DOCSLIB.ORG

Theory and History: an Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution Pdf, Epub, Ebook

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Theory and History: an Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution Pdf, Epub, Ebook THEORY AND HISTORY: AN INTERPRETATION OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC EVOLUTION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Ludwig von Mises,Bettina Bien Greave | 275 pages | 01 Aug 2005 | Liberty Fund Inc | 9780865975699 | English | Indianapolis, IN, United States Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution PDF Book This undeniable fact provides a common ground on which political discussions between men become possible. Its primary concern is on efficient production and assumes that the market will allocate the rewards of efficient production in a rational and unbiased manner. It is obvious that there are many people who let their reasoning be influenced by judgments of value, and that bias often corrupts the thinking of men. Austrian by birth, von Mises wrote during the mid-twentieth century being an atheist of Jewish ethnicity. Cozzi, R. Roth, Economists and the State. Pacella, Sidney and Beatrice Webb: towards an ethical foundation of the operation of the labour market ; D. Cedrini, Keynes, the Great Depression, and international economic relations ; Jan Kregel, Economists and depression: did it happen again? If nonetheless the occurrence of such an event is reported, two different interpretations are provided, both of which, however, fully agree in taking for granted the inexorability of the laws of nature. It asserts that there is regularity in the universe in the concatenation of all phenomena. Error rating book. By using Investopedia, you accept our. The solution requires a shift inemphasis, a reorientation of theories and new methods. It is not a shortcoming of the sciences of human action that they have not succeeded in discovering determinate stimulus-response patterns. Both schools misunderstood the Darwinian concept of the struggle for survival. This book does a great This is the type of book that anyone with an interest in philosophy should read. Marxism is a revolutionary doctrine. Materialist monism was rejected as incompatible with the Christian dualism of the Creator and the creation, and of the immortal soul and the mortal body. He has to ask whether or not the means employed were fit to attain the ends the acting individuals sought. Atheistic Intuition 7. That the dominant states may fight over the disposition of dependent territories is not in and of itself a pertinent bit of information except that periods of fighting among dominant states affords opportunities for the dependent states to break their dependent relationships. As soon as people venture to question and to examine an end, they no longer look upon it as an end but deal with it as a means to attain a still higher end. Call for papers. The champions of this doctrine did not ask what the consequences of realizing the schemes they called just would be. Two questions immediately arise. It was this fact that made slavery disappear as a system of managing production. The econometrician is unable to disprove this fact, which cuts the ground from under his reasoning. These three articles illustrate the patterned yet imperfectly shared realms of social context which arise from individuals and their practices and serve to tie people to their families, communities, organizations, and histories. Underdevelopment refers to a situation in which resources are being actively used, but used in a way which benefits dominant states and not the poorer states in which the resources are found. They are ultimate and not subject to any proof or evidence. Collectivism is a doctrine of war, intolerance, and persecution. Four other articles in this volume detail study methods and findings: a the study overview, methods, and major findings Pasick, Burke, et al. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. It is impossible to predict the future based on past trends or worldviews that have been discredited by "discursive reasoning". These propositions include:. As soon as we start to refute by arguments an ultimate judgment of value, we look upon it as a means to attain definite ends. He was expelled from France and then lived for a brief period in Belgium before moving to London where he spent the rest of his life with his wife. Human Action: The Scholar's Edition. He does not condemn featherbedding of the railroadmen because it benefits the railroadmen at the expense of other groups whom he likes better. Lombardi, Knowledge, co-ordination, organisation: Brian Loasby's search for connection, organisation: Brian Loasby's search for connecting principles ; Book reviews; Announcements. I sure learned alot unexpected stuff reading this book. Open Preview See a Problem? The march of social philosophy toward this inescapable conclusion was slowed down by many obstacles which could not be removed Edition: current; Page: [ 31 ] easily. Some of his charges are true enough. This article contributes to the emerging public health literature by suggesting a third approach to social context. Mir hat das Buch gut gefallen. Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution Writer In the Mises tradition he uses all of his favorite big words. Conduct suited to preserve social cooperation is just, conduct detrimental to the preservation of society is unjust. But this is a dissent concerning means, not ultimate ends. Get A Copy. Aspromourgos, The mind of the oeconomist: an overview of the "Petty Papers" archive ; A. Related Articles. As soon as we start to refute by arguments an ultimate judgment of value, we look upon it as a means to attain definite ends. The apparent causal arrangement on a large scale is to be explained by the law of large numbers. Faucci, V. Secular power was instrumental in the struggle between the Reformation and the Counter Reformation. Palermo, Are we all post Keynesians? For a more concrete understanding of social context, we can consider various interacting realms that all influence the individual and are influenced by the individual. Having, in cooperation with some allied