IV.02            The Origins of Western Civilization                           Homo Mensura--Man is the measure of all things, of things that are, that they are, and of things that are not, that they are not.                                                                           Protagoras (ca. 490-422 BCE)   Mr. Gandhi, what do I think of Western civilization? ... What do I think of Western civilization? I think it would be a very good idea.                                                                          Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)     Introduction A. In Ancient Greece      1. The Origins of Philosophy      2. The Flourishing of Science and Technology      3. The Beginning of Democracy B. In Ancient Rome      The Contributions of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire C. In the Middle Ages   Introduction Ancient Greece is widely considered the cradle of Western Civilization. Hence, the contributions of the Greeks are explained in more details because they influenced the ancient Roman culture, the Middle Ages, and the other chapters of this writing. The more important contributions of the ancient Roman State and the Middle Ages are offered here as a summary.   A. In Ancient Greece   Introduction      Dissatisfied with mythological answers, curious and courageous people everywhere must have wanted "true" answers to "philosophical" questions like: "What is the nature of the world around us?” "Are there natural rather than mystical explanations?” "How do we fit into the greater scheme of things?” "If we are part of the whole, what is the whole?” "How should we be governed?" "Who has moral authority?" "How do our minds work?” "What is the good life and how can we achieve it?” "What happens to us after life as we know it is over?” "Do the gods really exist?” In the history of the West, philosophy, science, and democracy had their beginnings in ancient Greece. But why Greece, one may wonder, when there were older and more advanced societies in the lands of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and perhaps in the Far East? From the more recent European Middle Ages we know that dogmatic, powerful religion can imprison free thought and suppress scientific findings that do not agree with the "truth" as found in sacred texts and as interpreted by priests. While other civilizations had powerful priestly classes, Greece had not, at least there is no evidence for it. Hence, freedom from oppression by religious dogma probably provided the fertile soil that allowed science, philosophy, and democracy to germinate and flourish.      This development started on the shores of the Aegean Sea with the Milesians being the "First Philosophers" observing nature in ca. 580 BCE. This was followed by the "Athenian Philosophers" who examined the human condition beginning in circa 490 BCE. Finally, the "Hellenistic Philosophers" applied this wisdom to master life, science, and technology over three centuries commencing circa 340 BCE with the conquests of Alexander the Great.    The Athenian philosophers Plato (ca. 427-347 BCE) and Aristotle (384-322 BCE) wrote of the polis, meaning city-state, as an ideal form of association, in which the whole community's religious, cultural, political, and economic needs could be satisfied. Defined primarily by its self-sufficiency, the polis came close to the idea of the modern nation state and was seen by Aristotle as the means of developing morality in the human character.    The term "cradles of civilization" refers to large river valleys were civilizations emerged. These include the Tigris-Euphrates in modern day Iraq, the Nile valley in Africa, the Indus in the Indian subcontinent, and the Huang-He-Yangtze in China. As we have seen earlier, the rise of civilizations was made possible through intensive agriculture and coincided with the development of writing and thus the start of recorded history.   The term "cradle of Western civilization," however, refers to a period of ancient Greece during which the knowledge of other nearby civilizations was further developed. In Europe, after a period of cultural stagnation and decline during much of the Middle Ages and starting with the Renaissance, this classical knowledge was rediscovered and further developed. It was this kind of reawakening that was foundational and formative for Western civilization. Also, see Timeline: From Prehistory to Modernity.      The rise of Greek civilization, as noted earlier, started with the forming of the first Greek city-states in the 9th century BCE. It was preceded by the Greek Dark Ages (ca. 1100–800 BCE) and refers to the presumed Dorian invasion and the end of the Mycenaean civilization in the 11th century BCE. Greek cultural progress peaked during "The Athenian Golden Age," the period between 448 and 404 BCE when some men excelled in politics, philosophy, architecture, sculpture, history, and literature.      Foremost among them was the statesman Pericles (ca. 495-429 BCE) who fostered arts and literature and gave to Athens a splendor which would never return throughout its history. He executed a large number of public works projects, improved the life of the citizens, and developed further the ideas of Solon (ca. 638-558 BCE) who was renowned as a founding father of the Athenian polis. Under Pericles’ progressive leadership, a government was formed that was the the freest ruling authority the world had ever known.      Starting with Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE), King of Macedonia (336-323BCE), and his military conquests, Greek culture spread for the next three centuries from Asia Minor to places as far as India. This larger area was more recently called the Hellenistic world. Moreover, Greek culture also influenced Roman culture. However, both cultures came to an end with the arrival of the European Dark Middle Ages that got under way with the Emperor Constantine I favoring Christianity in 313 CE, Christianity's rise to an exclusive state religion, and the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, in part due to invasions by what the Romans considered barbarians.    1.               The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece                         The Emancipation of Thought from Myth                                          The fundamental fact about the Greek was that he had to use his mind. The ancient priests had said, ‘Thus far and no farther. We set the limits of thought.’ The Greek said, ‘All things are to be examined and called into question. There are no limits set on thought.’ Edith Hamilton (1867-1963)   By developing a new kind of thinking where conclusions were reached through logical inductions, deductions, and inferences from observed facts, the Greeks gave birth to natural, that is, true philosophy and established a base upon which science would flourish. The emancipation of the human condition from the bonds of magic, superstition, and religious domination illuminated the mind, sparked inquiry in all fields of endeavor, and started to free humanity and its thought from the shackles of mental poverty and servitude.                                                                                       This writer                                                                                  Introduction a. The First Philosophers Observe Nature   b. The Athenian Philosophers Examine the Human Condition  c. The Hellenistic Philosophers Master Life and Science     Introduction The various branches of today's science developed out of philosophy, or more specifically, from the natural philosophy of the Greeks. Philosophia naturalis, as the ancient Romans called it, concerned the objective study of nature and the physical universe. Isaac Newton (1642-1727) still called his 1687 scientific treatise The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. It was only in the 19th century (1834) that the term "scientist" first occurred, and that major parts of natural philosophy separated out and became scientific and other disciplines as we know them today, see Knowledge by Disciplines.      Clear unbroken lines of influence lead from the ancient Greek philosophers below via medieval Islamic philosophers and scientists* to the European Renaissance, The Age of Enlightenment, and finally to the sciences and knowledge branches of modernity. Neither reason nor inquiry began with the Ancient Greeks, but their commitment to naturalism and reasoned discourse led to great advances in knowledge about geometry, mathematics, logic, the natural sciences, and the human condition. * Islam had preserved much of the ancient learning and texts while elsewhere, in the name of Christianity at the beginning of the Dark Ages, it was oppressed and eventually completely destroyed. The "darkness" had its beginnings in 313 CE when the Roman Catholic version of Christianity gradually replaced the Roman Empire in Western Europe as the single unifying force. The darkest part of this period lasted until the 15th century, and it had meant an era in Europe that was characterized by intellectual stagnation, widespread ignorance, poverty, excesses of theology, cultural decline, and 1,000 years of progress lost.    a. The First Philosophers Observe Nature Thales (ca. 624-546 BCE) is known as the first philosopher and dubbed the "father of science." He was the first to postulate non-supernatural explanations for natural phenomena such as lightning and earthquakes. Moreover he,  ·         Predicted a solar eclipse in 585 BCE; ·         Invented the formal study of geometry in his demonstration of the bisecting of a circle by its diameter; ·         Explained all observed natural phenomena in terms of the changes of a single substance, water, which can be seen to exist in solid, liquid, and gaseous states (This now obviously false conclusion is still valued today for its basic idea because it is not a great leap from claiming "all things are composed of water" and the assertion "all things are composed of atoms."); ·         Viewed the universe as an ordered structure (the Greek kosmos means “order” or "harmony"); ·         Concluded that the universe was not a mechanical apparatus but an organism of which all parts had purposes in the overall scheme of things while moving naturally toward predestined ends (teleology). Although false, it reflects the thinking of a "not-boxed-in" mind. Thales disciples were Anaximander (ca. 610-546 BCE) and Anaximenes (ca. 585-528 BCE). Their writings contain speculation about the origin of the universe and the ultimate constituent(s) of matter. After these early philosophers, also known as the Milesians, those who followed, as we see below, incorporated some wild speculations into their views of nature.      Although there were differences among the Milesians, this was no problem because their findings were open ended, that is, subject to change because they accepted the data of the natural world as the final arbitrator. Hence, they launched a skeptical rather than a dogmatic tradition. But, most importantly, they shared an approach that would eventually become part of the Western scientific method (see The Scientific Method): ·         They had a desire for simple but plausible explanations. ·         They relied on observation rather than speculation to support their theories. ·         They were wholeheartedly devoted to naturalism--the view that natural phenomena should be explained in terms of other natural phenomena. ·         They practiced free, critical inquiry that let the best argument, reasoned facts, win disputes. Their approach was open ended, that is, subject to correction as new facts and better reasons emerged. No dogmas, no true for all times statements, no authority based on power or tradition. ·         They claimed that there was ultimately only one kind of elemental stuff. ·         They raised awareness to the problem of time, change and its causes. ·         Their work would later, but still in antiquity, lead to the realization that mathematics can be applied to natural phenomena, that deductive reasoning was of particular importance, and that deliberate empirical research could be useful. An emphasis on the significance of inductive reasoning would arise only with Francis Bacon (1561-1626).   Pythagoras (ca. 571-496 BCE) It is only necessary to make war with five things: With the maladies of the body, The ignorance of the mind, with the passions of the body, with the seditions of the city, and the discords of families.   Pythagoras did not seek the ultimate in matter. He claimed that numbers were the fundamental stuff. This never made much sense, but he also meant that a correct description of reality must be expressed in terms of mathematical relationships or formulas. As a mathematician, he allegedly discovered that the square on the hypotenuse of a right-angle triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the sides forming the right angle. Moreover he anticipated much of Euclid's work on geometry and discovered the ratios of concord between musical sound and number. His metaphysical speculations influenced Plato and Aristotle.   Heraclitus (ca. 500 BCE) claimed reality is a process of continual change, that is, creation and destruction. He concluded correctly "Everything changes but change itself." Therefore, "You can't step in the same river twice." However, change is governed by the "Logos," a kind of logic governing change that is therefore not chaotic or arbitrary. This doctrine of the Logos impressed Plato and the unknown writer of the Gospel of John in the New Testament. This teaching became later the basis of the idea of natural law.   