|
Historic recurrence is the repetition of similar events in history.〔Mark Twain writes of "a favorite theory of mine—to wit, that no ''occurrence'' (emphasis ) is sole and solitary, but is merely a repetition of a thing which has happened before, and perhaps often." See note 1. A "repeat occurrence" is the definition of "recurrence."〕 The concept of historic recurrence has variously been applied to the overall history of the world (e.g., to the rises and falls of empires), to repetitive patterns in the history of a given polity, and to any two specific events which bear a striking similarity.〔G.W. Trompf, ''The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought'', ''passim''.〕 Hypothetically, in the extreme, the concept of historic recurrence assumes the form of the Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence, which has been written about in various forms since antiquity and was described in the 19th century by Heinrich Heine〔Philosopher Walter Kaufmann quotes Heinrich Heine: "()ime is infinite, but the things in time, the concrete bodies, are finite. They may indeed disperse into the smallest particles; but these particles, the atoms, have their determinate numbers, and the numbers of the configurations which, all of themselves, are formed out of them are also determinate. Now, however long a time may pass, according to the eternal laws governing the combinations of this eternal play of repetition, all configurations which have previously existed on this earth must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and corrupt each other again..." Walter Kaufmann, ''Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist.'', 1959, p. 276.〕 and Friedrich Nietzsche.〔The concept of "eternal recurrence" is central to the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. It appears in ''The Gay Science'' and in ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra'', and also in a posthumous fragment. Walter Kaufmann suggests that Nietzsche may have encountered the concept in the writings of Heinrich Heine. Walter Kaufmann, ''Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist'', 1959, p. 276.〕 Nevertheless, while it is often remarked that "History repeats itself," in cycles of less than cosmological duration this cannot be strictly true.〔Trompf writes: "The idea of exact recurrence... was rarely incorporated into... these views, for in the main they simply presume the recurrence of ''sorts'' of events, or... event-types, -complexes, and -patterns." G.W. Trompf, ''The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought'', p. 3.〕 In this interpretation of recurrence, as opposed perhaps to the Nietzschean interpretation, there is no metaphysics. Recurrences take place due to ascertainable circumstances and chains of causality.〔In 1814 Pierre-Simon Laplace published an early articulation of causal or scientific determinism: "We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at a certain moment would know all forces that set nature in motion, and all positions of all items of which nature is composed, if this intellect were also vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in a single formula the movements of the greatest bodies of the universe and those of the tiniest atom; for such an intellect, nothing would be uncertain and the future, just like the past, would be present before its eyes." Pierre-Simon Laplace, ''A Philosophical Essay'', New York, 1902, p. 4. A similar view had earlier been presented in 1763 by Roger Boscovich. Carlo Cercignani, chapter 2: "Physics before Boltzmann", in ''Ludwig Boltzmann: The Man Who Trusted Atoms'', Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 55, ISBN 0-19-850154-4.〕 An example of the mechanism is the ubiquitous phenomenon of multiple independent discovery in science and technology, which has been described by Robert K. Merton and Harriet Zuckerman. G.W. Trompf, in his book ''The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought'', traces historically recurring patterns of political thought and behavior in the west since antiquity.〔G.W. Trompf, ''The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought''.〕 If history has lessons to impart, they are to be found ''par excellence'' in such recurring patterns. Historic recurrences can sometimes induce a sense of "convergence," "resonance" or ''déjà vu''.〔This sense is somewhat suggested, in popular culture, by the film ''Groundhog Day''.〕 Three such examples appear under "Striking similarity." ==Authors== Prior to the theory of historic recurrence that was offered by Polybius, a Greek Hellenistic historian (ca 200 – ca 118 BCE), ancient western thinkers who had thought about recurrence had largely been concerned with cosmological rather than historic recurrence.〔G.W. Trompf, ''The Idea of Historical Recurrence in Western Thought'', pp. 6-15.〕 Western philosophers and historians who have discussed various concepts of historic recurrence include Polybius, the Greek historian and rhetorician Dionysius of Halicarnassus (ca. 60 BCE – after 7 BCE), Saint Luke, Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), Giambattista Vico (1668–1744), Arnold J. Toynbee (1889–1975).〔 An eastern concept that bears a kinship to western concepts of historic recurrence is the Chinese concept of the Mandate of Heaven, by which an unjust ruler will lose the support of Heaven and be overthrown.〔Elizabeth Perry, ''Challenging the Mandate of Heaven: Social Protest and State Power in China'', Sharpe, 2002, ISBN 0-7656-0444-2.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Historic recurrence」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|