groups, defeated several of the hostile groups, the leading group in the coalition turns against its previous allies in order to annihilate them too and to establish its own world supremacy. Carabelli and Mario A. The worst and most dangerous form of absolutist rule is that of an intolerant majority. To a dependency theorist, the central characteristic of the global economy is the persistence of poverty throughout the entire modern period in virtually the same areas of the world, regardless of what state was in control. In den Naturwissenschaften bedeutet das Gesetzt von Ursache und Wirkung, dass man das Ergebnis eines Versuches vorhersagen kann. As they are not in a position to find any flaw either in the reasoning of economics or in the inferences derived from it, they resort to metaphysical schemes in order to discredit the epistemological foundations and the methodological approach of economics. A theoretical proposal for the relationship between context and disease. The mental acts that determine the content of a choice refer either to ultimate ends or to the means to attain ultimate ends. But they argue differently. The Idea of Natural Law 5. It was incompatible with the principles of utilitarian philosophy. Da die Geschichte kein Ziel kennt, kann dies auch nicht der angeblich unvermeidliche Sozialismus sein. Today it is fairly generally endorsed by writers and politicians who, although they are in many respects influenced by Marxian ideas, cannot simply be considered Marxians. Harper, Dr. Error rating book. The most experience can teach us is: in all cases observed in the past there was an ascertainable regularity. The econometrician is unable to disprove this fact, which cuts the ground from under his reasoning. Now the law of large numbers and statistical compensation is operative only in fields in which there prevail large-scale regularity and homogeneity of such a character that they offset any irregularity and heterogeneity that may seem to exist on the small-scale level. For example, one of the dominant state practices most often criticized by dependency theorists is export agriculture. While it's unclear whether either Thackeray or Marx was aware of the other's work, both men meant the word to have a pejorative ring. Thus he differs from Bourdieu in that he sees the individual as more autonomous, and less constrained by social and class structures. With regard to them there cannot be any question of truth and falsity. Article Sources. Here too they misconstrue the utilitarian doctrine. Human knowledge is conditioned by the power of the human mind and by the extent of the sphere in which objects evoke human sensations. It was this fact that made slavery disappear as a system of managing production. Review article: M. The idea that societal structure and transformations from one order to the next can be the result of technological change in how things are produced in an economy is known as historical materialism. The religious appeal to absolute eternal values did not do away with conflicting judgments of value. The characteristic feature of a free society is that it can function in spite of the fact that its members disagree in many judgments of value. From that time on socialists no longer based their hopes upon the power of their arguments but upon the resentment, envy, and hatred of the masses. The second dogma of the nationalist and racist philosophies is considered by its supporters a logical conclusion derived from their first dogma. Hence, consistent fatalism concluded, it is useless for man to act. This undeniable fact provides a common ground on which political discussions between men become possible. Dominguez ; Joseph He anticipates fully and correctly all the arbitrary decisions any individual will ever make. Under industrial capitalism, society is ordered with capitalists organizing labor in factories or offices where they work for wages. Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution Reviews Over the past decade, several critiques of behavioral models have attempted to move the focus of health promotion research and practice beyond the realm of individual behavior by demonstrating the inextricable ways that context, in a variety of forms, is integral to health and health behavior outcomes.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Do Theorists of History Have a Theory of History? Reflections on a Non-Discipline
    HISTÓRIA DA Ouro Preto / MG - Brasil HISTORIOGRAFIA Do Theorists of History Have a Theory of History? Reflections on a Non-Discipline Os teóricos da História possuem uma Teoria da História? Reflexões sobre uma não disciplina Zoltán Boldizsár Simon https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8763-7415 ABSTRACT This brief article is a discussion-starter on the question of the role and use of theories and philosophies of history. RESUMO In the last few decades, theories of history typically intended to transform the practice of historical studies Este breve artigo faz uma discussão inicial sobre o papel through a straightforward application of their insights. e o uso de teorias e filosofias da história. Nas últimas Contrary to this, I argue that they either bring about décadas, as teorias da história em geral pretenderam particular historiographical innovations in terms of transformar a prática dos estudos históricos por meio methodology but leave the entirety of historical studies de uma aplicação direta de seus insights. Em vez disso, intact or change the way we think about the entirety argumento que essas teorias ou trazem inovações of historical studies merely by describing and explaining historiográficas particulares em termos de metodologia, it in fresh and novel ways, without the need (and mas deixam a totalidade dos estudos históricos intactos, possibility) of application. In the former case, theories ou transformam a maneira como nós pensamos sobre appear as internal to historical studies. In the latter case, a totalidade dos estudos históricos apenas descrevendo they appear as theories about history, and such theories e explicando-os através de formas novas e inovadoras, are no longer limited to study history understood as sem a necessidade (e possibilidade) de aplicação.
