Search the internet for facts and information on the following topics. Send your answer thru this blog using the same pattern as i do. Deadline of submission is Tuesday (August 16, 2011)
1. Pope Benedict XV is the only pope honored by Turkey, a Muslim nation. His statue stands at center of city square of _St Esprit Cathedral, Istanbul Turkey.
2. Who designed the tallest building in Hong Kong?Chris Emmanuelle Daero Francisco designed the tallest building in Hong Kong.
3. In September 11, 2011, two commercial airplanes commandeered by terrorist crashed and destroyed the World Trade Center in New York. Is this the first time that an airplane crashed into skycraper in New York? No, because an airplane crashed into skycraper on New York last Sept. 11, 2001.
4.Burj Dubai or Dubai Tower is the tallest building in the world. It is located in Dubai,United Arab Emirates . The construction started in September 21, 2004 and was finished January 4,2010.
5. What are the four territories composing the United Kingdom? and where the name Great Britain came from? .The four territories are Europe, Scotland, Northern Island, and Wales.Britain came from the Welsh word Prydain Fawr, Scottish Gaelic : Breatainn Mhòr, Cornish: Breten Veur.
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Please research on the following and post through your blog or to this blog as comment.
1. Peloponnesian War
a) Brief account having the content of who are involved, what are the issues/reasons for the war, how it ended and its result.
The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta.
In 415 BC, Athens dispatched a massive expeditionary force to attack Syracuse in Sicily; the attack failed disastrously, with the destruction of the entire force, in 413 BC. This ushered in the final phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War, or the Ionian War. In this phase, Sparta, now receiving support from Persia, supported rebellions in Athens' subject states in the Aegean Sea and Ionia, undermining Athens' empire, and, eventually, depriving the city of naval supremacy. The destruction of Athens' fleet at Aegospotami effectively ended the war, and Athens surrendered in the following year. The economic costs of the war were felt all across Greece; poverty became widespread in the Peloponnese, while Athens found itself completely devastated, and never regained its pre-war prosperity.[1][2] The war also wrought subtler changes to Greek society; the conflict between democratic Athens and oligarchic Sparta, each of which supported friendly political factions within other states, made civil war a common occurrence in the Greek world.
2. Persian War
a) Brief account having the content of who are involved, what are the issues/reasons for the war, how it ended and its result.
The Greco-Persian Wars (also often called the Persian Wars) were a series of conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire of Persia and city-states of the Hellenic world that started in 499 BC and lasted until 449 BC.This was the beginning of the Ionian Revolt, which would last until 493 BC, progressively drawing more regions of Asia Minor into the conflict. Aristagoras secured military support from Athens and Eretria, and in 498 BC these forces helped to capture and burn the Persian regional capital of Sardis. The Persian king Darius the Great vowed to have revenge on Athens and Eretria for this act. The revolt continued, with the two sides effectively stalemated throughout 497–495 BC. In 494 BC, the Persians regrouped, and attacked the epicentre of the revolt in Miletus. At the Battle of Lade, the Ionians suffered a decisive defeat, and the rebellion collapsed, with the final members being stamped out the following year.
The Persian Wars were a heroic epoch for Greece in general and for Athens and Sparta in particular. Asia Minor was restored to independence, and Athens and Sparta were the undisputed leaders of Hellas.
In the longer term, victory meant Greece was now free to follow its own destiny, and free from outside influences on its culture and society. What it did with that freedom forms the subject of the next narrative.
3. Gods and Goddesses of Greece and Rome Compared
Major Gods and Goddesses
Greek Roman Descriptions
Aphrodite Venus -goddess of beauty
Apollo Apollo -god of medicine and music
Ares Mars -god of war
Artemis Diana -goddess of hunting
Athena Minerva -goddess of wisdom
Demeter Ceres -goddess of good harvest
Hades Pluto -god of the underworld
Hephaistos Vulcan -god of fire
Hera Juno -goddess of the marriage women
Hermes Mercury -messenger of the gods
Hestia Vesta -goddess of fire and home
Kronos Saturn -father of the gods and goddess
Persephone Proserpina -wife of Hades
Poseidon Neptune -god of the oceans and waters
Zeus Jupiter -god of lightning and king of the gods
4. Olympics
a)brief history
Ancient Olympic Games
The Olympic Games begun at Olympia in Greece in 776 BC. The Greek calendar was based on the Olympiad, the four-year period between games. The games were staged in the wooded valley of Olympia in Elis. Here the Greeks erected statues and built temples in a grove dedicated to Zeus, supreme among the gods. The greatest shrine was an ivory and gold statue of Zeus. Created by the sculptor Phidias, it was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Scholars have speculated that the games in 776 BC were not the first games, but rather the first games held after they were organized into festivals held every four years as a result of a peace agreement between the city-states of Elis and Pisa. The Eleans traced the founding of the Olympic games to their King Iphitos, who was told by the Delphi Oracle to plant the olive tree from which the victors' wreaths were made.
According to Hippias of Elis, who compiled a list of Olympic victors c.400 BC, at first the only Olympic event was a 200-yard dash, called a stadium. This was the only event until 724 BC, when a two-stadia race was added. Two years later the 24-stadia event began, and in 708 the pentathlon was added and wrestling became part of the games. This pentathlon, a five-event match consisted of running, wrestling, leaping, throwing the discus, and hurling the javelin. In time boxing, a chariot race, and other events were included.
