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Auto racing | Racing-car setup | Racing-car setup
In auto racing, the racing setup or car setup is the set of adjustments made to the vehicle to optimize its behaviour (performance, handling, reliability, etc.). Adjustments can occur in suspensions, brakes, transmissions, engines, tires, and many others. |
Auto racing | Aerodynamics | Aerodynamics
Aerodynamics and airflow play big roles in the setup of a race car. Aerodynamic downforce improves the race car's handling by lowering the center of gravity and distributing the weight of the car equally on each tire. Once this is achieved, fuel consumption decreases and the forces against the car are significantly lowered. Many aerodynamic experiments are conducted in wind tunnels, to simulate real-life situations while measuring the various drag forces on the car. These "Rolling roads" produce many wind situations and direct air flow at certain speeds and angles. When a diffuser is installed under the car, the amount of drag force is significantly lowered, and the overall aerodynamics of the vehicle is positively adjusted. Wings and canards channel the airflow in the most efficient way to get the least amount of drag from the car. It is experimentally proven that downforce is gained and the vehicle's handling is considerably changed when aerodynamic wings on the front and rear of the vehicle are installed. |
Auto racing | Suspension | Suspension
Suspension plays a huge part in giving the race car the ability to be driven optimally. Shocks are mounted vertically or horizontally to prevent the body from rolling in the corners. The suspension is important because it makes the car stable and easier to control and keeps the tires on the road when driving on uneven terrain. It works in three different ways including vertically, longitudinally, and laterally to control movement when racing on various tracks. |
Auto racing | Tyres | Tyres
Tyres called R-Compounds are commonly used in motorsports for high amounts of traction. The soft rubber allows them to expand when they are heated up, making more surface area on the pavement, therefore producing the most traction. These types of tyres do not have grooves on them. Tyre pressure is dependent on the temperature of the tyre and track when racing. Each time a driver pulls into the pits, the tyre pressure and temperature should be tested for optimal performance. When the tyres get too hot they will swell or inflate and need to be deflated to the correct pressure. When the tyres are not warmed up they will not perform as well. |
Auto racing | Brakes | Brakes
Brakes on a race car are imperative in slowing and stopping the car at precise times and wear quickly depending on the road or track on which the car is being raced, how many laps are being run, track conditions due to weather, and how many caution runs require more braking. There are three variables to consider in racing: brake pedal displacement, brake pedal force, and vehicle deceleration.de Groot, S., et al. "Car Racing In A Simulator: Validation And Assessment Of Brake Pedal Stiffness." Presence: Teleoperators & Virtual Environments 20.1 (2011): 47–61. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Dec. 2016. Various combinations of these variables work together to determine the stiffness, sensitivity, and pedal force of the brakes. When using the brakes effectively, the driver must go through a buildup phase and end with a modulating phase. These phases include attaining maximum deceleration and modulating the brake pressure. Brake performance is measured in bite and consistency. Bite happens when the driver first applies the brakes and they have not warmed up to the correct temperature to operate efficiently. Consistency is measured in how consistent the friction is during the entire time of braking. These two measurements determine the wear of the brakes. |
Auto racing | Engine | Engine
The race car's engine needs a considerable amount of air to produce maximum power. The air intake manifold sucks the air from scoops on the hood and front bumper and feeds it into the engine. Many engine modifications to increase horsepower and efficiency are commonly used in many racing-sanctioning bodies. Engines are tuned on a machine called a dynamometer, which is commonly known in the racing world as a DYNO. The car is driven onto the DYNO and many gauges and sensors are hooked up to the car that are controlled by an online program to test force, torque, or power. Through the testing, the car's engine maps can be changed to get the most horsepower and ultimately speed out of the vehicle. |
Auto racing | Racing drivers | Racing drivers
thumb|right|Formula One racing drivers Max Verstappen (left), Daniel Ricciardo (center), and Nico Rosberg (right) celebrate on the podium of the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix
Racing drivers, at the highest levels, can be paid by the team, or by sponsors, and can command substantial salaries. Drivers who pay for their positions, or seats, within racing teams are typically known as pay drivers, or gentleman drivers. Drivers may also enter events as privateers.
Contrary to popular assumption, racing drivers as a group do not have unusually strong reflexes or peripheral response time. During repeated physiological and psychological evaluations of professional racing drivers, the two characteristics that stand out are racers' near-obsessive need to control their surroundings—psychological—and an unusual ability to process fast-moving information —physiological. Researchers have noted a strong correlation between racing driver psychological profiles and those of fighter pilots. In tests comparing racing drivers to the general public, the greater the complexity of the information processing matrix, the greater the speed gap between the two groups.
Due partly to the performance capabilities of modern racing cars, racing drivers require a high level of fitness, focus, and the ability to concentrate at high levels for long periods in an inherently difficult environment. They often complain about injuries in the lumbar, shoulder, and neck regions. Racing drivers experience large g-forces due to formula cars and sports prototypes generating high levels of downforce, and being able to corner at high speeds. Formula One drivers routinely experience lateral loads in excess of , requiring drivers to commit to frequent neck training regimens. |
Auto racing | See also | See also
Outline of auto racing
List of auto racing tracks
Motorcycle racing
Race track
List of auto racing films
Racing video game |
Auto racing | References | References |
Auto racing | External links | External links
Sanctioning bodies
Motorsports UK Association
American Le Mans Series (ALMS)
Indy Racing League (IRL)
Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)
Grand American Road Racing Association
International Conference of Sports Car Clubs (ICSCC)
International Hot Rod Association (IHRA)
International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)
National Auto Sport Association
National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR)
National Hot Rod Association (NHRA)
No Prep Racing
SCORE International Off-Road Racing
Sports Car Club of America (SCCA)
United States Auto Club (USAC)
Formula One (F1)
Confederation of Australian Motorsport (CAMS)
Best In The Desert Off-Road Racing
|
Auto racing | Table of Content | short description, History, Categories, Open-wheel racing, Touring car racing, Sports car racing, Production-car racing, Stock car racing, One-make racing, Drag racing, Off-road racing, Kart racing, Historical racing, Other categories, Scoring, Use of flags, Accidents, Racing-car setup, Aerodynamics, Suspension, Tyres, Brakes, Engine, Racing drivers, See also, References, External links |
Anarcho-capitalism | Short description | thumb|alt=A two-colored flag, split diagonally, with yellow at the top and black at the bottom|The black and gold flag, a symbol of anarchism (black) and capitalism (gold) which according to Murray Rothbard was first flown in 1963 in ColoradoRothbard, Murray N., The Betrayal of the American Right (2007): 188 and is also used by the Swedish AnarkoKapitalistisk Front|261x261px
Anarcho-capitalism (colloquially: ancap or an-cap) is a political philosophy and economic theory that advocates for the abolition of centralized states in favor of stateless societies, where systems of private property are enforced by private agencies. Anarcho-capitalists argue that society can self-regulate and civilize through the voluntary exchange of goods and services. This would ideally result in a voluntary society based on concepts such as the non-aggression principle, free markets and self-ownership. In the absence of statute private defence agencies and/or insurance companies would operate competitively in a market and fulfill the roles of courts and the police, similar to a state apparatus. Some anarcho-capitalist philosophies understand control of private property as part of the self, and some permit slavery if agreed to by the person to become a slave.Casey, G.(2011), “Can You Own Yourself?”, Analysis and Metaphysics, Vol. 10, pp. 60-66. https://researchrepository.ucd.ie/entities/publication/d53b4dab-f934-41a4-81c2-e73ad97b9865/details The vast majority of anarcho-capitalists deny this, and critics of capitalism argue that this minority opinion is not unique to anarcho-capitalists, but is an essential consequence of the capitalist contract theory (wage slavery). McKay, Iain. (2008/2012). 《An Anarchist FAQ-Appendix: Anarchism and "Anarcho"-capitalism》. Edinburgh and Oakland: AK Press. 2.6 Do Libertarian-capitalists support slavery?
https://anarchism.pageabode.com/book/2-what-do-anarcho-capitalists-mean-by-freedom/
According to its proponents, various historical theorists have espoused philosophies similar to anarcho-capitalism.Hoppe, Hans-Hermann (31 December 2001). "Anarcho-Capitalism: An Annotated Bibliography" . Lew Rockwell.com. Retrieved 5 July 2020. While the earliest extant attestation of "anarchocapitalism" is in Karl Hess's essay "The Death of Politics" published by Playboy in March 1969, American economist Murray Rothbard was credited with coining the terms anarcho-capitalistRoberta Modugno Crocetta, "Murray Rothbard's anarcho-capitalism in the contemporary debate. A critical defense", Ludwig Von Mises Institute. Archived from the original. quote: "Murray Rothbard suggests the anarcho-capitalist mode, [...]" and anarcho-capitalism in 1971.Flood, Anthony (2010). Untitled preface to Rothbard's "Know Your Rights" , originally published in WIN: Peace and Freedom through Nonviolent Action, Volume 7, No. 4, 1 March 1971, 6–10. Flood's quote: "Rothbard's neologism, 'anarchocapitalism,' probably makes its first appearance in print here." A leading figure in the 20th-century American libertarian movement, Rothbard synthesized elements from the Austrian School, classical liberalism and 19th-century American individualist anarchists and mutualists Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker, while rejecting the labor theory of value. Rothbard's anarcho-capitalist society would operate under a mutually agreed-upon "legal code which would be generally accepted, and which the courts would pledge themselves to follow". This legal code would recognize contracts between individuals, private property, self-ownership and tort law in keeping with the non-aggression principle. Unlike a state, enforcement measures would only apply to those who initiated force or fraud. Rothbard views the power of the state as unjustified, arguing that it violates individual rights and reduces prosperity, and creates social and economic problems.
Anarcho-capitalists and right-libertarians cite several historical precedents of what they believe to be examples of quasi-anarcho-capitalism, including the Republic of Cospaia, Acadia, Anglo-Saxon England, Medieval Iceland, the American Old West, Gaelic Ireland, and merchant law, admiralty law, and early common law.
Anarcho-capitalism is distinguished from minarchism, which advocates a minimal governing body (typically a night-watchman state limited to protecting individuals from aggression and enforcing private property) and from objectivism (which is a broader philosophy advocating a limited role, yet unlimited size, of said government). Anarcho-capitalists consider themselves to be anarchists despite supporting private property and private institutions. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Classification | Classification
Anarcho-capitalism developed from Austrian School-neoliberalism and individualist anarchism.. Retrieved 20 June 2020. Almost all anarchist movements do not consider anarcho-capitalism to be anarchist because it lacks the historically central anti-capitalist emphasis of anarchism. They also argue that anarchism is incompatible with capitalist structures.' According to several scholars, Anarcho-capitalism lies outside the tradition of the vast majority of anarchist schools of thought and is more closely affiliated with capitalism, right-libertarianism and neoliberalism. Traditionally, anarchists oppose and reject capitalism, and consider "anarcho-capitalism" to be a contradiction in terms, although anarcho-capitalists and some right-libertarians consider anarcho-capitalism to be a form of anarchism.
According to the Encyclopædia Britannica:Anarcho-capitalism is occasionally seen as part of the New Right. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Philosophy | Philosophy
thumb|Murray Rothbard (1926–1995), who is credited with coining the words anarcho-capitalist and anarcho-capitalism.|alt=Murray Rothbard in the 1970s
Author J Michael Oliver says that during the 1960s, a philosophical movement arose in the US that championed "reason, ethical egoism, and free-market capitalism". According to Oliver, anarcho-capitalism is a political theory which logically follows the philosophical conclusions of Objectivism, a philosophical system developed by Ayn Rand, but he acknowledges that his advocacy of anarcho-capitalism is "quite at odds with Rand's ardent defense of 'limited government. Professor Lisa Duggan also says that Rand's anti-statist, pro–"free market" stances went on to shape the politics of anarcho-capitalism.
According to Patrik Schumacher, the political ideology and programme of anarcho-capitalism envisages the radicalization of the neoliberal "rollback of the state", and calls for the extension of "entrepreneurial freedom" and "competitive market rationality" to the point where the scope for private enterprise is all-encompassing and "leaves no space for state action whatsoever". |
Anarcho-capitalism | On the state | On the state
Anarcho-capitalists oppose the state and seek to privatize any useful service the government presently provides, such as education, infrastructure, or the enforcement of law. They see capitalism and the "free market" as the basis for a free and prosperous society. Murray Rothbard stated that the difference between free-market capitalism and state capitalism is the difference between "peaceful, voluntary exchange" and a "collusive partnership" between business and government that "uses coercion to subvert the free market".Rothbard, Murray N., A Future of Peace and Capitalism ; Murray N. Rothbard, Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty . Rothbard argued that all government services, including defense, are inefficient because they lack a market-based pricing mechanism regulated by "the voluntary decisions of consumers purchasing services that fulfill their highest-priority needs" and by investors seeking the most profitable enterprises to invest in. published in
Rothbard used the term anarcho-capitalism to distinguish his philosophy from anarchism that opposes private property"Libertarianism" (2007). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 30 July 2007. as well as to distinguish it from individualist anarchism.Murray Rothbard (2000). "Egalitarianism as A Revolt Against Nature And Other Essays: and other essays". Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2000. p. 207. Other terms sometimes used by proponents of the philosophy include:
Individualist anarchismAvrich, Paul (1996). Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America (abridged paperback ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 282. . "Although there are many honorable exceptions who still embrace the 'socialist' label, most people who call themselves individualist anarchists today are followers of Murray Rothbard's Austrian economics and have abandoned the labor theory of value."Carson, Kevin (2006). Studies in Mutualist Political Economy. "Preface". Charleston: BookSurge Publishing. . "Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995), American economist, historian, and individualist anarchist."
Natural order
Ordered anarchy
Private-law society
Private-property anarchy
Radical capitalism
Maverick Edwards of the Liberty University describes anarcho-capitalism as a political, social, and economic theory that places markets as the central "governing body" and where government no longer "grants" rights to its citizenry. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Non-aggression principle | Non-aggression principle
Writer Stanisław Wójtowicz says that although anarcho-capitalists are against centralized states, they believe that all people would naturally share and agree to a specific moral theory based on the non-aggression principle. While the Friedmanian formulation of anarcho-capitalism is robust to the presence of violence and in fact, assumes some degree of violence will occur,Friedman, David D. (1989) "Chapter 41: Problems" . The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism (2nd ed.). La Salle: Open Court Press. . anarcho-capitalism as formulated by Rothbard and others holds strongly to the central libertarian nonaggression axiom, sometimes non-aggression principle. Rothbard wrote:
Rothbard's defense of the self-ownership principle stems from what he believed to be his falsification of all other alternatives, namely that either a group of people can own another group of people, or that no single person has full ownership over one's self. Rothbard dismisses these two cases on the basis that they cannot result in a universal ethic, i.e. a just natural law that can govern all people, independent of place and time. The only alternative that remains to Rothbard is self-ownership which he believes is both axiomatic and universal.Rothbard, Murray (1982). The Ethics of Liberty . Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press. p. 162. .
In general, the non-aggression axiom is described by Rothbard as a prohibition against the initiation of force, or the threat of force, against persons (in which he includes direct violence, assault and murder) or property (in which he includes fraud, burglary, theft and taxation). The initiation of force is usually referred to as aggression or coercion. The difference between anarcho-capitalists and other libertarians is largely one of the degree to which they take this axiom. Minarchist libertarians such as libertarian political parties would retain the state in some smaller and less invasive form, retaining at the very least public police, courts, and military. However, others might give further allowance for other government programs. In contrast, Rothbard rejects any level of "state intervention", defining the state as a coercive monopoly and as the only entity in human society, excluding acknowledged criminals, that derives its income entirely from coercion, in the form of taxation, which Rothbard describes as "compulsory seizure of the property of the State's inhabitants, or subjects."
Some anarcho-capitalists such as Rothbard accept the non-aggression axiom on an intrinsic moral or natural law basis. It is in terms of the non-aggression principle that Rothbard defined his interpretation of anarchism, "a system which provides no legal sanction for such aggression ['against person and property']"; and wrote that "what anarchism proposes to do, then, is to abolish the State, i.e. to abolish the regularized institution of aggressive coercion".Rothbard, Murray N. (1975) "Society Without A State" Libertarian Forum newsletter (January 1975). In an interview published in the American libertarian journal The New Banner, Rothbard stated that "capitalism is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression of capitalism".Rothbard, Murray (25 February 1972). "Exclusive Interview With Murray Rothbard" . The New Banner: A Fortnightly Libertarian Journal. Retrieved 10 September 2020. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Property | Property |
Anarcho-capitalism | Private property | Private property
Anarcho-capitalists postulate the privatization of everything, including cities with all their infrastructures, public spaces, streets and urban management systems.
Central to Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism are the concepts of self-ownership and original appropriation that combines personal and private property. Hans-Hermann Hoppe wrote:
Rothbard however rejected the Lockean proviso, and followed the rule of "first come, first served", without any consideration of how much resources are left for other individuals.John Locke, Second Treatise of Government, Chapter V, paragraph 27.
Anarcho-capitalists advocate private ownership of the means of production and the allocation of the product of labor created by workers within the context of wage labour and the free market – that is through decisions made by property and capital owners, regardless of what an individual needs or does not need. Original appropriation allows an individual to claim any never-before-used resources, including land and by improving or otherwise using it, own it with the same "absolute right" as their own body, and retaining those rights forever, regardless of whether the resource is still being used by them. According to Rothbard, property can only come about through labor, therefore original appropriation of land is not legitimate by merely claiming it or building a fence around itit is only by using land and by mixing one's labor with it that original appropriation is legitimized: "Any attempt to claim a new resource that someone does not use would have to be considered invasive of the property right of whoever the first user will turn out to be". Rothbard argued that the resource need not continue to be used in order for it to be the person's property as "for once his labor is mixed with the natural resource, it remains his owned land. His labor has been irretrievably mixed with the land, and the land is therefore his or his assigns' in perpetuity". published in
Rothbard also spoke about a theory of justice in property rights:
In Justice and Property Rights, Rothbard wrote that "any identifiable owner (the original victim of theft or his heir) must be accorded his property".Rothbard, Murray (2000). "Justice and Property Rights: The Failure of Utilitarianism" . In Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays (2nd ed.). Auburn: Mises Institute. p. 113. .Cobin, John M. (2009). A Primer on Modern Themes in Free Market Economics and Policy. Irvine: Universal-Publishers. p. 557. . In the case of slavery, Rothbard claimed that in many cases "the old plantations and the heirs and descendants of the former slaves can be identified, and the reparations can become highly specific indeed". Rothbard believed slaves rightfully own any land they were forced to work on under the homestead principle. If property is held by the state, Rothbard advocated its confiscation and "return to the private sector",Deist, Jeff (7 December 2019). "Rothbard on Slavery Reparations" . Mises Institute. Retrieved 6 September 2020. writing that "any property in the hands of the State is in the hands of thieves, and should be liberated as quickly as possible".Gordon, David, ed.; Rothbard, Murray; Fuller, Edward W. (2019). Rothbard A to Z. Auburn: Mises Institute. . Rothbard proposed that state universities be seized by the students and faculty under the homestead principle. Rothbard also supported the expropriation of nominally "private property" if it is the result of state-initiated force such as businesses that receive grants and subsidies.Carson, Kevin (28 September 2012). "The Left-Rothbardians, Part I: Rothbard" . Center for a Stateless Society. "What most people ordinarily identify as the stereotypical 'libertarian' privatization proposal, unfortunately, goes something like this: sell it to a giant corporation on terms that are most advantageous to the corporation. Rothbard proposed, instead, was to treat state property as unowned, and allow it to be homesteaded by those actually occupying it and mixing their labor with it. This would mean transforming government utilities, schools, and other services into consumer cooperatives and placing them under the direct control of their present clientele. It would mean handing over state industry to workers' syndicates and transforming it into worker-owned cooperatives". Retrieved 10 January 2020. Rothbard further proposed that businesses who receive at least 50% of their funding from the state be confiscated by the workers,Rothbard, Murray (Spring 1965). "Left and Right: The Prospects for Liberty". Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought. 1 (1): 4–22.Long, Roderick T. (8 April 2006). "Rothbard's 'Left and Right': Forty Years Later" . Mises Institute. Rothbard Memorial Lecture, Austrian Scholars Conference 2006. Retrieved 17 March 2020. writing: "What we libertarians object to, then, is not government per se but crime, what we object to is unjust or criminal property titles; what we are for is not 'private' property per se but just, innocent, non-criminal private property".
Similarly, Karl Hess wrote that "libertarianism wants to advance principles of property but that it in no way wishes to defend, willy nilly, all property which now is called private ... Much of that property is stolen. Much is of dubious title. All of it is deeply intertwined with an immoral, coercive state system". published in
Anarchists view capitalism as an inherently authoritarian and hierarchical system and seek the abolishment of private property.Proudhon, Pierre-Joseph (1840). What is Property? There is disagreement between anarchists and anarcho-capitalists as the former generally rejects anarcho-capitalism as a form of anarchism and considers anarcho-capitalism a contradiction in terms,Weick, David. Anarchist Justice. pp. 223–24Sabatini, Peter. Libertarianism: Bogus Anarchy. while the latter holds that the abolishment of private property would require expropriation which is "counterproductive to order" and would require a state.Stacy, Don (2011). "Review of Kosanke's Instead of Politics – Don Stacy" . Libertarian Papers. 3 (3). |
Anarcho-capitalism | Common property | Common property
As opposed to socialist anarchists, most anarcho-capitalists reject the commons. However, some of them propose that non-state public or community property can also exist in an anarcho-capitalist society. For anarcho-capitalists, what is important is that it is "acquired" and transferred without help or hindrance from what they call the "compulsory state". Deontological anarcho-capitalists believe that the only just and most economically beneficial way to acquire property is through voluntary trade, gift, or labor-based original appropriation, rather than through aggression or fraud.Avrich, Paul. Anarchist Voices: An Oral History of Anarchism in America, Abridged Paperback Edition (1996), p. 282.
