Books which make an impression get absorbed into the general trend of thought. Only in this way can they play their full part, but some are worth returning to, among them Maine’s Ancient Law or, to present it in its full glory, Ancient Law, its connection with the early history of society and its relation… read more »
By publishing his Herbert Spencer Lecture on primitive mentality, delivered at Oxford in 1931, Lucien Levy-Bruhl presented us with a bite-sized piece of serious anthropological thinking twenty-eight small and lucid pages form a unit one can get the mind round. [Levy-Bruhl L. 1931. La Mentalite Primitive; the Herbert Spencer Lecture delivered at Oxford 29 May… read more »
Any account of history, coherent and comprehensive enough to permit extrapolation into the future, requires some account of the original human condition to anchor one end of the curve. Few people, in attempting this, would now use the phrase “the noble savage”; greater knowledge of the communities in closest touch with the natural world has… read more »
SECRET SCIENCE Leo Strauss died in 1973; some of his books are now being re-issued. He thought advanced political ideas valuable but also dangerous; the Enlightenment led to Hitler. His answer was to keep scientific and philosophical thinking secret from the general body of ordinary people. (TLS 1 Dec 89). Such caution hardly seems called… read more »
Observing the way foxes, grouse and cattle flourish IC has already suggested that the way to ensure the preservation of species in danger would be to enlist the influence of the people who hunt for sport. Not for the first time, we were behind the facts. John M. Mackenzie has published The Empire of Nature:… read more »
Social and political affairs present a scene of confusion, but systematic ideology claims to perceive underlying regularities. Prominent among these stands the tendency for movements to be smaller in proportion as they value co-operation above competition, the material welfare of the community above the freedom of individuals to accumulate possessions. It is a rule with… read more »
In the beginning was the report and then came the assumptions. The assumptions were without form and the report was completely without substance. And the darkness was upon the faces of the workers and they spake unto their PTs (Principal Teachers) saying: “It is a crock of shit and it stinketh.” And the PTs went… read more »
According to newspaper reports General Noriega made enough out of dealing in cocaine and marijuana to maintain an army and police force that secured him control of Panama, forcing the USA to mount an invasion as the only way of checking his trade. IC cannot claim to have predicted this in any detail (you won’t… read more »
Quaker Oats put up a sign weighing twelve tons on the cliffs of Dover, somebody else erected a hoarding that blocked out the view of St. Paul’s from Ludgate Circus, another firm wanted to build one along the open side of Princes Street, hiding the Castle. They were driven by the logic of commercial competition,… read more »
IC apologises for the late appearance of this issue. For the past two years and more a replacement for Ideologies and their Functions has been under way, and these last weeks have been taken up with final correction and preparation for press. Beyond Politics, an outline of systematic ideology, is expected in March. 160 pages,… read more »