TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Weyl’s Proper Time, Lived Time, and Metaphysical Time

Sunday 09 November 2025 is the 140th anniversary of the birth of Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl (09 November 1885 – 08 December 1955), better known to posterity simply was Hermann Weyl, who was born in Elmshorn, close to Hamburg, on this day in 1885.

Weyl’s mathematical and scientific background didn’t prevent him from acquiring a broad background in philosophy, often deriving insights from idealism and phenomenology. This philosophical interest often found expression in his mathematics and his scientific work, including his speculation about time. In this episode I attempt to apply Weyl’s tripartite distinction among proper, lived, and metaphysical time to proper, lived, and metaphysical history.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #HermannWeyl #constructivism #LivedTime #phenomenology #reductivism #metaphysics #PunctiformPresent #FormalMethods #axiomatics #intuitionism

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: The Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755

On Saturday 01 November 1755—270 years ago today—a terrible earthquake struck Lisbon, followed by a tsunami and fires. Tens of thousands died, a great many more suffered, and debate over the meaning and interpretation of the Lisbon earthquake rippled through European intellectual life, as the disaster became a point of contention between a naturalistic view of history and a non-naturalistic view of history

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #earthquake #Lisbon #1755 #naturalism #suffering #evil #ProblemofEvil #BartEhrman

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: The Battle of the Milvian Bridge

On Tuesday 28 October AD 312—1,713 years ago today—the Battle of the Milvian bridge was fought between the forces of Constantine and Maxentius, both contending to be recognized as emperor in the west. Whether you see Constantine’s victory in the battle as the foundation of Christendom, i.e., Christianity as a civilizational project, or as the triumph of barbarism and religion, as Gibbon saw it, either way it is an event that both demands and resists explanation.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #MilvianBridge #Constantine #psychologism #psychohistory #HumanNature #providence #providentialism #naturalism #tetrarchy

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: The Modernity of Philippe de Commines

Saturday 18 October 2025 is the 514th anniversary of the death of Philippe de Commines, who died on Wednesday 18 October 1511. The birth date of Commines hasn’t been preserved by history, and I’ve seen at least four ways of spelling his name—Commines, Comines, Commynes, and Comminaeus (there may well be other spellings of which I’m not aware).

Commines Memoirs were written to be source material for a proper history of Louis XI. The memoirs survived but Commines himself didn’t write the proper history, though countless historians since the time of Commines have relied upon his as a primary source for the second half of the 15th century. To what extent to Commine’s Memoirs reveal an already modern perspective?

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #PhilippedeCommines #PhilippedeCommynes #modernity #Machiavelli #Petrarch

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Foucault’s Archaeologies of the Human Sciences

Wednesday 15 October 2025 is the 99th anniversary of the birth of Michel Foucault (15 October 1926 - 25 June 1984), who was born in Poitiers on this date in 1926.

Foucault wrote a series of works that he called archaeologies and genealogies, which sought to trace the development of our épistèmé—our system of thought, if you will. Foucault suggested that the appearance of man as such, as the object of the human sciences (which were on the receiving end of his archaeologies), was an artifact of the épistèmé of the Classical Age, and, with the passing of the Classical Age, man too man disappear, like a face drawn in the sand at the edge of the sea.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #MichelFoucault #genealogy #archaeology #HumanSciences #PhilosophicalAnthropology #episteme

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Kahler’s Bottom-Up Approach to Meaning in History

Tuesday 14 October 2025 is the 140th anniversary of the birth of Erich von Kahler (October 14, 1885 - June 28, 1970), who was born in Prague on this date in 1885. Like many European expatriates, he left off the “von” when he came to America.

Kahler wrote at least three books of immediate relevance to philosophy of history, Man the Measure: A New Approach to History (1943), The Tower and the Abyss: An Inquiry into the Transformation of Man (1957), and The Meaning of History (1964). Widely read in his time, Kahler is little cited today, but his distinctive way of formulating the problem of the meaning of history represents a way out of the dead end in which many twentieth century philosophers found themselves in respect to meaning.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #ErichKahler #meaning #PhilosophicalAnthropology #purpose #crisis

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Sputnik at the Beginning of the Space Age

On Friday 04 October 1957—68 years ago today—the USSR launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite of Earth. This action initiated both the Space Age and then the Space Race. The Space Race is over, won by the US with the Apollo Moon landings, but is the Space Age tapering off also, or is it just getting started?

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #Sputnik #SpaceAge #SpaceRace #Apollo #stagnation #spacefaring #breakout #FernandBraudel

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Revisiting Mesohistory in Gregorovius

In a moment of inspiration on Tuesday 03 October 1854, 171 years ago today, Ferdinand Gregorovius (19 January 1821 – 01 May 1891), conceived his multi-volume Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter (1859–1872), translated into English as The History of Rome in the Middle Ages (1894–1902). K. F. Morrison described this inspiration such that: “He saw Rome as a point of intersection for the great forces whose conflicts had generated European civilization.”

In last year’s episode on Gregorovius I characterized his history of Rome as mesohistory, because it falls between the microhistory of Carlo Ginzburg and the macrohistory of William MacNeill, to cite two of the best known names, but certainly not the only examplars of these schools of thought. Since then I’ve happened on Daniel Little’s exposition of mesohistory in his New Contributions to the Philosophy of History, and I describe that in this episode.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #FerdinandGregorovius #microhistory #mesohistory #macrohistory #DanielLittle