Anarcho-capitalists state that there could be cases where common property may develop in a Lockean natural rights framework. Anarcho-capitalists make the example of a number of private businesses which may arise in an area, each owning the land and buildings that they use, but they argue that the paths between them become cleared and trodden incrementally through customer and commercial movement. These thoroughfares may become valuable to the community, but according to them ownership cannot be attributed to any single person and original appropriation does not apply because many contributed the labor necessary to create them. In order to prevent it from falling to the "tragedy of the commons", anarcho-capitalists suggest transitioning from common to private property, wherein an individual would make a homesteading claim based on disuse, acquire title by the assent of the community consensus, form a corporation with other involved parties, or other means.
American economist Randall G. Holcombe sees challenges stemming from the idea of common property under anarcho-capitalism, such as whether an individual might claim fishing rights in the area of a major shipping lane and thereby forbid passage through it. In contrast, Hoppe's work on anarcho-capitalist theory is based on the assumption that all property is privately held, "including all streets, rivers, airports, and harbors" which forms the foundation of his views on immigration. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Intellectual property | Intellectual property
Some anarcho-capitalists strongly oppose intellectual property (i.e., trademarks, patents, copyrights). Stephan N. Kinsella argues that ownership only relates to tangible assets. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Contractual society | Contractual society
The society envisioned by anarcho-capitalists has been labelled by them as a "contractual society" which Rothbard described as "a society based purely on voluntary action, entirely unhampered by violence or threats of violence" The system relies on contracts between individuals as the legal framework which would be enforced by private police and security forces as well as private arbitrations.
Rothbard argues that limited liability for corporations could also exist through contract, arguing that "[c]orporations are not at all monopolistic privileges; they are free associations of individuals pooling their capital. On the purely free market, those men would simply announce to their creditors that their liability is limited to the capital specifically invested in the corporation".
There are limits to the right to contract under some interpretations of anarcho-capitalism. Rothbard believes that the right to contract is based in inalienable rights and because of this any contract that implicitly violates those rights can be voided at will, preventing a person from permanently selling himself or herself into unindentured slavery. That restriction aside, the right to contract under anarcho-capitalist order would be pretty broad. For example, Rothbard went as far as to justify stork markets, arguing that a market in guardianship rights would facilitate the transfer of guardianship from abusive or neglectful parents to those more interested or suited to raising children. Other anarcho-capitalists have also suggested the legalization of organ markets, as in Iran's renal market. Other interpretations conclude that banning such contracts would in itself be an unacceptably invasive interference in the right to contract.
Included in the right of contract is "the right to contract oneself out for employment by others". While anarchists criticize wage labour describing it as wage slavery, anarcho-capitalists view it as a consensual contract. Some anarcho-capitalists prefer to see self-employment prevail over wage labor. David D. Friedman has expressed a preference for a society where "almost everyone is self-employed" and "instead of corporations there are large groups of entrepreneurs related by trade, not authority. Each sells not his time, but what his time produces". |
Anarcho-capitalism | Law and order and the use of violence | Law and order and the use of violence
Different anarcho-capitalists propose different forms of anarcho-capitalism and one area of disagreement is in the area of law. In The Market for Liberty, Morris and Linda Tannehill object to any statutory law whatsoever. They argue that all one has to do is ask if one is aggressing against another in order to decide if an act is right or wrong.Brown, Susan Love, The Free Market as Salvation from Government: The Anarcho-Capitalist View, Meanings of the Market: The Free Market in Western Culture, edited by James G. Carrier, Berg/Oxford, 1997, p. 113. However, while also supporting a natural prohibition on force and fraud, Rothbard supports the establishment of a mutually agreed-upon centralized libertarian legal code which private courts would pledge to follow, as he presumes a high degree of convergence amongst individuals about what constitutes natural justice.
Unlike both the Tannehills and Rothbard who see an ideological commonality of ethics and morality as a requirement, David D. Friedman proposes that "the systems of law will be produced for profit on the open market, just as books and bras are produced today. There could be competition among different brands of law, just as there is competition among different brands of cars".Friedman, David. The Machinery of Freedom. Second edition. La Salle, Ill, Open Court, pp. 116–17. Friedman says whether this would lead to a libertarian society "remains to be proven". He says it is a possibility that very un-libertarian laws may result, such as laws against drugs, but he thinks this would be rare. He reasons that "if the value of a law to its supporters is less than its cost to its victims, that law ... will not survive in an anarcho-capitalist society".
Anarcho-capitalists only accept the collective defense of individual liberty (i.e. courts, military, or police forces) insofar as such groups are formed and paid for on an explicitly voluntary basis. However, their complaint is not just that the state's defensive services are funded by taxation, but that the state assumes it is the only legitimate practitioner of physical forcethat is, they believe it forcibly prevents the private sector from providing comprehensive security, such as a police, judicial and prison systems to protect individuals from aggressors. Anarcho-capitalists believe that there is nothing morally superior about the state which would grant it, but not private individuals, a right to use physical force to restrain aggressors. If competition in security provision were allowed to exist, prices would also be lower and services would be better according to anarcho-capitalists. According to Molinari: "Under a regime of liberty, the natural organization of the security industry would not be different from that of other industries". Proponents believe that private systems of justice and defense already exist, naturally forming where the market is allowed to "compensate for the failure of the state", namely private arbitration, security guards, neighborhood watch groups and so on. These private courts and police are sometimes referred to generically as private defense agencies. The defense of those unable to pay for such protection might be financed by charitable organizations relying on voluntary donation rather than by state institutions relying on taxation, or by cooperative self-help by groups of individuals. Edward Stringham argues that private adjudication of disputes could enable the market to internalize externalities and provide services that customers desire.
thumb|The death of General Joseph Warren at the Battle of Bunker Hill during the American Revolutionary War, a war which anarcho-capitalists such as Murray Rothbard admired and believed it was the only American war that could be justified
Rothbard stated that the American Revolutionary War and the American Civil War were the only two just wars in American military history. Some anarcho-capitalists such as Rothbard feel that violent revolution is counter-productive and prefer voluntary forms of economic secession to the extent possible. Retributive justice is often a component of the contracts imagined for an anarcho-capitalist society. According to Matthew O'Keefee, some anarcho-capitalists believe prisons or indentured servitude would be justifiable institutions to deal with those who violate anarcho-capitalist property relations while others believe exile or forced restitution are sufficient. Rothbard stressed the importance of restitution as the primary focus of a libertarian legal order and advocated for corporal punishment for petty vandals and the death penalty for murders.
American economist Bruce L. Benson argues that legal codes may impose punitive damages for intentional torts in the interest of deterring crime. Benson gives the example of a thief who breaks into a house by picking a lock. Even if caught before taking anything, Benson argues that the thief would still owe the victim for violating the sanctity of his property rights. Benson opines that despite the lack of objectively measurable losses in such cases, "standardized rules that are generally perceived to be fair by members of the community would, in all likelihood, be established through precedent, allowing judgments to specify payments that are reasonably appropriate for most criminal offenses".
Morris and Linda Tannehill raise a similar example, saying that a bank robber who had an attack of conscience and returned the money would still owe reparations for endangering the employees' and customers' lives and safety, in addition to the costs of the defense agency answering the teller's call for help. However, they believe that the robber's loss of reputation would be even more damaging. They suggest that specialized companies would list aggressors so that anyone wishing to do business with a man could first check his record, provided they trust the veracity of the companies' records. They further theorise that the bank robber would find insurance companies listing him as a very poor risk and other firms would be reluctant to enter into contracts with him. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Influences | Influences
Murray Rothbard has listed different ideologies of which his interpretations, he said, have influenced anarcho-capitalism. This includes his interpretation of anarchism, and more precisely individualist anarchism; classical liberalism and the Austrian School of economic thought. Scholars additionally associate anarcho-capitalism with neo-classical liberalism, radical neoliberalism and right-libertarianism. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Anarchism | Anarchism
In both its social and individualist forms, anarchism is usually considered an anti-capitalistWilliams, Dana M. (2018). "Contemporary Anarchist and Anarchistic Movements". Sociology Compass. Wiley. 12 (6): 4. . . and radical left-wing or far-left movement that promotes libertarian socialist economic theories such as collectivism, communism, individualism, mutualism and syndicalism.Guerin, Daniel (1970). Anarchism: From Theory to Practice. Monthly Review Press. pp. 12, 35. . Because anarchism is usually described alongside libertarian Marxism as the libertarian wing of the socialist movement and as having a historical association with anti-capitalism and socialism, anarchists believe that capitalism is incompatible with social and economic equality and therefore do not recognize anarcho-capitalism as an anarchist school of thought.Marshall, Peter (1992). Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. London: HarperCollins. pp. 564–565. . "Anarcho-capitalists are against the State simply because they are capitalists first and foremost. [...] They are not concerned with the social consequences of capitalism for the weak, powerless and ignorant. [...] As such, anarcho-capitalism overlooks the egalitarian implications of traditional individualist anarchists like Spooner and Tucker. In fact, few anarchists would accept the 'anarcho-capitalists' into the anarchist camp since they do not share a concern for economic equality and social justice. Their self-interested, calculating market men would be incapable of practising voluntary cooperation and mutual aid. Anarcho-capitalists, even if they do reject the state, might therefore best be called right-wing libertarians rather than anarchists."Goodway, David (2006). Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p. 4. Libertarian' and 'libertarianism' are frequently employed by anarchists as synonyms for 'anarchist' and 'anarchism', largely as an attempt to distance themselves from the negative connotations of 'anarchy' and its derivatives. The situation has been vastly complicated in recent decades with the rise of anarcho-capitalism, 'minimal statism' and an extreme right-wing laissez-faire philosophy advocated by such theorists as Rothbard and Nozick and their adoption of the words 'libertarian' and 'libertarianism'. It has therefore now become necessary to distinguish between their right libertarianism and the left libertarianism of the anarchist tradition."Newman, Saul (2010). The Politics of Postanarchism. Edinburgh University Press. p. 43. "It is important to distinguish between anarchism and certain strands of right-wing libertarianism which at times go by the same name (for example, Rothbard's anarcho-capitalism)." . In particular, anarchists argue that capitalist transactions are not voluntary and that maintaining the class structure of a capitalist society requires coercion which is incompatible with an anarchist society.Tame, Chris R. (October 1983). The Chicago School: Lessons from the Thirties for the Eighties. Economic Affairs. p. 56.McKay, Iain (2008). An Anarchist FAQ. 1. "What are the myths of capitalist economics?" "Is 'anarcho'-capitalism a type of anarchism?" Oakland/Edinburgh: AK Press. . The usage of libertarian is also in dispute.Marshall, Peter (1992). Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism. London: HarperCollins. p. 641. . "For a long time, libertarian was interchangeable in France with anarchist but in recent years, its meaning has become more ambivalent." While both anarchists and anarcho-capitalists have used it, libertarian was synonymous with anarchist until the mid-20th century, when anarcho-capitalist theory developed.
Anarcho-capitalists are distinguished from the dominant anarchist tradition by their relation to property and capital. While both anarchism and anarcho-capitalism share general antipathy towards government authority, anarcho-capitalism favors free-market capitalism. Anarchists, including egoists such as Max Stirner, have supported the protection of an individual's freedom from powers of both government and private property owners. In contrast, while condemning governmental encroachment on personal liberties, anarcho-capitalists support freedoms based on private property rights. Anarcho-capitalist theorist Murray Rothbard argued that protesters should rent a street for protest from its owners. The abolition of public amenities is a common theme in some anarcho-capitalist writings.
As anarcho-capitalism puts laissez-faire economics before economic equality, it is commonly viewed as incompatible with the anti-capitalist and egalitarian tradition of anarchism. Although anarcho-capitalist theory implies the abolition of the state in favour of a fully laissez-faire economy,Gay, Kathlyn; Gay, Martin (1999). Encyclopedia of Political Anarchy. ABC-CLIO. . it lies outside the tradition of anarchism. While using the language of anarchism, anarcho-capitalism only shares anarchism's antipathy towards the state and not anarchism's antipathy towards hierarchy as theorists expect from anarcho-capitalist economic power relations.Davis, Laurence (2019). "Individual and Community". In Levy, Carl; Adams, Matthew S. (eds.). The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism. Cham: Springer. pp. 47–70. . . It follows a different paradigm from anarchism and has a fundamentally different approach and goals. In spite of the anarcho- in its title, anarcho-capitalism is more closely affiliated with capitalism, right-libertarianism, and liberalism than with anarchism. Some within this laissez-faire tradition reject the designation of anarcho-capitalism, believing that capitalism may either refer to the laissez-faire market they support or the government-regulated system that they oppose.
Rothbard argued that anarcho-capitalism is the only true form of anarchismthe only form of anarchism that could possibly exist in reality as he maintained that any other form presupposes authoritarian enforcement of a political ideology such as "redistribution of private property", which he attributed to anarchism. According to this argument, the capitalist free market is "the natural situation" that would result from people being free from state authority and entails the establishment of all voluntary associations in society such as cooperatives, non-profit organizations, businesses and so on. Moreover, anarcho-capitalists, as well as classical liberal minarchists, argue that the application of anarchist ideals as advocated by what they term "left-wing anarchists" would require an authoritarian body of some sort to impose it. Based on their understanding and interpretation of anarchism, in order to forcefully prevent people from accumulating capital, which they believe is a goal of anarchists, there would necessarily be a redistributive organization of some sort which would have the authority to in essence exact a tax and re-allocate the resulting resources to a larger group of people. They conclude that this theoretical body would inherently have political power and would be nothing short of a state. The difference between such an arrangement and an anarcho-capitalist system is what anarcho-capitalists see as the voluntary nature of organization within anarcho-capitalism contrasted with a "centralized ideology" and a "paired enforcement mechanism" which they believe would be necessary under what they describe as a "coercively" egalitarian-anarchist system.
Rothbard also argued that the capitalist system of today is not properly anarchistic because it often colludes with the state. According to Rothbard, "what Marx and later writers have done is to lump together two extremely different and even contradictory concepts and actions under the same portmanteau term. These two contradictory concepts are what I would call 'free-market capitalism' on the one hand, and 'state capitalism' on the other". "The difference between free-market capitalism and state capitalism", writes Rothbard, "is precisely the difference between, on the one hand, peaceful, voluntary exchange, and on the other, violent expropriation". He continues: "State capitalism inevitably creates all sorts of problems which become insoluble".
Traditional anarchists reject the notion of capitalism, hierarchies and private property.Funnell, Warwick (2007). "Accounting and the Virtues of Anarchy" . Australasian Accounting, Business and Finance Journal. 1 (1) 18–27. .Williams, Dana (2012). "From Top to Bottom, a Thoroughly Stratified World: An Anarchist View of Inequality and Domination". Race, Gender & Class. 19 (3/4): 9–34. .White, Richard; Williams, Colin (2014). "Anarchist Economic Practices in a 'Capitalist' Society: Some Implications for Organisation and the Future of Work" . Ephermera: Theory and Politics in Organization. 14 (4): 947–971. . Albert Meltzer argued that anarcho-capitalism simply cannot be anarchism because capitalism and the state are inextricably interlinked and because capitalism exhibits domineering hierarchical structures such as that between an employer and an employee. Anna Morgenstern approaches this topic from the opposite perspective, arguing that anarcho-capitalists are not really capitalists because "mass concentration of capital is impossible" without the state. According to Jeremy Jennings, "[i]t is hard not to conclude that these ideas," referring to anarcho-capitalism, have "roots deep in classical liberalism" and "are described as anarchist only on the basis of a misunderstanding of what anarchism is." For Jennings, "anarchism does not stand for the untrammelled freedom of the individual (as the 'anarcho-capitalists' appear to believe) but, as we have already seen, for the extension of individuality and community." Similarly, Barbara Goodwin, Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, argues that anarcho-capitalism's "true place is in the group of right-wing libertarians", not in anarchism.
Some right-libertarian scholars like Michael Huemer, who identify with the ideology, describe anarcho-capitalism as a "variety of anarchism". British author Andrew Heywood also believes that "individualist anarchism overlaps with libertarianism and is usually linked to a strong belief in the market as a self-regulating mechanism, most obviously manifest in the form of anarcho-capitalism". Frank H. Brooks, author of The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881–1908), believes that "anarchism has always included a significant strain of radical individualism, from the hyperrationalism of Godwin, to the egoism of Stirner, to the libertarians and anarcho-capitalists of today"..
While both anarchism and anarcho-capitalism are in opposition to the state, they nevertheless interpret state-rejection differently.McLaughlin, Paul (2007). Anarchism and Authority: A Philosophical Introduction to Classical Anarchism. Ashgate. pp. 28 –166. . "Anarchists do reject the state, as we will see. But to claim that this central aspect of anarchism is definitive is to sell anarchism short. [...] [Opposition to the state] is (contrary to what many scholars believe) not definitive of anarchism."Jun, Nathan (September 2009). "Anarchist Philosophy and Working Class Struggle: A Brief History and Commentary". WorkingUSA. 12 (3): 505–519. . . "One common misconception, which has been rehearsed repeatedly by the few Anglo-American philosophers who have bothered to broach the topic [...] is that anarchism can be defined solely in terms of opposition to states and governments" (p. 507).Franks, Benjamin (August 2013). Freeden, Michael; Stears, Marc (eds.). "Anarchism". The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies. Oxford University Press: 385–404. . "[M]any, questionably, regard anti-statism as the irremovable, universal principle at the core of anarchism. [...] The fact that [anarchists and anarcho-capitalists] share a core concept of 'anti-statism', which is often advanced as [...] a commonality between them [...], is insufficient to produce a shared identity [...] because [they interpret] the concept of state-rejection [...] differently despite the initial similarity in nomenclature" (pp. 386–388). Austrian school economist David Prychitko, in the context of anarcho-capitalism says that "while society without a state is necessary for full-fledged anarchy, it is nevertheless insufficient". According to Ruth Kinna, anarcho-capitalists are anti-statists who draw more on right-wing liberal theory and the Austrian School than anarchist traditions. Kinna writes that "[i]n order to highlight the clear distinction between the two positions", anarchists describe anarcho-capitalists as "propertarians".Kinna, Ruth, ed. (2012). The Bloomsbury Companion to Anarchism. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 330–331. . Anarcho-capitalism is usually seen as part of the New Right.
Some anarcho-capitalists understand anarchism to mean something other than "opposition to hierarchy" and therefore consider the two traditions to be philosophically distinct. Therefore, the anarchist critique that anarcho-capitalist societies would necessarily contain hierarchies is not concerning to these anarcho-capitalists. Additionally, Rothbard discusses the difference between "government" and "governance" thus, proponents of anarcho-capitalism think the philosophy's common name is indeed consistent, as it promotes private governance, but is vehemently anti-government. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Classical liberalism | Classical liberalism
Historian and libertarian Ralph Raico argued that what liberal philosophers "had come up with was a form of individualist anarchism, or, as it would be called today, anarcho-capitalism or market anarchism".Raico, Ralph (2004). Authentic German Liberalism of the 19th century . École Polytechnique, Centre de Recherche en Épistémologie Appliquée. Unité associée au CNRS. He also said that Gustave de Molinari was proposing a doctrine of the private production of security, a position which was later taken up by Murray Rothbard. Some anarcho-capitalists consider Molinari to be the first proponent of anarcho-capitalism.Raico, Ralph (29 March 2011) "Neither the Wars Nor the Leaders Were Great" . Mises Institute. In the preface to the 1977 English translation by Murray Rothbard called The Production of Security the "first presentation anywhere in human history of what is now called anarcho-capitalism", although admitting that "Molinari did not use the terminology, and probably would have balked at the name".Molinari, Gustave; Ebeling, Richard M., ed. (1977). The Production of Security . "Preface". Translated by McCulloch, J. Huston. Occasional Papers Series (2). New York: The Center for Libertarian Studies. Hans-Hermann Hoppe said that "the 1849 article 'The Production of Security' is probably the single most important contribution to the modern theory of anarcho-capitalism". According to Hans-Hermann Hoppe, one of the 19th century precursors of anarcho-capitalism were philosopher Herbert Spencer, classical liberal Auberon Herbert and liberal socialist Franz Oppenheimer.
Ruth Kinna credits Murray Rothbard with coining the term anarcho-capitalism, which is – Kinna proposes – to describe "a commitment to unregulated private property and laissez-faire economics, prioritizing the liberty-rights of individuals, unfettered by government regulation, to accumulate, consume and determine the patterns of their lives as they see fit". According to Kinna, anarcho-capitalists "will sometimes label themselves market anarchists because they recognize the negative connotations of 'capitalism'. But the literature of anarcho-capitalism draws on classical liberal theory, particularly the Austrian School – Friedrich von Hayek and Ludwig von Mises – rather than recognizable anarchist traditions. Ayn Rand's laissez-faire, anti-government, corporate philosophy – Objectivism – is sometimes associated with anarcho-capitalism". Other scholars similarly associate anarcho-capitalism with anti-state classical liberalism, neo-classical liberalism, radical neoliberalism and right-libertarianism.Carlson, Jennifer D. (2012). "Libertarianism". In Miller, Wilburn R., ed. The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America. London: Sage Publications. pp. 1006–1007. .
