A History of Western Philosophy: Catholic Philosophy

-Catholic philosophy dominated European thought from Augustine to Renaissance
-the Church brought philosophic beliefs into a closer relation to social and political circumstances
-first period was dominated by Saint Augustine and Plato; second period culminates in Saint Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle
-end of Middle Ages/13th C: growth of a rich commercial class + growth of strong national monarchies in France, England and Spain
-751, the Lombards captured Ravenna, capital of Byzantine Italy. Holy Roman emperors were often destitute of real power; they only became emperors when the Pope crowned them. The emancipation of the Pope from Byzantine domination was essential both to the independence of the church and the ultimate establishment of a papal monarchy in the government of the Western Church. 
- Dark Ages (600-1000) in Western Europe vs. what was happening around the world (Tang Dynasty in China, the flourishing of Islam in India to Spain)


Saint Augustine (end of 4th C)
1. Theory of time: Plato's God is an artificer / architect, rather than a Creator. The idea of creation out of nothing, as taught in the Old Testament, was foreign to Greek Philosophy. Pantheism holds that God and the world are not distinct. Augustine maintains that the world was created from nothing, of which God created substance. Time was created when the world was created. God is an eternal present; there is no before or after. Time is only an aspect of our thoughts - extreme form of subjectivism.
2. Philosophy of History: The City of God is the society of the elect. There are things that can be discovered by reason, but for all other knowledge, we must rely on Scriptures. The shamefulness in the independence of will. The implication that the State could only be part of the City of God by being submissive to the Church in all religious matters
3. Theory of Salvation: Focuses on combating Pelagic heresy. Pelagic believed in free will, questioned the doctrine of the original sin, and thought that man acted out of their own moral effort. For Augustine, it is taught that certain people are chosen to go heaven by God's grace. They do not go because they are good, but because they are saved by God.

John the Scot (9th C)
- contended that reason and revelation are both sources of truth, and therefore cannot conflict; but if they seem to conflict, reason is to be preferred
- On the Division of Nature: universals are anterior to particulars . Everything that emanates from God strives to return to Him.  God does not know Himself, because He is not a what; he is incomprehensible to himself and to every intellect. The class of things that create and are created embraces the whole of the prime causes, or prototypes. The total of these prime causes is Logos. They give rise to the world of particular things, the materiality of which is illusory. Sin has its source in freedom; it arose because man turned towards himself instead of God.
- his Pantheism and view of creation as timeless is contrary to Christian doctrine (is it also because if creation is timeless, it undermines the idea of afterlife, and therefore Judgment day and being saved by the ultimate grace of God?)

Mohammedan Culture and Philosophy (7th - 8th)
- Hegira (The Islamic Prophet Muhammed's flight from Mecca to Medina, also recognised as the start of the Islamic Calendar 622) marks the start of Arab conquests
- Arab Empire: -an absolute monarchy, under the caliph, who was the successor of the Prophet; the caliphate soon became hereditary
- Arabs' main motive was wealth; the Persians were deeply religious / since the death of Muhammed's son-in-law Ali in 661, Mohammedans have been divided into 2 sects: Sunni and Shiah (Persians)
- the Arabs first acquired their knowledge of Greek philosophy through Syrians; contact with India gave them insight into astronomy; one of the best features of Arab economy was agriculture and irrigation
- Averroes: holds that the existence of God can be proven by reason independently of revelation; adheres closely to Aristotle's view that the soul is not immortal but intellect (nous) is. He regarded religion as containing philosophic truth in allegorical form, in particular, creation.

12th - 15th Century
- 12th C: the increase of papal and ecclesiastical power
--- the conflict of empire and papacy, the rise of Lombard cities, the Crusades, the growth of scholasticism
- 13th C: fall of Rome
- 14th C: the dissolution of institutions
- 15th C: the beginning of modern philosophy

Saint Thomas Aquinas
- regarded as the greatest scholastic philosopher
- most important work 'Summa contra Gentiles' was concerned with establishing the truth of the Christian religion to a non-Christian
- Wisdom per se is concerned with the end of the universe. The end of the universe is Truth. This pursuit is the most perfect, sublime and delightful of all pursuits.
- The existence of God is proved by the argument of the unmoved mover (Aristotle) - which is further expound by Aquinas : 'God is pure activity. In God, there is no composition, therefore He is not a body...God is His own essence...In God, essence and existence are identical..In God there is Will. In willing Himself, God wills other things also, for God is the end of all things.'
- The ethical question of Evil - 'Evil is unintentional, not an essence, and has an accidental cause which is good'

The Eclipse of the Papacy
- the Western Church developed from a republic into a monarchy
- contact with Constantinople and Mohammedans
- the rise of a rich commercial class and the increase of knowledge in North Italian cities, that had a spirit of independence, and soon turned against the Pope

History of Western Philosophy III: After Aristotle

3 periods:
1. Free City States, brought to an end by Philip and Alexander -- freedom and disorder
2. Macedonian domination, also known as the Hellenistic Age (between death of Alexander and the conquest of Egypt by the Roman Empire) -- subjection and disorder; also known as the best works of science and mathematics in Greece; includes the foundation of the Epicurean and Stoic schools
3. Roman Empire -- subjection and order, the rise of Christianity

Hellenistic Age

- at Alexander's death, his empire was divided between 3 generals. The European part fell to Antigonus's descendants. Ptolemy obtained Egypt and made Alexandria the capital. Seleucus obtained Asia, where Antioch later became the chief city
- Alexandria was the most successful from a Hellenistic point of view. Egypt was less exposed to war, and Alexandria was in a favoured position for commerce. Specialization characterized the world of learning.
- After Alexander's conquests, there was no longer an incentive to take an interest in public affairs, and the Hellenistic world lacked a ruler strong enough to produce social cohesion

Cynics and Sceptics

- Greek philosophers turned aside from politics to the problem of individual virtue and salvation -- from Christianity evolved a gospel of individual salvation which inspired the Church and a missionary zeal
- the school of Cynics was founded by Diogenes - believed in the 'return to nature', with no government, no private property, no marriage, no established religion, no slavery, no luxury and pursuit of artificial pleasures. Popular Cynicism does not teach abstinence, but only a certain indifference.
- Scepticism was first proclaimed by Pyrrho, who maintained that there could never be any rational ground for preferring one course of action to another. This meant that one conformed to the customs without any of the actual beliefs required -- 'a lazy man's consolation'
- The Greeks admitted logic that was deductive, which had to start from general principles that were regarded as self-evident. A modern Sceptic would point out that a phenomenon merely occurs, and is neither valid nor invalid. 

