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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:
Matt Zwolinski has argued that we can call Rothbard-influenced scholars “propertarians” because the concept that really matters in their work is property. |
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, Fraud and breach of contract, 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 Greek poets
Category:5th-century BC Athenians
Category:5th-century BC Greek poets
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. |
Albert Schweitzer | Sound recordings | Sound recordings
Recordings of Schweitzer playing the music of Bach are available on CD. During 1934 and 1935 he resided in Britain, delivering the Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh University, and those on Religion in Modern Civilization at Oxford and London. He had originally conducted trials for recordings for His Master's Voice on the organ of the old Queen's Hall in London. These records did not satisfy him, the instrument being too harsh. In mid-December 1935 he began to record for Columbia Records on the organ of All Hallows, Barking-by-the-Tower, London.This 1909 Harrison and Harrison organ was destroyed in the war (cf W. Kent, The Lost Treasures of London (Phoenix House 1947), 94–95) and rebuilt in 1957, see . Then at his suggestion the sessions were transferred to the church of Ste Aurélie in Strasbourg, on a mid-18th-century organ by Johann Andreas Silbermann (brother of Gottfried), an organ-builder greatly revered by Bach, which had been restored by the Lorraine organ-builder Frédéric Härpfer shortly before the First World War. These recordings were made in the course of a fortnight in October 1936. |
Albert Schweitzer | Schweitzer Technique | Schweitzer Technique
Schweitzer developed a technique for recording the performances of Bach's music. Known as the "Schweitzer Technique", it is a slight improvement on what is commonly known as mid-side. The mid-side sees a figure-8 microphone pointed off-axis, perpendicular to the sound source. Then a single cardioid microphone is placed on axis, bisecting the figure-8 pattern. The signal from the figure-8 is muted, panned hard left and right, one of the signals being flipped out of polarity. In the Schweitzer method, the figure-8 is replaced by two small diaphragm condenser microphones pointed directly away from each other. The information that each capsule collects is unique, unlike the identical out-of-polarity information generated from the figure-8 in a regular mid-side. The on-axis microphone is often a large diaphragm condenser. The technique has since been used to record many modern instruments. |
Albert Schweitzer | Columbia recordings | Columbia recordings
Altogether his early Columbia discs included 25 records of Bach and eight of César Franck. The Bach titles were mainly distributed as follows:
Queen's Hall: Organ Prelude and Fugue in E minor (Edition Peters Vol 3, 10); (BWV 727); (Vol 7, 58 (Leipzig 18)).(78 rpm HMV C 1532 and C 1543), cf. R.D. Darrell, The Gramophone Shop Encyclopedia of Recorded Music (New York 1936).
All Hallows: Prelude and Fugue in C major; Fantasia and Fugue in G minor (the Great); Prelude and Fugue in G major; Prelude and Fugue in F minor; Little Fugue in G minor; Toccata and Fugue in D minor.(78 rpm Columbia ROX 146–152), cf. Darrell 1936.
Ste Aurélie: Prelude and Fugue in C minor; Prelude and Fugue in E minor; Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Chorale Preludes: (Peters Vol 7, 49 (Leipzig 4)); (Vol 5, 45); (Vol 7, 48 (Leipzig 6)); (Vol 5, 8); (Vol 5, 9); (Vol 6, 12b); (Vol 5, 6); (Vol 5, app 5); (Vol 5, 4); (Var 11, Vol 5, app. 3); (Vol 6, 31 (Leipzig 15)); Christ lag in Todesbanden (Vol 5, 5); Erschienen ist der herrlich Tag (Vol 5, 15).. The 78s were issued in albums, with a specially designed record label (Columbia ROX 8020–8023, 8032–8035, etc.). Ste Aurélie recordings appeared also on LP as Columbia 33CX1249E.M.I., A Complete List of EMI, Columbia, Parlophone and MGM Long Playing Records issued up to and including June 1955 (London 1955) for this and discographical details following.
thumb|upright|Gunsbach parish church, where the later recordings were made
Later recordings were made at Parish church, Günsbach: These recordings were made by C. Robert Fine during the time Dr. Schweitzer was being filmed in Günsbach for the documentary "Albert Schweitzer". Fine originally self-released the recordings but later licensed the masters to Columbia.
