Location: United Kingdom
Member Since: June 13, 2013

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Thomas Yaeger

Biography

I trained as a historian, and studied ancient history and ancient languages (Greek, Akkadian, Sumerian) at University College London, and the School of Oriental and Asian Studies, I specialised in the neo-Assyrian Empire, and the ancient Near East. I also have a qualification in philosophy. I'm the author of the revolutionary study 'The Sacred History of Being', and four other books. I tweet regularly on ancient history and philosophy, with the Twitter ID @rotorvator.

Smashwords Interview

How did you put your latest book together, and what is it called?
'Echoes of Eternity' (published June 30 2020) was put together in a way similar to the book which preceded it :'Man and the Divine: New Light on Man's Ancient Engagement with God and the History of Thought' (2018). I've settled into a pattern of writing essays for publication on my blog, and using those as the basis for book chapters. So regular blog readers will have some idea of where I am going nearly a year before book publication. It is also a good way of starting a conversation about a subject with readers. Some of the chapters were developed on the basis of conversations with readers. Five of the essays in 'Man and the Divine' book got going as responses to other peoples work, including (surprisingly) a theatre performance. The book looks at esotericism in antiquity, and whether or not ancient religions were transcendentalist in nature.
What was your previous book?
'Understanding Ancient Thought', which was published in August 2017, It was intended as a companion of sorts to 'The Sacred History of Being' (published in 2015). It is much more discursive in style, and (I think) an easier read. It expands on some of the themes in the earlier book.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find Thomas Yaeger online

Website: https://independent.academia.edu/YaegerThomas
Twitter: @rotorvator
Blog: http://shrineinthesea.blogspot.co.uk

Books

Echoes Of Eternity by
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 56,940. Language: British English. Published: June 30, 2020 . Categories: Nonfiction » Philosophy » Ancient philosophy, Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Religious philosophy
Much of the cultural production of the ancient world, east and west, was based on the idea of reflecting aspects of the divine in human life and thought. Many social structures and institutions were based on this approach. The model for these things was was astronomy and the heavens, and the heavens were conceived of as a moving image of eternity.
Man and the Divine: New Light on Man's Ancient Engagement with God and the History of Thought by
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 56,320. Language: British English. Published: August 12, 2018 . Categories: Nonfiction » Philosophy » Metaphysics, Nonfiction » Religion & Spirituality » Antiquities & Archaeology
This is my second collection of essays on philosophy and ancient history. Like my first collection, 'Understanding Ancient Thought', it expands further on the arguments of 'The Sacred History of Being', which appeared in November 2015. A theme of my work is that abstract philosophical thought was a key component in the development of ancient Divine cult. Philosophy began outside Greece.
Understanding Ancient Thought by
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 51,070. Language: British English. Published: August 20, 2017 . Categories: Nonfiction » History » Essays, Nonfiction » Philosophy » Ancient philosophy
There are many puzzling things about the peoples of the ancient world. Why did they practice the sacrifice of animals? Why did they think they could understand the future by examining the entrails and the liver of a ram? What was the logic beneath the practice of magic? This collection of essays attempts, as far as possible, to understand the ancient world within its original context.
J. G. Frazer and the Platonic Theory of Being by
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 22,930. Language: British English. Published: April 4, 2016 . Categories: Nonfiction » Philosophy » Ancient philosophy
James Frazer won a fellowship with an essay on the development of Plato's theory of the Forms or Ideas. In this essay he argued that there was no overarching theory of Being in Plato's mind before he embarked on the writing of his dialogues, and that consequently differences in approach and discussion apparent in his work are the result of development in his thought. Was he right?
The Sacred History of Being by
Price: $7.99 USD. Words: 113,510. Language: British English. Published: November 2, 2015 . Categories: Nonfiction » History » Civilization, Nonfiction » Philosophy » Religious philosophy
Did the ancient Greeks invent philosophy, and the concept of Being? That has been the conventional wisdom for many years. In fact philosophy is very old, and its presence can be traced in other cultures in the Ancient Near East, at least as far back as the middle of the 2nd Millennium B.C.E. Thomas Yaeger explores the ancient cultural significance and context of philosophy before the Greeks.

Thomas Yaeger's tag cloud

ancient philosophy    ancient world    anthropology    association of ideas    assyria    being    bronze age    cult    divine cult    epistemology    greece    history    history of ideas    ideas    israel    james frazer    john locke    kingship    metaphysics    monotheism    neolithic    ontology    ontology and epistemology    philosophy    plato    reality    religion    theology