In religious contexts, the tawassul is the use of a wasilah to arrive at or obtain favour of Allah.
The Jungian interpretation of religion, pioneered by Carl Jung and advanced by his followers, is an attempt to interpret religion in the light of Jungian psychology. Unlike Sigmund Freud and his followers, Jungians tend to treat religious beliefs and behaviors in a positive light, while offering psychological referents to traditional religious terms such as "soul", "evil", "transcendence", "the sacred", and "God". Because beliefs do not have to be facts in order for people to hold them, the Jungian interpretation of religion has been, and continues to be, of interest to psychologists and theists.
The Discoverers is a non-fiction historical work by Daniel Boorstin, published in 1983, and is the first in the Knowledge Trilogy, which also includes The Creators and The Seekers. The book, subtitled A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself, is a history of human discovery. Discovery in many forms is described: exploration, science, medicine, mathematics, and more-theoretical ones, such as time, evolution, plate tectonics, and relativity. Boorstin praises the inventive, human mind and its eternal quest to discover the universe and humanity's place in it.
In Mormonism, revelation is communication from God to man. Latter Day Saints teach that the Latter Day Saint movement began with a revelation from God, which began a process of restoring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. Latter Day Saints also teach that revelation is the foundation of the church established by Jesus Christ and that it remains an essential element of his true church today. Continuous revelation provides individual Latter Day Saints with a "testimony", described by Richard Bushman as "one of the most potent words in the Mormon lexicon".
Continuous revelation or continuing revelation is a theological belief or position that God continues to reveal divine principles or commandments to humanity.
Religious liberalism is a conception of religion which emphasizes personal and group liberty and rationality. It is an attitude towards one's own religion which contrasts with a traditionalist or orthodox approach, and it is directly opposed by trends of religious fundamentalism. It is related to religious liberty, which is the tolerance of different religious beliefs and practices, but not all promoters of religious liberty are in favor of religious liberalism, and vice versa.
Kenneth J. Gergen is an American social psychologist and emeritus professor at Swarthmore College. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts from Yale University (1957) and his PhD from Duke University (1962).
Prophets in Islam are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets are categorized as messengers, those who transmit divine revelation, most of them through the interaction of an angel. Muslims believe that many prophets existed, including many not mentioned in the Quran. The Quran states: "And for every community there is a messenger." Belief in the Islamic prophets is one of the six articles of the Islamic faith.
While both rhema and logos are translated into the English word, in the original Greek there was a substantial distinction. The use of the term rhema has special significance in some Christian groups, especially those advocating the Five-Fold Ministry that God gave of five gifts or callings to some people. Christians denominations that advocate the Five-Fold Ministry include Charismatic Christianity, the Pentecostal Movement, the Apostolic-Prophetic Movement and the Word of Faith Movement.
