Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Richard Tarnas/Passion of the Western Mind. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page book review/essay that examined the arguments made in Richard Tarnas' book Passion of the Western Mind, and then discusses whether the postmodern dissolution of the Western view of reality is a "breakdown" or a "breakthrough." The writer argues that the latter is the case. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khpaswst.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
postmodern mindset that is the root cause of todays sense of alienation and doubt in traditional values and institutions. However, in his epilogue, Tarnas presents the argument that this change,
which has caused so much alienation in the present day world, is ultimately not a breakdown, but a breakthrough. Tarnas writes, "As the plant at a certain stage brings forth
its blossom, so does the universe bring forth new stages of human knowledge" (435). In order to fully appreciate Tarnas position, an overview of his book is helpful. Tarnas
begins with the "Greek propensity to see clarifying universals in the chaos of life" (3), which was first expressed in the poetics of Homer and later by Plato and Aristotle.
It is with the Greeks that Western mindset first began to see the "world as a question to be answered" (68). Roughly midway through the period of Greco-Roman civilization,
Christianity materialized out of Judaic monotheism, and viewed itself as the fulfillment of Jewish scriptures. Then, in the Middle ages, first Augustine, and then Aquinas, adopted the Platonic and Aristotelian
philosophy and adapted its features to the service of the Christian faith. Ironically, however, in the achievement of Aquinas, and also in the works of Ockham, the emphasis on the
human mind contributed to the displacement of Christianity several centuries later from its central position in the formation of the Western mind. Tarnas goes on to picture the
scientific revolution, particularly in the form of Newtonian physics, as being the next decisive factor in the creation of the modern Western mind. At first, modern science seems to support
the Platonic belief in the rational intelligibility of reality. This was the Enlightenment belief that all knowledge, indeed, the whole natural universe, could eventually be discerned by humanity. However, twentieth
...