The Epicureans

- Epicurus: the pleasure of the mind is the contemplation of the pleasures of the body. Virtue is the 'prudence in the pursuit of pleasure'. Justice consists in so acting as not to have reason to fear other men's resentment. Dynamic pleasures consists in the attainment of a desired end. Static pleasures consist in a state of equilibrium. E.g, the satisfying of hunger is a dynamic pleasure -- the state of quiescence after the hunger is satisfied is a static pleasure
- Absence of pain, rather than presence of pleasure, is the goal. Above all, live so as to avoid fear.

Stoicism

- Founder Zeno
- early Stoics were mostly Syrian, the later ones mostly Roman. Socrates was the chief saint of the Stoics. Later Stoics followed Plato with regards to the soul as immaterial; earlier Stoics agreed with Heraclitus that the soul was composed of material fire. Zeno was concerned with Virtue, and had little patience for metaphysical tendencies.
- main doctrines are about cosmic determinism and human freedom. Zeno did not believe in chance, but that the course of nature is determined by natural laws. Soon there will be a cosmic conflagration and all will become fire, which concludes a cycle, and the whole process will repeat itself endlessly. All things are parts of one single system -- Nature; the individual life is good when it is in harmony with Nature. Virtue is the sole purpose of a man's life. Since Virtue resides in will, everything good or bad depends only upon himself. Man has perfect freedom to pursue Virtue. The Stoic is not virtuous in order to do good, but does good in order to be virtuous.
- inherent contradictions in Stoicism: on the one hand, the universe is a deterministic single whole; on the other hand, the individual will is autonomous
- main importance of the Stoics -- the theory of knowledge and the doctrine of natural laws. Theory of knowledge - they accepted perception, between things which can be known with certainty on the basis of perception, and those which are only probable. A questionable doctrine in their theory of knowledge is the belief in innate ideas and principles. Greek logic was deductive and based on first premises, which were general and could not be proven, though it could be used as the starting point of definitions.
- Doctrine of natural right: by nature, all human beings are equal.

Neoliberalism

- Neoliberalism : free-market capitalism
- https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot

• 'sees competition as the defining characteristic of human relations...redefines citizen as consumers whose democratic choices are best exercised by buying and selling...'
• looks to minimize tax & regulation, privatize public services, discourage unions & labor bargaining
• 1944, Ludwig von Mises & Friedrich Hayek 'The Road to Serfdom': argued that government planning would lead to totalitarianism control. As it evolved, Hayek's view that the government should regulate competition moved to the belief that monopoly could be seen as reward for efficiency
• As Keynesian policies fell apart in 1970s, neoliberalism ideas entered mainstream policy-making and was adopted by Jimmy Carter in US --> Margaret Thatcher & Ronald Reagan era: massive tax cuts for the rich, crushing of trade unions, deregulation, privatization, competition in public services
• Freedom from trade unions and collective bargaining = freedom to suppress wages, to pollute; Universal competition = universal quantification, assessment and monitoring; Privatization = corporations setting up tollbooths in front of vital national services eg. mobile services
• 'fascist movements build their base not from the politically active but the politically inactive, the 'losers' who feel, often correctly, they have no voice or role to play in the political establishment' - when political debate no longer appeals and facts appear irrelevant, people become responsive to slogans, symbols, sensation. 
• The invisible hand of corporations - Institute of Economic Affairs is funded by British American Tobacco since 1963; Charles and David Koch founded the Tea Party Movement* -- the market is fraught with power relations; the funding of productive and socially useful activities is used interchangeably with the purchase of assets to create rent, interest, dividends and capital gains
• Keynesianism works by stimulating consumer demand to promote economic growth, which are also the motors of environmental destruction*
• A new economic program needs to be designed, tailored to the demands of the 21st C

*Keynesianism advocates an active role for government intervention - monetary policy actions -  during recession. It served as the model during the Great Depression, post WW2

-- problems such as unemployment result from imbalances in demand and whether the economy was expanding or contracting; therefore necessary for government spending to increase demand, increase economic activity, and reduce unemployment

*Tea Party Movement: 'fake grassroots movement' composed of well-meaning people who think they are fighting elite power, but have been organized by the very interests they believe they are confronting  eg. 2009 Defending the American Dream, convened by Americans for Prosperity -- AFP mobilized opposition to Obama's heathcare reforms. eg. Cato Institute (organized by Koch Brothers), the first free-market think tank (*think tank: an organization that performs research and advocacy on topics like social policy, political strategy, military, technology, culture)

History of Western Philosophy II: Plato and Aristotle

Plato

• The most important matters in his philosophy: 1) Utopia; 2) Theory of ideas; 3) Immortality; 4) Cosmogony; 5) Knowledge as reminiscence rather than perception 
• Influenced by Pythagoras, the Orphic elements and the intermingling of intellect and mysticism. From Parmenides, the belief that reality is eternal and timeless and change is illusory. From Heraclitus, the doctrine that nothing is permanent. Together, the conclusion that knowledge is derived from the intellect, not from the senses. 
• The best state is the one which most nearly copies the heavenly model by having a minimum of change and a maximum of static perfection, the eternal Good. Plato had a core of certainty which can only be communicated through a way of life, that is the combination of intellectual and moral discipline. 

• 1) Utopia: In Republic, the nominal purpose was to define 'justice'. Citizens are to be divided into 3 classes: commoners, soldiers, guardians. Only the guardians have political power, and are chosen by the legislator, after which they usually succeed by heredity. In exceptional cases, a promising child may be promoted from an inferior class. Education is divided into music and gymnastics. Music = province of the muses / culture; Gymnastics = physical training / athletics. There must be rigid censorship, and materials must teach that God is good. Austerity in the training of the body. Both wealth and poverty and harmful. Equality between men and women. To minimize possessive emotions, all children are to be taken away from their parents from birth, and people are addressed 'father', 'mother', 'brother', 'sister'. A 'lie' created to deceive the majority of people, is that God has created men of three kinds. Every person or thing has his or its appointed place and appointed function, closely connected to the idea of fate. An impersonal law is necessary to punish hubris. 
• Justice in Plato is almost synonymous with 'law' - which is concerned mainly with property rights. This differs from our modern association of justice with equality. Justice presupposes a state organized either on traditional lines or some ethical ideal. As a man has no legal father, the purpose of the government is essential in determining a man's job. The difference between an 'ideal' and an ordinary object of desire is that the former is impersonal, with no special reference to the ego of the man. 
• A fundamental question in ethics and politics: Is there any standard of 'good' and 'bad'? This question does not really exist for Plato. He is convinced that there is 'The Good' and that he can prove that his ideal Republic is good. 

