Society, Nature, Emancipation

Why History? ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 154-190
Author(s):  
Donald Bloxham
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Vicarious Experience ◽  
Human History ◽  
Speculative Philosophy ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
National Differences ◽  
Intellectual Traditions ◽  
History Of

This chapter is predominantly concerned with the thought tendencies grouped under the heading ‘the Enlightenment’, with regulation caveats about variations in character, national and otherwise, of the intellectual traditions denoted by the term: the French, Scottish, and German cases are each given separate attention. The governing concern is with the most theoretically self-conscious attempts to establish the utility of History as a way of understanding the human experience in light of influential concepts like Volksgeist, circonstance, esprit général, represéntations, and even ‘relations of production’, that elucidated human diversity across time and place. When explaining the broad sweep of human history providential accounts were replaced by secular ones, though in some instances the latter were structurally similar to the former and so had some of the character of History as Speculative Philosophy. On the whole the scholarship under examination evinced a liberal spirit as regards confessional and national differences, though it was frequently marked by a partiality to occidental civilization. Overall, we see a shift away from the study of religious and political institutions and towards—or back towards, insofar as there was some crossover with the French ‘new History’ of the sixteenth century—civic morals, culture, and the structural conditions of social life. History expanded further from being an instruction in statecraft for public men to proffering more rounded edification in the form of vicarious experience of different spheres of life.

On the Moral Implications of Torture and Exemplary Assassination

Worldview ◽  
1970 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 12-16
Author(s):  
Paul W. Blackstock
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
English Poetry ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Look Back ◽  
History Of ◽  
Full Swing

Writing in 1765 in the full swing ot the Enlightenment, an Oxford Don and Bachelor of Divinity Thomas Warton, began the Preface to his famous History of English Poetry (from the eleventh to the eighteenth centuries) with the following lines:In an age advanced to the highest degree of refinement that spceies of curiosity commences, which is busied in contemplating the progress of social life, in displaying the gradations of science, and in tracing the trinsitions from barbarism to civilityThat these speculations should become the favourite pursuits and the fashonable topic of suth a period is extremly natural. We look back on the savage condition of our ancestors with the triumph of superiority.

Periodization

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luigi Cajani
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
World History ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human History ◽  
Creation Myths ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Big Bang

This article presents an overview of the different periodizations of world history. It discusses first world histories that originated as part and parcel of religious visions which connect Creation myths and human history; Greek and Roman historiography; the Christian synthesis of salvation; medieval European historiography of the Six Ages and the Four Empires; Muslim historiography; the European discovery of new histories; the challenges against biblical chronology; Voltaire and the Enlightenment; German Aufklärung; Eurocentrism during the nineteenth century; Marxist historiography; UNESCO's world history after World War II; and current trends. The discussion ends with the big history, which places human history within the wider framework of the history of the universe, thus starting with the Big Bang and going through the formation of the galaxies, the solar system, planet Earth, and the geological eras until the evolution of human beings, and down to the present day.

scholarly journals The Great Battle of the Books between the Cultural Evolutionists and the Cultural Relativists: From the Beginning of Infinity to the End of History

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-30
Author(s):  
Kevin Fernlund ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Cultural Evolution ◽  
Human History ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
End Of History ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Francis Fukuyama ◽  
History Of ◽  
The End Of History

The idea that societies or cultures can evolve and, therefore, can be compared and graded has been central to modern history, in general, and to big history, in particular, which seeks to unite natural and human history; biology and culture. However, while extremely useful, this notion is not without significant moral and ethical challenges, which has been noted by scholars. This article is a short intellectual history of the idea of cultural evolution and its critics, the cultural relativists, from the Age of the Enlightenment, what David Deutsch called the “beginning of infinity,” to the neo-Hegelianism of Francis Fukuyama. The emphasis here is on Europe and the Americas and the argument is that the universal evolutionism of the Enlightenment ultimately prevailed over historical partic-ularism, as global disparities in social development, which were once profound, narrowed or even disappeared altogether.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the Context of the Enlightenment and the Contemporary Era

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-210
Author(s):  
Halina Walentowicz ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Human History ◽  
Human Element ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
The One ◽  
European Thought ◽  
Ethical Universalism

