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C A R R O L L   Q U I G L E Y   1

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The Features of a Civilization

The fundamental tool of any science is measurement. In order to know how a thing changes, one must be able to observe and compare the features of that thing at distinct points in time and space. So if history is to be placed on a scientific foundation (Quigley reasoned), if we are to understand our own civilization by comparing it to others of the past, then two tasks are necessary. First, we must determine the most important features of civilizations in general. And second, we must classify each civilization with respect to those features. Only in this way, when we compare similar elements to each other, can we have confidence that we are perceiving real patterns of historical change instead of noise.


Quigley's Six Features of Civilization

For his analysis, Quigley took pains to state that the particular features one selects to characterize civilizations is relatively unimportant. There might be two, or four, or twenty; what matters is selecting a feature set whose elements are specific enough to measure distinct aspects of civilizations, but not so detailed that broad patterns become lost in the data.

Ultimately Quigley chose six qualities which, in his view, represented the salient features of any civilization. In order from most abstract to least, they are: Intellectual, Religious, Social, Economic, Political, and Military. Define a civilization's achievements in each of these categories relative to its neighboring cultures at a given moment in time, and you will have defined that civiliation in a way that permits the objective comparisons necessary for scientific analysis.


Feature Description
Intellectual The need for comprehension
Religious The need for psychological certainty
Social The need for companionship
Economic The need for material wealth
Political The need to organize interpersonal power relationships
Military The need for group security


Six Features of Civilization? How About Eight?

Personally, I think Quigley's list of features could be improved. I would add two additional features: technology and ethics.

Quigley described the intellectual aspect of a civilization as "the need for comprehension," which suggests an emphasis on theory, on pure understanding of self and world. This is a useful category. But a plow (for example) is not a theory; it is a practical piece of engineering which Quigley himself names as one of the products of human effort that has most profoundly affected the progress of civilizations. We call this physical/mechanical/engineering aspect of creative knowledge "technology," and its goal is not so much understanding the world as controlling it. This calls for personalities, skills and sub-cultures that are different in both process and result from pure intellectual research. As such, it seems to me that it ought to be included in any serious attempt to distinguish one civilization from another.

As technology is not purely intellectual, ethics (we might also call it philosophy) is not purely religious. Like religious expression, ethics is concerned with human motivation. But it is one level of abstraction removed from religion because it does not deal so directly as religion does with personal motives, but rather seeks to understand the impulses and restraints common to all humans by virtue of our being self-aware, reasoning beings. Where a particular religion states its rules in a fixed form, offering individuals psychological security derived from the simplicity of being given directions to follow on the basis of personal authority, ethical codes are more global and more objective. Rather than telling an individual what to do "because I said so," an ethical code--a philosophy--tells an entire species what to do, because with sentience comes responsibility. Thus, like technology and religion, the relative development of a civilization's ethics is a distinct analytical feature, which we can profitably add to the six features propsed by Quigley.


Why Extend Quigley's Feature Set?

But why add to Quigley's list of features at all? Wasn't he quite clear that the number of features chosen was relatively unimportant?

The weasel word there is "relatively." The two "new" features I propose using are worthwhile in that they help to distinguish civilizations from each other without adding unhelpful complexity.

These reasons are enough, I would say, to justify extending Quigley's list. As he pointed out, the particular qualities measured are not the most important part of historical analysis. Still, we have to measure something; it seems to me we might reasonably give some care to the features we choose. If excluding or adding particular features improves the model, then improve the model.

I have another reason for extending Quigley's list of measured qualities as I did, however. Examining his list, it seemed to me to very nearly correspond to a list of human personality types.

For example, the Intellectual quality of a civilization could be expressed by its members who demonstrate the Myers-Briggs types of ENTP and INTP, which can be called the Inventor and Designer types, respectively. Likewise, the Social aspect seems to be described very closely by the two Myers-Briggs types of ESFJ and ISFJ (the Protector and Provider types).

As I studied Quigley's list, each of the sixteen Myers-Briggs types, in pairs, seemed to be represented by a feature of a civilization, with the exception of two pairs of Myers-Briggs types: the xNTJ and xNFP types. Given the descriptive names for these types (Scientist and Engineer for xNTJ, and Monastic and Journalist for xNFP), I realized that these impulses correspond to the two new features: Technology and and Ethics.

I did not rely on the Myers-Briggs model of personality types in my earlier argument for adding Technology and Ethics to Quigley's list of features of civilizations that can and should be analyzed. The surprising correspondence between Quigley's six features and most of the Myers-Briggs types is not, of itself, a sufficient argument for changing Quigley's list of features. But this correspondence does, I think, add to the weight of my previous argument: that Technology and Ethics are features of a civilization that help to more fully define that civilization without duplicating other features or adding undue complexity to the underlying model.

I should add that I am still somewhat tentative about this correlation. As Quigley pointed out (and I agree), civilizations are not individual human beings, or even individual living biological entities--they are civilizations. They have their own high-level rules of behavior, and those rules may or may not demonstrate lower-level human personality preferences. Still, I suspect that something like those personality traits can be observed, given that civilizations, after all, are made of human beings.

My revised list of historical features and their corresponding Myers-Briggs personality types then becomes:


Feature Description Type Temperament
Intellectual The need for comprehension INTP:Designer NT: Rational
ENTP:Inventor
Technological The need for control of the physical world INTJ:Scientist
ENTJ:Engineer
Ethical The need for control of human motives INFP:Monastic NF: Idealist
ENFP:Journalist
Religious The need for psychological security INFJ:Counselor
ENFJ:Teacher
Social The need for companionship ISFJ:Protector SJ: Guardian
ESFJ: Provider
Economic The need for material security ISTJ:Trustee
ESTJ:Administrator
Political The need to organize interpersonal power relationships ISFP:Artist SP: Artisan
ESFP:Performer
Military The need for group security ISTP:Crafter
ESTP:Promoter

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