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05 Jun 04
Democracy and science...why in Hellas? They are complex multifactorial phenomena.
The Iliad described gods with human foibles, encouraging attempts to reason from personal experiences about the gods, in place of superstition.
David French in his book The Athenian Economy gives a kind an economic explanation, with compromises on both sides of class struggles leading to democracy.
Pre-WWII historical analyses often focused on climate and geography.
Personally, I also think the institution of the Olympics was incredibly important... a social institution of regulated competition developed over a long period of time incorporating social values of honor and fair play. (Sports in nondemocratic societies tend, tend to be undermined more by rampant cheating- See example of Taliban soccer.)
Working steadily toward developing better personal understanding of foundations of democracy and science provides insights for example into attempts to democratize Iraq.
http://www.fhw.gr/olympics/ancient/index.html
20 June 04
I've been posting at orkut dot com a lot (50+ ?) over the last month where I am "harper". My scrapbook there is kind of a hypertext weblog.
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