"Moses and Monotheism" is Sigmund Freud's final major work, offering a psychoanalytic interpretation of the origins of monotheism. Freud speculates on the role of Moses, an Egyptian, in the development of Jewish religious beliefs. He explores the psychological dynamics of religious belief and the impact of collective trauma on the formation of religious practices. The book is considered a significant contribution to psychoanalytic anthropology, although its speculative nature has been subject to criticism. It represents Freud's ongoing interest in the interplay between individual psychology and cultural development.
Pierre Sokolsky's "The Clock in the Sun" explores the history of our understanding of the sun through the lens of sunspots and the solar cycle. The book delves into various cultures' interpretations of sunspots, from omens in ancient China to scientific observations in Europe. Sokolsky highlights key discoveries and the individuals behind them, placing them within their historical and cultural contexts. He examines the conflict between scientific findings and prevailing cultural beliefs, particularly during Galileo's time. The book offers a comprehensive and engaging exploration of our closest star, revealing its multifaceted nature and its profound impact on Earth.
On the surface of the Sun, spots appear and fade in a predictable cycle, like a great clock in the sky. In medieval Russia, China, and Korea, monks and court astronomers recorded the appearance of these dark shapes, interpreting them as omens of things to come. In Western Europe, by contrast, where a cosmology originating with Aristotle prevailed, the Sun was regarded as part of the unchanging celestial realm, and it took observations through telescopes by Galileo and others to establish the reality of solar imperfections. In the nineteenth century, amateur astronomers discovered that sunspots ebb and flow about every eleven years--spurring speculation about their influence on the weather and even the stock market.
Exploring these and many other crucial developments, Pierre Sokolsky provides a history of knowledge of the Sun through the lens of sunspots and the solar cycle. He ranges widely across cultures and throughout history, from the earliest recorded observations of sunspots in Chinese annals to satellites orbiting the Sun today, and from worship of the Sun as a deity in ancient times to present-day scientific understandings of stars and their magnetic fields. Considering how various thinkers sought to solve the puzzle of sunspots, Sokolsky sheds new light on key discoveries and the people who made them, as well as their historical and cultural contexts. Fast-paced, comprehensive, and learned, The Clock in the Sun: How We Came to Understand Our Nearest Star (Columbia UP, 2024) shows readers our closest star from many new angles.
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