Quote Originally Posted by marct View Post
Okay, have you noticed how this plays out as a line of evolution? Chaos -> kinship -> city/civilized? This is part of a narrative that comes out of European philosophy, theology and social theory; the idea that humans move in a linear fashion through particular stages or phases.
Your linear model is not what I had in mind. First of all, I did not start with chaos. I also never indicated a linear progression. In fact if you read my post on the Hybrid wars thread, you will note that I suggested a harmonic or oscillating motion between two poles as the more likely way of understanding what happens--it is a dialectic of sorts, but not Hegelian. That is, it moves from thesis to antithesis; however the denial of the antithesis does not necessarily yield a new thesis (through synthesis); instead it may return to the original thesis. About the best I am willing to countenance is a spiral development whose slope is probably very small. It is probably more like the M.C. Escher "waterfall" in the graphic piece found here

I mentioned Plato's Republic in my earlier post. Perhaps what is most striking about that work is the concluding myth of Er(10.614-10.621), in which Plato eschews linear progress with the discussion of reincarnation.

BTW, it is not just Western philosophy/theology that notes stages of development. If you think I am conflating staged development, which is descriptive, with progress, which is normative, rest assured that I am not. I read my Hume and G.E Moore quite closely.