• 2) Theory of Ideas: The philosopher is a man who loves the 'vision of truth'. The man who has knowledge of something, that is to say, of something that exists, for what does not exist is nothing. Thus knowledge is infallible. Opinion is mistaken, because it is both of what is and is not. Opinion is of the world presented to the senses, whereas knowledge is of an eternal world; e.g. opinion is concerned with beautiful things, but knowledge is concerned with beauty itself. [assuming that beauty exists a priori to us experiencing beautiful things]
• The theory of 'ideas' or 'forms' is partly logical, partly metaphysical. The logical part has to do with the meaning of general words. The metaphysical part has to do with a certain ideal. Whenever a number of individuals have a common name, e.g. cat, they have also a common 'idea' or 'form'. 
• The world of the intellect is distinguished from the world of the senses. 'Reason' is concerned with pure ideas and its method is dialectic. 'Understanding' is inferior to reason as it uses hypotheses which it cannot test. 
• Plato's cave: the world of ideas is what we see when the object is illumined by the sun, while the world of passing things is a confused twilight world. The eye is compared to the soul, and the sun, as the source of light to truth and goodness. 'The underlying assumption is that reality, as opposed to appearance, is completely and perfectly good'. 
• This is the first theory to emphasize the problem of universals. We cannot express ourselves in a language composed wholly of specific names, but must have also general words such as 'man', or relational words such as 'similar'. Here, Plato's mistake is in thinking that the universal 'man' is the name of the model man created by God - and in realizing the gap between universals and particulars. Socrates: 'There are certain ideas of which all other things partake, and from which they derive their names'. Parmenides: 'Does the individual partake of the whole idea, or only of a part?' When an individual partakes of an idea, there will have to be another idea embracing the particulars and the original idea, and so on ad infinitum. Any attempt to divide the world into portions, of which one is more 'real' than the other, is doomed to failure. 
• Another difficulty is that the contingent world created by God is the everyday world which has been condemned as bad and illusory. Therefore, it seems that God created only illusion and evil. Perhaps Plato does not have to be charged with this as he did not say that God created everything, but only what is good. 

• 3) Immortality: Phaedo describes the last moments in the life of Socrates and presents Plato's ideal of a man who is wise and good in the highest degree. 'Death, says Socrates, is the separation of soul and body' -- Plato's dualism of reality and appearance, reason and sense-perception, soul and body. This distinction stems from Orphic who proclaims that from earth comes the body, from heaven the soul. We are told that the body is a hindrance in the acquisition of knowledge, yet this implies a complete rejection of empirical knowledge. 'Thought is best when the mind is gathered into itself, and is not troubled by sounds or sights or pain or pleasure', and when it aspires after 'absolute justice, absolute beauty and absolute good', that is 'the essence or true nature of everything'. 'Purity' in Orphic terms has a primarily ritual meaning. For Plato, it means freedom from slavery to the body and its needs. 
• The first argument is that 'all things which have opposites are generated from their opposites' - e.g. life and death generate each other. The second argument is that knowledge is recollection, and therefore the soul must have existed before birth. Thus the pre-existence of the soul with knowledge. But to assume that knowledge, especially that of logic and mathematics, is a priori, dismisses empirical knowledge. 

• 4) Cosmogony: In Timaeus, Plato puts intelligence in the soul and the soul in the body. There is only one world, which is 'a created copy designed to accord as closely as possible with the eternal origin apprehended by God'. It is a globe because the circular motion is the most perfect. The 4 elements - fire, water, earth, air - are represented by a number harmonized in equal proportion 
• Origin of time: 'wherefore (God) resolved to have a moving image of eternity...he made this image eternal but moving according to number, while eternity itself rests in unity; and this image we call Time'
• 2 kinds of causes: the intelligent, which is endowed with mind; the other that in being moved by others, are compelled to move others, and produce chance effects without order or design
• Space is an intermediate between the world of essence and the world of transient things: God is 'one kind of being which is always the same, uncreated and indestructible...of which the contemplation is granted to intelligence only'; Life/reality is 'perceived by sense, created, always in motion...apprehended by opinion and sense'; 'space...is eternal...and provides a home for all created things...and is hardly real'

• 5) Knowledge and Perception: Theatetus concerns itself with the definition of 'knowledge' but finds no satisfactory answer. The proposal: 'one who knows something is perceiving the thing that he knows...knowledge is nothing but perception' -- this can be identified with Protagoras' doctrine that 'man is the measure of all things' -- argument 1: while one judgment cannot be truer than another, it can be better, in the sense of having better consequences -- suggesting pragmatism -- argument 2: Heraclitus 'doctrine of flux is held to state that everything is always changing in both respects', therefore we cannot be right in saying we 'see a thing' since seeing is perpetually changing into not-seeing' -- argument 3: we perceive through our bodily organs rather than with them; it is the mind that judges the existence of things, which follows that we cannot know things through the senses alone -- we can, instead, interpret that 'knowledge is judgments of perception' / we can think of 'percept' as something that happens - when filled out with images of touch becomes an 'object'; when filled out with words and memories becomes a 'perception'
• Existence 'belongs to everything, and is among the things that the mind apprehends by itself; without reaching existence, it is impossible to reach truth'
• Mathematical truth is independent of perception; but it is truth of a different kind, concerned only with symbols -- thus numbers are 'formal' i.e. they have a form 
• Protagoras' doctrine: we should first distinguish between percepts and inferences. Percepts are subjective and personal. Inferences are, in a sense, equally fallacious. However, there is some impersonal standard of correctness . 
• 'Logical oppositions have been invented for our convenience, but continuous change requires a quantitative apparatus' (which has been ignored by Plato)

