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66: Peter Turchin - Why Empires Rise & Fall

The Nietzsche Podcast

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Why Is War the Tempering Force in the Human Race?

Turchin's theory is that war is the fire in which the human race was tempered. The larger the army, the harder it is to coordinate, he says. So for coordinating larger and larger populations, you have to have more complex means of maintaining social cohesion through cultural traits. Bravery and virtue were the most important traits among Romans; they did not stress individual prowess.

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