Lecture 3 - Ancient and Pre-classic Greece: culture and philosophy Flashcards
Ancient Greece: Minoans, Mycenaeans, Dorians. Sparta and Athens.
Archaic and Pre-classic Greece
Traces of Neolithic settlements from 6000 BC
Minoan civilization:
in Knossos, Crete. 3000 -
1450 BC
- Contemporary with Ancient Egypt and
Sumeria
- Navigation and trade with the Mediterranean
neighbors e.g. Egypt, Mesopotamia
- Boats, ships, metallurgy, pottery, architecture,
bijoux, written language
- Great palaces with hydraulic system of
running water, bathrooms, flushing toilets
Collapse of Minoan civilization:
- Numerous volcanic eruptions and
tsunamis
- Fires
- Economic and military weakness
- Invaded by Mycenaean tribes from
Peloponnesus ca. 1450 BC
Mycenaean Greece ( 1750 – 1050 BC)
- Skilled in sailing, navigation: thus, invasions and piracy
- Production and ships, weapons, wine, olive oil, pottery
- Main fortress cities: Mycenae, Thebes, Olympia, Athens.
- 1450 BC invaded Minoan Crete and learned the local art of:
architecture, metallurgy, hygiene & writing (Linear A, later B Script)
- King Agamemnon involved in Trojan war ca. 1200 BC.
Personal tragedy: sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia and
assassinated by another one (Electra)
Agamemnon is an example of human behaviour only partially dependent on ourselves… influence of the gods (sacrificed his daughter for wind for his sails)
ing Agamemnon attacks Troy (ca. 1200 BC)
- In 1100 BC The Dorian (from the north) attacked the Greek cities,
causing looting and destruction, resulting in the “Dark Age of Greece”:
stagnation and decline of culture. Olympic Games since 776 BC
- Around 800 BC Homer recorded Greek mythology, which has been
verbally transmitted for centuries
- The richness of human imagination in the mythologies
- The vibrant life of the Greek theatre: Epidaurus, Athens, Sparta
- The Greek Pythias foreseeing the future (oracles) in Delphi and
elsewhere
- The ethos of Greek warriors
- Rivalry between Athens and Sparta, yet consolidated to defend against
invading Persians (the victory at Thermopylae and Salamis 480 BC).
Athenian Acropolis and Phidias’ works symbolize Greek patriotism, love
of freedom, philosophy, and arts
The Dorian hegemony
- 1100 BC The Dorians (Greek tribes from the
north) attacked Greek cities: looting,
destruction, militarization (Spartan lifestyle)
economic and cultural stagnation and decline
(“Dark Age of Greece”);
yet
- Olympic Games in the city of Olympia since
776 BC
- Around 800 BC Homer recorded Greek
mythology, known for centuries in the verbal
tradition
The Dorians… very military, invaded, put people into slavery
Dark age of Greece
Athens
* Athens since ca. 1600 BC or earlier
* Since 800 BC. Athens a center of arts
* Athletic games in Olympia since 776 BC.
* 500 BC. Persian wars. Athenians beat Persian invaders at
Marathon and Thermopylae in 490 BC.
* 480 BC. Athens’ victory in the sea battle at Salamis
The beginning of Classic Greece
Greek territory was an encounter spot for many influential
civilizations: Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Phoenician,
Macedonian, Etruscan, Roman and later Celtic and Byzantine.
… explains why flourished (but many factors)
Pre-Socratic philosophers: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Democritus, Empedocles, Heraclitus, Zeno, Pythagoras, Alcmaeon, and Hippocrates.
Pre-Socratic (Pre-classical) philosophers:
- The Cosmologists (Physists): Thales, Anaximander,
Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Democritus and Empedocles
- The Biologists: Alcmaeon and Hippocrates
- The Mathematicians: Pythagoras
Classical Greece philosophers
- The Sophists: Protagoras and Gorgias
- Socrates
- Plato
- Aristotle
The Cosmologists (physicists)
Long before discoveries of: atoms
their sub-elements: electrons, protons, neutrons
or quanta (quantum physics)
-Thales of Miletus 640 - 546 BC.: The Water is a principal and primary element (physis) of the universe
-Anaximander 610 - 547 BC.: Apeiron (the Indefinite, the Boundless)
Anaximenes 588 - 524 BC.: The Air. Less condensed
air makes the soul.
