THE ASCENT OF MAN

J. BRONOWSKI
COPYRIGHT1973
Little, Brown and Company
Boston Toronto
Page
Contents

13

Chapter 1. Lower than the Angels

19

Animal adaption The human Alternative Fossil evidence The gift of foresight
Evolution of the head The mosaic of man The cultures of the hunter Across the
ice ages Transhumance cultures: the Lapps Imagination in caf art.
Chapter 2. The Harvest of the Seasons

59

The pace of cultural evolution Nomad cultures : the Bakhtiari Beginnings of

agriculture; wheat Jericho Earthquake country Technology in the village The
wheel Domestication of animal ; the horse War games; Buz Kashi Sttled
Civilisation
Chapter 3. The Grain in the Stone

91

Coming to the new World Blood Group evidence of migration The action of
shaping and Splitting Structure and hierarchy The city; Machu Picchu Straightedge architecture The hidden figure: Michelangelo to moore Pleasure in
construction Below the visible
Chapter 4. The Hidden Structure

123

Fire, the transforming element extraction of metals; copper The structure of alloys
Bronze as a work art Iron to stell ; the Japanese Sword Gold The Incoruptible
alchemical Theory of man and nature Paraceltus and the coming of chemistry
Fire and air : Joseph Priestley Antoine Lavoisier: combination can be quantified
John Daltons atomic theory.
Chapter 5. The Music of the Spheres

155

The language of numbers The key to harmony: Pythagoras The right angled
triangle Euclid and Prolemy at Alexandria Rise of Islam Arabic numbers The
Alhambra: patterns of space Crystal symmetries Perspective from Alhazen
Movement in time, the new dynamic The mathematics of change.
Chapter 6. The Starry Messenger

189

The cycle of seasons The unmapped sky: Easter Island Ptolemys system in the
Dondi Clock Copernicus: the sun as center The telescope Galileo opens the
scientific method Prohibition of the Copernican system Dialogue on the two
systems The Inquistion Galileo recants The Scientific Revolution moves north.
Chapter 7. The Majestic Clockwork

221

Keplers laws The center of the world Isaac Newtons innovations: fluxions
Unfolding the spectrum Gravitation and the Principa The intellectual dictator
Challengen in satire Newtons absolute space Absolute time Albert Einstein
The traveler carries his own space and time Relativity is proved The new
philosophy.
Chapter 8. The Drive for Power

259

The English revolution Everyday technology: James Brindley The revolt against
privilege: Figaro Benjamin Franklin and the American revolution Thw new men:
masters of iron The new outlook: Wedgwood and the Lunar society The driving
factory The new preoccupation: energy The cornucopia of invention The unity of
nature.
Chapter 9. The Ladder of Creation

291

The naturalists Charles Darwin Alferd Wallace Impact of South America The
wealth of species Wallace loses his collection Natural selection conceived The
continuity of evolution Louis Pasteur: right hand, left hand Chemical constants in
evolution The origin of life The four bases Are other forms of life possible?
Chapter 10. World Within World

321

The cube of salt Its elements Mendeleevs game of patience The periodic table
J.J Thomson: the atom has parts Structure in new art Structure in the atom:
Rutherrford and Niels Bohr The life cycle of a theory The second law as statistics
Stratified stability Copying the physics of nature Ludwig Boltzmann
Chapter 11. Knowledge or Certainty

353

There is no absolute knowledge The spectrum of invisible radiations The

refinement of detail Gauss and the idea of certainty The sub-structure of reality:
Max Born Heisenbergs principle of certainty The principle of tolerance: Leo
Szilard Science is human.
Chapter 12. Generation upon Generation

379

The voice of insurrection The kitchen garden naturalist: Grager Mendel Genetics
of the pea Instant oblivion An all-or-nothing model of inheritance The magic
number two: sex Crick and Watsons model of DNA Replication and growth
Cloning of identical forms Sexual choice in human diversity.

Chapter 13. The Long Chilhood

411

Man, the social solitary Human Specificity Specific development of the brain
Precision of the hand The speech areas The postponement of decision The
mind as an instrument of preparation The democracy of the intellect The moral
imagination The brain and the computer: John von Neumann The strategy of
values Knowledge is our destiny The commitment of man.