The Swerve: How The World Became Modern

 The Swerve: How The World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt



Read: June 2021

This the story of Poggio, a Florentine man, who was a Papal secretary to 8 successive Popes, and his discovery of long lost ancient Greek and Latin texts during early 15th century. In particular, it is about his finding of the book ‘On the Nature of Things’, by Greek philosopher, Lucretius in 1417 and the repercussions it had on the world we inhabit today. After the fall of Roman Empire, Christianity had managed to snuff out all the traces of ‘pagan’ philosophy from the collective memory. As western civilization seeped into the rot of dark ages, some intellectuals started the quest to hunt for the banished texts in the archives of hard to reach monasteries. Upon discovery, this aforementioned book lit a spark which spread like a wildfire torching fundamentalist Christian beliefs and lighted the path for philosophers, scientists, and intellectuals for next many centuries till its message completely seeped into the society as we live in today. Christian doctrinaire tried their best to suppress this challenge to their intellectual authority, burning anyone on stake who was found propagating the book’s ideas for next two centuries. But it was more and more a losing battle against a simple yet powerful idea. At its core, the book taught that all matter is made of tiny indestructible particle which come together as a matter of chance. This theory, later called ‘atomism’ though sounds innocuous, had a profound impact on religious dogma which insisted that everything in the universe was directed by God and had a purpose. Lucretius expands on his theory to say that the universe has no creator, or designer. The concept of free will of humans come from his theories, as does the concept of ‘pursuit of happiness’ as embodied in US constitution since Jefferson was a big admirer of the book. Ceaseless experimentation by nature, non-uniqueness of humans, negation of afterlife or a soul, delusional aspects of organized religions; are all products of this book, which ushered in the modern age that we all live in.

Recommended book for anyone who likes to delve into philosophical underpinnings of our society.

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