Their judgment was based more upon blind wishing than upon any sound
prevision; for it is a habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what
they long for, and to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not
fancy.
-- Thucydides, Greek Historian, ca. 5th century BCE (Book IV, 108)
I like Thucydides for the way he tries to explain history in terms of
real-politik, people, their drives and especially without including the gods in
an explanation, somewhat similar to Hippocrates.
Interestingly, a modern version of this appeared in Neal Stephenson’s Anathem:
Never believe a thing simply because you want it to be true
where it’s called Diax’s Rake.
Anathem is a great book, I’d like to add, and quite well aligned with many of
the LW themes.
I have to disagree on two counts. First, Diax’s Rake is explicitly a reference to Thucydides, (or, more spoilerifically, Thucydides’ “referenced” Diax for some value of reference), so it’s not really interesting that it appeared in Anathem.
Secondly, Anathem isn’t actually aligned with LW themes at all. It might appear that way at the beginning, but Stephenson undoes all of it with the spoiler twist at the end.
Hmm.. i can’t remember the specific reference to Thucydides from the book, and I don’t have it handy right now… did the book mention him? I just found the parallel quite interesting.
Regarding the other point, I meant ‘aligned with LW themes’, that is discusses many of the same things that are discussed here—and in many cases seems to agree. Not always—but apart from the parallel universe mixups which are a bit… suspect, I got the idea that NS has been lookin at LW (well, OB) and similar sources.
-- Thucydides, Greek Historian, ca. 5th century BCE (Book IV, 108)
I like Thucydides for the way he tries to explain history in terms of real-politik, people, their drives and especially without including the gods in an explanation, somewhat similar to Hippocrates.
Interestingly, a modern version of this appeared in Neal Stephenson’s Anathem:
where it’s called Diax’s Rake.
Anathem is a great book, I’d like to add, and quite well aligned with many of the LW themes.
No love for Wizard’s First Rule?
I have to disagree on two counts. First, Diax’s Rake is explicitly a reference to Thucydides, (or, more spoilerifically, Thucydides’ “referenced” Diax for some value of reference), so it’s not really interesting that it appeared in Anathem.
Secondly, Anathem isn’t actually aligned with LW themes at all. It might appear that way at the beginning, but Stephenson undoes all of it with the spoiler twist at the end.
Hmm.. i can’t remember the specific reference to Thucydides from the book, and I don’t have it handy right now… did the book mention him? I just found the parallel quite interesting.
Regarding the other point, I meant ‘aligned with LW themes’, that is discusses many of the same things that are discussed here—and in many cases seems to agree. Not always—but apart from the parallel universe mixups which are a bit… suspect, I got the idea that NS has been lookin at LW (well, OB) and similar sources.