    [Show full text]
  • Yale University Department of Political Science Syllabus THE
    Yale University Department of Political Science Syllabus THE PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY, AND SOCIOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (Seminar) Nuno P. Monteiro Office: Rosenkranz 226, Tuesdays 2:00‐4:00 [email protected] Class: Rosenkranz 202, Tuesdays, 9:20‐11:10 Spring 2010 PLSC 193/671 COURSE OBJECTIVES This seminar explores the philosophical foundations of the study of international relations, as well as the history and sociology of the discipline. We’ll cover the historical development of IR as a professional discipline since the interwar period, going over the main foundational debates that organized the field, and addressing its sociological evolution. By the end of the course, students should have an understanding of the main meta‐theoretical issues in the discipline and thus be able to enlarge their toolkit to critically engage scholarship in IR, political science, and the social sciences more broadly. COURSE OUTLINE The course covers the historical evolution of IR as a professional discipline from the meta‐theoretical perspective. As the field evolves, we’ll look at the development of the philosophical foundations of IR scholarship, covering the main positions in it and addressing the main criticisms of each. Finally, we’ll study the sociology of IR, interrogating the ways in which scholarship is produced and the field is structured and disciplined. REQUIREMENTS, GRADING, AND DEADLINES Basic knowledge of IR theory is a plus. The course will consist in a series of seminar sessions with pre‐assigned readings. Students are expected to do all the readings prior to each session, as well as attend and participate in all sessions.
    [Show full text]
  • Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School
    Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School Ralph Raico Foreword by Jörg Guido Hülsmann Preface by David Gordon LvMI MISES INSTITUTE The cover design by Chad Parish shows the Neptune Fountain, at the Schönbrunn Palace, in Vienna. Copyright © 2012 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given. Ludwig von Mises Institute 518 West Magnolia Avenue Auburn, Alabama 36832 mises.org ISBN: 978-1-61016-003-2 Dedicated to the memory of the great Ludwig von Mises Table of Contents Foreword by Jörg Guido Hülsmann . ix Preface by David Gordon . xiii Introduction . .xxv 1. Classical Liberalism and the Austrian School . .1 2. Liberalism: True and False . .67 3. Intellectuals and the Marketplace. 111 4. Was Keynes a Liberal? . .149 5. The Conflict of Classes: Liberal vs. Marxist Theories. .183 6. The Centrality of French Liberalism . .219 7. Ludwig von Mises’s Liberalism on Fascism, Democracy, and Imperalism . .255 8. Eugen Richter and the End of German Liberalism. .301 9. Arthur Ekirch on American Militarism . .331 Index. .339 vii Foreword “History looks backward into the past, but the lesson it teaches concerns things to come. It does not teach indolent quietism; it rouses man to emulate the deeds of earlier generations.” Ludwig von Mises1 The present book contains a collection of essays written through- out the past twenty years. I read virtually all of them when they were first published. They have been a central part of my education in the history of liberalism and of the Austrian School of economics, and I consider myself privileged indeed to have encountered Professor Raico and his work early on in my intellectual development.
