Seshat History of the Axial Age

Seshat History of the Axial Age

Author: Jenny Reddish

Publisher: Seshat Histories

Published: 2019-12-08

Total Pages: 520

ISBN-13: 9780996139564

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Applying insights from a massive historical research project-Seshat: Global History Databank-this edited volume reveals that there was no single "Axial Age" in human history. Instead, it points to cross-cultural parallels in the co-evolution of egalitarian ideals and constraints on political authority with sociopolitical complexity. The first book-length publication to make use of Seshat's systematic approach to collecting information about the human past, Seshat History of the Axial Age expands the Axial Age debate beyond first-millennium BCE Eurasia. Fourteen chapters survey earlier and later periods as well as developments in regions previously neglected in Axial Age discussions. The conclusion? There was no identifiable Axial Age confined to a few Eurasian hotspots in the last millennium BCE. However, "axiality" as a cluster of traits emerged time and again whenever societies reached a certain threshold of scale and level of complexity. Co-editors Daniel Hoyer and Jenny Reddish paired some of the world's leading historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists with members of the Seshat team. Hoyer, Project Manager with Seshat, is a historian and social scientist specializing in cross-cultural historical analysis. Reddish, Seshat's Lead Editor, is an anthropologist working on the material correlates of cultural systems from societies around the world. She is based at the Complexity Science Hub, Vienna. Seshat: Global History Databank was founded in 2011 to bring together the most current and comprehensive knowledge about human history in one place, collecting what is known about the social and political organization of human societies to track how civilizations have evolved over time. Seshat History of the Axial Age is the first entry in the Seshat Histories series.


Book Synopsis Seshat History of the Axial Age by : Jenny Reddish

Download or read book Seshat History of the Axial Age written by Jenny Reddish and published by Seshat Histories. This book was released on 2019-12-08 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Applying insights from a massive historical research project-Seshat: Global History Databank-this edited volume reveals that there was no single "Axial Age" in human history. Instead, it points to cross-cultural parallels in the co-evolution of egalitarian ideals and constraints on political authority with sociopolitical complexity. The first book-length publication to make use of Seshat's systematic approach to collecting information about the human past, Seshat History of the Axial Age expands the Axial Age debate beyond first-millennium BCE Eurasia. Fourteen chapters survey earlier and later periods as well as developments in regions previously neglected in Axial Age discussions. The conclusion? There was no identifiable Axial Age confined to a few Eurasian hotspots in the last millennium BCE. However, "axiality" as a cluster of traits emerged time and again whenever societies reached a certain threshold of scale and level of complexity. Co-editors Daniel Hoyer and Jenny Reddish paired some of the world's leading historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists with members of the Seshat team. Hoyer, Project Manager with Seshat, is a historian and social scientist specializing in cross-cultural historical analysis. Reddish, Seshat's Lead Editor, is an anthropologist working on the material correlates of cultural systems from societies around the world. She is based at the Complexity Science Hub, Vienna. Seshat: Global History Databank was founded in 2011 to bring together the most current and comprehensive knowledge about human history in one place, collecting what is known about the social and political organization of human societies to track how civilizations have evolved over time. Seshat History of the Axial Age is the first entry in the Seshat Histories series.

The Dangerous Art of Text Mining

The Dangerous Art of Text Mining

Author: Jo Guldi

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-08-31

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 1009263021

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The Dangerous Art of Text Mining celebrates the bold new research now possible because of text mining: the art of counting words over time. However, this book also presents a warning: without help from the humanities, data science can distort the past and lead to perilous errors. The book opens with a rogue's gallery of errors, then tours the ground-breaking analyses that have resulted from collaborations between humanists and data scientists. Jo Guldi explores how text mining can give a glimpse of the changing history of the past - for example, how quickly Americans forgot the history of slavery. Textual data can even prove who was responsible in Congress for silencing environmentalism over recent decades. The book ends with an impassioned vision of what text mining in defence of democracy would look like, and why humanists need to be involved.