Fugue in A minor (Peters, Vol 2, 8); Fantasia and Fugue in G minor (Great) (Vol 2, 4); Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C major (Vol 3, 8).Columbia LP 33CX1074
Prelude in C major (Vol 4, 1); Prelude in D major (Vol 4, 3); Canzona in D minor (Vol 4, 10) (with Mendelssohn, Sonata in D minor op 65.6).Columbia LP 33CX1084
Chorale-Preludes: (1st and 2nd versions, Peters Vol 5, 45); (vol 7, 58 (Leipzig 18)); (Vol 5, 30); (Vol 5, 17); (Vol 5, 27); (vol 7, 45 (BWV 659a)).Columbia LP 33CX1081
The above were released in the United States as Columbia Masterworks boxed set SL-175. |
Albert Schweitzer | Philips recordings | Philips recordings
J. S. Bach: Prelude and Fugue in A major, BWV 536; Prelude and Fugue in F minor, BWV 534; Prelude and Fugue in B minor, BWV 544; Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 538.E.M.G., The Art of Record Buying (London 1960), pp. 12–13. Philips ABL 3092, issued March 1956.
J. S. Bach: Passacaglia in C minor, BWV 582; Prelude and Fugue in E minor, BWV 533; Prelude and Fugue in A minor, BWV 543; Prelude and Fugue in G major, BWV 541; Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565.E.M.G., op. cit., Philips ABL 3134, issued September 1956. Other selections are on Philips GBL 5509.
César Franck: Organ Chorales, no. 1 in E major; no. 2 in B minor; no. 3 in A minor.Philips ABL 3221. |
Albert Schweitzer | Portrayals and dedication | Portrayals and dedication
Dramatisations of Schweitzer's life include:
The 1952 biographical film Il est minuit, Docteur Schweitzer, with Pierre Fresnay as Schweitzer.
The 1957 biographical film Albert Schweitzer in which Schweitzer appears as himself and Phillip Eckert portrays him.
The 1962 TV remake of Il est minuit, Docteur Schweitzer, with Jean-Pierre Marielle as Schweitzer.
The 1990 biographical film The Light in the Jungle, with Malcolm McDowell as Schweitzer.
Two 1992 episodes of the television series The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles ("German East Africa, December 1916" and "Congo, January 1917"), with Friedrich von Thun as Schweitzer. The episodes were later combined to create Oganga, Giver and Taker of Life.
The 1995 biographical film Le Grand blanc de Lambaréné, with André Wilms as Schweitzer.
The 2006 TV biographical film Albert Schweitzer: Called to Africa, with Jeff McCarthy as Schweitzer.
The 2009 biographical film , with Jeroen Krabbé as Schweitzer.
The Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis dedicated his novel The Poor Man of Assisi to him. |
Albert Schweitzer | Bibliography | Bibliography
. English translation by Ernest Newman, with author's alterations and additions, London 1911. Fulltext scans (English): Vol. 1, Vol. 2.
(first printed in Musik, vols 13 and 14 (5th year)).
(translation of Zwischen Wasser und Urwald, 1921)
The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization and Civilization and Ethics (The Philosophy of Civilization, Vols I & II of the projected but not completed four-volume work), A. & C. Black, London 1923. Material from these volumes is rearranged in a modern compilation, The Philosophy of Civilization (Prometheus Books, 1987),
translated as ;
Afrikanische Geschichten (Felix Meiner, Leipzig and Hamburg 1938): tr. Mrs C. E. B. Russell as From My African Notebook (George Allen and Unwin, London 1938/Henry Holt, New York 1939). Modern edition with foreword by L. Forrow (Syracuse University Press, 2002).