The victors of these early games were crowned with wreaths from a sacred olive tree that grew behind the temple of Zeus. According to tradition this tree was planted by Hercules (Heracles), founder of the games. The winners marched around the grove to the accompaniment of a flute while admirers chanted songs written by a prominent poet.
The Olympic Games were held without interruptions in ancient Greece. The games were even held in 480 BC during the Persian Wars, and coincided with the Battle of Thermopylae. Although the Olympic games were never suspended, the games of 364 BC were not considered Olympic since the Arkadians had captured the sanctuary and reorganized the games.
After the Battle of Chaironeia in 338 BC, Philip of Makedon and his son Alexander gained control over the Greek city-states. They erected the Philippeion (a family memorial) in the sanctuary, and held political meetings at Olympia during each Olympiad. In 146 BC, the Romans gained control of Greece and, therefore, of the Olympic games. In 85 BC, the Roman general Sulla plundered the sanctuary to finance his campaign against Mithridates. Sulla also moved the 175th Olympiad (80 BC) to Rome.
The games were held every four years from 776 BC to 393 AD, when they were abolished by the Christian Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I. The ancient Olympic Games lasted for 1170 years.
The successful campaign to revive the Olympics was started in France by Baron Pierre de Coubertin late in the 19th century. The first of the modern Summer Games opened on Sunday, March 24, 1896, in Athens, Greece. The first race was won by an American college student named James Connolly.
b)contests/events
* Archery
* Athletics
* Badminton
* Basketball
* Boxing
* Canoeing
* Cycling
* Diving
* Equestrian
* Fencing
* Field Hockey
* Football (Soccer)
* Gymnastics
* Handball
* Judo
* Modern Pentathlon
* Rowing
* Sailing
* Shooting
* Swimming
* Synchronized Swimming
* Table Tennis
* Taekwondo
* Tennis
* Triathlon
* Volleyball
* Water Polo
* Weightlifting
* Wrestling
c)Filipino winners to the Beijing Olympics
ARCHERY
Mark Javier:
This is the first Olympic games for the 27-year-old from Dumaguete City, Philippines. He earned an Olympic berth after placing first in the Asian Continental competition in Xian, China. He’s a 2005 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games gold medalist and won a bronze medal in the 2007 SEA Games in Thailand.
TAEKWONDO
Mary Antoinette Rivero:
Rivero is also another gold medal hopeful. The 20-year-old student at Ateneo de Manila University nearly captured a silver medal four years ago in Athens. In the semifinals, she faced off against Greece’s Elizavet Mystakidou losing a close 2-3 decision. A win would have guaranteed Rivero a silver medal and a shot at gold. She got neither and lost the bronze medal match.
TRACK AND FIELD
Marestella Torres:
Torres is a 27-year-old competing in the women’s long jump. She captured the gold medal at the 2005 SEA and 2007 SEA Games. The Philippine Track and Field Association (PATAFA) selected Torres to represent the country at the Beijing Games.
BOXING
Harry Tañamor:
Tañamor is the country’s best chance for an Olympic medal perhaps even a gold, according to Sports Illustrated Olympic edition. This is Tañamor’s second Olympic berth. The 29-year-old southpaw boxer from Zamboanga City is competing in the Light Flyweight (48 kg) division. He placed ninth in the 2004 Olympics.
DIVING
Sheila Mae Perez:
This is the third time Perez has qualified for the Olympics. After placing 32nd in the 2000 Australia games, she qualified but did not compete in the 2004 Athens Olympics. She’s won a gold and a silver medal in the 2007 SEA games and is considered by many as one of the best divers in Southeast Asia.
SWIMMING
Daniel Coakley:
Coakley is a 19-year-old FilAm hailing from Hawaii. He holds the Philippine Record in the 50m freestyle (23.08 seconds) and the SEA Games Record in the same event (22.80 sec.). It’s been reported that Coakley is the grand nephew of the late Teofilo Yldefonso, who is considered by many as the greatest Philippine swimmer. Yldefonso won the Philippines first Olympic medal (bronze) in the 200m-breaststroke event at the 1928 Amsterdam Games.
Miguel Molina:
This is the second Olympic berth for the former FilAm Cal Berkeley graduate. Molina is competing in the men’s 200m breaststroke and men’s 200m individual Medley. During the last Olympic, he posted a 2:05.28 time in the 200m individual medley.
Christel Simms:
Simms is a 17-year-old FilAm also from Hawaii. Born and raised in the US, she almost did not have a chance to represent the Philippines but the Court of Arbitration of Sports (CAS) upheld her petition to represent her parent’s home country. She qualified for the Olympics after posting 57.17 seconds, the qualifying standard for the 100m freestyle swimming events, at the USA Junior National Swimming Championships.
5. Great Greek Philosophers: Books written/Philosophies/contribution.
Great Greek philosophers
ARISTOTLE
Books written:
1. J L Ackrill, Aristotle the philosopher (Oxford, 1981).
2. D J Allan, The Philosophy of Aristotle (1978).
3. H G Apostle, Aristotle's philosophy of mathematics (Chicago, 1952).
4. J Barnes, Aristotle (Oxford, 1982).
5. J Barnes, M Schofield and R Sorabji (eds.), Articles on Aristotle (4 vols.) (London, 1975-79).
6. Z Bechler, Aristotle's theory of actuality (Albany, NY, 1995).
7. J J Cleary, Aristotle on the many senses of priority (Carbondale, IL, 1988).
8. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of eminent philosophers (New York, 1925).
