Jimmy's Reviews > The Metaphysical Club : A Story of Ideas in America

The title of this book is misleading. There's really not a lot about the actual Metaphysical Club. Records were not kept of their meetings. The subtitle was better: A Story of Ideas in America. But I would add "at the Turn of the Twentieth Century." It was an absolutely terrific read for those of you who aren't ashamed of having a brain.

Some of the racial comments were quite disturbing. Here's one by Giddon and let that suffice: "the most superior types of Monkeys are found to be indigenous exactly where we encounter races of the most inferior types of Men." No more disgusting quotes like that are necessary. Giddon also pointed out that no monkeys are in Europe.

The philosopher Herbert Spencer's great mistake in regard to evolution was his seeing "continuity." He felt there was progress. No such thing exists. Evolution is random. It has no brain behind it. People today still try to put a god there.

The author does a great job of explaining the importance of statistics and probability in coming to conclusions. No longer was accuracy needed, just a lot of information to make intelligent conclusions.

I enjoyed it so much, I made a list of pages to reread in the future.