Archive for January, 2013

The greek philosophers have greatly influenced our modern way of thinking. Scholars such as Aristotle, the father of virtue ethics, challenged people on a large scale for the first time to think critically and not take anything for granted. A lot of how we think and run things in our modern times are based off  of the ideas pioneered by the greeks. Plato’s allegory of the cave is a great example of the “thinking outside the box” that flourished around this time period. As a human race we are often quick to take things at face value, we will assume that the majority opinion is truth. Things such as standards of attractiveness, religion, social do’s and donts, the things we place value in, etc. all are decided by our environment and the people around us. A true intellectual will search for the truth of things for himself, questioning and extrapolating, instead of accepting what others say is true. I think that this idea is very much reminiscent to the greek philosophers. We can also see this in play in higher education. We are taught to analyze and criticize and question everything. I personally think that it is impossible to truly believe something is true without experiencing it for yourself. I don’t accept  what people around me say on faith, I choose to discover for myself the truth of things with my own senses. This sort of empiricism runs my thought process, and I’m sure that many others who are called to higher education can say the same. The greek tradition runs strong, and we still use their theories and ways of doing things as a basis for a large percentage of our own modern thought processes, at least among us “Scholars”.

There is no doubt that the Greeks have an enormous amount of impact on contemporary thinking.  I will take Plato, one of the most influential Greek philosopher and feminism, the idea that advocates equal rights for women, as an example.

Feminism calls for the political, economic and social equality of the sexes, including establishing equal opportunities for women in education and workplace.  Dating back to ancient Greece, some of Plato’s views regarding on the equality of the sexes can be considered as the beginning thoughts of Feminism. In his renowned work The Republic, Plato demonstrated that there was actually no great difference between men and women in ability. He wrote: “differentiation in treatment between one guardian and another should be based on difference of talent, not on difference of sex.” Therefore, the difference of talents is actually the difference between individuals rather than genders. The right for women to be educated is always the core issue of Feminism. Plato emphasized the same issue in his theory of education. He wanted every boy and girl to be educated. The Republic wrote：“If women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.” He claimed that women should receive the same education as men do. The same kind of education includes physical and educational training, even the art of war. Seeking the equal right for women in employment in another key issue of Feminism. Discrimination in occupation based on gender still exits today, Plato, however, strongly encouraged women to fully participate in the work outside home.  In The Republic, in his ideal society, women are assigned important role. Plato believed that women could have the same competence as man to participate in Guardian’s role, or even in governing in the state.

Although the notion that Plato is the first feminist or the forerunner of feminism is controversial, his perception of women is really advanced at his time and in some way, may truly influences the emergence of feminism.

The area that Greek culture has influenced our world today, through my eyes, is their quest and determination to ask and answer questions. There is a lot of attention to what philosophers said, but I am marveled at how they came to even think about those topics in the first place. The only reason I think about those things is because they have already been thought of and answered. So it leaves me to merely evaluate there final product, their creed, but I would not even wonder into the depths of philosophy if it wasn’t for someone else posing questions.

Today people are still searching. People are trying to be better. People are trying to become more efficient in life in all aspects and trying to take the shortest, not always the easiest, path. People are doing that by listening to others who claim to have figured it out. The people are writing books, sharing thoughts, plans, strategies, and others are interested in what these people are stating. Of course these authors are doing to earn some money, but they first had to ask themselves a question. They then answered that question and proclaimed it to themselves as worthy enough for others to believe it as well. Its audacious. However, audacious is not always a negative thing.

How and why people are seeking to improve their welfare is beyond me. The facts are inarguable. People are selling and buying books that are meant to help you help yourself. They are full of theories. They claim to be groundbreaking, as if we all have been wasting our time in the dark. It reminds me of the philosophers that we learn about: creative, progressive, and audacious.

In the 12th century, middle-eastern philosophers like Averroes (Ibn Rushd) dealt with the struggles of science in relation to faith. Averroes himself was a Muslim and worked to prove the compatibility of faith and reason. After his death, he was suspected of heresy and blasphemy. But all of the work he put forth in his writings has continued to impact contemporary thinking.

Last semester I was a peer leader for a freshman Cornerstone class. Each Monday, the freshman class gathered in Cullen Auditorium to hear speakers from all over campus in many different academic fields. I remember one part of the lecture series toward the end of the semester. It comprised of four different professors presenting on the topic “Why Do I Do What I Do?” One of the four professors was Dr. Rusty Towell, an engineering and physics professor at ACU. He spoke about how he looked for and discovered God each day in the research he does. I was surprised to hear what he said because I had never actually heard someone say they found God in science.

