The theodicy presented in Hegel's philosophy of history and preserved in his lecture notes succeeds as a theodicy but not as a theory of history.
What Leibniz called the "principle of the best" pertains to this world (i.e. all events tend toward the best possible outcome).
Marx has some merit, but only as a dissenting voice among a group of yes-men.
The United States is a good country, overall.
Philosophy is a worthwhile activity insofar as it results in moral progress on the part of the one who performs it.
>anyone who thinks murder is abortion and should be outlawed should also think it's acceptable to assassinate abortion doctors
>the fall of the Soviet Union is the worst thing to happen since WWII; not because the USSR was better than the countries that succeeded it, but because now Islamism is the only serious threat to neoliberal hegemony
>Stirner is interesting but ultimately contributed little of value
>Taoism is just a contrarian Confucianism
>>975335
>it would be very convenient to the left if the right were that ideologically pure
>double-think and cognitive dissonance are actually incredibly important to thinking in a healthy way, and we would all be completely autistic and unfit to survive without them.
>Byzantium's fall was mostly their own fault
>The Balts had the crusade coming
>>975335
>>Taoism is just a contrarian Confucianism
But that's completely backwards
They're complimentary teachings, anyway
Abrahamic religions are pretty sand nigger tier, all of them.
*tips fedora*
>Tito wasn't really that great
>Robespierre did nothing wrong
>Early Christianity>the Church
>Sophists get a bad rap
Plato's philosopher king is the ideal system of government
>>975404
>ideal
So when he dies and you get Caligula instead of Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius?
>The universe has a Telos: to unify individuals into a singular self.
>In the same way single celled organisms gave up their individuality to create a greater multicellular being, human individuality will diminish, and society will become its own "self."
>Globalization and one-world-government is inevitable, and will be accomplished through either genocide or race-mixing.
>>975423
No, you get another philosopher-king.
Did you even read the book? Do you even know what "ideal" means?
>the dismantling of Austria-Hungary was the worst decision of the 20th century
>Russia is a European country and I don't understand why anybody would ever try to claim otherwise
>American federalism is a culture-killing cancer
>academic works should not refer to historical states by their modern unified nation-state counterparts, it's unprofessional in any context besides explaining history to laymen
>same thing goes with referring to regions as "Northwest _____" or "Southern _____" (ie "The Americans landed in Northern France on D-Day" instead of Normandy)
>I have autism
>>975438
Yeah, something not reachable. So you get a Caracalla from time to time. Which is why that system should never be applied. Also, Plato a shit
>>975457
This doesn't seem like a substantial engagement with the text, it seems like a banal assertion about the fact that bad heads of state come about from time to time. I'm not interested in continuing this discussion.
>>975474
>with the text
Fuck your text man, the very idea of kingship should bring disgust and hatred to any modern man's heart. It's an antiquated relic of a distant past, and we've seen what dynastic rulers end up doing to their peoples if left unchecked. Fuck off.
>>975474
>let's abandon democracy
>for the ideas of a man who died 2500 years ago who thought that a featherless chicken was a man
Jefferson and Payne >>>>> Plato
>>975495
Anon, are you so disgusted by the idea of kingship that you actually aren't capable of engaging with the text of the Republic, a foundational text in the Western philosophical canon? I honestly don't understand why you would post on a history board if you can't stomach the idea of people liking royalty (I'm not even arguing for monarchism, btw, I'm just telling you that you have a shallow worldview according to which ideas that you associate with mean behavior shouldn't be thought about in any capacity. This just seems false to me--not sure why, it's just a base instinct).
>>975530
Did I say that you autistic cretin? If so, where?
The Holy Roman Empire was the most holy state as it served the Varican and Pope. Since it had the blessing of the Pope in Rome and was the most powerful western nation it should be called Roman for following the legacy of Ancient Rome. The Holy Roman Empire was also a strongly unified nation under the rule of a single ruler/emperor. In short the Holy Roman Empire was ruled by a single emperor who did Gods work and followed the example of Augustus and ruled his realm effectively.
>>975540
You can have my (Tu) pour l'effort. Bravo garcon.
>>975540
this thread is for controversial opinions, not controversial facts, friendo
>>975555
Nice Empire you got their quads.
>>975252
>Christianity is correct
>YEC is not
>Seeing the butthurt holding these two beliefs at the same time is top tier
>>975594
>Part of the bible is right.
>Part of the bible is wrong.
>I'll tell you which parts are which.
>>975540
>>975565
You know, Paris is pretty charming this time of the year.
>>975335
didn't taoism come before Confucius?
