Just one damned thing after another

[Kirkhill]

"Some historians hold [incorrectly] that history is just one damned thing after another" is attributed to 20th century scholar Arnold Toynbee. Toynbee believed that history is more than a series of events and can be understood rationally,

I hold that Toynbee was more wrong than right. There may be rational threads to history but the net effect is so complex as to be random.

This author holds that European liberals, and I will suggest liberals at large, are too invested in progress. Progress suggests movement towards some target state of perfection.

Liberal Europe must learn some history lessons to survive

Giving up the idea that 1989 marked an epochal victory for its worldview would reveal our current moment more clearly

www.ft.com

Embrace chaos. The universe is random.

God's will. Deus vult. Insh'allah. Shit luck. Stuff happens. Or, in the words attributed to St Francis ..."grant me the serenity...."

Om mani padme om.

...

Back to may favourite Canadian philosophers - learn to step lively

 

[daftandbarmy]

The 'Treason of the Intellectuals' enters the chat...

Niall Ferguson: The Treason of the Intellectuals

Anyone who has a naive belief in the power of higher education to instill morality has not studied the history of German universities in the Third Reich.

Niall Ferguson: The Treason of the Intellectuals

Anyone who has a naive belief in the power of higher education to instill morality has not studied the history of German universities in the Third Reich.

www.thefp.com

 

[dimsum]

I hold that Toynbee was more wrong than right. There may be rational threads to history but the net effect is so complex as to be random.

This author holds that European liberals, and I will suggest liberals at large, are too invested in progress. Progress suggests movement towards some target state of perfection.

Liberal Europe must learn some history lessons to survive

Giving up the idea that 1989 marked an epochal victory for its worldview would reveal our current moment more clearly

www.ft.com

Embrace chaos. The universe is random.

God's will. Deus vult. Insh'allah. Shit luck. Stuff happens. Or, in the words attributed to St Francis ..."grant me the serenity...."

Om mani padme om.

...

Back to may favourite Canadian philosophers - learn to step lively

It’s also the main theme of the book “Fluke” by Brian Klass.

Fluke

This “captivating illustration of the follies of trying to model and forecast the unpredictable world” (Financial Times) is both “empowering” (The ...

www.simonandschuster.com