西方思想经典导读第一讲.ppt

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1、From the Pre-Greek Time to Roman Period,The General Structure:,Pre-Greek PeriodGreek CultureRoman Culture,Two Main Parts:Mesopotamian and Egyptian Culture,Time:5 to 6 thousand years ago and shortly after that at the end of the 4th millennium B.C.Geography:Mesopotamia near the Tigris and Euphrates Ri

2、ver and Egypt around the NileSiganificance:Although westerners are more ready to recognize their roots in Greek Civilization,actually western civilization was born in the ancient Near East.,The word“Mesopotamia”is in origin a Greek name“land between the rivers”,is a toponym for the area of the Tigri

3、s-Euphrates river system,largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq,as well as some parts of northeastern Syria,southeastern Turkey,and southwestern Iran.,Mesopotamia is characterized by constant warfare and a succession of shifting empires.Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the Akkadian,Babylo

4、nian and Assyrian empires.In the Iron Age,it was ruled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires.The indigenous Sumerians and Akkadians(including Assyrians&Babylonians)dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history(c.3100 BC)to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC,when it was conquered by

5、 the Achaemenid Empire.(阿契美尼德帝国).,It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC and after his death it became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire.Around 150 BC,Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthians.Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians,with parts of Mesopotamia(par

6、ticularly Assyria)coming under periodic Roman control.In 226 AD,it fell to the Sassanid Persians,and remained under Persian rule until the 7th century Arab Islamic conquest of the Sassanid Empire.A number of primarily Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd ce

7、ntury AD.,Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of eastern North Africa,concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt.,The civilization coalesced around 3150BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh,and

8、it developed over the next three millennia.Its history occurred in a series of stable Kingdoms,separated by periods of relative instability known as Intermediate Periods.Ancient Egypt reached its pinnacle during the New Kingdom,after which it entered a period of slow decline.Egypt was conquered by a

9、 succession of foreign powers in this late period,and the rule of the pharaohs officially ended in 31BC when the early Roman Empire conquered Egypt and made it a province.,Similiarities between the Two Cultures:,Both were dependent on rivers and the rich soil deposited be periodic floods;Both had to

10、 develop and maintain organized systems of irrigation and flood control;Both eventually had powerful kings and a priestly caste;Both believed in all-powerful gods who played an active role in the world.,Difference between the Two Cultures:,Mesopotamia was not as well protected geographically as Egyp

11、t and was thus more open to attack;The rivers Trigris and Euphrates were not as navigable,nor were the floods as regular as the Niles;So the culture of Mesopotamis reflected a sense of instability and pessimism in comparison to the stability and optimism that characterized Egyptians.,Other Cultures

12、between the Two:,Between these two areas there arose a number of smaller states,the most important of which were the Phoenician and the Hebrew states.The Phoenicians,a merchantile people,facilitated trade,established colinies,and spread Near Eastern culture.The Hebrews developed religious and ethica

13、l ideas that would be a foundation for both Christian and Islamic civilization.,The Main Contents:,GeographyBrief HistorySignificanceKey figures and representative works,Ancient Greece is the term used to describe the Greek-speaking world in ancient times.,Areas Covered by Ancient Greece,It refers n

14、ot only to the territory of the present Greek state,but also to those areas settled by Greeks:Cyprus,the Aegan coast of Turkey,Sicily and southern Italy,and the scattered Greek settlements on the coasts of what are now Albania,Bulgaria,Egypt,France,Libya,Romania,Spain,and Ukraine.,Brief History:,The

15、 history of Greece can be traced back to Stone Age hunters.Later came early farmers and the civilizations of the Minoan and Mycenaean kings.This was followed by a period of wars and invasions,known as the Dark Ages.In about 1100 BC,a people called the Dorians invaded from the north and spread down t

16、he west coast.In the period from 500-336 BC Greece was divided into small city states,each of which consisted of a city and its surrounding countryside.,Classical Period(500-336 BC)-Classical period of ancient Greek history,is fixed between about 500 B.C.,when the Greeks began to come into conflict