Book Synopsis The Dangerous Art of Text Mining by : Jo Guldi

Download or read book The Dangerous Art of Text Mining written by Jo Guldi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2023-08-31 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Dangerous Art of Text Mining celebrates the bold new research now possible because of text mining: the art of counting words over time. However, this book also presents a warning: without help from the humanities, data science can distort the past and lead to perilous errors. The book opens with a rogue's gallery of errors, then tours the ground-breaking analyses that have resulted from collaborations between humanists and data scientists. Jo Guldi explores how text mining can give a glimpse of the changing history of the past - for example, how quickly Americans forgot the history of slavery. Textual data can even prove who was responsible in Congress for silencing environmentalism over recent decades. The book ends with an impassioned vision of what text mining in defence of democracy would look like, and why humanists need to be involved.

Power

Power

Author: Richard Heinberg

Publisher: New Society Publishers

Published: 2021-09-14

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 1771423579

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Impeccably researched and masterfully written, this book explains how and why humanity is driving itself off the cliff. — Dahr Jamail, author, The End of Ice Weaving together findings from a wide range of disciplines, Power traces how four key elements developed to give humans extraordinary power: tool making ability, language, social complexity, and the ability to harness energy sources ― most significantly, fossil fuels. It asks whether we have, at this point, overpowered natural and social systems, and if we have, what we can do about it. Has Homo sapiens — one species among millions — become powerful enough to threaten a mass extinction and disrupt the Earth's climate? Why have we developed so many ways of oppressing one another? Can we change our relationship with power to avert ecological catastrophe, reduce social inequality, and stave off collapse? These questions — and their answers — will determine our fate.


Book Synopsis Power by : Richard Heinberg

Download or read book Power written by Richard Heinberg and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2021-09-14 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Impeccably researched and masterfully written, this book explains how and why humanity is driving itself off the cliff. — Dahr Jamail, author, The End of Ice Weaving together findings from a wide range of disciplines, Power traces how four key elements developed to give humans extraordinary power: tool making ability, language, social complexity, and the ability to harness energy sources ― most significantly, fossil fuels. It asks whether we have, at this point, overpowered natural and social systems, and if we have, what we can do about it. Has Homo sapiens — one species among millions — become powerful enough to threaten a mass extinction and disrupt the Earth's climate? Why have we developed so many ways of oppressing one another? Can we change our relationship with power to avert ecological catastrophe, reduce social inequality, and stave off collapse? These questions — and their answers — will determine our fate.

Problems of Living

Problems of Living

Author: Dan J. Stein

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2021-05-11

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0323904394

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Problems of Living: Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Cognitive-Affective Science addresses philosophical questions related to problems of living, including questions about the nature of the brain-mind, reason and emotion, happiness and suffering, goodness and truth, and the meaning of life. It draws on critical, pragmatic, and embodied realism as well as moral naturalism, and brings arguments from metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics together with data from cognitive-affective science. This multidisciplinary integrated approach provides a novel framework for considering not only the nature of mental disorders, but also broader issues in mental health, such as finding pleasure and purpose in life. Draws on the strongest aspects of polar positions in philosophy and psychiatry to help resolve important perennial debates in these fields Explores continuities between early philosophical work and current cognitive-affective sciences, including neuroscience and psychology Employs findings from modern cognitive-affective science to rethink key long-standing debates in philosophy and psychiatry Builds on work showing how mind is embodied in the brain, and embedded in society, to provide an integrated conceptual framework Assesses both the insights and the limitations of cognitive-affective science for addressing the big questions and hard problems of living


Book Synopsis Problems of Living by : Dan J. Stein

Download or read book Problems of Living written by Dan J. Stein and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Problems of Living: Perspectives from Philosophy, Psychiatry, and Cognitive-Affective Science addresses philosophical questions related to problems of living, including questions about the nature of the brain-mind, reason and emotion, happiness and suffering, goodness and truth, and the meaning of life. It draws on critical, pragmatic, and embodied realism as well as moral naturalism, and brings arguments from metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics together with data from cognitive-affective science. This multidisciplinary integrated approach provides a novel framework for considering not only the nature of mental disorders, but also broader issues in mental health, such as finding pleasure and purpose in life. Draws on the strongest aspects of polar positions in philosophy and psychiatry to help resolve important perennial debates in these fields Explores continuities between early philosophical work and current cognitive-affective sciences, including neuroscience and psychology Employs findings from modern cognitive-affective science to rethink key long-standing debates in philosophy and psychiatry Builds on work showing how mind is embodied in the brain, and embedded in society, to provide an integrated conceptual framework Assesses both the insights and the limitations of cognitive-affective science for addressing the big questions and hard problems of living

