geopolicraticus

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Friday 03 January 2025 Grand Strategy Newsletter The View from Oregon – 322 Foundations of a Social Formation …in which I discuss the origins of social formations, feudalism, Nietzsche on being saturated with reason, organically accumulating complexity, macroscale processes, big science, travel, the timescape model, and the cosmological principle…

Substack: https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/foundations-of-a-social-formation Medium: https://jnnielsen.medium.com/foundations-of-a-social-formation-61e8a0ef5839 Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/The_View_from_Oregon/comments/1huows1/foundations_of_a_social_formation/

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An Ahistorical Conception of History

Non-Naturalistic Categoricity.—Schopenhauer gives us an essentially naturalistic form of historical categoricity, but the idea of a non-naturalistic historical categoricity could be said to characterize most history prior to the modern era, when every mundane detail was a symbol for a higher truth. The thirteenth century French work, Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César, embodies an ahistorical conception of history in which nothing essential changes, in which the world has always been what it is, and will always be as it is. The Faits des Romains continues this tradition, further elaborating the ahistorical conception of history and institutionalizing what Huizinga would call historical ideals of life, doing so in the form of the life of Julius Caesar. Only, the relationship between past and present was not exclusively the emulation of past ideals, but also the transformation of the past into recognizably present forms, so that the past is no longer past, but is the embodiment of the present in an altered form. The non-naturalistic context of this conception yields, not surprisingly, an ahistorical conception of history. But, in its ahistorical historical consciousness, the Middle Ages was not without historical consciousness, but rather possessed an historical consciousness that did not know itself to be such. This is a paradoxical historical consciousness, to be sure, but no more paradoxical than the modern historical consciousness that sees nothing but progress while committing atrocities on an scale previously unknown in history. It may be that all forms of historical consciousness are paradoxical.

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TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor

On Monday, 25 December 800 AD—1,224 years ago today—Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in Old Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome, on Christmas Day. What meaning, if any, does this event have for us today, more than a millennium later? I consider this question in such a way as to betray some of my favorite heresies in the philosophy of history, which we can employ in pursuit of the true meaning of Christmas. 

Quora:              https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/ 

Discord:           https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:               https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:     http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Text post:        https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/charlemagne-crowned-holy-roman-emperor

Video:              https://youtu.be/4H9obP_6MNQ

Podcast:          https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/nick-nielsen94/episodes/Charlemagne-crowned-Holy-Roman-Emperor-e2sntio

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Finding Nomothetic Rigor in History

Relative Uniqueness.—Schopenhauer’s claim of Herodotus’ historical categoricity demonstrates that there is more than one way to find nomothetic rigor in history. In the absence of the form of abstraction employed in natural science, history unwittingly makes use for the forms of abstraction employed in the formal sciences. The natural science approach would subordinate the unique events of history to general concepts, which would transform history into a nomothetic discipline if only these methods could be applied in this context—and if history would be a science, then this is what it must become. Schopenhauer, however, denies this of history, as Dilthey, Windelband, Rickert, and many others also have denied this of history. The approach of the formal sciences is to conceptualize unique events as tokens of a type that are not subordinated to a general concept, but are rather exemplifications of a formal concept. If Schopenhauer was wrong, and history is not categorical, then there is no unique model of history and we may need more than Herodotus to understand the totality of history. When an unprecedented event disrupts the historical process and redirects events onto a new course, Herodotus may no longer serve, but other works, works that describe a world in transition, may provide the models needed. It may yet be the case that each era of history, and each kind of era in history, has it own unique model—which in this case means one paradigmatic history for each period and for each geographical region. This is more fragmented than Schopenhauer’s historical categoricity, but also more adequate, and we can still obtain a model for the totality of history from the conjunction of the several models.    

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TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: A Year of Todays

Today in Philosophy of History is now one year old! In the past year I have produced 1xx episodes related more-or-less directly to philosophy of history. In this one year retrospective episode I review some of my motivations in beginning this project, some of the lessons learned, and some of what I hope to pursue in the coming year.