9. I Düring, Aristotle in the Ancient Biographical Tradition (Göteborg, 1957).
10. F Grayeff, Aristotle and his school (London, 1974).
11. W K C Guthrie, A history of Greek philosophy Volume 6, Aristotle : An encounter (Cambridge, 1981).
12. T L Heath, Mathematics in Aristotle (Oxford, 1949).
13. T L Heath, A history of Greek mathematics 1 (Oxford, 1931).
14. W W Jaeger, Aristotle (Oxford, 1948).
15. J Lear, Aristotle and logical theory (Cambridge-New York, 1980).
16. J Lukasiewicz, Aristotle's Syllogistic from the Standpoint of Modern Formal Logic (1967).
17. J P Lynch, Aristotle's school : A Study of a Greek Educational Institution (Berkeley, 1972).
18. R Sorabji, Necessity, Cause, and Blame: Perspectives on Aristotle's Theory (1980).
19. R Sorabji, Time, Creation, and the Continuum: Theories in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (1983).
20. H B Veatch, Aristotle, a contemporary appreciation (Bloomington, 1974).
21. S Waterlow, Nature, Change, and Agency in Aristotle's "Physics" (1982).
22. J Wiesner (ed.), Aristoteles : Werk und Wirkung. Band 1. (Berlin-New York, 1985).
23. J Wiesner (ed.), Aristoteles : Werk und Wirkung. Band 2. (Berlin-New York, 1987).
Philosophies:
Logic and Metaphysics
Aristotle placed great emphasis in his school on direct observation of nature, and in science he taught that theory must follow fact. He considered philosophy to be the discerning of the self-evident, changeless first principles that form the basis of all knowledge. Logic was for Aristotle the necessary tool of any inquiry, and the syllogism was the sequence that all logical thought follows. He introduced the notion of category into logic and taught that reality could be classified according to several categories-substance (the primary category), quality, quantity, relation, determination in time and space, action, passion or passivity, position, and condition.
Aristotle also taught that knowledge of a thing, beyond its classification and description, requires an explanation of causality, or why it is. He posited four causes or principles of explanation: the material cause (the substance of which the thing is made); the formal cause (its design); the efficient cause (its maker or builder); and the final cause (its purpose or function). In modern thought the efficient cause is generally considered the central explanation of a thing, but for Aristotle the final cause had primacy.
He used this account of causes to examine the relation of form to matter, and in his conclusions differed sharply from those of his teacher, Plato. Aristotle believed that a form, with the exception of the Prime Mover, or God, had no separate existence, but rather was immanent in matter. Thus, in the Aristotelian system, form and matter together constitute concrete individual realities; the Platonic system holds that a concrete reality partakes of a form (the ideal) but does not embody it. Aristotle believed that form caused matter to move and defined motion as the process by which the potentiality of matter (the thing itself) became the actuality of form (motion itself). He held that the Prime Mover alone was pure form and as the "unmoved mover" and final cause was the goal of all motion.
Ethics and Other Aspects
Aristotle's ethical theory reflects his metaphysics. Following Plato, he argued that the goodness or virtue of a thing lay in the realization of its specific nature. The highest good for humans is the complete and habitual exercise of the specifically human function-rationality. Rationality is exercised through the practice of two kinds of virtue, moral and intellectual. Aristotle emphasized the traditional Greek notion of moral virtue as the mean between extremes. Well-being (eudaemonia) is the pursuit not of pleasure (hedonism) but rather of the Good, a composite ideal, consisting of contemplation (the intellectual life) and, subordinate to that, engagement in politics (the moral life). In the Politics, Aristotle holds that, by nature, humans form political associations, and he explores the best forms these may take. For Aristotle's aesthetic views, which are set forth in the Poetics, see tragedy.
CONTRIBUTIONS:
While Aristotle's contributions in each subject were considerable for the time, his major contribution was to the overall study and teaching of such subjects, many of which had never been considered before. Two areas which he advanced, which are of particular interest to readers of this site were physics and astronomy. He made very interesting discussion OS the topics of matter, change, movement, space, position, and time as well as studying comets.
Aristotle was forced to mave one more time during his lifetime. Alexander the Great died in 232BC, leaving behind strong feelings in Athens. Thanks to his ties to Macedonia, Aristotle was forced to retire to Chalcis, his mothers homeland, where he moved into a house once owned by his mother which still belonged to her family.