    [Show full text]
  • Tensions Between Theory and History in Von Mises’S Critique of Socialism
    Revista de Economia Contemporânea (2018) 22(2): p. 1-23 (Journal of Contemporary Economics) ISSN 1980-5527 http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/198055272221 elocation - e182221 www.ie.ufrj.br/revista | www.scielo.br/rec TENSIONS BETWEEN THEORY AND HISTORY IN VON MISES’S CRITIQUE OF SOCIALISM Emmanoel Boffa aProfessor da Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF). Manuscript received on 2017/06/13 and accepted for publication on 2018/03/13.1 ABSTRACT: The article investigates the relation between praxeology and history in the critique Mises directs at the possibility of the long-term existence of a socialist commonwealth. We argue that Mises makes no clear distinction between the praxeological concept of 'private property' (associated with the possession of means of production) and the historical concept of the ideal-type 'private property' (associated to property rights – see HODGSON, 2015). The lack of precision between the theoretical and the historical concepts of private property prevents Mises’s critique from being an 'exact law', as he would have it. Finally, we show in the last section the consequences for Mises’s critique of socialism of having a historical and a praxeological concept of private property. KEYWORDS: Mises; socialism; socialist calculation; critique. JEL CODE: B13, B14, B15. Corresponding Author: Emmanoel Boff Contact: [email protected] All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Rev. Econ. Contemp., v. 22, n. 2, p. 1 -23, mai./ago. 2018: e182221 1 DOI: 10.1590/198055272221 License. BOFF, E. Tensions between theory and history in von mises’s critique of socialism TENSÕES ENTRE TEORIA E HISTÓRIA NA CRÍTICA DE VON MISES AO SOCIALISMO RESUMO: O artigo investiga a relação entre a praxeologia e a história na crítica que von Mises dirige à possibilidade da existência de socialismo no longo prazo.
    [Show full text]
  • Mises, Ludwig
    THEORY AND HISTORY An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution Copyright 1985 by Margit von Mises. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced without written permission of the publisher by Ludwig von Mises (Auburn: AL, The Mises Institute), except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in connection with a review. with new preface by Murray N. Rothbard Copyright 1957 by Yale University Press. Reprinted 1969 by Arlington House, Publishes, in an unaltered and unabridged edition. THE LUDWIG VON MISES INSTITUTE This online edition, The Mises Institute 2001, has retained the pagination Auburn, Alabama of the 1985 edition (Auburn: The Mises Institute) and the original 1957 www.mises.org edition (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press) for purposes of citation. Contents CHAPTER 3. THE QUEST FOR ABSOLUTE VALUES 9. The Issue (p. 35) Preface by Murray N. Rothbard (p. xi) 10. Conflicts with Society (p. 37) 11. A Remark on the Alleged Medieval Unanimity (p. 42) 12. The Idea of Natural Law (p. 44) INTRODUCTION 13. Revelation (p. 49) 1. Methodological Dualism (p. 1) 14. Atheistic Intuition (p. 50) 1. Economics and Metaphysics (p. 3) 15. The Idea of Justice (p. 51) 2. Regularity and Prediction (p. 4) 16. The Utilitarian Doctrine Restated (p. 55) 3. The Concept of the Laws of Nature (p. 5) 17. On Aesthetic Values (p. 61) 4. The Limitations of Human Knowledge (p. 8) 18. The Historical Significance of the Quest for Absolute Values (p. 5. Regularity and Choosing (p. 9) 63) 6. Means and Ends (p. 12) CHAPTER 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes and Recollections the Liberty Fund Library of the Works of Ludwig Von Mises Edited by Bettina Bien Greaves
    notes and recollections The Liberty Fund Library of the Works of Ludwig von Mises edited by bettina bien greaves The Anti-capitalistic Mentality Bureaucracy Economic Freedom and Interventionism: An Anthology of Articles and Essays Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow Epistemological Problems of Economics Human Action: A Treatise on Economics Interventionism: An Economic Analysis Liberalism: The Classical Tradition Money, Method, and the Market Process Nation, State, and Economy: Contributions to the Politics and History of Our Time Notes and Recollections: With The Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics Omnipotent Government: The Rise of the Total State and Total War On the Manipulation of Money and Credit: Three Treatises on Trade-Cycle Theory Planning for Freedom: Let the Market System Work A Collection of Essays and Addresses Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis Theory and History: An Interpretation of Social and Economic Evolution The Theory of Money and Credit The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method edited by richard m. ebeling Selected Writings of Ludwig von Mises Volume 1: Monetary and Economic Policy Problems Before, During, and After the Great War Volume 2: Between the Two World Wars: Monetary Disorder, Interventionism, Socialism, and the Great Depression Volume 3: The Political Economy of International Reform and Reconstruction ludwig von mises Notes and Recollections With The Historical Setting of the Austrian School of Economics ludwig von mises Edited and with a Preface by Bettina Bien Greaves L liberty fund Indianapolis This book is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a foundation established to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.
