Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Import Duty, Cosmetics
data from
Pythagoras was born on Samos and Mnesarco was the son of a carver and engraver of coins and precious stones. His vocation traveler, as other pre-Socratic philosophers, is proverbial: visited, among other places, to Egypt, Arabia, Babylon, and visited the Chaldean Magi with the desire to learn and learn directly about all sorts of mathematical, astronomical, religious rituals, etc. Pythagoras perfectly embodies the figure of the Greek sage, as Thales, Democritus Solon or traveled to other countries to watch, learn and earn a lot of knowledge. For this reason it should not be surprising that the ancient sources describe Pythagoras as the operator of the concept defines the activity most emblematic of the history of Western thought and culture, the word "philosophy."
Several witnesses agree, in effect, awarding the invention of the Pythagorean concept with an anecdote well known and in any case, very illustrative of his personality.
The story goes that Pythagoras had a conversation with Leonte, Fliunte tyrant. This ruling, admiring the talent and eloquence of Pythagoras, asked what was his profession and what he did. Pythagoras respodió he was not master of any art or profession, but was a "philosopher" and that, consequently, their dedication was the "philosophy." Leonte was astounded to hear a word whose meaning unknown and Pythagoras, to explain, used a metaphor that has been held: the life, he said, is like a gathering of people who attend the Olympics. To these people go for three different reasons: some athletes to compete for the glory of a prize, other traders, buying and selling, and finally there is a third category to watch the game: the spectators. Similarly, he said Pythagoras, some live to serve others to the fame and money. But the best choice is those who, like the spectators, they devote their time to the contemplation of nature, as lovers of wisdom, that is, as philosophers. [1]
[...]
His reputation stood on the other to the point that almost all young people wanted to be his disciples and old wanted to see their children enjoy their company rather than dealing with domestic affairs. " [2]
Despite this success, Pythagoras was the subject of severe criticism from fellow philosopher Heraclitus. This, indeed, denounced Pythagoras as if it were a scholar and an impostor unable to assimilate the knowledge accumulated so eagerly: "The much learning does not teach intelligence. If so it would have taught Hesiod, Pythagoras, Xenophanes and Hecateo " [3] " Pythagoras, son of Mnesarco, performed the investigation rather than the other men and, after making a selection of these writings, won for himself a wisdom, erudition and a "bad art." [4] Note that the harsh criticism of Heraclitus, in addition to disqualify the scholarship of Pythagoras as producing no intelligence, tried to highlight one more fraudulent activity: knowledge of Pythagoras would not be the result or even of their effort, but a selection of books that contain knowledge that you used for your own benefit using "trickery." In other words, Pythagoras had plagiarized the knowledge he had learned from other scholars and, ultimately instance, would have presented as their own.
Some accounts seem to confirm these allegations to report that Pythagoras, in fact, plagiarized books awarded to Orpheus, who presented as having been written by him. [5] It is also very likely that these contacts with the Orphic doctrine, Pythagoras had removed one of its most striking and innovative theories: the belief in the immortality of the soul, destined to change, with Over time, philosophical world view much of humanity.
"In this way, concludes that philosophical knowledge never ends. Since its inception Pythagorean (somewhat controversial) to the present day is demonstrated that in a matter of science and human progress, the episteme NEVER ends. Every day it becomes stronger, sometimes falls and other, much more strongly, rising. "
C'mon then, in this journey of learning!
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Softball Font Creator
Compiled
The origin of philosophy
The origin of philosophy has been a controversial issue to Throughout the history of thought. Generally considered the Greek philosophers that philosophy with Thales of Miletus born back in the seventh century BC, but was not considered necessary to explain how he had produced the emergence of a new way of thinking. Yes there seemed to be mutually agreed to consider philosophy as a form of rational thought par excellence, ie a way of thinking that does not resort to the action of supernatural elements to explain the reality and rejects the use of ambiguous or contradictory logic. It is from the controversy surrounding the Alexandrian philosophers in the Hellenistic period when the origin of philosophy starts to become a problem. And it will be throughout the twentieth century when they begin to find answers that explain the emergence of philosophical phenomenon. For our purposes it will suffice to consider the two most widespread hypothesis about the origin of philosophy: that which holds the source from Eastern philosophy and that philosophy makes an original creation of the Greeks, and then study.
A) The hypothesis of oriental origin.
Proponents of this hypothesis argue that the Greeks would have copied the Eastern philosophy, so that philosophy can not be considered an original creation of the Greek people. The first philosophers, supports this hypothesis, have traveled to Egypt and Babylon where they have acquired their mathematical and astronomical knowledge, far from being the creators of philosophy would have been a mere transmitters of knowledge Eastern which, in contact with Greek civilization had reached a higher development to that achieved in their places of origin. This hypothesis remained:
-Alexandrian philosophers. In controversy with the Greek philosophical schools, and with the intention to discredit, the Alexandrian philosophers put into circulation the thesis of oriental origin of philosophy.
