Part of a Series on the Philosophy of History — Today is the 395th anniversary of the birth of Jacques-Bénigne Lignel Bossuet (27 September 1627–12 April 1704), who was born on this date in 1627, and who came to be known as the Eagle of Meaux. Bossuet is known in the philosophy of history for his work Discourse on Universal…

And the Destruction of the Parthenon on 26 September 1687 — 335 years ago today, the Parthenon, which had managed to remain nearly intact through more than two millennia, was mostly destroyed in an engagement between the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice. The Parthenon was completed in the form that we know it (i.e., in its ruined form) in…

Friday 23 September 2022 — Today was the SESA (Space Education and Strategic Applications) Space Ethics Panel, organized and chaired by Michelle Hanlon of For All Moonkind, and with Frank White, Dan Hawk, and myself as panelists. Each of us spoke ten or fifteen minutes, then took questions from Michelle and from the audience. …

Part of a Series on the Philosophy of History — Today is the 105th anniversary of the birth of Francis Parker Yockey (18 September 1917–16 June 1960), who was born on this date in 1917. A great many philosophers of history have been influenced by Oswald Spengler, but while Spengler’s influence has been wide, that influence has not usually been…

Part of a Series on the Philosophy of History — Today is the 279th anniversary of the birth of Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis of Condorcet (17 September 1743–29 March 1794), who was born on this day in 1743. Cordorcet was one of the great Enlightenment philosophers of history. He was a man of this age and fully…

Friday 16 September 2022 — The bulk of the past week I spent working on my presentation “Becoming Homo Historiensis: Scientific History and Its Discontents,” and in thinking about habitability. My thoughts on habitability are as yet inchoate so I cannot give a good exposition of them. The former project is coming together, albeit slowly…

Part of a Series on the Philosophy of History — Today is the 199th anniversary of the birth of Francis Parkman Jr. (16 September 1823–08 November 1893), who was born on this date in 1823. Every account of Parkman notes that Parkman was a Boston Brahmin who went west and experienced (according to the particular account), a culture shock, or…

Part of a Series on the Philosophy of History — Today is the 99th anniversary of the birth of Bruce Mazlish (15 September 1923–27 November 2016), who was born on this date in 1923. A prolific modern scholar who wrote many books, Mazlish was part of the mid-twentieth century movement that sought to integrate scientific psychology into the writing of…

Part of a Series on the Philosophy of History — Today is the 119th anniversary of the birth of Theodor W. Adorno (11 September 1903–06 August 1969), who was born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund on this date in 1903. Adorno is remembered today as one of the leading members of the Frankfurt School. The Frankfurt School as a whole has had…