|
Albert Schweitzer | See also | See also
List of peace activists
Cultural depictions of Albert Schweitzer
Helene Bresslau Schweitzer |
Albert Schweitzer | Notes | Notes |
Albert Schweitzer | References | References |
Albert Schweitzer | Citations | Citations |
Albert Schweitzer | Sources | Sources
(translation of Zwischen Wasser und Urwald, 1921)
|
Albert Schweitzer | Further reading | Further reading
Bartolf, Christian; Gericke, Marion; Miething, Dominique (2020): Dr. Albert Schweitzer: "My Address to the People" – Commitment against Nuclear War. Berlin: Freie Universität Berlin, Gandhi-Informations-Zentrum. .
Online version is titled "The legacy of Albert Schweitzer : can we still admire him?".
———————
Notes |
Albert Schweitzer | External links | External links
Award-winning documentary about him
Albert Schweitzer info at Internet Archive
Albert Schweitzer Papers at Syracuse University
John D. Regester Collection on Albert Schweitzer
The Helfferich Collection, collected by Reginald H. Helfferich on Albert Schweitzer, is at the Harvard Divinity School Library at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
What Jesus was thinking An interpretation and restatement of Schweitzer's last book, The Kingdom of God and Primitive Christianity
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Albert Schweitzer | Table of Content | Short description, Early years, Music, Theology, ''The Quest of the Historical Jesus'' (1906), ''The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle'' (1931), Paul's "realism" versus Hellenistic "symbolism", Medicine, Hospital conditions, Schweitzer's views, Colonialism, Paternalism, Reverence for life, Later life, International Albert Schweitzer Prize, Sound recordings, Schweitzer Technique, Columbia recordings, Philips recordings, Portrayals and dedication, Bibliography, See also, Notes, References, Citations, Sources, Further reading, External links |
Austrian school of economics | short description | The Austrian school is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result primarily from the motivations and actions of individuals along with their self interest. Austrian-school theorists hold that economic theory should be exclusively derived from basic principles of human action.Ludwig von Mises. Human Action, p. 11, "Purposeful Action and Animal Reaction". Referenced 2011-11-23.
The Austrian school originated in 1871 in Vienna with the work of Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser, and others.Joseph A. Schumpeter, History of economic analysis, Oxford University Press 1996, . It was methodologically opposed to the Historical school, in a dispute known as Methodenstreit, or methodology quarrel. Current-day economists working in this tradition are located in many countries, but their work is still referred to as Austrian economics. Among the theoretical contributions of the early years of the Austrian school are the subjective theory of value, marginalism in price theory and the formulation of the economic calculation problem.
In the 1970s, the Austrian school attracted some renewed interest after Friedrich August von Hayek shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Gunnar Myrdal. |
Austrian school of economics | History | History
thumb|left|upright=0.7|Jean-Baptiste Say. The French liberal school of political economy is an intellectual ancestor of Austrian school of economics. |
Austrian school of economics | Etymology | Etymology
The Austrian school owes its name to members of the German historical school of economics, who argued against the Austrians during the late 19th-century Methodenstreit ("methodology struggle"), in which the Austrians defended the role of theory in economics as distinct from the study or compilation of historical circumstance. In 1883, Menger published Investigations into the Method of the Social Sciences with Special Reference to Economics, which attacked the methods of the historical school. Gustav von Schmoller, a leader of the historical school, responded with an unfavorable review, coining the term "Austrian school" in an attempt to characterize the school as outcast and provincial."Menger's approach – haughtily dismissed by the leader of the German Historical School, Gustav Schmoller, as merely 'Austrian', the origin of that label – led to a renaissance of theoretical economics in Europe and, later, in the United States." Peter G. Klein, in "Forward" to The label endured and was adopted by the adherents themselves. |
Austrian school of economics | School of Salamanca | School of Salamanca
The Salamanca School of economic thought, emerging in 16th-century Spain and the French School of economic thought, emerging in 19th-century France are often regarded as an early precursor to the Austrian School of Economics due to its development of the subjective theory of value and its advocacy for free-market principles. Scholars from the University of Salamanca, such as Francisco de Vitoria and Luis de Molina, argued that the value of goods was determined by individual preferences rather than intrinsic factors, foreshadowing later Austrian ideas. They also emphasized the importance of supply and demand in setting prices and maintaining sound money, laying the groundwork for modern economic concepts that the Austrian School would later refine and expand upon. |
Austrian school of economics | First wave | First wave
thumb|left|upright=0.7|Carl Menger
The school originated in Vienna in Austria-Hungary. Carl Menger's 1871 book Principles of Economics is generally considered the founding of the Austrian school. The book was one of the first modern treatises to advance the theory of marginal utility. The Austrian school was one of three founding currents of the marginalist revolution of the 1870s, with its major contribution being the introduction of the subjectivist approach in economics.