Dark Aeon

Dark Aeon

Author: Joe Allen

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2023-08-29

Total Pages: 561

ISBN-13: 1648210112

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Humanity Is Consumed by Relentless Transformation Like a thief in the night, artificial intelligence has inserted itself into our lives. It makes important decisions for us every day. Often, we barely notice. As Joe Allen writes in this groundbreaking book, “Transhumanism is the great merger of humankind with the Machine. At this stage in history, it consists of billions using smartphones. Going forward, we’ll be hardwiring our brains to artificial intelligence systems.” The world-famous robot, Sophia, symbolizes a rising techno-religion. She takes her name from the goddess—or Aeon—whose fall from grace is described in the Gnostic Gospels. With an academic background in both science and theology, Allen confronts the paradox of what he calls “good people constructing a digital abomination.” Dark Aeon is nothing less than a cri de coeur for humanity itself. He takes us on a roller coaster ride through history and the emergence of Scientism, and from government-mandated mRNA vaccines to the weird visions of cyborg billionaires like Elon Musk. From Silicon Valley to China, these globalists’ visions of humanity’s future, exposed and described in Dark Aeon, are dire and terrifying. But Joe Allen argues that humanity’s salvation is within our grasp. Only if we refuse to avert our eyes from the impending twilight before us.


Book Synopsis Dark Aeon by : Joe Allen

Download or read book Dark Aeon written by Joe Allen and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-08-29 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humanity Is Consumed by Relentless Transformation Like a thief in the night, artificial intelligence has inserted itself into our lives. It makes important decisions for us every day. Often, we barely notice. As Joe Allen writes in this groundbreaking book, “Transhumanism is the great merger of humankind with the Machine. At this stage in history, it consists of billions using smartphones. Going forward, we’ll be hardwiring our brains to artificial intelligence systems.” The world-famous robot, Sophia, symbolizes a rising techno-religion. She takes her name from the goddess—or Aeon—whose fall from grace is described in the Gnostic Gospels. With an academic background in both science and theology, Allen confronts the paradox of what he calls “good people constructing a digital abomination.” Dark Aeon is nothing less than a cri de coeur for humanity itself. He takes us on a roller coaster ride through history and the emergence of Scientism, and from government-mandated mRNA vaccines to the weird visions of cyborg billionaires like Elon Musk. From Silicon Valley to China, these globalists’ visions of humanity’s future, exposed and described in Dark Aeon, are dire and terrifying. But Joe Allen argues that humanity’s salvation is within our grasp. Only if we refuse to avert our eyes from the impending twilight before us.

The Cambridge Comparative History of Ancient Law

The Cambridge Comparative History of Ancient Law

Author: Caroline Humfress

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2024-05-30

Total Pages: 884

ISBN-13: 1009566148

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The Cambridge Comparative History of Ancient Law is the first of its kind in the field of comparative ancient legal history. Written collaboratively by a dedicated team of international experts, each chapter offers a new framing and understanding of key legal concepts, practices and historical contexts across five major legal traditions of the ancient world. Stretching chronologically across more than three and a half millennia, from the earliest, very fragmentary, proto-cuneiform tablets (3200–3000 BCE) to the Tang Code of 652 CE, the volume challenges earlier comparative histories of ancient law / societies, at the same time as opening up new areas for future scholarship across a wealth of surviving ancient Near Eastern, Indian, Chinese, Greek and Roman primary source evidence. Topics covered include 'law as text', legal science, inter-polity relations, law and the state, law and religion, legal procedure, personal status and the family, crime, property and contract.


