Athens Critical Thinkings Samples For Students

1) Athens and Sparta were the main city-states of Ancient Greece. Between the VI and V centuries B.C., they contended about the political and military domination over the entire Greek territory. The only feature they had in common was the fact that they were both “polis”, Greek city-states. However, Athens and Sparta were completely different in terms of their political, social and cultural systems. According to Laveck (2010), Sparta, also known as “Lacedemonia”, was founded in the XIII century B.C. The city-state Sparta was born through the merge of four Doric tribes. During the VII century B.C., Sparta started ...

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An increase in population and wealth led to the creation of governments and in turn saw to the rise of powerful empires. Said empires have since been recorded among the most influential domains in the history of the world. Consequently, as one empire rose to power another fell in the hands of their enemies thus creating a form of competition amongst neighboring domains. For instance, Greece was a colony of the Ottoman Empire until the Greek War of Independence that lasted between 1821 and 1831 (Masters and Agoston, 2009, p. 240). Therefore, the empires rose to power depending ...

Roman Mythology

Greek mythology was created long before the Roman Mythology. This is estimated to be around 2000 BC. While it was not until lately that people started to believe that Roman mythology was created more in the 12th century. I disagree with De Luce, who writes that roman stories tend to come from sources that are much later than those of the Greeks. This is because Roman mythology consists of not one, but two types of creation facts which cannot be challenged. The first says that, there is a legend that when the war was over Aeneas; a famous soldier in the ...

Introduction

Philosophy has and remains to be one of the most pivotal pillar that aids the understanding of various phenomenon. While this is true, it is sad the scope and origin of philosophy is never appreciated in the educational realm. A close analysis of schooling across various contexts shows that education dogma has often been perceived to be western dogma. This is not true based on the primary fact that philosophy, which forms the basis of education can be traced to the ancient Greek times. It is on this basis that Greek philosophy should be considered a tradition, which should be ...

In the beautiful Greek city of Olympia in the times of Homer (est. 800-701 BC) in honor of the god Zeus a sports event, known to all mankind – the Olympic Games – began. According to Miller (2006), alongside with the inception of the Olympic games in 776 BC Greece began to awaken from the Dark Ages (p.2). The ancient Greeks spoke differently about their inception. Some said that the competition was initiated by the supreme god after his victory over his father Kronos. Others said that the father of the Olympic Games was supposedly the son of Zeus, the majestic Greek ...

- Sculpture: Warrior Bronzes of Riace

Description: As a classical work, the sculpture is an example of a contrapposto where weight is supported by the back legs. It was to be transported to a Roman city but ended up submerged in water possibly because of a shipwreck.
- Sculpture: Athena and Marsyas by Myron

Origin and Era: Greek – Early classical

Description: The sculpture does not fail to embody movement especially because the artist studied actions of athletes. Although none of the original work in bronze survived, it had Roman copies in marble.
- Sculpture: Discobolos by Myron

Origin and Era: Greek – Early classical

Description: It features the moment when the athlete is about ...

Oedipus the Rex is one of the most famous Athenian tragedies written by Sophocles in the 5th century BC. It is interesting to note that besides fascinating plot one may find here a reflection of historical and social backgrounds that influenced the play. One of such was an old conflict between the city of Athens and the city of Thebes.
It comes quite clear from the text of the play that all gods supported the rightfulness of punishment to which Thebes were subjected by gods. When the chorus appears in the play for the first time, it is praying ...

This poem is written by a Greek Lyric poet named Sappho somewhere in the early 6th century. Most of her work was lost or is present in fragments. This lyrical song written by Sappho is known as the 16th fragment of Sappho or The Anactoria Poem, where Anactoria is her love and the poem is addressed to her.

Some of the fragments of the poem are provoking and the language is straightforwardly descriptive. For instance the phrases used in the poem, ‘thronging cavalry’, ‘sparkling glance’, ‘glittering armor’. The poem started with the philosophical content and at the end we find ...

The image of Tragic Hero is well known from the ancient times. Such characters were mentioned in Greek, Roman, Indian legends, fairy tales as well as dramas, tragedies and other literature works. One of the most famous heroes, which possess all the features of the tragic character, is Oedipus the King mentioned in the Greek ancient drama written by prominent playwright Sophocles.

