scholarly journals Thucydides and the Synchronous Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Gregory T. Papanikos
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Personal Experience ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Generation Process ◽  
Data Generation ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Methodology ◽  
Rare Group

Thucydides survived the pestilence and gave a vivid portrayal of the Athenian Epidemic at the onset of the Peloponnesian War. He belongs to the rare group of historians who wrote history about events which had a personal experience. He was involved with the war (as an Athenian strategos) and with the epidemic (had survived an infection). His History of the Peloponnesian War is a textbook approach of how historical events and facts should be researched and described. His historical methodology is based on an orthological analysis of human behaviour. Such an approach enables the researcher to interpret existing stylized facts and personal involvements with reason and objectivity. Within this framework, this paper examines Thucydides exposition of the epidemic of 430 BCE by means of four hypotheses which underline his historical analysis of the pestilence. Then, I proceed with the verification of these hypotheses using the data generation process of the synchronous pandemic of 2020. My main conclusion is that despite technological progress made by human beings with the graceful assistance of Prometheus, human nature did not change as much as Thucydides so eloquently emphasized, prognosed and hoped. Evidence on synchronous pandemic supports Thucydides diagnosis of the human nature but does not vindicate him on the hypothesis (or may be his wish) that his history would be used by future generations to avoid making the same mistakes over and over again. So far, the same or similar faults seem unavoidable. It appears that these faults are embedded in human nature and cannot be avoided.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 201-230
Author(s):  
Laurie M. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Interesting Alternative

This concluding chapter argues that Thucydides' approach to politics is more preferable than Hobbes's. Hobbes, despite his pessimistic assumptions about human nature, is not realistic. Is it realistic to assume that all people act predictably, that they are always guided strictly by self-interest, that all other motivations are a sham—or, if genuine, so rare that to take them into account is useless? According to Thucydides, human beings are multifaceted, so that it becomes necessary, for example, to examine individual leaders and to listen seriously to their reasons for acting a certain way. Thucydides also shows that there is a natural sociability in people that goes beyond vying for power and glory and, indeed, coexists with these urges, so that it is unrealistic not to take into account a certain amount of genuine altruism. Does Hobbes's account of leadership deal with the impact of great individuals on history? Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War contains individuals with varying motivations, some altruistic, some self-interested, some acting on rage and revenge. In other words, it reflects reality. As such, Thucydides, as often as Hobbes, has been dubbed the father of international realism. The chapter then discusses how realism and neorealism, despite their differences, share the same philosophical roots. It also suggests that Thucydides has been misunderstood and that he actually provides an interesting alternative approach to realism in the study of international politics.

Human Nature

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-71
Author(s):  
Laurie M. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Brute Force ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Good Sense ◽  
History Of

This chapter discusses Thucydides' and Hobbes's ideas of human nature, which are often said to be very similar. International relations theorists are just as much prone to this mistake as others, referring to Thucydides, as they do to Hobbes, as a “realist.” Hobbes's view is close to the view of the famous “Athenian thesis” repeated throughout Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. That thesis is similar in many ways to the realist thesis, claiming that human beings are universally selfish and always motivated by fear, honor, and interest. Since they are compelled by their passions, they are not to be blamed for their actions, and, as Thucydides' character Diodotus points out, they can be controlled only through superior power and brute force. However, the chapter argues that, in contradiction to the Athenian thesis, Thucydides' overall treatment of human nature proves that it is not so uniform and that passions do not force people to act. Individuals are responsible for their actions, capable of reason, and therefore guilty when they allow their passions to overcome their good sense. In Thucydides' view, political problems cannot be permanently solved, because there are elements in human nature that cannot be manipulated. While Thucydides depicts the bloodthirsty violence of civil war as well as genocidal international warfare as products of the extreme pressures of war, Hobbes sees them as events that take place whenever there is no power strong enough to prevent them.