Quora:              https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/ 

Discord:           https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:               https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:     http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Video:              https://youtu.be/t2W6OPsm7Vc  

Podcast:          https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/nick-nielsen94/episodes/A-Year-of-Todays-e2sqje6  

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Breaking the Prison of Linguistic Transcendentalism

The Inescapability of Language.—Questions in the philosophy of language are more germane to philosophy of history than might be immediately apparent. The ancient and unresolved question of whether history is an art or a science has staked its claim for history being an art on the fact that all history is expressed in language, and most often in narrative prose. Moreover, the literary skill with which an historian renders his subject in prose is counted in his favor. Ought philosophy of history, then, to be philosophy of language as applied to the language of historians? Is history an essentially linguistic enterprise? Natural scientists must, of course, write their findings in prose, but they also can express their findings in mathematical formulae. We could with equal justification ask whether philosophy of science ought to be philosophy of language as applied to the language of science, or we could say that philosophy of science ought to be philosophy of mathematics applied to the mathematics of science. The question is further complicated by the fact that mathematics can be understood as an artificial or formal language, making language all but inescapable. The inescapability of language is what I take to be one of the sources of Frank Ankersmit’s critique of linguistic transcendentalism in history. Natural science has broken out of the prison of linguistic transcendentalism through measurement. Arguably, measurement would be meaningless if it did not refer to a concrete state-of-affairs in the real world—a measurable state-of-affairs—though even here linguistic transcendentalism has made inroads. Henry Kyburg has noted, “Theory, untestable and irrefutable theory, pervades even the most elementary forms of direct measurement.” Breaking the prison of language cannot be successful until language itself has been transcended.

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Friday 27 December 2024 Grand Strategy Newsletter The View from Oregon – 321 A Non-Integrated Social Ideal

…in which I discuss a missing piece of the non-integrated puzzle, decentralization, complex adaptive systems, trait simplification, diminishing returns, Kenneth Clark, conveniently loose political organization, institutional futurism, alignment, a patchwork of self-sustaining communities, horseshoe theory, non-fungible complexity, social dysfunction, rent seekers, and Metaphysical Animals…

Substack: https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/a-non-integrated-social-ideal Medium: https://jnnielsen.medium.com/a-non-integrated-social-ideal-dd6703421d01 Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/The_View_from_Oregon/comments/1hpzu5g/a_nonintegrated_social_ideal/

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On Misjudging the Age in which One Lives

The Formation of a Persecuting Society.—Some years ago when I read William Manchester’s A World Lit Only by Fire I was particularly fascinated by his description of the changing intellectual climate as Europe made the transition from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period, with the latter primarily manifested in northern Europe in the form of the Protestant Reformation. The humanists of late fifteen century sometimes found themselves in unwitting violation of the new order taking shape in Europe in early sixteenth century, and their punishment was used as a means of meting out exemplary justice. The fate of three men in particular—Bonaventure Desperiers, Étienne Dolet, and Michael Servetus—interested me in a gruesome way. All three men misjudged the age in which they lived, believing that the rules that applied prior to the Reformation would continue to apply after the Reformation, but this conservative strategy of assuming social stability ill-served them. Desperiers, pursued by both Protestants and Catholics, committed suicide under dubious circumstances. Dolet, a printer of books disliked by the authorities, was hung and then his body was burned on a pyre with books that he had printed. Later the same year at the same spot, the Place Maubert in Paris, four additional printers were strangled and burned. Protestant and Catholic authorities vied with each other for the right to try, convict, and execute Servetus. Calvin ultimately secured that honor for Geneva. Manchester wrote: “A Protestant council sentenced him to death by slow fire. Now terrified, aware of his blunder, the condemned author begged for mercy—not for his life; he knew better than that; he merely wanted to be beheaded. He was denied it. Instead he was burned alive. It took him half an hour to die.” If we look around the present world it’s not difficult to recognize those who haven’t yet caught on that the world has changed, and that what worked for the previous generation will not work as well today.  

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TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Pirenne and the Development of Human Societies in Space and Time

Monday 23 December 2024 is the 162nd anniversary of the birth of Henri Pirenne (23 December 1862 – 24 October 1935), who was born in Verviers, Belgium, on this date in 1862.

Pirenne was a Belgian historian whose work focused on medieval history and urbanization, but he also formulated an admirably concise definition of history as, “the development of human societies in space and time.” The generality of this formulation suggests interesting extrapolations that probably never occurred to Pirenne.  