Atomism: Democritus
-Democritus of Abdera (460 - 370 BC.)
The Universe = material atoms and the void
The soul = smooth atoms. No afterlife
Hedonism: pleasure-seeking
Perception: surface layers of atoms - eidola -
emanate and stimulate the senses (”resonance”)
he entire universe is built from material atoms and voids between them.
The soul is a set of smooth atoms. No afterlife. Materialism. Hedonism.
Perception of an object happens when the surface of an object emanates
eidola – copies – that hit the senses (eyes, ears or hands) to reproduce its
image.
Eidolon (plural: eidola) εἴδωλον
Democritus or Empedocles?
Homer: an eidolon - a shade, phantom, ghost,
a spirit-image of a living or dead person
Democritus and Empedocles: eidolon - a copy emanated
from the surface
-Empedocles: Eidola enter via body’s pores
-Democritus: Eidola enter via the sense organ
Heraclitus versus Zeno of Elea
-Heraclitus of Ephesus 6th c. BC
Fire - the basic physis
Eternal CHANGE and movement in becoming and
actualizing the potentials
“Panta rei”
later: Aristotle, Hegel, Jung, Horney, Erikson, Maslow
Fire symbolizes energy and eternal
changes governing the universe. Everything is in the process of change, of
becoming from the status of potential being to the status of actual being, yet
nothing is permanent, all is in eternal flux, like a river “Panta rei”
-Zeno of Elea 495 - 435 BC: philosophy of stagnation
changes or movements are illusions
Zeno’s Paradoxes
Opposite of Heraclitus: stagnation, not change. Arrow. Endless halves
Empedocles 490 - 430
4 basic elements: Fire, Air, Water & Earth
The dynamic forces in the Universe:
Attraction - promoting life, creation and integration
vs.
Repulsion - promoting death and disintegration
- Attraction promotes construction, integration, creation, and life.
- Repulsion promotes destruction, disintegration, distortion and death.
- The human soul transmigrates, i.e. passes through numerous
incarnations, therefore vegetarianism is recommended.
Transmigration of the soul
Vegetarianism
Against human and animal sacrifices
The biologists
Before 500 BC:
Aesculapian temples (Aesculapius or Asclepius)
500 BC.
-Alcmaeon of Croton
New medicine; natural
observations and remedies
Health: the balance and harmony
Alcmaeon criticized medicine of the time
Instead of the Aesculapian medicine practiced by priests in the temples
of the god Aesculapius using ritual songs and magic gestures,
Alcmaeon proposes to help sick people using massages, improved diet,
thermal baths, and medicinal herbs. The illness has natural causes,
and as such should be treated with natural remedies.
Hippocrates of Cos (460-377 BC)
Considered father of modern medicine and psychology
-Natural causes of bodily and mental diseases (not spiritual cause!)
- An illness results from an imbalance of bodily fluids (“humors”)
- Treatment should help restore the balance, by:
* Physical means:
corrected diet and sleep habits, avoiding overeating and drinking
alcohol,
thermal baths, physical exercises, relaxation, frequent contact with
nature:
Walking and enjoying the fresh air in the forest, mountains, and
beach.
* Psychological means:
Friendly conversation, socialization, and resolution of conflicts with
people.
- Sometimes bloodletting or medicinal leeches were recommended to
purify the blood and eliminate the morbid fluids or substances.
- A holistic psychosomatic approach: Treat not the illness but the person
who is ill.
–pioneer of psychosomatic medicine
-Auto-healing powers of the organism;
doctor to help the nature to heal itself
Restore the harmony
- Doctor supports the natural auto-healing powers of the organism.
