Moses I. Finley

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sir Moses I. Finley CBE (originally Moses Israel Finkelstein; born May 20, 1912 in New York City , † June 23, 1986 in Cambridge ) was an American and British ancient historian .

Life

Finley was born in New York City in 1912 to Nathan Finkelstein and Anna Katzenellenbogen. In 1927 he earned a bachelor's degree from Syracuse University and a master's degree from Columbia University in 1929 . Although he received his Masters in Law, most of his publications dealt with ancient history, specifically the social and economic components of ancient times. Among other things, his influential work The World of Odysseus became famous , in which he argued that Homer's works were an image of the social structures of the 9th / 8th centuries. Century BC And can hardly be used as a source for a "Trojan War" of the Bronze Age .

Finley taught at Columbia College, Columbia University and the City College of New York , where he met with emigrated representatives from the Frankfurt School . In 1952, during the McCarthy era in the United States, Finley was fired from Rutgers University for refusing to testify against colleagues. Conversely, he was denounced by colleagues like Karl Wittfogel . In 1954 he was summoned by Pat McCarran's Senate Security Subcommittee (SISS) and asked about membership in the United States Communist Party . He refused to answer in a hearing that lasted only 12 minutes, citing the 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution .

Since he could no longer get a job in the USA, Finley went to England . Here he taught for many years at the University of Cambridge , where he lectured in Classical Social and Economic History at Jesus College from 1964 to 1970 and as Professor of Ancient History from 1970 to 1979 . From 1976 to 1982 he was also a Masters at the newly founded Darwin College . In England he also wrote his second magnum opus The Ancient Economy , the theses of which are still widely discussed today. Many of his books and essays have been translated into German.

He became a British citizen in 1962 and a member of the British Academy in 1971 . In 1979 he was beaten to a Knight Bachelor degree by the British Queen . Also in 1979 he was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Scientific positions

Finley, who was familiar with the theories of Werner Sombart , Max Weber and Joseph Schumpeter at an early age and who later attended seminars by Karl Polanyi , is considered to be a representative of neo-primitivism in antiquity (the opposite of which is modernism ). He rejects the applicability of modern economic theories to ancient conditions, but used modern economic terms in his presentation.

In his work Ancient Economy (2nd edition 1985) he postulates that the ancient upper classes did not take an active part in the economy and limited themselves to their land ownership. The land trade was rather insignificant, the slave labor was fundamental for all areas. There was no concept or concept of “work”. The subsistence rule without market orientation and productivity increases dominated. All decisions were politically and socially, not economically based. Finley equates the lack of a systematic, calculating approach on the part of the landowners with the lack of what Max Weber called economic rationality. The ancient city was also essentially a consumer city. Since the 1990s, these positions, which have been shared by almost the entire Cambridge School, have been increasingly challenged.

Critics assume that Finley, due to a misunderstanding of the methodological concept of the ideal type, also brought Weber's understanding of the ancient economy closer to the neo-primitivists. Finley's understanding of the ancient polis was also shaped by his own negative experiences with American democracy.

Quotes

  • "Erase all debts and redistribute the land!" (The only and recurring revolutionary program of antiquity)

Fonts (selection)

  • The World of Odysseus . 1954. Ger. The world of Odysseus , translated by Anna Elisabeth Berve-Glauning , Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1968, most recently Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt / Main 2005, ISBN 3-593-37860-4 .
  • The Ancient Greeks . 1963. Ger. The Greeks . 2., through Beck, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-406-06288-1 .
  • Aspects of Antiquity . 1968.
  • Early Greece: The Bronze and Archaic Ages . 1970. Dt. The early Greek world . Beck, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-406-08644-6 .
  • The Ancient Economy . 1973. Dt. The ancient economy 3., through. and exp. Edition dtv, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-423-04277-X . Full view
  • Democracy ancient and modern . 1973. Dt. Ancient and modern democracy . Reclam, Stuttgart last 1988, ISBN 3-15-009966-8 .
  • (as ed.): Atlas of Classical Archeology. Munich 1979 (English original edition 1977)
  • Ancient Slavery and Modern Ideology . 1980. Dt. Slavery in ancient times . Beck, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-406-08132-0 ; Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-24352-1 .
  • Politics in the Ancient World . 1983. Dt. Political life in the ancient world . Beck, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-406-31056-7 ; dtv, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-423-04563-9 .
  • Ancient History: Evidence and Models . 1985. Dt. Sources and Models in Ancient History . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-596-27373-0 .
  • Moses I. Finley, Denis Mack Smith, Christopher Duggan: History of Sicily and the Sicilians , 4th edition, Munich: Beck 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-61258-9 .

literature

  • Karl Christ : Moses Finley (1912-1986). In: Ders .: New Profiles of Ancient History. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1989, ISBN 3-534-10289-4 , pp. 295–337.
  • William V. Harris (Ed.): Moses Finley and Politics. Leiden 2013, ISBN 978-90-04-26167-9 .
  • Daniel Jew, Robin Osborne , Michael Scott (Eds.): MI Finley. An Ancient Historian and his Impact. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2016, ISBN 978-1-107-14926-7 .
  • Arnaldo Momigliano : We and the Greeks. On the historical work of Moses I. Finley. In: Moses I. Finley: Ancient and Modern Democracy. Reclam, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-15-009966-8 , pp. 118-138.
  • Wilfried Nippel : Nekrolog Moses I. Finley May 20, 1912 - June 23, 1986. In: Historical magazine . Volume 244, 1987, pp. 750-753.
  • Helmuth Schneider : Finley, Moses I. In: Peter Kuhlmann , Helmuth Schneider (Ed.): History of the ancient sciences. Biographical Lexicon (= The New Pauly . Supplements. Volume 6). Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02033-8 , Sp. 401-405.
  • Brent D. Shaw, Richard P. Saller: Editors' introduction. In: Moses I. Finley: Economy and society in ancient Greece. Chatto & Windus, London 1981; Paperback edition Penguin Books, London 1983, ISBN 0-14-022520-X (with Finley's bibliography).
  • George Watson: The man from Syracuse. Moses Finley (1912-1986). In: Sewanee Review. Vol. 112, No. 1, 2004, pp. 131-137.
  • CR Whittaker: Moses Finley, 1912-1986 . In: Proceedings of the Brirish Academy . tape 94 , 1997, pp. 459-472 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Christ: Moses Finley (1912-1986). In: Ders .: New Profiles of Ancient History. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1989, pp. 295–337, here p. 297.
  2. ^ François Chazel: Max Weber as "historian" of antiquity. Comments from a “layperson” on a strange reception. In: Trivium 14 (2016).
  3. ↑ Frank Schirrmacher: And forgive us our debts. In: FAZ.net . November 13, 2011, accessed December 14, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Finley, Moses I.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Finkelstein, Moses Israel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American-British historian
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH June 23, 1986
Place of death Cambridge