PLATO
Books written:
1. Nonesuch Books For Christmas, 1925; For The Spring, 1926. With a Hand-List of Books Hitherto Published by the Press
2. The Philosophy of Plato
3.Classics in Translation. Volume 1: Greek Literature. Volume 2: Latin Literature. TWO (2) VOLUME SET
4.The Transformation of Natural Philosophy : The Case of Philip Melancthon. FIRST EDITION : 1995. HARDBACK IN JACKET
5.The Harvard Classics Complete Set of Books - 52 Volumes (The Five Foot Shelf Of Books)
6.GREAT BOOKS SECOND YEAR READINGS. broken set..14 paperbound Books, In Old Faded BROWN Box.Great Books Foundation,Chicago 2nd
7.GREAT BOOKS FIRST YEAR READINGS. full set..16 paperbound Books, In Old Yellow Box..Great Books Foundation,Chicago 1st yr
8.Nonesuch books. For Christmas, 1925. For the spring, 1926. With a hand-list of books hitherto published by the Press. [Prospectus]
9.Nonesuch Books for Christmas 1925. For the Spring 1926 with a Hand-list of Books Hitherto Published By the Press
10. The Republic - Spark Notes
11.Theaetetus
12.The Real Plato Jones
13.Plato the Republic
14.Five Great Dialogues - Apology - Crito - Phaedo - Symposium - Republic
15.Euthyprho Apology and Crito and the Death Scene from Phsedo
16.The Apology, Phaedo and Cirto of Plato - the Golden Sayings of Epictetus - the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
17.Dialogues of Plato: Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Symposium, Republic (series: Collector's Edition)
18.Republic
19.Everyman's Library - the Republic of of Plato
20.Democracy Governance and Globalization : Essays in Honour of Paul H Appleby
21.Plato
22.Nature's Oddities
23.The genesis of Plato's Thought
24.WHY DO WE LAUGH AND CRY?
25.Plato Learning: Interactive Mathematics: Intermediate Algebra (Intermediate Algebra)
26.Story of Philosophy, The
27.A Selection of Passages from Plato for English Readers
28.History of Western Philosophy, A
29.Last of the Wine, The
30.Blue Star Bilingual famous Harvard Guide: Sophie World
31.From Plato to Barthes s literary theory
32.The dialogues of Plato, selections
33.Huge collection of sixty-six various books, mostly in the black Penguin / Pelican Classics series (please email us for a full list of authors and titles and this listing gets truncated by the on-line searches), comprising the following books: <p><p> *. ***** THE ANNALS OF IMPERIAL ROME by Tacitus. Translated by Michael Grant. <p> SELECTED WORKS by Cicero. Translated by Michael Grant. Includes Against Verres - I, Twenty-Three Letters, The Second Philippic Against Antony, On Duteis - III, On Old Age. <p> THE DIVINE COMEDY, VOL. II: PURGATORY by Dante. Translated with notes and commentary by Mark Musa. <p> THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR by Thucydides. Translated with an introduction by Rex Warner. Tear in front cover gutter. <p> THE TRANSFORMATION OF LUCIUS, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE GOLDEN ASS. Translated by Robert Graves. <p> LETTERS FROM A STOIC by Seneca. <p> THE HISTORIES by Herodotus. Translated by Aubrey de Selincourt. Revised edition and with notes by A.R. Burn. <p
34.Huge collection of sixty-six various books, mostly in the black Penguin / Pelican Classics series (please email us for a full list of authors and titles and this listing gets truncated by the on-line searches), comprising the following books: *. ***** THE ANNALS OF IMPERIAL ROME by Tacitus. Translated by Michael Grant. SELECTED WORKS by Cicero. Translated by Michael Grant. Includes Against Verres - I, Twenty-Three Letters, The Second Philippic Against Antony, On Duteis - III, On Old Age. THE DIVINE COMEDY, VOL. II: PURGATORY by Dante. Translated with notes and commentary by Mark Musa. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR by Thucydides. Translated with an introduction by Rex Warner. Tear in front cover gutter. THE TRANSFORMATION OF LUCIUS, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE GOLDEN ASS. Translated by Robert Graves. LETTERS FROM A STOIC by Seneca. THE HISTORIES by Herodotus. Translated by Aubrey de Selincourt. Revised edition and with notes by A.R. Burn. THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA by A.O. Exquemelin. Orestes and Other Plays. by E
35.Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boetius His Consolation of Philosophy, in Five Books. Translated into English
36.Anecdotes, Observations and Characters of Books and Men. Collected from the Conversation of Mr. Pope, and Other Eminent Persons of His Time. By the Rev. Joseph Spence. Now First Published from the Original Papers, With Notes and a Life of the Author. By Samuel Weller Singer
37.(Opera omnia). Latin trans. by Marsilio Ficino, and commentary by Simon Grynaeus
Philosophies:
Recurrent themes
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael. Aristotle gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience, while holding a copy of his Nicomachean Ethics in his hand. Plato holds his Timaeus and gestures to the heavens, representing his belief in The Forms
Plato often discusses the father-son relationship and the "question" of whether a father's interest in his sons has much to do with how well his sons turn out. A boy in ancient Athens was socially located by his family identity, and Plato often refers to his characters in terms of their paternal and fraternal relationships. Socrates was not a family man, and saw himself as the son of his mother, who was apparently a midwife. A divine fatalist, Socrates mocks men who spent exorbitant fees on tutors and trainers for their sons, and repeatedly ventures the idea that good character is a gift from the gods. Crito reminds Socrates that orphans are at the mercy of chance, but Socrates is unconcerned. In the Theaetetus, he is found recruiting as a disciple a young man whose inheritance has been squandered. Socrates twice compares the relationship of the older man and his boy lover to the father-son relationship (Lysis 213a, Republic 3.403b), and in the Phaedo, Socrates' disciples, towards whom he displays more concern than his biological sons, say they will feel "fatherless" when he is gone.
In several dialogues, Socrates floats the idea that knowledge is a matter of recollection, and not of learning, observation, or study.[33] He maintains this view somewhat at his own expense, because in many dialogues, Socrates complains of his forgetfulness. Socrates is often found arguing that knowledge is not empirical, and that it comes from divine insight. In many middle period dialogues, such as the Phaedo, Republic and Phaedrus Plato advocates a belief in the immortality of the soul, and several dialogues end with long speeches imagining the afterlife. More than one dialogue contrasts knowledge and opinion, perception and reality, nature and custom, and body and soul.
