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Tags: history
Reference
Notes:
Published in 1968, this book is a collection of essays which covers history in broad strokes. Each essay sticks to its own hue however and keeps one aspect to its theme. The final looks are of a western bias but not too heavily, and it’s more relevant to me. Although its date appears to show through the character chapter and through some of the limited “as-of-writing” data, I’m curious to research more into those.
Morals and History p.37
In a less knowledgeable view, one might stress the variability and difference in moral codes and conclude negligibility. With more knowledge, one stresses the universality of moral codes, and concludes their necessity.
Economic history has 3 stages:
- Hunter-Gatherer
- Agricultural revolution
- Industrial revolution We may expect the moral codes to change drastically in transition to these stages.
Though I don’t subscribe to one view of hunter-gatherer societies, we may see the moral needs of a tribe through the challenges they might have faced. “Pugnacity, brutality, greed, and sexual readiness were advantages in the struggle for existence. Probably every vice was once a virtue.. ..Man’s sins may be the relics of his rise rather than the stigmata of his fall.”
Agricultural age has different demands. “We may reasonably assume the new regime demanded new virtues, and changed some old virtues into vices.” Early marriage, planted land, children as economic assets, limited need of knowledge, monogamy and chastity
Economics and History p.52
No matter the system, history follows the concentration of and subsequent (usually violent) redistribution or dispersion of resources.