Edition |
1st pbk. ed. |
Description |
xxi, 551 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 521-528) and index. |
Summary |
In this sweeping history, Jennifer Michael Hecht celebrates doubt as an engine of creativity and as an alternative to the political and intellectual dangers of certainty -- Just as belief has its own history featuring people whose unique expressions of faith have forever changed the world, doubt has a vibrant story and tradition with its own saints martyrs, and sages. |
Contents |
Doubt is no shadow: a quiz and a guide to the question -- Whatever happened to Zeus and Hera?, 600 BCE-1 CE: Greek doubt -- Smacking the temple, 600 BCE-1 CE: doubt and the ancient Jews -- What the Buddha saw, 600 BCE-1 CE: ancient doubt in Asia -- When in Rome in doubt, 50 BCE-1 CE: empire in reason -- Christian doubt, Zen, Elisha, and Hypatia, 1-800 CE: late-classical mix -- Medieval doubt loops-the-loop, 800-1400: Muslims to Jews to Christians -- The printing press and the Age of Martyrs, 1400-1600: Renaissance and inquisition -- Sunspots and White House doubters, 1600-1800: revolutions in the authority of reason -- Doubt's bid for a better work, 1800-1900: freethinking in the age of science and reform -- Principles of uncertainty, 1900-: the new cosmopolitan -- The joy of doubt: ethics, logic, mood. |
Subject |
Belief and doubt -- History.
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Belief and doubt. |
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History. |
ISBN |
0060097957 |
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