>>975361
>>975639
To be more specific, I think that the rise of Taoism among westerners is usually accompanied by the idea that it's better than Confucianism, even though they have a hell of a lot in common, and Taoism has all sorts of equally weird aspects that westerners ignore. Among Chinese I don't think either is contrarian, especially given how much they've influenced each other (another fact westerners ignore).
>>975651
The point
>
Kuiper Belt
>
Your head
For someone who pretends to read Plato you sure are dumb
>European Imperialism dindu nuffin wrong.
>America should never have rebelled from the British Empire because the resulting individualistic ideology is literal cancer that leads to moral decay.
>The British Empire is the greatest empire to have ever been formed.
>WW1 should have resulted in a quick victory for the Germans while Britain stayed neutral.
>Norn Iron is best Ireland
>Ireland should be unified.... under British rule.
>>975710
>britbong
>kaiserboo
What the fuck is wrong with you?
>>975710
>Cultural group selection
>History accelerates
>Sociotechnical complexity rises
>>975252
Christianity would've perished in obscurity if not for Paul
The Dark Ages happened in western Europe. and resulted in deurbanization, economic collapse, and decline in quality of life from the mid 5th through 8th centuries.
Mohammed's actions appear more consistent with those of the Old Testament prophets than Jesus' actions, and the fact that they were written down around his lifetime provides a firmer foundation for a more coherent and understandable religion than Christianity.
The Spanish Golden Age was a fluke and just about any other European country would've done a better job at handling the wealth of the New World than the Iberian kingdoms.
The Girondists were the best faction in the French Revolution and France could have overtaken England in economic might had they also become a nation of yeomen and shopkeepers.
Virginia and Tennessee seceded to preserve the rights of states to secede more than they did to preserve or expand slavery.
>>975719
I ask myself the same question everyday to be honest.
I can't decide if I'm the last sane man alive, or a delusional nutter.
I wouldn't say I'm a Kaiserboo because I support the idea of German victory. My personal hypothesis is that if Britain stayed neutral, the Empire would have never been weakened. Furthermore, a quick and relatively painless German victory against the French (much like what happened in 1871), would been a much more preferable outcome as opposed to the four year slaughter that occurred in reality.
Pure democracy is a terrible idea, and it's why most western countries don't have it.
ISIS is America's fault.
Voltaire shitposts are always funny.
It's Istanbul.
Drifting from religion and traditional values has caused a number of social problems for the West, that loom over it in the coming years.
>Blanket dismissal of teleologies reveals total ignorance of dynamical system behavior
>Ditto for cycles and patterns in history
>>975698
Maybe you ought to illustrate your point
>Marx was basically right about most stuff, and not enough people actually read him
>There's basically no good reason not to be pro-choice
>The vast majority of alternate-history fiction is shit
>Colonial empires deserve to give their victims reparations, saying people should just "get over it" is racist bullshit
>I've been on this website for years and I don't feel like I belong anymore, and I'm not sure if that's really a bad thing
>>975870
Here's a uncontroversial opinion, try red it?
>>975870
I was about to critique what you said, but then I noticed your last point. I strongly encourage you to take the leap, and never come back.
>>975252
>Marxism is perfectly defendable as a dialectic creation of its era
>history does in fact progress, just not linearly
>>975756
>Pure democracy is a terrible idea, and it's why most western countries don't have it.
Nobody ever points to any examples of pure democracy. People who want more democracy don't want what you believe pure democracy would look like.
The only examples you get of bad democracy are bad versions of representative democracy, the celebrity oligarchy, which is what western countries have, and which people who want more democracy do not count as being democratic.
Infant genital mutilation is wrong.
Herodotus did the best he could and doesn't deserve the Voltaire-tier shitposting you all give him
Those ants were marmots, dammit
What human beings have called "God" throughout history is really a reference to the unknowable strange attractor which, while only understandable in hindsight, provides a structural framework for the organization of all information in the universe. The guiding principle (if it can be called such) of this "shape," as represented by E8 (a mathematical construction of infinite complexity) is the omniscience of all humans, only obtained after the singularity of all knowable information is reached through biotechnological hybridization. After this point, the traditional understanding of the spacetime continuum (especially the linear property of time) will be treated as a closed loop, and we will transcend the limitations imposed upon us by the framework of linear causality. Recognition of the "self" as a temporary construct of perception is a necessary condition for existing in a posthuman state, and rejection of the oneness of being is the essential source of all human suffering. Every religion is a useful metaphor for the process of ego-death, and represents an unbroken conversation between the false binary of self and other, which do not actually exist in a phenomenological sense beyond the singularity. As our societal obsession with being in constant electronic communication has increased our awareness of the synchronicity of thought and human experience which belies the presence of an unseen strange attractor, more and more people are suffering ego death, an unfortunate consequence of which can be the knowledge of the apparent unimportance of an individual in the vast and incomprehensible-at-any-one-moment network of existence, leading to severe depression and suicidal ideation. In order to combat this, humans must continue to recognize how impossibly important each person is, as their existence represents a literal manifestation of life itself, and even the value of observation (collapsing wave functions) is of benefit to humanity.
