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Civilization as a unit
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- The limits and divisions in general of world history
- Essentialism: Orientalism and “Western Civilization”
- Writing and Civilization
- A dialog from ANE list, November 1997. Concerning the use of writing as a diagnostic criterion for the definition of state-level societies.
- Civilization
- A dialog on the Ancient Near East list, November-December 1997. The meaning of “civilization” and its use as a unit of historical analysis, with asides on culture and race [62Kb].
- ‘Civilization’
- A dialog from the PhilOfHi list, November-December 1997. The definition of ‘civilization’.
- Definition of state in ‘civilization’
- Part of a dialog from the Philosophy of History and theoretical history list, December 1997, that might offer some useful points concerning a definition of “state” appropiate for using it as part of a definition of civilization [47 Kb].
- Defining civilization
- By Haines Brown, 28 April 2001. The word civilization is highly ideological in origin, and so may or may not be useful, and so is the periodization and idea of progress associated with it.
- Civilization vs. (complex) society?
- By Mark Whitaker, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 25 April 2001. As a graduate student, answers a question concerning the association of civilization and urbanism.
- Just what is this ‘civilization’?
- By Mary Riddell, Observer (London), Sunday 28 October 2001. It's a word that can mean all things to all men, but it's also a concept used in the current conflict to suit many different purposes.
- Philosophical problems of “modern civilization”
- By Haines Brown, 17 September 2003. In response to the conceptual difficulties raised by the notion civilization, suggests that a problem is the universal tendency to define it in static terms and to link modernity with progress.
- The clash of civilisations revisited
- Opinion by Mohamed Sid-Ahmed, Al-Ahram Weekly, 15–21 April 2004. Both of the interdependent theories of Fukuyama (the end of history) and Huntington (the clash of civilizations) have been blown up out of all proportion. They proceed from premises that are shrouded in ambiguities, not to say mistakes.
- Empire of Barbarism
- By John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark, Monthly Review, December 2004. Considers the notions of civilizations and barbarism as either categorical opposites or barbarism as a possible characterization of civilization.