Dear Richard,
i support almost fully your balanced and clear interpretation of the 'european
miracle' problem,
just one point in your msg seems to me doubtful. you write:
From: rkmoore@iol.ie (Richard K. Moore)
>What I'm describing is a two-part thesis. (1) Nations/cultures experience
>phases of power expansion relative to their competitors; (2) the reach of
>such an expansion-phase is amplified by the technology/conditions available
>at the time. Whenever a qualitative breakthrough in conditions (esp.
>military technology) occurs, that nation/culture is competitively favored
>which happens to be in an expansionist phase at that time. Being in such a
>phase is independent of the technology/conditions - it reflects rather the
>internal state of the cultural/economic dynamics of the nation/culture
>itself.
my question is, what is the basis of your claim of this independence? can you
present any supporting historical cases?
my view on this point (which seemed to me rather traditional for WS approach)
is that not only internal dynamics but also (and significantly) the
breakthrough to a higher technological level gives a society
(nation/culture in your terms) opportunities to reach economic
dominance (manufactiries in Florence and Netherlands, machinery in Britain
are classical examples).
This view fully corresponds with the thesis (close to yours one?) that
economic dominance is added by military-political hegemony when the core
manages to utilize a positive feedback between technological
rise in goods production and the rise of new efficient weaponary
(industrial metallurgy and canons on Portugeuse,Spanish,Holland, English
fleets of XVI-XVIII, Britain steam machinery and steamship military-trade
fleet in XIX, American both peaceful and military achievements in nuclear,
jet, cosmic, computing technologies since WWII)
best reagrds,
Nikolai
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Nikolai S. Rozov # Address: Dept.of Philosophy
Prof.of Philosophy # Novosibirsk State University
rozov@cnit.nsu.ru # 630090, Novosibirsk
Fax: (3832) 355237 # Pirogova 2, RUSSIA
Moderator of the mailing list PHILOFHI
(PHILosophy OF HIstory and theoretical history)
http://wsrv.clas.virginia.edu/~dew7e/anthronet/subscribe
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