General Notes about History

General Notes
Concerning History
History has three levels: First, the physical and mechanical facts about people and
events, caricaturized under the heading of “dates, kings, and wars”. Second, a
deeper level looks at the ideas, trends, and movements underlying the first level,
ideologies, politics, and “-isms”. Finally, there is a history to the development of
philosophy, religion, and worldviews.
History begins with text, with written records of human activity; anything prior to
writing is speculative and not part of history, and properly belongs under headings
like “archeology”, “paleontology”, and “prehistory”. For the nearly simultaneous
start of writing, civilization, and history, a certain amount of stability was needed:
the continental drift which now moves land masses a fraction of an in a year used
to move them miles in the same time; volcanic activity was many times what it is
now, causing entire mountains to rise and fall rapidly. Geological instability
delayed widespread use of writing and the founding of communities.
History is ultimately about constructing and analyzing narratives, sometimes
competing narratives about the same facts; a mere list of facts is a chronicle and
not properly a history. A mere list of facts would also be useless and
uninformative. The quest for an “objective” history is absolutely necessary, yet
elusive. The absolute and objective historical narrative exists, and we seek to
discover it, not invent it. Yet human reason and human cognition remain limited,
and so our ability to discover is limited; we may be happy that this ability is
limited, rather than completely nonexistent.
When we examine a historical person, we can choose the method by which we will
conduct our historical evaluation: we can either confine ourselves to the texts
written by that person and the actions performed by that person, or we can include
other personal data about that individual. The latter approach is called ad hominem,
and often includes a quasi-psychological investigation into the childhood
relationships to the parents.
One constant factor in history is human nature: from the earliest recorded human
thoughts, roughly 6,000 to 10,000 years ago, until the present time, human beings
have asked the same questions, encountered the same problems, and sought the
same goals. This is what makes you as human as Aristotle or Cleopatra. This is
why we can understand the concepts and passions of texts which are thousands of
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years old: because the authors shared the same unchanging human nature which we
all have.
Partly because we all share this same human nature, and perhaps partly for other
reasons, there are “eternal questions” which recur throughout history. Historians
disagree on exactly how many “eternal questions” there are, but here’s an example
of what three of them might be:
• How can I escape my “subjective bubble” (my ideas, perceptions, and
opinions) and obtain objective knowledge?
• Does God love me or hate me, and why?
• How should a community or society be organized? How should society
and government interact?
There are many other candidates for “eternal questions”. Suggest some.
It becomes necessary to clearly and rigorously define some words: “history”,
“religion”, and “philosophy”.
The role of religion in civilization and history is both significant and obvious. The
emergence of religion from early, non-religious phases of civilization is not so
obvious.
Early civilization embraces myth, magic, and manipulation, and lacked religion.
Myth explained; magic and manipulation were attempts to control the forces of
nature, obtain fertility, and ensure military victories. This type of polytheistic
paganism prescribes some ritual or sacrifice designed to persuade a deity to deliver
the goods.
Religion concerns relationships: the individual’s relation to God, and to other
humans. A religion has a text and a founder. Religion is an attempt to bridge the
gap between the perfect/infinite deity and the imperfect/finite human. Religion is
personal, inasmuch as it treats both the human and the deity as person, i.e., having
beliefs, desires, emotions, and agency. Religion is not private, inasmuch as it
encompasses visions of society. A religion is related to a way of life; it has various
forms in different times and places; it can be related to geography.
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Religion is NOT ethics and morals, is NOT traditions, rules, culture, opinions,
beliefs.
Three cornerstones of civilization, as it emerged in the ancient world: (1) the
alphabet replaces other symbolic forms, (2) monogamy is valued, (3) human
sacrifice is gradually phased out.
Another recurring theme in history is the tension between centralized and
decentralized forms of government. From Persia to Rome, from Alexander the
Great to the Holy Roman Empire, this will be a consideration; feudalism, often
derided as an archaic system, proves to be, in this light, a champion of local
independence and of decentralization. It is also no accident that the series of “Star
Wars” films by George Lucas echoes the events of Roman history.
As we look at historical texts, we will need to be alert to issues of translation and
transliteration.
Maps are also an important part of studying history.
There are different ways to look at historical change: it might be an organic
process, working its way gradually through societies and populations in the
attitudes and decisions of the average person, or it might be the decisive choice of
one man at a crucial moment. History is either a series of historical choices by
great men at decisive moments, or it can be told as a gradual process of growth and
change in slow waves and trends through entire communities, cultures, and
civilizations.
Population and Economics: the pattern seems to be that a steadily growing
population is the best circumstance for economic prosperity and stability, as well
as political tranquility. If the population grows too quickly, too slowly, or
erratically (i.e., the annual rate varies too much from one year to the next), or if the
population does not grow at all, or even shrinks, then economic hardship is
inevitable. This pattern is relevant to events both in the Roman Republic and the
Roman Empire. It is relevant also to the study of Thomas Malthus, whose brilliant,
but sadly mistaken, views have been overturned the discovery of the fact that our
planet has always produced more food than was needed by the humans living on it,
and that all hunger and starvation has been unnecessary, and the result of human
incompetence or greed.
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Since the time of Moses, we see that the majority trend within “western” or “Eurocentric”
civilization has held a certain “sympathy for the underdog”, a tendency to
consider, and act in, the interests of those who are most vulnerable in society.
Notable exceptions, of course, exist, in the persons of Nietzsche, Hitler, and Stalin.
But general trend has held, and perhaps even gained in predominance, over time.
This strength, however, of our civilization has also recently become a weakness,
because those who wish to gain power by claiming to be victims can exploit this
sentiment. It has now become necessary to distinguish between those who are at
the bottom of societal structures and those who merely claim “victim status” as a
path to political power. In non-western, or non-Eurocentric societies, this path to
power is not open.
The events of history take place within the framework of time, space, matter, and
energy. Another way of saying this is that the events of history involve elements
that are, at least in principal, directly or indirectly detectable by the five senses. We
need to be aware that these are the minority of events. The majority of events are
composed of elements that lie outside of space and time, which are therefore not
composed of matter or energy, and not detectable to the five senses. Strictly
speaking, history does not concern itself with such things. Practically, however, we
will concern ourselves with them to some extent, when we consider the history of
philosophy and the history of religion. We need to be aware, then, that we have, at
that point, left behind history, narrowly defined, and entered a separate field of
study.
Given that text is central to historical study, issues of language will interface; at a
minimum, we will need to continuously acknowledge that we are dealing with
texts that are either translated into our language, or written in an older form of our
language. Philology is relevant to history.
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