Plough, sword, and book : the structure of human history / Ernest Gellner.
By: Gellner, Ernest.
Material type: TextPublisher: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 1990, c1988Edition: Pbk. ed.Description: 288 p. ; 23 cm.ISBN: 0226287025 (pbk.); 9780226287027 (pbk.); 0226287017; 9780226287010.Subject(s): History -- Philosophy | Historiography | AnthropologyDDC classification: 901 Summary: "British philosopher/anthropologist Gellner offers a comprehensive theory of history: humans settle into agriculture, produce surpluses, and divide into complex subgroups. Communication becomes pressing. Written language emerges as a controlling super-reality, bringing a Platonic illusion of an eternal world. Gradually, facts take precedence over concepts and "objective knowledge" is born. This scheme takes us from the tribal society to the Royal Society, but Gellner has not met all the challenges. There are still those who think that real knowledge is offered only by theology, or Platonic mathematical and logical reality, or a society free of class tension. And Franz Borkenau urged in End and Beginning (LJ 1/11/81) that all knowable reality is powerfully shaped by language. Thought-provoking but not conclusive."--Www.amazon (Nov. 8, 2010).Item type | Current location | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode |
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Books |
SCHOOL OF KISWAHILI AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES
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901 BOU Faire l'histoire : | 901 CAR The ethics of history | 901 COH History and-- : | 901 GEL Plough, sword, and book : | 901 HEG The philosophy of history : | 901 JEN Manifestos for history / | 901 KEL Versions of history from antiquity to the Enlightenment / |
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"British philosopher/anthropologist Gellner offers a comprehensive theory of history: humans settle into agriculture, produce surpluses, and divide into complex subgroups. Communication becomes pressing. Written language emerges as a controlling super-reality, bringing a Platonic illusion of an eternal world. Gradually, facts take precedence over concepts and "objective knowledge" is born. This scheme takes us from the tribal society to the Royal Society, but Gellner has not met all the challenges. There are still those who think that real knowledge is offered only by theology, or Platonic mathematical and logical reality, or a society free of class tension. And Franz Borkenau urged in End and Beginning (LJ 1/11/81) that all knowable reality is powerfully shaped by language. Thought-provoking but not conclusive."--Www.amazon (Nov. 8, 2010).
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