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is a special personage in the history of Enlightenment philosophy and European thought in general. This is so, because, on the one hand, he propounded ideas that were typical for the Enlightenment and greatly influenced his contemporaries—after all, it was he who inspired Kant with the idea of the autonomy of the will as a source of moral and juridical law, a conception which became the foundation of Kantian practical philosophy—but on the other criticised many popular ideas of his day, which from our contemporary perspective appear to have been the superstitions of the Enlightenment period. Rousseau rejected the uncritical apology of (universalistically understood) reason together with the “ethical universalism” professed by rationalists since Socrates. In his claim that human history ran in a circle (from nature in its primeval purity to nature as the expression of civilisational decay), he contested the Enlightenment’s widespread belief that it was a linear, continuous, cumulative and by nature unchangeably progressive process. Because of his transgression of the Enlightenment paradigm, Rousseau is sometimes considered to have been the first modern philosopher. And, in my opinion, rightly so, because his thought stood ahead of its time, and in many ways anticipated contemporary philosophy. I believe that especially the Frankfurt School owes a lot to his achievements. Rousseau’s thought already carried the main seeds of critical theory: the intertwinement of progress and regression over human history, emphasis on the mastering of nature and the destruction of the human element in the course of civilisational evolution, a social-historical (and not purely theoretical, as in Kant’s case) critique of reason for the sake of reason and not from the position of irrationality. Long before Max Horkheimer and his associates at the Institute of Social Research, and even ahead of Sigmund Freud, he saw reasons to ambivalently evaluate the results of human self-creation and to highlight the regressive tendencies present in human history.

scholarly journals Sergey Rumyancev, Ускользающая современность: постсоветская модернизация Азербайджана / Vanishing Modernity: The Post-Soviet Modernization of Azerbaijan

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 136-147
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern State ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
Oil And Natural Gas

The article focuses on the debates situation of post-soviet modernization and transformation of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani economy failed to become a market economy, and remains instead predominantly based on the extraction and sale of oil and natural gas. Cities are being ruralised instead of the urbanization of rural areas. In its turn, industrialization ended together with the Soviet Union. A more or less tangible individualization and fragmentation of social life are not part of the history of post-Soviet Azerbaijan either. The political and economic systems of Azerbaijan are an imitation of a modern state. It is an example of a simulacrum state and a total imitation of modern political institutions and relations. In other words: The political regime in Azerbaijan is a complex of imitative practices, relations and “institutional camouflages” that enable a broad international presentation of Azerbaijan, effectively privatized by a small group of people, as a modern state that exists in reality.

Evolutionary Ecology of Burrow Construction and Social Life

2018 ◽  
pp. 280-302
Author(s):  
Mark E. Laidre
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Evolution ◽  
De Novo ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Extended Phenotype ◽  
Construction Costs ◽  
Relative Safety ◽  
History Of ◽  
Animal Architecture

Burrows represent a prominent example of animal architecture that fundamentally alters the surrounding physical environment, often with important consequences for social life. Crustaceans, in particular, offer a model system for understanding the adaptive functions of burrows, their ecological costs and benefits, and their long-term evolutionary impacts on sociality. In general, burrows are central to the life history of many species, functioning as protective dwellings against predators and environmental extremes. Within the refuge of a burrow, one or multiple inhabitants can feed, molt, grow, mate, and raise offspring in relative safety. Depending on the substratum, substantial construction costs can be incurred to excavate a burrow de novo or enlarge a preexisting natural crevice. This investment has been evolutionarily favored because the benefits afforded by the burrow outweigh these costs, making the burrow an “extended phenotype” of the architect itself. Yet even after a burrow is fully constructed, the architect must incur continued costs over its life history, both in maintenance and defense, if it is to reap further benefits of its burrow. Indeed, because burrows accumulate value based on the work involved in their construction, they can attract conspecific intruders who seek to shortcut the cost of construction by evicting an existing occupant and usurping its burrow. Consequently, a burrowing lifestyle can lead to escalating social competition, with many crustaceans evolving elaborate weapons and territorial signals to resolve conflicts over burrow ownership. Some burrows even outlast the original architect as an “ecological inheritance,” serving as a legacy that impacts social evolution among subsequent generations of kin and nonkin. Comparative studies, using cutting-edge technology to dig deeper into the natural history of crustacean burrows, can provide powerful tests of general theoretical models of animal architecture and social evolution, especially the extended phenotype and niche construction.

scholarly journals Chayanov’s sociology of art. [Rew.] Chayanov A.V. Selected Art Heritage. Moscow: Izdatelskiy dom TONCHU publ., 2018

