History Final Exam Flashcards
Abraham
He is the Father of faith because of his trust in God. His faith: “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”. He was born in Ur and was born into a polytheistic culture.
Moses/Law & Covenant
It is contained in Torah. It is instructions for ritual of worship. A moral: legal code. Moses- Is the law giver, not the law maker. He received the law from God and gave it to his people. The law of Moses if found in the Hewbrew scripture
Jewish Legacy
Law: Knowable morality and moral responsibility of individual
Covenant: Relational, obedience/love to person, not simply to abstract principles
Greek philosophy (definition, origins)
“love of wisdom” and it originated in Greek city states. (6th century BC). Reasoned inquiry into the principles of natural world, divine beings, and human affairs.
Plato’s Soul
Head: reason
Chest: spiritedness
Stomach: appetite
Greek polis
Enable the individual to be happy, highest form of association, value of participation. Referred to common life in Greek city
Greek happiness
Eudaimonia (good spirit) and our high attainable good to “live well”
Path of virtue (definition, elements of virtue)
A habit of excellence in one area of action. There is intellectual virtues (intellect) and Moral virtues (character). It is important because it is the most stable element in happiness.
Elements of virtue:
- Voluntary
- Deliberative
- Aspirational
- Habitual
- Moderate
Pax Romana, c. 30 BC – 180 A.D
200 years of internal peace, population is 70 million, defense against invasion, suppression of revolt, stable currency, Marcos Aurelius is the last emperor of the Pax Romana. Then war and decline
Stoicism: Stoic way to happiness
- Accept fate
- Live according to reason
- Practice the virtue
- Control your emotions (4 cardinal virtue: Wisdom, justice, fortitudecourage, temperance)
Decline of the Roman Empire (where/when)
200-500 AD, western part of the roman empire
Causes of the decline of the Roman empire
Political instability, barbarians’ invasion, Declining population, manpower shortage, and heavy taxation
The Roman Empire and Christianity
Diocletian’s tetrarchy. 2 co-emperors (1 in the east and 1 in the west). 2 “Caesars” and one under each co-emperor. Better defense and to secure successor
Edict of Milan
Christianity would be tolerated along with other religions.
Why did Christianity spread?
The theory of Rodney stark (slow and steady growth, 3% per decade, govt support), Witness of the Martyrs, and the Christian community (open to slaves and poor, aid in times of epidemic)
Byzantine Empire (main features, legacy)
Main features: Continues “roman” rule in the east, loses territory in the east to Muslims, capital (Constantinople), last till 1450, Greek language/ culture, eastern orthodoxy, Greek New Testament, Greek theology, and Pentarchy
Legacy: Preserved roman law, evangelized eastern Europe, preserved ancient Greek learning, slowed the advance of Islam
Muhammad’s World
The new faith, Allah, Salima (surrender, not sacrifice), restoration of faith of Abraham, Christians and jews
Medieval Europe – basic features
Successor to Roman Empire in west, latin language, roman catholic faith, initially, least culturally developed of 3 successors and politically disorganized, origins of modern Europe
3 means of conversion
- Influence of existing churches
- Missionaries – sent to evangelize pagans
- Royal coercion – Christian king imposes Christianity on his people/suppresses paganism
Means of grace (scripture, tradition, sacraments, indulgences)
Scripture: Jerome’s Latin vulgate (400 A.D), psalter(psalms), gospel books, book of hours (prayer book)
Tradition: interpretation of scripture, teaching of church councils, claim tradition is from apostles
Sacraments: instituted by Christ, ritual or action + proper disposition of participant, seven of them
Indulgences: Removes penances for sins confessed, removes punishments after death, granted for good work, almsgiving, pilgrimages
Renaissance (when/where)
1350-1550, Italy, Revival of interest in and imitation of the arts and literature of ancient Greece and Rome
Renaissance art (basics, perspective)
Revival of “naturalistic” style of ancients, study of anatomy, first use of oil paints, development of “perspective”
Renaissance humanism
Program of studies: Language- Greek and Latin, literature, history, and ethics
Tastes and distastes: love of ancient, rediscovery of ancient texts, distaste for “middle” centuries between ancients and renaissance- the Middle Ages
Protestant Revolution, 1517-1521 – 3 solas
Sola Scriptura (scripture alone), Sola Gratia (Grace alone), Sola fide (faith alone)
Enlightenment – Essentials
Essentials: 1650-1800, emphasis on power of reason to increase knowledge and improve the human condition, use of math/science, often hostile to Christian faith
Descartes (background, key themes)
1596-1650, French, devout catholic, humanist education-rejected for experience and introspection, scientist, mathematician, philosopher. Key themes: method of doubt, Existence of God (implies reality), mind-body dualism, rationalism, “I think, therefore I am”
Pascal/“Pascal’s Wager”
reason inconclusive, finite lose, infinite possible gain
Jefferson’s Deism
God who creates, rewards, punishes (including in afterlife), Jefferson’s “bible”: no miracles, against “priestcraft”, for “natural religion”, for religious freedom
Enlightenment – impact/questions
The power of reason.
