Transcript The History of Civilizations – The past explains the present.

The History of Civilizations –
The past explains the present.
By Fernand Braudel
Question Under Discussion….
• A fairly unusual one.
• “Can the history of Civilization help us to
understand the present time and thus,
necessarily the future – for today can
hardly be understood except in relation to
tomorrow?”
• May sound complex but my aim is to
unravel this.
A background to the text…
• The way to study history is to view it as a long
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duration.
History means an understanding of both past
and present.
Complexities in defining the term ‘Civilization’.
Since history has expanded toward social &
economic, history of civilizations no longer plays
such an aggressive role.
Civilization & Culture: The origins
and fortunes of these words.
• Two words which cover so huge an area:
‘Civilization’ & ‘Culture’.
• Civilization and Culture, both born in
France at about the same time.
• Toward 1850, civilization and culture
moved from singular to plural.
• Arrival of anthropologists & ethnographers
led to danger for term civilization.
Attempts at a definition…
• Historians who have concerned
themselves with civilization have left us in
great uncertainty as to what they actually
mean by it!
• No authors have felt the need to provide
an actual definition of what civilization
truly means.
• I will present to you various attempts…
Guizot: “Can be seen as our
starting point”
• Civilization = a two-fold progress, ‘social’
& ‘intellectual’.
• In an ideal world, a harmony between the
two.
• Civilization as embodied in ‘a people’.
- “A great theory with a small result one
might say”.
Burckhardt: “Quite a different world
from Guizot’s”.
• West not examined in its full extent, nor
with regard to the entirety of its past.
• Highly luminous moment – ‘The
Renaissance’.
• Triad that explains all of man’s past can be
related: State, Religion and Culture.
Spengler: “Every culture is a unique
experience”.
• Even if one culture derives from another, it
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eventually asserts itself in its full originality.
Method for the historian of civilizations is
straightforward, distinguishing and studying
originalities.
Civilization defined as the ‘unavoidable end’.
All civilizations/cultures can be reduced to
destiny of spiritual values.
Toynbee: “Civilization is a voyage
not a port”.
• Civilization = smallest unit of historical study,
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when trying to comprehend the history of one’s
own country.
Religion as most important concern of the
human race.
Only 21/22 civilizations worthy of a name. Five
still with us today.
Dares to compare things that happened
centuries apart.
Alfred Weber: Yes, the Sociologist
brother of the great Max Weber!
• Opens his explanations to various
disciplines.
• Admirably demonstrates the establishment
of the first crop of civilizations.
• A ‘Spirit of the age’ implicit in his thinking.
- Doubts whether Weber has formulated a
satisfactory definition of a civilization.
Bagby: An original position, uniting
history and anthropology.
• Can be no science of history unless the
domain of history is simplified.
• Man must be compared with man, our
investigation must move from one
civilization to another.
• Hierarchy of civilizations.
- Doesn’t attempt a serious definition
anymore than any of the previous authors.
History at the crossroads…
• History of civilizations is at a crossroads.
• Must fully understand all the discoveries
made by different social sciences.
• Presents a plan that could be used if he
found himself writing “an endless work on
civilization and civilizations”.
• 1. Make a break with certain habits of
mind. 2. Seek a definition of civilization. 3.
Summon all specialists in human sciences.
4. No conclusion but suggest specific
tasks.
Necessary Sacrifices..
• Renounce certain ways of speaking.
• Renounce the linear.
• Renounce any cyclical explanations of the
destiny of civilizations/cultures.
• Reject the restricted lists of civilizations
which have been suggested to us.
Criteria to be retained 1 …
Cultural areas:
• A civilization is a space.
• Add some sort of temporal permanence.
• “Totality”.
• Mauss: Owes much more to geography
than usually stated.
Criteria to be retained 2…
Borrowings:
• Micro-elements are constantly on the
move.
• Civilizations are simultaneously exporting
& borrowing in turn.
• Some cultural elements are contagious.
Criteria to be retained 3…
Refusals:
• Not every exchange proceeds straightforwardly.
• Every refusal is of singular importance.
In summary… In the definition we have borrowed,
there are three factors at play; Cultural area,
Borrowings and Refusals. Each opening up its
own possibilities.
Toward a dialogue between history
& the human sciences…
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A historian cannot manage alone.
Geography – location is not just an accident.
Demography – Growth, migration etc.
Sociology/Economics – Relations, social
structures, classes etc.
Concern to build models.
Nothing to assure us that all civilizations follow
identical cause & effect throughout history.
History – Face to face with the
present…
• Feels unable to come to any bold
conclusion. But states that “History is
called upon to demonstrate its usefulness
regarding the present”.
The Longevity of civilizations…
• Any society is deeply involved in a
civilization.
• Societies lead us into a huge historical
movement.
• Civilizations are realities of the ‘Long
Duration’.
The permanence of unity &
diversity throughout the world…
• Technical progress has multiplied the
means available to man.
• Civilization is not equally distributed.
• World is being violently propelled toward
unity, while at the same time remains
fundamentally diverse.
Revolutions which define the
present age…
• Toward 1750, world with all its many
civilizations underwent a series of
upheavals.
• Man is changing his appearance.
Beyond Civilizations
• Huge diffusion at work.
• Revenge of singular on the plural.
Concluding comments…
Toward a Modern Humanism
• Need for a new, third word?
• Georges Friedmann – ‘Modern Humanism’.
• Man, civilization must overcome the demand of
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the machine.
Accepting/hoping that the doors of the present
should be wide open to the future.
Present cannot be the boundary.