Parmenides (ca. 515-440 BCE) and his disciple Zeno (490-430 BCE) claims suggest contrary to Heraclitus that the real truth is that there is no change. Hence, for instance, you could not step in a river even once. For if you are hundred meters away, you have to go first half way (fifty meters), then half of the remaining half (twenty-five meters), and so forth. The point is, we reach the untenable conclusion, you never make it because there will always be another half though infinitely small. Among the other famous paradoxes of Zeno is the one that seems to prove that a swifter runner cannot overtake a slower (Achilles and the Tortoise). Parmenides asserted: ·         Being cannot come from not-being or be reduced to not-being (No creation out of nothing). ·         Being is; not being is not and cannot exist. Being is uncreated, indestructible, eternal, indivisible, and equally real in all directions. ·         Therefore, we must distinguish between the way things seem to be to our perception, such as change, and "the way of truth" that reveals the oneness and changelessness of being. ·         It follows, and as demonstrated by the paradoxes, that clearly we must make a distinction between information based on the five senses, later known as "empiricism," and information based on pure reason, later known as "rationalism."  ·         A cosmology that presents the world order as becoming is false and self-contradictory.   b. The Athenian Philosophers Examine the Human Condition   The Sophists (1-4):   1. Protagoras (ca. 490-420 BCE) was apparently the first and greatest of a group of teachers known as Sophists ("smart guys"). They traveled from city to city and offered lectures against a fee on the nature of power in society and persuasion in dialogue. In general, they were skeptical of human knowledge and even the possibility of knowledge. Some were outright cynical about matters of morality, justice, and religion. For many of them, truth did not matter if manipulation and expediency achieved the desired result. Protagoras asserted:   ·         Man is the measure of all things, for perception and veracity are derived from the experience, cognition, and judgment of the individual. With other words, all things including morals, justice, religion, and customs are relative to human subjectivity. ·         Concerning the gods, I am not able to discover whether they exist or do not exist, nor what they are like; for the factors preventing knowledge are many: the obscurity of the subject and the shortness of human life. ·         All have a need for self-preservation. Therefore, all have an obligation to participate in the government of the community. ·         No person is completely self-sufficient. Because survival depends on cooperation, values have to be agreed upon and made possible by binding laws. ·         Rhetoric, the effective use of words in rational discourse, is important because it allows the speaker to communicate ideas with clarity, precision, strength, and superior argumentation. ·         The way to achieve success is through a selected acceptance of traditional customs; however, their truth has nothing to do with it. All that matters is that understanding and manipulating them is useful. This last assertion reflects the Sophists' belief that people are motivated in their actions only by selfishness--winning, no matter how, is the most important thing. This cynicism was carried to extremes as the sampling below demonstrates.   2. Thrasymachus (ca. 460-400 BCE) claimed "Justice is in the interest of the stronger," that is to say "Might makes right." He thought that all disputation about morality is empty, except insofar as it is reducible to a struggle for power.    3. Callicles (ca. 460-400 BCE) claimed that traditional morality is just a shrewd way for the weak many to shackle the strong few. He suggested that the strong have a "natural right" to free themselves, and that it is unfair for the weak to resist such oppression by establishing laws to limit the power of the strong. For what matters most is power not justice. And power is good because it facilitates survival. And survival is good because it allows us to find pleasure in things like food, drink, and sex.   4. Critias (ca. 460-400 BCE) when in power, abolished democracy and formed a dictatorship where only a few ruled. He advocated that a clever ruler exercises social control by encouraging the belief of fearing non-existent gods.   Hippocrates the Father of Medicine (ca. 460-370 BCE) Do no harm! Was the first commandment of this founder of scientific medicine. He, and his followers, were first to describe many diseases and medical conditions. Moreover, Hippocrates asserted:  ·         Diseases have natural origins. They do not arise from divine action. ·         The development of diseases and their critical phases can be found from observation and experience. ·         Good health results from a balance of bodily fluids and diseases are caused by an imbalance. ·         The occurrence of disease is governed by environmental factors. If closely observed, the physician can predict the frequency of disease for any place so studied. ·         Nature itself accomplishes all healing by attempting to blend harmoniously the body's fluids.   Socrates (469-399 BCE) tells us through his student Plato:   How much there is in the world I do not want. The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms. Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth. The unexamined life is not worth living. No man will ever be safe who stands up boldly against you*, or any other democracy**, and forbids the many sins and crimes that are committed in the state; the man who is to fight for justice--if he is to keep his life at all--must work in private, not in public.   *A minority of males who made up the corrupt Athenian democracy at the time. **Socrates and Plato thought of democracy as rule by the uneducated or the mob. For Plato only those who had mastered philosophy, "philosopher kings" in his words, were fit to rule. Both, Socrates and Plato, had a strong dislike for the teachings of the Sophists which must have appeared to them as highly unethical, poorly reasoned, and lacking a foundation. For example, what good is it to assert that "man is the measure" if we do not know what the term "man" signifies. However, the Sophists' teachings led away from the first philosophers' study of the physical world and instead turned toward the human condition and in particular to the nature of man himself.      Socrates' overarching objective was to learn how to live a virtuous life. He claimed that all humans strive for their own good, but that they can be wrong about what constitutes that good. However, once we infallibly know that good we cannot do evil anymore. Therefore, he concludes: ·         All wrongdoing is error. ·         Knowledge is virtue. ·         No person does knowingly evil.       