Paul Dragos Aligica writes that there is a "foundational difference between the classical liberal and the anarcho-capitalist positions". Classical liberalism, while accepting critical arguments against collectivism, acknowledges a certain level of public ownership and collective governance as necessary to provide practical solutions to political problems. In contrast anarcho-capitalism, according to Aligica, denies any requirement for any form of public administration, and allows no meaningful role for the public sphere, which is seen as sub-optimal and illegitimate. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Individualist anarchism | Individualist anarchism
thumb|left|upright|Lysander Spooner, an American individualist anarchist and mutualist, who is claimed to have influenced anarcho-capitalism
Murray Rothbard, a student of Ludwig von Mises, stated that he was influenced by the work of the 19th-century American individualist anarchists.De Leon, David (1978). The American as Anarchist: Reflections on Indigenous Radicalism. Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 127. "[...] Only a few individuals like Murray Rothbard, in Power and Market, and some article writers were influenced by these men. Most had not evolved consciously from this tradition; they had been a rather automatic product of the American environment." In the winter of 1949, Rothbard decided to reject minimal state laissez-faire and embrace his interpretation of individualist anarchism.Gordon, David (2007). The Essential Rothbard. Mises Institute. pp. 12–13. In 1965, Rothbard wrote that "Lysander Spooner and Benjamin R. Tucker were unsurpassed as political philosophers and nothing is more needed today than a revival and development of the largely forgotten legacy they left to political philosophy".Rothbard, Murray (2000) [1965]. "The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View" . Journal of Libertarian Studies. 20 (1): 5–15. However, Rothbard thought that they had a faulty understanding of economics as the 19th-century individualist anarchists had a labor theory of value as influenced by the classical economists, while Rothbard was a student of Austrian School economics which does not agree with the labor theory of value. Rothbard sought to meld 19th-century American individualist anarchists' advocacy of economic individualism and free markets with the principles of Austrian School economics, arguing that "[t]here is, in the body of thought known as 'Austrian economics', a scientific explanation of the workings of the free market (and of the consequences of government intervention in that market) which individualist anarchists could easily incorporate into their political and social Weltanschauung".Rothbard, Murray (2000) [1965]. "The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View" . Journal of Libertarian Studies. 20 (1): 7. Rothbard held that the economic consequences of the political system they advocate would not result in an economy with people being paid in proportion to labor amounts, nor would profit and interest disappear as they expected. Tucker thought that unregulated banking and money issuance would cause increases in the money supply so that interest rates would drop to zero or near to it. Peter Marshall states that "anarcho-capitalism overlooks the egalitarian implications of traditional individualist anarchists like Spooner and Tucker". Stephanie Silberstein states that "While Spooner was no free-market capitalist, nor an anarcho-capitalist, he was not as opposed to capitalism as most socialists were."
In "The Spooner-Tucker Doctrine: An Economist's View", Rothbard explained his disagreements. Rothbard disagreed with Tucker that it would cause the money supply to increase because he believed that the money supply in a free market would be self-regulating. If it were not, then Rothbard argued inflation would occur so it is not necessarily desirable to increase the money supply in the first place. Rothbard claimed that Tucker was wrong to think that interest would disappear regardless because he believed people, in general, do not wish to lend their money to others without compensation, so there is no reason why this would change just because banking was unregulated. Tucker held a labor theory of value and thought that in a free market people would be paid in proportion to how much labor they exerted and that exploitation or usury was taking place if they were not. As Tucker explained in State Socialism and Anarchism, his theory was that unregulated banking would cause more money to be available and that this would allow the proliferation of new businesses which would, in turn, raise demand for labor. This led Tucker to believe that the labor theory of value would be vindicated and equal amounts of labor would receive equal pay. As an Austrian School economist, Rothbard did not agree with the labor theory and believed that prices of goods and services are proportional to marginal utility rather than to labor amounts in the free market. As opposed to Tucker he did not think that there was anything exploitative about people receiving an income according to how much "buyers of their services value their labor" or what that labor produces.
thumb|upright|Benjamin Tucker, another individualist anarchist, who identified as a socialist and his individualist anarchism as anarchistic socialism versus state socialism, said to have influenced anarcho-capitalism
Without the labor theory of value, some argue that 19th-century individualist anarchists approximate the modern movement of anarcho-capitalism, although this has been contested or rejected.Wieck, David (1978). "Anarchist Justice" . In Chapman, John W.; Pennock, J. Roland Pennock, eds. Anarchism: Nomos XIX. New York: New York University Press. pp. 227–228. "Out of the history of anarchist thought and action Rothbard has pulled forth a single thread, the thread of individualism, and defines that individualism in a way alien even to the spirit of a Max Stirner or a Benjamin Tucker, whose heritage I presume he would claim – to say nothing of how alien is his way to the spirit of Godwin, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, Malatesta, and the historically anonymous persons who through their thoughts and action have tried to give anarchism a living meaning. Out of this thread, Rothbard manufactures one more bourgeois ideology." Retrieved 7 April 2020.Peacott, Joe (18 April 1985). "Reply to Wendy Mc Elroy". New Libertarian (14, June 1985. . Retrieved 4 September 2020. "In her article on individualist anarchism in October 1984, New Libertarian, Wendy McElroy mistakenly claims that modern-day individualist anarchism is identical with anarchist capitalism. She ignores the fact that there are still individualist anarchists who reject capitalism as well as communism, in the tradition of Warren, Spooner, Tucker, and others. [...] Benjamin Tucker, when he spoke of his ideal 'society of contract,' was certainly not speaking of anything remotely resembling contemporary capitalist society. [...] I do not quarrel with McElroy's definition of herself as an individualist anarchist. However, I dislike the fact that she tries to equate the term with anarchist capitalism. This is simply not true. I am an individualist anarchist and I am opposed to capitalist economic relations, voluntary or otherwise."Baker, J. W. "Native American Anarchism". The Raven. 10 (1): 43‒62. Retrieved 4 September 2020. "It is time that anarchists recognise the valuable contributions of individualist anarchist theory and take advantage of its ideas. It would be both futile and criminal to leave it to the capitalist libertarians, whose claims on Tucker and the others can be made only by ignoring the violent opposition they had to capitalist exploitation and monopolistic 'free enterprise' supported by the state." As economic theory changed, the popularity of the labor theory of classical economics was superseded by the subjective theory of value of neoclassical economics and Rothbard combined Mises' Austrian School of economics with the absolutist views of human rights and rejection of the state he had absorbed from studying the individualist American anarchists of the 19th century such as Tucker and Spooner.Miller, David, ed. (1987). The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Thought. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. p. 290. . In the mid-1950s, Rothbard wrote an unpublished article named "Are Libertarians 'Anarchists'?" under the pseudonym "Aubrey Herbert", concerned with differentiating himself from communist and socialistic economic views of anarchists, including the individualist anarchists of the 19th century, concluding that "we are not anarchists and that those who call us anarchists are not on firm etymological ground and are being completely unhistorical. On the other hand, it is clear that we are not archists either: we do not believe in establishing a tyrannical central authority that will coerce the noninvasive as well as the invasive. Perhaps, then, we could call ourselves by a new name: nonarchist."Rothbard, Murray (1950s). "Are Libertarians 'Anarchists'?" Lew Rockwell.com. Retrieved 4 September 2020. Joe Peacott, an American individualist anarchist in the mutualist tradition, criticizes anarcho-capitalists for trying to hegemonize the individualist anarchism label and make appear as if all individualist anarchists are in favor of capitalism. Peacott states that "individualists, both past and present, agree with the communist anarchists that present-day capitalism is based on economic coercion, not on voluntary contract. Rent and interest are the mainstays of modern capitalism and are protected and enforced by the state. Without these two unjust institutions, capitalism could not exist".Peacott, Joe (18 April 1985). "Reply to Wendy Mc Elroy". New Libertarian (14, June 1985). . Retrieved 4 September 2020. "In her overview of anarchist history, McElroy criticizes the individualists of the past for their belief in the labor theory of value, because it fails to distinguish between profit and plunder. Some anarchist individualists still believe that profit is theft and that living off the labor of others is immoral. And some individualists, both past and present, agree with the communist anarchists that present-day capitalism is based on economic coercion, not on voluntary contract. Rent and interest are the mainstays of modern capitalism and are protected and enforced by the state. Without these two unjust institutions, capitalism could not exist. These two institutions, and the money monopoly of the state, effectively prevent most people from being economically independent and force them into wage labor. Saying that coercion does not exist i[n] capitalist economic relations because workers aren't forced to work by armed capitalists ignores the very real economic coercion caused by this alliance of capitalism and the state. People don't voluntarily work for wages or pay rent, except in the sense that most people 'voluntarily' pay taxes[.] Because one recognizes when she or he is up against superior force and chooses to compromise in order to survive, does not make these activities voluntary; at least, not in the way I envision voluntary relations in an anarchist society."
Anarchist activists and scholars do not consider anarcho-capitalism as a part of the anarchist movement, arguing that anarchism has historically been an anti-capitalist movement and see it as incompatible with capitalist forms. Although some regard anarcho-capitalism as a form of individualist anarchism, many others disagree or contest the existence of an individualist–socialist divide. In coming to terms that anarchists mostly identified with socialism, Rothbard wrote that individualist anarchism is different from anarcho-capitalism and other capitalist theories due to the individualist anarchists retaining the labor theory of value and socialist doctrines. Similarly, many writers deny that anarcho-capitalism is a form of anarchism or that capitalism is compatible with anarchism.
The Palgrave Handbook of Anarchism writes that "[a]s Benjamin Franks rightly points out, individualisms that defend or reinforce hierarchical forms such as the economic-power relations of anarcho-capitalism are incompatible with practices of social anarchism based on developing immanent goods which contest such as inequalities". Laurence Davis cautiously asks "[I]s anarcho-capitalism really a form of anarchism or instead a wholly different ideological paradigm whose adherents have attempted to expropriate the language of anarchism for their own anti-anarchist ends?" Davis cites Iain McKay, "whom Franks cites as an authority to support his contention that 'academic analysis has followed activist currents in rejecting the view that anarcho-capitalism has anything to do with social anarchism, as arguing "quite emphatically on the very pages cited by Franks that anarcho-capitalism is by no means a type of anarchism". McKay writes that "[i]t is important to stress that anarchist opposition to the so-called capitalist 'anarchists' does not reflect some kind of debate within anarchism, as many of these types like to pretend, but a debate between anarchism and its old enemy capitalism. ... Equally, given that anarchists and 'anarcho'-capitalists have fundamentally different analyses and goals it is hardly 'sectarian' to point this out".
Davis writes that "Franks asserts without supporting evidence that most major forms of individualist anarchism have been largely anarcho-capitalist in content, and concludes from this premise that most forms of individualism are incompatible with anarchism". Davis argues that "the conclusion is unsustainable because the premise is false, depending as it does for any validity it might have on the further assumption that anarcho-capitalism is indeed a form of anarchism. If we reject this view, then we must also reject the individual anarchist versus the communal anarchist 'chasm' style of argument that follows from it". Davis maintains that "the ideological core of anarchism is the belief that society can and should be organised without hierarchy and domination. Historically, anarchists have struggles against a wide range of regimes of domination, from capitalism, the state system, patriarchy, heterosexism, and the domination of nature to colonialism, the war system, slavery, fascism, white supremacy, and certain forms of organised religion". According to Davis, "[w]hile these visions range from the predominantly individualistic to the predominantly communitarian, features common to virtually all include an emphasis on self-management and self-regulatory methods of organisation, voluntary association, decentralised society, based on the principle of free association, in which people will manage and govern themselves". Finally, Davis includes a footnote stating that "[i]ndividualist anarchism may plausibly be re regarded as a form of both socialism and anarchism. Whether the individualist anarchists were consistent anarchists (and socialists) is another question entirely. ... McKay comments as follows: 'any individualist anarchism which supports wage labour is inconsistent anarchism. It can easily be made consistent anarchism by applying its own principles consistently. In contrast 'anarcho'-capitalism rejects so many of the basic, underlying, principles of anarchism ... that it cannot be made consistent with the ideals of anarchism. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Historical precedents | Historical precedents
Several anarcho-capitalists and right-libertarians have discussed historical precedents of what they believe were examples of anarcho-capitalism. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Free cities of medieval Europe | Free cities of medieval Europe
Economist and libertarian scholar Bryan Caplan considers the free cities of medieval Europe as examples of "anarchist" or "nearly anarchistic" societies, further arguing: |
Anarcho-capitalism | Medieval Iceland | Medieval Iceland
thumb| 19th-century interpretation of the Althing in the Icelandic Commonwealth which authors such as David D. Friedman believe to have some features of anarcho-capitalist society
According to the libertarian theorist David D. Friedman, "[m]edieval Icelandic institutions have several peculiar and interesting characteristics; they might almost have been invented by a mad economist to test the lengths to which market systems could supplant government in its most fundamental functions".Friedman, David D. (1979). "Private Creation and Enforcement of Law: A Historical Case ". Retrieved 12 August 2005. While not directly labeling it anarcho-capitalist, Friedman argues that the legal system of the Icelandic Commonwealth comes close to being a real-world anarcho-capitalist legal system. Although noting that there was a single legal system, Friedman argues that enforcement of the law was entirely private and highly capitalist, providing some evidence of how such a society would function. Friedman further wrote that "[e]ven where the Icelandic legal system recognized an essentially 'public' offense, it dealt with it by giving some individual (in some cases chosen by lot from those affected) the right to pursue the case and collect the resulting fine, thus fitting it into an essentially private system".
Friedman and Bruce L. Benson argued that the Icelandic Commonwealth saw significant economic and social progress in the absence of systems of criminal law, an executive, or bureaucracy. This commonwealth was led by chieftains, whose position could be bought and sold like that of private property. Being a member of the chieftainship was also completely voluntary. |
Anarcho-capitalism | American Old West | American Old West
According to Terry L. Anderson and P. J. Hill, the Old West in the United States in the period of 1830 to 1900 was similar to anarcho-capitalism in that "private agencies provided the necessary basis for an orderly society in which property was protected and conflicts were resolved" and that the common popular perception that the Old West was chaotic with little respect for property rights is incorrect.Anderson, Terry L. and Hill, P. J. "An American Experiment in Anarcho-Capitalism: The Not So Wild, Wild West ", The Journal of Libertarian Studies Since squatters had no claim to western lands under federal law, extra-legal organizations formed to fill the void. Benson explains:
According to Anderson, "[d]efining anarcho-capitalist to mean minimal government with property rights developed from the bottom up, the western frontier was anarcho-capitalistic. People on the frontier invented institutions that fit the resource constraints they faced". |
Anarcho-capitalism | Gaelic Ireland | Gaelic Ireland
thumb|Provinces of Ireland in 900
In his work For a New Liberty, Murray Rothbard has claimed ancient Gaelic Ireland as an example of nearly anarcho-capitalist society. In his depiction, citing the work of Professor Joseph Peden,Peden Stateless Societies: Ancient Ireland the basic political unit of ancient Ireland was the tuath, which is portrayed as "a body of persons voluntarily united for socially beneficial purposes" with its territorial claim being limited to "the sum total of the landed properties of its members". Civil disputes were settled by private arbiters called "brehons" and the compensation to be paid to the wronged party was insured through voluntary surety relationships. Commenting on the "kings" of tuaths, Rothbard stated: |
Anarcho-capitalism | Law merchant, admiralty law, and early common law | Law merchant, admiralty law, and early common law
Some libertarians have cited law merchant, admiralty law and early common law as examples of anarcho-capitalism.Rothbard. "Defense Services on the Free Market ".Benson. "The Enterprise of Customary Law ".Hasnas. "The Obviousness of Anarchy ".
In his work Power and Market, Rothbard stated: |
Anarcho-capitalism | Somalia from 1991 to 2012 | Somalia from 1991 to 2012
Economist Alex Tabarrok argued that Somalia in its stateless period provided a "unique test of the theory of anarchy", in some aspects near of that espoused by anarcho-capitalists David D. Friedman and Murray Rothbard. Nonetheless, both anarchists and some anarcho-capitalists argue that Somalia was not an anarchist society. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Analysis and criticism | Analysis and criticism |
Anarcho-capitalism | State, justice and defense | State, justice and defense
Anarchists such as Brian Morris argue that anarcho-capitalism does not in fact get rid of the state. He says that anarcho-capitalists "simply replaced the state with private security firms, and can hardly be described as anarchists as the term is normally understood".Brian Morris, "Global Anti-Capitalism", pp. 170–176, Anarchist Studies, vol. 14, no. 2, p. 175. In "Libertarianism: Bogus Anarchy", anarchist Peter Sabatini notes:
Similarly, Bob Black argues that an anarcho-capitalist wants to "abolish the state to his own satisfaction by calling it something else". He states that they do not denounce what the state does, they just "object to who's doing it".Bob Black (1992), "The Libertarian As Conservative", The Abolition of Work and Other Essays, p. 144
Paul Birch argues that legal disputes involving several jurisdictions and different legal systems will be too complex and costly. He therefore argues that anarcho-capitalism is inherently unstable, and would evolve, entirely through the operation of free market forces, into either a single dominant private court with a natural monopoly of justice over the territory (a de facto state), a society of multiple city states, each with a territorial monopoly, or a 'pure anarchy' that would rapidly descend into chaos.
Randall G. Holcombe argues that anarcho-capitalism turns justice into a commodity as private defense and court firms would favour those who pay more for their services. He argues that defense agencies could form cartels and oppress people without fear of competition. Philosopher Albert Meltzer argued that since anarcho-capitalism promotes the idea of private armies, it actually supports a "limited State". He contends that it "is only possible to conceive of Anarchism which is free, communistic and offering no economic necessity for repression of countering it".
Libertarian Robert Nozick argues that a competitive legal system would evolve toward a monopoly governmenteven without violating individuals' rights in the process.Jeffrey Paul, Fred Dycus Miller (1993). Liberalism and the Economic Order. Cambridge University Press. p. 115. In Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Nozick defends minarchism and argues that an anarcho-capitalist society would inevitably transform into a minarchist state through the eventual emergence of a monopolistic private defense and judicial agency that no longer faces competition. He argues that anarcho-capitalism results in an unstable system that would not endure in the real world. While anarcho-capitalists such as Roy Childs and Murray Rothbard have rejected Nozick's arguments,See Childs's incomplete essay, "Anarchist Illusions", Liberty against Power: Essays by Roy A. Childs, Jr., ed. Joan Kennedy Taylor (San Francisco: Fox 1994) 179–183. with Rothbard arguing that the process described by Nozick, with the dominant protection agency outlawing its competitors, in fact violates its own clients' rights, John Jefferson actually advocates Nozick's argument and states that such events would best operate in laissez-faire.Jeffrey Paul, Fred Dycus Miller (1993). Liberalism and the Economic Order. Cambridge University Press. p. 118. Robert Ellickson presented a Hayekian case against anarcho-capitalism, calling it a "pipe-dream" and stating that anarcho-capitalists "by imagining a stable system of competing private associations, ignore both the inevitability of territorial monopolists in governance, and the importance of institutions to constrain those monopolists' abuses".
Some libertarians argue that anarcho-capitalism would result in different standards of justice and law due to relying too much on the market. Friedman responded to this criticism by arguing that it assumes the state is controlled by a majority group that has similar legal ideals. If the populace is diverse, different legal standards would therefore be appropriate. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Rights and freedom | Rights and freedom
Negative and positive rights are rights that oblige either action (positive rights) or inaction (negative rights). Anarcho-capitalists believe that negative rights should be recognized as legitimate, but positive rights should be rejected as an intrusion. Some critics reject the distinction between positive and negative rights.Sterba, James P. (October 1994). "From Liberty to Welfare". Ethics. Cambridge: Blackwell). 105 (1): 237–241. Peter Marshall also states that the anarcho-capitalist definition of freedom is entirely negative and that it cannot guarantee the positive freedom of individual autonomy and independence.
About anarcho-capitalism, anarcho-syndicalist and anti-capitalist intellectual Noam Chomsky says: |
Anarcho-capitalism | Economics and property | Economics and property
Social anarchists argue that anarcho-capitalism allows individuals to accumulate significant power through free markets and private property. Friedman responded by arguing that the Icelandic Commonwealth was able to prevent the wealthy from abusing the poor by requiring individuals who engaged in acts of violence to compensate their victims financially.
Anarchists argue that certain capitalist transactions are not voluntary and that maintaining the class structure of a capitalist society requires coercion which violates anarchist principles. Anthropologist David Graeber noted his skepticism about anarcho-capitalism along the same lines, arguing:
Some critics argue that the anarcho-capitalist concept of voluntary choice ignores constraints due to both human and non-human factors such as the need for food and shelter as well as active restriction of both used and unused resources by those enforcing property claims. If a person requires employment in order to feed and house himself, the employer-employee relationship could be considered involuntary. Another criticism is that employment is involuntary because the economic system that makes it necessary for some individuals to serve others is supported by the enforcement of coercive private property relations. Some philosophies view any ownership claims on land and natural resources as immoral and illegitimate.McElroy, Wendy (1995). "Intellectual Property: The Late Nineteenth Century Libertarian Debate ". Libertarian Heritage No. 14 . Retrieved 24 June 2005. Objectivist philosopher Harry Binswanger criticizes anarcho-capitalism by arguing that "capitalism requires government", questioning who or what would enforce treaties and contracts.
