![]() ![]() Each of these is at least a theoretical basis for metahistory. Dutch philosopher and scientist Johan Goudsblom wrote that history depended on the three great uses of heat: the invention of cooking, smelting and ceramics, and the taming of steam. American historian Harry Elmer Barnes thought that the three great turning points in history were the Axial Age, the Renaissance, and Darwinism. Sir James Fraser thought history could be divided into the ages of magic, religion, and science. Thomas Carlyle thought the three most powerful innovations had been gunpowder, printing, and Protestantism. Giambattista Vito thought that history had been divided into three eras: of gods, of heroes, and of humans. ![]() Thomas Hobbes said that there were three essential elements of human activity: physics, psychology, and politics. For example, Francis Bacon said that the most important inventions in history were printing, gunpowder, and the magnet. ![]() Dunlap called triposis-the tendency to divide intellectual history into threes. When I began reading for my books on the history of ideas, I came across what W. ![]() Once you get away from the familiar narrative and kings and queens, battles and treaties, politics and power plays, the possibilities for looking at history in different ways are if not endless, then certainly multifarious. In the realm of ideas, this is especially true. History teaches above all that there is no such thing as history, only historical interpretation. ![]()
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