Tarnas, R. (1991). The passion of the western mind: Understanding the ideas that have shaped our world view. New York: Ballantine Books.

Tonight I’m being a little lazy. Tarnas does such a great job of summarizing the main threads of Greek influence on the development of Western thought, that I will list them verbatim. These are points that I wish to think about somewhat. Both threads co-existed though they seem to represent different world views.   

Thread 1: Greek Rationalism & Greek Religion (Integration)

1. The world is an ordered cosmos, whose order is akin to an order within the human mind. A rational analysis of the empirical world is therefore possible.
   
   
2. The cosmos as a whole is expressive of a pervasive intelligence that gives to nature its purpose and design, and this intelligence is directly accessible to human awareness if the latter is developed and focused to a high degree.
   
   
3. Intellectual analysis at its most penetrating reveals a timeless order that transcends its temporal, concrete manifestation. The visible world contains within it a deeper meaning, in some sense both rational and mythic in character, which is reflected in the empirical order but which emanates from an eternal dimension that is both source and goal of all existence.
   
   
4. Knowledge of the worlds’ underlying structure and meaning entails the exercise of a plurality of human cognitive faculties—rational, empirical, intuitive, aesthetic, mnemonic, and moral.

Thread 2: Focus on Empricism

1. Genuine human knowledge can be acquired only through the rigorous employment of human reason and empirical observation.
   
   
2. The ground of truth must be sought in the present world of human experience, not in an undemonstrable [sic] otherworldly reality. The only truth that is humanly accessible and useful is immanent rather than transcendent.
   
   
3. The causes of natural phenomena are impersonal and physical, and should be sought within the realm of observable nature. All mythological and supernatural elements should be excluded from causal explanations as anthropomorphic projections.
   
4. Any claims to comprehensive theoretical understanding must be measured against the empirical reality of concrete particulars in all their diversity, mutability, and individuality.
   
   
5. No system of thought is final, and the search for truth must be both critical and self-critical. Human knowledge is relative and fallible and must be constantly revised in the light of further evidence and analysis.

(Tarnas, 1991, p. 69-71)