Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 BC to 1950 is a book by Charles Murray surveying outstanding contributions to the arts and sciences from ancient times to the mid-twentieth century. The book represents the first attempt to quantify the accomplishment of individuals and countries worldwide in the fields of arts and sciences by calculating the amount of space allocated to them in reference works.

Charles Murray is an influential American polical scientist and researcher most widely known as the co-author (with Richard Herrnstein) of The Bell Curve in 1994, exploring the role of intelligence in American life, and for his influential work on welfare reform. HarperCollins published the 668-page book in 2003. This article contains information about the book's content according to a review by Denis Dutton, a philosophy teacher at the University of Canterbury and founder of the Arts & Letters Daily website.

According to Dutton, Murray demonstrates that world progress in the arts and sciences had declined, especially since around 1800. This is true, says Dutton, despite the fact that "wealth, cities and their cultural endowments, communication, and political freedom have...improved in recent centuries."

Furthermore, in his review, Dutton cites four conditions that Murray writes are necessary for people's work to reach their full potential of excellence. Achievement is best stimulated in a culture

1. "...in which the most talented people believe that life has a purpose and that the function of life is to fulfill that purpose." Moreover, Murray writes: "Human beings have been most magnificently productive and reached their highest cultural peaks in the times and places where humans have thought most deeply about their place in the universe and been most convinced they have one."
2. that "encourages the belief that individuals can act efficaciously as individuals."
3. where organizing structures are rich and old. Dutton, in his review, does not directly define an organizing structure, but he does say it can include "theories, styles, and techniques...such as the spectroscope in physics or the grand piano in music".
4. where people have "a well-articulated vision of, and use of, the transcendental good relevant to that domain." Such a good, according to Dutton, can include truth, morality, or beauty.

Murray explains his assertion that the West produced almost all scientific progress by reference to Christianity's - i.e. the thomist - emphasis on human intelligence as a gift from God.

Index scores

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Murray ranks the greats in several field of human accomplishment from 800 BC to 1950. In each field Murray identifies a number of sources providing information about the leading figures in the field. The rankings are made from information in these sources. First the number of sources is cut down by requiring that a large set of the leading figures in the field is included. Secondly the number of mathematicians is cut down by requiring that leading figures occurs in at least half the sources.

Then a raw score is determined based on how much attention they get. Then these raw scores are normalized so that the lowest score is 1 and the highest score is 100. The resulting scores are called "Index Scores".

Here are the top 20 mathematicians, philosophers, physicists, and musical composers ranked by their index score.

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Mathematics	Index score		Euler	100		Newton	89		Euclid	83		Gauss	81		Fermat	72		Leibniz	72		Descartes	54		Cantor	50		Pascal	47		Riemann	47		Hilbert	40		Bernoulli	40		Diophantus	39		Cardano	37		Viete	36		Legendre	36		Wallis	36		Cauchy	35		Fibonacci	34		Archimedes	33

Western philosophy	Index score		Aristotle	100		Plato	87		Kant	74		Descartes	51		Hegel	46		Aquinas	39		Locke	37		Hume	36		Augustine	30		Spinoza	27		Leibniz	27		Socrates	26		Schopenhauer	24		Berkeley	21		Nietszche	20		Hobbes	19		Russell	18		Rousseau	17		Plotinus	17		Fichte	17

Physics	Index score		Newton	100		Einstein	100		Rutherford	88		Faraday	86		Galileo	83		Cavendish	57		Bohr	52		Thomson	50		Maxwell	50		P. Currie	47		Kirchoff	43		Fermi	42		Heisenberg	41		M. Curie	41		Dirac	40		Joule	40		Huygens	39		Gilbert	37		T. Young	37		Hooke	36

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Western music	Index score		Beethoven	100		Mozart	100		Johann Sebastian Bach	87		Wagner	80		Haydn	56		Handel	46		Stravinsky	45		Debussy	45		Liszt	45		Schubert	44		Schumann	42		Berlioz	41		Schoenberg	39		Brahms	35		Chopin	32		Monteverdi	31		Verdi	30		Mendelssohn	30		Weber	27		Gluck	26

Chinese literature	Index score		Du Fu	100		Li Bai	87		Bo Juyi	86		Su Dungpo	83		Han Yu	80		Qu Yuan	78		Sima Qian	68		Tao Cian	68		Ouyang Xiu	61		Yuan Zhen	49		Guan Hanqing	45		Sima Xiangru	41		Liu Xongyuan	40		Ban Gu	37		Wang Wi	35		Luo Guanzhong	34		Ma Zhiyuan	34		Wang Shifu	34		Song Yu	33		Cao Xuein	32

Western art	Index score		Michelangelo	100		Picasso	77		Raphael	73		Leonardo	61		Titian	60		Durer	56		Rembrandt	56		Giotto	54		Bernini	53		Cezanne	50		Rubens	49		Caravaggio	43		Velázquez	43		Donatello	42		Van Eyck	42		Goya	41		Monet	41		Masaccio	41		Van Gogh	40		Gauguin	38

External links

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• ISBN 006019247X - HarperCollins, October 2003, Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950
• Cato Institute Book Forum (RealVideo) (RealAudio), 1-hour lecture that Murray gave discussing his book Human Accomplishment, and some of the response to it.
• In Pursuit of Excellence (RealAudio), one-hour interview with Michael Goldfarb on WBUR.
• American Conservative - book review
• Q&A with Charles Murray on Human Accomplishment, Steve Sailer.

References

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• "Of human accomplishment", an article by Denis Dutton

2003 books | History books