Chapter One: Before Hominids
Early Nervous Systems
Sequentialism
Learning and Play
Hunting and Play
Primates in the Trees
Hominids
Chapter Two: Before Civilization
Enter the Homo Genus
Mental Modules
Sex
Language
Verbal Reasoning
Language Stages a Coup d'Etat
Mental Modules Interact
Chapter Three: Early Civilization
Before the Greeks
The Invention of Writing
Mesopotamian Law
The Egyptians
The Invention of the Alphabet
Trade in the pre-Greek Levant
The Minoans
The Bronze Age Collapse
The Greeks
The Achaeans
Tacking
The Greeks, again
A Tale of Two Cities
Socrates and Plato
Aristotle
Crito
Greeks Were Freaks
Definitions
The Also-Rans
The Phoenicians
What about India?
China
Early Chinese Civilization
Chinese Science and Technology
Joseph Needham
An Example of Chinese Logic
Rome
Cicero
The First Council of Nicaea
Roman Science and Technology
Chapter Four: The Medieval Period
The Convoluted Path
The Islamic Contribution
Educational Systems
Cognates
Religions and Rationalism
Chapter Five: The Church Lays the Foundations
Can God Make a Vacuum?
Leonardo Bonacci’s Gift
Oh, the Places Theologians Go!
Copernicus
Astrology
Chapter Six: Revolutions, Scientific and Industrial
Galileo Gets the Ball Rolling
Isaac Newton
The Enlightenment
The Industrial Revolution
Chapter Seven: The Present
The Triumph of Logic
Science & Law
Why did the West Conquer the World?
Themes
Numbers
Mathematics
Obelisks and Tentpoles
Oh Be a Fine Girl, Kiss Me Now
The Benefits of Catastrophes
Education
Law
Trials in 16th Century Rome
Three English Trials
The Use of Physical Evidence
Chinese Technological Superiority
Inconsistency
Religion