Historical actors act under circumstances transmitted from the past, not freely chosen
Evidence
It has been observed with regard to ancient clan organizations that a nobility would very frequently emerge when the head of the gens was always elected from the same lineage. That lineage was thus not preferred from the outset, but rather only came to be preferred once the expectation existed that it would always supply someone qualified for the leadership position. In that the entire family thereupon became a nobility, it discounted the merit and honor which any of its members would probably acquire someday and which, radiating back from the future, as it were, provided the ennobling substance for the whole lineage. — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 508 (
#exemplifies, via linked claim)
According to this viewpoint, you could not go back in time unless history showed that you had already arrived in the past and, while there, had not killed your great-great-grandfather or committed any other acts that would conflict with your current situation in the present. — Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time, 297 (
#expands, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: The past informs the individual but can be re-captured through successive choices.; Bodily-data extraction without consent has deep historical precedent. — , The Braided Reading EPUB: 5-Year…, 3378; Persuasion by past reasoning is not the same as obeying precedent. — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 66 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Nobility could arise from recurring expectations rather than prior distinction
#exemplifies(0.80) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 508 - Authority builds from accumulated past compliance without requiring ongoing justification
#expands(0.78) - Time travel implies a predetermined history without free will.
#expands(0.65) — Hawking, Stephen, A Brief History of Time, 297 - Persuasion by past reasoning is not the same as obeying precedent.
#expands(0.55) — Frederick Schauer, Thinking Like a Lawyer, 66