Following a question from a Patreon member, here is a reflection on Baudrillard and his theory of the Simulacra and how it relates to us and our condition today. Spoiler alert, I’m pretty sure he was really accurate in his analysis of the problem. Seemingly much less helpful, however, in what we can do about the position we find ourselves today.

Image Attribution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Ayaleila, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q11: Why Golden?

800 ad Abbasid Capital is established in Baghdad displacing the Umayids

801-873 Al Kindi and the Translation Movement

980-1037 Avicenna Medicine, Philosophy Bukhara

1126-1200 Averroes and the Al-Andalus

1258 Mongols sack Baghdad and destroy most libraries and books

Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī played a significant role in the development of algebra, arithmetic and Hindu-Arabic numerals. He has been described as the father of algebra. Another Persian mathematician, Omar Khayyam, is credited with identifying the foundations of algebraic geometry and found the general geometric solution of the cubic equation. His book Treatise on Demonstrations of Problems of Algebra (1070), which laid down the principles of algebra, is part of the body of Persian mathematics that was eventually transmitted to Europe. Yet another Persian mathematician, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Tūsī, found algebraic and numerical solutions to various cases of cubic equations. He also developed the concept of a function.

Ibn al-Haytham was the first to explain that vision occurs when light reflects from an object and then passes to one's eyes. And he was the first to point out that vision occurs in the brain, rather than in the eyes. He was also an early proponent of the concept that a hypothesis must be proved by experiments based on confirmable procedures or mathematical evidence—hence understanding the scientific method five centuries before Renaissance scientists.

Hospitals, Pharmacies, medical case studies, drug testing, trade with China, Travel writing, histories, philosophy, linguistic studies, literature, educational institutions, hydrology, astronomy.

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Wow, Iron is a huge, huge deal. Both the impact of the Iron itself and the cultural infrastructure necessary to harness the potential of Iron contributed to a revolution in civilization and a noticeable increase in both the global population and the rate of population increase. In some ways, Iron is likely as significant a contributor to civilization's growth as agriculture.

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A reflection on some of the differences I have experienced between France and the US. I start with some, at least to me, startling statistics about French working lives and economic situation and then expand to a more subjective sense of what I have ‘felt’ living in France that is quite distinct from the US. Delivered in lieu of my cancelled lecture.

Image Attribution: Lionel Allorge, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q10: So, About God?

Timeline of Catholicism

313 Legalization of Christianity under Constantine

325-800 Beginning with the Council of Nicaea a series of councils attempt to deal with various controversies and Heresies.

900-1200 Catholic Church consolidates Papal primacy and civil power and begins to systematize church hierarchy.

1200-1520 Beginning of the Inquisition and rise of the power of the Franciscans and Dominicans as enforcers of Church authority ending in the Reformation. 

Gnosticism 100: The word is the manifestation of a lesser being that deceives us about our own divinity and the true nature of the universal spirit. 

Arianism 300: Long running debate about the nature of Christ and the Trinity. Arianism denies that Christ was equal to God but rather subordinate and created by God. Essentially a type of Monotheism in debate with the concept of the Trinity.

Pelagianism 400: Man is not born with original sin, men's will is sufficient to live a perfect life, grace of god is helpful but no necessary to good works.

Catharism 1130-1300: Two gods - Old Testament god is evil, New Testament God is good and they are at war. Christ is an Angel so no actual resurrection.

Henricians 1130-1180: Rejects authority of the central church, the Gospels openly read as the sole foundation of truth, most all organized forms of worship.

Fraticelli 1270-1440: Strict adherence to a vow of poverty. All wealth and property were seen as falling from the true teaching of Christ. 

American Liberalism 1176-today: Pope Leo XIII (1895 and 1899) Condemned many aspects of American liberalism - particularly separation of church and state, freedom of speech, divorce laws,  and reliance on reason.

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The Anthropological and Archaeological records strongly suggest we love, love, love creating gods. Whether via animism or anthropomorphic super-beings, humans seem to love placing ourselves within the context of a world filled with supernatural beings different from, yet fundamentally similar to humans. 

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Two well regarded authors to the impact of AI robots and their impacts on humans as their subjects for novels. The results are a fascinating contrast in tone, style, and emphasis that highlights the many different reasons, and ways, we read.

Image credit: https://easy-peasy.ai

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The History of Philosophy in 16 Questions - Q9: The New World?

Mayan Civilization 

2,000-750 B.C. earliest developments

750 B.C. to 250 A.D. Cities, construction of monumental architecture

250- 900 A.D. Long Count Calendar and spread of city states. Height of Mayan Civilization

900-1500 Post classical period, shift in power centers, fragmentation.

1500-1600 Contact and conquest by the Spanish

Aztec Civilization

600 A.D. Nahuatl speaking peoples begin to settle in Mexico

600-1400 The Mixica and related groups travel around central Mexico without settling and forming an identifiable civilization. 

1435-1522 founding of the Captial city of Tenochtitlan on Lake Texcoco and expansion of Aztec empire

Aztec Philosophy

Nahua metaphysics is processive. Process, movement, becoming and transmutation are essential attributes of teotl. Teotl is properly understood as ever-flowing and ever-changing energy-in-motion -- not as a discrete, static entity. Because doing so better reflects teotl's dynamic and processual nature, I suggest  . . word "teotl" as a verb denoting process and movement rather than as a noun denoting a discrete static entity. So construed, "teotl" refers to the eternal, universal process of teotlizing. James Maffie

 "on earth we travel, we live along a mountain peak. Over here there is an abyss, over there there is an abyss. Wherever thou art to deviate, wherever thou art to go astray, there will thou fall, there wilt thou plunge into the deep" (Sahagun 1953-82:VI,p.125).

Mayan Philosophy

It this unfolding that is described by the Popol Vuh itself. The connection of daykeeping to humans as a central function is of particular importance. Humans play a pivotal role in ordering of the cosmos and its continual creation. The ordering of the days does no happen without humans . . . The world is structured in and through time. (Alexus McLeod)

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Perhaps THE breakthrough that makes the major components of civilization possible, writing transformed our capacity to understand both the world and ourselves. Nonetheless, literacy was historically exceedingly rare and even today is not universally considered an important capacity.

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Our powerful belief in the economic narrative of investment and growth blinds us to the actual nature of the world we experience and the problems we face. Much like Luther’s critique of the Catholic church, re-thinking this concept would be so disruptive as to cause a complete rethink of our approach to economic challenges - something we are so far unwilling to do.

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