-“The Art of Healing” Melancholia, post-partum depression,
hypomania, phobias, paranoia and hysteria
- Four basic Empedoclesian elements are applied to the theory of fluids.
Their dominance results in:
* Water - Black bile - melancholic mood or character
* Fire - Yellow bile - choleric mood or character
* Air - Blood - sanguine mood or character
* Earth - Phlegm - phlegmatic mood or character
Nota bene: This will be adopted by the Roman medicus Galenus in his theory of
temperaments
- Epilepsy or mental illnesses are not caused by a daemon; their natural
causes need to be explored.
-Treatise on epilepsy “De Morbu Sacro”
a natural illness to be treated by natural means:
relaxation, diet, peace, positive mood
- Medical ethics:
* Primum non-nocere = don’t cause harm
* No discrimination
* Devotion
* Confidentiality but also loyalty to professional secrets
* Hippocratic Oath: focus on ethics, respect, devotion, confidentiality
The mathematicians
PYTHAGORAS of Samos 584 - 495 BC.
-Plato was influenced by Pythagoras
- Pythagorean schools were secret elites - almost like religious sects
- Inspired by the Hinduist/Buddhist principle of self-discipline, asceticism,
and purification of the soul – the Pythagoreans performed physical and
intellectual exercises aimed at liberation from the corruptive influence
of bodily sensations, illusions, and false beliefs.
- Logical reasoning and mathematical modelling were aimed at reaching
a better understanding of the essence of the universe.
* Mathematical relationships discovered through
rational thinking
* Theorems, e.g. c² = a² + b²
and abstract logical models
represent the essence of reality
- The essence of reality can be presented in mathematical theorems and
abstract models. Sensory data (sensory impressions) are imperfect and false proofs of reality.
- Mathematics as a magic key to the secrets of the universe, a magic key to the cosmos
-The body - a prison for the noble soul
- Intellectual exercises (reasoning, debating, arguing, proving) lead to
the purification and perfection of the mind and the soul.
* Purification (diet, self-discipline)
* Liberation through intellectual exercises
* From intellectual exercises to spiritual perfection
Nota bene: Plato was inspired by the Pythagorean concepts.
Summary
Archaic and Pre-classical Greece
- Traces of Neolithic settlements from 6000 BC
- Minoan civilization in Knossos, Crete. 3000-1450 BC
* Contemporary with Ancient Egypt and Sumeria
* Great palaces with running water, bath, toilets, bijoux
* Navigation, trade, metallurgy, pottery, written language
* Collapsed after volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and invasion
- Mycenaean civilization: King Agamemnon attacks Troy (ca. 1200 BC)
- In 1100 BC The Dorian (from the north) attacked the Greek cities,
causing looting and destruction, resulting in the “Dark Age of Greece”:
stagnation and decline of culture. Olympic Games since 776 BC
- Around 800 BC Homer recorded Greek mythology, which has been
verbally transmitted for centuries
- The richness of human imagination in the mythologies
- The vibrant life of the Greek theatre: Epidaurus, Athens, Sparta
- The Greek Pythias foreseeing the future (oracles) in Delphi and
elsewhere
- The ethos of Greek warriors
- Rivalry between Athens and Sparta, yet consolidated to defend against
invading Persians (the victory at Thermopylae and Salamis 480 BC).
- Athenian Acropolis and Phidias’ works symbolize Greek patriotism, love
of freedom, philosophy, and arts.
Greek territory was an encounter spot for many influential
civilizations: Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Phoenician,
Macedonian, Etruscan, Roman and later Celtic and Byzantine.
Pre-classical (pre-Socratic) Greek philosophers
- Physicists: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Democritus,
Empedocles
- Biologists: Alcmaeon, Hippocrates
- Mathematicians: Pythagoras
Classical Greek philosophers
- The Sophists: Protagoras and Gorgias
- Socrates
- Plato
- Aristotle
Thales 7th-6th c. BC.