In times of ancient Greeks tragedy did not mean a play with unhappy or lethal ending. It only meant that the play would depict a hero, who must fight against his fate. The character should also possess features thanks ...

Introduction

Socrates is considered one of the greatest philosophers in the history of Western Europe. Virtually every person that goes through the education system must come across his name, his works, or his demise story. Greek official had previously put Socrates in jail for the charges of ‘corrupting the mind' of the Athens' youth. In the eyes of the wealthy and the influential, Socrates was making a fool of them by empowering the young people with new information about the society and its leadership among other things. When put to jail, he was scheduled for death in a few days, ...

Global Investment Trends in Clean Energy

Once again the country is concerned with our reliance on an energy policy that depends on controlling resources in other countries. The Senate hearing of March 17, 2011 addressed national and international dynamics in clean energy. Clean energy refers to the use of renewable, nonpolluting (or less polluting the fossil fuels) sources of energy.

The hearing was held by the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources of the U.S. Senate. Senator Jeff Bingaman, New Mexico is the chair of the committee and presided at the hearing. The hearing was called to “Examine Current Global Investment Trends in Clean Energy ...

Cosimo di Giovanni de Medici was given the title Pater Patriae of Italy at his death and was also known as the primus inter pares. He was the founder of the Medici dynasty, who were during the Renaissance the de facto rulers of Florence. Even though Cosimo Medici was a powerful man, he was not an official ruler. Medici’s government also consisted of a council who would many times resist the laws that Medici put forth. This paper will look at the accomplishments of Cosimo di Medici.
Cosimo di Medici was born on the 10th of April, 1389 ...

The history of theatre can be traced back to the times of antiquity or, more precisely, to the legendary times of the Homeric Greece. In that times, the ritualistic games in honor of Dionysus appeared the predecessors of the initial forms of theatre. Some tome later, in the 5th century B.C., democratic Athens, which was considered as the most progressive state of the slaveholding world of that time, witnessed the bloom of the theatre of Ancient Greece (Csapo, Miller 105-114, 156-157).
The Roman theatre emerged much later, in the 3-2nd centuries B.C. The theatrical art of Ancient Rome quite ...

Introduction

The fictional tales in world literature resources are found abundant in tales of various war heroes and heroines. Most of the renowned heroes appeared as protagonist of the fictional tales and mythologies, like Hercules, Achilles, Hector, etc. However, they all were at some point of adolescence as per the maturity patterns dominant in their era and their judgment was often flawed that led them to dangers and a subsequent creation of highly chivalrous tales.
On the contrary there were some other scenarios of an aristocratic display of heroism, where the heroes were found to attain a certain maturity level, as ...

ABSTRACT

Euthyphro is not really able to answer any of the questions Socrates asks about piety and holiness, since he is looking for a universal answer about the meaning of these terms. Socrates probably does not believe in the traditional gods of Athens but rather in a monotheistic God with a universal concept of truth, justice and morality. Indeed, he is about to go on trial for impiety and instructing the youth of Athens to question the existence of the gods, and will be sentenced to death. In comparison, Euthyphro has very rigid and limited ideas about holiness, which generally involve obeying laws, ...

The history of African people has been plagued by constant oppression and unethical appropriation. Although it is a land that has substantial talent, its people have perpetually been denigrated and abused. Even though there are a lot of people that believe that Africans are less than others, most of Western culture is profoundly indebted to Africa, especially due to the intellectual theft that the Greeks committed upon them.
Greek culture and philosophy is one of the main influences of Western civilization. Many people believe that they were the founders of many of the rational achievements that modern society has ...

Introduction

Virtue ethics are the theories that gives importance to our moral values that effect our mind and our character. It not only helps us to decide what is rightness or wrongness in our decision but also provides a guidance to be a good person that we wish to achieve .Virtual ethic was prevalent from the time old civilizations started. The philosophers always guided the rulers and the common people to follow the path of virtue ethics. Among the famous philosophers whose ethics are followed till date are Aristotle, father of Greek philosophy and Confucius, father of Chinese philosophy. Virtue ...

