Ancient Greece

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Ancient Greece
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Geographical Chronological Background

• Minoans
• Mycenaeans
• Achaeans
• Hellenic Age

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Cultural Development

• Pantheism
• a dark age
• Influence of the Jewish Diaspora
• Concept of time, history, purpose
• Seeds of Western Civilization

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Jewish Diaspora

• It is impossible to posit this radical shift in
  worldview from any other perspective. The
  greatness of classical Greek culture, the thing
  that sets the Greeks apart, the thing that makes
  them so uniquely western, so remarkably akin to,
  even foundational to western civilization, they
  got from the Bible. Because it is their notion
  of time that is so transforming. Their notion of
  time ultimately effected their vision of art,
  calling, political equality, everything. And
  they drew their notion of time directly from the
  Jewish Diaspora. One of the things that is most
  remarkable about the chronicles of the eastern
  Med. world during this particular period of time
  is that everyone mentions the Jewish Diaspora.
  (G. Grant)

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A Radical Transformation

• Homer
• (700 BC)
• The Greek Epic

• Protagoras
• (490-420 BC)
• Man is the Measure
• of All things

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The Golden Age(480-323 BC)

• Democratic
• Election of Pericles
• Rise of Socrates
• Plunge into immorality
• Rise of Alexander
• the Great
• and Hellenism

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The Great Discouragement

• The Plague
• Athens loses
• to Sparta
• Pericles voted out
• Socrates
• put to death

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• Plato and Aristotle

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A Glance at Greek Philosophy

• 1st Elements
• Thales (624-543 BC), Anaximander,
• Anaximenes, the Stoics Epicureans
• 1st Causes
• Divine principle, reason, mind
• Socrates (470-399 BC)
• a true, supreme god
• summum bonum chief good
• conduct of life, morality

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A Glance at Greek Philosophy

• Plato
• Combined the contemplative study of nature
  (Italic)
• with the active introspection of life (Ionic)
• Moral (action)
• Natural (study observation)
• Rational
• (truth v falsehood)

• It is evident that none come nearer to us than
  the Platonists.
• Augustine

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A Glance at Greek Philosophy

• Aristotle
• Natural Philosophy
• Analytical
• Inductive and deductive reasoning
• Scientific Method

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• The small steps of man
• are not giant leaps
• for mankind.