    [Show full text]
  • Positivism, Natural Law and Conjectural History in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century English Legal Thought
    Michael Lobban Theory in history: positivism, natural law and conjectural history in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English legal thought Book section Original citation: Originally published in Del Mar, Maksymilian and Lobban, Michael, (eds.) Law in Theory and History: New Essays on a Neglected Dialogue. Hart Publishing, Oxford, UK. ISBN 9781849467995 © 2016 Hart Publishing This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/69172/ Available in LSE Research Online: January 2017 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s submitted version of the book section. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. 12 Theory in History: Positivism, Natural law and Conjectural History in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth- Century English Legal Thought Michael Lobban Contemporary jurisprudence can be very tribal. Rival schools compete with each other to show that they have the best answers to fundamental questions about the nature of law and legal reasoning.
    [Show full text]
  • The Economic Theory of Bureaucracy: Insights from the Niskanian Model and the Misesian Approach
    THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS 12, NO. 3 (2009): 57–78 THE ECONOMIC THEORY OF BUREAUCRACY: INSIGHTS FROM THE NISKANIAN MODEL AND THE MISESIAN APPROACH LAURENT A.H. CARNIS1 ABSTRACT: Governmental interventions in the economy take numerous forms, and they require the existence of a public authority, a bureaucracy, to implement them. This article pro- poses an analysis of the origins and the dynamics of bureaucracy, and discusses means of escaping bureaucracy’s disadvantages. I will proceed by means of a comparison between the theories of Niskanen and Mises, two impressive and very representative works from the Public Choice School and the Austrian School of economics. Although Mises and Niskanen share a common analy- sis of the defect of bureaucratic management, there are strong disagreements between the two authors about the reasons for the existence of bureaus and about their functioning and their defi- ciencies. Inevitably, the means proposed by Niskanen and Mises for escaping the disadvantages of bureaucracy are different and can not be reconciled. Laurent A.H. Carnis ([email protected]) is a transport economist for the French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research (INRETS). He is also associate researcher with CES, Sorbonne Economic Center, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. The author is solely responsible for ideas developed in this paper, and they in no way reflect upon INRETS. The author thanks Nicolai Gertchev and Gabriel Giménez Roche for their assistance to improve the English version of this article, Katarina Zajc, Sanford Ikeda and the attendees of the Mises Seminar organized by the Istituto Bruno Leoni in Sestri Levante for their comments on the comparison of Niskanian and Misesian models of bureaucracy.
    [Show full text]
  • Ludwig Von Mises
    Economic Insights FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF DALLAS VOLUME 6, NUMBER 4 Ludwig von Mises This Economic Insights features one of Ludwig Elder von Mises’ life was Fritz Machlup, Oskar Morgenstern and testament to the saying that one man Lionel Robbins. the free economy’s most famous intellectual with courage makes a majority. Between his departure from Vienna warriors, Ludwig von Mises. Working from Mises was born in 1881 in in 1934 and his decision to go to America Lemberg, Austria-Hungary. He enrolled after the Germans breached the Maginot within the Austrian paradigm, in 1912 Mises in the University of Vienna in 1900 and Line in June 1940, Mises taught in became the first to apply marginal utility theory received his doctorate in law and eco- Geneva at the Graduate Institute of Inter- nomics in 1906. A student of Eugen von national Studies. He flourished in the to money itself, in The Theory of Money and Böhm-Bawerk—himself an admirer of Swiss city and was very reluctant to Credit, his first major work. He triggered one of Carl Menger, father of the Austrian school leave, especially as his English was much of economics—Mises became one of weaker than his French. But the fall of economics’ most contentious and enlightening the university’s most prominent figures. France, the antipathy of the Nazi gov- debates a few years later with his claim that cen- After graduating, Mises worked for the ernment—which blacklisted him—and Vienna Chamber of Commerce as an his wife Margit’s pleadings made his tral planning, regardless of its undesirability on economist and economic advisor to the departure a near certainty.
