The Philosophy that caused The Industrial Revolution

I discovered this in the most unlikely place Freedom and Circumstance: Philosophy in Ortega y Gasset.

Before I read this, I didn't think much of the guy - he said nothing about WWI, an extremely important event that reshaped Europe. And not much about the mass totalitarian dictatorships that followed it - including the dictatorship of the Fascist Franco, who ruled Spain itself.

Like many other writers, he was not too clear about his most important ideas.

Here is a quote from the book I referenced above:

The metaphor, “the world is a machine,” began to replace the [ancient, classical] metaphor, “the world is a living organism.”. . . . This rationalist mode of thought is omnipresent and seems natural and inevitable. The rationalist tradition proved seductive. . . . But it does contain certain limitations and biases. This mode of thought is reductionist …. It is purposeful rather than playful. It values the sort of knowledge that can be put into words and numbers over the sort of knowledge that cannot . . . . and undervalues the importance of specific contexts.

And the latest machine, the Computer, also has these limitations.

This made me download another book Summary of The Road to Character: by David Brooks.

Great ideas are pushing their way into by old brain - and demanding that they be told.