Meeting 1-Introduction to the History of Evolution and Human Consciousness
1. HIST H300: The History of Evolution and Human
Consciousness (31993) | T 3:00-5:40
Jason M. Kelly, PhD FSA
Director, IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute
Associate Professor of History
jaskelly@iupui.edu | @jason_m_kelly
Paintings from the Grotte
Chauvet-Pont d'Arc, Ardèche,
France. ca. 35,000-30,000 BP.
2. I. Introduction > Outline of Today’s Meeting
I. Introductions
II. What do you know?
III. Cosmologies
// BREAK //
IV. What is History?
V. Universal History, Deep History, Big History
VI. The History of Consciousness
3. Most professional historians focus on studying humans
and human societies over the last 500 years. A significant
number examine humanity’s history over the past 3000
years. And, a handful analyze the past 10,000 years.
However, the earliest humans emerged approximately 2.3
million years ago. This means that well over 2 million years
of human history are virtually ignored by most
professional historians.
4. This is not entirely unexpected. For centuries, scholars
lacked the tools and techniques to study the deep history
of the human past. However, over the last several decades,
new discoveries, technologies, and methodologies have
uncovered a rich history embedded in rocks, bones, and
genes. Most of this work has
been done by scientists
and social scientists, but a
small number of historians
have begun collaborating
with them to trace the
evolution of humans,
their societies and
their cultures.
5. What these researchers have
found has profound
consequences — not simply
for our understanding of the
deep past, but for our
understanding of modern
societies and cultures. It is
evident that professional
historians will increasingly
need to engage with these
discoveries as well as
disciplines such as
archaeology, evolutionary
biology, and neurobiology.
6. This course introduces
students to these debates by
asking a fundamental
question: what makes us
human? The answer, we will
find, requires that we explore
the histories of religion,
philosophy and science. It will
necessitate that we explore the
evolution of humans — and
most importantly the evolution
of brains, consciousness, and
culture. We will draw on
research from biology,
anthropology, and history to
explore our pasts, presents,
and futures.
7. 1. Students will be able to outline the history of hominids with special
attention to key moments in the evolution of consciousness
and culture.
I. Introduction > Learning Outcomes
8. 1. Students will be able to outline the history of hominids with special
attention to key moments in the evolution of consciousness
and culture.
2. Through comparing and contrasting the major philosophical and
scientific debates about the nature of human consciousness since the
17th century, students will construct a visual model that highlights key
historical themes in these debates.
I. Introduction > Learning Outcomes
9. 1. Students will be able to outline the history of hominids with special
attention to key moments in the evolution of consciousness
and culture.
2. Through comparing and contrasting the major philosophical and
scientific debates about the nature of human consciousness since the
17th century, students will construct a visual model that highlights key
historical themes in these debates.
3. Students will be able to identify and summarize current debates
about gene-culture co-evolution and relate them to current
historiographical discussions.
I. Introduction > Learning Outcomes
10. 1. Students will be able to outline the history of hominids with special
attention to key moments in the evolution of consciousness
and culture.
2. Through comparing and contrasting the major philosophical and
scientific debates about the nature of human consciousness since the
17th century, students will construct a visual model that highlights key
historical themes in these debates.
3. Students will be able to identify and summarize current debates
about gene-culture co-evolution and relate them to current
historiographical discussions.
4. By comparing and contrasting the philosophical, historical, and
scientific debates about evolution and the history of consciousness
over the past 300 years, students will evaluate the ethical implications
of various theoretical models.
I. Introduction > Learning Outcomes
11. II. What Do You Know?
Quiz 1
Human Skull Neanderthal Skull
12. III. Cosmologies
What is a Cosmology?
The air god Shu, assisted by other gods, holds up Nut, the sky, as Geb, the earth, lies beneath. ca. 970 BCE.
British Museum
13. III. Cosmologies
What is a Cosmology?
a. The science or theory of the universe as an ordered whole,
and of the general laws which govern it. Also, a particular
account or system of the universe and its laws.
b. Philos. That branch of metaphysics which deals with the
idea of the world as a totality of all phenomena in space and
time.
Oxford English Dictionary
14. III. Cosmologies
What is a Cosmology?
a. the study of the origins, development, structure, and
fate of the universe
b. a worldview
15. III. Cosmologies > What is a Cosmology?
Greek
κόσμος
kosmos
(order, world)
λογια
-logia
(discourse)
Latin French English
cosmologia cosmologie cosmology
17th-18th centuries
17. Hartmann Schedel and Georg Alt. Woodblocks by
Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff.
Nuremberg Chronicle. 1493. Cambridge University
Library, Inc.0.A.7.2[888], f. 5v.