Some right-libertarian critics of anarcho-capitalism who support the full privatization of capital such as geolibertarians argue that land and the raw materials of nature remain a distinct factor of production and cannot be justly converted to private property because they are not products of human labor. Some socialists, including market anarchists and mutualists, adamantly oppose absentee ownership. Anarcho-capitalists have strong abandonment criteria, namely that one maintains ownership until one agrees to trade or gift it. Anti-state critics of this view posit comparatively weak abandonment criteria, arguing that one loses ownership when one stops personally occupying and using it as well as the idea of perpetually binding original appropriation is anathema to traditional schools of anarchism. |
Anarcho-capitalism | Propertarianism | Propertarianism
Critics charge that the Propertarianist perspective prevents freedom from making sense as an independent value in anarcho-capitalist theory:McKay, Iain. (2008/2012). An Anarchist FAQ-Appendix: Anarchism and "Anarcho"-capitalism. UK: AK Press. 2 What do “anarcho”-capitalists mean by “freedom”? https://anarchism.pageabode.com/book/2-what-do-anarcho-capitalists-mean-by-freedom/ |
Anarcho-capitalism | Literature | Literature
The following is a partial list of notable nonfiction works discussing anarcho-capitalism.
Bruce L. Benson, The Enterprise of Law: Justice Without The State
To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice
David D. Friedman, The Machinery of Freedom
Edward P. Stringham, Anarchy and the Law: The Political Economy of Choice
George H. Smith, "Justice Entrepreneurship in a Free Market"
Gerard Casey, Libertarian Anarchy: Against the State
Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Anarcho-Capitalism: An Annotated Bibliography
A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism
Democracy: The God That Failed
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property
Linda and Morris Tannehill, The Market for Liberty
Michael Huemer, The Problem of Political Authority
Murray Rothbard, founder of anarcho-capitalism:
For a New Liberty
Man, Economy, and State
Power and Market
The Ethics of Liberty |
Anarcho-capitalism | See also | See also
Agorism
Consequentialist libertarianism
Counter-economics
Creative disruption
Crypto-anarchism
Definition of anarchism and libertarianism
Left-wing market anarchism
Neo-feudalism
Natural-rights libertarianism
Privatization in criminal justice
Voluntaryism
Anarchist communism |
Anarcho-capitalism | References | References |
Anarcho-capitalism | Further reading | Further reading
Brown, Susan Love (1997). "The Free Market as Salvation from Government: The Anarcho-Capitalist View". In Carrier, James G., ed. Meanings of the Market: The Free Market in Western Culture (illustrated ed.). Oxford: Berg Publishers. p. 99. .
|
Anarcho-capitalism | External links | External links
Anarchist Theory FAQ – FAQ discussing anarchism by economist Bryan Caplan
Anarcho-capitalist FAQ
Freeblr – online textbook about Anarcho-Capitalism by Daniel Jarick, also known as JarickWorks
LewRockwell.com – website run by Lew Rockwell
Mises Institute – research and educational center of classical liberalism, including anarcho-capitalism, Austrian School of economics and American libertarian political theory
Property and Freedom Society – international anarcho-capitalist society
Category:Austrian School
Category:Capitalist systems
Category:Economic ideologies
Anarcho-capitalism
Category:Ideologies of capitalism
Category:Classical liberalism
Category:Libertarianism by form
Category:Political ideologies
Category:Right-libertarianism
Category:Syncretic political movements
Category:Murray Rothbard |
Anarcho-capitalism | Table of Content | Short description, Classification, Philosophy, On the state, Non-aggression principle, Property, Private property, Common property, Intellectual property, Contractual society, Law and order and the use of violence, Influences, Anarchism, Classical liberalism, Individualist anarchism, Historical precedents, Free cities of medieval Europe, Medieval Iceland, American Old West, Gaelic Ireland, Law merchant, admiralty law, and early common law, Somalia from 1991 to 2012, Analysis and criticism, State, justice and defense, Rights and freedom, Economics and property, Propertarianism, Literature, See also, References, Further reading, External links |
August 9 | pp-pc1 | |
August 9 | Events | Events |
August 9 | Pre-1600 | Pre-1600
48 BC – Caesar's Civil War: Battle of Pharsalus: Julius Caesar decisively defeats Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey flees to Egypt.
378 – Gothic War: Battle of Adrianople: A large Roman army led by Emperor Valens is defeated by the Visigoths. Valens is killed along with over half of his army.
1173 – Construction of the campanile of the Cathedral of Pisa (now known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa) begins; it will take two centuries to complete.
1329 – Quilon, the first Indian Christian Diocese, is erected by Pope John XXII; the French-born Jordanus is appointed the first Bishop.
1428 – Sources cite biggest caravan trade between Podvisoki and Republic of Ragusa. Vlachs committed to Ragusan lord Tomo Bunić, that they will with 600 horses deliver 1,500 modius of salt. Delivery was meant for Dobrašin Veseoković, and Vlachs price was half of delivered salt."Crainich Miochouich et Stiepanus Glegieuich ad meliustenendem super se et omnia eorum bona se obligando promiserunt ser Thome de Bona presenti et acceptanti conducere et salauum dare in Souisochi in Bosna Dobrassino Veselcouich nomine dicti ser Thome modia salis mille quingenta super equis siue salmis sexcentis. Et dicto sale conducto et presentato suprascripto Dobrassino in Souisochi medietatem illius salis dare et mensuratum consignare dicto Dobrassino. Et aliam medietatem pro eorum mercede conducenda dictum salem pro ipsius conductoribus retinere et habere. Promittentes vicissim omnia et singularia suprascripta firma et rata habere et tenere ut supra sub obligatione omnium suorum bonorum. Renuntiando" (9 August 1428), State archive, Ragusa Republic, Series: Diversa Cancellariae, no. XLV, p. 31 verso.
1500 – Ottoman–Venetian War (1499–1503): The Ottomans capture Methoni, Messenia. |
August 9 | 1601–1900 | 1601–1900
1610 – The First Anglo-Powhatan War begins in colonial Virginia.
1810 – Napoleon annexes Westphalia as part of the First French Empire.
1814 – American Indian Wars: The Creek sign the Treaty of Fort Jackson, giving up huge parts of Alabama and Georgia.
1830 – Louis Philippe becomes the king of the French following abdication of Charles X.
1842 – The Webster–Ashburton Treaty is signed, establishing the United States–Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.
1854 – American Transcendentalist philosopher Henry David Thoreau publishes his memoir Walden.
1855 – Åland War: The Battle of Suomenlinna begins.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Cedar Mountain: At Cedar Mountain, Virginia, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson narrowly defeats Union forces under General John Pope.
1877 – American Indian Wars: Battle of the Big Hole: A small band of Nez Percé Indians clash with the United States Army.
1892 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for a two-way telegraph.
1897 – The first International Congress of Mathematicians is held in Zürich, Switzerland. |
August 9 | 1901–present | 1901–present
1902 – Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark are crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1907 – The first Boy Scout encampment concludes at Brownsea Island in southern England.
1925 – A train robbery takes place in Kakori, near Lucknow, India, by the Indian independence revolutionaries, against the British government.
1936 – Summer Olympics: Jesse Owens wins his fourth gold medal at the games.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Savo Island: Allied naval forces protecting their amphibious forces during the initial stages of the Battle of Guadalcanal are surprised and defeated by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser force.
1942 – Dmitri Shostakovich's 7th symphony premiers in a besieged Leningrad.
1944 – The United States Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council release posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.
1944 – World War II: Continuation War: The Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive, the largest offensive launched by Soviet Union against Finland during the Second World War, ends to a strategic stalemate. Both Finnish and Soviet troops at the Finnish front dug to defensive positions, and the front remains stable until the end of the war.
1945 – World War II: Nagasaki is devastated when an atomic bomb, Fat Man, is dropped by the United States B-29 Bockscar. Thirty-five thousand people are killed outright, including 23,200–28,200 Japanese war workers, 2,000 Korean forced workers, and 150 Japanese soldiers.
1945 – The Red Army invades Japanese-occupied Manchuria.
1960 – South Kasai secedes from the Congo.
1965 – Singapore is expelled from Malaysia and becomes the only country to date to gain independence unwillingly.
1969 – Tate–LaBianca murders: Followers of Charles Manson murder pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.
1970 – LANSA Flight 502 crashes after takeoff from Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport in Cusco, Peru, killing 99 of the 100 people on board, as well as two people on the ground.
1971 – The Troubles: In Northern Ireland, the British authorities launch Operation Demetrius. The operation involves the mass arrest and internment without trial of individuals suspected of being affiliated with the Irish Republican Army (PIRA). Mass riots follow, and thousands of people flee or are forced out of their homes.Coogan, Tim Pat. The Troubles: Ireland's ordeal 1966–1996 and the search for peace. London: Hutchinson. p. 126 Internment – Summary of Main Events
1973 – Mars 7 is launched from the USSR.
1974 – As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon becomes the first President of the United States to resign from office. Vice President Gerald Ford becomes president.
1991 – The Italian prosecuting magistrate Antonino Scopelliti is murdered by the 'Ndrangheta on behalf of the Sicilian Mafia while preparing the government's case in the final appeal of the Maxi Trial.
1993 – The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan loses a 38-year hold on national leadership.
1995 – Aviateca Flight 901 crashes into the San Vicente volcano in El Salvador, killing all 65 people on board.
1999 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Prime Minister, Sergei Stepashin, and for the fourth time fires his entire cabinet.
2006 – At least 21 suspected terrorists are arrested in the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot that happened in the United Kingdom. The arrests are made in London, Birmingham, and High Wycombe in an overnight operation.
2007 – Air Moorea Flight 1121 crashes after takeoff from Moorea Airport in French Polynesia, killing all 20 people on board.
2012 – Shannon Eastin becomes the first woman to officiate an NFL game.
2013 – Gunmen open fire at a Sunni mosque in the city of Quetta killing at least ten people and injuring 30.
2014 – Michael Brown, an 18-year-old African American male in Ferguson, Missouri, is shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer after reportedly assaulting the officer and attempting to steal his weapon, sparking protests and unrest in the city.
2021 – The Tampere light rail officially starts operating.
2024 – Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashes near Vinhedo, São Paulo, killing all 62 people on board. |
August 9 | Births | Births |
August 9 | Pre-1600 | Pre-1600
1201 – Arnold Fitz Thedmar, English historian and merchant (d. 1274)
1537 – Francesco Barozzi, Italian mathematician and astronomer (d. 1604)
1544 – Bogislaw XIII, Duke of Pomerania (d. 1606)
1590 – John Webster, colonial settler and governor of Connecticut (d. 1661) |
August 9 | 1601–1900 | 1601–1900
1603 – Johannes Cocceius, German-Dutch theologian and academic (d. 1669)
1611 – Henry of Nassau-Siegen, German count, officer in the Dutch Army, diplomat for the Dutch Republic (b. 1611) (2004). "Die Fürstengruft zu Siegen und die darin von 1669 bis 1781 erfolgten Beisetzungen". In: u.a. (Redaktion), Siegener Beiträge. Jahrbuch für regionale Geschichte (in German). Vol. 9. Siegen: Geschichtswerkstatt Siegen – Arbeitskreis für Regionalgeschichte e.V. p. 191;
1648 – Johann Michael Bach, German composer (d. 1694)
1653 – John Oldham, English poet and translator (d. 1683)
1696 – Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein (d. 1772)
1722 – Prince Augustus William of Prussia (d. 1758)
1726 – Francesco Cetti, Italian priest, zoologist, and mathematician (d. 1778)
1748 – Bernhard Schott, German music publisher (d. 1809)
1757 – Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, American humanitarian; wife of Alexander Hamilton (d. 1854)
1757 – Thomas Telford, Scottish architect and engineer, designed the Menai Suspension Bridge (d. 1834)
1776 – Amedeo Avogadro, Italian physicist and chemist (d. 1856)
1783 – Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia (d. 1801)
1788 – Adoniram Judson, American missionary and lexicographer (d. 1850)
1797 – Charles Robert Malden, English lieutenant and surveyor (d. 1855)
1805 – Joseph Locke, English engineer and politician (d. 1860)
1845 – André Bessette, Canadian saint (d. 1937)
1847 – Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo, French-Italian wife of Amadeo I of Spain (d. 1876)
1848 – Alfred David Benjamin, Australian-born businessman and philanthropist. (d. 1900)
1861 – Dorothea Klumpke, American astronomer and academic (d. 1942)
1867 – Evelina Haverfield, Scottish nurse and activist (d. 1920)
1872 – Archduke Joseph August of Austria (d. 1962)
1874 – Reynaldo Hahn, Venezuelan composer and conductor (d. 1947)
1875 – Albert Ketèlbey, English pianist, composer, and conductor (d. 1959)
1878 – Eileen Gray, Irish architect and furniture designer (d. 1976)
1879 – John Willcock, Australian politician, 15th Premier of Western Australia, (d. 1956)
1881 – Prince Antônio Gastão of Orléans-Braganza, Brazilian prince (d. 1918)
1890 – Eino Kaila, Finnish philosopher and psychologist, attendant of the Vienna circle (d. 1958)
1896 – Erich Hückel, German physicist and chemist (d. 1980)
1896 – Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist and philosopher (d. 1980)
1899 – P. L. Travers, Australian-English author and actress (d. 1996)
1900 – Charles Farrell, American actor and singer (d. 1990) |
August 9 | 1901–present | 1901–present
1902 – Zino Francescatti, French violinist (d. 1991)
1902 – Panteleimon Ponomarenko, Russian general and politician (d. 1984)
1905 – Leo Genn, British actor and barrister (d. 1978)
1909 – Vinayaka Krishna Gokak, Indian scholar, author, and academic (d. 1992)
1909 – Willa Beatrice Player, American educator, first Black woman college president (d. 2003)
1909 – Adam von Trott zu Solz, German lawyer and diplomat (d. 1944)
1911 – William Alfred Fowler, American astronomer and astrophysicist, Nobel Laureate (d. 1996)
1911 – Eddie Futch, American boxer and trainer (d. 2001)
1911 – John McQuade, Northern Irish soldier, boxer, and politician (d. 1984)
1913 – Wilbur Norman Christiansen, Australian astronomer and engineer (d. 2007)
1914 – Ferenc Fricsay, Hungarian-Austrian conductor and director (d. 1963)
1914 – Tove Jansson, Finnish author and illustrator (d. 2001)
1914 – Joe Mercer, English footballer and manager (d. 1990)
1915 – Mareta West, American astronomer and geologist (d. 1998)
1918 – Kermit Beahan, American colonel (d. 1989)
1918 – Giles Cooper, Irish soldier and playwright (d. 1966)
1918 – Albert Seedman, American police officer (d. 2013)
1919 – Joop den Uyl, Dutch journalist, economist, and politician, Prime Minister of the Netherlands (d. 1987)
1919 – Ralph Houk, American baseball player and manager (d. 2010)
1920 – Enzo Biagi, Italian journalist and author (d. 2007)
1921 – Ernest Angley, American evangelist and author (d. 2021)
1921 – J. James Exon, American soldier and politician, 33rd Governor of Nebraska (d. 2005)
1922 – Philip Larkin, English poet and novelist (d. 1985)
1924 – Mathews Mar Barnabas, Indian metropolitan (d. 2012)
1924 – Frank Martínez, American soldier and painter (d. 2013)
1925 – David A. Huffman, American computer scientist, developed Huffman coding (d. 1999)
1926 – Denis Atkinson, Barbadian cricketer (d. 2001)
1927 – Daniel Keyes, American short story writer and novelist (d. 2014)
1927 – Robert Shaw, English actor and screenwriter (d. 1978)
1928 – Bob Cousy, American basketball player and coach
1928 – Camilla Wicks, American violinist and educator (d. 2020)
1928 – Dolores Wilson, American soprano and actress (d. 2010)
1929 – Abdi İpekçi, Turkish journalist and activist (d. 1979)
1930 – Milt Bolling, American baseball player and scout (d. 2013)
1930 – Jacques Parizeau, Canadian economist and politician, 26th Premier of Quebec (d. 2015)
1931 – Chuck Essegian, American baseball player and lawyer
1931 – James Freeman Gilbert, American geophysicist and academic (d. 2014)
1931 – Paula Kent Meehan, American businesswoman, co-founded Redken (d. 2014)
1931 – Mário Zagallo, Brazilian footballer and coach (d. 2024)
1932 – Tam Dalyell, Scottish academic and politician (d. 2017)
1932 – John Gomery, Canadian lawyer and jurist (d. 2021)
1933 – Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, Japanese actress, talk show host, and author
1935 – Beverlee McKinsey, American actress (d. 2008)
1936 – Julián Javier, Dominican-American baseball player
1936 – Patrick Tse, Chinese-Hong Kong actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1938 – Leonid Kuchma, Ukrainian engineer and politician, 2nd President of Ukraine
1938 – Rod Laver, Australian tennis player and coach
1938 – Otto Rehhagel, German footballer, coach, and manager
1939 – Hércules Brito Ruas, Brazilian footballer
1939 – Vincent Hanna, Northern Irish journalist (d. 1997)
1939 – The Mighty Hannibal, American singer-songwriter and producer (d. 2014)
1939 – Billy Henderson, American singer (d. 2007)
1939 – Bulle Ogier, French actress and screenwriter
1939 – Romano Prodi, Italian academic and politician, 52nd Prime Minister of Italy
1939 – Butch Warren, American bassist (d. 2013)
1940 – Linda Keen, American mathematician and academic
1942 – David Steinberg, Canadian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
1943 – Ken Norton, American boxer and actor (d. 2013)
1944 – George Armstrong, English footballer (d. 2000)
1944 – Patrick Depailler, French racing driver (d. 1980)
1944 – Sam Elliott, American actor and producer
1944 – Patricia McKissack, American soldier, engineer, and author (d. 2017)
1945 – Barbara Delinsky, American author
1945 – Aleksandr Gorelik, Russian figure skater and sportscaster (d. 2012)
1945 – Posy Simmonds, English author and illustrator
1946 – Rinus Gerritsen, Dutch rock bass player
1947 – Roy Hodgson, English footballer and manager
1947 – Barbara Mason, American R&B/soul singer-songwriter
1947 – John Varley, American author
1948 – Bill Campbell, American baseball player and coach (d. 2023)
1949 – Jonathan Kellerman, American psychologist and author
1949 – Ted Simmons, American baseball player and coach
1951 – James Naughtie, Scottish journalist and radio host
1951 – Steve Swisher, American baseball player and manager
1952 – Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, Thai activist and politician
1953 – Kay Stenshjemmet, Norwegian speed skater
1953 – Jean Tirole, French economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
1954 – Ray Jennings, South African cricketer and coach
1954 – Pete Thomas, English drummer
1955 – John E. Sweeney, American lawyer and politician
1956 – Gordon Singleton, Canadian Olympic cyclist (d. 2024)
1957 – Melanie Griffith, American actress and producer
1958 – Amanda Bearse, American actress, comedian and director
1958 – Calie Pistorius, South African engineer and academic
1959 – Kurtis Blow, American rapper, producer, and actor
1959 – Michael Kors, American fashion designer
1961 – Brad Gilbert, American tennis player and sportscaster
1961 – John Key, New Zealand businessman and politician, 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand
1962 – Louis Lipps, American football player and radio host
1962 – Kevin Mack, American football player
1962 – John "Hot Rod" Williams, American basketball player (d. 2015)
1963 – Whitney Houston, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress (d. 2012)
1963 – Jay Leggett, American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 2013)
1963 – Barton Lynch, Australian surfer
1964 – Brett Hull, Canadian-American ice hockey player and manager
1964 – Hoda Kotb, American journalist and television personality
1965 – Nitin Chandrakant Desai, Indian art director, production designer, and film and television producer (d. 2023)
1966 – Vinny Del Negro, American basketball player and coach
1966 – Linn Ullmann, Norwegian journalist and author
1967 – Deion Sanders, American football and baseball player
1968 – Gillian Anderson, American-British actress, activist and writer
1968 – Eric Bana, Australian actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter
1968 – Sam Fogarino, American drummer
1968 – McG, American director and producer
1969 – Troy Percival, American baseball player and coach
1970 – Rod Brind'Amour, Canadian ice hockey player and coach
1970 – Chris Cuomo, American lawyer and journalist
1970 – Thomas Lennon, American actor and comedian
1972 – Juanes, Colombian singer and songwriter
1973 – Filippo Inzaghi, Italian footballer and manager
1973 – Kevin McKidd, Scottish actor and director
1973 – Gene Luen Yang, American author and illustrator
1974 – Derek Fisher, American basketball player and coach
1974 – Stephen Fung, Hong Kong actor, singer, director, and screenwriter
1974 – Lesley McKenna, Scottish snowboarder
1974 – Matt Morris, American baseball player
1974 – Kirill Reznik, American lawyer and politician
1974 – Raphaël Poirée, French biathlete
1975 – Mahesh Babu, Indian actor and producer
1975 – Valentin Kovalenko, Uzbek football referee
1975 – Mike Lamb, American baseball player
1975 – Robbie Middleby, Australian soccer player
1976 – Rhona Mitra, English actress and singer
1976 – Audrey Tautou, French model and actress
1976 – Jessica Capshaw, American actress
1977 – Jason Frasor, American baseball player
1977 – Chamique Holdsclaw, American basketball player
1977 – Ravshan Irmatov, Uzbek football referee
1977 – Adewale Ogunleye, American football player
1977 – Ime Udoka, American basketball player and coach
1977 – Mikaël Silvestre, French footballer
1978 – Dorin Chirtoacă, Moldavian lawyer and politician, Mayor of Chișinău
1978 – Ana Serradilla, Mexican actress and producer
1978 – Wesley Sonck, Belgian footballer
1979 – Michael Kingma, Australian basketball player
1979 – Kliff Kingsbury, American football coach
1979 – Lisa Nandy, British politician
1979 – Tony Stewart, American football player
1981 – Jarvis Hayes, American basketball player
1981 – Li Jiawei, Singaporean table tennis player
1982 – Joel Anthony, American basketball player
1982 – Tyson Gay, American sprinter
1982 – Yekaterina Samutsevich, Russian singer and activist
1982 – Kanstantsin Sivtsov, Belarusian cyclist
1983 – Dan Levy, Canadian actor and comedian
1983 – Hamilton Masakadza, Zimbabwean cricketer
1983 – Shane O'Brien, Canadian ice hockey player
1983 – Alicja Smietana, Polish-English violinist
1984 – Paul Gallagher, Scottish footballer
1985 – Luca Filippi, Italian racing driver
1985 – Filipe Luís, Brazilian footballer
1985 – Anna Kendrick, American actress and singer
1985 – Hayley Peirsol, American swimmer
1985 – Vivek Ramaswamy, American entrepreneur
1985 – JaMarcus Russell, American football player
1985 – Chandler Williams, American football player (d. 2013)
1986 – Michael Lerchl, German footballer
1986 – Daniel Preussner, German rugby player
1986 – Tyler Smith, American singer-songwriter and bass player
1987 – Marek Niit, Estonian sprinter
1988 – Anthony Castonzo, American football player
1988 – Willian, Brazilian footballer
1988 – Vasilios Koutsianikoulis, Greek footballer
1989 – Jason Heyward, American baseball player
1989 – Stefano Okaka, Italian footballer
1989 – Kento Ono, Japanese actor and model
1990 – İshak Doğan, Turkish footballer
1990 – Sarah McBride, American LGBT activist
1990 – Stuart McInally, Scottish rugby player
1990 – Brice Roger, French skier
1990 – D'Arcy Short, Australian cricketer
1990 – Bill Skarsgård, Swedish actor
1991 – Alice Barlow, English actress
1991 – Alexa Bliss, American bodybuilder and wrestler
1991 – Hansika Motwani, Indian actress
1992 – Farahnaz Forotan, Afghan journalist
1993 – Jun.Q, South Korean singer and actor
1993 – Dipa Karmakar, Indian gymnast
1994 – Kelli Hubly, American soccer player
1994 – King Von, American rapper (d. 2020)
1995 – Eli Apple, American football player
1995 – Justice Smith, American actor
1995 – Hwang Min-hyun, South Korean singer and actor
1996 – Sanya Lopez, Filipino actress and model
1999 – Deniss Vasiļjevs, Latvian figure skater
2000 – Aidan Hutchinson, American football player
2000 – Arlo Parks, British singer-songwriter
2005 – Victoria Jiménez Kasintseva, Andorran tennis player |
August 9 | Deaths | Deaths |
August 9 | Pre-1600 | Pre-1600
378 – Traianus, Roman general
378 – Valens, Roman emperor (b. 328)
803 – Irene of Athens, Byzantine ruler (b. 752)
833 – Al-Ma'mun, Iraqi caliph (b. 786)
1048 – Pope Damasus II
1107 – Emperor Horikawa of Japan (b. 1079)
1173 – Najm ad-Din Ayyub, Kurdish soldier and politician
1211 – William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber, exiled Anglo-Norman baron (b. 1144/53)
1260 – Walter of Kirkham, Bishop of Durham
1296 – Hugh, Count of Brienne, French crusader
1341 – Eleanor of Anjou, queen consort of Sicily (b. 1289)
1354 – Stephen, Duke of Slavonia, Hungarian prince (b. 1332)
1420 – Pierre d'Ailly, French theologian and cardinal (b. 1351)
1516 – Hieronymus Bosch, Early Netherlandish painter (b. circa 1450)
1534 – Thomas Cajetan, Italian cardinal and philosopher (b. 1470)
1580 – Metrophanes III of Constantinople (b. 1520) |
August 9 | 1601–1900 | 1601–1900
1601 – Michael the Brave, Romanian prince (b. 1558)
1634 – William Noy, English lawyer and judge (b. 1577)
1720 – Simon Ockley, English orientalist and academic (b. 1678)
1744 – James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, English academic and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Radnorshire (b. 1673)
1816 – Johann August Apel, German jurist and author (b. 1771)
1861 – Vincent Novello, English composer and publisher (b. 1781)
1886 – Samuel Ferguson, Irish lawyer and poet (b. 1810) |
August 9 | 1901–present | 1901–present
1910 – Huo Yuanjia, Chinese martial artist, co-founded the Chin Woo Athletic Association (b. 1868)
1919 – Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer and educator (b. 1857)
1920 – Samuel Griffith, Welsh-Australian politician, 9th Premier of Queensland (b. 1845)
1932 – John Charles Fields, Canadian mathematician, founder of the Fields Medal (b. 1863)
1941 – Richard Goss, Executed Irish Republican (b. 1915)
1942 – Edith Stein, German nun and saint (b. 1891)
1943 – Chaïm Soutine, Belarusian-French painter and educator (b. 1893)
1945 – Robert Hampton Gray, Canadian lieutenant and pilot, Victoria Cross recipient (b. 1917)
1945 – Harry Hillman, American runner and coach (b. 1881)
1946 – Bert Vogler, South African cricketer (b. 1876)
1948 – Hugo Boss, German fashion designer, founded Hugo Boss (b. 1885)
1949 – Edward Thorndike, American psychologist and academic (b. 1874)
1957 – Carl Clauberg, German Nazi physician (b. 1898)
1962 – Hermann Hesse, German-born Swiss poet, novelist, and painter, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1877)
1963 – Patrick Bouvier Kennedy, American son of John F. Kennedy (b. 1963)
1967 – Joe Orton, English author and playwright (b. 1933)
1969 – Wojciech Frykowski, Polish-American actor and author (b. 1936)
1969 – Sharon Tate, American model and actress (b. 1943)
1969 – C. F. Powell, English physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1903)
1970 – Jimmy Steele (Irish republican), lifelong militant and editor (b. 1907)Coogan, Tim, (1981),The IRA, William Collins & Sons Ltd, Glasgow, UK, pg 208.