I think this was part of the work that Averroes was trying to accomplish. Faith and reason are autonomous, but never contradicting one another. They are separate entities that point toward one truth. This is still one of the big questions that is discussed today, especially among Christians. Although we have come a long way from the past there are still schools of thought that fight against the compatibility of faith and reason. I think it is important for us to look for instances in our lives where faith and science match up and point to one truth.

The greek culture has influenced the modern world more then any other culture in the past. Our philosophy, way of thought, school systems, and relative way of life comes from the greeks. In america the biggest thing we seem to focus on is the philosophy of the greeks and we are interested in there way of life. This is found in extraneously in our movie and television selection. We see movies that take place in ancient greece like 300 and we have movies that reflect the ideas of ancient greece like the matrix. These are to very obvious examples but the list of movies that take place in this part of the world and at this ancient time is extensive. The reason why so many are made is because there are so many people out there that are intrigued by this. The different stories of these movies appeal to different aspects of our psychy. We love the story of the warrior thats fights for his country and for love. 3 movies this takes place in are immortals, 300, and troy. This transitions to modern day films with the same premise. # include Dear John, Act of Valor, and Safe house. All of these movies have other components to there plots but the underlying premise is the same. The interesting thing about this is since the story has lasted so long it is safe to say it will continue to thrive in our future.

Scholasticism is one school of thought that has influenced contemporary thinking, which resulted from an attempt at synthesizing Aristotle’s philosophy with Christian theology.
Peter Abelard was a prominent proponent of this movement. Abelard believed that because God undeniably existed, all methods of inquiry would prove just that; therefore, Christians should not fear reason, logic, or scientific study of any kind. In his book, Sic et Non, Abelard presented a dialectic method. He penned many theological questions and included a variety of contradicting answers to these questions from well-known Christian theologians. Although this method was controversial for obvious reasons, he firmly believed it was a reliable way to arrive at truth. Abelard exposed inconsistencies within the Christian church, presuming that the Bible would consistently prevail.
His work paved the way for dialectic behavior therapy, which is a psychotherapy commonly used today to treat individuals with borderline personality disorders. His willingness to search for truth without fear of questioning the authority of the time can be seen today from universities to various social movements. Today the value of holding the experts accountable is easily understood. Additionally, Abelard helped to bridge the gap between realism and nominalism with his theory of conceptualism. He believed that universal essences did not exist. Instead, we form concepts of things such a beauty and pain that may summarize specific experiences, but exist apart from those experiences.
His scandalous sexual relationship with his 17 year old Heloise is a reminder that even the most rational of men are not above their own physical and emotional desires. This type of behavior continues more often than not on a daily basis. I do not believe that it makes his faith in God or his work in philosophy any less valid. It simply proves that he was human. We have made significant advancements in medicine, science, and technology; however, human lust and passion remain a constant in all societies today.

Though I do feel a bit of  a “going with the flow” in writing about the Greeks, I do find their civilization, along with that of Rome, to be of particular interest to me. In the context of rooting out ways of thinking along with modern technological advances that have, in some from or fashion, relation back to the Greeks, I have a particular interest. I have always found it interesting how some things from a past civilization may be carried into the next, while other ideas and technology may be shut down, regardless of its benefit to society. A prime example of this would be (and I know, its kind of weird that I actually know this) Greek sanitation and plumbing. In their prime, the Greeks had full on sewer systems, aqueducts for cleaner water to be distributed from major sources, and they didn’t just throw waste into the streets because they had individual building plumbing which connected to the sewers (within the city, where most of this technology was utilized). Comparing all of these sorts of physical advancements to society to modern society, we can see amazing similarities (Colorado river aqueduct anyone?). Though how does this affect the way in which people think today?

There is a continuing theme within our history of building upon the work of those from the past. Taking the best and brightest ideas and making them even better to benefit society. A huge portion of this sort of thinking came from the Greeks. They encouraged technological advancement and societal advancement much like we do today. My argument lies within the technological advancement that we see with the Greeks, and I will expand on that thought. In order for modern science to come up with better ways of say, transporting water and giving individual housing plumbing, it had to start with an example. And the Greeks gave us these examples, and many more, though I have not personally studied such inventions. It is important to reinforce that within all of this technological advancement there is a constant mindset of wanting to better society, as well as self. This too, the Greeks encouraged (to a point, but that is another discussion on politics and greed). It is this frame of mind that both our society and that of the Greeks share that is so important. We can see from history during the middle ages when such advancement and other ways of thinking were so shunned by society at large, and how stagnant a society can become when alternative ideas are not encouraged and argued. For societies to advance, there must be an ability to share alternative ideas and ways of life, without such things it becomes exceedingly difficult to move forward. That is why I think we live in such an amazing time, when technological advancement it exploding and alternate ways of thinking are becoming an individual necessity. It is such thinking that will continue to carry us forward, hopefully to a better end than that of the Greek civilization.

