Metaphysics

Adventures of Ideas

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Alfred North Whitehead

1933

Adventures of Ideas traces the long arc of ideas through civilisation — how the Greek ideal of the free soul, the Platonic intuition of beauty, the Christian sense of divine persuasion, and the modern notion of progress have worked themselves out over two millennia. It is Whitehead's most expansive book, ranging from ancient cosmology to modern physics, from aesthetics to political history. Its central argument is that civilisation advances not through force or necessity but through the lure of ideals: truth, beauty, adventure, art, and — as the final word — peace.