Inferences and large dosages of imagination actually have allowed the construction of a far more adequate understanding of the cosmic and human past … - William Hardy McNeill
" "Inferences and large dosages of imagination actually have allowed the construction of a far more adequate understanding of the cosmic and human past than earlier generations achieved. I believe that this is the central intellectual accomplishment of the twentieth century. Innumerable cosmologists, physicists, mathematicians, anthropologists, sociologists, historians, ecologists, ethologists, and other specialists have played their part; a few swashbuckling intellects led the way, and the outlines of an evolutionary worldview, uniting natural and human history, has begun to emerge. It may be convincing for generations to come—or again may not.
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About William Hardy McNeill
William Hardy McNeill (October 31, 1917 – July 8, 2016) was a Canadian-American historian and author, particularly noted for his writings on Western civilization. He was Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago where he taught from 1947.
Also Known As
Alternative Names:
William McNeill
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William H. McNeill
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W. H. McNeill
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Additional quotes by William Hardy McNeill
I came away from the two science surveys superficially acquainted with what was already a rather old-fashioned version of contemporary natural science. Relativity and quantum mechanics were mentioned... but not explained; the stars were still eternal; and both subatomic particles and biochemistry were discreetly omitted. ...The two courses persuaded me that, in some sense, I understood the natural world. The illusion endured, for later in life... I tagged along by reading popular accounts, believing that the natural world out there was somehow within my reach, even without the mathematics that made quantum mechanics so mysteriously plausible.
In 1933-34, I took a full-blown college course on the University of Chicago campus. This was part of an experiment by President Hutchins to see whether combining the last two years of high school with the first two years of college might make a more rigorous curriculum possible for what he called "General Education." This he hoped might provide a rational, philosophical guide to adult life and citizenship, replacing the vanished religious certainties he had grown up to reject—and regret.
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