-Parents Christian apologists. With polemical intent similar to that of the Alexandrian philosophers, the early Fathers of the Christian apologists, aerate the hypothesis of Eastern origin of the philosophy, assumptions which are not thereafter be maintained by the Western Christian philosophy.
1.
The question being debated is whether there is this alleged Eastern philosophy. If we assimilate philosophy to rational discourse understood as the impossibility of using the supernatural to explain natural phenomena, and the rejection of contradiction, it is difficult to sustain the existence of an Eastern philosophy. The question arises, then, is to determine whether the astronomy and mathematics these were or were not oriental philosophy. The studies on the subject seem to indicate that no, Babylonian astronomy tended to degenerate into astrology, that is, divination, and that mathematics Egypt, far from achieving the degree of abstraction necessary to be considered science, never exceeded the stage of a mathematical or practical knowledge generated under the measurement needs of the land after each of the periodic flooding of the Nile
2.
What makes it in Greece where he developed the philosophy and not anywhere else in the East? How to explain that in a particular civilization, generate a new way of thinking, as opposed to earlier forms of thought? What are their characteristics? And what were the characteristics of previous thought? Both the East and the Greeks possessed a mythology and similar religious beliefs. And the explanatory structure of which is also similar. A myth is a story about the origins, a narrative, not a solution to a problem can refer to the origin of the world, or the origin of a particular object, or a specific class of animals, etc. At the same time tells, places man in reality, given a role, function, meaning, it acquires a social function: to make intelligible the social order.
The existence of this form of thought is attested in all civilizations, and, of course, Greek. Of particular importance for understanding the emergence of philosophy may be the myths of Hesiod we find especially in the Theogony. In any case, such mythical explanations of the origin common to all civilizations, have also common characteristics that contrast with the characteristics of philosophical thought: the use of supernatural entities to explain the origin and the use of ambivalent logic, allowing the same element or entity to behave either as a god, whether as a natural element, would be among the most significant. The rejection of these characteristics, will own philosophy. And this rejection does not seem to occur in the so-called Eastern philosophy.
B) The hypothesis of Greek origin.
philosophy According to this hypothesis would be an original creation of the Greek people. We will focus on the explanations of historians of the twentieth century, of which we highlight
a) -
J. Explaining Burnet. Thesis is called "Greek miracle." According to philosophy this hypothesis have appeared in Greece in an abrupt and radical as a result of the genius of the Greek people. This assumption ignores the historical, cultural and political, so it ends up not explain anything, falling into a vicious circle: The Greeks created the philosophy because they are great, and they're great because they create philosophy. Maintains in his book "The Aurora
b) -
FM Cornford's explanation. Defends the thesis of the development of philosophical thought from mythical and religious thought. According to this hypothesis philosophy would be the result of the evolution of primitive forms of thought mythical Greece
c) -
Vernant JP's explanation in his book "Myth and thought
Structure Hesiodic myth
(in the "Theogony") serves as model to all physical Vernant Ionia, according to Cornford. In this myth, in fact, the reality is generated from an initial state that does not distinguish, for segregation of pairs of opposites that interact to finish setting up all the known reality. So there are three fundamental moments in the flow of the narrative:
1) is part of a state that does not distinguish the original element.
2) In the outbreak, through segregation, couples of opposites.
3) According to a constantly renewed cycle there is a continuous interaction of opposites.
C) Conclusions
However, this structure is found in the explanations of the early Ionian philosophers, but they have already taken the form of a problem in the philosophy the myth that streamlined. The myth is animistic, magical, invisible uses as the basis of the visible, accepts the supernatural and the extraordinary. The cosmology of the early philosophers adjust their language and content change: instead of telling the successive events first define the founding principles of being, instead of presenting a battle of God offers a mechanical exchange processes or phenomena. What are the conditions under which this change occurs?
to Vernant, the birth of philosophy is explained citing historical and social causes. The absence of a priestly caste in Greece, given the special features of Greek religion, eliminates the possibility of a religious dogma, and the possibility of making religion a speech closed, accessible only to those belonging to the priestly caste , there is, therefore, secrets to hide. Sage, that is at once seer, poet, prophet, musician, doctor, purifier, healer, but distinct from the priest or shaman of the Eastern religions, and has the power to see and make visible the invisible, discloses his knowledge: education here opposed to the initiation esoteric doctrine. Knowledge is disseminated, and getting rid of the figure of the magician. The expansion of the city, as a corollary to the economic boom largely derived from trade, is the advent of the citizen, a situation parallel to the birth and development of philosophy. The importance of lineage gives way to the priority of the polis, the community, which is usually accompanied by an organization claiming political advertising. Knowledge is transferred to the square in the middle of the agora, the subject of public debate where the dialectical argument will eventually prevail over the supernatural light.
philosophy, because, although rooted in myth, seems to be an original creation of the Greek people. His rejection of the supernatural, magic, of ambivalence, are signs of a rationality that we can hardly find in other forms of previous thought.