Despite such claim, John Stuart Mill had used value in use in this sense in 1848 in Principles of Political Economy,Ahiakpor, J. C. W. (2003): Classical Macroeconomics. Some Modern Variations and Distortions, Routledge, p. 21. where he wrote: "Value in use, or as Mr. De Quincey calls it, teleologic value, is the extreme limit of value in exchange. The exchange value of a thing may fall short, to any amount, of its value in use; but that it can ever exceed the value in use, implies a contradiction; it supposes that persons will give, to possess a thing, more than the utmost value which they themselves put upon it as a means of gratifying their inclinations."Mill, J. S. (1848). Principles of Political Economy.
While marginalism was generally influential, there was also a more specific school that began to coalesce around Menger's work, which came to be known as the "psychological school", "Vienna school", or "Austrian school". Menger's contributions to economic theory were closely followed by those of Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk and Friedrich von Wieser. These three economists became what is known as the "first wave" of the Austrian school. Böhm-Bawerk wrote extensive critiques of Karl Marx in the 1880s and 1890s and was part of the Austrians' participation in the late 19th-century , during which they attacked the Hegelian doctrines of the historical school. |
Austrian school of economics | Early 20th century | Early 20th century
Frank Albert Fetter (1863–1949) was a leader in the United States of Austrian thought. He obtained his PhD in 1894 from the University of Halle and then was made Professor of Political Economy and Finance at Cornell University in 1901. Several important Austrian economists trained at the University of Vienna in the 1920s and later participated in private seminars held by Ludwig von Mises. These included Gottfried Haberler, Friedrich Hayek, Fritz Machlup, Karl Menger (son of Carl Menger), Oskar Morgenstern, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, Abraham Wald, and Michael A. Heilperin, among others, as well as the sociologist Alfred Schütz. |
Austrian school of economics | Later 20th century | Later 20th century
thumb|left|upright=1.5|Campus of Mises Institute, in Auburn, Alabama
By the mid-1930s, most economists had embraced what they considered the important contributions of the early Austrians. Fritz Machlup quoted Hayek's statement that "the greatest success of a school is that it stops existing because its fundamental teachings have become parts of the general body of commonly accepted thought". Homage to Mises by Fritz Machlup 1981. Sometime during the middle of the 20th century, Austrian economics became disregarded or derided by mainstream economists because it rejected model building and mathematical and statistical methods in the study of economics. Mises' student Israel Kirzner recalled that in 1954, when Kirzner was pursuing his PhD, there was no separate Austrian school as such. When Kirzner was deciding which graduate school to attend, Mises had advised him to accept an offer of admission at Johns Hopkins because it was a prestigious university and Fritz Machlup taught there.
After the 1940s, Austrian economics can be divided into two schools of economic thought and the school split to some degree in the late 20th century. One camp of Austrians, exemplified by Mises, regards neoclassical methodology to be irredeemably flawed; the other camp, exemplified by Friedrich Hayek, accepts a large part of neoclassical methodology and is more accepting of government intervention in the economy. Henry Hazlitt wrote economics columns and editorials for a number of publications and wrote many books on the topic of Austrian economics from the 1930s to the 1980s. Hazlitt's thinking was influenced by Mises. His book Economics in One Lesson (1946) sold over a million copies and he is also known for The Failure of the "New Economics" (1959), a line-by-line critique of John Maynard Keynes's General Theory.
