Transitions

1. Transitions HUM 2051: Civilization I Fall 2009 Dr. Perdigao October 2-9, 2009

2. To Reason • 5th century—move from “myth to reason,” basis of Western scientific and philosophical tradition • Search for “principles of order” with move to the city, a larger system of regulation in the universe posited • Questioning of nature; Ionian philosophy, as “matter philosophers”: Thales (624-548 BCE) understanding of water as basic element (moved from mythical Poseidon as first cause); Anaximander (611-547 BCE) substance the Boundless as source; Anaximenes, emphasis on air (Perry 75-76) • Pythagoras (580-507 BCE) focus on mathematical relationships, “mathematical order and harmony” to the cosmos (Perry 76) • Parmenides (515-450 BCE) rejects Ionian view of changing universe and instead argues for an eternal and unchanging one, influences Plato and metaphysics, “branch of philosophy that attempts to define ultimate reality, or Being” (Perry 76) • Democritus (460-370 BCE) “mechanical structure of the universe” (Perry 76) • Hippocrates (460-377 BCE) detailed observations, classified symptoms and predicted course of disease (Perry 77)

3. Sophists vs. Socrates • Sophist tradition—as teachers in rhetoric, grammar, poetry, gymnastics, mathematics, and music; citizenship and statesmanship as foci (Perry 78); political arete as “skill to formulate the right laws and policies for cities and the art of eloquence and persuasion needed for success in public life” (Perry 78) • Sophists as philosophical relativists; “no truth is universally valid” (Perry 78) • Ideas believed to lead to “loss of respect for authority, disobedience to law, neglect of civic duty, and selfish individualism” (Perry 79), weakening community during and after Peloponnesian War • Socrates’ insistence on universal values (Perry 79) • W.H. Auden’s quote: “Had Greek civilization never existed, we would never have become fully conscious, which is to say that we would never have become, for better or worse, fully human” (qtd. In Perry 98).

4. Changing of the Guard • Greek: Hellenistic: Roman • Hellenism in three stages: Hellenic (800 BCE to death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE), Hellenistic (323-30 BCE ends with fall of Egypt to Rome), and Greco-Roman (500 years, from Roman Empire to fifth century AD) (Perry 102) • Hellenic worldview: Greek and barbarian; with Hellenistic, move toward cosmpolitanism and universalism (beginnings of a type of multi-culturalism) (Perry 103) • Alexander the Great as bringing West and East together, Mediterranean world under one rule with Roman Empire after his death (323 BCE) • Alexandria, in Egypt, founded by Alexander as “hub of commerce and culture,” most populated (Perry 105); library and museum; developments in medicine, astronomy, mathematics

5. Legacies • Aristarchus, Alexandrian astronomer (310-230 BCE) said sun was center of the universe and planets revolved around it but was not believed • Euclid, Alexandrian mathematician (c. 300 BCE) geometric proofs, two- and three-dimensional space • Archimedes (287-212 BCE) studied at Alexandria, mathematician : pi; hydrostatics • Catapults; siege towers; lighthouse • Dissecting human corpses, diastolic and systolic blood pressure, nerves and nervous system

6. In the Wake of Plato and Aristotle • Epicureanism: experience as derived from experience and perception; happiness achieved when “free from pain” and “released from worry and fear,” increase in pleasure (but not hedonistic), still moderate (Perry 111-112) • Stoicism: “belief that the universe contained a principle of order, variously called Divine Reason (Logos), the Divine Fire, or God” (with God as fundamental force), “inner strength in dealing with life’s misfortunes” (Perry 112-13); natural law, law of reason underlying cosmos; equality for women, for all • Skeptics: “attacked the Epicurean and Stoic belief that there is a definite avenue to happiness,” believing instead that “one could achieve spiritual comfort by recognizing that none of the beliefs by which people lived were true or could bring happiness” because “nothing could be known with certainty”; instead “suspending judgment” and alternate points of view “brings contentment” (Perry 114) • Cynics: self-sufficiency, rejecting conventions of ordinary life, wealth and material comfort