17、with the kingdom of Persia to the east,and the death of the Macedonian king and conqueror Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.In this period Athens reached its greatest political and cultural heights:the full development of the democratic system of government under the Athenian statesman Pericles;the bui

18、lding of the Parthenon(希腊的帕台农神庙)on the Acropolis;the creation of the tragedies of Sophocles（索福柯勒斯）,Aeschylus（埃斯库罗斯）and Euripides（欧里庇得斯）;and the founding of the philosophical schools of Socrates and Plato.,Hellenistic Period(希腊化时期)(336-146 BC)-period between the conquest of the Persian Empire by Alex

19、ander the Great and the establishment of Roman supremacy,in which Greek culture and learning were pre-eminent in the Mediterranean and Asia Minor.It is called Hellenistic(Greek,Hellas,Greece)to distinguish it from the Hellenic culture(古希腊文化)of classical Greece.,Significance on Western Civilization:,

20、Ancient Greece is considered by most historians to be the foundational culture of Western civilization.Greek culture has a powerful influence on the Roman Empire,which carried a version of it to many parts of Europe.Ancient Greek civilization has been immensely influential on the language,politics,e

21、ducational systems,philosophy,art and architecture of the modern world,particularly during the Renaissance in Western Europe and again during various neo-classical revivals in 18th and 19th century Europe and America.,Key figures and representative works,HerodotusThucydides The Funeral Oration of Pe

22、riclesPericlesSocratesPlato The ApologyAristotle Politics,Herodotus(484 425 B.C.)was an ancient Greek historian who lived in the 5th centuryBC.He is regarded as the Father of History in western culture.He was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically,test their accuracy to a

23、certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative.But he absorbed myths and the gods in his writing.,Thucydides(460395 B.C.)was a Greek historian and author of the History of the Peloponnesian War,which recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411

24、 BC.Thucydides has been dubbed the father of scientific history because of his strict standards of evidence-gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods.And it is this sets him apart form other historians.As he himself put it,My history is an ever

25、lasting possession,not a prize composition which is heard and forgotten.,The Funeral Oration of Pericles in our textbook is part of his work History of the Peloponnesian War,which is a famous speech presented by the Athenian leader Pericles for the Athenian killed in the first campaigns against the

26、Spartans.The speech is first a glorification of Athens uniqueness and achievements,designed to stir the spirits of a state still at war.It also shows how Pericles defined the proper balance between Athenians freedom as individuals and their commitments as citizens.,Pericles(495 429 B.C.)was a promin

27、ent and influential statesman,orator,and general of Athens during the citys Golden Agespecifically,the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars.He had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides,his contemporary historian,acclaimed him as the first citizen of Athens.The peri

28、od during which he led Athens,roughly from 461 to 429 B.C,is sometimes known as the Age of Pericles.He promoted the arts and literature,which was a chief reason Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural centre of the ancient Greek world.Furthermore,Pericles fostered Athenian

29、democracy to a high extent.,Socrates(469-399 B.C.)was one of the most adimired men ever in western civilization.He was the eyewitness of the ups and downs of Athenian democracy-from Pericles democratic reform to the decline of democratic tolerance after the Athenians humiliating defeat in the Pelopo

30、nnesian War in 404 B.C.Socrates marked a decisive turning point in Greek philosophy and in the history of western thought.The Socratic conception of the rational individual became an essential component of the tradition of classical humanism.,Socrates had a positive philosophy.He believed that human

31、 beings possess the inborn knowledge only to be drawn out if peoper education is employed.An educated mind,according to him,is on the way to a virtuous and wise life.To test his philosophy,Socrates created a distinctive approach-dialectic method,namely,a technique by asking a series of knowledge-see

32、king questions.He wandered about Athens,asking people from all walks of life questions that might help him reveal truth and wisdom.While gaining a large number of young disciples along the way,he had offended those whose ignorance was laid open to the public.They counter-attacked by accusing him of

33、impiety and corruption of youth.So Socrates was found guilty by a vote of 280 to 220 and condemned to death by the Athenian assemby.Despite the fact that he had the chance to get away,he chose to drink poisonous hemlock.,Since Socrates left nothing for us to read,our knowledge of his thought came fr

