I attended a presentation by Professor A. C. Grayling at the Sydney Opera House entitled ‘Closing the Modern Mind’. It was but one of the many talks at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas this last weekend and in case you missed it, I feel that I am doing you a favour by linking to it here.
The presentation covered the content in his new book, ‘The Age of Genius’, in which he attributes the rise of the modern mind to the changing attitudes towards liberty of thought and inquiry in the 17th century. I won’t go in to details here. Those you can find in the video or the book, which I intend to tackle as soon as I’m done with Dawkins.
What I want to articulate is what I felt upon leaving the talk. I felt a sense of wonder: wonder for what the next one hundred years might hold, and whether or not human civilisation will be able to surmount the challenges ahead. I hope that we forge ahead like the free thinkers of old, and I remain cautious of those seeking to pull the wool over our eyes.