Socrates' view of life and pursuit of virtue was inspired by the inscription at Delphi (seat of the famous ancient oracle of Apollo), "Know Thyself." Hence, his lifelong quest was twofold. Inwardly to discover the inner person, the "soul," which was for him, and later Plato, the uncorrupted source of all truth. And outwardly, for him, this search for truth required the discovery of objective definitions. To elicit the truth, he used a question-and-answer method as reflected in the writings of Plato's early dialogues, e.g. in the Euthyphro, for Socrates left us no written records. This way of drawing out true knowledge is known the Socratic Method or Dialogue. As revealed in Plato's dialogues, Socrates proceeded in three steps: 1.    In conversation with Socrates someone would mention in context a concept such as justice, truth, beauty, or the gods, for instance, "I want to do this (reporting his father to the authorities), for it is the right thing to do because the gods want me to do it.” Socrates pretends excitement because he has found someone who claims to know what the gods want us to do. 2.    After questioning, Socrates finds flaws in his interlocutor's definitions. In the above mentioned case he asks "is something the right thing to do because the gods want us to do it or is it right because it is the right thing to do” from a human perspective, e.g., its intrinsic and extrinsic value to the human condition? 3.    Finally, after the two agree that they cannot reach a plausible conclusion, they further agree to pursue the truth of the matter more seriously. Almost all of Socrates' dialogues end inconclusively, that is, in aporia, the indeterminacy of meaning for which no resolution seems possible. For Socrates they must end so because he cannot give the truth, for each of us must find out for himself.       Today, and more generally, the Socratic method is any educational or teaching method that disinterestedly pursues truth through analytic discussion, such as defining the terms of a statement and then deciding on its meaning or truth value.   Plato (ca. 427-347 BCE) was a student of Socrates. Most scholars believe that his early writings reflect the teachings of Socrates whereas later works used Socrates merely as a mouthpiece. We must be grateful to Plato, for he wrote down the teachings of Socrates who himself left no texts. Plato could not believe that this imperfect world was all there is. His formerly influential family had fallen out of favor in Athens, and his beloved teacher of twenty years or so, Socrates, was sentenced to death by suicide for impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. And as many do in like situations, he tried to escape a harsh reality by asserting a perfect other-worldly realm of which things here and now are only imperfect imitations.      Plato expresses a strong believe that there is another realm in which, apart from matter, forms or "ideas" exist in absolute perfection. This is the place where truth beyond fallible perception of an ever-changing reality can be found. However, he nowhere proved this assertion; thus it is probably a myth. Lawrence F. Hundersmarck summarized Plato's major ideas as follows: ·         The goal of intellectual inquiry is to discover the eternal immutable forms or "ideas," which serve as the essence and ideal of all things; in this way a philosopher seeks wisdom. ·         These eternal truths, already in the mind [but not in memory on account of the trauma of birth] must be recalled, can be recalled by the immaterial and immortal intellect; they cannot be grasped by the bodily senses. ·         Education consists in perfecting the whole person in order to achieve self-mastery and self-realization. ·         Education has at its goal, as should all human acts, knowledge of the good, for ignorance of the good leads to evil. ·         A perfect society is but the external reflection of a harmoniously integrated soul where appetite and desire are under the command of reason. ·         Only the philosopher who has achieved true knowledge is fit to rule; democracy, the rule of the majority, is usually rooted in mere opinions.   Moreover, Plato argued that there are some universal forms that are not a part of particular things. For example, it is possible that there is no particular good in existence, but "good" is still a proper universal form. Bertrand Russell (1972-1970), a British mathematician and philosopher, agreed with Plato on the existence of "uninstantiated universals" but in a very different way (to instantiate is to represent by a concrete example).   Aristotle 384-322 BCE was a student of Plato but for the most part did not agree with his other-worldly assertions. Moreover, Aristotle's father was the physician of the King of Macedonia, and Aristotle was the teacher of the king's son who later as Alexander the Great who would spread Greek culture more than anyone else through his many conquests.       Aristotle's philosophical endeavors encompassed virtually all facets of intellectual inquiry while staying strongly connected with reality and only a minimum of mythical explanations. His this-worldly assertions: ·         The world exists eternally, and movement of all things is an unceasing, continuous flux. ·         The empirical order is a suitable domain for inquiry based on sense perception. ·         His conception of logic was the dominant form of logic until 19th century advances in mathematical logic better known as symbolic logic led to a more comprehensive, powerful reasoning method. Aristotle defined the two branches of logic as follows: In deductive logic, demonstration or proof proceeds deductively from general principles to particular conclusions. In inductive logic, demonstration proceeds inductively from the observed particulars to general conclusions.  ·         He considered ethics to be a practical science, i.e., one mastered by doing rather than merely reasoning. Further, Aristotle believed that ethical knowledge is not certain knowledge but is general knowledge. He wrote several treatises on ethics and including most notably the Nichomachean Ethics, in which he outlines what is commonly called virtue ethics. ·         His History of Animals classified organisms in relation to a hierarchical "Ladder of Life" (scala naturae), placing them according to complexity of structure and function so that higher organisms showed greater vitality and ability to move. From this he concluded that creatures were arranged in a graded scale of perfection rising from plants on up to man, the ascending "Ladder of Life" or Great Chain of Being. ·         He defines metaphysics* as "the knowledge of immaterial being," or of "being in the highest degree of abstraction." He refers to metaphysics as "first philosophy,” as well as "the theological science."   