Divination and Human Nature casts a new perspective on the rich tradition of ancient divination―the reading of divine signs in oracles; omens; and dreams. Popular attitudes during classical antiquity saw these readings as signs from the gods while modern scholars have treated such beliefs as primitive superstitions. In this book; Peter Struck reveals instead that such phenomena provoked an entirely different accounting from the ancient philosophers. These philosophers produced subtle studies into what was an odd but observable fact―that humans could sometimes have uncanny insights―and their work signifies an early chapter in the cognitive history of intuition.Examining the writings of Plato; Aristotle; the Stoics; and the Neoplatonists; Struck demonstrates that they all observed how; setting aside the charlatans and swindlers; some people had premonitions defying the typical bounds of rationality. Given the wide differences among these ancient thinkers; Struck notes that they converged on seeing this surplus insight as an artifact of human nature; projections produced under specific conditions by our physiology. For the philosophers; such unexplained insights invited a speculative search for an alternative and more naturalistic system of cognition.Recovering a lost piece of an ancient tradition; Divination and Human Nature illustrates how philosophers of the classical era interpreted the phenomena of divination as a practice closer to intuition and instinct than magic.
#46788 in Books David W Anthony 2010-08-15Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.14 x 1.34 x 6.10l; 1.76 #File Name: 069114818X568 pagesThe Horse the Wheel and Language How Bronze Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Serious proto-indo-european archaeology. Not pop science!By Alan U. KenningtonThis is a seriously professional book on the archaeology and reconstructed early history of Indo-European languages. The author not only answers the question very convincingly of where PIE originated geographically; but also the more puzzling question of how this language group spread so successfully.The conclusions of the book are stated clearly in Chapter 17; pages 458-470. (If you don't like pots; bones; mud and horses' teeth that much; you could start with Chapter 17.) First; the author leaves very little doubt that PIE was spoken in the steppes area just north of the Black Sea; Caspian Sea and Caucasus Mountains (illustrated on page 84); and the time-range was about 4500 to 2500 BCE. This contradicts some other theories I have heard (like 7000 BC in Anatolia); but the arguments for the Pontic-Caspian steppes at the later time are overwhelming. (See pages 43-48 for a clear explanation of why an Anatolian origin is not credible.)Second; it seems to me that the author has made the very persuasive case that the success of the indo-european languages arose initially from some technology developments which gave the PIE speakers great mobility and also great wealth. By combining pastoralism (herding sheep; goats; cattle and horses) with transport by wagons; and the individual mobility and herding efficiency of horseback riding; the PIE speakers were able to build up huge wealth in the form of mobile year-round food (the animals) and various animal products; such as sheep-wool. The steppes area provided huge grasslands to feed the animals; and longer-range mobility meant that the sizes of herds were not limited to the amount of feed within a narrow area. Also; since agricultural and hunter-gatherer people did not use the open plains between the rivers much; there was a very much under-utilized resource which could be exploited. (See pages 461-462.)But then a third conclusion is that the PIE speakers did not propagate their language group by breeding like rabbits. The language group must have been spread by the "prestige effect"; or the "elite dominance" effect. (See page 464.)Thus the PIE and IE speaking peoples obtained their food and wealth from the steppes; which provided a kind of east-west corridor; perhaps analogous to the way that the Mediterranean provided a corridor for the spread of the Greeks and Phoenicians at a later time. But instead of ships; the PIE speakers had mobile herds; wagons and horses; by which they were able to spread their technology; culture and language along the length and breadth of the Steppes corridor. (The author does not draw any analogy with the Mediterranean; but this seems to be almost implicit.)There are a hundred other conclusions to be drawn from this book; including many big surprises. I'll resist the temptation to spoil those surprises for you. Perhaps I'll just say that the author mentions numerous historical turning points which were triggered by climate change; particularly when the climate became both cooler and drier. (You can find these in the index under "climate change".)One of the best things about this book is the very generous provision of maps. There are so many books on archaeology and history which are almost ruined by the lack of maps to make sense of thousands of place-names. This book does not have that fault. If I had to find something negative about this book; it must be the extensive end-notes; which oblige you to keep two markers in the book while reading because so much important material would be missed otherwise. Most of the end-notes could have been incorporated into the main text or included as foot-notes.Even though this book is not "pop science" (because most casual readers would not be able to cope with so many pots; bones; horses' teeth and grave-maps); it is almost completely self-contained because of the numerous maps and explanations of technical terms. So if you seriously want to know where the Indo-European "439 languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people" came from (to quote wikipedia); this is the book.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. The origin of western culture.By The Old PhilosopherVery interesting story of western civilization and culture. The author chronicles the new high tech horse and wagon culture of the Eurasian steppes; and how their language and culture came to dominate from India to Ireland. Well researched. Sometimes slow reading because of the scholarly details.16 of 16 people found the following review helpful. Excellent Work!By Joseph P. BrennanAnthony makes a compelling case for the location of the Indo-European homeland; tracks the probable course of Proto-Indo European (PIE) and its daughter languages' expansion; and convincingly argues that PIE speakers domesticated the horse and invented the spoke-wheeled chariot. Anthony asserts he powerful cultural complex that they developed around their herding lifestyle helped expand the range of PIE and its daughter languages -- at one point likening the lifestyle changes engendered by herding combined with wagon and chariot-driving to the similar lifestyle revolution in twentieth-century America brought on by the proliferation of automobiles and the Interstate highway system.Anthony uses evidence from archaeolinguistics; from oft-overlooked Russian steppe archaology; and his (and his wife's) own pioneering work on bit-wear markings in ancient horse teeth to make his case. He cites Native American linguistics and archaeology to help bolster his case when appropriate; along with the well-studied history of British colonization of North America -- and does so quite convincingly.Anthony writes in a learned; but accessible style with an occasional witticism to keep the text from being overly-dry. Perhaps my only criticism would be his neglecting to compare the spread of Indo-European with that of the Turkic languages across Eurasia -- which was also accomplished wih stunning celerity (in historical terms); and also caused enormous cultural shifts which are still visible today. Perhaps he could do so in the second edition!
