Thucydides, On Justice, Power, and Human Nature (Entire)
Ibn Khaldun, selections from The Muqqaddimah (Article)
Tung Chung-Shu, "Historical Cycles" (Article)
Abraham Heschel, selections from The Prophets (Article)
Classist and early historian, Thucydides, wrote a history of the Peloponnesian Wars. While it is important to understand the context in which he was writing (wars), the focus is more his insight into what the Athenian empire did wrong as the first democracy, and in turn, its implications for human progress. One of my classmates offered a quote from the book: "The state that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools." Thus, it seems that in order to understand progress, we must make an effort to fully comprehend not only the context of events and historians but also over-arching themes such as justice, democracy, physical conflict, and intellectual conflict.
This dynamic approach aligns with Tung Chung-Shu's recount of Confucianism and the dynamic universe in which we act. He describes the universe as a well-coordinated system, an organic whole in which everything is interrelated. In concordance with beliefs of Confucianism, Chung-Shu explains that there are historical cycles. Therefore, progress is cyclical. At first, I was confused as to whether or not I agree with this statement. History does seem to repeat, yet there is a novelty to each "repetition"...perhaps then, it is more of a spiraling cycling that extends outward, rather than spinning on itself. On that note, it is humankind's responsibility to decide which way to go. The distinguishing factor of a human being is that she can think about her thinking and consequently, "brilliantly show his patterns and color" (281). Human beings are agents in the world. Heschel puts pressure on human beings as the cause for everything: "[f]ew are guilty, but all our responsible." Maybe, then, it is our job to recognize that for which are responsible (i.e. history in its entirety) and make more trained decisions in our path of development.
Tung Chung-Shu speaks to the human being's ability to think and Ibn Khaldun expands that by adding how/what spurs the human being's thinking and processing: intellectual understanding (discerning intellect), thinking with ideas and behavior need to deal with other human beings (experimental intellect), and hypothetical knowledge (speculative intellect). These three types of intellect further imply human beings' responsibility to perceive the world with attention to detail and context but also to consider the way in which he/she thinks and its effect on any conclusions drawn.
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