His otherworldly assertions: ·         Ideas do not have an independent, outside the mind subsistence, but exist in things. ·         Body and soul are conjoined as matter and form (idea). ·         All finite and transitory things that exist may be comprehended as a movement from potentiality to actuality. The source of this movement is the unmoved, eternal first or prime mover. ·         The "good" is "that at which all things aim." Therefore, all human inquiry and behavior is guided by its end or goal (teleology) that is a particular good.  *"Metaphysics is a word which can mean exactly what one wants it to mean, hence its continuing popularity. To Aristotle it meant the field of speculation he took up after physics." Roger Shattuck (1923-2005)   The Main Difference between Plato and Aristotle Their theories of knowledge diverge significantly and thus lead to contradictory worldviews. Plato's theory was otherworldly oriented; he became the favorite philosopher of theologians, and some of them claimed that if Plato would have lived in the common era (CE), he would have become a Christian. Aristotle, by contrast, was more this-worldly based; hence, scientist and philosophers who continued the work of the Pre-Socratic nature philosophers learned from him and therefore valued him more than Plato. (Image source: Wikimedia Commons) The School of Athens by Raphael (1483-1520) depicts Plato (left) and Aristotle at the center of the fresco. Aristotle gestures to the earth, representing his belief in knowledge through empirical observation and experience, while holding a book, his Nicomachean Ethics. Plato gestures to the heavens, representing his belief in the Forms, while holding a book, his Timaeus, a Socratic dialogue. Plato believed that things on earth are imperfect copies of perfect Forms (ideals) that exist in another realm.   Euclid, ca. 340-275 BCE, was a mathematician who laid down the foundations of mathematical rigor and introduced the concepts of definition, axiom, theorem, and proof that are still in use today. He asserted: ·         A rigorous, systematic treatment of mathematics requires the statement of all assumptions and the proof of all propositions by means of a uniform methodology. ·         All mathematical quantities can be expressed by geometrical figures, either lines, areas, or solids. ·         Physical events can be modeled using mathematical expressions. ·         Space is infinite in extent, but not infinitely divisible. Euclid's geometry was though the only one possible until the early 19th century when non-Euclidean geometries were developed.   c.         The Hellenistic Philosophers Master Life and Science   Vain is the word of a philosopher which does not heal any suffering of man. For just as there is no profit in medicine if it does not expel the diseases of the body; so there is no profit in philosophy either, if it does not expel the suffering of the mind.                                                                             Epicurus (ca. 341-270 BCE)   Epicurus ca. 341-270 BCE lived a life of sobriety and simplicity and died with dignity and courage after a painful, prolonged disease. Epicurus' most famous follower was Lucretius (ca. 95-55 BCE) who composed a long poem On the Nature of Things. In it, Epicurus' philosophy is expounded and the reading of this poem acquaints one with his line of thought. Concerning knowledge and the universe: ·         All conscious sense impressions are true. They are the primary source of knowledge. ·         The two criteria of knowledge are a "clear view" seeing things as they are and non-contradiction. Hence, theories about things that cannot be seen should be judged by things that are revealed by a "clear view." ·         The universe is wholly material; it consists of matter and void. ·         Nothing is created out of nothing, and nothing is destroyed: the universe is neither increasing nor decreasing. Concerning ethics around which the philosophy of Epicureanism developed: ·         It is in the nature of human beings to pursue pleasure and to avoid pain; therefore, the good or virtues life consists in the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. ·         True pleasure is found in equanimity [tranquility, composure, serenity of mind]. ·         The human soul is a combination of atoms that perishes with the body. ·         The random swerve of some atoms in the void accounts for a certain indeterminacy that allows the presence of freedom of will in an otherwise causally determined universe.   Archimedes ca. 287-212 BCE was the most famous mathematician of antiquity. Men were weighing for thousands of years before Archimedes worked out the laws of equilibrium; they must have had practical and intuitional knowledge of the principles involved. What Archimedes did was to sort out the theoretical implications of this practical knowledge and present the resulting body of knowledge as a logically coherent system.                                                                         Benjamin Farrington (no dates)   In mechanics, Archimedes defined the principle of the lever and discovered the law of hydrostatics, often called Archimedes' principle, which states that a body immersed in fluid loses weight equal to the weight of the amount of fluid it displaces. He invented the compound pulley and the hydraulic screw for raising water from a lower to a higher level. His major works concerned: ·         The areas and volumes of figures: On the Sphere and the Cylinder, On the Measurement of the Circle. His work on conic sections and on the area of the circle prepared the way for the later invention of the calculus. ·         Statics and hydrostatics: On the Equilibrium of Planes, On Floating Bodies, On the Method of Mechanical Theorems. The latter work shows that he used mechanical reasoning as a learning aid for the discovery of new mathematical theorems. ·         Numerical methods: The Sandreckoner is Archimedes' work in which he introduces his number system. It is of historical interest, because it contains an early reference to Aristarchus' heliocentric system and uses results of Phidias (his father) and Eudoxus to determine the size of the universe. He claimed: ·         Numbers of any size can be expressed by using an applicable system of notation. ·         Mechanical methods can infer the truth of mathematical propositions that must then be rigorously demonstrated by mathematical methods. ·         By using rectilinear figures inside and outside of curvilinear figures such as a circle, their area can be determined to any degree of accuracy. He found that in the case of the circle, the value of pi is greater than 3 10/71 and less than 3 1/7.   