A thread through the archive
Essays tagged “ancient history”. Follow an idea across the archive.
Scott reviews Julian Jaynes' controversial theory that ancient people lacked consciousness and instead heard hallucinated voices of gods, critiquing some aspects while finding value in the idea of theory of mind as culturally constructed.
Scott shares a diverse collection of interesting links and news items, covering topics from ancient history to modern politics and technology, with brief commentary on each.
Scott Alexander theorizes that ancient religions were inseparable from culture, comparing them to modern American civil religion and explaining how they evolved into distinct belief systems.
Scott shares a collection of interesting links covering topics like folklore, scientific papers, geopolitics, and cultural curiosities.