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 178-188
Author(s):  
Alexander M. Nikulin ◽  
Ekaterina S. Nikulina
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
History Of Collecting ◽  
Sociology Of Art ◽  
History Of Art ◽  
Art And Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
West European

A.V. Chayanov was primarily an agrarian economist, but he also possessed encyclopedic interests and knowledge and wrote a series of articles on the history of art, which reflect his peculiar sociology of art. This article is a review of the collection of works which include articles written by this outstanding social thinker. The author considers that Chayanov’s articles on the history of collecting artwork in Moscow and on the history of West-European engraving show the original features of his sociological interdisciplinary analysis. Chayanov studied various aspects of social life — history and economics, art and culture — to identify the historical-social types of collectors of fine artwork, the impact of social crises on the nature of collecting, the problems of elitism and egalitarianism in art, and the directions of people’s cultural development. All of these issues are still relevant to contemporary studies of art.

Scottish Orientalism: From Robertson to James Mill

1982 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Rendall
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Scottish Enlightenment ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
British India ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
History Of ◽  
Close Interrelationship

It is by now accepted that James Mill’s History of British India, which exercised such influence over the British image of India and Indians throughout the nineteenth century, was cast in the mould of‘philosophical history’, the kind of historical writing typical of the Scottish Enlightenment By the 1790s such an approach was faught at Edinburgh by Dugald Stewart, and in Glasgow by John Millar; and their teachings and writings did much to form Mill’s approach, overlaid though it later was by the Benthamite political message. The characteristics of ‘ philosophical history’ can be identified. Writers of the Scottish Enlightenment were concerned to apply to the study of man and society methods of enquiry comparable to those of the natural sciences, and this, for them, involved the formulation of general laws on the basis of observation, and the available evidence about the history, economy, culture, and political institutions of different societies. Certain guidelines were evolved. The starting point was the close interrelationship between all aspects of men's life within society, between the economy, government, culture, and social life of a people. Secondly, a civilisation, by which was implied all these aspects of a society, could be located on an evolutionary scale, a ladder of civilizations running from ‘rudeness’ to ‘refinement’.

Darwin’s Unfinished Symphony

2018 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Kevin N. Laland
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Behavior ◽  
Life History ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Satisfactory Explanation ◽  
Foraging Patterns ◽  
Behavioral Diversity ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
History Of ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter poses the question of the evolution of intellectual faculties. But a satisfactory explanation demands insight into the evolutionary origins of some of our most striking attributes—our intelligence, language, cooperation, teaching, and morality—yet most of these features are not just distinctive, they are unique to our species. That makes it harder to glean clues to the distant history of our minds through comparison with other species. At the heart of this challenge lies the undeniable fact that we humans are an amazingly successful species. Our range is unprecedented; we have colonized virtually every terrestrial habitat on Earth; exhibit behavioral diversity that is unparalleled in the animal kingdom; and resolved countless ecological, social, and technological challenges. When one considers that the life history, social life, sexual behavior, and foraging patterns of humans have also diverged sharply from those of other apes, there are grounds for claiming that human evolution exhibits unusual and striking features that go beyond our self-obsession and demand explanation.

Manzhou yuanliu kao and the Formalization of the Manchu Heritage

1987 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Kyle Crossley
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Folk Culture ◽  
Folk Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Classical Traditions

During the Qianlong period (1736–95) in China, knowledge of Manchu origins, much of which had been of a folk or informal character, was given documentary institutionalization—that is, incorporation into the Qing (1636–1912) imperial cultural mosaic by the act of writing something official about it. Much but by no means all of Manchu civilization was derived from Jurchen culture (tenth–seventeenth centuries), which was primarily a folk culture in which oral tradition, shamanic ritual, and clan custom were the mainstays of orderly social life. Inseparable from those folk traditions were elements of tribal rule that affected political life in many ways in the Later Jin (1616–35) and early Qing periods. To the extent that Manchu society retained the archaic forms through the Qing era, the folk heritage was brought into conflict with the political institutions and classical traditions of conquered China, especially the emperorship. The history of the Qing court and its relation to the Manchus may be viewed as the aggregate of the processes by which the dynasty attempted to resolve this conflict through formalization of the old culture. In its political aspects this meant the progressive bureaucratization, regulation, and depersonalization of the state in displacement of the personal, diffused authority that had once been vested by tradition in the clans and confederations. In its cultural and ideological facets, it meant the documentation of descent, myth, clan history, and shamanic practice; what had once been various and mystically obscure was now made visible, manageable, and standard.

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