The reputation of the Austrian school rose in the late 20th century due in part to the work of Israel Kirzner and Ludwig Lachmann at New York University and to renewed public awareness of the work of Hayek after he won the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Hayek's work was influential in the revival of laissez-faire thought in the 20th century. |
Austrian school of economics | Split among contemporary Austrians | Split among contemporary Austrians
Economist Leland Yeager discussed the late 20th-century rift and referred to a discussion written by Murray Rothbard, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Joseph Salerno and others in which they attack and disparage Hayek. Yeager stated: "To try to drive a wedge between Mises and Hayek on [the role of knowledge in economic calculation], especially to the disparagement of Hayek, is unfair to these two great men, unfaithful to the history of economic thought". He went on to call the rift subversive to economic analysis and the historical understanding of the fall of Eastern European communism.
In a 1999 book published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Hoppe asserted that Rothbard was the leader of the "mainstream within Austrian Economics" and contrasted Rothbard with Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek, whom he identified as a British empiricist and an opponent of the thought of Mises and Rothbard. Hoppe acknowledged that Hayek was the most prominent Austrian economist within academia, but stated that Hayek was an opponent of the Austrian tradition which led from Carl Menger and Böhm-Bawerk through Mises to Rothbard. Austrian economist Walter Block says that the Austrian school can be distinguished from other schools of economic thought through two categories—economic theory and political theory. According to Block, while Hayek can be considered an Austrian economist, his views on political theory clash with the libertarian political theory which Block sees as an integral part of the Austrian school.
Both criticism from Hoppe and Block to Hayek apply to Carl Menger, the founder of the Austrian school. Hoppe emphasizes that Hayek, which for him is from the English empirical tradition, is an opponent of the supposed rationalist tradition of the Austrian school; Menger made strong critiques to rationalism in his works in similar vein as Hayek's. He emphasized the idea that there are several institutions which were not deliberately created, have a kind of "superior wisdom" and serve important functions to society. He also talked about Edmund Burke and the English tradition to sustain these positions.
When saying that the libertarian political theory is an integral part of the Austrian school and supposing Hayek is not a libertarian, Block excludes Menger from the Austrian school, too, since Menger seems to defend broader state activity than Hayek—for example, progressive taxation and extensive labour legislation.
Economists of the Hayekian view are affiliated with the Cato Institute, George Mason University (GMU) and New York University, among other institutions. They include Peter Boettke, Roger Garrison, Steven Horwitz, Peter Leeson and George Reisman. Economists of the Mises–Rothbard view include Walter Block, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Jesús Huerta de Soto and Robert P. Murphy, each of whom is associated with the Mises Institute and some of them also with academic institutions. According to Murphy, a "truce between (for lack of better terms) the GMU Austro-libertarians and the Auburn Austro-libertarians" was signed around 2011. |
Austrian school of economics | Influence | Influence
Many theories developed by "first wave" Austrian economists have long been absorbed into mainstream economics.It has also influenced related disciplines such as Law and Economics, see. K. Grechenig, M. Litschka, "Law by Human Intent or Evolution? Some Remarks on the Austrian School of Economics' Role in the Development of Law and Economics", European Journal of Law and Economics 2010, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 57–79. These include Carl Menger's theories on marginal utility, Friedrich von Wieser's theories on opportunity cost and Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk's theories on time preference, as well as Menger and Böhm-Bawerk's criticisms of Marxian economics.
Former American Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the founders of the Austrian school "reached far into the future from when most of them practiced and have had a profound and, in my judgment, probably an irreversible effect on how most mainstream economists think in this country".Greenspan, Alan. "Hearings before the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services". U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Financial Services. Washington, D.C.. 25 July 2000. In 1987, Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan told an interviewer: "I have no objections to being called an Austrian. Hayek and Mises might consider me an Austrian but, surely some of the others would not".
