The Cave and the Light

Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization

De: Arthur Herman

Narrado por: Paul Hecht

The Cave and the Light reveals how two Greek philosophers became the twin fountainheads of Western culture, and how their rivalry gave Western civilization its unique dynamism down to the present.

©2013 Arthur Herman (P)2013 Recorded Books

Exhilarating overview of philosophical history

The ultimate compliment I can provide is that I now want to read more philosophy! Hermann wonderfully ties together the two great Greeks to a ship sailing through history.

Great Breath and Depth

great narrator...worth listening. better to take notes..hard to remember all the swirls of this and that....

Condensing a long wonderful history

This book is mainly a solid introduction to the greatest western minds in philosophy that start in Ancient Greece.

The beginnings of the history told in this book are the most potent and based. The author takes care to humanize Socrates and Plato without making light of their significance.

As the book progresses though it is clear to me that the author cares more for politics (modern and historical) than the philosophy that the people in this book hold. The book turned out to be more about how the philosophers of western history were seen and influenced politics than the meat of their philosophy. If that’s the sort of book you are into then this is up your alley but I often saw this as a detour into the author’s own political biases than something worth considering.

The inclusion of Ayn Rand was wild and really took me by surprise since she feels like a punchline nowadays in comparison to Kant or Aristotle which were also featured in this book. Ayn Rand popping up at the final chapter made this book feel like cheap capitalist propaganda.

Great high-level review of the history of ideas

I love this book and it’s high-level summary of ideas since pre-Socratic Greece. The only annoying part: the chapters are numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. when clearly they had titles as the narrator read them. Not sure why companies are so lazy that they can’t bother to make those titles the ones in the audible file it would make searching and review much easier.

Great Storytelling for a Work of Philosophy

I thought this would be an introduction to the works of Plato and Aristotle, but as it turns out, it’s much more. The book traces their ideas through history as they dodge and weave throughout the most important movements of history.

The first 2/3rds of the book were clear-cut and easy. After the Enlightenment, the ideas become harder to trace, and more challenging to follow the quick changes between people and ideas. I think the post enlightenment section could use an entire volume to expand some of the ideas further.

The performance aspect is great. There’s enough interest in the voice to keep engaged with the material. He does make a few mistakes and mispronunciations along the way, but I’d rather have that than boring.