HCJ Lecture #1

So far I've found it very hard to follow the HCJ module, but I get the impression that I am not alone in this. Most of Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy wooshes over my head. It's almost as if I can't keep up with the ideas that he's throwing at me. Luckily, a video that Chris has linked us to hopes to shed more light on it:

As far as the amount I've read is concerned, that's currently on the 160 pages mark, but in truth it feels like I'll have to read this 280 page segment five or six times to start to grasp the routes of the modules. I may not blog specifically about that until I feel comfortable enough with it. Socrates died believing he would live on in a richer life, that's what I can safely say.

The lecture helped... 

Here are some of the notes that I took (expanded on as far as I understand it) that I feel are important, so if anyone else feels bamboozled I hope this can help:

Migration - Ancient civilisation started with migration, the Greeks and Persians come from what we now know as the Middle East, but the Greeks migrated West (ancient Greece) and the Persians are those who migrated South-West (Persia). [I think]

Europeans are all Greek - As a statement this may seem a bit outlandish, however, all European civilisation and culture started with the Ancient Greeks. Obviously, migrating west from the Middle East would bring you to what we call Europe and that's exactly what the Greeks did. They set up their civilisation there, thus creating the groundwork for ours.

Greece was the source of culture whereas Rome was the source of Politics and Power - Rome had the powerful, all-conquering army. Power and strength was the heart and soul of the empire, similar to the Spartans in many respects. Greece, on the other hand, valued philosophy and literacy. They realised that words could be weapons before anyone else had. Their love for drama was also clear, and their level of understanding of Science was first-rate - they believed that objects were made out of Atoms (although it was suggested by __________ [sad face, forgotten] that these atoms were made of the elements; earth, wind, water and fire). Their names seem to escape me, but another Philosopher speculated that the sun was a blazing stone in the sky, which wasn't a bad guess for someone with no telescope.

Judeo-Christianity - This was the first sign of belief in just one god, a human. This suggests that everyone is equal, something that has definitely survived the test of time.

The age of the universe - Cosmology fell way short of the mark in predicting this as it guesstimated at 6,000 years, based only on Ancestry. Buddhism came loser, a guess of 12 epocs. An epoc is defined as the amount of time a it would take a monk to climb a mountain, rub the hardest granite with the finest silk until it reached sea level. He would rub it for just one day a year. This may seem whimsical but it's a close estimation as that would take a very long time.

Christianity - Adopted by the Western world in 800 AD, this saw the start of the Dark Ages where the Greek genius was lost. More on that when I know more!

Logic - The one part of ancient Greece (Aristotle, to be precise) that was adopted by the Catholic Church. It is preserved to this day. Proposition is seen as the starting point to logic: "All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, so he is mortal."

Italy - Some Greek knowledge did leak into the West from Arab states through trade as they still applied some of the Greek discoveries.

Printing Presses - These were created in the 19th Century to print Bibles. Einstein says this is the biggest human revolution since writing. He wasn't wrong.

Kenneth Clark - Good point here, Clark demonstrates how civilisations can go backwards by looking at architecture: the Greeks could build self-supporting dome structures but this knowledge was lost in the Dark Ages. St. Paul's Cathedral has a 'fake dome' as it is supported by a spire. The reason why all Christian churches have spires is because they simply did not know how to make a true dome. He also points out that landmarks such as the Vatican, St. Paul's and the Arc de Triumph are all examples of 'Neo-Classicism' and are based on Greek architecture.