Several dialogues tackle questions about art: Socrates says that poetry is inspired by the muses, and is not rational. He speaks approvingly of this, and other forms of divine madness (drunkenness, eroticism, and dreaming) in the Phaedrus (265a–c), and yet in the Republic wants to outlaw Homer's great poetry, and laughter as well. In Ion, Socrates gives no hint of the disapproval of Homer that he expresses in the Republic. The dialogue Ion suggests that Homer's Iliad functioned in the ancient Greek world as the Bible does today in the modern Christian world: as divinely inspired literature that can provide moral guidance, if only it can be properly interpreted.
On politics and art, religion and science, justice and medicine, virtue and vice, crime and punishment, pleasure and pain, rhetoric and rhapsody, human nature and sexuality, love and wisdom, Socrates and his company of disputants had something to say.
Metaphysics
"Platonism" is a term coined by scholars to refer to the intellectual consequences of denying, as Socrates often does, the reality of the material world. In several dialogues, most notably the Republic, Socrates inverts the common man's intuition about what is knowable and what is real. While most people take the objects of their senses to be real if anything is, Socrates is contemptuous of people who think that something has to be graspable in the hands to be real. In the Theaetetus, he says such people are "eu a-mousoi", an expression that means literally, "happily without the muses" (Theaetetus 156a). In other words, such people live without the divine inspiration that gives him, and people like him, access to higher insights about reality.
Socrates's idea that reality is unavailable to those who use their senses is what puts him at odds with the common man, and with common sense. Socrates says that he who sees with his eyes is blind, and this idea is most famously captured in his allegory of the cave, and more explicitly in his description of the divided line. The allegory of the cave (begins Republic 7.514a) is a paradoxical analogy wherein Socrates argues that the invisible world is the most intelligible ("noeton") and that the visible world ("(h)oraton") is the least knowable, and the most obscure.
Socrates says in the Republic that people who take the sun-lit world of the senses to be good and real are living pitifully in a den of evil and ignorance. Socrates admits that few climb out of the den, or cave of ignorance, and those who do, not only have a terrible struggle to attain the heights, but when they go back down for a visit or to help other people up, they find themselves objects of scorn and ridicule.
According to Socrates, physical objects and physical events are "shadows" of their ideal or perfect forms, and exist only to the extent that they instantiate the perfect versions of themselves. Just as shadows are temporary, inconsequential epiphenomena produced by physical objects, physical objects are themselves fleeting phenomena caused by more substantial causes, the ideals of which they are mere instances. For example, Socrates thinks that perfect justice exists ( although it is not clear where) and his own trial would be a cheap copy of it.
The allegory of the cave (often said by scholars to represent Plato's own epistemology and metaphysics) is intimately connected to his political ideology (often said to also be Plato's own), that only people who have climbed out of the cave and cast their eyes on a vision of goodness are fit to rule. Socrates claims that the enlightened men of society must be forced from their divine contemplations and be compelled to run the city according to their lofty insights. Thus is born the idea of the "philosopher-king", the wise person who accepts the power thrust upon him by the people who are wise enough to choose a good master. This is the main thesis of Socrates in the Republic, that the most wisdom the masses can muster is the wise choice of a ruler.
The word metaphysics derives from the fact that Aristotle's musings about divine reality came after ("meta") his lecture notes on his treatise on nature ("physics"). The term is in fact applied to Aristotle's own teacher, and Plato's "metaphysics" is understood as Socrates' division of reality into the warring and irreconcilable domains of the material and the spiritual. The theory has been of incalculable influence in the history of Western philosophy and religion.
Theory of Forms
The Theory of Forms (Greek: ιδέες) typically refers to the belief expressed by Socrates in some of Plato's dialogues, that the material world as it seems to us is not the real world, but only an image or copy of the real world. Socrates spoke of forms in formulating a solution to the problem of universals. The forms, according to Socrates, are roughly speaking archetypes or abstract representations of the many types of things, and properties we feel and see around us, that can only be perceived by reason (Greek: λογική); (that is, they are universals). In other words, Socrates sometimes seems to recognise two worlds: the apparent world, which constantly changes, and an unchanging and unseen world of forms, which may be a cause of what is apparent.
Epistemology
Many have interpreted Plato as stating that knowledge is justified true belief, an influential view that informed future developments in modern analytic epistemology. This interpretation is based on a reading of the Theaetetus wherein Plato argues that belief is to be distinguished from knowledge on account of justification. Many years later, Edmund Gettier famously demonstrated the problems of the justified true belief account of knowledge. This interpretation, however, imports modern analytic and empiricist categories onto Plato himself and is better read on its own terms than as Plato's view.[citation needed]
Really, in the Sophist, Statesman, Republic, and the Parmenides Plato himself associates knowledge with the apprehension of unchanging Forms and their relationships to one another (which he calls "expertise" in Dialectic). More explicitly, Plato himself argues in the Timaeus that knowledge is always proportionate to the realm from which it is gained. In other words, if one derives one's account of something experientially, because the world of sense is in flux, the views therein attained will be mere opinions. And opinions are characterized by a lack of necessity and stability. On the other hand, if one derives one's account of something by way of the non-sensible forms, because these forms are unchanging, so too is the account derived from them. It is only in this sense that Plato uses the term "knowledge".