    [Show full text]
  • Epistemological Problems of Economics
    EPISTEMOLOGICAL PROBLEMS OF ECONOMICS THIRD EDITION Ludwig von Mises Translated by George Reisman Introduction to the Third Edition by Jörg Guido Hülsmann Grundprobleme der Nationalökonomie: Untersuchungen über Verfahren, Aufgaben und Inhalt der Wirtschafts- und Gesellschaftslehre (1933) Epistemological Problems of Economics Translated from the German by George Reisman Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada by D. Van Nostrand Co., 1960 Reprinted 1978 by New York University Press, with Foreword by Ludwig M. Lachmann Copyright © 1976 Institute for Humane Studies Third edition 2003 by Ludwig von Mises Institute Copyright © Bettina Bien Greaves ISBN: 0-945466-36-6 CONTENTS Introduction to the Third Edition . .ix Foreword to the 1978 Edition . .lvii Preface to the English-Language Edition . .lxv Preface to the German Edition . .lxxi 1 THE TASK AND SCOPE OF THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN ACTION . .1 I. The Nature and Development of the Social Sciences . .1 1. Origin in the historical and normative sciences . .1 2. Economics . .3 3. The program of sociology and the quest for historical laws . .4 4. The standpoint of historicism . .5 5. The standpoint of empiricism . .8 6. The logical character of the universally valid science of human action . .13 7. Sociology and economics: Some comments on the history of economic thought . .18 II. The Scope and Meaning of the System of A Priori Theorems . .24 1. The basic concept of action and its categorical conditions . .24 2. A priori theory and empirical confirmation . .28 3. Theory and the facts of experience . .32 4. The distinction between means and ends: The “irrational” . .33 III. Science and Value .
    [Show full text]
  • Theory History Theses
    #THEORYREVOLT THEORYREVOLT.COM THESES ` ON THEORYAND HISTORY WILD ON COLLECTIVE MAY 2018 ETHAN KLEINBERG JOAN WALLACH SCOTT GARY WILDER PROLOGUE: DEDICATED TO CLIO, MUSE OF Sing Clio, daughter of Zeus, Theory’s rage HISTORY at the violations of your charge. You, who told Hesiod, “we know how to speak false things that seem true, but we know when we will, to utter true things.” Now is the time to utter true things, for Theory has been dishonored in your house, displaced by empires of empiricism, fetishism of archives, dictates of discipline, enforcement of orthodoxy, and impotent story-telling. Without Theory, History is naught but tales, told by victors and moralists, signifying nothing beyond themselves. Without Theory, the operations of power and sources of injustice remain mystified, impenetrable to us mortals. Our observations, when limited to description, ill-equip us for the critical thought we so desperately need, even to analyze those repositories of memory that are your charge. O Clio, we enlist your ear. Listen, please, to our voices of rage. With these theses on Theory and History we invite you to sanctify our mission and to commend us to the gods. DISCIPLINARYON THE LIMITSHISTORY OF I.1 Academic history has never managed to transcend its eighteenth century origins as an empiricist enterprise. By this we mean not David Hume’s earlier skeptical approach but the scientistic method intrinsi- cally inked to positivism, which Horkheimer called “modern empiricism” that was later adopted across the human sciences. Academic history remains dedicated to this method of gath- ering facts in order to produce interpretations by referring them to supposedly given contexts and organizing them into chronological narratives.
    [Show full text]
  • Chaos, Clio, and Scientific Illusions of Understanding" (PDF)
    Wesleyan University Chaos, Clio, and Scientific Illusions of Understanding Author(s): Paul A. Roth and Thomas A. Ryckman Reviewed work(s): Source: History and Theory, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Feb., 1995), pp. 30-44 Published by: Blackwell Publishing for Wesleyan University Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2505582 . Accessed: 20/04/2012 19:31 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Blackwell Publishing and Wesleyan University are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to History and Theory. http://www.jstor.org CHAOS, CLIO, AND SCIENTISTIC ILLUSIONS OF UNDERSTANDING* PAUL A. ROTH and THOMAS A. RYCKMAN ABSTRACT A number of authors have recently argued that the mathematical insights of "chaos theory" offer a promising formal model or significant analogy for understanding at least some historical events. We examine a representative claim of each kind regarding the application of chaos theory to problems of historical explanation. We identify two lines of argument. One we term the Causal Thesis, which states that chaos theory may be used to plausibly model, and so explain, historical events. The other we term the Convergence Thesis, which holds that, once the analogy between history and chaos theory is properly appreciated, any temptation to divide history from the rest of science should be greatly lessened.
    [Show full text]