A Cultural Genealogy Of Strategic Rationality

I construct in this dissertation a cultural genealogy to trace in Western civilization a consistent set of values that underlie a worldview that I call Strategic Intelligence (SI). I argue that the plethora of cultural data indicates the presence both of an underlying strategic rationality and a metaphorological paradigm that functions at a level that is more expansive than the terminological and conceptual. I conclude that the values of SI have been transmitted in cultural sources for thousands of years, in multiple cultures. Invested with the highest forms of authority, the continuous transmission of the values of SI in two distinct civilizations (European, Chinese) over the trajectory of their unique cultural evolution provides evidence for the authority, legitimacy and potency of this ancient framework of meaning as fundamental to culture. (Keywords: Strategic Intelligence, Strategic Rationality, Philosophy of Strategy, Philosophical Anthropology, Hermeneutic Philosophy, Axiology, Metaphorical Analysis, Cultural Studies, Mētic)