Water is a principal and primary element (physis) of the universe.
His students: Anaximander: Apeiron (the Indefinite) is the principal physis
Anaximenes: Air is the principal physis. Less condensed
air makes the soul.
Democritus 5th-4th c. BC
The entire universe is built from material atoms and voids between them.
The soul is a set of smooth atoms. No afterlife. Materialism. Hedonism.
Perception of an object happens when the surface of an object emanates
eidola – copies – that hit the senses (eyes, ears or hands) to reproduce its
image.
Heraclitus 6th c. BC
Fire is the principal physis in the universe. It symbolizes energy and eternal
changes governing the universe. Everything is in the process of change, of
becoming from the status of potential being to the status of actual being, yet
nothing is permanent, all is in eternal flux, like a river “Panta rei”
His opponent, Zeno of Elea 5th c. BC, on the contrary, believed that change
or movement is impossible and provided the logical arguments known as
Zeno’s Paradoxes.
Empedocles 5th c. BC
- There are four (4) basic elements of the universe: Fire, Air, Water &
Earth
- The elements are dynamically combined-recombined
by the universal forces of attraction and repulsion.
- Attraction promotes construction, integration, creation, and life.
- Repulsion promotes destruction, disintegration, distortion and death.
- The human soul transmigrates, i.e. passes through numerous
incarnations, therefore vegetarianism is recommended.
Nota bene: This theory will reappear in Hyppocratesian medicine and in Hegelian philosophy
Alcmaeon 5th c. BC
- Instead of the Aesculapian medicine practiced by priests in the temples
of the god Aesculapius using ritual songs and magic gestures,
Alcmaeon proposes to help sick people using massages, improved diet,
thermal baths, and medicinal herbs. The illness has natural causes,
and as such should be treated with natural remedies.
Hippocrates 5th – 4th c. BC
- An illness results from an imbalance of bodily fluids (“humors”)
- Treatment should help restore the balance, by:
* Physical means:
corrected diet and sleep habits, avoiding overeating and drinking
alcohol,
thermal baths, physical exercises, relaxation, frequent contact with
nature:
Walking and enjoying the fresh air in the forest, mountains, and
beach.
* Psychological means:
Friendly conversation, socialization, and resolution of conflicts with
people.
- Sometimes bloodletting or medicinal leeches were recommended to
purify the blood and eliminate the morbid fluids or substances.
- A holistic psychosomatic approach: Treat not the illness but the person
who is ill.
- Doctor supports the natural auto-healing powers of the organism.
- Four basic Empedoclesian elements are applied to the theory of fluids.
Their dominance results in:
* Water - Black bile - melancholic mood or character
* Fire - Yellow bile - choleric mood or character
* Air - Blood - sanguine mood or character
* Earth - Phlegm - phlegmatic mood or character
Nota bene: This will be adopted by the Roman medicus Galenus in his theory of
temperaments
- Epilepsy or mental illnesses are not caused by a daemon; their natural
causes need to be explored.
- Medical ethics:
* Primum non-nocere
* No discrimination
* Devotion
* Confidentiality but also loyalty to professional secrets
* Hippocratic Oath
Pythagoras 6th -5th c. BC
- Pythagorean schools were secret elites - almost like religious sects
.
- Inspired by the Hinduist/Buddhist principle of self-discipline, asceticism,
and purification of the soul – the Pythagoreans performed physical and
intellectual exercises aimed at liberation from the corruptive influence
of bodily sensations, illusions, and false beliefs.
- Logical reasoning and mathematical modelling were aimed at reaching
a better understanding of the essence of the universe.
- The essence of reality can be presented in mathematical theorems and
abstract models. Sensory data are imperfect and false proofs of reality.
- Mathematics as a magic key to the secrets of the universe
- Intellectual exercises (reasoning, debating, arguing, proving) lead to
the purification and perfection of the mind and the soul.
Nota bene: Plato was inspired by the Pythagorean concept
