The Secular Evolution of the Concept of Cycles

Cyclical & progressive visions of time usually coexist within social systems of time reckoning. Approaches to time include chronometry, which is necessarily cyclical; chronology, which is necessarily linear; & chronosophy, which takes time itself as subject matter to be understood. An import...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Review - Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems, and Civilizations Historical Systems, and Civilizations, 1979-04, Vol.2 (4), p.563-646
Main Author: Pomian, Krzysztof
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capital surplus
Capitalism
Concept/Concepts/Conception/Conceptual/ Conceptualization
Cycle/Cycles/Cyclical
Cyclical time
Demography
Economic fluctuations
Economic history
Economic theory
Evolution/Evolutionist/Evolutionists
Humanism
Marxian economics
Political economy
Secular/Secularism/ Secularization
Time
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Summary:Cyclical & progressive visions of time usually coexist within social systems of time reckoning. Approaches to time include chronometry, which is necessarily cyclical; chronology, which is necessarily linear; & chronosophy, which takes time itself as subject matter to be understood. An important question within chronosophy is that of the irreversibility of the evolution of knowledge. Concepts of time are illustrated through examination of the historical evolution of such concepts in Western thought since the later Middle Ages. Irreversible changes are found to have occurred in three aspects of human existence: population size, energy available to each person, & growth of collectively available information. Attention to the details of history leads to the conclusion that linear, cyclical, & stationary concepts of historical time are all oversimplified. The key battleground between alternative chronosophies is now in the definition of the future & its possibilities. 2 Figures. W. H. Stoddard.
ISSN:0147-9032
2327-445X