Magnificent Inequality: A Review of Human Accomplishment

The following has been submitted to Human Nature Review.
JB
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Celebrating Magnificent Inequality: A Review of Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts & Sciences, 800 B. C. to 1950, by Charles Murray (2003). NY: Harper Collins. 22 chapters in 458 pp. + 110 pp. of appendices, notes, bibliography, & index.

His Exhibits and Stories About Inequality
“...Excellence exists and it is time to acknowledge and celebrate the magnificent inequality that has enabled some of our fellow humans to have so enriched the lives of the rest of us.” (Murray, 2003, pp. 449-450)
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Murray sets an ambitious course: a summation of human achievement across three millennia and in three cultures, the translation of history into graphs, and explanation for the greatness found in Western Europe in science and art in the 15 decades before 1850 and for the decline of western innovation after 1850. He affirms that greatness exists and that a belief in truth, beauty, and good catalyzes their expression. He also writes an epitaph to postmodernism. An elegant format separates statistics and methods from interpretations and supplies graphs in black, gray, white and royal blue. He is an honest craftsman and I find no reason to doubt the integrity of his assembly. I like his findings and his interpretations, even those that invoke Christianity, but I suggest reductionist metaphors that underlie both our creations and those of other creatures. I have a faith in secularism, remembering that a struggling Christianity almost lost its battles with Mithraism and needed 1500 years to move its displays from Golgotha to the Sistine Chapel.

Replies:

A Transcendent Selectionism, by James Brody, 02/15/04 Evolution's Missing Link, by James Brody, 02/15/04

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