TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: J. M. Roberts on the Triumph of the West

Tuesday 14 April 2026 is the 98th anniversary of the birth of John Morris Roberts (14 April 1928 – 30 May 2003), who has born in Bath on this date in 1928.

John Roberts’ television series The Triumph of the West (1985) has been among the documentaries that I have most valued and which have influenced my own understanding of history. Roberts’ argument in The Triumph of the West was that Western civilization decisively shaped history by unifying civilization on a planetary scale. While plausible and once my own view, I no longer frame it in these terms, and I discuss why in this episode.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #JohnRoberts #TriumphoftheWest #WesternCivilization #submergence #civilization #Westernization

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Project Ozma and the Origins of SETI

On Friday 08 April 1960, 66 years ago, Frank Drake switched on the receiver of the 85 foot Tatel radio telescope dish of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia, and Project Ozma began. Project Ozma was the first formal scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence by way of a search for radio transmissions. In this episode I look at the SETI project through the lens of civilization understood in its cosmological context, and through the work of Karl Jaspers.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #FrankDrake #DrakeEquation #SETI #Sagain’sThesis #civilization #KarlJaspers #ProjectOzma

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: The Beginning and the End of History

How ought we to define the scope of human history? Should we define history narrowly or broadly? Either alternative presents us with certain problems. The totality of history from its beginning to its end—or what we could call, in an Aristotelian spirit, the coming to be and passing away of history—is, in a sense, a very broad conception of the scope of history, and it’s also a presupposition of much philosophy of history, but the totality of history conceived in philosophy of history rarely exceeds the scope of single civilization. We can push the limits of historical scope much farther, and we may be forced to do so if human history continues into the deep future.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #DeepTime #DeepFuture #DeepPast #continuity #relativity #TwinsParadox #ThoughtExperiment #pseudoextinction #chronospecies

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: The Execution of Robert-François Damiens

On Monday 28 March 1757—269 years ago—Robert-François Damiens was publicly tortured and executed at the Place de Grève in Paris. Damiens had attempted to kill the king of France, Louis XV, stabbing the king at Versailles on 05 January 1757. The king was wounded, though not seriously, but Damiens was condemned as a regicide despite having been unsuccessful in his assassination attempt. I discuss this execution in the context of Cesare Beccaria, Kenneth Clark, Michel Foucault, and Nietzsche.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory # Robert-FrançoisDamiens #regicide #execution #justice #CesareBeccaria #FriedrichNietzsche #MichelFoucault #KennethClark

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Boethius and the Historiography of Philosophy

At the end of classical antiquity and the beginning of the medieval world, Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king of Italy, condemned his magister officiorum, Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, to death. Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy (De consolatione philosophiae) while in prison, awaiting execution. The vicissitudes of this book through subsequent history can tell us much about how the philosophical tradition is shaped and how its shape changes over time.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #Boethius #ConsolationofPhilosophy #tradition #MiddleAges #MedievalPhilosophy #historiography

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: A Civilizational Perspective on Brazil

Sunday 15 March 2026 is the 126th anniversary of the birth of Gilberto de Mello Freyre (15 March 1900 – 18 July 1987), who was born in Recife on this date in 1900.

Freyre’s sociological studies of Brazil place the peculiarities of Brazilian society in a larger civilizational context of what he called lusotropicalism, which can be construed either in terms of Portuguese imperialism or as a distributed civilization derived from Portugal but taking different forms in different geographical regions.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #GilbertodeMelloFreyre #sociology #anthropology #Brazil #Portugal #Atlanticism #lusotropicalism

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: The Condemnations of 07 March 1277

On Sunday 07 March 1277—749 years ago today—Étienne Tempier, then the Bishop of Paris, presided over the formal condemnation of 219 propositions that were deemed to be dangerously close to Averroism, in an attempt to stem the tide of growing Aristotelian influence over philosophy. While the condemnations ruined a few careers (especially Siger of Brabant) and made philosophers in Paris more cautious about their Aristotelianism, Tempier only slowed the eventual triumph of Aristotle in Scholastic thought.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #condemnation #1277 #Averroism #MedievalPhilosophy #MiddleAges #Christendom #Thomism #Aristotelianism

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Montaigne on Historical Anecdotes and Archetypes

Saturday 28 February 2026 is the 493rd anniversary of the birth of Michel Eyquem, Seigneur de Montaigne (28 February 1533 – 13 September 1592), who was born at the family estate, Château de Montaigne, on this date in 1533.

Michel de Montaigne loved anecdotes and constructed many of his essays around memorable anecdotes. His contemporary, Jean Bodin, wasn’t as enthusiastic, criticizing Plutarch for passing along stories Bodin believed to be “incredible and entirely fabulous.” Montaigne came to Plutarch’s defense, and in so doing revealed a different sensibility about history than that of Bodin.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #MicheldeMontaigne #JeanBodin #anecdote #archetype #skepticism #pyrrhonism