History, Guilt and Habit

By Owen Barfield

Book Overview

'History, Guilt and Habit' is a collection of essays, based on lectures given by the author on the West Coast of North America. This brief, accessible book outlines Barfield's primary ideas: the distinction between the history of ideas and the evolution of human consciousness; the nature of morality, and the danger of mental passivity becoming habit. This new edition includes 'Evolution', Barfield's only essay on physical evolution and how it relates to the evolution of consciousness. "You can dig into the earth with a spade in order to get beneath the surface. The spade is itself a product of the earth, but that does not bother you. But if, by some mysterious dispensation, the spade were part of the very path of earth you were splitting up, you would be rather nonplussed, because you would destroy the instrument by using it. And that is the sort of difficulty you are up against when it is not the earth you are digging into, but consciousness; and when it is not a spade you are digging with, but language . . . However quickly you turn around, you can never see the back of your own head." (p. 13)

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0956942326
• ISBN13: 9780956942326
• Release Date: November 2012
• Publisher: Barfield Press UK
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Rather Short

This short collection of only three essay, speeches rather, from the venerable Owen Barfield is a mediocre example of the works he produced. The introduction states that many of the ideas he produced here are expansions to his previous essays and books, and having read them I concur. This book is worth picking up to freshen up ideas of consciousness and language relations, certainly not for setting a foundation for which I would suggest Poetic Diction, hands down. The real gem in this collection, though, is the final chapter about creating new habits and society given understanding played out in the two previous chapters. An encouraging word for those who wish to proceed with an enlightened life.