Aristotle

• 1) Metaphysics: to start with his criticism of Plato's theory of ideas and his own doctrine of universals. Aristotle's 'universal' refers to 'that which is of such a nature as to be predicated of many subjects, by 'individual' that which is not thus predicated'. A 'substance' is signified by a proper name, and it is a 'this'. A 'universal' is signified by an adjective or class-name (e.g. man) and it is a 'such'. However, you can argue that an adjective is also dependent on what is meant by a proper name, but not vice versa. e.g. the quality 'redness' cannot exist without some kind of subject, but it can exist without a specific 'this' subject. The distinction is therefore linguistic, derived from syntax, but this distinction has been interpreted metaphysically. 
• Aristotle's 'essence' refers to 'properties which you cannot lose without ceasing to be yourself'.
• The distinction of 'form' and 'matter': it is in virtue of the form that the matter is a definite thing, and therefore becomes the substance of the thing. 'A 'thing' must be bounded, and the boundary constitutes its form'. The 'form' is what gives unity to a portion of matter, and that unity is usually teleological. e.g. The soul is what makes the body one thing. The Form is 'more real than matter' which is reminiscent of the Plato's conception of Ideas. Zeller: Aristotle's growth of ideas 'are metamorphosed in the end from a logical product of human thought into an immediate presentment of a supersensible world'
• The distinction of potentiality and actuality: 'bare matter is conceived as a potentiality of form ...that which has more form is considered to be more actual'. One problem with such a statement is when potentiality is used as a fundamental and irreducible concept. 
• 3 kinds of substances: 1) sensible and perishable, like plants and animals; 2) sensible and non-perishable, like heavenly bodies; 3) neither sensible nor perishable, like God and the rational soul in man. God is the First Cause, the thing which originates motion and is in itself unmoved and eternal and actual. God is also the Final Cause of all activity, which the world is continually evolving towards and becoming progressively more like God. Types of Causes: 1) material e.g. the marble; 2) formal e.g. the form of the statue to be produced; 3) efficient e.g. the process of chiseling the marble; 4) final e.g. the end result
• On the Soul: the soul is bound up with the body, and therefore perishes with the body. The soul 'must have a substance in the sense of the form of a material body'. The soul 'is substance in the sense which corresponds to the definitive formula of a thing's essence'. 'The soul is the final cause of the body'. The soul is what moves the body and perceives sensible objects. The mind is higher than the soul, and less bound to the body. It is timeless and can be immortal. 
• In the soul, there is an element that is rational, and an element that is irrational. The irrational is the vegetative, which exists in all living creatures. The rational consists in contemplation. The irrational soul is connected with the body and reflects individuality. The rational soul is divine and impersonal and unites men. 

• 2) Ethics: two kinds of virtue: 1) intellectual which results from teaching; 2) moral which is from habit. By becoming compelled to acquire good habits, we shall in time come to find pleasure in performing good actions. The Golden Mean: every virtue is a mean between two extremes, each of which is a vice. Courage is a mean between cowardice and rashness. Proper pride between vanity and humility. Justice involves the right proportion, which is only sometimes equality. Ethics is considered a branch of politics - monarchy is the best form of government, followed by aristocracy. Aristotle and Plato can regard a community which confines the best things to a few a morally satisfactory situation. Moral merit concerns itself with acts of will; that wherever two courses of action are possible, conscience tells one which is right and which is sin  -- virtue consists in the avoidance of sin, rather than in anything positive. 
• Aristotle takes the view that virtues are means to an end, namely happiness. The first business of ethics is to define the good, and that virtue is to be defined as the action that produces the good. Pleasure is regarded as distinct from happiness. Pleasure is 1) never good; 2) some is good but most is bad; 3) pleasure is good but not the best. Not all pleasures are bodily; all things have something divine and therefore some capacity for higher pleasures. The proper pleasure of man is connected with reason. 
• Happiness lies in virtuous activity, and perfect happiness lies in the best activity, which is contemplative. 
• When asking questions about ethics: 1) is it internally self-consistent? 2) is it consistent with the remainder of the author's views? 3) Does is give answers to ethical problems that are consonant to our own ethical feelings? 
• Aristotle's ethics are consistent with his metaphysics. He believes in the scientific importance of final causes, and this implies the belief that purpose governs the course of development in the universe. 
• His acceptance of inequality is repugnant to much modern sentiment.  The modern interpretation of Justice has to do with Equality. In Aristotle's times, on grounds of religion, each thing or person had its own proper sphere, to overstep which is 'unjust'.

• 3) Politics: the importance of the State, which is the highest kind of community and aims at the highest good. The family, which is built on the fundamental relations of man and woman, master and slave, will come to form a village, followed by the State. An individual cannot fulfil his purpose unless he is part of a state. Without law, man is the worst of animals.
• Good governments: monarchy, aristocracy, constitutional government. Bad government: tyranny, oligarchy, democracy. There is oligarchy when the rich govern without consideration for the poor. There is democracy when power is in the hands of the poor and they disregard the interest of the rich. Greek conception of democracy is extreme - the assembly of the citizen was above the law and decided each question independently. To provide revolution, we need education, respect for law, and justice in law and administration 'equality according to proportion, and for every man to enjoy his own'. *Consider the difficulty in measuring 'proportion'
• 'Citizens should not lead the life of mechanics or tradesmen', citizens should own the property, education is only for children who are going to be citizens
• The aim of the State is to produce cultured gentlemen, who combine aristocratic mentality with love of learning and the arts, a combination which existed in the Athens of Pericles

• 4) Logic: Syllogism: an argument consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. Aristotle thought that all deductive inference is syllogistic. This system was the beginning of formal logic, but it is open to criticism: 1) formal defects within the system ; 2) Over-estimation of the syllogism ; 3) Over-estimation of the deduction 
• E.g. the mistake of thinking that a predicate can be a predicate of the original subject. 'Socrates is Greek, all Greeks are human' - however, 'human' is not a predicate of 'Greek', and neither is 'Greek' a predicate of 'Socrates'. 2, how do we know the first premise from which deduction starts? 3. What about non-syllogistic inferences? 
• In Aristotle, there are 10 categories to represent ideas: substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action, affection. Aristotle's theory of 'Definition' is a statement of a thing's essential nature. The essence: those of its properties which it cannot change without losing its identity. Substance is supposed to be the subject of properties, and to be something distinct from its properties. But when we take away the properties, we can't imagine the substance by itself. Substance becomes a linguistic convenience of bundling events. 

• 5) Physics: Two sets of phenomena: the movements of animals, and the movements of heavenly bodies. The ultimate source of all movement is Will: on earth the will of human beings and animals, in heaven the will of the supreme being. 
• Physics, 'phusis', in Greek is translated as 'nature'-- 'growth'. To Aristotle, the 'nature' of a thing is its end, that for the sake of which it exists. Some things like animals and plants exist by nature, with an internal principle of motion. Things have a 'nature' if they have an internal principle of this kind. 'Motion' is the fulfilling of what exists potentially. 
• One unmoved mover, which directly causes a circular motion, a primary and single motion which is continuous and infinite. The Earth, which is spherical, is at the centre of the universe. Elements of earth, water, air, fire, and a fifth of which heavenly bodies are composed, make up the sublunary sphere.