In the Meno, Socrates uses a geometrical example to expound Plato's view that knowledge in this latter sense is acquired by recollection. Socrates elicits a fact concerning a geometrical construction from a slave boy, who could not have otherwise known the fact (due to the slave boy's lack of education). The knowledge must be present, Socrates concludes, in an eternal, non-experiential form.
The state
Plato's philosophical views had many societal implications, especially on the idea of an ideal state or government. There is some discrepancy between his early and later views. Some of the most famous doctrines are contained in the Republic during his middle period, as well as in the Laws and the Statesman. However, because Plato wrote dialogues, it is assumed that Socrates is often speaking for Plato. This assumption may not be true in all cases.
Plato, through the words of Socrates, asserts that societies have a tripartite class structure corresponding to the appetite/spirit/reason structure of the individual soul. The appetite/spirit/reason stand for different parts of the body. The body parts symbolize the castes of society.[34]
* Productive, which represents the abdomen. (Workers) — the labourers, carpenters, plumbers, masons, merchants, farmers, ranchers, etc. These correspond to the "appetite" part of the soul.
* Protective, which represents the chest. (Warriors or Guardians) — those who are adventurous, strong and brave; in the armed forces. These correspond to the "spirit" part of the soul.
* Governing, which represents the head. (Rulers or Philosopher Kings) — those who are intelligent, rational, self-controlled, in love with wisdom, well suited to make decisions for the community. These correspond to the "reason" part of the soul and are very few.
According to this model, the principles of Athenian democracy (as it existed in his day) are rejected as only a few are fit to rule. Instead of rhetoric and persuasion, Plato says reason and wisdom should govern. As Plato puts it:
"Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophise, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils,... nor, I think, will the human race." (Republic 473c-d)
Plato in his academy, drawing after a painting by Swedish painter Carl Johan Wahlbom
Plato describes these "philosopher kings" as "those who love the sight of truth" (Republic 475c) and supports the idea with the analogy of a captain and his ship or a doctor and his medicine. According to him, sailing and health are not things that everyone is qualified to practice by nature. A large part of the Republic then addresses how the educational system should be set up to produce these philosopher kings.
However, it must be taken into account that the ideal city outlined in the Republic is qualified by Socrates as the ideal luxurious city, examined to determine how it is that injustice and justice grow in a city (Republic 372e). According to Socrates, the "true" and "healthy" city is instead the one first outlined in book II of the Republic, 369c–372d, containing farmers, craftsmen, merchants, and wage-earners, but lacking the guardian class of philosopher-kings as well as delicacies such as "perfumed oils, incense, prostitutes, and pastries", in addition to paintings, gold, ivory, couches, a multitude of occupations such as poets and hunters, and war.
In addition, the ideal city is used as an image to illuminate the state of one's soul, or the will, reason, and desires combined in the human body. Socrates is attempting to make an image of a rightly ordered human, and then later goes on to describe the different kinds of humans that can be observed, from tyrants to lovers of money in various kinds of cities. The ideal city is not promoted, but only used to magnify the different kinds of individual humans and the state of their soul. However, the philosopher king image was used by many after Plato to justify their personal political beliefs. The philosophic soul according to Socrates has reason, will, and desires united in virtuous harmony. A philosopher has the moderate love for wisdom and the courage to act according to wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge about the Good or the right relations between all that exists.
Wherein it concerns states and rulers, Plato has made interesting arguments. For instance he asks which is better—a bad democracy or a country reigned by a tyrant. He argues that it is better to be ruled by a bad tyrant, than be a bad democracy (since here all the people are now responsible for such actions, rather than one individual committing many bad deeds.) This is emphasised within the Republic as Plato describes the event of mutiny onboard a ship.[35] Plato suggests the ships crew to be in line with the democratic rule of many and the captain, although inhibited through ailments, the tyrant. Plato's description of this event is parallel to that of democracy within the state and the inherent problems that arise.
According to Plato, a state made up of different kinds of souls will, overall, decline from an aristocracy (rule by the best) to a timocracy (rule by the honorable), then to an oligarchy (rule by the few), then to a democracy (rule by the people), and finally to tyranny (rule by one person, rule by a tyrant).[citation needed]
Unwritten doctrine
For a long time Plato's unwritten doctrine[36][37][38] had been considered unworthy of attention. Most of the books on Plato seem to diminish its importance. Nevertheless the first important witness who mentions its existence is Aristotle, who in his Physics (209 b) writes: "It is true, indeed, that the account he gives there [i.e. in Timaeus] of the participant is different from what he says in his so-called unwritten teaching (ἄγραφα δόγματα)." The term ἄγραφα δόγματα literally means unwritten doctrine and it stands for the most fundamental metaphysical teaching of Plato, which he disclosed only to his most trusted fellows and kept secret from the public.
The reason for not revealing it to everyone is partially discussed in Phaedrus (276 c) where Plato criticizes the written transmission of knowledge as faulty, favoring instead the spoken logos: "he who has knowledge of the just and the good and beautiful ... will not, when in earnest, write them in ink, sowing them through a pen with words, which cannot defend themselves by argument and cannot teach the truth effectually." The same argument is repeated in Plato's Seventh Letter (344 c): "every serious man in dealing with really serious subjects carefully avoids writing." In the same letter he writes (341 c): "I can certainly declare concerning all these writers who claim to know the subjects that I seriously study ... there does not exist, nor will there ever exist, any treatise of mine dealing therewith." Such secrecy is necessary in order not "to expose them to unseemly and degrading treatment" (344 d).
