Durocher’s Ancient Ethnostate

The Ancient Ethnostate: Biopolitical Thought in Classical Greece by Guillaume Durocher (Kindle Direct Publishing Edition 2021, currently only available as paperback via Amazon) examines ancient Greek authors, from Homer to Aristotle, regarding their ethics and customs concerning biological and cultural relationships: whether families and clans, city-states with their colonies, or the entire Greek nation. Highly … Continue reading “Durocher’s Ancient Ethnostate”

Luttwak’s Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace

Some years ago I reviewed Edward N. Luttwak’s The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire and its Byzantine Empire sequel. In-between these two books, Luttwak published a theoretical rather than purely historical work entitled Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 1987; revised and enlarged edition 2001). Here … Continue reading “Luttwak’s Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace”

Biagioli’s Galileo, Courtier

Mario Biagioli’s Galileo, Courtier (University of Chicago Press 1993, paperback 1994, ISBN 0–226–04560–9) examines the major stations of Galileo Galilei’s career in the context of the contemporary courtly society, and especially its patronage system. Clocking in at over 500 pages in the German translation I read (an accidental bookstore discovery), the writing is somewhat long-winded … Continue reading “Biagioli’s Galileo, Courtier”

Martin Luther’s Bible Translation

In my last post on Really Old German from the book Sternstunden I remarked in closing that the chapter on Martin Luther shouldn’t bring any big surprises. Turns out I was wrong. I expected some excerpts from his famous translation of the New Testament but instead this chapter contains Luther’s comments on his translation, cited … Continue reading “Martin Luther’s Bible Translation”

Really Old German

If you’re interested highlights of historical German literature there is one very excellent book,“Sternstunden: Große Texte deutscher Sprache,” by Josef Kraus and Walter Krämer, IFB Verlag Deutsche Sprache GmbH, ISBN 978-3-942409-74-2. Most of it covers relatively modern German texts but the most interesting parts, as far as I am concerned, are the two most ancient … Continue reading “Really Old German”

Artificial and Human Intelligence

Google Alpha Go’s victories over the world’s top-ranked human Go masters made headlines recently, just like IBM Deep Blue’s victories over world chess champion Garry Kasparov twenty years ago. The two programs were based on quite different paradigms: Deep Blue used the brute-force tree search that’s still common in computer games, whereas Alpha Go combined … Continue reading “Artificial and Human Intelligence”

Gehlen’s Moral & Hypermoral

Moral und Hypermoral (1969) is the final work of German philosopher Arnold Gehlen (1904–1976), today somewhat forgotten except among German philosophy students and niche conservatives. I confess that I started reading him myself only recently, obviously far too late. He’s well worth a recommendation, and in this spirit I append a translation of the beginning … Continue reading “Gehlen’s Moral & Hypermoral”

Duhem’s Aim and Structure of Physical Theory

Aside from his work as an eminent physicist, Pierre Duhem (1861–1916) produced “massive groundbreaking” publications on medieval science (which I have yet to read) and a classic book on the theory of science, La théorie physique, son objet et sa structure. The original (1906) is available on Archive.org, and so is the excellent German translation … Continue reading “Duhem’s Aim and Structure of Physical Theory”

Religion & Life Strategy

The nature and dynamics of world religions by Nicolas Baumard & Coralie Chevallier (2015, also as PDF) examines archaic religions, current world religions, and the ongoing decline of religiosity in rich countries by the light of life history theory, here applied to the varying circumstances of human societies rather than the evolution of different species. … Continue reading “Religion & Life Strategy”

Robert Ardrey’s Hunting Hypothesis

Robert Ardrey (1908–1980) was not only a noted playwright but also the author of four influential books on evolutionary anthropology. If you’ve never heard of him that’s because he was an outsider of the academic establishment, both as an amateur and as an early critic of the ludicrous Marxist propaganda known as the “blank slate” … Continue reading “Robert Ardrey’s Hunting Hypothesis”