Currently, universities with a significant Austrian presence are George Mason University, New York University, Grove City College, Loyola University New Orleans, Monmouth College, and Auburn University in the United States; King Juan Carlos University in Spain; and Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala. Austrian economic ideas are also promoted by privately funded organizations such as the Mises Institute and the Cato Institute. |
Austrian school of economics | Theory | Theory
The Austrian school theorizes that the subjective choices of individuals including individual knowledge, time, expectation and other subjective factors cause all economic phenomena. Austrians seek to understand the economy by examining the social ramifications of individual choice, an approach called methodological individualism. It differs from other schools of economic thought, which have focused on aggregate variables, equilibrium analysis, and societal groups rather than individuals.
thumb|left|upright=0.7|Ludwig von Mises
In the 20th and 21st centuries, economists with a methodological lineage to the early Austrian school developed many diverse approaches and theoretical orientations. Ludwig von Mises organized his version of the subjectivist approach, which he called "praxeology", in a book published in English as Human Action in 1949.Ludwig von Mises, Nationalökonomie (Geneva, Switzerland: Union, 1940); Human Action (Auburn, Alabama: Ludwig von Mises Institute, [1949] 1998). In it, Mises stated that praxeology could be used to deduce a priori theoretical economic truths and that deductive economic thought experiments could yield conclusions which follow irrefutably from the underlying assumptions. He wrote that conclusions could not be inferred from empirical observation or statistical analysis and argued against the use of probabilities in economic models.
Since Mises' time, some Austrian thinkers have accepted his praxeological approach while others have adopted alternative methodologies. For example, Fritz Machlup, Friedrich Hayek and others did not take Mises' strong a priori approach to economics. Ludwig Lachmann, a radical subjectivist, also largely rejected Mises' formulation of Praxeology in favor of the verstehende Methode ("interpretive method") articulated by Max Weber.
In the 20th century, various Austrians incorporated models and mathematics into their analysis. Austrian economist Steven Horwitz argued in 2000 that Austrian methodology is consistent with macroeconomics and that Austrian macroeconomics can be expressed in terms of microeconomic foundations.Horwitz, Steven: Microfoundations and Macroeconomics: An Austrian Perspective (2000). Routledge. Austrian economist Roger Garrison writes that Austrian macroeconomic theory can be correctly expressed in terms of diagrammatic models. In 1944, Austrian economist Oskar Morgenstern presented a rigorous schematization of an ordinal utility function (the Von Neumann–Morgenstern utility theorem) in Theory of Games and Economic Behavior.Von Neumann, John and Morgenstern, Oskar (1944). Theory of Games and Economic Behavior. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. |
Austrian school of economics | Fundamental tenets | Fundamental tenets
In 1981, Fritz Machlup listed the typical views of Austrian economic thinking as such:
Methodological individualism: in the explanation of economic phenomena, we have to go back to the actions (or inaction) of individuals; groups or "collectives" cannot act except through the actions of individual members. Groups do not think; people think.
Methodological subjectivism: the judgments and choices made by individuals on the basis of whatever knowledge they have or believe to have, and whatever expectations they have regarding external developments and the consequences of their actions.
Tastes and preferences: subjective valuations of goods and services determine the demand for them so that their prices are influenced by consumers.
Opportunity costs: the costs of the alternative opportunities that must be foregone; as productive services are employed for one purpose, all alternative uses have to be sacrificed.
Marginalism: in all economic designs, the values, costs, revenues, productivity and so on are determined by the significance of the last unit added to or subtracted from the total.
Time structure of production and consumption: decisions to save reflect "time preferences" regarding consumption in the immediate, distant, or indefinite future and investments are made in view of larger outputs expected to be obtained if more time-taking production processes are undertaken.