The Stoic Philosophers Offer Life-Coping Counsel The best of ancient philosophies that analyzed the human condition and offered counsel culminated in Stoicism. Its most acclaimed advocates were the statesman Seneca (ca. 4 BCE - 65 CE), the slave Epictetus (ca. 50-135 CE), and the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180 BCE). Apparently, Stoicism had something to offer for individuals from the lowest to the highest station in life.       And indeed, Stoicism was a popular and durable philosophy until the 6th century CE. It had a following throughout Greece and the Roman Empire from its founding until the last schools of philosophy were ordered closed in 529 CE by the Emperor Justinian I, who perceived their pagan character to be at odds with his Christian faith. Unfortunately, the elevation of Christianity to the exclusion of all other life-coping systems of thought ushered in and maintained the dark parts of the Middle Ages with a thousand years of progress in all areas of life was lost.      And because much of this darkness is still with us, it is good counsel to consider alternative, more appropriate to modernity, life-coping systems. Toward this goal, the Stoic's counsel and the advice of natural philosophers from antiquity to modernity is as relevant today as when much of it was first expressed sometime in the past. One work containing such advice is Ben Kimpel's Stoic Moral Philosophies: Their Counsel For Today, ©1985. 2.    The Flourishing of Science and Technology in Ancient Greece Natural philosophy's approach to study in general was a new kind of thinking where conclusions were reached through logical inferences and deductions from observed facts. The Greeks thus gave birth to natural, that is, true philosophy and established a base upon which science and technology could flourish. The distinctive style and vocabulary of these early scientific writings were the source from which our own modern style and terminology have been derived. Moreover, this new methodology gave rise to various branches of knowledge or sciences that found their way into technology, the applied sciences.      Concerning science, there were significant advances in medicine, anatomy, zoology, botany, mineralogy, geography, mathematics and astronomy. And the applied sciences, technology, made possible the invention of new mechanisms, the further development of earlier devices, and the perfection of some of them. Below is a sampler.   Technology or Science Date Comment Cartography ca. 600 BCE First widespread amalgamation of geographical maps developed by Anaximander. Crane ca. 515 BCE Labor-saving device which allowed the employment of small and efficient work teams on construction sites. Later winches were added for heavy weights. Tumbler lock ca. 5th century BCE The tumbler lock, as well as other varieties, was introduced to Greece in the 5th century BCE. Gears ca. 5th century BCE Developed further than in prehistoric times for a variety of practical purposes. Plumbing ca. 5th century BCE Excavations at Olympus as well as Athens have revealed extensive plumbing systems for baths and fountains as well as for personal use. Rutway ca. 600 BCE The 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos represented a rudimentary form of railway [it was a paved trackway which enabled boats to be moved overland across the Isthmus of Corinth]. Urban planning ca. 5th century BCE Miletus is one of the first known towns in the world to have a grid like plan for residential and public areas. It accomplished this feat through a variety of related innovations in areas such as surveying. Crossbow ca. 5th century BCE The Greeks made use of a handheld crossbow called the gastraphetes. Central heating ca. 350 BCE Great Temple of Ephesus was warmed by heated air that was circulated through flues laid in the floor. Geography 4th century BCE Aristotle became the first person to demonstrate that the earth was round. He based his hypothesis on the arguments that all matter tends to fall together toward a common center, that the earth throws a circular shadow on the moon during an eclipse, and that in traveling from north to south new constellations become visible and familiar ones disappear. Medicine ca. 300 BCE Herophilos (ca. 335-280 BCE) was the first to base his conclusions on dissection of the human body and to describe the nervous system. Geography 3rd century BCE The geographer Eratosthenes (ca. 276-195 BCE) was the first person to accurately calculate the circumference of the earth. Astronomy 3rd century BCE Aristarchus of Samos (ca. 310–230 BCE), astronomer who was the first to maintain that the Earth rotates and revolves around the Sun, that is, the heliocentric model of the solar system. Lighthouse ca. 3rd century BCE The Lighthouse of Alexandria was designed by Sostratus of Cnidus. Astrolabe ca. 300 BCE First used around 200 BCE by astronomers in Greece. Used to determine the altitude of objects in the sky. Odometer ca. 3rd century BCE Odometer, a device used in the late Hellenistic time and by Romans for indicating distance traveled by a vehicle was invented sometime in the 3rd century BCE. Some historians attribute it to Archimedes, others to Hero of Alexandria. It helped revolutionize the building of roads and traveling on them by accurately measuring distance and being able to illustrate this with a milestone. Cannon ca. 3rd century BCE Ctesibius of Alexandria invented a primitive form of the cannon, operated by compressed air. Levers ca. 260 BCE First described about 260 BCE by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes. Although used in prehistoric times, they were first put to practical use for more developed technologies in Ancient Greece. Dry dock ca. 200 BCE Invented in Ptolemaic Egypt some time after the death of Ptolemy IV Philopator (reigned 221-204 BCE) as recorded by Athenaeus of Naucratis. Air and water pumps ca. 2nd century BCE Ctesibius and various other Greeks of Alexandria of the period developed and put to practical use various air and water pumps which served a variety of purposes, such as a water organ. Surveying tools ca. 2nd century BCE Various records relating to mentions of surveying tools have been discovered, mostly in Alexandrian sources, these greatly helped the development of the precision of Roman Aqueducts. Mechanical computers ca. 150 BCE The Antikythera mechanism has some 30 bronze gears. It is an ancient mechanical calculator designed to calculate astronomical positions. Technological artifacts of similar complexity did not reappear until a thousand years later. Astronomy 2nd century BCE Hipparchus (ca. 190–ca. 120 BCe) produced the first systematic star catalog. Automatic doors ca. 1st century BCE Hero of Alexandria, a first century BCE inventor from Alexandria, Egypt, created automatic doors for a temple with the aid of water pumps. Medicine 2nd century CE Galen (ca. 130–200 CE) performed many audacious operations—including brain and eye surgeries— that were not tried again for almost two millennia.