History of Western Philosophy I

- philosophy is the grey area between science 'definite knowledge' and theology 'dogma'
- the search for something permanent is derived from love of home and the desire for a refuge from danger - religion seeks permanence in two forms, God and immortality. Conception of eternity as an 'existence outside the whole temporal process...and therefore no logical possibility of change' (p46)
- the conception of Purpose, is only applicable within reality, and not to reality as a whole (applicable in the context of which you are operating within -- it is arbitrary)
- Dialectic, the method of seeking knowledge by question and answer was first practised systematically by Zeno, the disciple of Parmenides
- modern definitions of truth, such as pragmatism and instrumentalism, are practical rather than contemplative, inspired by industrialism rather than aristocracy
- Greek astronomy was geometrical, not dynamic - they did not have the conception of force; they thought of the motions of the heavenly body as compounded of circular motions
- 'any hypothesis, however absurd, may be useful in science, if it enables a discoverer to conceive things in a new way; but that, when it has served this purpose by luck, it is likely to become an obstacle to further advance' (p131)


The Rise of Greek Civilization

• invention of writing in Egypt
• fertility cults in Egypt and Babylonia
• arrival of the Greeks: Ionians (rationalist tradition), Achaens, Dorians
• Homer - the gods are human though immortal, they are of a conquering aristocracy
• Bacchus - liberation through physical or spiritual intoxication, excessiveness
• Orpheus - asceticism. believes in the transmigration of the souls and aims at becoming 'pure'
• Philosophy begins with 'Thales', from Miletus, 585 B.C - 'water is the original substance, out of which all others are formed' 
• Anaximander - all things come form a single primal substance, which is not water, but an infinite, eternal substance that is transformed into the various substances with which we are familiar with; between cosmic and human conflicts, there is a kind of natural law which perpetually redresses the balance 
• Pythagoras - transmigration of souls, equality between men and women. the word 'theory', interpreted as 'passionate sympathetic contemplation', was intellectual, and issued in mathematical knowledge for Pythagoras. 'Personal religion is derived from ecstasy, theology from mathematics; and both are to be found in Pythagoras'. What appears to be Platonism is, the conception of an eternal world revealed to the intellect, when analyzed, derived from Pythagoras. Geometry is however not perfect and exact, and suggests that 'all exact reasoning applies to ideal as opposed to sensible objects'
• Heraclitus - regards fire as the fundamental substance; that the unity in the world is formed by the combination of opposites -- and a belief in war. He promoted the doctrine that everything is in flux, that 'nothing ever is, everything is becoming' (Plato) -- and that it was impossible to ascertain the truth in matters of theology
• Parmenides - 'On Nature': the senses are considered deceptive and things are mere illusion. The only one true being is 'the One' which is infinite and indivisible. Thought and language require objects outside themselves - that when you can think of something, you use a name, which must be the name of something, which indicates that it must exist. Consequently there can be no change since change indicates things coming into being or ceasing to be. However, this is based on the assumption that words have a constant meaning. This impossibility of change is considered too difficult a paradox, but what he offers, is the notion of the indestructibility of 'substance'. 
• Empedocles - the discovery of air as a separate substance. He holds that the material world is a sphere, that Strife is outside and Love is inside, and gradually they will switch places, and this cycle of opposite movements will repeat itself. 

Athens

• Athens was at its heights during the age of Pericles, during the two Persian Wars (490 B.C, 480-79 B.C). The vigour and imagination of ancient Greek philosophers, and the 'undue emphasis on man as compared with the universe', and the attempt to acquire fresh knowledge, is hard to be found in later philosophies. 
• First Persian War - the chief glory went to the Athenians // Second Persian War - Athenians fought best at sea but glory on land went to the Spartans // Peloponnesian War (431 B.C) and the death of Pericles -- Spartans reigned supreme and conquered Athens

• Anaxagoras - he regarded the mind as a substance which enters into the composition of living things; it is infinite, self-ruled and the source of all motion
• Leucippus and Democritus 'the Atomists' - the belief that everything is composed of atoms, which are physically indivisible and indestructible. Atoms are always in motion, moving at random, and as they collide, they form vortices which generate bodies and ultimately worlds. They were seeking to mediate between monism and pluralism, to explain the world without introducing the notion of 'purpose' or 'final cause'. There can be no motion without a void. There is no One plenum, but an infinite number that move in the void, and 'by coming together, they produce coming-to-be, while by separating they produce passing-away'. (However, there can be motion in a plenum) 'According to this view, space is not nothing but is of the nature of a receptacle...' The theory that a void exists involves the existence of places (Aristotle). Can we really believe that empty space exists? 'Where there is not matter, there is still something, notably light-waves. -- Leibniz maintains that space is merely a system of relations. For example, distance is between events, not between things, and involves time as well as space. 
• Protagoras: 'Man is the measure of all things, of things that are that they are, and of things that are not that they are not' -- each man is the measure of all things, and when they differ, there is no objective truth of which is right and wrong
• Socrates: Apology (Socrates' defence speech at his trial, reported by Plato some years after) : The Stoics held that the supreme good is virtue, which cannot be deprived by outside causes; the contention of Socrates that the judges cannot harm him. The Cynics despised worldly goods and eschewed the comforts of civilization, which led Socrates to go bare-foot and ill-clad. The Platonic Socrates maintains that he is only wiser than others in knowing that he knows nothing, and only knowledge is needed to make men virtuous. The matters that are suitable for a Socratic dialectic method are those to which we have already enough knowledge to come to a right conclusion, but have failed, through confusion of thought or lack of analysis. 

Sparta

• The mythical Sparta that enabled the Spartans to defeat Athens, that influenced Plato's political theory, is to be found in Plutarch's Life of Lycurgus 
• Laconia, capital of Sparta
• Spartans were the ruling race / Serfs were called helots / free inhabitants were 'perioeci' and had no share of political power
• War was the sole business of a Spartan citizen; the Spartan was simple, neither destitute nor rich, men and women received the same physical training, women were not allowed to show emotion -- Spartan constitution remained stable and unchanged 

Learning structures

https://medium.com/@michaeldsimmons/how-elon-musk-learns-faster-and-better-than-everyone-else-a010a4f586ef

• Learning across multiple fields provides an information advantage because it enables you to come up with new ideas and modes of thought
• Learning transfer: taking what you learn in one context and applying it to another
• Deconstruct knowledge into fundamental principles (underlying roots) - reconstruct them to create new solutions -- ask yourself: 'what does this remind me of? why does it remind me of this?' -- constantly make connections across different fields

“We are in an age that assumes that the narrowing trends of specialization to be logical, natural, and desirable… In the meantime, humanity has been deprived of comprehensive understanding. Specialization has bred feelings of isolation, futility, and confusion in individuals. It has also resulted in the individual’s leaving responsibility for thinking and social action to others.Specialization breeds biases that ultimately aggregate as international and ideological discord, which in turn leads to war.”

