Introduction I regret never having met my maternal grandparents. They were secular Austrian Jews who fled Vienna shortly after the Anschluss (Nazi invasion) in 1938. They went from Austria through Czechoslovakia to what was then Palestine and then by boat to Australia via France. My mother, who was just six years old, remembers asking why the family was going to […]
Stages of human history in less than 6,000 words (mainly for teens and adults who want a short summary of history)
Summary: Six stages of history are hunter gathers, farming societies, city states and empires, middle ages, early modern era and industrial revolution. The stages overlap and each later stage is shorter than the one that preceded it. Stages of history It is useful to think of the history of human beings as falling into broad […]
The Middle Age Philosophers
The main philosophers of the Middle Ages were religious thinkers; St Augustine (354- 430 CE) and Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 CE) for Christianity and Averroes ( 1126-1198 CE) for Islam. Augustine was influenced by the thinking of Plato and the teachings of the Neo-Platonist, Plotinus (204–270 CE). He thought that faith and reason could be reconciled […]
Ancient Greece- Precursors to modern philosophy and science
Summary: The Ancient Greeks set out most of the questions that have been of interest to philosophers as well as many questions addressed by modern science. The Pre-Socratic Greeks The Ancient Greeks set out most of the questions that have been of interest to philosophers as well as many questions addressed by modern […]
Violence- A controversy over history
Summary: Discusses human beings and violence focussing on Steven Pinker’s idea that human violence is decreasing and criticism of Pinker’s views. It touches on pacifism and just violence theory as well as the problem of state violence. It explores tension between the principles self -determination and the duty to protect. Human beings and violence Human history is filled with war and other acts of violence. The natural world […]