The value and respect that citizens have in observing an established government of society is a tradition that has been established for centuries. The puzzling question about government is that it is important to ask where this respect to be a law abiding citizen actually comes from? Historically, there have been many texts throughout the ages that debate the citizen versus the government and how the government claims its inherit right to nurture, control, and aide the citizen. One of the literary works that has been a constant reference throughout the ages of how the citizen is obligated to ...

Isaac sacrifice vs. Iphigenia

Most of us are familiar with the story of Abraham and Isaac from the bible. In contrast, many may not be acquainted with the Greek myth of Agamemnon. This is the brief recap of the two stories: in the old testament of the bible, God commands Abraham to sacrifice his only son that he got at an older age after God had promised him. It is a paradox story in that the same God who blessed Abraham and Sarah with the child is the same God that wants Abraham to sacrifice Isaac his child. Abraham obeys God but in the ...

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“A man said to the universe: ‘Sir, I exist!’ ‘However,’ replied the universe, ‘The fact has not created in me a sense of obligation.’”—Stephen Crane
The above quote made by Stephen Crane highlights the personal philosophy which Crane had concerning nature or “the universe,” which may appear at have a certain detachment concerning its relationship with humans. This point is further emphasized by Harold Bloom's introduction in the critical work entitled, Stephen Crane in the following: “[Stephen Crane's] mode wasrenderedwith a meticulous nihilism, a deep sense of the meaninglessness of life except for what could be converted ...

For many years Socrates was an adorable teacher and a well-known philosopher in Athens. However, one of his speeches had an unexpected result on his career and life. At the age of nearly seventy years Socrates was sent to the prison by a court jury of 501 Athens’ citizens. He was accused in atheism, which was mentioned in one of his speeches. At that time the punishment for such a crime was an execution to death. So, Socrates was sent to the jail to wait for his death.
While the philosopher was in the prison at the small Aegean island of ...

Introduction

World politics involve states and nations coming up together with organizations and agencies that cannot be understood independently. In order to understand world politics, we need to grasp the domestic structures that are defined by the ordering of principles. World politics are different and specific in functionality and capabilities and are distributed in the units. Nowadays, some political systems are aimed at giving commands while others obey the commands. World politics are created by some group of self-regarding political units in some period or scale such as empires, cities, and nations. World political systems are differentiated by nations or ...

Socrates was an orator and philosopher whose primary interests were logic, ethics and epistemology. In Plato’s Apology of Socrates, Plato recounts the speech that Socrates gave shortly before his death, during the trial in 399 BC in which he was charged with "corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel" (24b). The name of the work itself is a bit of a misnomer; here, Socrates is not apologizing, but merely speaking in defense of his beliefs and actions – the word apology is used in the context ...

Mid Term Exam

Discuss the impact of the theories of Immanuel Kant, Charles Darwin and Jean-Paul Sartre on modernity.

Jean-Paul Sartre was flourished in Existentialism. He believed that a man acts in his free will in the society and time in which he lives. This philosophy inspired others to acknowledge their own free thinking and live the life they believed in. It broke the cookie cutter of what people were otherwise programmed to be and motivated others to break free in essence of their true self. It’s the true quest to fine a purpose in life. Because Jean Paul Sartre wrote and published many of his writings on Existentialism, his readers began to think ...

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The film, 300, which was based on a graphic novel written by Miller and Lynn tells the story of the legendary King Leonidas of Sparta and how his 300 men courageously defended the pass of Thermopylae from the invading Persian army (Miller & Lynn). The film, however, was highly sensationalized. Miller, himself, admitted that ‘300’ was deliberately made exaggerated and historically inaccurate in some of its scenes for the purpose of making it more interesting and exciting. One of the many historical inaccuracies of the film 300 was the depiction of Sparta’s rite of passage. In the ...

Introduction

The Iliad, The Odyssey and the Epic of Gilgamesh are three Greek hero tales that are very popular with readers all over the world. In all the three tales, there is one common theme that stands out and this is the theme of life vs. death or in other words, mortality vs. immortality. In the three tales, the main protagonists are all somehow haunted by this predominant theme. This is indeed a very common phenomenon that occurs in Greek tales where mortality is always a burning question. The mortality human condition is seen as the definition of a true heroic life.

