David Graeber on Progress in Human History (Pre Read)

"For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike--either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could only be achieved by sacrificing those original freedoms, or alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. Graeber and Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization itself..."

We will discuss the second chapter ("Wicked Liberty: The indigenous critique and the myth of progress") of the book The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity. The book can be found here.

(More about the book here: https://www.amazon.ca/Dawn-Everything-New-History-Humanity-ebook/dp/B0948GPBBH/)

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This group examines the history of Ideas and Science. Great effort is made to include lesser known thinkers whose thought has historical significance. We will also examine non-European Philosophy and Science to provide context and comparison.

The organizer is not an expert but has a long experience in organizing similar meetings. He also has an Oxford PhD in European History as well as a Cambridge MPhil on the same discipline. He currently teaches foreign languages.

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Our meeting time is: Thursday 2 pm(Los Angeles)/5 pm (New York)/10 pm (London).