THE DREAM OF REASON

Philosophy, as we know it in the West, began with the Greeks, when people first applied reason to the baffling world of phenomena that surrounded them. For that reason, it is all too often, as the title ironically suggests, a mere "dream." Creatures as irrational as we are can't rely exclusively on our reason, after all. Nadia May's reading of this refreshing history is tuned to Gottlieb's delicate irony as he traces his history from the pre-Socratics to Descartes, though better than three-quarters of the book focuses on the Greeks, especially the pre-Socratics and Gottlieb's beloved Aristotle. (Medieval and Renaissance thinkers are merely a footnote to Aristotle, one would suppose.) Nevertheless, Gottlieb's strength is really storytelling, not philosophy, and the cultural context of his stories. May’s reading catches his narrative excitement. She is at once glib, catchy, erudite, but above all entertaining. Stay tuned for Gottlieb’s take on the Moderns, which promises to be equally entertaining. P.E.F. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC 03/JAN 04]