Borges

Borges, 'Of Exactitude in Science'

In that Empire, the craft of Cartography attained such Perfection that the Map of a Single province covered the space of an entire City, and the Map of the Empire itself an entire Province. In the course of Time, these Extensive maps were found somehow wanting, and so the College of Cartographers evolved a Map of the Empire that was of the same Scale as the Empire and coincided with it point for point. Less attentive to the Study of Cartography, succeeding Generations came to judge a map of such Magnitude cumbersome and, not without Irreverence, abandoned it to the Rigours of sun and Rain. In the western Deserts, tattered Fragments of the Map are still to be found, Sheltering an occasional Beast or beggar; in the whole Nation no other relic is left of the Discipline of Geography.

The idea that when the quest [for knowledge and creation] become greater than the subject itself, it becomes absurd and 'cumbersome'.

The Idiot

The Idiot is Dovstoyevsky's attempt to portray 'a perfectly beautiful man' - one who is truly honest and compassionate and therefore a ridiculous figure because those qualities require him to transcend social decorum. At the same time, there is the feeling of (self) deception which intensifies as the book progresses and the Prince's thoughts become increasingly confused and unreliable.

The parallels between The Idiot / The Prince and Christ are apparent, with the reference to Hans Holbein's portrait of Christ 'who has suffered inhuman torture, has been taken down from the cross and given over to corruption. His swollen face is covered with bloody wounds and he looks terrible...' The essential question of Christ and his resurrection, his role as saviour for mankind, is raised by Ippolit: 'how could they believe looking at such a corpse, that this sufferer would resurrect?' (p408).

Every chapter has a scene which reminds one of Christ and his disciples - the foul-mouth, lower class hoodlum gang that follows him. They serve as the voice (and perhaps, body) of 'Russia', raising questions about the state of the Russian person, but ironically, falling into those same categories questioned - the 'political man' over the 'practical man', the self-aggrandizing, self-indulgent liar and comic. Ippolit is perhaps the best embodiment for all of them - acting as the voice of 'morality', the consumptive critic who speaks the truth but at the same time, seeks love and attention and sympathy for his declarations. He stands in contrast to the Prince who speaks only to point out the unsaid truth. Yet the Prince is painfully aware of how ridiculous the truth sounds in public when spoken seriously without the need for a self-satisfying response. The Prince is the sacrificial lamb in social spaces. He is also the figure of redemption - characters flock to him in hope of saving themselves through their confessions. He is continuously attacked yet comforted by the people whom he loves and pities. The Prince absorbs the almost worthless, desperate sufferings of Russian society - that is the 'inhuman torture' that he endures. He can't 'save' them because they wouldn't let him; the need for self-destruction (and perhaps, therefore grandeur and history) is greater than anything else.

As mentioned in the Introduction, The Idiot is less descriptive, especially with regards to the external landscape, and much more of a banter, an ongoing dialogue among characters. A sense of dark, murky ambiguity is felt throughout the book. There is a sense of something being masked by the loud and noisy crowd and which never adequately emerges, even though the Prince acts as that voice of 'revelation'. Time and space are both condensed and open. Events either take place inside a closed room or during a walk (to Nastasya's house, the Prince's house etc). In Chapter 1, everything from the introduction of characters to the pivotal climax of Natasya's party takes place within a single day. Three months have gone by in Chapter 2; the story wanders along in a lost and vague manner before culminating in the sudden and unexpected attack on the Prince by Rogozhin. The Prince is then visited by the boorish crowd led by Ippolit, and a list of unclear, unsubstantiated accusations are hastily thrown upon the Prince.

The final chapter floods the reader with a series of quick, unexpected turn and twist of events. The Prince finds himself in a position to praise (or ironically critique) high society, which leads to a disastrous and symbolic moment when he breaks the vase by accident. The denouncement of Catholicism seems to be more of an ironic comment on the hypocrisy of the Russian Christian believers, than on the Roman Catholics. '(Catholicism) has proclaimed that Christ cannot reign without an earthly Kingdom...They have manipulated the people's honest, most just, most pure, most ardent feelings...usurping the lost moral authority of religion to save humanity, not through Christ but by force...' The 'Russian body', the force of the people and society, overcomes and overwhelms any sense or inclination towards faith and goodness. The more the Prince tries to unveil the instinctive 'good' of the people, the more he is mocked at. The book ends with a kind of failed trinity: the Prince, Rogozhin and Nastasya. The death of Nastasya - The arrest of Rogozhin, the Prince's 'double' - The complete mental breakdown of the Prince - embody the convulsions of the times, the illnesses of society, the nihilistic tendencies of the people in contrast to the desires for redemption.

Outline of History (IV)

-Common name of Greek tribes: Hellenes
-Ancient Greek speech variations: Ionic, AEolic, Doric
-'Ancient' Greece (7th B.C): Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, Samos, Miletus
-Tradition of unity between all Greeks, based on a common language and script, epics, continuous intercourse between the states, religious bonds, the Olympic games

Greek Citizen and the State

-3 forms of government:

• an Oligarchy mode of government of which the nouveaux riches became members of the ruling class 
• the tyrant was recognized as a monarch
• Democracy: 'government by the commonalty...it was government by the whole body of the citizens' -- but the concept of 'citizen' was exclusive: the slave, the freedman, the stranger / migrant were excluded

- the patriotism of the 'privileged people', the class of citizens, took an intense form

- Athenian Empire - other Greek city states retained their own governments, but the institution of an 'international' law / Athenian law, meant that justice could be administered between citizens of different states 

Poetry, art and philosophy

- 'Hellenism' - simplicity of life, sobriety of thought, abolition of torture, emancipation of the individual 

- the founding of overseas settlements familiarized men with the idea that a community could be constructed

- Plato and the Republic

- Aristotle -- born during the Macedonian monarchy under Alexander -- the events of the times drove men back towards the desire for stability and unification. Monarchy 'was a conceivable government for millions'

- Limitations of the Greek mind:

•  the idea of the city as the Ultimate city state, in which empire follows empire, each greater than its predecessor  --> the need for unification against outside forces was disregarded
• domestic slavery --> slavery shuts off one's sympathy and puts the slave-owner into an 'elect tribe', a class above others 
• a lack of knowledge -- of history, of geography beyond known lands, astronomy, science 

Alexander's Empire

- Ptolemy set up a Museum in Alexandria -- a 'secular intellectual process' to research and document information, set up a standard of professional knowledge, set up a Library 

- 3 types of mind: 'the clear-headed criticism of the Aryan Greek, the moral fervour and monotheism of the Semitic Jew, and the deep Mediterranean tradition of mysteries and sacrifices'

