RE: Archaeologists Find Athenian Naval Base
June 24, 2016 at 8:16 am
(This post was last modified: June 24, 2016 at 8:33 am by Anomalocaris.)
All history may be contingent, but one could perhaps postulate or discern heightened probability for certain events from certain points in time before the event. This digression revolved around whether Rome in particular or classical western civilization in general had acheived substantially heightened probability of attaining scientific modernity which were subsequently squandered under the baleful influence of Christianity.
My contention is the heightened probability was not really there and Christianity had cast its baleful escatological influence in vain.
The heightened probability didn't come until 1000 years after the end of classical antiquity. If the migration from Central Asia didn't successively stress the world of late antiquity, and Roman Empire held together, the most likely outcome would be eventually a long period stagnation and a total squandering of any internal forces that could break the stagnation.
Autocratic empires are easier to rule, both for the ruler and for the established aristocracy, when the social order itself is not stressed by technological or economic changes. So autocratic empires will naturally tend to gradually alter its internal structure to encourage stagnation for the benefit of its own ruling classes. Sustained incentive for technological and social changes have to come from somewhere else, such as rival empires competing with it to gain military or economic supremacy.
My contention is the heightened probability was not really there and Christianity had cast its baleful escatological influence in vain.
The heightened probability didn't come until 1000 years after the end of classical antiquity. If the migration from Central Asia didn't successively stress the world of late antiquity, and Roman Empire held together, the most likely outcome would be eventually a long period stagnation and a total squandering of any internal forces that could break the stagnation.
Autocratic empires are easier to rule, both for the ruler and for the established aristocracy, when the social order itself is not stressed by technological or economic changes. So autocratic empires will naturally tend to gradually alter its internal structure to encourage stagnation for the benefit of its own ruling classes. Sustained incentive for technological and social changes have to come from somewhere else, such as rival empires competing with it to gain military or economic supremacy.