Book Synopsis The Cambridge Comparative History of Ancient Law by : Caroline Humfress

Download or read book The Cambridge Comparative History of Ancient Law written by Caroline Humfress and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2024-05-30 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cambridge Comparative History of Ancient Law is the first of its kind in the field of comparative ancient legal history. Written collaboratively by a dedicated team of international experts, each chapter offers a new framing and understanding of key legal concepts, practices and historical contexts across five major legal traditions of the ancient world. Stretching chronologically across more than three and a half millennia, from the earliest, very fragmentary, proto-cuneiform tablets (3200–3000 BCE) to the Tang Code of 652 CE, the volume challenges earlier comparative histories of ancient law / societies, at the same time as opening up new areas for future scholarship across a wealth of surviving ancient Near Eastern, Indian, Chinese, Greek and Roman primary source evidence. Topics covered include 'law as text', legal science, inter-polity relations, law and the state, law and religion, legal procedure, personal status and the family, crime, property and contract.

Cultural Evolution

Cultural Evolution

Author: Kevin McCaffree

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-03-14

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1000523225

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Since the dawn of social science, theorists have debated how and why societies appear to change, develop and evolve. Today, this question is pursued by scholars across many different disciplines and our understanding of these dynamics has grown markedly. Yet, there remain important areas of disagreement and debate: what is the difference between societal change, development and evolution? What specific aspects of cultures change, develop or evolve and why? Do societies change, develop or evolve in particular ways, perhaps according to cycles, or stages or in response to survival necessities? How do different disciplines—from sociology to anthropology to psychology and economics—approach these questions? This book provides complex and nuanced answers to these, and many other, questions. First, the book invites readers to consider the broad landscape of societal dynamics across human history, beginning with humanity’s origins in small nomadic bands of hunter gatherers through to the emergence of post-industrial democracies. Then, the book provides a tour of several prominent existing theories of cultural change, development and evolution. Approaches to explaining cultural dynamics will be discussed across disciplines and schools of thought, from "meme" theories to established cumulative cultural evolutionary theories to newly emerging theories on cultural tightness-looseness. The book concludes with a call for theoretical integration and a frank discussion of some of the most unexamined structures that drive cultural dynamics across schools of thought.


Book Synopsis Cultural Evolution by : Kevin McCaffree

Download or read book Cultural Evolution written by Kevin McCaffree and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-03-14 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the dawn of social science, theorists have debated how and why societies appear to change, develop and evolve. Today, this question is pursued by scholars across many different disciplines and our understanding of these dynamics has grown markedly. Yet, there remain important areas of disagreement and debate: what is the difference between societal change, development and evolution? What specific aspects of cultures change, develop or evolve and why? Do societies change, develop or evolve in particular ways, perhaps according to cycles, or stages or in response to survival necessities? How do different disciplines—from sociology to anthropology to psychology and economics—approach these questions? This book provides complex and nuanced answers to these, and many other, questions. First, the book invites readers to consider the broad landscape of societal dynamics across human history, beginning with humanity’s origins in small nomadic bands of hunter gatherers through to the emergence of post-industrial democracies. Then, the book provides a tour of several prominent existing theories of cultural change, development and evolution. Approaches to explaining cultural dynamics will be discussed across disciplines and schools of thought, from "meme" theories to established cumulative cultural evolutionary theories to newly emerging theories on cultural tightness-looseness. The book concludes with a call for theoretical integration and a frank discussion of some of the most unexamined structures that drive cultural dynamics across schools of thought.

The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations

The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations

Author: Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1986-01-01

Total Pages: 568

ISBN-13: 9780887060946

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This book presents a new and original analysis of the great ancient civilizations, focusing on the breakthroughs and their institutionalization in Greece, Israel, China, and India. The conditions under which these civilizations developed are systematically explored. For comparative purposes, the civilization of Assyria, where such a breakthrough did not take place is analyzed. Attention is given to the transformation of modes of thought and symbolism. Special focus is brought to the development of the great religions and the perception of tension between the transcendental and mundane orders and between rulers and other elites.


