The longtime Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History at Princeton, now retired, Peter Brown is credited with creating “late antiquity” as a field of study.
It seems the complexity of "history" is mostly arguing speculations about motives, circumstances, inter-relationships and individual decisions based on outcomes. It seems that reductionism and simplification of similarities becomes correlation and then causality to those who wish to prove a point.
It seems the complexity of "history" is mostly arguing speculations about motives, circumstances, inter-relationships and individual decisions based on outcomes. It seems that reductionism and simplification of similarities becomes correlation and then causality to those who wish to prove a point.
That explains the “Now wait a minute” and “How’d you get there?” feelings one has when reading a lot of historical works.
Great quote, David: "People in history are usually most interesting to us when they are not like us."
As always, grateful for your edifying thoughts!