BOOKS BY ROSA ALBERONI
TIME EXPLORERS
One of the greatest achievements in Western History has been the discovery that time does not consist of a mechanical series of unrelated events; rather, everything that takes place in this 'world (that) is a stage' has a precise meaning rooted in history. Any exploration or trip through time means our coming to terms with historical events.
The first person to grasp this and to theorize in modern terms the linkage of events was the Italian philosopher Gianbattista Vico at the start of the 1700s. He postulated his theory on the cyclical rise and fall in human civilizations in Scienza Nuova, a work that was "reactionary and revolutionary all at once", in the words of Benedetto Croce. He was the first of humankind's "time explorers," as Rosa Giannetta Alberoni terms them, the one who opened the way for the many great writers, philosophers, sociologists, and historians who have adventured into new intellectual realms over the centuries - from Rousseau to Hegel to Marx, from Pareto to Weber to Spengler, from Croce to Bergson to Freud and to Popper. These explorers have all grappled with the question of history in their work and have amply traced the complex, contradictory, and yet magnificent story of human and social evolution from the dawn of history up to present day.
Rosa Giannetta Alberoni takes a step-by-step, epoch-by-epoch look at this marvellous course taken by human intelligence and vividly renders the words, theories, and spirit of the most important figures of each historical context. The end result is a wide-ranging historical, philosophical, and sociological critique that tells an epic story at the same time as it advances intellectually rigorous arguments. And what a story it is, this adventure of humankind. This adventure of wayfarers through time.
CONTENTS
Introduction
The Eighteenth Century
GIANBATTISTA VICO
CHAPTER ONE
The uncertain and disgraceful origins of human history
CHAPTER TWO
History, eternal ideal, and mental evolution
CHAPTER THREE
Religion, myth, and social evolution
CHAPTER FOUR
The course and recurrence of human events and Divine Providence
JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU
CHAPTER ONE
The origins of social inequality
CHAPTER TWO
The social contract or that of a totalitarian State
JANNE-ROBERT-JACQUES TURGOT e MARIE-JEAN-ANTOINE-NICOLAS
CARITAT, MARCHESE DI CONDORCET
CHAPTER ONE
The progressive evolution of human thought
CHAPTER TWO
Passions, history, and human aims
CHAPTER THREE
The Rule of Reason
ADAM FERGUSON
CHAPTER ONE
Humanity and the parallel unfolding of being and action
CHAPTER TWO
Historical developments in schooling and in arts and crafts
CHAPTER THREE
The causes behind the decline of nations
The Nineteenth Century
GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL
CHAPTER ONE
History and the Philosophy of History
CHAPTER TWO
History and World Spirit
CHAPTER THREE
The objectification of the spirit: the means and the materials
CHAPTER FOUR
The progressive evolution of the spirit
CHAPTER FIVE
The progressive evolution of the spirit: in the Eastern world
- China
- India
- Persia
- Egypt
CHAPTER SIX
The progressive evolution of the spirit: in Ancient Greece
CHAPTER SEVEN
The progressive evolution of the spirit: in Ancient Rome
CHAPTER EIGHT
The progressive evolution of the spirit: in the Western world
ISIDORE-AUGUSTE-FRANCOIS MARIE COMTE
CHAPTER ONE
The Theological Age
CHAPTER TWO
The Metaphysical Age
CHAPTER THREE
The Age of Positivism
KARL MARX
CHAPTER ONE
The Historical Process and the Self-Alienation of Man
CHAPTER TWO
The Bourgeoisie, the Working Class, and the Communists
CHAPTER THREE
Work and Capital
HERBERT SPENCER
CHAPTER ONE
Evolution Factors
CHAPTER TWO
Society, Family, and Institutionalized Ceremonies
CHAPTER THREE
The Institutions of Civil Society: from the political and religious to the professional and industrial
The Twentieth century
EMILE DURKHEIM
CHAPTER ONE
Ethics and the Division of Labour
CHAPTER TWO
Engineered vs. Systematic Forms of Solidarity
CHAPTER THREE
From the primeval hordes to established society
CHAPTER FOUR
Progress and Mutation
VILFREDO PARETO
CHAPTER ONE
Social systems
CHAPTER TWO
Residue, Derivation, and Ethics
CHAPTER THREE
History and Elites
MAX WEBER
CHAPTER ONE
Intra-social Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism
CHAPTER TWO
Ethics and the Origins of Capitalism
CHAPTER THREE
Religious action and the Origins of Rational Ethics
CHAPTER FOUR
Ethics, Mightiness, and Power
SIGMUND FREUD
CHAPTER ONE
The Origins of Morals and Religion
CHAPTER TWO
Moses as a Guide in Our Historical Evolution
CHAPTER THREE
The Struggle between Eros and Thanatos
HENRI BERGSON
CHAPTER ONE
The Creative and Vital Impetus of Time
CHAPTER TWO
The Evolutionary Process, Intuition, and Intelligence
CHAPTER THREE
The Roots of Morality
CHAPTER FOUR
The Roots of Religion
OSWALD SPENGLER
CHAPTER ONE
History and the Objectification of the Soul
CHAPTER TWO
Apollonian Civilizations and Faustian Civilizations
CHAPTER THREE
Morals, Civility, and Civilization
CHAPTER FOUR
Being, Alertness, and History
CHAPTER FIVE
Race, Cast, and Power
CHAPTER SIX
Politics, the Dictatorship of Money, and the Caesarian Future
BENEDETTO CROCE
CHAPTER ONE
Historical Materialism and Marxism
CHAPTER TWO
History and the Eternal Present
CHAPTER THREE
The Unpredictable Nature of History as regards Historical Subjects
KARL RAIMUND POPPER
CHAPTER ONE
The Myth of Historicism and the Inventors of Totalitarianism
CHAPTER TWO
Plato and the Tribe of Cronus
CHAPTER THREE
Hegel and Marx: False Prophets
CHAPTER FOUR
Newton's Apple and Historicism