This post is so cynical.
>>975870
Yeah, you should try Reddit
Byzantium got what it deserved during the 4th crusade.
> Byzantines is a perfect example of an empire in decline, the Turks did well by Byzantium. Turkroach posting is on same level as cishet stuff
> Most people have no fucking clue how most things related to politics and democracy intertwine with history
> The Rape of Berlin/ALLIED WAR CRIMES are often overplayed for the sake of contrarianism.
>Colonialism is a stupid idea inherently, almost if not impossible to pull off without creating an even bigger mess
> /his/ doesn't know shit, and "goback2reddit" posts are tumblr tier defences of a pretty strong hugbox
>Robespierre and Piłsudski dindu nuffin
> God exists but we cannot know it
>>979060
>>Colonialism is a stupid idea inherently, almost if not impossible to pull off without creating an even bigger mess
>making money is a stupid idea
>debt is a bunch of horseshit
>history consists of narratives, not objective facts
>the people outside of the history books are vastly more important than the people in it, most people who get remembered are vastly overrated
>>979060
>> /his/ doesn't know shit, and "goback2reddit" posts are tumblr tier defences of a pretty strong hugbox
Reddit detected
>>979201
Search your feelings, you know it to be true :^)
>The Great War channel on youtube perpetuates the lions led by donkeys narrative and almost every single episode ends with "and then Thousands of young men pointlessly died"
> most short videos about history are pretty basic at best, and tend to leave out stuff to suit their tastes.
>>975252
>Our view of most historical events is probably, if not definitely flawed for the most part, and we'll never truly know how some things played out
>we wuz kingz tier shit aside, there were legitimately succesful civilizations in sub-saharan Africa
>Some civilizations that preceded us thousands of years ago were more advanced than the layman imagines
>Race-mixing is totally natural and prevalent throughout human history, and will continue to be
>Exponential growth and it's inherent reliance on fossil fuels will probably lead to a societal collapse and a steep reduction in most people SOL
>By the time humanity becomes globalized enough that almost everyone speaks the same language, looks similar ehtnically etc., there will be segments of humanity of other planets that have their own dialects/patois/ languages
>>975439
>American federalism is a culture-killing cancer
Then how come it culturally dominated the 20th century?
Tolstoy's philosophy of little men being the real deciders of history should be a cornerstone of any historical narrative
WWII left a deep enough scar that modern super powers will never commit to total war on one another again
During the 140,000 year period before known civilization, there were kings and empires. They weren't as advanced as the modern era, but lived, ruled, advanced and collapsed
>>979060
>> God exists but we cannot know it
How do you know he exists then?
>>979926
this place is full of whoever you personally don't like, leftyfags complain about pol and stormfags, rightards go on about leftypol and /int/.
>>979384
archaeology says otherwise
at most you'd have small alliances of hunter gatherers, but not much else.
>>980030
Not the same guy but this place is full of people with little to no intellectual or academic preparation. Left or right, it's besides the point.
>>975733
I like you
>>980075
>archaeology says otherwise
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. It was once believed that Columbus was the first European to make landfall in North America. We now know that it was actually Scandinavians.
>>980092
Yeah bt the point is you shouldnt believe things if there is no evidence for them. Even if your right, we should assume your wrong until we find a reason not to
>>976670
>>975904
I'm not >>975870 but I gotta say it's funny, because during the first years of 4chan most social discussion was always leaning towards stuff that is now considered reddit/tumblr like left wing opinions and atheism. Sure, racism and such was present but it wasn't really serious, it was mostly done because it was a place where you could say whatever the fuck you wanted and be a sociopathic as you wanted. Still, I guess contrarianism was nonetheless the most important element of 4chan's "culture" because now it's full of christcucks and and influx of /pol/ sympathizers.
I guess it really is time to leave.
