Choose Life: A Dialogue

For Time magazine Toynbee was ’an international sage’ and certainly in the same bracket as ‘Einstein, Schweitzer or Bertrand Russell’. Daisaku Ikeda is a figure of global stature, the spiritual leader of a worldwide lay Buddhist organization devoted to the promotion of education, culture and peace. Between 1972 and 1974 Toynbee and Ikeda discussed many of the vital issues which confronted their societies in the early 1970s, all of which remain current and significant. Indeed, topics such as the problems of pollution, dwindling natural resources, conflict and war, the role of religion, and population growth, are even more pressing than they were thirty years ago. In this influential and inspiring volume, which records their wide-ranging conversations, the challenge issued by both men is framed as follows: will humankind choose to salvage its destiny by a revolution in thinking and morals? Or will disaster ensue if it pursues its present course towards self-destruction and the despoliation of the environment? While recognizing that our survival is threatened by the imbalance between human immaturity and technological achievement, the optimistic message of this classic dialogue is that man-made evils have a man-made cure.

About the Author(s)

ARNOLD TOYNBEE (1889-1975), CH, was a Professor of International History at the University of London until his retirement in 1955. His major published work was A Study of History, which appeared in successive volumes from 1934 to 1961.

“Roaming across a vast field…an often engrossing tapestry of fact and opinion.” --The New York Times Book Review

“To obtain such a highly erudite cross-section of Western and Eastern views on so wide a variety of social, philosophical, religious and political problems is a rare and rewarding literary treat.” --The Natal Mercury (Durban, South Africa)

“In other books, lectures and articles…Ikeda has advocated a world food bank, cutbacks in defense expenditures, and nuclear disarmament. His most consuming passion is the creation of an international people-to-people crusade against war.” --TIME Magazine