In ...

The seminal epic which is attributed to the great Greek poet, Homer, delves deep into the heroic tales and in turn attains the stature of an immortal literary work which has continued to evoke the interest and awe of people from all across the globe since it got popularized. The work goes on to immortalize many characters which have become prototypes in the course of time. Starting from the literary critic to a common man, everyone has been baffled by the sheer quintessence of the Iliad which has been hailed as the omnipotent human expression and documentation of the tales ...

The seminal epic which is attributed to the great Greek poet, Homer, delves deep into the heroic tales and in turn attains the stature of an immortal literary work which has continued to evoke the interest and awe of people from all across the globe since it got popularized. The work goes on to immortalize many characters which have become prototypes in the course of time. Starting from the literary critic to a common man, everyone has been baffled by the sheer quintessence of the Iliad which has been hailed as the omnipotent human expression and documentation of the tales ...

A1. The global contact changed the world during the middle ages and the early modern period through a globalizing character where colonization and exploration of the Americans sustained contacts in the isolated parts of the world. The historical powers were involved in the global trade. Capitalist economies around the world became globally articulated and sophisticated, which saw the rise and dominance of mercantilism theory of economy. It also led to the colonization of the Europeans who spread Christianity in the 15th and 19th century around the globe. Interactions and encounters between cultures were inevitable mostly in by the non-westerners.
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Question 1

The possibility of more European Countries drifting away from the Euro lies in limbo considering the adverse impacts that Brexit has on Britain’s economy. Even before the eventual secession of the UK from the Europe Union, the country has begun to feel the heat and economic turmoil of disengaging with the rest of the countries that form the confederation. Politically, UK is losing grip in the control of Europe as Russia emerges as the best bet to control the entire region. Therefore, leaving out the EU is both an economic and political misery to any country, since the ...

Justice is something which underlies our own society – without it, indeed, some people posit that there can be no such thing as society. While many people state that justice is the same thing as the law, with Plato being the most visible proponent of this theory, others, such as Socrates, hold the two to be very different things. As we shall see below, while Socrates and Plato disagree on whether or not justice and law are the same, they both agree when it comes to addressing the role that justice takes in internal adherence to the values of the ...

Introduction

Marine oil business involves transport of oil or using marine means, either oceanic or by sea for sale or purchase at their destination. Most of the marine vessels that transport oil move in large numbers called a fleet. Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos once owned the two largest fleets of oil tankers in private hands. The fleets transported over five billion full gallons of crude oil. Thereafter, both of them became almost immeasurably wealthy and powerful. Of course, they continued to reinvest and carried on with their brotherly rivalry. They raced to outdo each other both in real estate ...

In the 1960s, Toronto could be described as an old Victorian city, a silent town (Relph, 2013 pg. 1). Everything from the buildings to the residents’ mannerisms had a British and old-an fashioned aspect. However, there were subtle signs of the transformation that was coming such as new skyscrapers, buildings, and sculptures. Today, Toronto has seen dramatic changes such as patio cafes, condominium towers, tall buildings and bustling pedestrians (Relph, 2013 pg. 3). The British influence is now almost undetectable in the cosmopolitan, multicultural urban region. According to the author, the word city does not adequately describe the extensive ...

In any discussion of the conscience and the icons that have become examples of what conscience means, there is a need to discover what a conscience is and from where it comes. Only then can the discovery of iconic roles such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Sophocles’ Oedipus be understood as examples of how the conscience works.
There can be no conscience without communication. The requirement of communication to establish a conscience is a common human trait. “There are tribes in Africa where a baby is called a kuntu, a ‘thing,’ not a muntu, a ‘person’” (Lederer 3). It ...

