TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Winckelmann on Noble Simplicity and Quiet Grandeur

Tuesday 09 December 2025 is the 308th anniversary of the birth of Johann Joachim Winckelmann (09 December 1717 – 08 June 1768), who was born in Stendal in Saxony-Anhalt, which was then part of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which was in turn part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Winckelmann was one of the greatest of art historians. His masterpiece of art history is usually identified as Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (The History of Art in Antiquity), published in 1764, but what brought him early fame was his first pamphlet, which was only printed in 50 copies in 1755, his Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst (Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture), which made a real splash at the time. In this episode I consider this work and its influence.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #JohannJoachimWinckelmann #ClassicalAntiqity #NobleSimplicity #QuietGrandeur #recursion #WesternHistory #classicism #neoclassicism

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Re-Founding History as Big History

This episode is a presentation that I gave to an online big history meeting, with a few changes made. The theme of the conference was “A New Big History: theory, methods, objects & perspectives,” and I attempted to follow the template of the meeting organizers as closely as I could.

The earliest domains of human knowledge, which include history, were founded in a context in which the sciences were unformed and inchoate. Mathematics and cosmology, also among the earliest disciplines, have been repeatedly transformed by conceptual revolutions in their foundations. History as a discipline, however, has not experienced any revolution in its foundations comparable to the foundational transformations of the natural sciences since the scientific revolution, or even the social sciences since the twentieth century. History, then, is ripe for a re-founding that would set the discipline on new foundations. This re-founding of history would constitute a Copernican displacement in which historical knowledge previously understood to be central is displaced to the periphery of knowledge and the heretofore unknown periphery comes into focus as the normative basis of history. This results in changes both to the traditional conception of history and the implicit conception of history in big history. Big history has been understood as a multidisciplinary effort, but the re-founding of history as big history (which should properly be understood as history simpliciter) means its conception as a multidisciplinary science is replaced by a univocal science with a theoretical foundation adequate to the indefinite expansion of historical knowledge.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #BigHistory #interdisciplinarity #univocal #astrobiology #macrohistory #time #proto-naturalistic #MethodologicalNaturalism #ScientificRevolution

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Blaise Pascal’s Night of Fire

On Monday evening, 23 November 1654—371 days ago today—mathematician, scientist, and philosopher Blaise Pascal was overcome by a mystical experience. Pascal wrote out an account of his mystical experience and sewed it into his coat, which he wore until he died.

Pascal was a genius and a polymath who made contributions to natural science, mathematics, and literature, but after his mystical experience he abandoned all other work to focus on religious apologetics. In this episode I consider Pascal’s mystical vision and other altered forms of consciousness as influences that shape history, and not always for the better.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #BlaisePascal #Voltaire #mysticism #MysticalExperience #AlteredStates #entheogens #hallucinogens

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Voltaire and the Origins of Modern Philosophy of History

21 November 2025 is the 331st anniversary of the birth of François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), better known by his pen name Voltaire, who was born in Paris on this date in 1694.

Voltaire was one of the great figures of the Enlightenment, and he was the first to write a book titled Philosophy of History. The modern tradition of philosophy of history has its origins in this explicit recognition of the discipline, but whereas Voltaire had a thoroughly naturalistic approach, his successors took a different path.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #Voltaire # François-MarieArouet #Enlightenment #StateofNature #ThoughtExperiment #naturalism #RationalReconstruction #LogicalEmpiricism #Rousseau

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Frederick Jackson Turner and the Frontier Thesis

Friday 14 November 2025 is the 164th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Jackson Turner (14 November 1861 – 14 March 1932), who was born in Portage, Wisconsin, on this date in 1861.

Turner’s “frontier thesis” has been a touchstone of American history since Turner introduced the idea, being both widely influential and widely criticized. Turner contended that the experience of the frontier shaped the American character and American institutions. Is this a distinctive and unique feature of American history, or can the frontier thesis be generalized to other times and places?

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #FrederickJacksonTurner #TurnerThesis #frontier #FrontierThesis #GeoffreyElton #Atlanticism #exceptionalism #AmericanExceptionalism #ManifestDestiny # MissionCivilisatrice

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Saint Augustine’s Other Philosophy of History

Thursday 13 November 2024 is the 1,671st anniversary of the birth of Saint Augustine (13 November 354 - 28 August 430), who areas born Aurelius Augustinus in Thagaste, in the province of Numidia, then part of the Roman Empire, now part of Algeria, on this date in 354 AD.

In his monumental City of God Augustine gives us his “big picture” of human history as the history of the City of Man, and how it’s related to the City of God. More than a decade earlier, in his Confessions, written after his conversion to Christianity, Augustine wrestled with similar questions, but pursued them as an inquiry into the nature of time. In this episode I ask whether another Augustinian philosophy of history can be derived from Augustine’s philosophy of time.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #AureliusAugustinus #SaintAugustine #CityofGod #CivitasDei #providentialism #time #eternity #StAugustine #cosmology #Confessions #ChristianPlatonism #PunctiformPresent

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