Paradigm Shifts - A History Of Knowledge

A seminar by Piero Scaruffi

(View the slides)
This page contains the Powerpoint slides outline of my seminar of history of knowledge. If you are taking my seminar, ask me for a CDROM of the Powerpoint or Acrobat slides. If you are not taking my class but would still like a CDROM with the slides, for educational or personal purposes only, see this page.

TM, ®, Copyright © 2003 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved.

Oldest Knowledge


Oldest Knowledge
What the Near East knew
What the Near East knew II
What the Near East knew III
What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew II
What the Egyptians knew III
What the Indians knew I
What the Indians knew II
What the Indians knew III
What the Chinese knew I
What the Phoenicians knew
What the Greeks knew I
What the Greeks knew II
What the Greeks knew III
What the Greeks knew IV
What the Romans knew I
What the Romans knew II
What the Barbarians knew
What the Jews knews
What the Christians knews
Tang & Song China
What the Japanese knew
What the Muslims knew
What the Middle Ages knew I
What the Middle Ages knew II
What the Middle Ages knew III
What the Middle Ages knew IV
Ming & Manchu China
What the Renaissance knew I
What the Renaissance knew II
What the Renaissance knew III
What the Industrial Age knew
What the Victorian Age knew
The Modern World 1919-1939
The Modern World 1939-1945
The Modern World 1946-1968
The Modern World 1969-1990
The Modern World 1991-

Paradigm Shifts-History of Knowledgect
Who I Am
Piero Scaruffi
Degree in Math/Physics ("Scientific" background)
Career in Cognitive Science ("Philosophical" background)
Career as Music/Cinema/Fiction critic ("Artistic" background)
Traveled to 83 countries ("History")
Published 15 books
Latest: "Thinking About Thought" (2003)
www.scaruffi.com
E-mail: editor@scaruffi.com
What is this class
History
Philosophy
Religion
Science
Economy
Art
Architecture
Literature
Music
Liabilities
Lots of History
Lots of Theories
Lots of Names
Lack of Depth
No conclusions

Assetts
Interdisciplinary
Ancient and modern
Western and eastern
No single book in print covers this much ground
Modular (you can miss any evening)
Emphasis on paradigm shifts
Requirements
English language
Open mind
Patience
Metric system
Pluses
Familiarity with History
Curiosity

Goals
My goals
Teach you what i know

Not my goals
Convince you one way or another
Promote one civilization/theory/religion/etc over the other
Audience
Who is it for?
Knowledge sharks
Casual readers
Philosophers
Psychologists
Scientists
Travelers
Business men
...
Bibliography
William McNeill: A History of the Human Community (1987)
Charles VanDoren: A History of Knowledge (1991)
Mark Kishlansky: Civilization In The West (1995)
Ian McGreal: Great Thinkers of the Eastern World (1995)
David Cooper: World Philosophies (1996)
Paul Johnson: Art - A New History (2003)
Ian Sutton: Western Architecture (1999)
Donald Grout: A History of Western Music (1960)
Geoffrey Hindley: Larousse Encyclopedia of Music (1971)
John Keegan: A History of Warfare (1993)
Bernard Comrie: The Atlas Of Languages (1996)
Mircea Eliade: A History of Religious Ideas (1982)
The other half of the story
Sarah Pomeroy: Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity
M.Lefkowitz and M.Fant: Women's Life in Greece and Rome
Shulamith Shahar: The Fourth Estate: A History of Women in the Middle Ages
Emilie Amt: Women1s Lives in Medieval Europe
Georges Duby, Michelle Perrot, etc: Histoire des femmes en Occident
Women's History: http://www.womenintheancientworld.com/
Class Material

Additional class material if you have Internet access:
Click on Seminar on History of Knowledge
Click on Course material
Check out the "Timelines"
Additional class material if you have want it:
CDROM with all slides
Why is the History of Knowledge relevant to you
The Space Shuttle booster rockets are built by Thiokol in Utah
Thiokol's engineers designed them so that they could easily be transported by train to the launching pad.
The railway goes through a number of tunnels, and the rockets have to fit inside the tunnels.
Railway tunnels are designed according to the width of a train car, which is based on the width between the railway tracks, which is 4'8.5".
This size was adopted when the first railway was built in the USA, using British engineers and materials compliant with British standards
British railways were originally built by the same companies that built streetcars, and they simply used the same specifications used for streetcars
The engineers who built streetcars used the same materials/ tools used to build carriages. E.g., the distance between the two sets of weels of the streetcar was the same as the length of the axle of all carriages
Why is the History of Knowledge relevant to you
All carriages used the same length for the axle because, in the old days, most country roads had grooves that greatly increased both comfort and safety.
Those grooves had been created by centuries of traffic since the construction of the first roads.
The first roads were built by the Roman empire, and the first grooves on those roads were caused by the war carriages of the first Roman legions to use those roads. Subsequent carriages had to use the same axle length has the one used by the Romans in order to use the same grooves.
The Romans chose an axle of 4'8.5" because that is the size that fits two war-horse asses.
Thus, the specifications of the Space Shuttle booster rockets, one of the most advanced pieces of technology of the modern world, are based on the ass of a Roman horse.