Also, this guy is right:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhx6IfKrvEQ
>>979137
>debt is a bunch of horseshit
Debt literally made your computer. Debt made Britain, which made America, which made more debt, which became a world super-power. Debt made it possible to begin a business, to make incentives to efficiently allocate capital for the first time in history. Debt create the modern world. Praise debt. The only people who see debt as a negative are the defaulters, i.e. the failures.
>Things were better under Ian Smith's Rhodesia than Mugabe's Zimbabwe, and the Western politicians who supported Mugabe should be held responsible for the genocide of the Ndbele people
>Slavs have more right to complain about "muh oppression" keeping them down than most African peoples and especially Afro-Americans
>Marriage is a purely ideological concept, and caring about who is granted or denied the right to marriage is silly, regardless of your stance
>It's alright to put beans in your chili
>Exposure to more global cuisines is perhaps the best (and only good) thing coming from modern multiculturalism
>The modern state of Israel has several positive qualities, despite being a backstabbing ally
>The Aksumite Empire is underrated
>It's unethical to eat as much meat as we do in the west today (and consume/pollute in general)
>>975252
How is this on topic?
>>980129
That doesn't make it real. Debt is quite literally a social construct.
Debt may be a useful fantasy, but it's stilla fantasy
>>980212
It's not a fantasy. It's a transaction.
I lend you £100 at 3%. You pay me back at the agreed date £103, having presumably used my capital to create more value than you paid me back. If you fail, you don't repay, and your assets are used as collateral. Simple.
>>980212
Are you saying debt is a spook?
>>980235
I'm sorry but it is. The only thing that's actually real about debt is violence that's used if I don't keep my promise. Beyond that, everything else is a concept that merely exists in your head.
If you don't believe me, then please tell me about societies with debt that didn't have a police force/army/militia etc.
>>980270
But guess what: no one forces you to get into the debt contract. Debt is optional. If you're too dumb to get fucked over by it of course the state will enforce arbitration. That doesn't make the original contract any less "real", whatever on earth you mean by that. It's all clearly spelled out to you, whether in a mortgage, bank loan, or even by a fucking loan shark.
>>980247
Of course. Ultimately, debt itself is nothing more than a promise between two individuals. Money merely tries to measure the trust between these two individuals in the most objective manner possible, but the metal or paper doesn't make it real, it's still all symbolic for stuff that all takes place in our heads
>>979306
>"and then Thousands of young men pointlessly died"
It's true you nationalcuck.
>>975252
>Pajeets were fucking advanced for a while. Their own decadence and the British rule fucked them over big time
>>980959
Also no condescending Femjeet gf
>>980959
>The earliest sewer systems in history were in India
>mfw imperialism took away their loos
>>980906
It was no more or less pointless than literally any other war in history
>the laws of identity, non-contradiction, etc. are all either false or unusable in claims about the natural world depending on how you construe them
>both options are immoral in the trolley problem
>consent is not as useful of a concept in sexual ethics as people think it is
>No one has ever given an honest critical response to post-structuralist/'postmodernist' philosophy (Foucault, Derrida, and so on) to this date
>>980977
>Pajeets developed Wootz steel in 6th century bc. Exported all over
>Brits ban it and it gets lost in time
>Now no one can reproduce it flawlessly
Alexander the Great was a war mongering degenerate and that any benefit his conquests bought were accidental.
>>981028
I don't think he was a war monger. He was extremely ambitious and his own ambition led to his down fall
Well that and disease
>>981028
>conquer things
>take all the wealth from the people you conquer
>accidental benefits
>>981067
I was referring to the spread of greek culture to Egypt and Persia.
>>981028
>I don't think he was a war monger.
Even Hitler only wanted Lebumsrealm Alexander wouldnt stop fighting until disease, degeneracy or a stronger foe stopped him. He was a war monger on the same level as the Mongols. Were he to stop at say Persia or Egypt you might have a point but the guy rolled all the way into Afghanistan and wanted to keep on going
>>975252
The U.S. invasion of Italy in WW2 was a strategically valueable opportunity that was squandered by bad operational decisions once there, rather than being a waste of time and resources from the get-go.
>>980212
No it isn't. It's a social transaction, but that's to what a social construct is in common parlance.
Debt is nothing more than a promise to give something at a later date, along with whatever enforcement mechanisms might exist.
>Slavs (and Romanians and possibly Hungarians too) can't really be considered white any more than Turks can. Ditto for spanish and Portuguese
>authoritarianism is over criticized in the west
>Marxism could be used to counteract radical Islam
>Robespierre did very little wrong
>>976530
...holy fuck
>>975335
>islamism is the only threat to neo liberal hegemony
We're in like five proxy wars with Russia right now and an economic war with China. You need to stop reading American news