1972 – Sıddık Sami Onar, Turkish lawyer and academic (b. 1897)
1974 – Bill Chase, American trumpet player and bandleader (b. 1934)
1975 – Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian pianist and composer (b. 1906)
1978 – James Gould Cozzens, American novelist and short story writer (b. 1903)
1979 – Walter O'Malley, American businessman (b. 1903)
1979 – Raymond Washington, American gang leader, founded the Crips (b. 1953)
1980 – Jacqueline Cochran, American pilot (b. 1906)
1980 – Ruby Hurley, American civil rights activist (b. 1909)
1981 – Max Hoffman, Austrian-born car importer and businessman (b. 1904)
1985 – Clive Churchill, Australian rugby league player and coach (b. 1927)
1986 – Eoin McNamee (Irish republican), Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army (b. 1914)
1988 – M. Carl Holman, American author, educator, poet, and playwright (b. 1919)"M. Carl Holman Dies at 69", The Washington Post
1988 – Giacinto Scelsi, Italian composer (b. 1905)
1990 – Joe Mercer, English footballer and manager (b. 1914)
1992 – Fereydoun Farrokhzad, Iranian singer and actor (b. 1938)
1995 – Jerry Garcia, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1942)
1996 – Frank Whittle, English soldier and engineer, invented the jet engine (b. 1907)
1999 – Helen Rollason, English sports journalist and sportscaster (b. 1956)
1999 – Fouad Serageddin, Egyptian journalist and politician (b. 1910)
2000 – John Harsanyi, Hungarian-American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1920)
2000 – Nicholas Markowitz, American murder victim (b. 1984)
2002 – Paul Samson, English guitarist (b. 1953)
2003 – Jacques Deray, French director and screenwriter (b. 1929)
2003 – Ray Harford, English footballer and manager (b. 1945)
2003 – Gregory Hines, American actor, dancer, and choreographer (b. 1946)
2003 – R. Sivagurunathan, Sri Lankan lawyer, journalist, and academic (b. 1931)
2004 – Robert Lecourt, French lawyer and politician, Lord Chancellor of France (b. 1908)
2004 – Tony Mottola, American guitarist and composer (b. 1918)
2004 – David Raksin, American composer and educator (b. 1912)
2005 – Judith Rossner, American author (b. 1935)
2006 – Philip E. High, English author (b. 1914)
2006 – James Van Allen, American physicist and academic (b. 1914)
2007 – Joe O'Donnell, American photographer and journalist (b. 1922)
2008 – Bernie Mac, American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1957)
2008 – Mahmoud Darwish, Palestinian author and poet (b. 1941)
2010 – Calvin "Fuzz" Jones, American singer and bass player (b. 1926)
2010 – Ted Stevens, American soldier, lawyer, and politician (b. 1923)
2012 – Carl Davis, American record producer (b. 1934)
2012 – Gene F. Franklin, American engineer, theorist, and academic (b. 1927)
2012 – Al Freeman, Jr., American actor, director, and educator (b. 1934)
2012 – David Rakoff, Canadian-American actor and journalist (b. 1964)
2012 – Carmen Belen Richardson, Puerto Rican-American actress (b. 1930)
2012 – Mel Stuart, American director and producer (b. 1928)
2013 – Harry Elliott, American baseball player and coach (b. 1923)
2013 – Eduardo Falú, Argentinian guitarist and composer (b. 1923)
2013 – William Lynch, Jr., American lawyer and politician (b. 1947)
2014 – J. F. Ade Ajayi, Nigerian historian and academic (b. 1929)
2014 – Andriy Bal, Ukrainian footballer and coach (b. 1958)
2014 – Arthur G. Cohen, American businessman and philanthropist, co-founded Arlen Realty and Development Corporation (b. 1930)
2014 – Ed Nelson, American actor (b. 1928)
2015 – Frank Gifford, American football player, sportscaster, and actor (b. 1930)
2015 – John Henry Holland, American computer scientist and academic (b. 1929)
2015 – Walter Nahún López, Honduran footballer (b. 1977)
2015 – David Nobbs, English author and screenwriter (b. 1935)
2015 – Kayyar Kinhanna Rai, Indian journalist, author, and poet (b. 1915)
2015 – Fikret Otyam, Turkish painter and journalist (b. 1926)
2016 – Gerald Grosvenor, 6th Duke of Westminster, third-richest British citizen (b. 1951)Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, dies aged 64
2021 – Pat Hitchcock, English actress and producer (b. 1928)
2021 – Killer Kau, South African rapper, dancer and record producer (b. 1998)
2021 – Zairaini Sarbini, Malaysian voice actress (b. 1972)'Detektif Conan' derita kanser meninggal dunia
2023 – Robbie Robertson, Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (b. 1943)
2024 – Susan Wojcicki, Polish-American technology executive (b. 1968) |
August 9 | Holidays and observances | Holidays and observances
Battle of Gangut Day (Russia)
Christian feast day:
Candida Maria of Jesus
Edith Stein (St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross)
Firmus and Rusticus
Herman of Alaska (Russian Orthodox Church and related congregations; Episcopal Church (USA))
John Vianney (1950s – currently August 4)
Mary Sumner (Church of England)
Nath Í of Achonry
Romanus Ostiarius
Secundian, Marcellian and Verian
August 9 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples (United Nations)
Meyboom (Brussels and Leuven, Belgium)
National Day, celebrates the independence of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965.
National Peacekeepers' Day, celebrated on Sunday closest to the day (Canada)
National Women's Day (South Africa)
Day of the Finnish art, also birthday of Tove Jansson (Finland) |
August 9 | References | References |
August 9 | External links | External links
Category:Days of August |
August 9 | Table of Content | pp-pc1, Events, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Births, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Deaths, Pre-1600, 1601–1900, 1901–present, Holidays and observances, References, External links |
Aristophanes | Short description | Aristophanes (;. ; ) was an Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today.; The majority of his surviving plays belong to the genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are considered its most valuable examples. Aristophanes' plays were performed at the religious festivals of Athens, mostly the City Dionysia and the Lenaia, and several of them won the first prize in their respective competitions.
Also known as "The Father of Comedy" and "the Prince of Ancient Comedy", Aristophanes wrote plays that often dealt with real-life figures, including Euripides and Alcibiades, and contemporary events, such as the Peloponnesian War. He has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author. His plays are characterized by preposterous premises, explicit language, wordplays, and political satire. His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries; Plato singled out Aristophanes' play The Clouds as slander that contributed to the trial and subsequent condemning to death of Socrates,Plato, The Apology of Socrates (in Greek), edited by John Burnet; section 19c although other satirical playwrights had also caricatured the philosopher.
Aristophanes' second play, The Babylonians (now lost), was denounced by Cleon as a slander against the Athenian polis. It is possible that the case was argued in court, but details of the trial are not recorded and Aristophanes caricatured Cleon mercilessly in his subsequent plays, especially The Knights, the first of many plays that he directed himself. "In my opinion," he says through that play's Chorus, "the author-director of comedies has the hardest job of all."." "Knights" line 516 |
Aristophanes | Biography | Biography
thumb|200px|Theatre of Dionysus, Athens – in Aristophanes' time, the audience probably sat on wooden benches with earth foundations.
An Athenian citizen, Aristophanes came from the deme of Kydathenaion, which was part of the Attic tribe (phyle) of Pandionis. His father was Philippus; and his mother was Zenodora.; In antiquity, his family was assumed to have connections with the island of Aegina. Little is known about Aristophanes' life, his plays being the main source of biographical information. It was conventional in Old Comedy for the chorus to speak on behalf of the author during an address called the parabasis, where some biographical facts can usually be found. These facts, however, relate almost entirely to his career as a dramatist and the plays contain few clear and unambiguous clues about his personal beliefs or his private life. He was a comic poet in an age when it was conventional for the playwright to also serve as the play's director (didaskalos). The term literally means "teacher," referring primarily to his role in training the chorus in rehearsal, but perhaps also covered his relationship with the audience as a commentator on significant issues.
Aristophanes claimed to be writing for a clever and discerning audience,Aristophanis Comoediae Tomus 1, F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (eds), Oxford Classical Texts, Clouds, pp. 520–525 yet he also declared that "other times" would judge the audience according to its reception of his plays.Aristophanis Comoediae Tomus 1, F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (eds), Oxford Classical Texts, Clouds, pp. 560–562 He sometimes boasts of his originality as a dramatistWasps 1536–1537 Wikisource (original Greek), Clouds, pp. 545–548, Peace, pp. 739–758 yet his plays consistently espouse opposition to radical new influences in Athenian society. He caricatured leading figures in the arts (notably Euripides, whose influence on his own work however he once grudgingly acknowledged), in politics (especially the populist Cleon), and in philosophy/religion (where Socrates was the most obvious target). Such caricatures seem to imply that Aristophanes was an old-fashioned conservative, yet that view of him leads to contradictions.Andrewes, Antony. Greek Society. Pelican Books, 1981, pp. 247–248
It has been argued that Aristophanes produced plays mainly to entertain the audience and to win prestigious competitions.Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds A. H. Sommerstein (ed), Penguin Books 1975, p. 9 footnote His plays were written for production at the great dramatic festivals of Athens, the Lenaia and City Dionysia, where they were judged and awarded prizes in competition with the works of other comic dramatists. An elaborate series of lotteries, designed to prevent prejudice and corruption, reduced the voting judges at the City Dionysia to just five. These judges probably reflected the mood of the audiences yet there is much uncertainty about the composition of those audiences. The theatres were certainly huge, with seating for at least 10,000 at the Theatre of Dionysus. The day's program at the City Dionysia for example was crowded, with three tragedies and a satyr play ahead of a comedy, but it is possible that many of the poorer citizens (typically the main supporters of demagogues like Cleon) occupied the festival holiday with other pursuits. The conservative views expressed in the plays might therefore reflect the attitudes of the dominant group in an unrepresentative audience.
The production process might also have influenced the views expressed in the plays. Throughout most of Aristophanes' career, the Chorus was essential to a play's success and it was recruited and funded by a choregus, a wealthy citizen appointed to the task by one of the archons. A choregus could regard his personal expenditure on the Chorus as a civic duty and a public honour, but Aristophanes showed in The Knights that wealthy citizens might regard civic responsibilities as punishment imposed on them by demagogues and populists like Cleon.Aristophanis Comoediae Tomus 1, F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (eds), Oxford Classical Texts, The Knights lines 911–925 Thus the political conservatism of the plays may reflect the views of the wealthiest section of Athenian society, on whose generosity all dramatists depended for putting on their plays.Rennie, W. The Acharnians of Aristophanes, Edward Arnold (London, 1909), p. 7 (reproduced by Bibliolife)
When Aristophanes' first play The Banqueters was produced, Athens was an ambitious, imperial power and the Peloponnesian War was only in its fourth year. His plays often express pride in the achievement of the older generation (the victors at Marathon)Wasps 1075–1101 Wikisource (original Greek), Knights 565–576Acharnians Wikisource (Greek Text) 692–700 yet they are not jingoistic, and they are staunchly opposed to the war with Sparta. The plays are particularly scathing in criticism of war profiteers, among whom populists such as Cleon figure prominently. By the time his last play was produced (around 386 BC) Athens had been defeated in war, its empire had been dismantled and it had undergone a transformation from being the political to the intellectual centre of Greece.Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds A. H. Sommerstein (ed), Penguin Books 1975, pp. 13–14 Aristophanes was part of this transformation and he shared in the intellectual fashions of the period—the structure of his plays evolves from Old Comedy until, in his last surviving play, Wealth II, it more closely resembles New Comedy. However it is uncertain whether he led or merely responded to changes in audience expectations.
Aristophanes won second prize at the City Dionysia in 427 BC with his first play The Banqueters (now lost). He won first prize there with his next play, The Babylonians (also now lost). It was usual for foreign dignitaries to attend the City Dionysia, and The Babylonians caused some embarrassment for the Athenian authorities since it depicted the cities of the Delian League as slaves grinding at a mill."Greek Drama" P. Levi in The Oxford History of the Classical World J. Boardman, J. Griffin, O. Murray (eds), Oxford University Press 1986, p. 177 Some influential citizens, notably Cleon, reviled the play as slander against the polis and possibly took legal action against the author. The details of the trial are unrecorded but, speaking through the hero of his third play The Acharnians (staged at the Lenaia, where there were few or no foreign dignitaries), the poet carefully distinguishes between the polis and the real targets of his acerbic wit:
Aristophanes repeatedly savages Cleon in his later plays. But these satirical diatribes appear to have had no effect on Cleon's political career—a few weeks after the performance of The Knights—a play full of anti-Cleon jokes—Cleon was elected to the prestigious board of ten generals. Cleon also seems to have had no real power to limit or control Aristophanes: the caricatures of him continued up to and even beyond his death.
