Professional paper

Mary Rose or on Useless Weapon

Petra Rodik

Abstract

This paper tries to place the problem of creation and the choice of weapon in its social, cultural and psychological frameworks. Basic questions made in the paper are: can the choice of weapon be irrational, and if so, when does it become irrational? Consideration of some non-utilitarian factors which, depending on the context, have larger or smaller impact on the choice of weapons, portrays the complexity of the problem and tries to avoid the uncritical supplement of the term “irrational”. On the basis of numerous historical examples and some existing studies we can give the affirmative answer to the question. The choice of weapon becomes irrational when demands that should be subordinate (for example, aesthetic) have priority and, thus, the weapon becomes simply useless.

Keywords

weapon; technology; the choice criterion; irrationality; useless

Hrčak ID:

179525

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/179525

Publication date:

1.12.2001.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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