It is hardly controversial to assert that recent work on Greek mythology is methodologically diverse. However, there is one body of writing which seems to have become a reference point against which scholars of many persuasions–not excluding orthodox positivist philologists and adherents of psychoanalysis–feel the need to define their own position. I mean structuralism. G.S. Kirk and, later, W. Burkert have conducted their dialogues with it; C. Segal and more unreconstructedly R. Caldwell have tried to accommodate Lévi-Strauss and Freud under (...) the same blanket; a glance at bibliographical citations in studies of tragedy over the last twenty years will show how J.-P. Vernant and P. Vidal-Naquet have moved from the periphery to the centre. The polemical attitudes being struck by M. Detienne and C. Calame are directly generated by over-confident structuralist attempts to map out the mental territory they claimed as their own. (shrink)

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On many important aspects of the economic life of the rural population there is little that can be said. The complaint about the lack of secure data regarding the rural population of the ancient world has often been repeated, and there is no reason to restate the remarks about the lack of interest in the ancient sources for this topic. There is a danger, however, that absence of information may lead to an over-simplified picture of what actually happened. It is (...) generally assumed that 80 or 90% of the ancient population was engaged in agriculture and that, conversely, only a small part of the population was engaged in non-agricultural work. Ancient historians have a tendency to treat the various sectors in the economy—commercial farming, subsistence farming, industries, and services —as strictly detached from each others. This is too simplistic a picture. We should not underestimate the importance of the employment of various economic strategies by the ancient farming population. This means that a peasant might also have been from time to time a charcoal maker, muleteer, or textile worker. If so, then agriculture and the non-agricultural sectors were indissolubly connected. (shrink)

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Práce si klade za cíl porovnat vliv filosofického učení na pokrok společnosti a hospodářství s ohledem na vliv náboženství. Vliv filosofie je studován na historickém vývoji společnosti ve starověku a středověku. Jde o období, které bylo nejvíc ovlivněno náboženskými změnami, které vedly k různému společenskému vývoji v závislosti na volnosti v rozhodování. Tato teze je postupně doložena na vývoji antického Řecka, starověké Číny, arabského světa a středověké katolické Evropy. Tyto regiony procházely obdobími hospodářského vzestupu a úpadku podle toho, nakolik se (...) filosofii dařilo držet odstup od náboženských zásahů. Na vývoji Evropy je zároveň poukázáno na fakt, jakým způsobem znalosti antiky procházely dějinami přes jednotlivé regiony, které kladou důraz na rozvoj člověka. (shrink)

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