In the absence of clear biographical facts about Aristophanes, scholars make educated guesses based on interpretation of the language in the plays. Inscriptions and summaries or comments by Hellenistic and Byzantine scholars can also provide useful clues. We know from a combination of these sources,D. Welsh, IG ii2 2343, Philonides and Aristophanes' Banqueters, Classical Quarterly 33 (1983) and especially from comments in The KnightsKnights 512–514 and The Clouds,Clouds 530–533 that Aristophanes' first three plays were not directed by him; they were instead directed by Callistratus and Philoneides,Ian Storey, General Introduction, in Clouds, Wasps, Birds By Aristophanes, Peter Meineck (translator), Hackett Publishing 1998, p. xiii an arrangement that seemed to suit Aristophanes since he appears to have used these same directors in many later plays as well (Philoneides for example later directed The Frogs and he was also credited, perhaps wrongly, with directing The Wasps).MacDowell (1971), p. 124 Aristophanes's use of directors complicates our reliance on the plays as sources of biographical information, because apparent self-references might have been made with reference to his directors instead. Thus, for example, a statement by the chorus in The AcharniansThe Acharnians Wikisource (original Greek) lines 652–654 seems to indicate that the "poet" had a close, personal association with the island of Aegina. Similarly, the hero in The Acharnians complains about Cleon "dragging me into court" over "last year's play."The Acharnians Wikisource (original Greek) lines 377–382
Comments made by the Chorus referring to Aristophanes in The CloudsAristophanis Comoediae Tomus 1, F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (eds), Oxford Classical Texts, The Clouds lines 528–32 have been interpreted as evidence that he can hardly have been more than 18 years old when his first play The Banqueters was produced.Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds Alan Sommerstein (ed), Penguin Classics 1975, p. 9 The second parabasis in WaspsWasps Wikisource (original Greek) lines 1265–1291 appears to indicate that he reached some kind of temporary accommodation with Cleon following either the controversy over The Babylonians or a subsequent controversy over The Knights.MacDowell (1978), p. 299 It has been inferred from statements in The Clouds and Peace that Aristophanes was prematurely bald.Aristophanis Comoediae Tomus 1, F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (eds), Oxford Classical Texts, Clouds 540–545, Peace 767–774
Aristophanes was probably victorious at least once at the City Dionysia, with Babylonians in 427,IG II2 2325. 58 and at least three times at the Lenaia, with The Acharnians in 425, Knights in 424, and Frogs in 405. Frogs in fact won the unique distinction of a repeat performance at a subsequent festival. A son of Aristophanes, Araros, was also a comic poet and he could have been heavily involved in the production of his father's play Wealth II in 388.Aristophanes, testimonium 1, lines 54–56, in Kassel-Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci vol. III.2 (Berlin 1984), p. 4. Araros is also thought to have been responsible for the posthumous performances of the now lost plays Aeolosicon II and Cocalus,Aristophanes, Κώκαλος, testimonium iii, in Kassel-Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci vol. III.2 (Berlin 1984), p. 201. and it is possible that the last of these won the prize at the City Dionysia in 387.IG II2 2318. 196 It appears that a second son, Philippus, was twice victorious at the LenaiaIG II2 2325. 140 and he could have directed some of Eubulus' comedies.Eubulus, testimonium 4, in Kassel-Austin, Poetae Comici Graeci vol. V (Berlin 1986), p. 188. A third son was called either Nicostratus or Philetaerus,Clouds Peter Meineck (translator) and Ian Storey (Introduction), Hackett Publishing 2000, p. xviii and a man by the latter name appears in the catalogue of Lenaia victors with two victories, the first probably in the late 370s.IG II2 2325. 143 (just after Anaxandrides and just before Eubulus)
Aristophanes survived The Peloponnesian War, two oligarchic revolutions and two democratic restorations; this has been interpreted as evidence that he was not actively involved in politics, despite his highly political plays. He was probably appointed to the Council of Five Hundred for a year at the beginning of the fourth century, but such appointments were very common in democratic Athens. |
Aristophanes | Plato's ''Symposion'' | Plato's Symposion
Plato's The Symposium appears to be a useful source of biographical information about Aristophanes, but its reliability is open to doubt. It purports to be a record of conversations at a dinner party at which both Aristophanes and Socrates are guests, held some seven years after the performance of The Clouds, the play in which Socrates was cruelly caricatured. One of the guests, Alcibiades, even quotes from the play when teasing Socrates over his appearanceSymposium 221B; Plato Vol.3, Loeb Classical Library (1975), p. 236 and yet there is no indication of any ill-feeling between Socrates and Aristophanes. Plato's Aristophanes is in fact a genial character and this has been interpreted as evidence of Plato's own friendship with himSommerstein, Alan (ed). Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds. Penguin Books, 1973, p. 10 (their friendship appears to be corroborated by an epitaph for Aristophanes, reputedly written by Plato, in which the playwright's soul is compared to an eternal shrine for the Graces). Plato was only a boy when the events in The Symposium are supposed to have occurred and it is possible that his Aristophanes is in fact based on a reading of the plays. For example, conversation among the guests turns to the subject of Love and Aristophanes explains his notion of it in terms of an amusing allegory, a device he often uses in his plays. He is represented as suffering an attack of hiccups and this might be a humorous reference to the crude physical jokes in his plays. He tells the other guests that he is quite happy to be thought amusing but he is wary of appearing ridiculous.The Symposium original Greek text:section 189bThe Symposium (English translation) Benjamin Jowett (scroll half way down). This fear of being ridiculed is consistent with his declaration in The Knights that he embarked on the career of comic playwright warily after witnessing the public contempt and ridicule that other dramatists had incurred.Aristophanis Comoediae Tomus 1, F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (eds), Knights lines 507–550 |
Aristophanes | Use of language | Use of language
thumb|200px|Muse reading, Louvre
The language of Aristophanes' plays, and in Old Comedy generally, was valued by ancient commentators as a model of the Attic dialect. The orator Quintilian believed that the charm and grandeur of the Attic dialect made Old Comedy an example for orators to study and follow, and he considered it inferior in these respects only to the works of Homer.The Orator's Training Quintilian 10.1.65–66, cited in Quintilian 10.1.65–66 10.1.61 A revival of interest in the Attic dialect may have been responsible for the recovery and circulation of Aristophanes' plays during the fourth and fifth centuries AD, resulting in their survival today. In Aristophanes' plays, the Attic dialect is couched in verse and his plays can be appreciated for their poetic qualities.
For Aristophanes' contemporaries the works of Homer and Hesiod formed the cornerstones of Hellenic history and culture. Thus poetry had a moral and social significance that made it an inevitable topic of comic satire. Aristophanes was very conscious of literary fashions and traditions and his plays feature numerous references to other poets. These include not only rival comic dramatists such as Eupolis and HermippusAristophanis Comoediae Tomus 1, F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (eds), Oxford Classical Texts, Clouds lines 553–554 and predecessors such as Magnes, Crates and Cratinus,Aristophanis Comoediae Tomus 1, F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (eds), Oxford Classical Texts, Knights lines 519–540 but also tragedians, notably Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, all three of whom are mentioned in e.g. The Frogs. Aristophanes was the equal of these great tragedians in his subtle use of lyrics. He appears to have modelled his approach to language on that of Euripides in particular, so much so that the comic dramatist Cratinus labelled him a 'Euripidaristophanist' addicted to hair-splitting niceties.
A full appreciation of Aristophanes' plays requires an understanding of the poetic forms he employed with virtuoso skill, and of their different rhythms and associations.MacDowell (1978), p. 21 There were three broad poetic forms: iambic dialogue, tetrameter verses and lyrics:
Iambic dialogue: Aristophanes achieves an effect resembling natural speech through the use of the iambic trimeter (corresponding to the effects achieved by English poets such as Shakespeare using iambic pentameters). His realistic use of the meter makes it ideal for both dialogue and soliloquy, as for instance in the prologue, before the arrival of the Chorus, when the audience is introduced to the main issues in the plot. The Acharnians opens with these three lines by the hero, Dikaiopolis (rendered here in English as iambic pentameters):
How many are the things that vex my heart!
Pleasures are few, so very few – just four –
But stressful things are manysandthousandsandheaps!The Acharnians Wikisource (original Greek) lines 1–3
Here Aristophanes employs a frequent device, arranging the syntax so that the final word in a line comes as a comic climax.MacDowell (1978), p. 17 The hero's pleasures are so few he can number them (, four) but his causes for complaint are so many they beggar numerical description and he must invent his own word for them (, literally "sandhundredheaps", here paraphrased "manysandthousandsandheaps"). The use of invented compound words is another comic device frequently found in the plays.MacDowell (1978), p. 13Sommerstein, Alan (ed). Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds. Penguin Classics 1973, p. 37
Tetrameter catalectic verses: These are long lines of anapests, trochees or iambs (where each line is ideally measured in four dipodes or pairs of feet), used in various situations within each play such as:
formal debates or agons between characters (typically in anapestic rhythm);
excited dialogue or heated argument (typically trochaic rhythm, the same as in early tragedy);
long speeches declaimed by the Chorus in parabases (in either anapestic or trochaic rhythms);
informal debates barely above the level of ordinary dialogue (typically iambic).
Anapestic rhythms are naturally jaunty (as in many limericks) and trochaic meter is suited to rapid delivery (the word "trochee" is in fact derived from trechein, "to run", as demonstrated for example by choruses who enter at speed, often in aggressive mood)L. P. E. Parker, The Songs of Aristophanes, Oxford, 1997, p. 36 However, even though both these rhythms can seem to "bowl along" Aristophanes often varies them through use of complex syntax and substituted meters, adapting the rhythms to the requirements of serious argument. In an anapestic passage in The Frogs, for instance, the character Aeschylus presents a view of poetry that is supposed to be serious but which leads to a comic interruption by the god, Dionysus:
AES.:It was Orpheus singing who taught us religion and how wrong people are when they kill,
And we learned from Musaeus medicinal cures and the science of divination.
If it's farming you want, Hesiod knows it all, when to plant, when to harvest. How godlike
Homer got to be famous, I'll tell if you ask: he taught us what all good men should know,
Discipline, fortitude, battle-readiness. DIO.: But no-one taught Pantocles – yesterday
He was marching his men up and down on parade when the crest of his helmet fell off!Aristophanis Comoediae Tomus 2, F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (eds), Oxford Classical Texts, Frogs lines 1032–1038
The rhythm begins at a typical anapestic gallop, slows down to consider the revered poets Hesiod and Homer, then gallops off again to its comic conclusion at the expense of the unfortunate Pantocles. Such subtle variations in rhythm are common in the plays, allowing for serious points to be made while still whetting the audience's appetite for the next joke.
Lyrics: Almost nothing is known about the music that accompanied Greek lyrics, and the meter is often so varied and complex that it is difficult for modern readers or audiences to get a feel for the intended effects, yet Aristophanes still impresses with the charm and simplicity of his lyrics. Some of the most memorable and haunting lyrics are dignified hymns set free of the comic action.Greek Drama, Peter Levi, in The Oxford History of the Classical World edited by J. Boardman, J. Griffin and O. Murray, Oxford University Press 1986, p. 175 In the example below, taken from The Wasps, the lyric is merely a comic interlude and the rhythm is steadily trochaic. The syntax in the original Greek is natural and unforced and it was probably accompanied by brisk and cheerful music, gliding to a concluding pun at the expense of Amynias, who is thought to have lost his fortune gambling.MacDowell (1978) p. 27
Though to myself I often seem
A bright chap and not awkward,
None comes close to Amynias,
Son of Sellos of the Bigwig
Clan, a man I once saw
Dine with rich Leogorus.
Now as poor as Antiphon,
He lives on apples and pomegranates
Yet he got himself appointed
Ambassador to Pharsalus,
Way up there in Thessaly,
Home of the poor Penestes:
Happy to be where everyone
Is as penniless as he is!MacDowell (1978), Wikisource: lines 1265–1274
The pun here in English translation (Penestes–penniless) is a weak version of the Greek pun , Penéstaisi-penéstĕs, "destitute". Many of the puns in the plays are based on words that are similar rather than identical, and it has been observed that there could be more of them than scholars have yet been able to identify. Others are based on double meanings. Sometimes entire scenes are constructed on puns, as in The Acharnians with the Megarian farmer and his pigs:The Acharnians Wikisource (original Greek) lines 729–835 the Megarian farmer defies the Athenian embargo against Megarian trade, and tries to trade his daughters disguised as pigs, except "pig" was ancient slang for "vagina". Since the embargo against Megara was the pretext for the Peloponnesian War, Aristophanes naturally concludes that this whole mess happened because of "three cunts".
It can be argued that the most important feature of the language of the plays is imagery, particularly the use of similes, metaphors and pictorial expressions. In The Knights, for example, the ears of a character with selective hearing are represented as parasols that open and close.Aristophanis Comoediae Tomus 1, F. W. Hall and W. M. Geldart (eds), Oxford Classical Texts, Knights lines 1347–1348; In The Frogs, Aeschylus is said to compose verses in the manner of a horse rolling in a sandpit.The Frogs lines 902–904 Some plays feature revelations of human perfectibility that are poetic rather than religious in character, such as the marriage of the hero Pisthetairos to Zeus's paramour in The Birds and the "recreation" of old Athens, crowned with roses, at the end of The Knights. |
Aristophanes | Aristophanes and Old Comedy | Aristophanes and Old Comedy
thumb|200px|Thalia, muse of comedy, gazing upon a comic mask (detail from Muses' Sarcophagus)
The plays of Aristophanes are the only full-length examples of the genre of Old Comedy to have survived from antiquity. This makes them centrally important to modern understandings of the genre. The themes of Old Comedy included:
Inclusive comedy: Old Comedy provided a variety of entertainments for a diverse audience. It accommodated a serious purpose, light entertainment, hauntingly beautiful lyrics, the buffoonery of puns and invented words, obscenities, disciplined verse, wildly absurd plots and a formal, dramatic structure.
Fantasy and absurdity: Fantasy in Old Comedy is unrestricted and impossibilities are ignored. Situations are developed logically to absurd conclusions, an approach to humour that is echoed for instance in the works of Lewis Carroll and Eugène Ionesco (the Theatre of the Absurd).Aristophanes: Wasps Douglas MacDowell, Oxford University Press 1978, p. 12 The crazy costume worn by Dionysus in The Frogs is typical of an absurd result obtained on logical grounds—he wears a woman's saffron-coloured tunic because effeminacy is an aspect of his divinity, buskin boots because he is interested in reviving the art of tragedy, and a lion skin cape because, like Heracles, his mission leads him into Hades. Absurdities develop logically from initial premises in a plot. In The Knights for instance, Cleon's corrupt service to the people of Athens is originally depicted as a household relationship in which the slave dupes his master. The introduction of a rival, who is not a member of the household, leads to an absurd shift in the metaphor, so that Cleon and his rival become erastai competing for the affections of an eromenos, hawkers of oracles competing for the attention of a credulous public, athletes in a race for approval and orators competing for the popular vote.
The resourceful hero: In Aristophanic comedy, the hero is an independent-minded and self-reliant individual. He has something of the ingenuity of Homer's Odysseus and much of the shrewdness of the farmer idealized in Hesiod's Works and Days, subjected to corrupt leaders and unreliable neighbours. Typically he devises a complicated and highly fanciful escape from an intolerable situation.Clouds Peter Meineck (translator) and Ian Storey (Introduction), Hackett Publishing 2000, p. viii Thus Dikaiopolis in The Acharnians contrives a private peace treaty with the Spartans; Bdelucleon in The Wasps turns his own house into a private law court in order to keep his jury-addicted father safely at home; Trygaeus in Peace flies to Olympus on a giant dung beetle to obtain an end to the Peloponnesian War; Pisthetairus in Birds sets off to establish his own colony and becomes instead the ruler of the bird kingdom and a rival to the gods.
The resourceful cast: The numerous surprising developments in an Aristophanic plot, the changes in scene, and the farcical comings and goings of minor characters towards the end of a play, were managed according to theatrical convention with only three principal actors (a fourth actor, often the leader of the chorus, was permitted to deliver short speeches). Songs and addresses to the audience by the Chorus gave the actors hardly enough time off-stage to draw breath and to prepare for changes in scene.
Complex structure: The action of an Aristophanic play obeyed a crazy logic of its own and yet it always unfolded within a formal, dramatic structure that was repeated with minor variations from one play to another. The different, structural elements are associated with different poetic meters, which are generally lost in English translations. |
Aristophanes | Dramatic structure of Aristophanes' plots | Dramatic structure of Aristophanes' plots
The structural elements of a typical Aristophanic plot can be summarized as follows:
prologue – an introductory scene with a dialogue and/or soliloquy addressed to the audience, expressed in iambic trimeter and explaining the situation that is to be resolved in the play;
parodos – the arrival of the chorus, dancing and singing, sometimes followed by a choreographed skirmish with one or more actors, often expressed in long lines of tetrameters;
symmetrical scenes – passages featuring songs and declaimed verses in long lines of tetrameters, arranged symmetrically in two sections such that each half resembles the other in meter and line length; the agon and parabasis can be considered specific instances of symmetrical scenes:
parabasis – verses through which the Chorus addresses the audience directly, firstly in the middle of the play and again near the end (see the section below, Parabasis);
agon – a formal debate that decides the outcome of the play, typically in anapestic tetrameter, though iambs are sometimes used to delineate inferior arguments;Aristophanes: Wasps Douglas MacDowell (ed.), Oxford University Press 1971, p. 207 note 546–630
episodes – sections of dialogue in iambic trimeter, often in a succession of scenes featuring minor characters towards the end of a play;
songs ('strophes'/'antistrophes' or 'odes'/'antodes') – often in symmetrical pairs where each half has the same meter and number of lines as the other, used as transitions between other structural elements, or between scenes while actors change costume, and often commenting on the action;
exodus – the departure of the Chorus and the actors, in song and dance celebrating the hero's victory and sometimes celebrating a symbolic marriage.
The rules of competition did not prevent a playwright arranging and adjusting these elements to suit his particular needs.Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds A. Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1975, p. 27 In The Acharnians and Peace, for example, there is no formal agon whereas in The Clouds there are two agons. |
Aristophanes | Parabasis | Parabasis
The parabasis is an address to the audience by the chorus or chorus leader while the actors leave or have left the stage. In this role, the chorus is sometimes out of character, as the author's voice, and sometimes in character, although these capacities are often difficult to distinguish. Generally the parabasis occurs somewhere in the middle of a play and often there is a second parabasis towards the end. The elements of a parabasis have been defined and named by scholars but it is probable that Aristophanes' own understanding was less formal.Aristophanes: Wasps Douglas MacDowell, Oxford University Press 1978, p. 261 The selection of elements can vary from play to play and it varies considerably within plays between first and second parabasis. The early plays (The Acharnians to The Birds) are fairly uniform in their approach however and the following elements of a parabasis can be found within them.
kommation: This is a brief prelude, comprising short lines and often including a valediction to the departing actors, such as (Go rejoicing!).
parabasis proper: This is usually a defense of the author's work and it includes criticism of the audience's attitude. It is declaimed in long lines of 'anapestic tetrameters'. Aristophanes himself refers to the parabasis proper only as 'anapests'.
pnigos: Sometimes known as 'a choker', it comprises a few short lines appended to the parabasis proper as a kind of rapid patter (it has been suggested that some of the effects achieved in a pnigos can be heard in "The Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song", in act 2 of Gilbert and Sullivan's Iolanthe).Aristophanes: Wasps Douglas MacDowell (ed), Oxford University Press 1978, p. 27
epirrhematic syzygies: These are symmetrical scenes that mirror each other in meter and number of lines. They form part of the first parabasis and they often comprise the entire second parabasis. They are characterized by the following elements:
strophe or ode: These are lyrics in a variety of meters, sung by the Chorus in the first parabasis as an invocation to the gods and as a comic interlude in the second parabasis.
epirrhema: These are usually long lines of trochaic tetrameters. Broadly political in their significance, they were probably spoken by the leader of the Chorus in character.
antistrophe or antode: These are songs that mirror the strophe/ode in meter, length and function.
antepirrhema. This is another declaimed passage and it mirrors the epirrhema in meter, length and function.
The Wasps is thought to offer the best example of a conventional approachAristophanes: Wasps Douglas M. MacDowell, Oxford University Press 1978, note 1283 p. 298 and the elements of a parabasis can be identified and located in that play as follows.
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto; background-color: #ffffff"
! Elements in The Wasps
! 1st parabasis
! 2nd parabasis
|-
| kommation
| lines 1009–1014
| ---
|-
| parabasis proper
| lines 1015–1050
| ---
|-
| pnigos
| lines 1051–1059
| ---
|-
| strophe
| lines 1060–1070
| lines 1265–1274
|-
| epirrhema
| lines 1071–1090
| lines 1275–1283
|-
| antistrophe
| lines 1091–1101
| missing
|-
| antepirrhema
| lines 1102–1121
| lines 1284–1291
|}
Textual corruption is probably the reason for the absence of the antistrophe in the second parabasis.Aristophanes: Wasps Douglas MacDowell (ed), Oxford University Press 1978, pp. 298–299
However, there are several variations from the ideal even within the early plays. For example, the parabasis proper in The Clouds (lines 518–562) is composed in eupolidean meter rather than in anapests and the second parabasis includes a kommation but it lacks strophe, antistrophe and antepirrhema (The Clouds lines 1113–1130). The second parabasis in The Acharnians lines 971–999 can be considered a hybrid parabasis/song (i.e. the declaimed sections are merely continuations of the strophe and antistrophe)Comedy E. Handley in 'The Cambridge History of Classical Literature I', P. Easterling, R. MacGregor Walker Knox, E. Kenney (eds), p. 360 and, unlike the typical parabasis, it seems to comment on actions that occur on stage during the address. An understanding of Old Comedy conventions such as the parabasis is necessary for a proper understanding of Aristophanes' plays; on the other hand, a sensitive appreciation of the plays is necessary for a proper understanding of the conventions. |
Aristophanes | Influence and legacy | Influence and legacy
thumb|200px|Aristophanes, the master of Old Comedy, and Menander, the master of New Comedy.
The tragic dramatists Sophocles and Euripides died near the end of the Peloponnesian War, and the art of tragedy thereafter ceased to develop, yet comedy continued to evolve after the defeat of Athens, and it is possible that it did so because, in Aristophanes, it had a master craftsman who lived long enough to help usher it into a new age."Greek Drama" Peter Levi, in The Oxford History of the Classical World J. Boardman, J. Griffin and O. Murray (eds), Oxford University Press 1986, p. 176 Indeed, according to one ancient source (Platonius, 9th century AD), one of Aristophanes's last plays, Aioliskon, had neither a parabasis nor any choral lyrics (making it a type of Middle Comedy), while Kolakos anticipated all the elements of New Comedy, including a rape and a recognition scene.E. W. Handley, 'Comedy' in The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature, P. E. Easterling and Bernard Knox (eds), Cambridge University Press (1985), p. 400 Aristophanes seems to have had some appreciation of his formative role in the development of comedy, as indicated by his comment in Clouds that his audience would be judged by other times according to its reception of his plays.Clouds lines 560–562 Clouds was awarded third (i.e. last) place after its original performance and the text that has come down to the modern age was a subsequent draft that Aristophanes intended to be read rather than acted. The circulation of his plays in manuscript extended their influence beyond the original audience, over whom in fact they seem to have had little or no practical influence: they did not affect the career of Cleon, they failed to persuade the Athenians to pursue an honourable peace with Sparta and it is not clear that they were instrumental in the trial and execution of Socrates, whose death probably resulted from public animosity towards the philosopher's disgraced associates (such as Alcibiades), exacerbated of course by his own intransigence during the trial.Plato's Apology, Benjamin Jowett (trans), Wikisource copy: s:Apology (Plato)#33 (section 33) The plays, in manuscript form, have been put to some surprising uses—as indicated earlier, they were used in the study of rhetoric on the recommendation of Quintilian and by students of the Attic dialect in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries AD. It is possible that Plato sent copies of the plays to Dionysius of Syracuse so that he might learn about Athenian life and government.
