How Multiple Paths from the Early Modern & Modern Global Past Could Help Guide Us to a Feasible & Desirable Future or Lead Us Toward Disaster
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Abstract：
The previous two lectures have presented evidence that diverse paths of historical change have been studied by historians but that their research has not been used by the social sciences in the ways that Western European history has proved essential. This raises questions of the adequacy of the social sciences to grapple effectively with identifying a desirable and feasible global future. I will draw on issues of governance in political and economic contexts to address two pressing issues: (1) a recognition that the complexity of contemporary geopolitics and the global economy is quite different from what existed in early modern and modern history; (2) the growing awareness of people across the globe that we face the consequences of the accelerated pursuit of modern era aspirations after WW II that created climate changes that have forcefully and at times brutally caused catastrophic disruptions. Together, these lectures offer suggestions for how the academic discipline of history can and should better inform our social sciences’ understanding of the contemporary world and the types of futures that humanity faces but can also choose to pursue those possible futures that are feasible and desirable.
The previous two lectures have presented evidence that diverse paths of historical change have been studied by historians but that their research has not been used by the social sciences in the ways that Western European history has proved essential. This raises questions of the adequacy of the social sciences to grapple effectively with identifying a desirable and feasible global future. I will draw on issues of governance in political and economic contexts to address two pressing issues: (1) a recognition that the complexity of contemporary geopolitics and the global economy is quite different from what existed in early modern and modern history; (2) the growing awareness of people across the globe that we face the consequences of the accelerated pursuit of modern era aspirations after WW II that created climate changes that have forcefully and at times brutally caused catastrophic disruptions. Together, these lectures offer suggestions for how the academic discipline of history can and should better inform our social sciences’ understanding of the contemporary world and the types of futures that humanity faces but can also choose to pursue those possible futures that are feasible and desirable.