TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Lovecraft and the Epistemology of Cosmic Horror

Thursday 20 August 2026 is the 136th anniversary of the birth of Howard Phillips Lovecraft (20 August 1890 – 15 March 1937), better known to us as H. P. Lovecraft, who was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on this date in 1890.

Lovecraft’s cosmic horror, or cosmicism, emerges from the indifference to humanity of the universe understood in a strictly naturalistic terms. The anthropocentrism of the human perspective misleads us, and when we glimpse the actual universe we risk madness. This is an overturning of philosophical traditions going back to Protagoras and Plato. Protagoras was called a sophist by Plato, and this was intended as an insult, but both Protagoras, in the form of his anthropocentrism, and Plato, in the form of his claim that knowledge is the good, are implicitly rejected by Lovecraft.

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

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#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #HPLovecraft #cosmicism #horror #CosmicHorror #Protagoras

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Caesar between Carlyle and Spengler

In my episode “Did Caesar understand his place in history?” on Caesar’s birthday this year I discussed the question of whether Caesar embodied what Oswald Spengler called Caesarism, and in an addendum, “The Character of an Historical Ideal” I asked how Caesar himself understood his place in history. Since then I received a comment suggesting that I also consider the relation of Caesar to what is sometimes called Thomas Carlyle’s “great man theory of history” so that is the context in which I will discuss Caesar in this episode, particularly in relation to Spengler’s Caesarism.

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #JuliusCaesar #Caesarism #OswaldSpengler #ThomasCarlyle #GreatMan #hero #heroism #agency #necessitarianism

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: The Apotheosis of Richard Russell

As of 10 August 2026 it has been eight years since Richard Russell, an employee at SEATAC airport, stole a Horizon Air Bombardier Q400, also identified as De Havilland Dash 8-400, on 10 August 2018. Russell flew the aircraft for about an hour and a quarter, including successfully performing a barrel roll, and then crash landed on Ketron Island in Puget Sound, dying in the crash. The episode was greeted with incomprehension in many quarters, but elsewhere Russell was immediately recognized as a folk hero. In this episode I examine both the incomprehension and the meaning of folk heroes.

Quora: https://philosophyofhistory.quora.com/

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

Links: https://jnnielsen.carrd.co/

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/dMh0_-/

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #RichardRussell #SkyKing #FolkHero #incomprehension #apotheosis #archetype #mythology