Assignment 1.
The same is the case with logic; the logical way of thinking or rationale way of thinking is a corner stone of the Western culture. While Eastern world perception is based on spiritual belief, the Western is based on rational/logical justifications and proves. Without logical way of thinking science as we know it would not exist, it would be based on assumptions, which would be proved by belief. Thus, logic provides the Western culture with its foundation - rationalism. The modern example of this is that, without logical laws of truth and false, it would not be possible to build an argument and make any conclusion. Without logical order of arguments, no theory could be proved, without proving a theory, no actions could be taken and no discoveries made. Without this chain, contemporary scientific Research of the Big Bang would be impossible because there would be no arguments to prove a theory and no system of thought to challenge spiritual believes of divine creation of the universe.
Assignment 2.
I definitely agree with the statement that the Greek culture has influenced the theatre art as we know it today. I think that the post is entirely correct suggesting that the Greek comedy and tragedy are crucial elements of contemporary and any kind of theatre. All further genres of theoretic art and what we call today creative art have come from the initial Greek comedy and tragedy - they are foundations of the modern perception of how narration can be structured in terms of happy ending and tragic consequences. The case shown seems is quite convincing due to the arguments presented. On my behalf, I would argue that the main contribution if this case is not simply the creation of theatrical forms, but in comprehension of two main functions theatre should play - to entertain and to teach.
Assignment 3.
The two contemporary examples of the Greek influence on the Western culture are the concept of "citizenship" and "classic education". First of all, today states are not only ruled by the Greek understanding of democracy, but also by an individual's self-understanding as a part of the state - citizen of the state. This type of self-realisation proves not only useful in terms of paying taxes but in terms of belonging to a certain community, with its own history. While for Greek meaning of citizenship was a matter of survival and protection of one's property against another polis, today, it is a matter of belonging to one's culture, although politico-societal rather than ethnic, but still it is one of the ways an individual can identify him/herself. In this sense, the Greek concept of citizenship also contributes to continuation of the Greek legacy. Just as Greeks belonged to their cities, we belong to our countries and to Greek culture since with act according to their rationale.
Question 1.
What imagery have you noticed that communicates to other tribes?
I think it rather in the general character of all imageries which could have been understood to any tribe living at that time. For instance, bison would still mean a bison for all tribes, just as a horse or a human image. So it was rather a suggestion about the potential common knowledge rather than specific imagery that can communicate to another tribe.
Question 2.
What modern media form came from cave paintings?
I would argue that most of them if not all, because it was means of passing message. On the other hand, the most obvious one would be comics and then video or cartoon as totality of many pictures showed over a short period of time resulting in motion effect.
Hellenic Thought
In the history of every civilisation, various stages of its development can be distinguished. The same is the case of the Ancient Greek civilisation. The Hellenic thought is characteristic for the Hellenic period in the Greek history meaning from 300 BC till 200 CE. The beginning of this period and thought was conditioned by conquest of the Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). The main reason for the establishment of new philosophical thought was an inconsistency between idealistic philosophy of the Greek Golden Age meaning times of Plato and Aristotle and quite trivial and imperfect reality of everyday life (Mahaffy 78). Another reason for changes in overview was cultural exchanges due to Alexander's conquest and subsequent need to revaluate traditional norms under existence of other values systems and cultures (Skelton and Dell 30).
The essence of the Hellenistic thought is actually in reconsideration of the uniqueness of state-poleis and communal idealistic and unachievable happy life. The main conclusion is Hellenistic thought was that attention should be paid to an individual. In this regard, unlike before an individual was viewed as part of the large cosmos and not just as part of Greek city community (Skelton and Dell 27). According to the Epicureans, since the world of based on material atoms, and everything in cosmos was in constant action, human individual has little effect on it. From the political perspective, this justified the lack of citizens' participation in the state life (Vermant 52). While Stoics proclaimed acceptance of life as part of universal order of nature and subsequent rejection of family and material connections, the essence of the whole though was summarised by sceptics, who objected all previous philosophic thoughts as inconsistent with reality (Vermant 34).
As any thought, this one has its own pros and cons. The main pros are that it was a step towards comprehension of individual real needs in respect to what actual world can provide, rather than idealisation of reality and hope of divine, inexistent order of the polis. Secondly, it was a step towards the realisation that Greek poleis did not exist in the closed space of their world, and that Greeks were unified as a solid culture in a wider world. This is conditioned by the facilitation of an individual/Greek society into a wider natural/world community (Grainger 29). Thus, more realistic and naturalistic perception of reality was taking place. This was also a step forward to scientific and materialistic explanation of real events rather than reliance on mythology. On the other hand, sceptical nature of this thought was limiting multi-dimensional exploration of existential problems and their further resolutions (Mahaffy 72). It has also resulted in devaluation of the classic Greek philosophical ideals and their deformation in the Roman Empire (Grainger 25).
Since Alexander the Great was a presenter of the Hellenistic thought, his conquest had significant implications on cultural exchanges. Among three cultural exchanges are the following. First of all, Greek met another strong and self-reliant culture - Egyptian. The main exchange referred to the values and religious beliefs. Since the world was one and they needed to deal with each other, duplications of god names and legends took place. Although Greek political structure was introduced in Egypt, for a better cooperation Greeks had to adopt local customs and mix them with their own (Skelton and Dell 41). The second cultural exchange was the introduction of Greek social structure, which was based on citizenship. In order for Egyptian or any other conquered nation to become a citizen, he would have to learn Greek language and gain certain knowledge of the metropolis (Mahaffy 62). In this context, Hellenistic thought was in an individual's acceptance of the natural force - the power of the strongest, which was the Greek Empire. The third cultural exchange was in education. It was no longer enough to know just one language; knowledge of Greek language became vital. From the strictly educational perspective, each culture has something new to find out about their existence and commonality of history. This resulted in the necessity store knowledge and libraries flourished in the newly built Alexander's cities (Skelton and Dell 49). Thus, his conquest and Hellenistic thought were another step towards contemporary globalisation.
Works Cited.
Grainger, J.D. Alexander the Great Failure: The Collapse of the Macedonian Empire.
London: Hambledon Continuum. 2009. Print.
Mahaffy, J.P. Greek Life and Thought from the Age of Alexander to the Roman Conquest.
New York: Kessinger Publication. 2004. Print.
Skelton D. and Dell P. Empire of Alexander the Great. New York; Facts On File Inc. 2009.
Print.
Vermant, J.P. The Origins of Greek Thought. New York: The Cornwell University Press.
1982. Print.
