A Little Knowledge: What Archimedes Really Meant and 80 Other Key Ideas Explained

by Michael Macrone

Why did Archimedes jump from his bath and run naked through the streets shouting 'Eureka!'? What is a quantum and where does it leap? Do you know your id from your ego? Does God play dice? This books answers all those questions and more, taking the revolutionary and perplexing ideas of Western thought and extracting their essence. From Greek philosophy to contemporary economics, physics and architecture, "A Little Knowledge" covers some of the most often heard but least understood theories and explains them simply and entertainingly, including: Existentialism; The Oedipus Complex; Original Sin; 'I think, therefore I am'; Fuzzy Logic; The Big Bang; and 'Religion is the Opium of the People'.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Science

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

Reviews

[Stefan Mitev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ключови идеи в историята и развитието на света, обяснени (относително) разбираемо в няколко страници. С колко от тях сте запознати?

Първата глава "Философия" включва първороден грях, бръснач на Окам, онтологично "доказателство" за съществуването на Бог, залогът на Паскал, парадокси на Зенон, категоричен императив (по Кант), диалектика (по Хегел), утилитаризъм (по Бентам), феноменология (по Хусерл), Tabula rasa и много други. Играта загрубява в друга глава, където са изброени идеи, характерни за постмодернизма - семиотика, структурализъм, универсална граматика (по Чомски), деконструкция (по Дерида), "глобалното село" (по Маклуън).

Разделът за математика и наука е направо елементарен в сравнение с останалите (поне за мен). Той включва питагорова теорема, закони на Нютон, смяна на парадигмата (по Кун), относителност (по Айнщайн), квантов скок (по Планк), принцип на несигурността (по Хайзенберг), парадокс на Ръсел (метаезик), теорема за непълнота (по Гьодел), теория на игрите, размита логика, ентропия, кибернетика.

В книгата е отделено специално внимание на биологията, генетиката и еволюцията - "Онтогенезата е кратко повторение на филогенезата" (по Хекел), пътеществия на Дарвин и закони на Мендел.

В раздела хуманитарни науки попадат условни рефлекси (по Павлов), бихейвиоризъм (по Скинър), Едипов комплекс (по Фройд), колективното несъзнавано (по Юнг).

Икономическите идеи също намират място в книгата - закон на Грешам, laissez faire, "невидимата ръка", класова борба, показно потребление (по Веблен), монетаризъм (по Фридман).

Ако все още четете, то знаете ли какво означават непознатите досега за мен вилица на Хюм, закон на Паркинсон и патетична заблуда? Успех!

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book. I like the clear, and concise (of course inadequate) explanations of each topic. I especially like the critique at the end of each explanation, and the subsequent developments to address an idea's shortcomings.

[Tiago F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an enjoyable book. It dives into 80 key popular ideas and explains them in plain language in 2 to 4 pages. It's roughly divided into 5 parts: philosophy, science, humanities, economics, and a final part with miscellaneous. Each part has several sub-divisions, for example in philosophy it has greek philosophy and modern philosophy, and in science mathematics and physics.

I'm already fairly familiar with philosophy and a big part of the humanities (a large part is psychoanalysis), so I intend to skip the concepts I already knew. However, I ended up reading the whole book anyway, because Macrone's writing is quite enjoyable, and each concept takes so little to read.

Overall, I liked and think he did a great job of explaining most concepts. It's really a wonderful book concept and I wish there was more of it and they were longer. It's a fantastic way of discovering new ideas (or deepening ideas you barely knew) while being very easy and fun to read.

Regarding each concept, some felt oversimplified that's unavoidable to a large degree if you want to cram complex ideas into 3 or 4 pages. But I think most people will be able to grasp its essence while not being misinformed. I particularly enjoyed when it touched on mathematics and physics. I knew very little about it, I learned a fair bit and was super fascinating to read. It managed to not only explain the concepts but in many cases the historical context and the thought process that led to the discovery of those concepts. It was very well done.

However, I found the last half of the book disappointing. The book started with philosophy and science, which details a lot of key ideas in Western thought. However, it went downhill after that, particularly with economics. Unless you have a specific interest in the field, I don't think it's very interesting nor important in the grand scheme of things. On the other hand, the previous parts I think would be captivating for just about everyone. Same applies to the last section. It allowed the author to potentially get some interesting and important ideas that didn't fit well with the book's categories, but it ended up being a boring selection. Luckily, each concept is easily skippable since most don't require previous knowledge of the others, and even if you read it, it doesn't take long.

While certainly not perfect, I'd still recommend it, especially if one is not well versed in some of the topics where it shines the most (philosophy and science).

[Paul Fitz-George · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good starter for all those things in philosophy, science etc. that you really wanted to know...but just don't have the time to spend hours aquatinting yourself with.

That said, it does make you want to buy books on the full stories of some of the subjects within the book that particularly intrigue you.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the reminder of some of the philosophical principles EG original sin, tabula rosa, god is dead. I think therefore I am etc but some of the principles were very samey and I didn't understand.

[Thing · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was excellent. I read it as a teenager, and it was my introduction to a lot of philosophical ideas. I was able to discuss on a basic level with people who had studied philosophy, and in some cases, I could see how some people who had studied general philosophy academically had less complete ideas than myself at the time. Even though it has only brief introductions to subjects / topics / ideas, it is VERY lateral, and exposes you to a great lot of ideas within the space of a short book,
giving you a little taste of each, and allowing you then to pursue what is most interesting.
I disagree strongly with the reviewer who thought it was "not well written".
It was done with humour, and was entertaining, in a way that heavy philosophical texts are not,
or the way such texts can be difficult and intimidating and not motivating to delve into when you have no idea what they are about, since philosophy can be very wordy and loaded with a lot of windy flowery words, which this book introduces the reader too.
I looked over again recently, and it has held up, 10 years on since I first read it as a 16 / 17 year old.
I treasure it.

I would like to thank the author, Mr. Macrone, if he ever reads this, for such a great book. You put me onto a lot of concepts I may never have introduced myself to otherwise.

[Chris Wognum · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was nothing essentially wrong with this book I just thought it wasn't particularly well written. I nice idea as a reference book but a lot of the ideas aren't explained well enough. Many of them I still don't understand. Maybe a review is needed by the author :P

[VENKATRAMAN C K · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting read. gives s short summary of 80 key concepts across philosophy, science, economics and psychology.