- fusing of the Gods (theocrasia) -- worship of a trinity of gods: god Serapis + goddess Isis + child-god Horus

- the idea of immortality became a central idea

Buddhism

- Siddhata Gautama: 3 forms of 'evil' human cravings: 1) the desire to gratify the sense 2) the desire for personal immortality 3) the desire for prosperity -- Nirvana (the serenity of the soul) is reached when one renounces these personal aims

- the Indian mind was shaped by the idea of cyclic recurrence 

- Gautama's teachings were reinterpreted into the idea of 'renouncing active life' -- instead of a personal salvation, it became the salvation from misfortunes and sufferings, and Buddha was represented as the saviour 

- early Buddhist sculptures interwoven with figures of Serapis, Isis and Horus -- Isis resembled / interchanged with Hariti, Kuan Yin, Kwannon (Japan) 

- Buddhism spread through Central Asia and intermingled with doctrines of Confucianism and Lao Tse = Three Teachings: 'a Way, a Path, a Nobility' --> personal philosophy of life and not doctrines of a church or a general rule

- differences between Buddhism and Judaism: the intolerance of the Jewish mind kept its faith clear and clean. 'The idea of a Promise...made Judaism historical and dramatic' -- it presented a clear direction and aim; Buddhism stagnated and corrupted for the lack of that directive idea 

--- it's easier to believe in, and rely on an external being than to completely renounce the self based on one's own efforts 

The Outline of History (III)

Aegean Civilization (around the Aegean sea)

- Phoenicians and their colony of Carthage became the greatest martime power then
- Carthage - land trading with Central Africa
- reflected a sense of quality and quantity in marketable goods -- barter trade, iron became the first currency

China

- Chinese writing 'created a special reading class..the ruling and official class. Their necessary concentration upon words and classical forms, rather than upon ideas and realities, seems...to have greatly hampered the social and economic development of China...' --> too laborious and inflexible to meet the modern need for simple and lucid communication

Temples & the move from priestly to secular governments

- 'the desire to propitiate unknown forces, the primitive desire for cleansing and the primitive craving for power and knowledge'
- shrine and entrance faced the same direction, often east, facing the sunrise on Mar 21 & Sept 21, the equinoxes
- the earliest governments were essentially priestly governments -- but the 'incapacity for efficient military leadership and their inevitable jealousy of all other religious cults' led to the rise of secular kingship
- the court became a centre of writing and records
- the conquest of any city included the subordination of its god in the temple of the conquerer's
- Cyrus set up the Persian Empire in Babylon with the blessing of Bel-Marduk 539 B.C
- In Egypt, the Pharaoh is treated as a god, with power and importance exceeding that of any priest
- Egypt - the great god Ammon Ra

Social and political developments of emerging civilizations

The social and political development of Babylonian and Egyptian civilizations:

1) Priesthood and the temple
2) Court system
3) 'tillers of the soil' : free peasants, serfs, farmers
4) Artisan class
5) Herdsmen
6) Merchants - shipowners, traders
7) Retailers
8) Independent property owners
9) Domestic servants
10) Gang workers - prisoners of war, debt slaves
11) Mercenary soldiers
12) Seamen

The social and political development of Indian civilizations:

1) Royal and aristocratic class                  
2) Mercantile class
3) Artisans
4) Farmers
5) Herdsmen

Caste system:

1) Brahmins: teachers and priests
2) Kshatriyas: warriors
3) Vaisyas: herdsmen, merchants, land-owners
4) Sudras
5) Pariahs: outcasts

The social and political development of Chinese civilization:

1) Literary class
2) Farmers
3) Artisans
4) Mercantile class

-- difference would be the landowners as land and possessions are divided among his sons

Old Testament

- sacred literature of the Jews who had returned to their city Jerusalem after being recently deported to Babylon
- position of Judea and Jerusalem is between the Mediterranean (west) and the desert beyong Jordan (east) ; through it lies the road between Hittites, Syria, Assyria, Babylon (north), Egypt (south) --commentary on the history of the people around it
- first 5 books, Pentateuch, begins with the Creation of the world and mankind
- what is Palestine today was at the time the land of Canaan, inhabited by the Canaanites
- when the Hebrews under Joshua pursued their subjugation of the land, they came against the Philistines in the south, the Canaanites and Phoenicians in the north -- the Hebrews are not victorious and desert the worship of their god Jehovah -- they mix their races with the Philistines
- book of Kings begins with King Solomon (960 B.C) - Solomon builds a palace for himself, a temple for Jehovah where the Ark of Covenant abode, and appointed priests to guard the ark --> created a central sacred abode
- for the Jews who returned, it was 'an age of historical inquiry and learning in Babylonia'
- they developed leading ideas that:

1) 'all the people were pure-blooded children of Abraham'
2) a promise made by Jehovah to Abraham that he would exalt the Jewish race above all others
3) Jehovah was the greatest and most powerful of tribal  gods, and the 'only true god'
4) the Jews, as a people, were the chosen people of the one God of all the earth
5) the coming of a saviour who would realize the promises the Jehovah

The Outline of History (II)

Study of the races

- Northern European: blond and dolichocephalic (long skull)
- Mediterranean, Iberian (Spain, Portugal): Dark-haired and dolichocephalic (larger skull)
- Alpine (central Europe): brachycephalic (relative short, broad skull)

Development of the Neolithic culture, also called the 'heliolithic culture' (sun worship) included: 1) circumcision 2) couvade 3) massage 4) mummification 5) monuments 6) artificial deformation of the heads of the young 7) tattoos 8) religious association of the sun and the serpent 9) use of the swastika as a symbol of good luck

Language groups marked by differences in root words, ideas of relationships, grammar

1. Indo-European / Aryan (Germanic, Danube, South Russia)
2. Semitic (Hebrew, Arabic)
3. Hamitic (ancient Egyptian, Berber languages of North Africa, Ethiopic group in East Africa e.g. Gallas, Somalis)
4. Turanian / Ural-altaic group (Siberia, Finland, Turkey, Mongolia)
5. Chinese
6. American-Indian
7. Dravidian (South India)
8. Malay-Polynesia
9. Basque (Pyrenees / Northen Iberian)

Spreading of Aryan Speakers:

-to the West and South, it encountered the Basque language and various Hamitic languages
-to the East, Aryan-speaking tribes used a distinctive dialect Slavonian, leading to Russian, Serbian, Polish, Bulgarian
-other variations over Asia Minor and Persia came to be Armenian and Indo-Iranian (Sanskrit and Persian)