Latin translations of the plays by Andreas Divus (Venice 1528) were circulated widely throughout Europe in the Renaissance and these were soon followed by translations and adaptations in modern languages. Racine, for example, drew Les Plaideurs (1668) from The Wasps. Goethe (who turned to Aristophanes for a warmer and more vivid form of comedy than he could derive from readings of Terence and Plautus) adapted a short play Die Vögel from The Birds for performance in Weimar. Aristophanes has appealed to both conservatives and radicals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—Anatoly Lunacharsky, first Commissar of Enlightenment for the USSR in 1917, declared that the ancient dramatist would have a permanent place in proletarian theatre and yet conservative, Prussian intellectuals interpreted Aristophanes as a satirical opponent of social reform. The avant-gardist stage-director Karolos Koun directed a version of The Birds under the Acropolis in 1959 that established a trend in modern Greek history of breaking taboos through the voice of Aristophanes.Politics and Aristophanes: watchword Caution! by Gonda Van Steen in 'The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Theatre' Marianne McDonald and J. Michael Walton (eds), Cambridge University Press 2007, p. 109
The plays have a significance that goes beyond their artistic function, as historical documents that open the window on life and politics in classical Athens, in which respect they are perhaps as important as the writings of Thucydides. The artistic influence of the plays is immeasurable. They have contributed to the history of European theatre and that history in turn shapes our understanding of the plays. Thus for example the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan can give us insights into Aristophanes' playse.g. Aristophanes: Lysistrata, The Acharnians, The Clouds A. Sommerstein, Penguin Classics 1975, p. 37 and similarly the plays can give us insights into the operettas."W. S. Gilbert: A Mid-Victorian Aristophanes" in W. S. Gilbert: A Century of Scholarship and Commentary, John Bush Jones (ed), New York University Press 1970 The plays are a source of famous sayings, such as "By words the mind is winged."Birds, l.1447–1448; quotation as translated in Macmillan Dictionary of Political Quotations
Listed below are some of the many works influenced (more or less) by Aristophanes. |
Aristophanes | Literature | Literature
The romantic poet, Percy Shelley, wrote a comic, lyrical drama (Swellfoot the Tyrant) in imitation of Aristophanes' play The Frogs after he was reminded of the Chorus in that play by a herd of pigs passing to market under the window of his lodgings in San Giuliano, Italy.Note on Oedipus Tyrannus by Mrs Shelley, quoted in Shelley: Poetical Works Thomas Hutchinson (ed), Oxford University Press 1970, p. 410
Aristophanes (particularly in reference to The Clouds) is mentioned frequently by the character Menedemos in the Hellenic Traders series of novels by H. N. Turteltaub.
A liberal version of the comedies have been published in comic book format, initially by "Agrotikes Ekdoseis" during the 1980s and republished over the years by other companies. The plot was written by Tasos Apostolidis and the sketches were of George Akokalidis. The stories feature either Aristophanes narrating them, directing the play, or even as a character inside one of his stories. |
Aristophanes | Radio shows | Radio shows
Acropolis Now is a comedy radio show for the BBC set in Ancient Greece. It features Aristophanes, Socrates and many other famous Greeks. (Not to be confused with the Australian sitcom of the same name.) Aristophanes is characterised as a celebrity playwright, and most of his plays have the title formula: One of Our [e.g] Slaves has an Enormous Knob (a reference to the exaggerated appendages worn by Greek comic actors)
Aristophanes Against the World was a radio play by Martyn Wade and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Loosely based on several of his plays, it featured Clive Merrison as Aristophanes.
The Wasps, radio play adapted by David Pountney, music by Vaughan Williams, recorded 26–28 July 2005, Albert Halls, Bolton, in association with BBC, under Halle label |
Aristophanes | Music | Music
Platée is a French comic opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau influenced by The Frogs.GREEN, ROBERT A. “Aristophanes, Rameau and ‘Platée.’” Cambridge Opera Journal, vol. 23, no. 1/2, 2011, pp. 1–26. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41494572. Accessed 6 Oct. 2024.
Satiric Dances for a Comedy by Aristophanes is a three-movement piece for concert band composed by Norman Dello Joio. It was commissioned in commemoration of the Bicentennial of 19 April 1775 (the start of the American Revolutionary War) by the Concord (Massachusetts) Band. The commission was funded by the Town of Concord and assistance was given by the Eastern National Park and Monument Association in cooperation with the National Park Service.
Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote The Wasps for a 1909 Cambridge University production of the play. |
Aristophanes | Translation of Aristophanes | Translation of Aristophanes
Alan H. Sommerstein believes that although there are good translations of Aristophanes' comedies, none could be flawless, "for there is much truth in the paradox that the only really perfect translation is the original."On Translating Aristophanes: Ends and Means, Alan H. Sommerstein, Greece & Rome, Oct. 1973, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Oct. 1973), pp. 140–154 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association. Nevertheless, there are competent, respectable translations in many languages. Despite the fact that translations of Aristophanes may not be perfect, "the reception of Aristophanes has gained extraordinary momentum as a topic of academic interest in the last few years."Transposing Aristophanes: The Theory and Practice of Translating Aristophanic Lyric, James Robson, Second Series, Vol. 59, No. 2 (October 2012), pp. 214–244 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association. |
Aristophanes | Works | Works |
Aristophanes | Surviving plays | Surviving plays
thumb|Table of contents of a 1498 edition, which contains all of Aristophanes' surviving plays except for Thesmophoriazusae and Lysistrata
Most of these are traditionally referred to by abbreviations of their Latin titles; Latin remains a customary language of scholarship in classical studies.
The Acharnians ( Akharneis; Attic ; ), 425 BC
The Knights ( Hippeis; Attic ; Latin: ), 424 BC
The Clouds ( Nephelai; Latin: ), original 423 BC, incomplete revised version from 419 to 416 BC survives
The Wasps ( Sphekes; Latin: ), 422 BC
Peace ( Eirene; Latin: ), first version, 421 BC
The Birds ( Ornithes; Latin: ), 414 BC
Lysistrata ( Lysistrate), 411 BC
Thesmophoriazusae or The Women Celebrating the Thesmophoria ( Thesmophoriazousai), first version
The Frogs ( Batrakhoi; Latin: ), 405 BC
Ecclesiazusae or The Assemblywomen; ( Ekklesiazousai),
Wealth ( Ploutos; Latin Plutus) second version, 388 BC |
Aristophanes | Datable non-surviving (lost) plays | Datable non-surviving (lost) plays
The standard modern edition of the fragments is Rudolf Kassel and Colin François Lloyd Austin's, Poetae Comici Graeci III.2.
Banqueters (Δαιταλεῖς Daitaleis, 427 BC)
Babylonians (Βαβυλώνιοι Babylonioi, 426 BC)
Farmers (Γεωργοί Georgoi, 424 BC)
Merchant Ships (Ὁλκάδες Holkades, 423 BC)
Clouds (first version, 423 BC)
Proagon (Προάγων, 422 BC)
Amphiaraus (Ἀμφιάραος, 414 BC)
Plutus (Wealth, first version, 408 BC)
Gerytades (Γηρυτάδης, uncertain, probably 407 BC)
Cocalus (Κώκαλος, 387 BC)
Aiolosicon (Αἰολοσίκων, second version, 386 BC) |
Aristophanes | Undated non-surviving (lost) plays | Undated non-surviving (lost) plays
Aiolosicon (first version)
Anagyrus (Ἀνάγυρος)
Frying-Pan Men (Ταγηνισταί Tagenistai)
Daedalus (Δαίδαλος)
Danaids (Δαναΐδες Danaides)
Centaur (Κένταυρος Kentauros)
Heroes (Ἥρωες)
Lemnian Women (Λήμνιαι Lemniai)
Old Age (Γῆρας Geras)
Peace (second version)
Phoenician Women (Φοίνισσαι Phoinissai)
Polyidus (Πολύιδος)
Seasons (Ὧραι Horai)
Storks (Πελαργοί Pelargoi)
Telmessians (Τελμησσεῖς Telmesseis)
Triphales (Τριφάλης)
Thesmophoriazusae (Women at the Thesmophoria Festival, second version)
Women in Tents (Σκηνὰς Καταλαμβάνουσαι Skenas Katalambanousai) |
Aristophanes | Attributed (doubtful, possibly by Archippus) | Attributed (doubtful, possibly by Archippus)
Dionysus Shipwrecked (Διόνυσος Ναυαγός Dionysos Nauagos)
Islands (Νῆσοι Nesoi) Niobos (Νίοβος)
Poetry (Ποίησις Poiesis) |
Aristophanes | See also | See also
Agathon
Ancient Greek comedy
Asteroid 2934 Aristophanes, named after the dramatist
Greek literature
Onomasti komodein, the witty personal attack made with total freedom against the most notable individuals
Hubert Parry wrote music for The Birds
Theatre of ancient Greece
Codex Ravennas 429 |
Aristophanes | Notes | Notes |
Aristophanes | References | References |
Aristophanes | Sources | Sources
*
reviewed by W. J. Slater, Phoenix, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Autumn, 1976), pp. 291–293
Lee, Jae Num. "Scatology in Continental Satirical Writings from Aristophanes to Rabelais" and "English Scatological Writings from Skelton to Pope." Swift and Scatological Satire. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1971. 7–22; 23–53.
Aristophanes and the Comic Hero by Cedric H. Whitman Author(s) of Review: H. Lloyd Stow The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 87, No. 1 (Jan. 1966), pp. 111–113
G. M. Sifakis The Structure of Aristophanic Comedy The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 112, 1992 (1992), pp. 123–142
Van Steen, Gonda. 2000 Venom in Verse: Aristophanes in Modern Greece. Princeton University Press.
Jstor.org, The American Journal of Philology, 1996.
Life, death and Aristophanes' concept of Eros in Saul Bellow's "Ravelstein". |
Aristophanes | Further reading | Further reading
The Eleven Comedies (in translation) at the University of Adelaide Library
|
Aristophanes | External links | External links
Category:440s BC births
Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:380s BC deaths
Category:Year of death unknown
Category:4th-century BC Athenians
Category:4th-century BC writers
Category:5th-century BC Athenians
Category:5th-century BC writers
Category:Ancient Athenians
Category:Ancient Athenian dramatists and playwrights
Category:Ancient Greek satirists
Category:Old Comic poets
Category:Writers of lost works |
Aristophanes | Table of Content | Short description, Biography, Plato's ''Symposion'', Use of language, Aristophanes and Old Comedy, Dramatic structure of Aristophanes' plots, Parabasis, Influence and legacy, Literature, Radio shows, Music, Translation of Aristophanes, Works, Surviving plays, Datable non-surviving (lost) plays, Undated non-surviving (lost) plays, Attributed (doubtful, possibly by Archippus), See also, Notes, References, Sources, Further reading, External links |
Albert Schweitzer | Short description | Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer (; 14 January 1875 – 4 September 1965) was a German and French polymath from Alsace. He was a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician. As a Lutheran minister, Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of the historical Jesus as depicted by the historical-critical method current at this time, as well as the traditional Christian view. His contributions to the interpretation of Pauline Christianity concern the role of Paul's mysticism of "being in Christ" as primary and the doctrine of justification by faith as secondary.
He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of "Reverence for Life",. becoming the eighth Frenchman to be awarded that prize. His philosophy was expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Lambaréné, French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon). As a music scholar and organist, he studied the music of German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and influenced the Organ Reform Movement (Orgelbewegung). |
Albert Schweitzer | Early years | Early years
thumb|Statue of Albert Schweitzer in Strasbourg|left|180px
thumb|upright|Albert Schweitzer's birthplace in Kaysersberg, now in Alsace in France
thumb|upright|Schweitzer in 1912. Oil on canvas painting by Émile Schneider (Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art)
Schweitzer was born on 14 January 1875 in Kaysersberg in Alsace, in what had less than four years previously become the Imperial Territory of Alsace-Lorraine in the German Empire; he later became a citizen of France after World War I, when Alsace became French territory again. He was the son of Adèle (née Schillinger) and Louis Théophile Schweitzer. He spent his childhood in Gunsbach, also in Alsace, where his father, the local Lutheran-Evangelical pastor of the EPCAAL, taught him how to play music.. The tiny village would become home to the Association Internationale Albert Schweitzer (AIAS).. The medieval parish church of Gunsbach was shared by the Protestant and Catholic congregations, which held their prayers in different areas at different times on Sundays. This compromise arose after the Protestant Reformation and the Thirty Years' War. Schweitzer, the pastor's son, grew up in this exceptional environment of religious tolerance, and developed the belief that true Christianity should always work towards a unity of faith and purpose.
Schweitzer's first language was the Alsatian dialect of German. At the Mulhouse gymnasium he received his "Abitur" (the certificate at the end of secondary education) in 1893. He studied organ in Mulhouse from 1885 to 1893 with Eugène Munch, organist at the Protestant cathedral, who inspired Schweitzer with his enthusiasm for the music of German composer Richard Wagner.A. Schweitzer, Eugene Munch (J. Brinkmann, Mulhouse 1898). In 1893, he played for the French organist Charles-Marie Widor (at Saint-Sulpice, Paris), for whom Johann Sebastian Bach's organ music contained a mystic sense of the eternal. Widor, deeply impressed, agreed to teach Schweitzer without fee, and a great and influential friendship thus began.
From 1893 Schweitzer studied Protestant theology at the Kaiser Wilhelm University in Strasbourg. There he also received instruction in piano and counterpoint from professor Gustav Jacobsthal, and associated closely with Ernest Munch, the brother of his former teacher, organist of St William church, who was also a passionate admirer of J. S. Bach's music. Schweitzer served his one-year compulsory military service in 1894. Schweitzer saw many operas of Richard Wagner in Strasbourg (under Otto Lohse) and in 1896 he managed to afford a visit to the Bayreuth Festival to see Wagner's and Parsifal, both of which impressed him. In 1898, he returned to Paris to write a PhD dissertation on The Religious Philosophy of Kant at the Sorbonne, and to study in earnest with Widor. Here he often met with the elderly Aristide Cavaillé-Coll. He also studied piano at that time with Marie Jaëll.George N. Marshall, David Poling, Schweitzer, JHU Press, 2000, In 1899, Schweitzer spent the summer semester at the University of Berlin and eventually obtained his theology degree at the University of Strasbourg. He published his PhD thesis at the University of Tübingen in 1899.
In 1905, Schweitzer began his study of medicine at the University of Strasbourg, culminating in the degree of M.D. in 1913. |
Albert Schweitzer | Music | Music
Schweitzer rapidly gained prominence as a musical scholar and organist, dedicated also to the rescue, restoration and study of historic pipe organs. With theological insight, he interpreted the use of pictorial and symbolical representation in J. S. Bach's religious music. In 1899, he astonished Widor by explaining figures and motifs in Bach's Chorale Preludes as painter-like tonal and rhythmic imagery illustrating themes from the words of the hymns on which they were based. They were works of devotional contemplation in which the musical design corresponded to literary ideas, conceived visually. Widor had not grown up with knowledge of the old Lutheran hymns.
The exposition of these ideas, encouraged by Widor and Munch, became Schweitzer's last task, and appeared in the masterly study J. S. Bach: Le Musicien-Poète, written in French and published in 1905. There was great demand for a German edition, but, instead of translating it, he decided to rewrite it.Schweitzer, My Life and Thought, pp. 80–81; cf. The result was two volumes (J. S. Bach), which were published in 1908 and translated into English by Ernest Newman in 1911. Ernst Cassirer, a contemporaneous German philosopher, called it "one of the best interpretations" of Bach. During its preparation Schweitzer became a friend of Cosima Wagner, then resident in Strasbourg, with whom he had many theological and musical conversations, exploring his view of Bach's descriptive music, and playing the major Chorale Preludes for her at the Temple Neuf.Schweitzer, in Schweitzer's interpretative approach greatly influenced the modern understanding of Bach's music. He became a welcome guest at the Wagners' home, Wahnfried., quoting from and translating A. Schweitzer, 'Mes Souvenirs sur Cosima Wagner', in L'Alsace Française, XXXV no. 7 (12 February 1933), p. 124ff. He also corresponded with composer Clara Faisst, who became a good friend.
thumb|left|The Choir Organ at St Thomas' Church, Strasbourg, designed in 1905 on principles defined by Schweitzer
His pamphlet "The Art of Organ Building and Organ Playing in Germany and France" (1906,Reproduced in : cf. also republished with an appendix on the state of the organ-building industry in 1927) effectively launched the 20th-century Orgelbewegung, which turned away from romantic extremes and rediscovered baroque principles—although this sweeping reform movement in organ building eventually went further than Schweitzer had intended. In 1909, he addressed the Third Congress of the International Society of Music at Vienna on the subject. Having circulated a questionnaire among players and organ-builders in several European countries, he produced a very considered report.: Text of 1909 Questionnaire and Report, pp. 235–269. This provided the basis for the International Regulations for Organ Building. He envisaged instruments in which the French late-romantic full-organ sound should work integrally with the English and German romantic reed pipes, and with the classical Alsace Silbermann organ resources and baroque flue pipes, all in registers regulated (by stops) to access distinct voices in fugue or counterpoint capable of combination without loss of distinctness: different voices singing the same music together.
Schweitzer also studied piano under Isidor Philipp, head of the piano department at the Paris Conservatory.
In 1905, Widor and Schweitzer were among the six musicians who founded the Paris Bach Society, a choir dedicated to performing J. S. Bach's music, for whose concerts Schweitzer took the organ part regularly until 1913. He was also appointed organist for the Bach Concerts of the Orféo Català at Barcelona, Spain, and often travelled there for that purpose. He and Widor collaborated on a new edition of Bach's organ works, with detailed analysis of each work in three languages (English, French, German). Schweitzer, who insisted that the score should show Bach's notation with no additional markings, wrote the commentaries for the Preludes and Fugues, and Widor those for the Sonatas and Concertos: six volumes were published in 1912–14. Three more, to contain the Chorale Preludes with Schweitzer's analyses, were to be worked on in Africa, but these were never completed, perhaps because for him they were inseparable from his evolving theological thought.
On departure for Lambaréné in 1913, he was presented with a pedal piano, a piano with pedal attachments to operate like an organ pedal-keyboard.Given by the Paris Bach Society, ; but , says it was given by the Paris Missionary Society. Built especially for the tropics, it was delivered by river in a huge dug-out canoe to Lambaréné, packed in a zinc-lined case. At first, he regarded his new life as a renunciation of his art, and fell out of practice, but after some time he resolved to study and learn by heart the works of Bach, Mendelssohn, Widor, César Franck, and Max Reger systematically. It became his custom to play during the lunch hour and on Sunday afternoons. Schweitzer's pedal piano was still in use at Lambaréné in 1946. plate facing p. 177. According to a visitor, Dr. Gaine Cannon, of Balsam Grove, N.C., the old, dilapidated piano-organ was still being played by Dr. Schweitzer in 1962, and stories told that "his fingers were still lively" on the old instrument at 88 years of age.
Sir Donald Tovey dedicated his conjectural completion of Bach's The Art of Fugue to Schweitzer.
Schweitzer's recordings of organ music, and his innovative recording technique, are described below.
One of his pupils was conductor and composer Hans Münch. |
Albert Schweitzer | Theology | Theology
thumb|right|Saint-Nicolas, Strasbourg
In 1899, Schweitzer became a deacon at the church of Saint Nicholas in Strasbourg. In 1900, with the completion of his licentiate in theology, he was ordained as curate, and that year he witnessed the Oberammergau Passion Play. In the following year, he became provisional Principal of the Theological College of Saint Thomas, from which he had just graduated, and in 1903 his appointment was made permanent.
In 1906, he published Geschichte der Leben-Jesu-Forschung [History of Life-of-Jesus research]. This book, which established his reputation, was first published in English in 1910 as The Quest of the Historical Jesus. Under this title the book became famous in the English-speaking world. A second German edition was published in 1913, containing theologically significant revisions and expansions: this revised edition did not appear in English until 2001. In 1931, he published Mystik des Apostels Paulus (The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle); a second edition was published in 1953. |
Albert Schweitzer | ''The Quest of the Historical Jesus'' (1906) | The Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906)
In The Quest, Schweitzer criticised the liberal view put forward by liberal and romantic scholars during the first quest for the historical Jesus. Schweitzer maintained that the life of Jesus must be interpreted in the light of Jesus' own convictions, which reflected late Jewish eschatology and apocalypticism. Schweitzer writes:
Instead of these liberal and romantic views, Schweitzer wrote that Jesus and his followers expected the imminent end of the world.
Schweitzer cross-referenced the many New Testament verses declaring imminent fulfilment of the promise of the World's ending within the lifetime of Jesus's original followers. He wrote that in his view, in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus speaks of a "tribulation", with his "coming in the clouds with great power and glory." In Mark 13:30
Jesus says "This generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place." In Matthew 16:28 Jesus says “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” Obviously, Jesus and his followers truly believed that he would return within the disciples lifetime and specifically states the timeframe that it will happen, but it has not! "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" (Matthew, 24:34) or, "have taken place" (Luke 21:32). Similarly, in 1st Peter 1:20, "Christ, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you", as well as "But the end of all things is at hand" (1 Peter 4:7) and "Surely, I come quickly." (Revelation 22:20). Either Jesus, his disciples and/or the noted chapter authors were and remain seriously mistaken; the promised second return timeframe has long ago passed.
thumb|upright|The cover of Albert Schweitzer's The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle
Schweitzer concluded his treatment of Jesus with what has been called the most famous words of twentieth-century theology: |
Albert Schweitzer | ''The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle'' (1931) | The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (1931)
In The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, Schweitzer first distinguishes between two categories of mysticism: primitive and developed. Primitive mysticism "has not yet risen to a conception of the universal, and is still confined to naive views of earthly and super-earthly, temporal and eternal". Additionally, he argues that this view of a "union with the divinity, brought about by efficacious ceremonies, is found even in quite primitive religions".
On the other hand, a more developed form of mysticism can be found in the Greek mystery-cults that were popular in first-century A.D. society. These included the cults of Attis, Osiris, and Mithras. A developed form of mysticism is attained when the "conception of the universal is reached and a man reflects upon his relation to the totality of being and to Being in itself". Schweitzer claims that this form of mysticism is more intellectual and can be found "among the Brahmans and in the Buddha, in Platonism, in Stoicism, in Spinoza, Schopenhauer, and Hegel".
