Tag: philosophy of history

A human is a being engaged in generation, exchange and consumption of concepts. I speak of “concepts” and not of “ideas” intentionally, as mostly intellectuals are involved in generation of the latter, and very often, they are the main consumers. A government and a family, a trade and a military field, a theatre and a sport, a visual art and a music bear the impress of religious and philosophical concept that define architectonics of particular society and distinguish it from others.

Objectivity of the world of history has little to do with the objectivity of the physical world, the actual existence of which happens to be an external attribute in relation to individual. Historical reality is an anthropic by definition which implies that human attitudes, representations, beliefs and even fantasy — all those things which may be described with the word “ideas” — become not only subjective rueful feelings, but under certain circumstances may become constructive factor of historical being. And if somebody takes a chance to list the most fundamental ideas that have reigned over the minds of people who featured all known societies within the entire history we know, then he/she will be get assured that the greater part of them had particular religious component. The latter sets specific requirements to history comprehension, since it is easier for researcher to understand scientific, political, philosophical concepts, alien to his/her time and culture, than alien religious forms.

Some principles underlying the contemporary global order worked effectively in already extinct societies, in particular — in the society of Ancient Rome. The latter was not, of course, a World Empire, and Pax Romana, for obvious reasons, was not “global”. However, I assert that the Romans had their own specific “globalization” project. If our contemporary globalization is based on liberalism, then what the Roman version was founded on? This is what will be discussed in the present study.

Нынешний глобальный порядок возник не на пустом месте; некоторые принципы, лежащие в его основе, вполне эффективно работали в уже исчезнувших обществах, в частности — в обществе Древнего Рима. Последний не был, конечно, мировой империей, а Pax Romana в силу понятных причин не был «глобальным». И все же рискну утверждать, что у римлян был свой специфический «глобализационный» проект. Если современная нам глобализация базируется на либерализме, то на чем было основана римская ее версия? Именно об этом и пойдет речь в предлагаемом вниманию читателей исследовании.