4. Religion

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-103
Author(s):  
James A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Natural Religion ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

‘Religion' discusses Hume’s various treatments of religion, particularly in the essay ‘Of Miracles’, Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, and ‘The Natural History of Religion’. Hume's earlier writings show some interesting implications for religion, including A Treatise of Human Nature and the essay ‘Of National Characters’. Looking at ‘Of Miracles’ shows that Hume’s theme was not the possibility of miracles as such, but rather the rational grounds of belief in reports of miracles. Considering the Dialogues emphasizes the distinction between scepticism and atheism. Meanwhile, ‘Natural History’ emphasizes Hume’s interest in the dangerous moral consequences of monotheism. What is the future for religion? Perhaps Hume was unlikely to have supposed that his writings would do anything to reduce religion’s hold on the vast majority of human beings.

scholarly journals KEHIDUPAN SOSIAL BUDAYA MASYARAKAT ISLAM DI DESA RASABOU KECAMATAN SAPE KABUPATEN BIMA (1931-1997)

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Dian Marhaeni Widyastuti
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Mutual Cooperation ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Cultural Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Islamic Society

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui Kehidupan Sosial Budaya Masyarakat Islam, khususnya sejarah masuknya Islam, kondisi Kehidupan Sosial Budaya dan faktor-faktor penghambat dan pendukung pengembangan Islam di Sape Rasabou Kabupaten Bima. Penelitian ini mengunakan metode Historis yaitu melalui tahap Heuristik, Kritik, Interpretasi dan Histografi. Analisis data yang digunakan adalah Historis analisis, dan metode kualitatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan, Kondisi kehidupan Sosial Budaya Masyarakat Islam berlangsung dalam kehidupan kegotongroyongan, meskipun terdapat perbedaan status Sosial, namun mulai terjadi pergeseran semenjak masuknya ajaran Islam bahwa manusia sama derajatnya kecuali yang membedakan adalah ketakwaannya. Kehidupan Budaya Masyarakat Islam di Sape Rasabou berkembang sebagaimana perkembangan agama Islam di wilayah tersebut. Kebudayaan islam terbentuk seiring dengan berkembangnya agama Islam. This study aims to find out the Social and Cultural Life of Islamic Communities, especially the history of the entry of Islam, the condition of Social and Cultural Life and the factors inhibiting and supporting the development of Islam in Sape Rasabou Kabupaten Bima. This research uses Historical method that is through Heuristic, Criticism, Interpretation and Histography. Data analysis used is Historical analysis, and qualitative method. The result of the research shows that the condition of the social life of the Muslim society takes place in the life of mutual cooperation, although there are differences in social status, but there is a shift since the entry of Islamic teachings that human beings are equal except the difference is their piety. The Cultural Life of the Islamic Society in Sape Rasabou developed as the development of Islam in the region. Islamic culture is formed along with the development of Islam.

scholarly journals “They declared war and made their decision to prefer might to right”: Thucydides on the use of force among states

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 71
Author(s):  
Marcelo Araújo
Keyword(s):  
Historical Period ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Major Power ◽  
Strategic Value ◽  
Original Plan ◽  
Causes Of War ◽  
History Of ◽  
Source Of Information

When we think of the contributions made by the ancient Greek, the philosophy of Socrates and Plato, the plays by Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, or the historical thinking of Herodotus and Thucydides may come to or minds. Between the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, Athens set the stage for unprecedented cultural developments in the history of humankind. However, we sometimes forget that the historical period in which these authors lived and produced their masterpieces was also a time of war and plague. Some way or other, all these authors participated in the Peloponnesian War. And the Athenians, who were a major power at the beginning of the conflict, emerged as the defeated party in the end.The main source of information we have about the Peloponnesian War is Thucydides’ work known as the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides took an active part in the war as a general on the Athenian side. But after failing to protect a city, of strategic value for the Athenians, he lost his position as a general and was forced into exile. It is in the exile, then, that Thucydides writes the Peloponnesian War, seeking to take into consideration the accounts provided by all parties involved in the conflict. The text, though, remained unfinished. And it is unclear whether the order of chapters, as displayed in most modern editions, matches Thucydides’ original plan. It is not my intention here to examine the structure of the Peloponnesian War as a whole. My goal is far more modest: I intend to focus only on a few specific passages in which Thucydides discusses the causes of war and the reasons for violent conflict among human beings.

scholarly journals Psychiatry past and present: do we need history?

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 126-130
Author(s):  
Claire Hilton
Keyword(s):  
Health Service ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Clinical History ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
The Past ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Methodology ◽  
Service Policy ◽  
The Uk

Historical evidence can be useful to inform debate about current dilemmas in health service policy. However, concepts of historical analysis may be problematic for doctors, for whom a model of ‘history’ is often based on clinical history-taking: a clinical history aims to explain the present, whereas a historical analysis aims to elucidate the past. This article discusses and illustrates these concepts, and highlights potential pitfalls of poor historical methodology. It also provides pointers about researching the history of psychiatry in the UK and how to contribute historical evidence to health service policy debates today.Declaration of interestNone.

