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C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books

reasonabletheology.org

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Re: C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books

#141

Post by veddox »

FiatLuxDave wrote: post #18

I rather enjoyed this essay, not because I am into theology, but because I also see the value of old books. I think that I am a bit of a heretic (if I can use that word in a theology thread) because I strongly believe that there is advantage to be gained by reading old books of... science! It is often presumed that because we learn new things as time goes on, and old theories are discarded as new information comes to…

Absolutely. I found reading A. v. Humboldt absolutely fascinating. (He has the added merit of not only having been a brilliant scientist, but also a gifted prose writer.) And James Watson's "The Double Helix" was an intriguing insight into a period in biology when much of what we take for granted was just being discovered. One gains a deeper understanding for any system of thought when one learns how it came to be.

Re: C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books

#142

Post by veddox »

rossdavidh wrote: post #57
FiatLuxDave wrote: post #18

I rather enjoyed this essay, not because I am into theology, but because I also see the value of old books. I think that I am a bit of a heretic (if I can use that word in a theology thread) because I strongly believe that there is advantage to be gained by reading old books of... science! It is often presumed that because we learn new things as time goes on, and old theories are discarded as new information comes to…

I have read several of the original books of Charles Darwin, and found it both entertaining and intellectually stimulating. Still definitely worth reading, even though (because?) a lot has been learned since then.

I started reading the "Origin of species", but found it very long-winded. Going to give "The Voyage of the Beagle" a try soon, hope that is better...

Re: C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books

#143

Post by veddox »

FiatLuxDave wrote: post #18

I rather enjoyed this essay, not because I am into theology, but because I also see the value of old books. I think that I am a bit of a heretic (if I can use that word in a theology thread) because I strongly believe that there is advantage to be gained by reading old books of... science! It is often presumed that because we learn new things as time goes on, and old theories are discarded as new information comes to…

Also, "old" doesn't per force imply "outdated". Especially in ecology (or, as it was known, natural history), there's a lot of good work that was done in the 19th century that would deserve much wider attention today.

Just yesterday I was identifying a species of African ant. As I researched it, I found myself using taxonomic keys and descriptions published between 50 and 150 years ago - in English, French, German and Latin! Fortunately they had been digitized, and at least partially translated...

Re: C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books

#144

Post by watwut »

Maultasche wrote: post #92

A few years ago, my dad gave me my grandfather's history textbook from when he was in high school in the 1930s in California. That was an interesting read. In addition to it having a slight racist bent when discussing non-European civilizations, it contained facts that are now considered to be nonsense. The further in the past it went, the more it contradicted what are now considered to be well-known facts about the…

> it contained facts that are now considered to be nonsense. The further in the past it went, the more it contradicted what are now considered to be well-known facts about the past.

Can you give examples?

Re: C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books

#145

Post by coldtea »

cheschire wrote: post #23
coldtea wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technological books do not age as well, because technical knowledge is predominantly cumulative. It's for fields where thoughts are evergreen (basically, anything to do with being human, literature, poetry, philosophy, etc) where this advice matters. A good modern book on math, or chemistry, or compiler construction has more knowledge than any old one. A good modern poet is not better than Shakespeare or Homer (and i…

Well-written technology books age quite well. For example, Hackers[0] has aged so well that the author has gone back over the last 30 years and added multiple appendices to cover what's happened since! The first couple chapters are available[1] on Project Gutenberg as well. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Compute... 1: http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=7...

>Well-written technology books age quite well. For example, Hackers[0] has aged so well that the author has gone back over the last 30 years and added multiple appendices to cover what's happened since

That's history.

