Many of the most famous ancient philosophers and philosophical ideals originated from Greece. In his paper, The Ancient Greeks, Part One: The Pre-Socratics, Dr. C. George Boeree explains different aspects of ancient Greek philosophy. Firstly, he explains several of the reasons as to why philosophy became so prominent in Greece compared to other nations during the same time period. Next, Dr. Boeree defines some of the basic subcategories and subsections of philosophy, mainly metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Lasly, he lists many major philosophers and their ideas that still stand the test of time.
1 INTRODUCTION Power and authority are the most important aspects of politics as such way of thinking comes a long way from the earliest thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle to mention few. They are the fundamental features of state in politics, focusing on who should have the power and authority over the people and who should rule them. During the time prior and after the birth of states, political authority has always been a major concern with regards to who should rule and how and who shouldn’t. Therefore this issues need to be addressed in a way that will at the end benefit the society. Plato is the thinker or theorist who came with addressing who should rule in a political environment in what Plato outlined that only Philosophers should rule.
The Parthenon temple on the Acropolis of Athens, was built between 447 and 432 BCE, and it was dedicated to the city’s patron deity Athena (Cartwright, 2012). Following the defeat of a Persian invasion, mainland Greece and Athens in particular entered into a golden age of art and architecture (The Parthenon). During this period, also known as the Classical Greece, the Greeks pursued the notion of arête, meaning to excel and attain perfection. The people also lived in democracy; acting not for god or king but the benefit of society, change and power involved every individual and not just the elites. These two ideas were represented in the building of the Parthenon.
The Hellenic and Hellenistic age both represent the golden age of ancient Greece also known as the Classic Greek period. The following will compare and contrast the difference between Hellenic and Hellenistic art, philosophy, and religion. Hellenic being from c.500-300 B.C and Hellenistic being from c.300-50 B.C. Philosophy in the Hellenic period had many individual philosophers that had followers of their own which often moved out from the original philosopher 's teachings. Philosophy focused on the individual’s relationship to the Polis.
Another reason Athens had better cultural achievements was because Doc A states, “The Athenian leader Cleisthenes introduced a system of political reforms that he called demokratia, or rule by the people.” In fact, this government is still going on today and is in many countries including the best America. This government gives power to the people instead of just 1 to 3 rulers. The last reason why Athens was undoubtedly better than Sparta culturally was when doc C says, Rising 500 feet above sea level, the Acropolis in Athens showcases some of
The agora of Athens was rebuilt after the Persian war to the ionic type which was more symmetrical. This type was preferred and later on was developed in the Hellenistic and roman times. (encyolopedia, 2011) By the late Neolithic era the agora of Athens was heavily used. It started as the center of Greek people in their politics and economics by the sixth century it was also consider as a place for government and judiciary also a place for citizens to debate, as mentioned before it’s a place for worship and a marketplace as well. The Athens agora also consider to be the first place to practice a democratic political system.
This is interesting today hence the correlations between the Greco-Roman world and the modern world, i.e. the infrastructure also supports fast sharing of knowledge and education and a general acceptance of exotic deities. Greco-Roman World Greco-Roman tends to be misleading, Greece was under the supremacy of Rome, had no independent military or political power, Greco referees to the Greeks influential cultural and religious approach to leading an empire. Whereas the Roman had military effectiveness and expertise. Hellenistic Period The foundation of the Greco-Roman world were established by Alexander III, with a strong military force he formed a great empire, but by a stroke of genius he modeled Greek culture in the capitals or newly founded cities, the captured countries were not only held in a iron grip, but also in a volunteer acceptance hence the new opportunities for the elite like gymnasiums, theaters and an common language of commerce (deSilva, 2004, pp39-42).
The Romans are considered as one of the powerful empires of ancient times. It expanded its power to the Mediterranean region and also some large areas of Western Europe. Romans occurred after the fallen of Greek empire, not surprisingly, Roman was quite similar to Greek. Romans integrated many aspects of Greek culture into their own, including the Greek Architecture such as proportion and column orders. Not only that Roman architecture had retrieved from Greek but also absorbed a great deal from Etruscan art and designed.
Various theories and explanations are evidences to prove this. The study of persuasion and its roots was initially founded in Ancient Greece. The main concern of Greek philosophers was mainly with the issues of ethical means of persuasion. Aristotle also defined his principles of persuasion in his Rhetoric. Attempts have been made in order to understand principles of successful persuasion.
Introduction Many basic political terms that we use today - such as monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy - were originated from ancient Greek societies (Cartledge, 2011, What’s in a Word section, para. 1). The ancient Greeks were particularly concerned with the questions about ruling the society. Without the ancient Greeks, we may not even have these vocabularies, let along these governmental structures. In this paper, we shall compare and contrast these different forms of government that existed in ancient Greek city states.