Greek Civilisations: So this was quite possibly the most interesting lecture I’ve had so far, mostly because I'm highly intrigued by the Greeks - basically, the ancient Greeks knew where it was all at. Another little snippet from my old politics lessons taught me that the first forms of democracy came from ancient Greek civilisation. It was a very crude form of democracy what is commonly known as direct democracy - direct democracy is one of two forms of democracy and it entails the members of the civilisations grouping together to hold debates and vote in polls. The etymology of the word "democracy" broken down literally translates to the Greek words "demos" meaning people and "cratos" meaning power, very fitting for the word, and some nice politics background knowledge for you there!
So yeah, the Greeks were like amazingly smart for their time! This is very impressive when you think about how little was known about the world itself and the universe. The Greeks were viewed as the greatest thinkers, when you think of philosophers you'll instantly think about names such as Aristotle, Plato or Socrates. Greek origins have been very influential, in all aspects of life such as languages, architecture (for example the domed roof structures) and words. Put shortly, the Greeks were the bosses of everything - they managed to measure the Earth; top effort.
The Dark Ages: However, during a period known commonly as the Dark Ages or the Middle Ages, regrettably, silly people who refused to believe in pure, sound logic passed down by the Greeks, decided it'd be a "hilarious" idea to burn most of the knowledge and information the Greeks knew about the current world and solar system. Good job guys *slow sarcastic clap*. The Greeks and Romans were very similar to each other - they had the same amount of Gods that they worshiped and just called them different names, for example Greeks prayed to Zeus, the King of the Gods while the Romans equivalent is known to them as Jupiter and so on.
However, over time the rulers of the Roman Empire became progressively corrupt and abandoned many of the beliefs that they learned from the Greeks and this ultimately lead to the collapse of the Roman Empire. Roman civilisation has been greatly linked to the Greeks however they were quite different in some respects. Most notably the Romans were pioneers of industry and creation while the Greeks were the most renowned thinkers and philosophers.
"By the beard of Zeus!"
(Yes im currently watching Anchorman)
Many people refer to a point in history known as the Golden (or Goldeen ;)) age of Islam, roughly stretching from 750 CE - c.1258 CE. The Golden Age is called so because philosophers and scientists of the Islamic world, through the process of preserving earlier traditions, (mostly passed down by the Greeks), learned from them and then added to them these traditions and practices with their own knowledge and innovations - which eventually leads us into what’s now referred to as the "Golden Age of Islam". This golden age gave birth to many superstitions and myth surrounding the Arabians, such as the idea that, since they were so intellectually, scientifically and technologically advanced, that they possessed the knowledge of immortal life, great towering buildings of gold and magic carpets! (More like Magikarp-ets)
Plato and Aristotle: Plato was Aristotle's teacher, therefore Plato and Aristotle were like total bros when it came to philosophy and pondering the universe. Aristotle basically "invented logic" and this was one of the main pieces of knowledge passed down by the Greeks and was successfully preserved by the Catholic Church. Aristotle's form of logic is known as a siligism - this provided the origin of knowledge. Aristotle came up with what he called Axioms, a basis of knowledge that allows us to know what is true from its characteristics and so on - I'll have to touch upon this more after I get some more reading done!
"All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal."
This nugget of knowledge came from the Organon. The Organon is the name given by Aristotle's followers to the standard collection of his six works on logic:
- Categories
- On Interpretation
- Prior Analytics
- Posterior Analytics
- Topics
- Sophistical Refutations
I've actually found pretty entertaining clips on YouTube about Aristotle - I advise you to check them out, the video is 3 minute philosophy and there are loads of them out there, they're funny so don't worry. Check them out! Here’s the link to Aristotle's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm0Uq08xXhY
Stay classy, Winchester x
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