On the Roads to Modernity

Benjamin Nelson was a wide ranging New York intellectual, trained at Columbia in medieval history, who wrote a classic study, The Idea of Usury. Hebecame a sociologist and continued to explore large issues in philosophy, psychoanalysis and the construction of systems of spiritual direction. He taught at the University of Chicago, at Minnesota, and at the New School for Social Research. He also served as editor of many books in the famous Harper & Row paperback series of classic authors. Toby E. Huff is a research associate at Harvard University and Chancellor Professor Emeritus at UMass Dartmouth. He is the author of Max Weber and the Methodology of the Social Sciences (1984), The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West (2nd ed. Cambridge 2003); Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution. A Global Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2010) as well as co-editor with Wolfgang Schluchter of Max Weber and Islam (1999). He has lectured in Europe, Asia and across the Muslim world.

• PrefaceOn Life's Way: A Biographical SketchOn The Road to ModernityAcknowledgmentsIntroduction to the Reprinted EditionPart I. IntroductionChapter 1: On the Origins of Modernity: The Author's Point of ViewPart II. Conscience Cultural Systems, and Directive StructuresChapter 2: Cultural Cues and Directive SystemsChapter 3: Self Images and Systems of Spiritual DirectionChapter 4: Conscience and the Makings of Early Modern Cultures: Beyond Max WeberChapter 5: Civilizational Complexes and Intercivilizational EncountersPart III. Comparative Studies of Science in Historical and Civilizational PerspectivesChapter 6: On the Shoulders of Giants: The Comparative Historical Sociology of "Science"Chapter 7: Sources of "Probabilism" and "Anti-Probabilism" in 16th and 17th Century ScienceChapter 8: The Early Modern Revolution in Science and PhilosophyChapter 9: Certitude and the Books of Scripture, Nature and ConscienceChapter 10: Sciences and Civilizations, "East" and "West": Joseph Needham and Max WeberPart IV. Civilizational Analysis and the Study of Existences, Experiences and ExpressionsChapter 11: On the Structures of Consciousness and the Omnipresence of the GrotesqueChapter 12: Eros, Nomos, Polis: Shifting Balances of the Structures of ExistenceChapter 13: Sociology and Civilizational Analysis: A Reply to Friends and CriticsEpilogue: Priests, Prophets, Machines, Futures: 1202, 1848, 1984, 2001Appendix— Our Ecological Crisis