Philosophy as we understand it is a Greek creation," (Griffin, 2001). Prior to the Middle Ages, the ideas of Aristotle and Plato were lost to Europeans for centuries. The introduction of Greek philosophy and science into the culture of the Latin West in the Middle Ages was an event that transformed the intellectual life of Western Europe. It consisted of the discovery of many original works, such as those written by Aristotle in the Classical period, commentaries by Hellenistic philosophers written in Late Antiquity, and commentaries from early Muslim philosophers in the Arab world written during the Islamic Golden Age from the ninth to the twelfth centuries, (Grant, 1996). Preservation and Transmission of Greek Philosophy As knowledge
3. Research the Oracle at Delphi and other forms of divination in the Greek world. How did the Ancient Greeks use oracles to communicate with the gods, explain & predict events? 4. The Olympic Games integrated and celebrated Greek ideas about athletic competition, the body beautiful, and honoring the gods.
What civic virtues are important for young people to have today and why? What ideas about government did the Founders find in classical republicanism? ● Founders studied the classical periods of ancient Greece and Rome - most influence from the Roman Republic: 509 B.C. to 27 B.C. How does the architectural style of some government buildings symbolize the influence of ancient Greece and Rome on the Founders?
The rulers held sway not just over their own people but over the Mediterranean, Europe and North Africa” (Menzies). The Greek philosopher, Plato, wrote the above description of Atlantis in 355 B.C. Plato had originally planned to write a trilogy of books on subjects such as the creation of the world, the nature of man, the story of Atlantis as well as other subjects. The first book, Timaeus, was completed, Critias, which contains the story of Atlantis, was incomplete, and Hemocrates, was never written (Levy). The story of Atlantis is one of the oldest myths of mankind, a lost paradise and the most popular of all supposed advanced prehistoric lost civilizations.
The Mycenaean civilization was discovered by Heinrich Schliemann through excavations in Mycenae in 1876 and in Tiryns in 1884 (Carver). Figure 1: W.W. Norton & Company, Ralph's World Civilizations, Chapter 4 http://www.wwnorton.com/colleges/history/ralph/resource/greece.htm Although the Mycenaean civilization began in 1550 BC, the occupation of Achaeans or Mycenaeans of many areas of the Greek peninsula, especially the coastal areas, started in 2000 BC. The Mycenaean civilization was the Late Helladic civilization in 1550 BC, but after the volcanic eruption at Thera in 1500 BC, the Mycenaean civilization at Knossos began in 1450 BC. This was followed by the destruction of Knossos in 1380 BC and a revival and further development of Mycenaean architecture in 1350 until 1250 BC. During the revival of architecture, the Mycenaeans became “wealthy and powerful” and “the most powerful group in the Aegean world” (Carver).
In Athens, Greece, Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who wrote a book called Politics, describing the laws and the type of government the people of Athens lived under in 350 B.C. These two ancient civilizations were 1,430 years apart from each other. In those 1,430 years, one can conclude that politics and laws would have advanced since the time of Babylon. By the time of Aristotle, the Greek laws were far less harsher than those of Babylon. In the Code of Hammurabi, used in Mesopotamia, almost every law that was broken was punishable by death.
Whether the Trojan War is legend or history is actively debated amongst historians. To prove there was a Trojan War, one must first prove that the city of Troy actually existed. The literary evidence of Homer’s Iliad, the ancient names assigned to Troy, the archeological evidence and the evidence of eminent archeologists all seem to support the existence of a city similar geographically and historically with Troy, while the discovery of weapons lends support to the theory that a war did take place within the city of Troy. Homer’s Iliad, one of the earliest written sources of ancient Troy, is the basis upon which the myth of the Trojan War has been built. This epic poem, written in 700 BC, (five hundred years after the war) is a compilation of the oral histories passed from one generation to another.
the theory of knowledge, and attempt to discuss the development of different theories of philosophers ranging from pre-Socratic to post-Aristotelian Ancient Greece. 2. Pre-Socratic Epistemology Before any specific reference is made to philosophers of the pre-Socratic era, one must comment on the shifting in the mind-set that was taking place in Ancient Greece at this time. All that was known to the Greeks was that of traditionally accepted and unquestioned truths pertaining to the gods communicated to the people by poets such as Homer and Hesiod. (Lawhead 2011:15-16).
Unlike many legends whose origins have been lost in the mists of time, we know exactly when and where the story of Atlantis first appeared. The story was first told in two of Plato's dialogues, the Timaeus and the Critias, written about 330 B.C. Though today Atlantis is often conceived of as a peaceful utopia, the Atlantis that Plato described in his fable was very different. In his book Frauds, Myths and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, professor of archaeology Ken Feder summarizes the story: "a technologically sophisticated but morally bankrupt evil empire — Atlantis — attempts world domination by force. The only thing standing in its way is a relatively small group of spiritually pure, morally principled, and incorruptible people — the ancient Athenians.
The foundation of the field of geology itself in the middle of the nineteenth century paved the way for archaeology. Previous to scientists such as Cuvier, Smith, Hutton, and Lyell (page 7), the world was thought to be only 6,000 years old in the Western world. With the conscious decision by scholars to examine the natural world as a conglomerate of observable forces, scientists began to notice anomalies in geologic excavations. Things like manmade tools located near deposits of extinct animal skeletons questioned the traditional chronology of contemporary knowledge. In 1959 the scientists Sir Joseph Prestwich and John Evans studied these anomalies and popularized in the scientific community what is known as the “antiquity of man,” expanding the lifetime of humanity to be much older than most common folk imagined at the time (page 9).