[lit-ideas] Re: The 'Near-Eastern' influences on the Greek philosophy,scienc...
- From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 09 Apr 2004 10:06:36 -0400
Haven't yet looked at Omar's links (or yours here) but Miletus' bars and
baths and taverns and toilets must have attracted traders, adventurers,
politicians and other reprobates from all over the ANE. Religions get
discussed, ideas get exchanged, new theories get developed. Next thing
you know, you get philosophy. And because you're so far from central
authority, you get to talk about it and teach it and refine it. If
they'd tried that in the homeland, they'd have found hemlock on the
menu. That's what I tell my students anyway.
Ursula
Scribe1865@xxxxxxx wrote:
>In a message dated 4/9/2004 5:57:51 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
>omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx writes:
>http://www.askwhy.co.uk/judaism/GreekIndex.html
>Contains this account from Burnett's book:
>Aristotle calls the early philosophers "Investigators of Nature," declaring
>their scientific interests as including physics, mathematics, astronomy and
>physiology. They did not cease to speak of the gods of Homer, but rejected
>supernatural explanations based on the mythology as explaining nothing. They
>sought
>to show that the world was essentially rational. In this they were vastly
>superior in intellect to millions of subsequent Christians, Jews and Muslims,
>though they lived almost 3000 years ago.
>
><SNIP>
>
>Philosophy among the Greeks is believed to have begun in the Ionian city of
>Miletus, the richest and most powerful Greek city on the coast of Asia Minor.
>. . . . Its people travelled, giving them an awareness of conflicting ideas,
>which encouraged thinking. And among the aristocrats of Miletus was an
>independence of thought that was a part of an effort toward individual
>excellence
>that had been encouraged as justification for their privileges.
>
>
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