Impact: legal change- religious freedom. Criminal reform, and democracy. Intellectual change- separation from authority, the past. Religious change- deism, doubt.
Questions: does anything exist beyond the reach of reason? If so, how do we get to it? What about ourselves, not as we are (reason) but as we are not yet, but may be (in this life or next)?
Winners/impact
Winners: the Spaniards and the British
Impact: Demographic catastrophe and the spread of European culture (modified)
Native America, c. 1500
45 million, Horticultural/sedentary, densely populated/urbanized, and Tenochtitlan (Mexico) – pop 200,000 (3x Seville, Spain)
Making of New Spain/northern New Spain
Conquest: Caribbean (1492-1514), Mexico (1519-21), Peru (1532), and Rich, populous native kingdoms
Spanish gains: Rule over 20m Indians, Indians labor + tribute, town/cities, silver/gold, and conversion opportunities
Demographic catastrophe, c. 1500-1600
Indian population decline, war, abuse, disease (lack of immunity)
Slavery in English Colonies (timing of rise, total # slaves)
late 1600s. 360,000+ slaves to the thirteen colonies and 4m slaves in the US by 1860.
Reasons for the rise of slavery
Transatlantic slave already existed, legal in every colony, considered morally permissible, huge need for workers, and lack of Indian & white workers.
Slavery and European America
New societies, not replicas of Europe
Aristotle
Aristotle valued empirical (senses/ experience) research more as a means of discovering truth.
Nature of the soul: give life to the body, immortal, and pre-exist body
Early Rome (750-500 BC)
Founders- Romulus and Remus. Romulus was monarchy
British North America, 1763
Government: Imitation of Britain, Governor (like King), Council (like Lords), and Assembly (like Commons)
Immigration: Africans 250,000, Scots/Scots-Irish 150,000, Germans 100,000, English 80,000
Ideas at stake: Constitution, Republicanism
Constitution: Structure/powers of government, Rights of the people, and “Unwritten”
Republicanism: Ancient Origins, Virtue, Liberty, Independence, Country over Court, and Republic over Monarchy
American Revolution: Legacy (US Constitution, Creation of a Republic)
US Constitution: A “conservative” revolution, Fought first for Constitutional rights, and leads to a New Constitution w/many rights from old one
Republic: A “radical” revolution, ends monarchy, creates a republic, elevates Equality, and “Enlightened”
Industrial Revolution
New machines, Mass production, new ways of organizing labor
Question of production
How does prosperity happen?
Adam Smith answer: Division of Labor, trade, Self-Interest, no to mercantilism, Yes to Capitalism
Adam Smith/homo economicus
Rational, Informed, Consistent, Self-interested, Wealth-maximizing, Workers’ world
question of distribution: secular answers, Protestant work ethic, Catholic social teaching
How should wealth be distributed?
Secular answers: Laissez-faire capitalism, new liberalism, socialism, and communism
Protestant work ethic: Work is a “calling” from God, Virtue brings Prosperity, Hardship is temporary–if “undeserved”
Catholic social teaching- Inequality (to a degree) natural, right to private property, and worker right to unionize
political man
Classical antiquity and Identity in life in the polis
religious man
When: Middle Ages, Identity in religious community (the Church)
economic man
18th-early 20th centuries, Identity in one’s economic activity, and Homo economicus
Freud’s idea of the psyche (id, ego, super-ego)
Id – instincts and impulses
Ego – reasoning faculty
Super-ego – internalized cultural norms
Psychological man and society
A state of tension
Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents (1930), Super-ego frustrates self with its demands, Self and society out of harmony
Authority before psychological man
Old authority: Parents, Teachers, Ministers, Political figures
Goals: Formation, Social conformity, Harmonization of personal and communal needs, and based on objective norms
Psychological man and the therapists
New therapist: Psychologists/psychiatrists, Counselors, Celebrities, Old authorities converted
Goals: Elaboration of unique personal identity (improvement), Self-expression, Removal of objective norms
Psychological man and education
-Education not for formation, but for self-expression
-School - a forum for self-expression
-“Safe space” – student beliefs not to be challenged
Natural law
the body of unchanging moral principles that constitute the ultimate standard for all human conduct, accessible to reason, Of divine origin, superior to human law
Legal positivism
Opposed to natural law view and Law’s authority arises from lawmaking institutions
Adolph Eichmann/banality of evil
Carried out the Holocaust (esp transport), Defense: I obeyed the law, Convicted and executed, 1962
solidarity (St. John Paul II)
The Catholic idea of solidarity affirms the commitment to the common good.