Primitive people believed in various sorts of deities to help them in their daily tasks; the ancient Hittites, Egyptians, Greeks, and the Babylonians worshipped many gods and goddesses to help them win wars, good harvest, as well as to ensure the safety of the whole empire. Because these societies lack the modern knowledge regarding scientific beliefs, religion played a very important role in shaping the society. Even today, interesting artifacts gathered from recent excavations were discovered by archaeologists of the modern times. These reliefs from the past told scholars about the power and influence of the priests (in Hittite, kings ...

The aim of this essay is to present you with a definition on a concept which has been flirting with the human nature ever since the dawn of prehistoric times. If each word is to depict a notion widely accepted and shared within the borders of a speaking community, then the word ‘success’ has spread its meaning throughout centuries, changing meaning according to the ideals of each era and civilization. Success has been an ideal that has always been flirting with its being considered equal to happiness. People have always believed that a successful person is usually a happy person. But philosophy, psychology and social ...

The historical Jesus is a figure of much debate among scholars, mainly because our primary source of information about his life and death are the gospels, writings created by four of his followers more than forty years after his death. Jesus was most probably born around 4 BC and lived most of his life in the region of Galilee and the town of Nazareth. He was born a Jew and spoke Aramaic and perhaps Greek, a language many Jews spoke at the time, a result of the influence the Hellenistic kingdoms continued to exert. Jesus’ teachings were influenced by the ideas of both ...

NARRATOLOGY

Gerard Ganette was the great French literary theorist who is famous for his contribution in the field of narratology. His ‘Discours’ rightfully turned out to be a standard reference for the description of narrative theory due to the reason that it provides a model in relation to what systematic description, the writers can achieve. According to a preface of Gerard Ganette to the work of Kate Hamburger, with the title ‘The Logic of Literature’ that was published in the year 1986 in France,
“Fiction is not connected with narrative since one cannot study fictional narrative as narrative and as fiction at ...

Politics of Abortion Accessibility

(Author Note)

Abstract

This paper explores five peer-reviewed articles that report studies on the effects of abortion on the well-being of women who underwent abortions. It also reviews an ongoing study that touches on the effects of denied abortions. The paper examines arguments of the health effects, briefly touching also on the economic effects, of abortion and if these effects have great implications whether or not to limit the access of abortion to the female public. The published studies examined in the paper lead to suggest that abortions are generally safe and the side effects are minor and do not ...

In today’s world, nothing elicits so much outrage than the subject of slavery. The bone of contention seems to be: why should one human being enslave another? Although people in the modern world may not fathom the rationale behind slavery, it is indeed true that slavery was an accepted institution in the ancient civilizations. It is even possible that slavery predates civilization. One of the reasons why slavery as a practice went on for so long was because enslavement of war prisoners and slavery as a punishment were accepted in the ancient civilizations. Nonetheless, such acts prompt the question of ...

In the film version of Troy, as in the original Iliad, several characters are motivated mainly by their passions and lusts far more than reason and ethics, and as a result bring considerable death, destruction and suffering to all concerned. Both Plato and Aristotle would have been highly critical of this lack of ethics, and actions that they would have regarded as coming from the basest motives of lust, anger, revenge and other passions. Paris, the young prince of Troy, becomes infatuated with Helen, the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, and runs off with her. This destroys the peace ...

Summary

Minimum wage legislation is a very popular and populist issue. There are both economic and social needs to be addressed in the matter. There are also very highly opposing positions in the discussions.
There are many arguments in favor minimum wage legislation. Perhaps, the most important among them are four rationales: poverty alleviation, reduce wage inequality, employee protection, and economic stimulation. Meanwhile, among the four more important arguments against minimum wage legislation are: increased unemployment, aggravated poverty, increased high school drop-out rate and prolonged unemployment periods, and reduced global competitiveness.
In the light of the present world economic ...

In “Euthyphro,” one of Plato’s early dialogues, Plato describes the meeting between Euthyphro and Socrates near the king-archon’s court and proceeds to record their conversation about piety. Piety is a virtue that is often interpreted as religious devotion or spirituality. While piety in contemporary society usually means devoting God to gain good graces or seek forgiveness, piety was considered in a wider context by Greek philosophers, so it was a virtue that allowed a person to respect social order, religious order, and display devotion to others. Piety is directly influenced by the development of practical wisdom because practical wisdom was considered ...