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Customer Reviews of The Ascent of Man

"There Is No Absolute Knowledge"
Jacob Bronowski, a mathematician, worked in physics and then, in his last years, in biological research. He believed in "the democracy of the intellect" (435).[Page references are to the 1973 Little, Brown hardcover edition.] Basing his views on the tremendous influence of science on society, he argued and worked for the greater extension of scientific knowledge to the general public. This book is the companion volume of Bronowski's television series in the early seventies on the history of science. Having seen several episodes of this classic series, I can hear Bronowski talking. The writing retains a lively, personal quality. The book has wonderful illustrations and although some of the information could use updating, e.g., to reflect new discoveries in human origins, it still provides an enriching and useful account of the connections among science, art, history, philosophy, politics, etc. Science as a human activity has no better spokesperson than Bronowski. On the down-side, I found jarring his constant use of `man' for human. If he were writing today, I believe he would have been sensitive to such language use that some feel may exclude women. That was not his intent. Bronowski believed in the possibility of progress for human beings, what he called "the ascent of man," which was represented for him by the growth of scientific knowledge. One of the best chapters, "Knowledge Or Certainty," provides a useful meditation on the uncertainty principle in physics and the epistemology of modern science. The chapter should be required reading for everyone interested in the non-aristotelian, uncertaintist, world-view promoted by Alfred Korzybski and others. Bronowski writes: "There is no absolute knowledge. And those who claim it, whether they are scientists or dogmatists, open the door to tragedy. All information is imperfect. We have to treat it with humility. That is the human condition; and that is what quantum physics says. I mean that literally" (353).

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Epiphany
Other reviews in the section may give you a good idea of the content of this book. I would rather give you an idea of the impact that Bronowski had on one life.

When I was a small boy living in London over 25 years ago, my father used to take me to the Science Museum in South Kensington almost every Saturday to attend the afternoon lectures. One Saturday it was not a lecture that we attended but a film by a gentleman named Jacob Bronowski. I sat mesmorised by the episode of the 'Ascent of Man' that was shown that afternoon. I understood much of the science which was being discussed and already had a good grounding in the subject. But within the despcription of man's pursuit of understanding was a humanity that I had never experienced before. At the end of the film, Bronowski crouched by a pond in a concentration camp and scooped a handful of ashes from the pool of water and, fixing his steady eye on the camera, said, 'I beseech you in the bowels of Christ, consider you may be wrong'. Bronowski was quoting Cromwell, but in that brief moment was encapsulated the escence of science, humanity, art,and understanding. The Ascent of Man, in the 1970s an attempt to bring a deeper and wider understanding of science and humanity to the public, is now confined to Open University television schedules. The book remains available to all. It is a revelation. Bronowski was a giant. Read this book and you may come closer to an understanding of the world around you, but when you finally put it down, having formed an opinion,'consider you may be wrong'. As for me, I went on to study physics as a first degree and the arts as a higher degree. I share Bronowski's atheism but there is never a day that passes or an opinion I offer when I do not heed that advice and question the world around me.

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This book touches your heart and your mind
I was telling a friend about this book when I realized I had never reviewed it. I searched for it on this site specifically to write a review:
I had the good fortune to take a class in high school based almost entirely on this book. It started me on an intellectual and spiritual journey that will probably last my whole life. It's not a religious book, quite to the contrary. But when we get down to it, science and religion are both ways of understanding the world, so here goes:
After I realized that my beliefs about the world differed greatly from those of my family, I spent most of my teenage years being depressed and lost in the world. I had a hard time finding beauty in the world because I had been told all along that beauty came from a god I no longer believed in. But when I read this book, I began to understand that no matter what you believe, the world, math, art--they're all beautiful in and of themselves. Perhaps the most beautiful, and necessary, thing of all is our humanity.
The Ascent of Man is the reason I became an anthropologist. (My most favorite chapter is Knowledge and Certainty.) It's a collection of essays starting with the physical evolution of humans and continuing through the development of technology, science, math, art, etc. to the present. There's a companion TV series--I actually cried during Knowledge and Certainty because it was touching in so many ways. Somehow JB manages to relate everything back to (and remind us of) our essential, necessary humanity. Beautiful.