34、om his contemporaries,chiefly from Plato(428-347B.C.),his disciple.It is said that Plato was present when Socrates took his own life.Plato took Socrates as his main character in his collections of dialogues in line with Socrates life and teachings in earlier dialogues,while in later ones he apparent

35、ly conveyed his own thought through Socrates.Platos philosophy is a comprehensive entity of physics,metaphysics,ethics and politics.He accepted part of his teachers ideas and developed others.,In the year 380 Plato founded his Academy,which was the ultimate ancestor of the modern university.Platos i

36、nfluence on Western thinking is immeasurable.His ideas on politics,ethics and world outlook serve as the road map for generations of varied philosophic schools.Many agree that his masterpiece The Republic is second only to the Bible in Western civilization.His influence is best dspicted by the 20th-

37、century philosopher Alfred Whitehead who said that“the safest general characterization of the Eurpoean philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”,The Aplolgy in our text book is written by Plato as an account of Socrates defense in the court,and it gives an inter

38、pretation of Socrates career:he has been a“gadfly,”trying to awaken the noble horse of Athens to an awareness of virtue,and he is wisest in the sense that he is aware that he knows nothing.This account gives a clue to Socrates understanding of freedom and virtue in a democratic state.Up until now,th

39、e condemnation of Socrates is generally considered as a symbol of the failure of Athenian democracy.,Aristotle(384322 B.C.)was a Greek philosopher,a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.His writings cover many subjects,including physics,metaphysics,poetry,theater,music,logic,rhetoric,

40、politics,government,ethics,biology,and zoology.Together with Plato and Socrates(Platos teacher),Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy.Aristotles views on the physical sciences profoundly shaped medieval scholarship,and their influence extended well into the Re

41、naissance,although they were ultimately replaced by Newtonian physics.In the biological sciences,some of his observations were confirmed to be accurate only in the nineteenth century.,His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic,which was incorporated in the late nineteenth century int

42、o modern formal logic.In metaphysics,Aristotelianism had a profound influence on philosophical and theological thinking in the Islamic and Jewish traditions in the Middle Ages,and it continues to influence Christian theology,especially Eastern Orthodox theology,and the scholastic tradition of the Ca

43、tholic Church.His ethics,though always influential,gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics.All aspects of Aristotles philosophy continue to be the object of active academic study today.,In Politics,Aristotle conducts a comprehensive examination of the origin and structure of

44、the state,dealing with the timeless topics on political science:the role of human nature in politics,the relation of the individual to the state,the place of morality in politics,and so on.The part in our textbook focuses on the nature and purpose of a state and the central role of the middle class

45、in politics.,The Main Contents:,GeographyBrief HistorySignificanceKey figures and representative works,The areas highlighted in yellow represent the regions under Roman rule.The emperors from 96-180 AD built a strong government,extended the boundaries of the empire,and did much to improve the beauty

46、 of Rome.After Aurelius died in 180 AD,frequent frontier attacks and plague weakened Rome,beginning its downfall.,Brief History of Ancient Rome,Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC.Located alo

47、ng the Mediterranean Sea,it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world.In its centuries of existence,Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to an oligarchic republic to an increasingly autocratic empire.The Roman Republic was established around 509 B.C.,and lasted until 27B.C.,when A

48、ugustus became the first Roman emperor.His long reign,from 27 B.C.to A.D.14,marks the beginning of the Pax Romana,the Roman Peace,which endured until A.D.180.,The period of the Pax Romana was one of the finest in the ancient world.Revolts against Roman rule were few,and Roman legions ably defended t

49、he Empires borders.The Mediterranean world had never enjoyed so many years of peace,effective government,and economic well-being.Strethcing from Britain to the Arabian Desert and from the Danube River to the sands of the Sahara,the Roman Empire united some seventy million people.The same law bound t

50、ogether Italians,Spaniards,North Africans,Greeks,Syrians,and other peoples.During the 3rd century,the Roman Empire suffered hard times,and the ordered civilization of the Pax Romana was destroyed.The Empire was plunged into anarchy as generals vied for the throne.At the end of the 4th and the openin