This. When debunk is used in this context, you must be debunking what is called common sense, common wisdom, a widely-held prejudice, or any other euphemism.
History questions not worth their own thread V
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This. When debunk is used in this context, you must be debunking what is called common sense, common wisdom, a widely-held prejudice, or any other euphemism.
privatehudson
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I'm sure there's a Pratchett quote that runs something along the lines of Common Sense becoming increasingly rare because it has been supplanted by sheer bloody-mindedness...
madviking
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"of all things, [common] sense is the most fairly distributed..."
r16
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an electronic copy of Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August came my way and is there anything that ı should know about the general tone and "scholarship" of the book ? ı can see myself that she readily paints the Germans as 20th Century Huns , is she on target regarding the prelude and developments of the war ?
also ı understand on page 99 of the paper version Moltke is reported to be upset about the diplomatic solution of a crisis in 1911 . He then offers that the entire generals should resign , they should turn to the Japanese for protection while the country makes more and more money while everybody turns into imbeciles . Is this the words of an angry man , or are there discussions available on the German thinking on whether they could go the way they were forced after the WW2 ?
also ı understand on page 99 of the paper version Moltke is reported to be upset about the diplomatic solution of a crisis in 1911 . He then offers that the entire generals should resign , they should turn to the Japanese for protection while the country makes more and more money while everybody turns into imbeciles . Is this the words of an angry man , or are there discussions available on the German thinking on whether they could go the way they were forced after the WW2 ?
It's written in a typical 1960s style of scholarship with a specific bent toward writing dramatically and evocatively. Its historiographical context is that it came out under the strong influence of two schools of thought: firstly, that the European war came about despite the actions of statesmen who genuinely did not want to fight because those statesmen were incompetent and unimaginative; secondly, that the German government's aggressive actions contributed disproportionately to the outbreak of war (not the Sonderweg).
It does a reasonably good job of describing the crisis for people who do not know very much about it, and for people who want to be entertained by their history. There are, in my opinion, better scholarly discussions of the July Crisis around, such as those of Luigi Albertini and even Sean McMeekin. There are few accounts, however, that can match the literary qualities of The Guns of August.
Mombauer, Annika. Helmuth von Moltke and the Origins of the First World War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.r16 said:
That depends on what you mean by "problem of induction". If you mean the disconnect between a naturalistic explanation of cognition and a sceptical one, then that would be Hume. If you mean more generally the impossibility of inferring certain conclusions from the senses, then that would predate Sextus, but our sources for early scepticism (both Pyrrhonist and Academic) are fragmentary, to say the least.
The picture of Moltke that's emerged is decidedly more nuanced; Mombauer's work was been modified somewhat since it came out. It's important to recognize the extent to which Moltke pushed for war, but also to recognize the context in which he did it.
For instance, during the key part of the crisis, Moltke was convinced - correctly - that the Russians were mobilizing in secret before the Germans had even declared their "Imminent Danger of War". If Russia were doing this, the Russian military would have a decisive advantage over the Germans. For Germany to preserve any chance at resisting the Russian army, the Germans would have to at least mobilize themselves - should have already mobilized.
Mombauer's work was published when historians still took the claims of French and Russian diplomats and historians at face value: that Russia was not secretly mobilizing for war before everybody else. German intelligence to the contrary was dismissed as a falsification, or as jumping at shadows. Now, of course, we do know that a secret Russian pre-mobilization existed, and that German intelligence had a vague understanding of it. German diplomats and soldiers that would be read as unreasonably aggressive beforehand seem significantly more level-headed now. (Emphasis on more level-headed; many Germans generally and Moltke specifically were kinda...loony about some things.)
r16
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got the book peer to peer , got to the point where Moltke gets the job . Thanks for the ideas , which ı could look at with more interest . Regarding lunacy , that must be the thing about talking with the dead . Another nail on the coffin as far as the "logical" Prussian way , ı must say .
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
It was likely Francois Arago, as he was the first to understand the concept of rotating magnetic fields, if not their application.
Plato or Euclid, apparently
This one I would like to have everybody leave alone so Dachs can tackle it. Specifically, I was hoping for some insight on how the Monroe Doctrine was viewed by the world community pre and post the Venezuela Crisis of 1895. Thank you
Don't stop there! I'm particularly interested in how the British accounted for German foreign policy/influence in their calculations during and after the 1895 crisis leading into the 1902 crisis (where the Germans were playing a much more active role).
What were homosexual relationships seen as in the ancient world? I know that Spartan soldiers often had male lovers. Was it similar to what we would think of as "equality" or just a social fetish that certain groups and peoples developed? And how were they seen in other parts of the world (Celtic Europe, East Asia, Persia).
There was certainly not a sense of equality in the Graeco-Roman world. It was nearly always grown men with younger ones, probably just past puberty. There was also social stigma attached to being the receptive partner. Catullus manages to deride male associates for having sex with men and threaten to rape them in the same breath, for example.
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