TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: The Republic Marks a Quarter Millennium

On Thursday 04 July 1776—250 years ago today—the Continental Congress of the not-yet-existing United States approved the Declaration of Independence, which had been submitted two days previously, and the fourth of July is the date that appears on the Declaration of Independence. Having now survived for a quarter of a millennium, what does the US have to teach us about the historical longevity of political entities?

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/r3dudQvGxD

Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

Episode: S03EP58

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #USA #America #IndependenceDay #4thofJuly #LongueDurée

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Fackenheim on the Historicity of Man

Monday 22 June 2026 is the 110th anniversary of the birth of Emil Ludwig Fackenheim (22 June 1916 – 18 September 2003), who was born in Halle, Saxony, on this date in 1916.

Fackenheim’s book, The God Within: Kant, Schelling, and Historicity (1996), collects and expands upon his earlier work on history, including “Kant’s Concept of History” (1957) and Metaphysics and Historicity (1961), Historicity is, for Fackenheim, the one of the central metaphysical problems of our time, and he nicely contrasts historicity with transcendence, which gives us some idea of how he understood the concept of historicity.

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #EmilFackenheim #historicity #historicism #HumanNature #PirennePostulate

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: A Lunar Observation in AD 1178

On Sunday 18 June 1178—848 years ago today—at least five men witnessed a remarkable sight as they watched the moon in the evening sky apparently erupt in a violent episode, which was subsequently recorded by Gervase of Canterbury, who recorded their accounts in his chronicle. Can we make sense of these observations from nearly a millennium ago?

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #moon #lunar #1178 #ScientificObservation #astronomy #ControlledConditions #observation #PhilosophyofScience #incommensurability

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Kjellén on the State as a Form of Life

Saturday 13 June 2026 is the 162nd anniversary of the birth of Johan Rudolf Kjellén (13 June 1864, in Torsö – 14 November 1922, in Uppsala), who was born in Torsö, Sweden, on this date in 1864.

Kjellén belonged the earliest efflorescence of geopolitical thought at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. He himself introduced the term “geopolitics,” as well as “Folkhemmet,” and he was among the first, if not the first, to explicitly present a theory of the state as a living organism.

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #life #LivingOrganism #organicism #RudolfKjellén #PersonalPrinciple #TerritorialPrinciple #state #nation

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: The Historiography of the Renaissance in France

Monday 07 June 2026 is the 497th anniversary of the birthday of Étienne Pasquier (07 June 1529 – 01 September 1615), who was (perhaps) born in Paris on this date in 1529. Pasquier’s exact birthdate is disputed.

Pasquier belonged to a handful of scholars in renaissance France who saw themselves as laying the foundations for a New History. Some of the changes they envisions took root, but others did not, and the story of how parts of Pasquier’s Recherches de la France shaped French history thereafter while other parts were neglected takes us back to the origins of the Western historical tradition.

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory # ÉtiennePasquier #historicism #normative #paradigmatic # LaPopelinière #France #Franco-Trojan #Gaulish

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Spengler and Parochial Philosophies of History

Friday 29 May 2026 is the 146th anniversary of the birth of Oswald Spengler (29 May 1880 – 08 May 1936), who was born in Blankenburg, Germany, on this date in 1880.

Spengler has been one of the most influential philosophers of history, but, like Nietzsche, who profoundly influenced him, his work doesn’t always conform to scholarly expectations. One of the ways in which Spengler defied consensus was his denial that philosophy of history must be the philosophy of the whole of history. I show in this episode how this constitutes a parochial philosophy of history, and how we can build on this insight.

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #organism #organicism #OswaldSpengler #Spengler #parochialism #holism #universalism

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: W. F. Albright’s Organismic Philosophy of History

Sunday 24 May 2026 is the 135th anniversary of the birth of William Foxwell Albright (24 May 1891- 19 September 1971), who was born in Coquimbo, Chile, the child of missionaries, on this date in 1891.

Albright was a biblical historian and archaeologist who was possessed an a remarkably erudition that naturally spread beyond history and archaeology to also encompass philosophy of history. Albright presents many suggestive ideas toward what he calls an organismic philosophy of history, but much of it remains inchoate and would benefit for a more careful exposition.

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #WilliamFoxwellAlbright #Archaeology #BiblicalHistory #organismic #organism #Toynbee

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Russell’s Compatibilism and the Liberty of Indifference

Monday 18 May 2025 is the 154th anniversary of the birth of Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (18 May 1872 – 02 February 1970), better known simply as Bertrand Russell, who was born at Trellech, Monmouthshire, on this date in 1872.

Russell has been called “a large and complicated figure” in twentieth century philosophy. His legacy and influence is such as to defy summary and survey, so instead I take one lecture from his 1914 lectures Our Knowledge of the External World and consider its relationship to human action in the making of history.

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #freewill #determinism #compatibilism #BertrandRussell #LibertyofIndifference