Western moral thinking and the American Constitution, which served as a role model for democracies around the world, owes much to the rediscovery of the Greek classics and in particular to the writings of the statesman Solon (ca. 638-558 BCE) and Pericles (ca. 495-429 BCE). Imperfect as they may be, these concepts, rather than those promulgated by the ancient texts of the Judeo-Christian tradition, are foundational to the social success and humaneness of modernity. Solon's principles were further refined and implemented by Pericles in the Athenian Golden Age (see below). Likewise, Solon's Ten Ethical Declarations below were a reflection and refinement of wisdom that was already ancient in his day.

These reforms were apparently carried out in great measure. There is testimony from a variety of sources among them the Greek historian Thucydides (ca. 460-400 BCE), who commented: Everyone who is capable of serving the city meets no impediment, neither poverty, nor civic condition...

From the 8th to the 14th century, contributions to Western civilization came mainly from the Islamic world which was more advanced in science, technology, and philosophy than Western Europe. This period is known as the Islamic Golden Age*. It eclipsed, made look dark, the cultures of the European Christian countries for most of the Middle Ages. Hence, those who refer to this entire medieval period as the Dark Ages, have some justification for doing so. The Islamic Golden Age was apparently made possible by a relatively open-minded society that allowed freedom of speech and freedom of religion. This allowed many Muslim thinkers to pursue humanistic, rational and scientific endeavors in their search for knowledge, meaning and values. A wide range of Islamic writings on love, poetry, history and philosophical theology show that medieval Islamic thought was open to the humanistic ideas of individualism, occasional secularism, skepticism and liberalism. Also, during the Islamic Golden Age, polymath scholars with a wide range of knowledge in different fields were more common than scholars who specialized in any single field of learning.