He included two additional tenets held by the Mises branch of Austrian economics:
Consumer sovereignty: the influence consumers have on the effective demand for goods and services and through the prices which result in free competitive markets, on the production plans of producers and investors, is not merely a hard fact but also an important objective, attainable only by complete avoidance of governmental interference with the markets and of restrictions on the freedom of sellers and buyers to follow their own judgment regarding quantities, qualities and prices of products and services.
Political individualism: only when individuals are given full economic freedom will it be possible to secure political and moral freedom. Restrictions on economic freedom lead, sooner or later, to an extension of the coercive activities of the state into the political domain, undermining and eventually destroying the essential individual liberties which the capitalistic societies were able to attain in the 19th century. |
Austrian school of economics | Contributions to economic thought | Contributions to economic thought |
Austrian school of economics | Opportunity cost | Opportunity cost
thumb|upright=0.7|Friedrich von Wieser
The opportunity cost doctrine was first explicitly formulated by the Austrian economist Friedrich von Wieser in the late 19th century. Opportunity cost is the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value of the next best alternative foregone (that is not chosen). It is the sacrifice related to the second best choice available to someone, or group, who has picked among several mutually exclusive choices. Although a more ephemeral scarcity, expectations of the future must also be considered. Quantified as time preference, opportunity cost must also be valued with respect to one's preference for present versus future investments.
Opportunity cost is a key concept in mainstream economics and has been described as expressing "the basic relationship between scarcity and choice". The notion of opportunity cost plays a crucial part in ensuring that resources are used efficiently. |
Austrian school of economics | Capital and interest | Capital and interest
thumb|upright=0.7|Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk
The Austrian theory of capital and interest was first developed by Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk. He stated that interest rates and profits are determined by two factors, namely supply and demand in the market for final goods and time preference.Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen Ritter von; Kapital Und Kapitalizns. Zweite Abteilung: Positive Theorie des Kapitales (1889). Translated as Capital and Interest. II: Positive Theory of Capital with appendices rendered as Further Essays on Capital and Interest.
Böhm-Bawerk's theory equates capital intensity with the degree of roundaboutness of production processes. Böhm-Bawerk also argued that the law of marginal utility necessarily implies the classical law of costs. However, many Austrian economists such as Ludwig von Mises,Mises (1949) Israel Kirzner,Kirzner (1996) Ludwig Lachmann,Lachmann (1976) and Jesús Huerta de SotoHuerta De Soto (2006) entirely reject a productivity explanation for interest rates, viewing the average period of production as an unfortunate remnant of damaged classical economic thought on Böhm-Bawerk. |
Austrian school of economics | Inflation | Inflation
In Mises's definition, inflation is an increase in the supply of money:
Hayek claimed that inflationary stimulation exploits the lag between an increase in money supply and the consequent increase in the prices of goods and services:
Even prominent Austrian economists have been confused since Austrians define inflation as 'increase in money supply' while most people including most economists define inflation as 'rising prices'.Krugman Isn’t (Quite) Right About Austrian Economics |
Austrian school of economics | Economic calculation problem | Economic calculation problem
thumb|upright=0.7|Friedrich Hayek
right|thumb|upright=0.7|Israel Kirzner
The economic calculation problem refers to a criticism of planned economies which was first stated by Max Weber in 1920. Mises subsequently discussed Weber's idea with his student Friedrich Hayek, who developed it in various works including The Road to Serfdom.F. A. Hayek (1935), "The Nature and History of the Problem" and "The Present State of the Debate," om in F. A. Hayek, ed. Collectivist Economic Planning, pp. 1–40, 201–243. What the calculation problem essentially states is that without price signals, the factors of production cannot be allocated in the most efficient way possible, rendering planned economies inefficacious.
Austrian theory emphasizes the organizing power of markets. Hayek stated that market prices reflect information, the totality of which is not known to any single individual, which determines the allocation of resources in an economy. Because socialist systems lack the individual incentives and price discovery processes by which individuals act on their personal information, Hayek argued that socialist economic planners lack all of the knowledge required to make optimal decisions. Those who agree with this criticism view it as a refutation of socialism, showing that socialism is not a viable or sustainable form of economic organization. The debate rose to prominence in the 1920s and 1930s and that specific period of the debate has come to be known by historians of economic thought as the socialist calculation debate.