18. Hartmann Schedel and Georg Alt.
Woodblocks by Michael Wolgemut and
Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Nuremberg
Chronicle. 1493. Cambridge University
Library, Inc.0.A.7.2[888], f. 5v.
19. Hartmann Schedel and Georg Alt. Woodblocks by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Nuremberg
Chronicle. 1493. Cambridge University Library, Inc.0.A.7.2[888].
1v 2r 3v 4v
20. Hartmann Schedel and Georg Alt. Woodblocks by
Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff.
Nuremberg Chronicle. 1493. Cambridge University
Library, Inc.0.A.7.2[888], f. 5r.
25. IV. What is History?
History
is
a subject
a discipline
a way of thinking
an ethical framework
a descriptive technique
a philosophical intervention
a method of identity formation
26. IV. What is History?
History
is
a subject
a discipline
a way of thinking
an ethical framework
a descriptive technique
a philosophical intervention
a method of identity formation
What questions can (or should)
we ask as historians?
27. IV. What is History? —> Epistemologies
What is a Epistemology?
Philos. The theory of knowledge and understanding, esp. with
regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction
between justified belief and opinion; (as a count noun) a
particular theory of knowledge and understanding.
Oxford English Dictionary
28. IV. What is History? —> Epistemologies
Greek
ἐπιστήμη
episteme
(knowledge)
λογια
-logia
(discourse)
English/French
epistemology /
l’épistémologie
19th century
German
18th-19th centuries
(translation of
German philosophical
concept
Wissenschaftslehre)
29. IV. What is History? —> Epistemologies
Epistemological Frameworks
Teleological
• linear history (e.g. providential, Marxist, Whig)
• cyclical history (Polybius)
Empirical
• e.g. positivism, quantitative history, cliometrics
Social/Cultural
• e.g. ethnography, history from below
Radical / Critical Theory
predictivedescriptivecritical
30. V. Universal History, Deep History, Big History
What is Universal History?
Universal History is an approach to history which attempts to
account for the entirety of human history — often from creation
to the present. In the past, it has often sought to integrate a
religious or philosophical point of view. From the eighteenth
century, writers increasingly attempted to both make their
works more secular and scientific and to create universal
histories that integrated more people from around the world.
However, these works often justified imperialism and racism.
By the 20th century, most professional historians rejected
universal history as too reductive.
31. Sebastian C. Adams Adams' Synchronological Chart of
Universal History. 1881. 70 x 57 cm. David Rumsey Historical
Map Collection. http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/
RUMSEY~8~1~226101~5505923:Page-1--Adams--
Synchronological-Cha
32. Sebastian C. Adams Adams' Synchronological Chart of
Universal History. 1881. 70 x 57 cm. David Rumsey Historical
Map Collection. http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/
RUMSEY~8~1~226101~5505923:Page-1--Adams--
Synchronological-Cha
33. Sebastian C. Adams Adams' Synchronological Chart of
Universal History. 1881. 70 x 57 cm. David Rumsey Historical
Map Collection. http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/
RUMSEY~8~1~226101~5505923:Page-1--Adams--
Synchronological-Cha
34. Henry Fairfield Osborn, Evolution and Religion in
Education: Polemics of the Fundamentalist
Controversy of 1922 to 1926 (New York, 1926).
Hartmann Schedel and Georg Alt. Woodblocks by Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff. Nuremberg Chronicle. 1493. Cambridge University Library, Inc.0.A.7.2[888], f. 5v.
http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/PR-INC-00000-A-00007-00002-00888/56
The Liber Chronicarum by Hartmann Schedel printed in Nuremberg by Anton Koberger in 1493, or Nuremberg Chronicle as it is generally called, is one of the most important German incunables and the most extensively illustrated book of the 15th century.
The text is a universal history of the Christian world from the beginning of times to the early 1490s, written in Latin by the Nuremberg physician and humanist Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514) on commission from the Nuremberg merchants Sebald Schreyer (1446-1520) and Sebastian Kammermeister (1446-1503). Drawn by the author from multiple medieval and Renaissance sources, such as Bede, Vincent of Beauvais, Martin of Tropau, Flavius Blondus, Bartolomeo Platina and Philippus de Bergamo (Iacopo Filippo Foresta), the Chronicle also incorporates geographical and historical information on European countries and towns. The narrative is divided into 11 parts, the so-called world ages, and is profusely illustrated by images of biblical and historical events, and topographical views of towns and countries in Europe and the Middle East, including Jerusalem (and its destruction) and Byzantium.
