The Passion of the Western Mind

Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View

By: Richard Tarnas

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Here are the great minds of Western civilization and their pivotal ideas, from Plato to Hegel, from Augustine to Nietzsche, from Copernicus to Freud. Richard Tarnas performs the near-miracle of describing profound philosophical concepts simply but without simplifying them. Ten years in the making and already hailed as a classic, The Passion of the Western Mind is truly a complete liberal education in a single volume.

©1991 Richard Tarnas (P)2020 Tantor

Great overview of western thinking

The narrator has an idiosyncratic pronunciation of “s” sounds that was distracting at first, but that I got used to. Other than that the narration was quite good.

Content of the book is fantastic and ends with an interesting philosophical look into the future.

Stunning in it’s depth

Brilliant use of callback to earlier stages in the historical narrative to reset the foundation supporting the next major stage. Avoids the sense of rambling, “and this happened then this happened…”, found in so many history books. A cohesive trip through centuries of human thought, closing with a tantalizing “what comes next.”

Extremely comprehensive!

I did not have the patience to sit and read this book with so much depth but it was perfect to listen to while moving outside doing yard work…
The Reader was fantastic and deserves a raise!
And as the author concludes on the importance of “embrace of the feminine.” (!!!!!)

An Essential Summation of Western Thought

Anyone interested in philosophy, science or understanding the thinking behind the modern world needs to listen to this book. Whether you've read all the source texts, some, or none of them this book synthesizes Western thought into a cohesive narrative of purpose and meaning, concluding with a vibrant vision of its future.

When you hear a truth…

If you give two shits about how mankind got so fkd up read this shit. It’s amazing and detailed and you will never regret you did. So what the F are you waiting for. Start reading or listening now so mankind can grow up.

Happy for audio version

Fantastic book packed full of history and insights on how western thought came together and evolved. Often dense, sometimes requiring re-listening to parts where prior knowledge was limited on my part. Extremely helpful to have the audio version. I have tried to make it through the written version a few times but due to the denseness of material and focus required to really take it all in, I had not finished it. Being able to do something tactile like walking and listening made for a much more pleasant experience.

Can't believe this was written 30 years ago!

Wow! If this were written today, it would still be ahead of its time. An incredible synthesis of the history of Western thought and a brilliantly visionary anticipation of where we are headed.

My mind is blown.

What a beautiful telling of the evolution of conciousness. One of those “this book changed my life” books.

Painful to listen to narrator

The book is fine. Narrator Sean Runnette has a nice voice away from the microphone I’m sure, but his narration is physically painful to listen to. When I turn the volume up enough to hear what’s being said, his “s” sounds are so piercing. I can’t seem to adjust the audio appropriately for the books I have where he’s the narrator.

Great until the pseudo-science at the end

It's hard for me to understand how such a brilliant and eloquent person can fall into such mumbo jumbo as birth trauma and astrology as valid perspectives on history. His next book is explicitly about "archetypal astrology."