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/

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

#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

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Shelley’s Vision of History in Ozymandias

Tuesday 04 August 2026 is the 234th anniversary of the birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley (04 August 1792 – 08 July 1822), who was born at a country house called Field Place in Warnham, West Sussex, on this date in 1792.

Shelley’s Ozymandias has always impressed me as a philosophy of history in miniature, and in this episode I discuss the poem in the context of the cognitive and epistemic value of poetry. C. Day Lewis, Aristotle, and Shelley himself thought that poetry can perform a distinctive cognitive function and therefore has a role to play in the growth of knowledge.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #PercyByssheShelley #romanticism #Ozymandias #ruins #poetry #archetype #knowledge

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Putnam on the Fate of Philosophy

Friday 31 July 2026 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Hilary Whitehall Putnam (31 July 1926 – 13 March 2016), who was born in Chicago on this date in 1926.

In his lecture “Beyond Historicism,” Putnam made a sweeping distinction between historicism and positivism, and then portrayed this as a choice between relativism and nihilism, with each horn of the dilemma being equally distasteful. This is the fate of philosophy today. I discuss this lecture and consider two ways out of the dilemma.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #HilaryPutnam #historicism #positivism #relativism #nihilism #reason

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Peter Farb and the Return of Cultural Evolutionism

Saturday 25 July 2026 is the 97th anniversary of the birth of Peter Farb (25 July 1929 – 08 April 1980), who was born in New York City on this date in 1929.

Following the work of pioneering anthropologist Elman R. Service, Farb elaborated the return to cultural evolutionism in the context of native societies of North America, which he saw as a kind of laboratory that exhibited every stage of social evolution. In this way, Farb transforms past thought experiments in social organization into actual observations and evidence, which always causes a ripple in theoretical frameworks conceived in the absence of actual instances.

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

Discord: https://discord.gg/AHVsXpJFGG

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

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

#philosophy #history #PhilosophyofHistory #PeterFarb #ElmanService #CulturalEvolutionism #CulturalRelativism #NorthAmerica #Indians #determinism

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Addendum on Julius Caesar as Historical Ideal

My previous episode on Julius Caesar was an examination of Spengler’s conception of Caesarism and whether Caesar himself exemplified Caesarism. But this still leaves as an open question what Caesar himself believed to be his place in history, and whether Caesar himself understood what he himself was doing. In this episode I consider the character of Caesar in terms of the historical ideal that he became.

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 #providentialism #character #fate #destiny #Heraclitus #Epicurus

TODAY IN PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY: Did Caesar understand his place in history?

Either the 12th or 13th of July 2026 is the 2125th anniversary of the birth of Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), who was born in Suburra, a neighborhood of ancient Rome, in 100 BC.

Caesar rose to ultimate power in the turbulent history of his times, and after his assassination he became one of the pivotal figures of Western history. Since the nineteenth century, Caesar’s name, having previously having been transformed into an imperial title, has now been transformed into an “ism”—Caesarism. Did Caesar himself embody Caesarism? Did Caesar aspire to anything other than fulfilling his own ambition? Does anyone aspire to Caesarism, or is a Caesar a cipher whose role can be filled by any competent man?

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 #Spengler #imperialism #historylessness #empire #RomanEmpire #providentialism