Quora:              https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/ 

Discord:           https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:               https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:     http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Text post:        https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/pirenne-and-the-development-of-human

Video:              https://youtu.be/WqZRBUNLea8

Podcast:          https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/nick-nielsen94/episodes/Pirenne-and-the-Development-of-Human-Societies-in-Space-and-Time-e2slpmm

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The One-Sided Abstractness of Logic

An Instinct for Logic.—If, as I wrote previously, extensionalism is an abstract perspective that facilitates the development of logic, it must observed that we expect logic to embody a highly abstract perspective. Like the distinction between linguistic and non-linguistic expression, that some languages are essentially abstract while others are not is another distinction that should be noted. At very least, we must recognize a continuum of linguistic abstractness, from relatively concrete natural languages to highly abstract artificial languages, and the argument could be made that artificial languages are intrinsically extensional because they are abstract. Carnap put his finger on this logical intuition when he defined the formal as being, “in abstraction from meaning.” This makes of formality a proscription upon intension, therefore, formal languages are rightly and can only be extensional. This, however, is misleading, since while extensionalism may be a form of abstraction especially suited to the elaboration of logical concepts—a logically fruitful abstraction, in other words—there are equally abstract perspectives that are not extentionalist though they are not as likely to facilitate developments in logic. There is even a sense in which the intuitions behind logic are intrinsically intensional because logic is developed in isolation from the actual world, which means that logic is absolutely independent of its extension, which Carnap also observed in another characterization of the formal as “without reference to designata.” The very fact that intuitions come into play in the development of logic demonstrates that there is no science of logic in the same way that there is no science of science. Having a knack for logic is a necessary condition for making progress. Carnap was keenly aware that the modern logic whose prophet he was had been the result mathematical and scientific instinct, and not the result of careful scientific procedure. He also prophesied that the day would come when rigorous procedure could displace unreliable instinct, but this prophecy remains unfulfilled to this day.

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Friday 20 December 2024

Grand Strategy Newsletter

The View from Oregon – 320

One Year of Today in Philosophy of History

…in which I discuss my first year of Today in Philosophy of History, mistakes made, lessons learned, and plans for the coming year…

Substack: https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/one-year-of-today-in-philosophy-of

Medium: https://jnnielsen.medium.com/one-year-of-today-in-philosophy-of-history-1e87b0f67a37

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/The_View_from_Oregon/comments/1hm8qix/one_year_of_today_in_philosophy_of_history/

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Accounting for Linguistic Capitulation through Relative Ineffability

Relative Ineffability.—In reserving the ineffable as a descriptor for mystical or religious experience we have a missed opportunity to recognize a linguistic phenomenon of much greater generality than mysticism. The ineffable extends to all languages, including artificial languages and formal languages, and even to non-linguistic forms of expression, though the distinction between the linguistic and the non-linguistic may be the ground of a distinction that must be observed in certain contexts. The early Wittgenstein had said, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent.” Frank Ramsey said, much more breezily, “…what we can’t say we can’t say, and we can’t whistle it either.” Both represent linguistic capitulation. Ramsey was wrong. A melody can’t be spoken, but it can be whistled. If we observe the distinction between linguistic and non-linguistic expression, we must affirm that a melody cannot be given linguistic expression but it can be given non-linguistic expression. If we restrict our scope to linguistic expression, we can still note that there are disjoint expressions that can occur in either natural or artificial language but not both. Tarski argued that no natural language can be logically rigorous, hence the concept of truth only obtains in particular formal languages, and, in this specifically logical sense, truth is ineffable in ordinary language. By the same token, formal languages cannot express the greater part of ordinary human expression in natural languages, so that the ordinary business of life is ineffable in formal languages. It could be argued that the previous examples are weak senses of relatively ineffability, and that the strongest sense of relative ineffability, such that x is expressible in language L but ineffable in language L´, obtains in natural language pairs with disjoint concepts. That which remains ineffable in every known (or every possible) language is a special case that can be called absolute ineffability.  

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TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Diverging Interpretations of Ranke’s Methodology    

Saturday 21 December 2024 is the 229th anniversary of the birth of Leopold von Ranke (21 December 1795 – 23 May 1886), who was born in Wiehe in Saxony, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, on this date in 1795.

Ranke’s approach to history has been among the most influential of any modern historian, and it is often said that Ranke was the founder of modern history. It is, then, unsurprising that Ranke’s legacy is disputed, and his approach has been given widely diverging interpretations. I discuss some of these interpretations, and offer my own interpretation of Ranke’s reverence for history. 

