西方文明史chapter 3

The idea of ethical freedom reached its highest point with Socrates. To shape oneself according to ideals known to the mind—to develop into an autonomous and self-directed person—became for the Greeks the highest form of freedom. During the Hellenistic Age, the Greek, like the Hebrews earlier, arrived at the idea of universalism, the oneness of humanity. Stoic philosophers taught that all people, because of their ability to reason, are fundamentally alike and can be governed by the same laws. This idea is at the root of the modern principle of natural, or human, rights, which are the birthright of each individual.
ChronolLeabharlann Baidugy
The Greeks
1700-1450B.C. 1400-1230 1100-800 c.700 750-550 594 507 480 479 431 404 387 359 338 335 323B.C.
Height of Minoan civilization Height of Mycenaean civilization Dark age Homer Age of colonization Solon is given power to institute reforms Cleisthenes broadens democratic institutions Xerxes of Persia invades Greece; Greek naval victory at salamis Spartans defeat Persians at Plataea, ending Persian wars Start of Peloponnesian war Athens surrenders to Sparta, ending Peloponnesian war Plato founds a school at Athens Philip II becomes king of Macecdonia Battle Chaeronea, Greek city-states fall under Aristotle founds a school, the Lyceum Death of Alexander the Great
Humanism The Greeks expressed a belief in the worth, significance, and dignity of the individual; they called for the maximum cultivation of human talent, the full development of human personality, and the deliberate pursuit of excellence. Fundamental to the Greek humanist outlook was the belief that man could master himself. Although people could not alter the course of nature, for there was an order to the universe over which neither they nor the gods had control, the humanist believed that people could control their own lives.
Chapter 3 The Greeks: From Myth to Reason Greek civilization passed through three distinct stages: The Hellenic Age (800B.C. – 323B.C.) The Hellenistic Age (323B.C.—30B.C.) The Greco-Roman Age(30B.C.—5th century A.D.)
The Greek Achievement: Reason, Freedom, Humanism
The Hebrew conception of ethical monotheism, with its stress on human dignity, is one source of the Western tradition. The other source derives from ancient Greece. The great achievements of the Hebrews lay in the sphere of religious-ethical thought; those of the Greeks lay in the development of rational thought. In this shift of attention from the gods to human beings, the Greeks broke with the myth-making orientation of the Near East and created the rational humanist outlook that is a distinctive feature of Western civilization.
By discovering theoretical reason, by defining political freedom, and by affirming the worth and potential of human personality, the Greeks broke with the past and founded the rational and humanist tradition of the West. “Had Greek civilization never existed,” says poet W. H. Auden, “we would never have become fully conscious, which is to say that we would never have become, for better or worse, fully human.”
Reason
Western thought begins with the Greeks, who first defined the individual by his capacity to reason. It was the great achievement of the Greek spirit to rise above magic, miracles, mystery, authority, and custom and to discover the means of giving rational order to nature and society. Every aspect of Greek civilization—science, philosophy, art, drama, literature, politics, historical writing—showed a growing reliance on human reason and a diminishing dependence on the gods and mythical thinking.
Freedom
In Mesopotamia and Egypt, people had no clear conception of their individual worth and no understanding of political liberty. They were not citizens, but subjects who marched to the command of a ruler whose power originated with the gods. In contrast, the Greeks created political freedom. They saw the state as a community of free citizens who made laws in their own interest. For the Greeks, the state was a civilizing agent, permitting people to live the good life. The Greeks also gave to Western civilization a conception of inner, or ethical, freedom.