Mises argued in a 1920 essay "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth" that the pricing systems in socialist economies were necessarily deficient because if the government owned the means of production, then no prices could be obtained for capital goods as they were merely internal transfers of goods in a socialist system and not "objects of exchange", unlike final goods. Therefore, they were unpriced and hence the system would be necessarily inefficient since the central planners would not know how to allocate the available resources efficiently. This led him to write "that rational economic activity is impossible in a socialist commonwealth". |
Austrian school of economics | Business cycles | Business cycles
The Austrian theory of the business cycle (ABCT) focuses on banks' issuance of credit as the cause of economic fluctuations.Murray Rothbard, America's Great Depression. Although later elaborated by Hayek and others, the theory was first set forth by Mises, who posited that fractional reserve banks extend credit at artificially low interest rates, causing businesses to invest in relatively roundabout production processes which leads to an artificial "boom". Mises stated that this artificial "boom" then led to a misallocation of resources which he called "malinvestment" – which eventually must end in a "bust".
Mises surmised that government manipulation of money and credit in the banking system throws savings and investment out of balance, resulting in misdirected investment projects that are eventually found to be unsustainable, at which point the economy has to rebalance itself through a period of corrective recession. Austrian economist Fritz Machlup summarized the Austrian view by stating, "monetary factors cause the cycle but real phenomena constitute it." This may be unrealistic since successful entrepreneurs will realise that interest rates are artificially low and will adjust their investment decisions based on projected long term interest rates.Why I Am Not an Austrian Economist
For Austrians, the only prudent strategy for government is to leave money and the financial system to the free market's competitive forces to eradicate the business cycle's inflationary booms and recessionary busts, allowing markets to keep people's saving and investment decisions in place for well-coordinated economic stability and growth.
A Keynesian would suggest government intervention during a recession to inject spending into the economy when people will not. However, the heart of Austrian macroeconomic theory assumes the government "fine tuning" through expansions and contractions in the money supply orchestrated by the government are actually the cause of business cycles because of the differing impact of the resulting interest rate changes on different stages in the structure of production. Austrian economist Thomas Woods further supports this view by arguing it is not consumption, but rather production that should be emphasized. A country cannot become rich by consuming, and therefore, by using up all their resources. Instead, production is what enables consumption as a possibility in the first place, since a producer would be working for nothing, if not for the desire to consume. |
Austrian school of economics | Central banks | Central banks
According to Ludwig von Mises, central banks enable the commercial banks to fund loans at artificially low interest rates, thereby inducing an unsustainable expansion of bank credit and impeding any subsequent contraction and argued for a gold standard to constrain growth in fiduciary media. Friedrich Hayek took a different perspective not focusing on gold but focusing on regulation of the banking sector via strong central banking.
Some economists argue money is endogenous, and argue that this refutes the Austrian Business Cycle Theory. However, this would simply shift the brunt of the blame from central banks to private banks when it comes to credit expansion; the fundamental underlying issue would be the same, and a free-market full-reserve system would still be the fix. |
Austrian school of economics | See also | See also
Carl Menger
Chicago school of economics
Criticism of the Federal Reserve
Hard money (policy)
Kraków School of Economics
List of Austrian intellectual traditions
List of Austrian-school economists
New institutional economics
Perspectives on capitalism by school of thought
Peter St. Onge |
Austrian school of economics | Notes and references | Notes and references |
Austrian school of economics | Further reading | Further reading
Boettke, Peter J.; Coyne, Christopher J. (2023). "New Thinking in Austrian Economics". Annual Review of Economics 15 (1).
PDF .
(Excerpt via Amazon). |
Austrian school of economics | External links | External links
Understanding Austrian Economics by Henry Hazlitt
Category:Schools of economic thought
Category:Libertarian theory |
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