Schreyer and Kammermeister commissioned the printing of the Chronicle to the Nuremberg printer Anton Koberger (ca.1440-1513), owner of the largest 15th-century German printing house. The Latin edition was printed in Koberger's shop between May 1492 and October 1493. In the meantime, a German translation was commissioned by the two financiers to Georg Alt (circa 1450-1510), a scribe at Nuremberg treasury, and the German edition was printed alongside the Latin one between January and December 1493. The project was completed on 23 December 1493.
Both editions are lavishly illustrated with 1804 xylographical images created from 641-643 woodblocks by the Nuremberg artists Michael Wolgemut (circa 1434/37 – 1519) and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff (circa 1450 - 1494), a map of the world, showing the Gulf of Guinea discovered by the Portuguese in 1470, and a map of Northern and Central Europe by Hieronymus Münzer (circa 1437/1447 - 1508). The woodcut illustrations of a number of copies, both in Latin and in vernacular, were also supplied with hand colouring by contemporary German artists. The alleged involvement in the creation of the woodblocks of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), has now been rejected on the documentary evidence that he only worked as an apprentice in Wolgemut's workshop between 1486 and 1489, well before the beginning of the production of the Chronicle.
The beauty of the illustrative apparatus, the skilful production and the elegant mise-en-page of the both the Latin and German editions of the text account for the 'enduring value' of the Nuremberg Chronicle, which survives in circa 1240 copies of the Latin edition and in circa 1580 copies of the vernacular.
Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
Classmark: Inc.0.A.7.2[888]
Alternative Title(s): Registrum huius operis libri chronicarum cum figuris et imaginibus ab inicio mundi
Uniform Title: Liber Chronicarum
Subject(s): Chronology, historical -- Early works to 1800; World history -- Early works to 1800; Nuremberg -- History
Author(s): Schedel, Hartmann, 1440 1514; Alt, Georg, ca. 1450 1510
Origin Place: Nuremberg
Date of Creation: 12 July 1493
Language(s): Latin
Donor(s): Parker, Matthew, 1504-1575
Associated Person(s): Kammermeister, Sebastian -1503; Koberger, Anton, ca. 1440-1513; Pleydenwurff, Wilhelm, d. 1494; Schreyer, Sebald, 1446-1520; Wolgemut, Michael, 1434-1519
Note(s): The text is an almost unaltered rewriting of Jacobus Philippus de Bergamo's Supplementum Chronicarum, with the addition of other Italian sources. Colophon on 266r marks the completion of the work of Hartmann Schedel; George Alt is the author of the remainder of the text.; Published by Anton Koberger, for Sebald Schreyer and Sebastian Kammermeister
Extent: [20], CCXCIX, [7] leaves
Material: Paper
Format: Codex
Binding:
Mottled brown calf over pasteboards, with manuscript title Registrum Chro[n]icar. in black ink on bookblock front-edge, and title and date of printing gilt on red morocco spine label, Cambridge, early 18th century.
Script:
Gothic Rotunda type
Foliation:
Printed foliation I-CCXCIX and running titles on leaves [4.1]-[60.4]; leaf CCXXIX foliated CCXXXI; leaf CCXLVII foliated CCXLXVII
Layout:
453 mm (fol.)
Decoration: Ills, 2 maps (woodcuts)
Woodcuts by Michael Wohlgemut, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and their workshop: 1804 illustrations created from 641-643 woodblocks (depending on the copy), 1164 of which are repeats.
Provenance: Inscribed 'Ex dono Matthæi Cantuariensis Archiep[iscop]i Academiæ Cantebrigiensi : A[nno] D[omi]ni 1574' on 1r, i.e. Matthew Parker, archbishop of Canterbury, his annotations including printing date in red crayon on leaf [1.1] recto. Inscribed 'Sum Academiæ Cantabrigiensis' on leaf [1.1] recto, late 16th or early 17th century; library armorial bookplate on same leaf, 17th century; old library shelfmarks 'L-1-16' in black ink on leaf [1.2] recto and 'R.α.3' in pencil on upper pastedown
Data Source(s): The index of illustrations is derived from the Morse Library, Beloit College online edition of the Nuremberg Chronicle.
Author(s) of the Record: Laura Nuvoloni
Bibliography:
Reske, Christoph, Die Produktion der Schedelschen Weltchronik in Nürnberg = The production of Schedel's Nuremberg chronicle, Mainzer Studien zur Buchwissenschaft vol. Bd. 10 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000) ISBN: 3447042966.
Wilson, Adrian, The making of the Nuremberg chronicle contributor: Hartmann Schedel (Amsterdam: A. Asher, 1976) ISBN: 9060728149.