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The reflections on civilization, barbarism, and their intricate relationship, which were put forward in ancient Greece, from Herodotus to Aristotle, had a longterm impact. In the mid-16th century debate which took place in Valladolid, between Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda and Bartolomé de Las Casas, about the status of the native populations of the New World, the Latin translations of Aristotle's Politics, and its comment by St. Thomas Aquinas, proved to be especially relevant for both opponents. Were Indian natives comparable to Aristotle's "natural slaves"? Was the war against them comparable to hunting wild beasts? The paper focuses on the debate and its contemporary implications.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Original Title -- Original Copyright -- Preface -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- PART I. POLITICAL PRELUDE -- PART II. FREEDOM IN SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS -- Chapter 1. What Are We Fighting For? -- Chapter 2. Freedom in the Birth and Growth of Culture -- PART III. THE MEANING OF FREEDOM -- Chapter 1. Freedom in Its Universe of Semantic Chaos -- Chapter 2. Analysis of the Multiple Meanings -- Chapter 3. The Concept of Free-Floating-Freedom -- Chapter 4. Freedom in Subjective Experience -- Chapter 5. The Semantics of Freedom -- PART IV. FREEDOM AS A GIFT OF CULTURE -- Chapter 1. The Initial Installment of Freedom -- Chapter 2. Differential Contributions to Early Freedom -- Chapter 3. Value and Derived Needs -- Chapter 4. Freedom, Education and the Formation of Purpose -- Chapter 5. Freedom Through Organization -- Chapter 6. The Nature of Cultural Determinism -- Chapter 7. Rules of Freedom and Rules of Servitude -- Chapter 8. Freedom and Discipline -- Chapter 9. The Role of Religion and Magic -- Chapter 10. Man's Dependence on Mechanical Device -- PART V. THE REAL BATTLEFIELDS OF FREEDOM -- Chapter 1. Democracy and Proto-Democracy -- Chapter 2. Power, Its Birth and Development -- Chapter 3. Tribe-Nation and Tribe-State -- Chapter 4. The State, Arbiter or Aggressor -- Chapter 5. War Throughout the Ages -- Chapter 6. War and Slavery as Main Denials of Freedom -- Chapter 7. Totalitarianism, the Enemy of Freedom and Culture -- Epilogue: The Foundations of Democracy and Freedom to Come -- BIBLIOGRAPHY.

How have major civilizations of the last two millennia treated people who were attracted to their own sex? In a narrative tour de force, Louis Crompton chronicles the lives and achievements of homosexual men and women alongside a darker history of persecution, as he compares the Christian West with the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome, Arab Spain, imperial China, and pre-Meiji Japan. Ancient Greek culture celebrated same-sex love in history, literature, and art, making high claims for its moral influence. By contrast, Jewish religious leaders in the sixth century B.C.E. branded male homosexuality as a capital offense and, later, blamed it for the destruction of the biblical city of Sodom. When these two traditions collided in Christian Rome during the late empire, the tragic repercussions were felt throughout Europe and the New World. Louis Crompton traces Church-inspired mutilation, torture, and burning of "sodomites" in sixth-century Byzantium, medieval France, Renaissance Italy, and in Spain under the Inquisition. But Protestant authorities were equally committed to the execution of homosexuals in the Netherlands, Calvin's Geneva, and Georgian England. The root cause was religious superstition, abetted by political ambition and sheer greed. Yet from this cauldron of fears and desires, homoerotic themes surfaced in the art of the Renaissance masters—Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Sodoma, Cellini, and Caravaggio—often intertwined with Christian motifs. Homosexuality also flourished in the court intrigues of Henry III of France, Queen Christina of Sweden, James I and William III of England, Queen Anne, and Frederick the Great. Anti-homosexual atrocities committed in the West contrast starkly with the more tolerant traditions of pre-modern China and Japan, as revealed in poetry, fiction, and art and in the lives of emperors, shoguns, Buddhist priests, scholars, and actors. In the samurai tradition of Japan, Crompton makes clear, the celebration of same-sex love rivaled that of ancient Greece. Sweeping in scope, elegantly crafted, and lavishly illustrated, Homosexuality and Civilization is a stunning exploration of a rich and terrible past

"The development of a science of human nature is primarily a semantic problem. Man dwells in a self-made world of meanings, established through the use of words, and an equally self-made world of values, brought into being by the creation of procedures and techniques. Important psychological abstractions like love, mercy, and honesty must be understood in depth, which means that they take on a permanent core of meaning which can be readily communicated. If abstractions which describe human nature are to be understood in depth they must be seen in relationship to the experiences which give them depth. Everything of importance in human nature has a paired quality, because it is part of the reciprocal relationship between the submissive and the dominant in the life process. Love takes on its real meaning only in relationship to power; power finds its true value in relationship to love. In this book, Jove and power are considered together, and all important concepts concerned in human nature are placed in similar pairs. This book takes a psychoanalytic approach to civilization, beginning with the abstractions that describe human nature. The author argues that men do not have to fear being abstract in viewing human nature; what they have to fear is the production of abstractions which have no relationship to the concrete world of the life of action"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Introduction. Development and enforcement of humanistic and democratic ideas and values that are fundamental to the socio-humanistic formation of a person and the world civilization and make the content and objectives of the philosophy of humanism and democracy are anakyzed in the article. In the twentieth century the most important is to implement the ideas and theories of humanism, peace and democracy in the global movement of peoples for the salvation of the world, preventing war. The purpose and objectives of the article is in the development of scientific and methodological basis for the production of innovative, more competitive philosophy of humanism and democracy, and for the consolidation of all scientific schools of humanistic and democratic direction and joining them in a global humanistic movement. In the second half of the 80's. of XX century the author formulated his own progressive philosophy of humanism and democracy based on the methodology of evolutionism, co-evolution and humanocentrism and civilizational megaparadigms and the principles of consistency, plurality, ideological and anthropocentric determination and non-linear, polycentric thinking. Today, in the reform of public life interdependence and simultaneous sequencing of the following principles is enhanced: democratization ↔ humanization ↔ deetatization ↔ decentralization ↔ deconcentration to their effectiveness in the areas of labor, property, public authorities, and therefore, in social groups. If this algorithm falls simultaneous execution of at least one principle, the overall result throughout society will also be minimized. Conclusion. Peaceful philosophy of humanism and democracy is the most effective manifesto of survival of world civilization, preserving all the ways and means of peace, the non-violent methods of struggle, to prevent a third world war and becoming humane and democratic society.

During the Enlightenment, Western scholars racialized ideas, deeming knowledge based on reality superior to that based on ideality. Scholars labeled inquiries into ideality, such as animism and soul-migration, "savage philosophy," a clear indicator of the racism motivating the distinction between the real and the ideal. In their view, the savage philosopher mistakes connections between signs for connections between real objects and believes that discourse can have physical effects-in other words, they believe in magic.Christopher Bracken's Magical Criticism brings the unacknowledged history of