Re: C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books

#146

Post by LolNoGenerics »

davebryand wrote: post #97
sudosteph wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's very cool. I'm just now attempting to study religion from a historical standpoint myself, and have been finding myself drawn to older sources as well. Though I must ask, can you explain what you mean by "non-duality"? Is duality something you experienced from the Catholic perspective? I ask because I actually find myself very drawn to some ancient texts from Gnostic perspectives (Book of Thomas, some Mandean t…

Duality, for me, in the Catholic sense meant that there is "God" and then there is little old me. Non-duality is the realization that is available to all humans that we are not actually separate from the Tao, God, the Universe, or whatever label you care to place on the invisible power that governs the realm that we inhabit. You are an interconnected piece of life that through consciousness can impact future frames o…

I think you are referring to pantheism?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheism

Re: C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books

#147

Post by coldtea »

inimino wrote: post #17
coldtea wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technological books do not age as well, because technical knowledge is predominantly cumulative. It's for fields where thoughts are evergreen (basically, anything to do with being human, literature, poetry, philosophy, etc) where this advice matters. A good modern book on math, or chemistry, or compiler construction has more knowledge than any old one. A good modern poet is not better than Shakespeare or Homer (and i…

The best geometry textbook hasn't changed for more than 2000 years. Mathematics textbooks are just as likely as anything else to suffer from modern pedagogical theories that have not been tested by time and will come to be regarded as mistakes.

Professors in universities don't consider Euclid's textbook the "best" currently available text in geometry or use it on 101 geometry (except as a historical appreciation/reference).

It's the one with the most historical importance, but it hardly covers modern geometry.

Re: C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books

#148

Post by coldtea »

InitialLastName wrote: post #15
coldtea wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technological books do not age as well, because technical knowledge is predominantly cumulative. It's for fields where thoughts are evergreen (basically, anything to do with being human, literature, poetry, philosophy, etc) where this advice matters. A good modern book on math, or chemistry, or compiler construction has more knowledge than any old one. A good modern poet is not better than Shakespeare or Homer (and i…

> Technological books do not age as well, because technical knowledge is predominantly cumulative. Tell that to Claude Shannon, Fred Brooks, and Ken Thompson. "A symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits", "The Mythical Man-month" and "On Trusting Trust" have aged fine, I promise.

There are exceptions of course (and those are more about the fundamentals and abstractions than the technology -- e.g. Mythical Man Month is more about people and processes and development approaches than technology).

Thought note that even those are barely ancient, they are at best a century old -- Lewis was talking of Plato as an example and in general centuries old classics, not whether someone should read Zola or Hesse.

Today very few would suggest reading Newton to learn physics in university (e.g. use it as a textbook). At best they'd tell to to read Newton to see how the thinking went behind early discoveries. But people use Plato or Shakespeare or tons of other centuries old writers as their core textbook all the time in philosophy and literature departments.

Re: C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books

#149

Post by mci » 

  For out of olde feldys, as men sey,
  Comyth al this newe corn from ȝer to ȝere,
  And out of olde bokis, in good fey,
  Comyth al this newe science that men lere.
Geoffrey Chaucer, The Parlement of Foules (c. 1380)

Re: C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Old Books

#150

Post by elihu »

sverige wrote: post #113
elihu wrote: post #98

In the realm of Christian theology (and perhaps other areas too), I think there's a related pitfall which is to assume that by reading the Bible exclusively, you can understand what the writers meant when they wrote it without confusing the issues with all the various modern debates about interpretation. The problem with that is that many passages could have several interpretations, and by default the average Bible r…

My favorite Bible interpreters are all 19th century English, Scottish, and Irish writers. They all knew Greek and Hebrew, and some of them studied the ancient manuscripts themselves. Their writing is clear and cogent and their interpretations are still very much relevant. Sadly, I've little use for most contemporary writers on the same subjects. They just aren't up to the same standard.

I don't know a lot of authors of that era, but I am a fan of George MacDonald (as was C.S. Lewis). He wrote a collection of essays called "Unspoken Sermons" that is quite good, but mostly he communicated his theology through writing novels. A lot of the things he had to say about nineteenth century Scotland apply just as well to a twenty-first century American audience.
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