Quora:              https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/ 

Discord:           https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:               https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:     http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Text post:        https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/diverging-interpretations-of-rankes

Video:              https://youtu.be/neU4hmHYsy0

Podcast:          https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/nick-nielsen94/episodes/Diverging-Interpretations-of-Rankes-Methodology-e2sjshn

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How Logic Become Extensional: A Just-So Story

The Rake’s Progress.—There was a time when intensionality and extensionality lay side-by-side in the matrimonial couch of logic. The two were one flesh, bound to each other by bonds of kinship and mutual obligation. Then came alienation and estrangement, and then the great divorce. What interloper precipitated this sundering of the house of logic? The guilty rake was the extensionalist paradigm, which praised the one at the expense of the other, and made the other a stranger in its own home. The rake’s progress has become a triumphal procession, with the extensionalist paradigm reigning supreme, while formulations of intensionality are welcome only when cast in an extensionalist idiom. The great divorce of extensionality and intentionality is understandable insofar as extensionalism is an abstraction that facilitates formal thought while restricting paradox, puzzlement, and aporia, but, like all abstractions, it is a compromise and a convenience, and it comes at the cost of banishing something essential, even if, at present, ineffable, from formal thought. A century of extensionalism has seen great gains in logic, but this has come at the cost of withdrawing logical rigor from meaning, which has thus abandoned meaning to a wilderness of irrationality. Eventual reconciliation is inevitable. What intuition has joined together let no logic put asunder!

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TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Hook on Heroes in a Non-Deterministic World 

Friday 20 December 2024 is the 122nd anniversary of the birth of Sidney Hook (20 December 1902 – 12 July 1989), who was born in New York City on this date in 1902.

Hook began as a Marxist and eventually became a stalwart anti-communist, but even after he abandoned communism, and influence of Marx remained. Hook’s engagements contemporary with problems defined his forthright approach to problems in the philosophy of history that touch on practical issues of the day in which everyone feels they have a certain stake.

Quora:             https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/ 

Discord:          https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links:              https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter:     http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Text post:        https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/sidney-hook-on-heroes-in-a-non-deterministic

Video:              https://youtu.be/zX7FzE1_gf0  

Podcast:          https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/nick-nielsen94/episodes/Sidney-Hook-on-Heroes-in-a-Non-Deterministic-World-e2sj6pp

Paper:              https://scholarship.richmond.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1070&context=heroism-science

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Up to isomorphism, there is one and only one Herodotus.

Schopenhauer’s Categoricity.—Schopenhauer begins his account of history with the familiar idea that the facts of history are innumerable, but Schopenhauer recognizes that the facts of history aren’t organized like those of natural science. He says that history is a rational inquiry, but not a strictly scientific one. Almost a century before Windelband and Rickert, Schopenhauer gave an idiographic account of history as consisting of unique events that cannot be subsumed under universal concepts. Despite this conception of history as innumerable facts uncoordinated by any law or principle, so that each and every fact must be accounted for individually, Schopenhauer presents us with a strong form of historical categoricity. According to Schopenhauer, “If we have read Herodotus, we have already studied enough history from a philosophical point of view. For everything that which constitutes the subsequent history of the world is already there…” In other words, for Schopenhauer, history is categorical and Herodotus is the model to which all other models are demonstrably isomorphic. He allows that this is, “from a philosophical point of view,” so that from an independent historical point of view, historians can continue the business of history, but nothing philosophically novel will be found in their efforts. Everything that has and can happen in history is to be found in Herodotus, and the rest of history is superfluous from a philosophical perspective. Herodotus is a sufficient model of history; presumably, any other adequate history could serve as well, but Schopenhauer didn’t say whether he thought Thucydides, Gibbon, or Ranke would serve equally well up to isomorphism.   

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Friday 13 December 2024 Grand Strategy Newsletter The View from Oregon – 319 Lessons from Cold War Cinema …in which I discuss Fail Safe, On the Beach, Dr. Strangelove, Herman Kahn, Star Trek, W. T. Sherman, the neutron bomb, the Age of Precision Warfare, cyanide, Jim Jones, Brown University, death cults, revolutionary suicide, Derek Parfit, and H. P. Lovecraft…

Substack: https://geopolicraticus.substack.com/p/lessons-from-the-cold-war Medium: https://jnnielsen.medium.com/lessons-from-the-cold-war-c5454e91fd74 Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/The_View_from_Oregon/comments/1hg6ria/lessons_from_the_cold_war/