Intellectual History, Weekly Assignment 1
Dates: 9/05 – 9/11, 2006

Read Chesterton, Everlasting Man, pp. 7-39 (Intro. through Chapter 1)

For the record, here is an online copy of Chesterton:
http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/chesterton/everlasting/content.htm

Notes: Chesterton is, in part, answering H. G. Wells’s popular and famous book An Outline of History, in which Wells uses evolutionary principles to explain “scientifically” the origins of man, culture, and religion. Wells did much to popularize our culture’s notion of “Prehistoric Man.”

Chesterton refers briefly to “sophists,” which are the teachers of rhetoric and argumentation whom we have met elsewhere. But a “gymnosophist” is a fancy word for “nudist.” The term “couvade” refers to the tradition or tendency of a father to share in his wife’s birth pains.

If you are curious about Chesterton’s reference to Plato’s Cave, you can look it up in Book VII of the Republic. We will read this for ourselves later in this class.

• Writing Assignment: “Golden Oldies.” Lewis gives at least six reasons for reading old books. Briefly restate as many of them as you can find in his essay.

• Writing Assignment: “Chesterton’s Case.” Chesterton often represented traditional Christianity in debates with secular humanists of his day, such as his friend George Bernard Shaw. As a good debater should, he is concerned both to demolish the opposition’s case and to build his own side's case. Write a list of Chesterton’s major points of refutation, summarizing the opposition’s point (as nearly as you can guess it) and Chesterton’s reply. Think of it as building a “negative block” for later use, because you are likely to run into similar arguments in your own life. Similarly, write up a summary of Chesterton’s “affirmative case.”

Each of these two summaries should occupy a half page to a page. Put page number references in your summary. (This will require you to go over the reading and discern the major arguments.) You will add to them as we proceed through the book.

Suggested affirmative points: Man’s attitudes toward art, death, sin, family. Three miracles of matter, life, and rational soul. Suggested refutations: Evolution does not explain. There is no evidence that human nature “evolved”. Evolutionists rely on scant evidence and no experiment.