It is however said that Plato once disclosed this knowledge to the public in his lecture On the Good (Περὶ τἀγαθοῦ), in which the Good (τὸ ἀγαθόν) is identified with the One (the Unity, τὸ ἕν), the fundamental ontological principle. The content of this lecture has been transmitted by several witnesses, among others Aristoxenus who describes the event in the following words: "Each came expecting to learn something about the things that are generally considered good for men, such as wealth, good health, physical strength, and altogether a kind of wonderful happiness. But when the mathematical demonstrations came, including numbers, geometrical figures and astronomy, and finally the statement Good is One seemed to them, I imagine, utterly unexpected and strange; hence some belittled the matter, while others rejected it." Simplicius quotes Alexander of Aphrodisias who states that "according to Plato, the first principles of everything, including the Forms themselves are One and Indefinite Duality (ἡ ἀόριστος δυάς), which he called Large and Small (τὸ μέγα καὶ τὸ μικρόν) ... one might also learn this from Speusippus and Xenocrates and the others who were present at Plato's lecture on the Good"
Their account is in full agreement with Aristotle's description of Plato's metaphysical doctrine. In Metaphysics he writes: "Now since the Forms are the causes of everything else, he [i.e. Plato] supposed that their elements are the elements of all things. Accordingly the material principle is the Great and Small [i.e. the Dyad], and the essence is the One (τὸ ἕν), since the numbers are derived from the Great and Small by participation in the One" (987 b). "From this account it is clear that he only employed two causes: that of the essence, and the material cause; for the Forms are the cause of the essence in everything else, and the One is the cause of it in the Forms. He also tells us what the material substrate is of which the Forms are predicated in the case of sensible things, and the One in that of the Forms - that it is this the duality (the Dyad, ἡ δυάς), the Great and Small (τὸ μέγα καὶ τὸ μικρόν). Further, he assigned to these two elements respectively the causation of good and of evil" (988 a).
The most important aspect of this interpretation of Plato's metaphysics is the continuity between his teaching and the neoplatonic interpretation of Plotinus[39] or Ficino[40] which has been considered erroneous by many but may in fact have been directly influenced by oral transmission of Plato's doctrine. A modern scholar who recognized the importance of the unwritten doctrine of Plato was Heinrich Gomperz who described it in his speech during the 7th International Congress of Philosophy in 1930.[41] All the sources related to the ἄγραφα δόγματα have been collected by Konrad Gaiser and published as Testimonia Platonica.[42] These sources have subsequently been interpreted by scholars from the German Tübingen School such as Hans Joachim Krämer or Thomas A. Szlezák.[43]
Dialectic
The role of dialectic in Plato's thought is contested but there are two main interpretations; a type of reasoning and a method of intuition.[44] Simon Blackburn adopts the first, saying that Plato's dialectic is “the process of eliciting the truth by means of questions aimed at opening out what is already implicitly known, or at exposing the contradictions and muddles of an opponent’s position.”[45] Karl Popper, on the other hand, claims that dialectic is the art of intuition for "visualising the divine originals, the Forms or Ideas, of unveiling the Great Mystery behind the common man's everyday world of appearances.
CONTRIBUTIONS:
Plato was one of those Greek philosophers that continue to influence much of what is practiced or said in today’s society. Plato was a thinker and through his thinking techniques he was able to acquire much from an individual therefore, he was a thinking educator. He made those that inquired knowledge from him to rethink their thought process to arise to a conclusion. He also believed that everyone should receive some type of education. He believed if a child was taken from its mother early that individual could be influenced by being cultivated from the state and grow up and become an active leading citizen. He was well known for what the state can do and how its influence on an individual’s life was important. As a result he did not believe that talent can be passed down from parent to child.
Plato believed in absolute truth. He believed that truth was one of those things that could not be changed or altered in any way and that it was eternal. He was also against materialism and believed that ideas and or forms were important. To him this was a good beginning for all truth. To Plato matter was always changing and was not reliable; in other words it was unstable. In order to understand forms one should take advantage of forms, be progressive and unselfish and at the same time renounce matter. To him people were ignorant and needed to escape illusions in order to help others.
Plato thought and idealism was that a person was born with true knowledge or forms but after birth being placed in this world that individual became corrupted. Once this happens then that person spends the rest of its life trying to seek out that truth. Everyone was a copy of something else and there was only one perfect entity and that was God. Therefore, all things originated from God and will lead back to God. Plato believed that the soul was like an exalted being that is not visible but exists before birth and continues to exist after death. His principle was evil is just what it is and could not be or exist be itself.
It was Plato that came up with the notion of 2+2=4, all due to his thinking or absolute. Due to this Plato made great contributions to natural philosophy, and science that are being practiced in the western education. He taught philosophy, mathematics and logics. His listening skills brought out the best in individuals. As a result Plato’s ideas are still important today.