The Islamic world’s most important contributions:

·         In mathematics--the replacement of Roman numerals with the decimal positional number system and the invention of algebra and algorithms allowed more advanced mathematics such as  the invention of all the trigonometric functions, introduction of algebraic calculus, proof by mathematical induction, the development of analytic geometry, the earliest general formula for infinitesimal and integral calculus by Ibn al-Haytham, and the beginning of algebraic geometry by Omar Khayyam.

• In medicine—medical practice, research, and writing was influenced by, and further developed, the works of ancient Greek and Roman physicians: Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Soranus, Celsus and Galen had a lasting impact on Islamic medicine. In the process, Muslim medical scientists made a number of crucial contributions in the fields of anatomy, experimental medicine, ophthalmology, pathology, the pharmaceutical sciences, physiology, surgery, etc.

1.    They demonstrated the application of quantification and mathematics to medicine and pharmacology, such as a mathematical scale to quantify the strength of drugs and the prediction of the most critical days of a patient's illness.

2.    They set up some of the earliest dedicated hospitals, including the first medical schools, and psychiatric hospitals.

3.    They first discovered measles and smallpox, and proved Galen's theory of humorism false (any of the four fluids, cardinal humors, considered responsible for one's health and disposition; blood, phlegm, choler, or melancholy).

4.    They helped lay the foundations for modern surgery together with the invention of numerous surgical instruments, as well as the surgical uses of catgut and forceps, the ligature, surgical needle, scalpel, curette, retractor, surgical spoon, sound, surgical hook, surgical rod, and bone saw.

5.    They helped lay the foundations for modern medicine. A work, The Canon of Medicine, was responsible for introducing systematic experimentation and quantification in physiology, the discovery of contagious disease, introduction of quarantine to limit their spread, introduction of experimental medicine, evidence-based medicine, clinical trials, randomized controlled trials, and the first descriptions on bacterial and viral organisms, distinction of mediastinitis from pleurisy, contagious nature of tuberculosis, distribution of diseases by water and soil, skin troubles, sexually transmitted diseases, perversions, nervous ailments, use of ice to treat fevers, and separation of medicine from pharmacology.

·         Classical literature and philosophy was preserved in the Islamic world and Western Europe regained access to it. Latin translations of the 12th century fed a passion for Aristotelian philosophy and Islamic science that is frequently referred to as the Renaissance of the 12th century.

·         The scientific method was advanced by the use of experimental physics that combined experimentation with quantification to distinguish between competing theories in a generally empirical setting.

·         A Book of Optics was written by Ibn al-Haytham. In this work, he significantly reformed the science of optics, demonstrated that vision occurs when light rays enter the eye, and invented the camera obscura.

·          Advances in astronomy by the Maragha school and their predecessors and successors include the construction of the first observatory in Baghdad which allowed the correction of previous astronomical data and the reduction of resolving significant problems in the Ptolemaic model. The invention of numerous astronomical instruments ushered in the beginning of astrophysics and celestial mechanics.

·          Urbanization, the change from rural to city living, increased. Cities had advanced domestic water systems with sewers, public baths, drinking fountains, piped drinking water supplies, widespread private and public toilet and bathing facilities, and city garbage dumps were located far from the cities. By the 10^th century, Cordoba, Spain had 700 mosques, 60,000 palaces, and 70 libraries.

*The above owes much to the article “Islamic Golden Age” in Wikipedia.

     The achievements of the Christian world were for the most part of a material not intellectual nature. The intellectual life was dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. The pursuit to impose the ideal of a catholic, meaning universal, Christianity on the rest of the world did not allow freedom of religion or free speech. Hence, the “Golden Age” of Europe had to wait until The Age of Enlightenment and subsequent centuries. This was made possible because starting in the 16^th century, with the Reformation, freedom of religion and free speech gradually began to flourish. In the Islamic world, it is speculated, these two basic liberties weakened during the 14^th century and brought the earlier extraordinary, almost miraculous progress to an end. The preceding would indicate a positive correlation between civil liberties and progress in general.

Attainments of the Christian Middle Age:

·         The invention of cannons and spectacles. The discovery of inventions from the east such as gunpowder, the compass, silk, and the astrolabe.

·          Substantial improvements to ship and clock building that would later on facilitate an age of exploration.

·          Scholastic philosophers attempted to reconcile the Christian faith with reason, the philosophy of Aristotle. Foremost among them was Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225-74) who is still the Catholic and Protestant churches’ favorite theologian and philosopher. And Thomism is still taught at most religiously oriented universities.

·          The Justinian Code, the codification of a “Body of Civil Law” was completed in the 6^th century.

·          Cathedral schools and monasteries lost their importance as the sole sources of education when universities were founded in several major European cities.

·          The Gothic style developed in art and architecture. Cathedral building was done on a grand scale and consumed a large part of a county’s budget.

• In the 12^th century an economic revival occurred. The cultivation of beans made a balanced diet available to all classes and allowed the population rapidly to expand. It is claimed that this development eventually led to the breakup of the feudal system. Urbanization increased substantially, and travel and communication became faster, safer, and easier. Merchant classes developed and guilds formed, which were unions of men in the same craft or trade to uphold standards and protect the members.

From beginning to end, life in the Middle Ages was dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. The chapter Origins and Growth of Christianity offers an account of the Roman Catholic Church’s activity during this time.