Scholasticism had a very profound influence on the way many sciences and other systematic studies are conducted today. Since scholasticism was the “beginning of  the end of the Dark Ages” their reflect a new and enlightened way of thinking. One concept from the scholastics that has influenced modern practices is this distinction between truth and what we perceive as truth. For example, in psychology, people are often diagnosed with delusions of grandeur. Although a patient may believe he is one thing, a doctor will be able to make the distinction of who he really is versus who he think he may be. the doctor will have to treat the patient with the reality of the disease rather than the fantasy of the delusion. This idea is stable across all fields of science and research.

Scholasticism has also influence Christian thinking. A Christian will hold the belief that God is real. Regardless of whether a person believes in God or not, he is there and cannot be ignored in most or all aspect of life. The concept of truth is then defined as a constant. It is something that no person can change, but can have changes in the way we perceive truth.

The perception of truth then becomes our biggest debate. The scholastics were not so much concerned with new knowledge as they were with understanding what had already been taught or written. Those interested in education or higher learning can very much benefit from this idea. Interpretation largely influence the way we come to learn about a new concept or idea. The textbook says that the scholastics would learn new ways of approaching old concepts, as in Abelard’s Sic et Non. Teaching students to look at ideas from a variety of different view points, defend their own views, and even be able to argue for a view outside of their own makes for a well rounded and very logical individual. Although the scholastic thought process became less and less prominent, without their teachings, I believe many of the scientific field we have today may have stayed in the “Dark Ages.”

Any well known school of thought will have influence on future schools of thought just as their predecessors influenced them. Even when schools of thought seem completely wrong or ridiculous, they have an impact if only to teach society never to think that way again. The Scholastics were within a school of thought that seemed to reject many of the ideas that their present society seemed to force upon them. Instead the Scholastics chose to find middle ground between the old ways of thinking from Aristotle and the Greeks and from their contemporaries. This foundation of a middle ground has influenced and affected many societies throughout history.

Thomas Aquinas for instance sought to marry the ideas of Aristotle and the ideas of the church. As a theologian and monk, Aquinas is asked to teach against the ideas of Aristotle which inspires Aquinas to prove that Faith can be explained through science. This is an idea that we often consider in today’s society. We often see astronomers trying to explain the phenomenon of the star of Bethlehem and the practice of psychology no longer shunned from the church but encouraged. Because Aquinas chose to deviate from the church’s ideas, he helped to create a religion where we feel freer to express our doubts in miracles and sciences and where we can practice the act of marrying faith and reason together in order to enhance our Christian lives.

Peter Abelard, another scholastic, was also known for deviating from the church. One of his teaching methods was debating both sides of an argument so that bias could be revealed and new ideas could form. While some of his actions as a professor or theologian are questionable, Abelard was able to teach us that no one is infallible. We all fall prey to our flesh or sins. This is a lesson that many who work in a people profession could learn from, even psychologists. It can be hard to counsel someone and not become emotionally attached. It is a fine line when counseling because one does not want to be too clinical but they also do not want to be too emotional. While Abelard may not show us the correct way in acting in such situations, he helps to raise the questions that we need to ask ourselves.

Many Middle-Eastern philosophers left a lasting influence on the West in many ways. Due to the fact that the West has been predominantly Christian, the influence of the Middle-Eastern philosophers is rather subtle. Eventually, the thoughts and theories of Middle Eastern thinkers made their way into the concepts we still learn and study.
Early in the life of Christianity, Plato was more heavily favored over Aristotle. Christians at the time found many of Aristotle’s writings hard to reconcile with their very dogmatic brand of Christianity. The harsh tenants of Christianity at the time prevented the spread of Aristotle’s ideas. But it would be our friends in the Muslim Middle-East who would be able to pair their faith with the teachings of Aristotle. The Middle-East’s study of Aristotle eventually made it into the West and Western philosophy.
Perhaps the most interesting influence of the Middle-East on contemporary thinking is the primitive use of psychological treatment by the Muslim prodigy Avicenna. Avicenna was known to have implored a wide range of both physical and psychological treatments for ailments. He would often scare patients, and he would treat what we know call depression with music or reading. The revolutionary use of psychological treatment as early as 1037 is an astounding achievement.
Psychological treatment before the foundations of psychology had even been laid is impressive, but the Middle-East’s contributions to current ideas go beyond the bounds of soft science. Islam has a history that is more accepting of science than the early Christian Church. Many Muslim philosophers and theologians valued science unlike the Christians of the day. Muhammad even advocated the study of science, along side that of Theology. Some Muslim thinkers even theorized that science and religion were both means to the same end, meaning that science and religion both ended at the same truth. The idea that science and theology could compliment one another is an idea that eventually influenced Christian and other Western thinkers. The idea that religion and the sciences were not at odds with one another is an idea that continues to influence contemporary thinkers.