Book Synopsis The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations by : Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt

Download or read book The Origins and Diversity of Axial Age Civilizations written by Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 568 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a new and original analysis of the great ancient civilizations, focusing on the breakthroughs and their institutionalization in Greece, Israel, China, and India. The conditions under which these civilizations developed are systematically explored. For comparative purposes, the civilization of Assyria, where such a breakthrough did not take place is analyzed. Attention is given to the transformation of modes of thought and symbolism. Special focus is brought to the development of the great religions and the perception of tension between the transcendental and mundane orders and between rulers and other elites.

How to Be

How to Be

Author: Adam Nicolson

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Published: 2023-10-17

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0374610118

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Nicolson crafts a geography of the ancient world and a brilliant exploration of our connections to the past. What is the nature of things? What is justice? How can I be myself? How should we treat each other? Before the Greeks, the idea of the world was dominated by god-kings and their priests. Twenty-five hundred years ago, in a succession of small eastern Mediterranean harbor cities, a few heroic men and women decided to cast off mental subservience and apply their own thinking minds to the conundrums of life. These great innovators shaped the beginnings of western philosophy. Through the questioning voyager Odysseus, Homer explored how we might navigate our way through the world. Heraclitus, in Ephesus, was the first to consider the interrelatedness of things. Xenophanes of Colophon was the first champion of civility. On the Aegean island of Lesbos, the early lyric poets Sappho and Alcaeus asked themselves, “How can I be true to myself?” On Samos, Pythagoras imagined an everlasting soul and took his ideas to Italy, where they flowered again in surprising and radical forms. The award-winning writer Adam Nicolson travels with us through this transforming world and asks what light these ancient thinkers can throw on our deepest preconceptions. Enhanced with maps, photographs, and artwork, How to Be is an expedition into early ideas. Nicolson takes us to the dawn of investigative thought and makes the fundamental questions of the ancient philosophers new again. What are the principles of the physical world? How can we be good in it? And why do we continue to ask these questions? It is an enthralling, exhilarating journey.


Book Synopsis How to Be by : Adam Nicolson

Download or read book How to Be written by Adam Nicolson and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2023-10-17 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nicolson crafts a geography of the ancient world and a brilliant exploration of our connections to the past. What is the nature of things? What is justice? How can I be myself? How should we treat each other? Before the Greeks, the idea of the world was dominated by god-kings and their priests. Twenty-five hundred years ago, in a succession of small eastern Mediterranean harbor cities, a few heroic men and women decided to cast off mental subservience and apply their own thinking minds to the conundrums of life. These great innovators shaped the beginnings of western philosophy. Through the questioning voyager Odysseus, Homer explored how we might navigate our way through the world. Heraclitus, in Ephesus, was the first to consider the interrelatedness of things. Xenophanes of Colophon was the first champion of civility. On the Aegean island of Lesbos, the early lyric poets Sappho and Alcaeus asked themselves, “How can I be true to myself?” On Samos, Pythagoras imagined an everlasting soul and took his ideas to Italy, where they flowered again in surprising and radical forms. The award-winning writer Adam Nicolson travels with us through this transforming world and asks what light these ancient thinkers can throw on our deepest preconceptions. Enhanced with maps, photographs, and artwork, How to Be is an expedition into early ideas. Nicolson takes us to the dawn of investigative thought and makes the fundamental questions of the ancient philosophers new again. What are the principles of the physical world? How can we be good in it? And why do we continue to ask these questions? It is an enthralling, exhilarating journey.

The Ritual Animal

The Ritual Animal

Author: Harvey Whitehouse

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 251

ISBN-13: 0199646368

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Copying rituals has allowed cultural groups to proliferate over time. Rare, traumatic rituals produce strong cohesion in small relational groups, whereas daily/weekly rituals produce cohesion in expandable communities. This study presents a theory of how these two ritual modes have influenced history over thousands of years.


Book Synopsis The Ritual Animal by : Harvey Whitehouse

Download or read book The Ritual Animal written by Harvey Whitehouse and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Copying rituals has allowed cultural groups to proliferate over time. Rare, traumatic rituals produce strong cohesion in small relational groups, whereas daily/weekly rituals produce cohesion in expandable communities. This study presents a theory of how these two ritual modes have influenced history over thousands of years.