Next, Schweitzer poses the question: "Of what precise kind then is the mysticism of Paul?" He locates Paul between the two extremes of primitive mysticism and developed mysticism. Paul stands high above primitive mysticism, due to his intellectual writings, but never speaks of being one with God or being in God. Instead, he conceives of sonship to God as "mediated and effected by means of the mystical union with Christ". He summarizes Pauline mysticism as "being in Christ" rather than "being in God".
Paul's imminent eschatology (from his background in Jewish eschatology) causes him to believe that the kingdom of God has not yet come and that Christians are now living in the time of Christ. Christ-mysticism holds the field until God-mysticism becomes possible, which is in the near future. Therefore, Schweitzer argues that Paul is the only theologian who does not claim that Christians can have an experience of "being-in-God". Rather, Paul uses the phrase "being-in-Christ" to illustrate how Jesus is a mediator between the Christian community and God. Additionally, Schweitzer explains how the experience of "being-in-Christ" is not a "static partaking in the spiritual being of Christ, but as the real co-experiencing of His dying and rising again". The "realistic" partaking in the mystery of Jesus is only possible within the solidarity of the Christian community.
One of Schweitzer's major arguments in The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle is that Paul's mysticism, marked by his phrase "being in Christ", gives the clue to the whole of Pauline theology. Rather than reading justification by faith as the main topic of Pauline thought, which has been the most popular argument set forward by Martin Luther, Schweitzer argues that Paul's emphasis was on the mystical union with God by "being in Christ". Jaroslav Pelikan, in his foreword to The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, points out that: |
Albert Schweitzer | Paul's "realism" versus Hellenistic "symbolism" | Paul's "realism" versus Hellenistic "symbolism"
Schweitzer contrasts Paul's "realistic" dying and rising with Christ to the "symbolism" of Hellenism. Although Paul is widely influenced by Hellenistic thought, he is not controlled by it. Schweitzer explains that Paul focused on the idea of fellowship with the divine being through the "realistic" dying and rising with Christ rather than the "symbolic" Hellenistic act of becoming like Christ through deification. After baptism, Christians are continually renewed throughout their lifetimes due to participation in the dying and rising with Christ (most notably through the Sacraments). On the other hand, the Hellenist "lives on the store of experience which he acquired in the initiation" and is not continually affected by a shared communal experience.
Another major difference between Paul's "realism" and Hellenistic "symbolism" is the exclusive nature of the former and the inclusive nature of the latter. Schweitzer unabashedly emphasizes the fact that "Paul's thought follows predestinarian lines". He explains, "only the man who is elected thereto can enter into relation with God". Although every human being is invited to become a Christian, only those who have undergone the initiation into the Christian community through baptism can share in the "realistic" dying and rising with Christ. |
Albert Schweitzer | Medicine | Medicine
At the age of 30, in 1905, Schweitzer answered the call of The Society of the Evangelist Missions of Paris, which was looking for a physician. The committee of this missionary society was not ready to accept his offer, considering his Lutheran theology to be "incorrect". He could easily have obtained a place in a German evangelical mission, but wished to follow the original call despite the doctrinal difficulties. Amid a hail of protests from his friends, family and colleagues, he resigned from his post and re-entered the university as a student in a three-year course towards the degree of Doctorate in Medicine, a subject in which he had little knowledge or previous aptitude. He planned to spread the Gospel by the example of his Christian labour of healing, rather than through the verbal process of preaching, and believed that this service should be acceptable within any branch of Christian teaching.
Even in his study of medicine, and through his clinical course, Schweitzer pursued the ideal of the philosopher-scientist. By extreme application and hard work, he completed his studies successfully at the end of 1911. His medical degree dissertation was another work on the historical Jesus, Die psychiatrische Beurteilung Jesu. Darstellung und Kritik [The psychiatric evaluation of Jesus. Description and criticism] (published in English in 1948 as The Psychiatric Study of Jesus. Exposition and Criticism). He defended Jesus' mental health in it. In June 1912, he married Helene Bresslau, municipal inspector for orphans and daughter of the Jewish pan-Germanist historian Harry Bresslau.Marxsen, Patti M. Helene Schweitzer: A Life of Her Own. First edition. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 2015.
In 1912, now armed with a medical degree, Schweitzer made a definite proposal to go as a physician to work at his own expense in the Paris Missionary Society's mission at Lambaréné on the Ogooué river, in what is now Gabon, in Africa (then a French colony). He refused to attend a committee to inquire into his doctrine, but met each committee member personally and was at last accepted. Through concerts and other fund-raising, he was ready to equip a small hospital.From the Primeval Forest, Chapter 1. In early 1913, he and his wife set off to establish a hospital (the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer) near an existing mission post. The site was nearly 200 miles (14 days by raftFrom the Primeval Forest, Chapter 6.) upstream from the mouth of the Ogooué at Port Gentil (Cape Lopez) (and so accessible to external communications), but downstream of most tributaries, so that internal communications within Gabon converged towards Lambaréné.
thumb|right|The catchment area of the Ogooué River occupies most of Gabon. Lambaréné is marked centre left.
In the first nine months, he and his wife had about 2,000 patients to examine, some travelling many days and hundreds of kilometres to reach him. In addition to injuries, he was often treating severe sandflea and crawcraw infections, yaws, tropical eating sores, heart disease, tropical dysentery, tropical malaria, sleeping sickness, leprosy, fevers, strangulated hernias, necrosis, abdominal tumours and chronic constipation and nicotine poisoning, while also attempting to deal with deliberate poisonings, fetishism and fear of cannibalism among the Mbahouin.
Schweitzer's wife, Helene Schweitzer, served as an anaesthetist for surgical operations. After briefly occupying a shed formerly used as a chicken hut, in late 1913 they built their first hospital of corrugated iron, with a consulting room and operating theatre and with a dispensary and sterilising room. The waiting room and dormitory were built, like native huts, of unhewn logs along a path leading to the boat landing. The Schweitzers had their own bungalow and employed as their assistant Joseph, a French-speaking Mpongwe, who first came to Lambaréné as a patient.From the Primeval Forest, Chapters 3–5.
After World War I broke out in July 1914, Schweitzer and his wife, German citizens in a French colony when the countries were at war, were put under supervision by the French military at Lambaréné, where Schweitzer continued his work.Albert Schweitzer 1875–1965 . schweitzer.org (in German) In 1917, exhausted by over four years' work and by tropical anaemia, they were taken to Bordeaux and interned first in Garaison and then from March 1918 in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. In July 1918, after being transferred to his home in Alsace, he was a free man again. At this time Schweitzer, born a German citizen, had his parents' former (pre-1871) French citizenship reinstated and became a French citizen. Then, working as a medical assistant and assistant-pastor in Strasbourg, he advanced his project on the philosophy of civilization, which had occupied his mind since 1900. By 1920, his health recovering, he was giving organ recitals and doing other fund-raising work to repay borrowings and raise funds for returning to Gabon. In 1922, he delivered the Dale Memorial Lectures in the University of Oxford, and from these in the following year appeared Volumes I and II of his great work, The Decay and Restoration of Civilization and Civilization and Ethics. The two remaining volumes, on The World-View of Reverence for Life and a fourth on the Civilized State, were never completed.
In 1924, Schweitzer returned to Africa without his wife, but with an Oxford undergraduate, Noel Gillespie, as his assistant. Everything was heavily decayed, and building and doctoring progressed together for months. He now had salvarsan for treating syphilitic ulcers and framboesia. Additional medical staff, nurse (Miss) Kottmann and Dr. Victor Nessmann,Nessmann worked with the French Resistance during the Second World War, was captured and executed by the Gestapo in Limoges in 1944. cf Guy Penaud, Dictionnaire Biographique de Périgord, p. 713. joined him in 1924, and Dr. Mark Lauterberg in 1925; the growing hospital was staffed by native orderlies. Later Dr. Trensz replaced Nessmann, and Martha Lauterberg and Hans Muggenstorm joined them. Joseph also returned. In 1925–6, new hospital buildings were constructed, and also a ward for white patients, so that the site became like a village. The onset of famine and a dysentery epidemic created fresh problems. Much of the building work was carried out with the help of local people and patients. Drug advances for sleeping sickness included Germanin and . Trensz conducted experiments showing that the non-amoebic strain of dysentery was caused by a paracholera vibrion (facultative anaerobic bacteria). With the new hospital built and the medical team established, Schweitzer returned to Europe in 1927, this time leaving a functioning hospital at work.
He was there again from 1929 to 1932. Gradually his opinions and concepts became acknowledged, not only in Europe, but worldwide. There was a further period of work in 1935. In January 1937, he returned again to Lambaréné and continued working there throughout World War II. |
Albert Schweitzer | Hospital conditions | Hospital conditions
The journalist James Cameron visited Lambaréné in 1953 (when Schweitzer was 78) and found significant flaws in the practices and attitudes of Schweitzer and his staff. The hospital suffered from squalor and was without modern amenities, and Schweitzer had little contact with the local people. Cameron did not make public what he had seen at the time: according to a BBC dramatisation, he made the unusual journalistic decision to withhold the story, and resisted the expressed wish of his employers to publish an exposé.On Monday 7 April 2008 ("The Walrus and the Terrier" – programme outline) BBC Radio 4 broadcast an Afternoon Play "The Walrus and the Terrier" by Christopher Ralling concerning Cameron's visit.
The poor conditions of the hospital in Lambaréné were also famously criticized by Nigerian professor and novelist Chinua Achebe in his essay on Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness: "In a comment which has often been quoted Schweitzer says: 'The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother.' And so he proceeded to build a hospital appropriate to the needs of junior brothers with standards of hygiene reminiscent of medical practice in the days before the germ theory of disease came into being."
Schweitzer's biographer Edgar Berman, who was a volunteer surgeon at Lambarene for several months and had extended conversations with Schweitzer, has a different perspective. Schweitzer felt that patients were better off, and the hospital functioned better given the severe lack of funding, if patients' families lived on the hospital grounds during treatment. Surgical survival rates were, Berman asserts, as high as in many fully-equipped western hospitals. The volume of patients needing care, the difficulty of obtaining materials and supplies, and the scarcity of trained medical staff willing to work long hours in the remote setting for almost no pay all argued for a spartan setting with an emphasis on high medical standards nevertheless. |
Albert Schweitzer | Schweitzer's views | Schweitzer's views |
Albert Schweitzer | Colonialism | Colonialism
Schweitzer considered his work as a medical missionary in Africa to be his response to Jesus' call to become "fishers of men".
Schweitzer was one of colonialism's harshest critics. In a sermon that he preached on 6 January 1905, before he had told anyone of his plans to dedicate the rest of his life to work as a physician in Africa, he said: |
Albert Schweitzer | Paternalism | Paternalism
Schweitzer was nonetheless still sometimes accused of being paternalistic in his attitude towards Africans. For instance, he thought that Gabonese independence came too early, without adequate education or accommodation to local circumstances. Edgar Berman quotes Schweitzer as having said in 1960, "No society can go from the primeval directly to an industrial state without losing the leavening that time and an agricultural period allow.". Schweitzer believed dignity and respect must be extended to blacks, while also sometimes characterizing them as children. He summarized his views on European-African relations by saying "With regard to the negroes, then, I have coined the formula: 'I am your brother, it is true, but your elder brother.'" Chinua Achebe has criticized him for this characterization, though Achebe acknowledges that Schweitzer's use of the word "brother" at all was, for a European of the early 20th century, an unusual expression of human solidarity between Europeans and Africans.Chinua Achebe. "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" – the Massachusetts Review. 1977. (c/o North Carolina State University) Schweitzer eventually emended and complicated this notion with his later statement that "The time for speaking of older and younger brothers has passed".Quoted by
American journalist John Gunther visited Lambaréné in the 1950s and reported Schweitzer's patronizing attitude towards Africans. He also noted the lack of Africans trained to be skilled workers. By comparison, his English contemporary Albert Ruskin Cook in Uganda had been training nurses and midwives since the 1910s, and had published a manual of midwifery in the local language of Luganda. After three decades in Africa, Schweitzer still depended on Europe for nurses. |
Albert Schweitzer | Reverence for life | Reverence for life
thumb|upright|Schweitzer in 1955
The keynote of Schweitzer's personal philosophy (which he considered to be his greatest contribution to mankind) was the idea of Reverence for Life (). He thought that Western civilization was decaying because it had abandoned affirmation of life as its ethical foundation.
In the Preface to Civilization and Ethics (1923) he argued that Western philosophy from Descartes to Kant had set out to explain the objective world expecting that humanity would be found to have a special meaning within it. But no such meaning was found, and the rational, life-affirming optimism of the Age of Enlightenment began to evaporate. A rift opened between this world-view, as material knowledge, and the life-view, understood as Will, expressed in the pessimist philosophies from Schopenhauer onward. Scientific materialism (advanced by Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin) portrayed an objective world process devoid of ethics, entirely an expression of the will-to-live.
Schweitzer wrote, "True philosophy must start from the most immediate and comprehensive fact of consciousness, and this may be formulated as follows: 'I am life which wills to live, and I exist in the midst of life which wills to live.Civilization and Ethics, Chapter 21, p. 253: reprinted as A. Schweitzer, The Philosophy of Civilization (Prometheus Books, Buffalo 1987), Chapter 26. In nature one form of life must always prey upon another. However, human consciousness holds an awareness of, and sympathy for, the will of other beings to live. An ethical human strives to escape from this contradiction so far as possible.
Though we cannot perfect the endeavour we should strive for it: the will-to-live constantly renews itself, for it is both an evolutionary necessity and a spiritual phenomenon. Life and love are rooted in this same principle, in a personal spiritual relationship to the universe. Ethics themselves proceed from the need to respect the wish of other beings to exist as one does towards oneself. Even so, Schweitzer found many instances in world religions and philosophies in which the principle was denied, not least in the European Middle Ages, and in the Indian Brahminic philosophy.
For Schweitzer, mankind had to accept that objective reality is ethically neutral. It could then affirm a new Enlightenment through spiritual rationalism, by giving priority to volition or ethical will as the primary meaning of life. Mankind had to choose to create the moral structures of civilization: the worldview must derive from the life-view, not vice versa. Respect for life, overcoming coarser impulses and hollow doctrines, leads the individual to live in the service of other people and of every living creature. In contemplation of the will-to-life, respect for the life of others becomes the highest principle and the defining purpose of humanity.Civilization and Ethics, Preface and Chapter II, "The Problem of the Optimistic World-View".
Such was the theory which Schweitzer sought to put into practice in his own life. According to some authors, Schweitzer's thought, and specifically his development of reverence for life, was influenced by Indian religious thought and in particular the Jain principle of ahimsa, or non-violence.Ara Paul Barsam (2002) "Albert Schweitzer, Jainism and reverence for life", in: Reverence for life: the ethics of Albert Schweitzer for the twenty-first century, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, pp. 207–208 Albert Schweitzer noted the contribution of Indian influence in his book Indian Thought and Its Development:Albert Schweitzer and Charles Rhind Joy (1947) Albert Schweitzer: an anthology Beacon Press
Further on ahimsa and the reverence for life in the same book, he elaborates on the ancient Indian didactic work of the Tirukkural, which he observed that, like the Buddha and the Bhagavad Gita, "stands for the commandment not to kill and not to damage". Translating several couplets from the work, he remarked that the Kural insists on the idea that "good must be done for its own sake" and said, "There hardly exists in the literature of the world a collection of maxims in which we find so much lofty wisdom."
Dr. Schweitzer had a great love of cats. "There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats" he stated. |
Albert Schweitzer | Later life | Later life
thumb|right|The Schweitzer house and Museum at Königsfeld in the Black Forest
After the birth of their daughter (Rhena Schweitzer Miller), Albert's wife, Helene Schweitzer was no longer able to live in Lambaréné due to her health. In 1923, the family moved to Königsfeld im Schwarzwald, Baden-Württemberg, where he was building a house for the family. This house is now maintained as a Schweitzer museum.Schweitzer museum
thumb|left|Albert Schweitzer's house at Gunsbach, now a museum and archive
thumb|left|Albert Schweitzer Memorial and Museum in Weimar (1984)
From 1939 to 1948, he stayed in Lambaréné, unable to return to Europe because of the war. Three years after the end of World War II, in 1948, he returned for the first time to Europe and kept travelling back and forth (and once to the US) as long as he was able. During his return visits to his home village of Gunsbach, Schweitzer continued to use the family house, which after his death became an archive and museum of his life and work. His life was portrayed in the 1952 movie Il est minuit, Docteur Schweitzer, starring Pierre Fresnay as Albert Schweitzer and Jeanne Moreau as his nurse Marie. Schweitzer inspired actor Hugh O'Brian when O'Brian visited in Africa. O'Brian returned to the United States and founded the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership Foundation (HOBY).
thumb|upright|Albert Schweitzer Monument in Wagga Wagga, Australia
Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize of 1952, accepting the prize with the speech, "The Problem of Peace". With the $33,000 prize money, he started the leprosarium at Lambaréné. From 1952 until his death he worked against nuclear tests and nuclear weapons with Albert Einstein, Otto Hahn and Bertrand Russell. In 1957 and 1958, he broadcast four speeches over Radio Oslo, which were published in Peace or Atomic War. In 1957, Schweitzer was one of the founders of The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy. On 23 April 1957, Schweitzer made his "Declaration of Conscience" speech; it was broadcast to the world over Radio Oslo, pleading for the abolition of nuclear weapons. His speech ended, "The end of further experiments with atom bombs would be like the early sunrays of hope which suffering humanity is longing for."Declaration of Conscience speech – at Tennessee Players
Weeks prior to his death, an American film crew was allowed to visit Schweitzer and Drs. Muntz and Friedman, both Holocaust survivors, to record his work and daily life at the hospital. The film The Legacy of Albert Schweitzer, narrated by Henry Fonda, was produced by Warner Brothers and aired once. It resides in their vault today in deteriorating condition. Although several attempts have been made to restore and re-air the film, all access has been denied.
In 1955, he was made an honorary member of the Order of Merit (OM) by Queen Elizabeth II. He was also a chevalier of the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem.
thumb|left|Schweitzer's grave in Lambaréné, marked by a cross he made himself
Schweitzer died on 4 September 1965 at his beloved hospital in Lambaréné, now in independent Gabon. His grave, on the banks of the Ogooué River, is marked by a cross he made himself.
His cousin Anne-Marie Schweitzer Sartre was the mother of Jean-Paul Sartre. Her father, Charles Schweitzer, was the older brother of Albert Schweitzer's father, Louis Théophile.
Schweitzer is often cited in vegetarian literature as being an advocate of vegetarianism in his later years.Barkas, Janet L. (1975). The Vegetable Passion. Scribner. p. 131. Gregerson, Jon. (1994). Vegetarianism: A History. Jain Publishing Company. p. 104. Schweitzer was not a vegetarian in his earlier life. For example, in 1950, biographer Magnus C. Ratter commented that Schweitzer never "commit[ted] himself to the anti-vivisection, vegetarian, or pacifist positions, though his thought leads in this direction".Ratter, Magnus C. (1950). Albert Schweitzer: Life and Message. Beacon Press. p. 179 Biographer James Bentley has written that Schweitzer became a vegetarian after his wife's death in 1957 and he was "living almost entirely on lentil soup".Brentley, James. (1992). Albert Schweitzer: The Enigma. HarperCollins. p. 200. In contrast to this, historian David N. Stamos has written that Schweitzer was not a vegetarian in his personal life nor imposed it on his missionary hospital but he did help animals and was opposed to hunting.Stamos, David N. (2008). Evolution and the Big Questions: Sex, Race, Religion, and Other Matters. Wiley. p. 175. Stamos noted that Schweitzer held the view that evolution ingrained humans with an instinct for meat so it was useless in trying to deny it.
The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship was founded in 1940 by Schweitzer to unite US supporters in filling the gap in support for his Hospital when his European supply lines were cut off by war, and continues to support the Lambaréné Hospital today. Schweitzer considered his ethic of Reverence for Life, not his hospital, his most important legacy, saying that his Lambaréné Hospital was just "my own improvisation on the theme of Reverence for Life. Everyone can have their own Lambaréné". Today ASF helps large numbers of young Americans in health-related professional fields find or create "their own Lambaréné" in the US or internationally. ASF selects and supports nearly 250 new US and Africa Schweitzer Fellows each year from over 100 of the leading US schools of medicine, nursing, public health, and every other field with some relation to health (including music, law, and divinity). The peer-supporting lifelong network of "Schweitzer Fellows for Life" numbered over 2,000 members in 2008, and is growing by nearly 1,000 every four years. Nearly 150 of these Schweitzer Fellows have served at the Hospital in Lambaréné, for three-month periods during their last year of medical school.
Schweitzer eponyms
Schweitzer's writings and life are often quoted,See quotations.
Byers, J.Q., 1996. Brothers in Spirit: the Correspondence of Albert Schweitzer and William Larimer Mellon, Jr. (New York, Syracuse University Press). resulting in a number of eponyms, such as the 'Schweitzer technique' (discussed below), and the 'Schweitzer effect'. The 'Schweitzer effect' refers to his statement that 'Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it is the only thing'. This eponym is used in medical education to highlight the relationship between lived experience/example and medical students' opinions on professional behaviours. |
Albert Schweitzer | International Albert Schweitzer Prize | International Albert Schweitzer Prize
The prize was first awarded on 29 May 2011 to Eugen Drewermann and the physician couple Rolf and Raphaela Maibach in Königsfeld im Schwarzwald, where Schweitzer's former residence now houses the Albert Schweitzer Museum. |
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