“Non potest non peccare”: Karl Barth on original sin and the bondage of the will

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-207
Author(s):  
Shao Kai Tseng
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Original Sin ◽  
Karl Barth ◽  
Human Being ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Church Dogmatics ◽  
Historical Condition ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Will

Summary This article offers an exposition of Karl Barth’s actualistic reorientation of the Augustinian notions of original sin and the bondage of the will in § 60 and § 65 of Church Dogmatics IV/1–2. Barth redefines human nature as a total determination of the human being (Sein/Dasein) “from above” by the covenantal history of reconciliation. Human nature as such remains totally intact in the historical state of sin. The human being, however, is also determined “from below” by the Adamic world-history of total corruption. With this dialectical construal of sin and human nature, Barth redefines original sin as the radically sinful activities and decisions that determine the confinement of human beings to the historical condition of fallenness. Barth also challenges the famous Augustinian account of the bondage of the will to which original sin gives rise, and uses the present active indicative to express his actualistic reorientation of the Augustinian notion of the bondage: “non potest non peccare”.

scholarly journals The concept of violence in political thought (Theoretical study, compared with the concept of terrorism)

2019 ◽  
pp. 227-244
Author(s):  
م.د.ناهدة محمد زبون
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Theoretical Study ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Human History ◽  
Cain And Abel ◽  
History Of ◽  
Forms Of Violence ◽  
States History

The researcher of human history finds that the first social relations on earth were represented by the violence of Adam, peace be upon him, Cain and Abel. Violence has been a phenomenon of life and society. The history of history is full of all forms of violence and its forms. It speaks of cruelty, oppression and states. History began, in some of its chapters, written with the blood of the victims. It is a testimony to the cruelty of human beings. His human nature and his sin have played a major role that can not be overlooked in the development of important and fundamental developments in some historical turning points where violence was a necessity for life, and its launching change, renewal and reform, and major revolutions in human history are proof of

πέφυκεν πλεονεκτεῖν? Plato and the Sophists on Greed and Savage Humanity

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-101
Author(s):  
Chloe Balla
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Natural Characteristic

Abstract Fifth-century authors often invoke the idea that human beings are by nature savage, and that the civilized state of human societies is imposed on them by law and custom. A possible consequence of this idea is a pessimistic anthropological account, according to which pleonexia or greed is a natural characteristic of human beings, and therefore a justified drive of human behaviour. Scholars often attribute this pessimistic account of human nature to the sophists, whose views are considered to be reflected in the speeches of Plato’s characters Glaucon and Callicles. Taking into account the genres and the contexts in which the original sophistic arguments concerning savage humanity appear, as well as the practices for which such arguments were implemented, this paper argues that the pessimistc view of human nature is not a product of sophistic thought, but is rather developed by authors such as Thucydides, who uses it in order to explain the atrocities committed in the course of the Peloponnesian war, and Plato, who uses it as a foil to his arguments concerning the superiority of human nature.

scholarly journals Human nature and stasis: On the influence of Thucydides on Hobbes’s science of politics

2016 ◽  
pp. 689-707
Author(s):  
Vladimir Milisavljevic
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Main Argument ◽  
Peloponnesian War ◽  
Conception Of Man ◽  
History Of ◽  
Civil Science ◽  
True Knowledge

This paper assesses the influence of Thucydides on Hobbes?s conception of man and, more generally, on his model of ?Civil Science?. This influence can be traced back to the time when Hobbes worked on his translation of Thucydides?s history of the Peloponnesian War. Already at that time, Hobbes characterized Thucydides as the ?the most politic historiographer that ever writ?, i.e. the historian whose work contributed the most to the true knowledge of politics. The main argument of the paper is that Hobbes?s admiration for the author of the History of the Peloponnesian War can be best explained by Thucydides?s ability to portray the essential conflictuality of politics. This thesis is confirmed by a comparative analysis of some important themes in Thucydides?s historical narrative and several major theoretical statements of Hobbes?s anthropology and political theory. There is an unmistakable similarity, which has often been commented on, between Hobbes?s account of the three principal causes of conflict between individuals in the state of nature - Competition, Diffidence and Glory - and the three main human instincts to which the Athenians appeal, in a speech that Thucydides conveys, to justify their striving for power. However, Thucydides influenced Hobbes mostly by his descriptions of internal war. The final part of the article examines in this light two topics from Thucydides?s famous description of the stasis which took place in Corcyra - the impossibility of justice and the perversion of language in time of sedition in the polis.

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