Early Aryan Writings

-earliest written record of the Greek Iliad 700/600BC - later attributed to Homer, the bard (sliepac = blind man)
-Greek Epics reveal that early Greeks had no knowledge of iron, without writings, and they conquerers of a land that had been held by a darker people, a 'Mediterranean' people allied to Iberians

-Primitive neolithic life developed along 2 directions (4000 B.C):

1. Nomadism: Central Europe and Central Asia
2. Civilization: Mesopotamia and Egypt
-- consider Civilization as 'the settlement of men upon an area continuously cultivated and possessed, who live in buildings continuously inhabited with a common rule and a common city'

Sumerians 

- one of the earliest civilizations in southern Mesopotamia (Southern Iraq)
- conquered by nomadic Semitic tribes called Akkadians -- but Sumerian writing and language prevailed
- conquered by Semitic Amorites that set up Babylon
- conquered by Semitic Assyrians, who captured the capital Ninevah, and Babylon
- conquered by Semitic Arameans, whose chief city was Damascus (capital of Syria)

Egypt

- divided into a succession of Dynasties
- internal conflicts between competing capitals, religions, before ultimately being conquered by the Persians, and Alexandra the Great 332 B.C


*Cephalic: related to the head
*Bering Strait: strait between Alaska and Russia

The Politics of Empathy

'The Baby in the Well', http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/20/the-baby-in-the-well

'Why do people respond to [certain] misfortunes and not to others?' Take the case of Baby Jessica who fell into the a well and triggered a huge rescue operation that captivated the entire nation. In comparison, glaring problems such as starvation of children in Africa, or homicide in the US, are regarded as background noise. Going further into what has been called 'the identifiable victim effect', when subjects are asked to donate to develop a drug to save a child's life, versus being shown a picture and information of the child itself, the donations instantly increased in the latter. When one reads about 2000 people who have died in an earthquake in a remote country, we recognize the numbers as significant due to Reason, not Empathy.

Empathy can be problematic when it comes to policy-making as people often see or want to see only the immediate outcomes, rather than the lasting effects of their actions. Statistics matter less than the 'victims who have names and stories'. [We see the negative consequences of 'Empathy' in the 2016 U.S elections when the media kept emphasizing on the 'real, hardworking American white working class' and their personal stories of struggle. Not to say that one should not empathize with them, but rather than focus on issues such as the decline and relevance of their industry,  or even look at how overall employment rates have increased, or at the working conditions of other ethnic groups, these stories tend to mislead, enlarge and overlook the core issues that should affect the election results]

'Moral judgment entails more than putting oneself in another's shoes...A reasoned, even counter-empathetic analysis of moral obligation and likely consequences is a better guide to planning for the future than the gut wrench of empathy.' Appreciate the fact that 'even if we don't empathize with distant strangers, their lives have the same value as the lives of those we love'.

The Outline of History (I)

The earliest sedimentary rocks:
- frequently called Azoic (lifeless) Rocks, or Archaeozoic (primordial life) --> it is asserted that these substances require the activity of living things for their production, therefore supposing that the first life was soft living matter with no shells or skeletons, and that its chemical influence caused the deposition of graphite and iron oxide - e.g. marks made by worms
- Proterozoic (beginning of life) Rocks
- Palaeozoic (ancient life) -- show evidence of a diversity of shellfish, crabs, worms, seaweeds, fishes
- Mesozoic (Middle life) Rocks -- fossil-bearing rocks, including bones of giant reptiles
- Cainozoic (recent life) Rocks

Causes for changes in the world's climate:
1. '...the earth does not spin in a perfect circle round the sun. Its path or orbit is like a hoop that is distorted...elliptical...slowly distorted by the attractions of the other planets' --> when the orbit is most nearly circular, the earth must be consistently getting the same amount of heat from the sun; when the orbit is most distorted, then there will be a season in each year when the earth is nearest to the sun (Perihelion) and a season when it will be at the farthest from the sun (Aphelion)

2. the change in the seasons is due to the fact that the equator of the earth is inclined at an angle to the plane of its orbit

3. the precession of the equinoxes: the slow wabble of the pole of the spinning earth takes 25000 years

-- when it happens that at the same time, the orbit is most nearly circular, spring is at perihelion and autumn at aphelion, the climate will be warm and uniform and there will be least difference of summer and winter

4. Forces within the world itself - particularly, the influence of vegetation, especially that of forests

5. Appearance of human communities

Cainozoic period divided by its climate changes:
1. Eocene (dawn of recent life): an age of exceptional warmth
2. Oligocene (little of recent life): climate was still equable
3. Miocene (living species still in minority: general temperature was falling
4. Pliocene (more living species): climate still at its present phase
5. Pleistocene (great majority of living species): long period of extreme conditions --> The Ice Age

The development of mammal from the Lower Palaeozoic Age
- Fish, a vertebrated animal that breathes by gills and can only live in water
- Amphibian - a fish that has developed the power of breathing air, and limbs in place of fins
- Reptile - an amphibian that passes through its tadpole stage; from the beginning, it breathes in air
- Mammal - a sort of reptile that has developed a protective covering and retains its eggs in the body until it hatches
- Hair was the earliest distinction of mammals from the rest of the reptiles
- The mammal is a family animal which seeks for a continuity of experience / life

The development of the sub-human
- Heidelberg man (Homo Heidelbergensis), about 600,000 -200,000 years ago
- Neanderthal (Homo Neaderthalensis) discovered near Dusseldorf
-- distinguishing feature: Piltdown jaw-bone - 'has the broad, flat symphysis of the Apes'
- Tasmanians
- Late Palaeolithic Age: 1) Cro-Magnon race, 2) Grimaldi race
- Main features: human fore-brain, human hand, and an intelligence
- no trace of intermixture between the races
- hunting people who lived largely in the open (Neanderthals lived mostly in caves)

Neolithic (Stone Age ~ 10,000 BC) man
- characterized by: 1) the presence of polished stone implements esp. the stone axe; 2) the beginning of agriculture; 3) Pottery and proper cooking; 4) Domesticated animals 
- cultural fundamentals: 1) the fear of the Old Man --> Taboos and the ideas of forbidden things; 2) the idea of Uncleanness and of being cursed
- the development of speech and language = the development of thought, the capacity for systemizing things
-with agriculture = rise of religion --> ceremonies, sacrifices, 'purified class of people'

*Zoic: relating to (animal) life
*Cene: denoting a geological period
*Lithic: relating to stone
*Equinox: when the plane of Earth's equator passes through the center of the sun - generally March and September, when the Earth experiences nearly equal lengths of day and night
*Equator: the imaginary line around the middle of the Earth, halfway between North & South Poles