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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   38013 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 27, 2023

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Some fellow there had a very big library. Yet nobody seems to know specifically what they discovered or taught in any specific sense.

I have tried looking into what exactly is in the manuscripts at Timbuktu myself and my conclusion was that the material within is mostly translations of works we have from elsewhere (both Greco-Roman and Islamic), with many of the original works being of dubious interest to a modern audience i.e. books about astrology and lists of magic spells. There may be some novel contributions to Islamic jurisprudence and accounts of historical events as well, but I remain unconvinced that there are brilliant philosophical insights or scientific discoveries waiting to be unearthed from this particular collection.

It was a great surprise to me the first time I realized that certain societies could be literate for centuries with relatively little to show for it in terms of great works. The literary output of classical Athens in a single century was easily better than the previous three thousand years of Egyptian writing combined. Even accounting for the difference in literacy rates (and just look at China to see what you can do without an alphabet), the contrast is stark.

It was a great surprise to me the first time I realized that certain societies could be literate for centuries with relatively little to show for it in terms of great works. The literary output of classical Athens in a single century was easily better than the previous three thousand years of Egyptian writing combined.

When I first read the Bible, I noticed the Old Testament got way more interesting at Job, Ecclesiastes, and Songs. You can read and love these even as an Atheist. They're great. Later, I discovered these books were probably written during the Hellenistic period. There was something uniquely awesome and fertile about Greek culture at that particular moment.

Should this be surprising? Calculus might have been invented by many algebraically literate cultures for hundreds of years. Then, two separate Western Europeans invented it within a twelve year period. Along with a million other discoveries, dug up in a frenzy during the Enlightenment. It takes a special combo of cultural forces to produce amazing intellectual advancements.

The literary output of classical Athens in a single century was easily better than the previous three thousand years of Egyptian writing combined.

I don't really know much about this topic. But my first assumption here would be Hellenism's spread via Alexander and the Roman adoption of Greek mores would be first to blame for Greek prominence.

Alexander appeared afterwards. The Romans arrived after him.

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