SOCRATES
Books written:
1.The Hamlyn Dictionary of Quotations. Over 3500 Quotations From the Classical World to the Space Age
2.'LIKE SOCRATES': POPE'S ART OF DYING
3.I Am Charlotte Simmons
4.Woody Allen Three Volume Boxed Set: Without Feathers; Side Effects; Getting Even
5.I Am Charlotte Simmons
6.Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Philosophers - Socrates
7.Parallel Thinking: From Socrates to De Bono
8.Last of the Wine, The
9.History of Western Philosophy, A
10. Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy
11. Blue Star Bilingual famous Harvard Guide: Sophie World
12. The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates: Comprising a History of the Church in Seven Books
13. Ecclesiastical Histories of Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen and Theodorit
14. weakness of human nature, The Complete Works (Vol. I)
15. Huge collection of sixty-six various books, mostly in the black Penguin / Pelican Classics series (please email us for a full list of authors and titles and this listing gets truncated by the on-line searches), comprising the following books: <p><p> *. ***** THE ANNALS OF IMPERIAL ROME by Tacitus. Translated by Michael Grant. <p> SELECTED WORKS by Cicero. Translated by Michael Grant. Includes Against Verres - I, Twenty-Three Letters, The Second Philippic Against Antony, On Duteis - III, On Old Age. <p> THE DIVINE COMEDY, VOL. II: PURGATORY by Dante. Translated with notes and commentary by Mark Musa. <p> THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR by Thucydides. Translated with an introduction by Rex Warner. Tear in front cover gutter. <p> THE TRANSFORMATION OF LUCIUS, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE GOLDEN ASS. Translated by Robert Graves. <p> LETTERS FROM A STOIC by Seneca. <p> THE HISTORIES by Herodotus. Translated by Aubrey de Selincourt. Revised edition and with notes by A.R. Burn. <p
16. Huge collection of sixty-six various books, mostly in the black Penguin / Pelican Classics series (please email us for a full list of authors and titles and this listing gets truncated by the on-line searches), comprising the following books: *. ***** THE ANNALS OF IMPERIAL ROME by Tacitus. Translated by Michael Grant. SELECTED WORKS by Cicero. Translated by Michael Grant. Includes Against Verres - I, Twenty-Three Letters, The Second Philippic Against Antony, On Duteis - III, On Old Age. THE DIVINE COMEDY, VOL. II: PURGATORY by Dante. Translated with notes and commentary by Mark Musa. THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR by Thucydides. Translated with an introduction by Rex Warner. Tear in front cover gutter. THE TRANSFORMATION OF LUCIUS, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE GOLDEN ASS. Translated by Robert Graves. LETTERS FROM A STOIC by Seneca. THE HISTORIES by Herodotus. Translated by Aubrey de Selincourt. Revised edition and with notes by A.R. Burn. THE BUCCANEERS OF AMERICA by A.O. Exquemelin. Orestes and Other Plays. by E
17.The Memorable Things of Socrates By Xenophon in Five Books Translated Into English to Which are Prefix'd the Life of Socrates from the French of Monfleur Charpentier Member of the French Academy and Life of Xenophon Collected from Feveral Authours -------
Philosophies:
1. THE PROPER STUDY OF PHILOSOPHY IS MAN. Socrates was not concerned with metaphysical questions as such. He believed that philosophy should achieve practical results in the form of greater well-being for man the individual and for mankind as a society. Hence, the proper study of philosophy is man. In pursuit of this study, Socrates' interests were centered in ethics and politics. 2. NATURAL ETHIC. Socrates attempted to establish an ethical system based upon human reason rather than upon theological directives.
3. KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM. Socrates asserted that the highest good for any human being is happiness. Whatever action a man chooses is motivated by his desire for happiness. Knowledge, virtue, and wisdom are all the same, since man chooses an action according to what he thinks will bring him the greatest happiness. Therefore the more a man knows, the greater his ability to reason out the correct choice and to choose those actions which truly bring happiness to him.
4. SELF-KNOWLEDGE. The highest knowledge is possessed by that individual who truly knows himself. This knowledge constitutes ultimate wisdom. It enables man to act in a virtuous manner at all times, because he knows what will bring him true happiness.
5. POLITICS. Socrates did not approve of tyranny or of democracy. He believed that the best form of government was one ruled by an individual possessing the greatest ability, knowledge, and virtue.
CONTRIBUTIONS:
THE EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF SOCRATIC THOUGHT. The contributions of Socrates to education were: 1. TEACHING METHOD. The Socratic method offers the following advantages to teaching act:
a. Problem Centered. The dialectic begins with a problem which must be analyzed, e.g. "What is your opinion about the nature of justice?" b. Based Upon Student Experience. The student responds on the basis of his own knowledge and experience.
c. Critical Thinking. The student is held responsible for his statements. The teacher analyzes some of the possible consequences of the student's remarks. The emphasis is upon the thinking processes of the student, who must think for himself and accept the consequences of his logic.
d. Teaching Is a Drawing Forth Rather Than a Telling. In the Socratic method the teacher does not tell the student the proper answer. He draws from the student the probable answer.
e. Learning Is Discovery. The student learns when he discovers the true generalization through his reasoning processes.
2. PURPOSE OF EDUCATION DEFINED. The aims of education as derived from Socratic thought are:
a. Self-knowledge. The educated man is wise when he knows himself. b. Individual Moral Good. The acquisition of knowledge is valuable for man because it makes him virtuous and happy. Socrates repudiated any ornamental theory of knowledge. In similar fashion Socrates would deplore the use of knowledge merely for material success in life. Knowledge is ethically and morally important for all men.
c. Skill in Thinking. Each man must develop his skill in critically appraising propositions through the reasoning process.
