Concept tag
#asabiyya
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Do civilisations really rise and fall in cycles, or do we just like the shape?
Customers who come in to browse almost always tell me the same story: Baghdad was the centre of the world under the Abbasids, it fell to the Mongols in 1258, and everything since has been a long decline with brief recoveries. Some…
Started by Zainab Kadhim6 replies -
Ibn Khaldun’s asabiyya and the rise and fall of states
The central concept of the Muqaddimah is asabiyya, usually translated "group feeling" or "solidarity". Ibn Khaldun argues that groups living hard lives on the margins of civilisation, often nomadic or tribal, develop strong solidarity. That solidarity lets them conquer settled states. Once…
Started by Youssef Berrada4 replies -
Is an economy more than the people in it?
Economics lives with a tension it never resolves, and I meet it at work every year. On one side, methodological individualism: social phenomena should be explained, ultimately, by individuals' choices and interactions. Prices, unemployment and recessions are patterns of individual behaviour. Most…
Started by Javier FerrandisAnswer first (no replies yet)