A Brief History of Humans
0: The Big Bang
200,000,000: The first stars form
9,000,000,000: The Sun forms
9,050,000,000: The Earth forms
9,200,000,000: The oceans and the atmosphere form
9,700,000,000: Life appears on Earth (sea, lakes)
12,900,000,000: Multicellular organisms evolve
13,350,000,000: Pangaea forms
13,380,000,000: The first creature lives on land
Pangaea
A Brief History of Humans
13,450,000,000: A meteor over Antarctica causes the extinction of 90% of Earth species
13,470,000,000: Dinosaurs appear
13,500,000,000: Antarctica, South America, Africa, India, and Australia are joined in a single continent (Gondwanaland)
13,635,000,000: A meteor over Yucatan (Mexico) causes the extinction of dinosaurs
A Brief History of Humans
13,640,000,000: Apes appear in Africa
13,665,000,000: Global cooling
13,683,000,000: Apes in Europe
13,690,000,000: European apes move to Africa
13,694,000,000: Apes stand upright ("Millennium ancestor")
13,696,500,000: The first humanoids in Ethiopia ("Lucy")
"Lucy" Australopithecus afarensis, łto 3.7 million years)A Brief History of Humans
13,696,800,000: The first glaciers, fluctuating climate
13,698,000,000: Homo Habilis appears (tools)
13,698,100,000: Fire is invented
13,698,200,000: Homo Erectus spreads to Europe and Asia
13,699,250,000: Homo Erectus reaches Java ("Pithecanthropus")
The Extension of Homo Herectus
A Brief History of Humans
13,699,500,000: The world's population is about 5,000
13,699,750,000: Homo Sapiens evolves in Africa
13,699,860,000: Home Sapiens Sapiens evolves in Africa ("Eve", mother of all current humans)
13,699,882,000: Wurms glaciation ("Ice Age")
13,699,900,000: Neanderthal Men in Europe
13,699,930,000: Neanderthal Men bury their dead
13,699,950,000: "Adam" is born in Africa
13,699,960,000: Homo Sapiens Sapiens spreads to Eurasia
13,699,965,000: Neanderthal Men disappear
A Brief History of Humans
A Brief History of Humans
13,699,970,000: cave dwellers sculpt the statue of a woman (Willendorf, Austria) and cave dwellers sculpt figurines (Hohle Fels Cave, Southwestern Germany)
13,699,981,000: Oldest lamp (France)
13,699,983,000: Cave dwellers paint animals on the walls (Lascaux, France)
13,699,985,000: End of the Ice Age (Holocene) - ice retreats
13,699,986,000: Humans cross the Bering Strait and begin populating America

A Brief History of Humans
A Brief History of Humans
A Brief History of Humans
13,699,986,000: Transition from hunting-gathering to agriculture
13,699,988,000: First towns in Mesopotamia
13,699,990,000: The world's population is 1-10 million
13,699,994,000: Stable weather patterns (seasons)
13,699,994,300: The Egyptians
13,699,996,000: The Chinese empire
13,699,998,000: The Roman empire
13,699,999,776: The USA
13,700,000,000: The world's population is 7 billion
_
17,403,588,402: The Sun dies
A Brief History of Humans
Empires
EMPIRE TIMEFRAME AREA CAPITAL
SUMERS XXXVI BC - XXBC MESOPOTAMIA UR
EGYPTIANS XXXV BC - VI BC EGYPT, SUDAN, PALESTINE THEBES
ELAMITES XXVIII BC - VIIBC PERSIA ELAM
MINOANS XXVI BC - XV BC CRETE KNOSSOS
CHINA XXIII BC - NOW CHINA XIAN
ASSYRIA XX BC - VII BC MESOPOTAMIA NINIVE
BABYLON XVIII BC - VI BC MESOPOTAMIA TO EGYPT BABYLON
HITTITES XVII BC - XIII TURKEY, PALESTINE, EGYPT HATTUSA
ACHEMENIDS XVII BC - XII BC GREECE MYCENAE
PHOENICIANS XII BC - VIII BC MEDITERRANEAN TYRO
GREECE XII BC - IV BC GREECE, ITALY, TURKEY ATHENS
PERSIA IX BC - IV BC EGYPT TO IRAN PERSEPOLIS
ROME VIII BC - V AD PORTUGAL TO SYRIA ROME
MACEDONIA IV BC - IV BC EGYPT TO NORTH INDIA ALEXANDRIA

EMPIRE TIMEFRAME AREA CAPITAL
SELEUCIDS IV BC - I BC TURKEY TO AFGHANISTAN ANTIOCH
BACTRIA III BC - II BC AFGHANISTAN TO INDIA SOGDIANA
MAURYA IV BC - II BC INDIA PATNA
PARTHIA III BC - III AD TURKMENISTAN, IRAN NISA
SASSANIDS III AD - VII AD PERSIA CTESIPHON
JAPAN I AD - XX AD JAPAN, KOREA NARA
BYZANTHIUM V AD - XV AD TURKEY TO NORTH AFRICA CONSTANTINOPLE
FRANCE V AD - XX AD WEST EUROPE/ NORTH AFRICA FRANCE
ARABS VII AD - XV AD IRAN TO SPAIN BAGHDAD
VIKINGS IX AD - XII AD SCANDINAVIA TO BRITAIN OSLO
SPAIN IX AD - XX AD SPAIN, SOUTH AMERICA MADRID
MAYA IX AD - XV AD CENTRAL AMERICA TIKAL
KHMER IX AD - XV AD INDOCHINA ANGKOR
RUSSIA X AD - NOW RUSSIA TO SIBERIA KIEV
POLAND X AD - XVII AD POLAND, WEST RUSSIA KRACOW
BRITAIN X AD - XX AD INDIA, NORTH AM, AFRICA, AUS LONDON

EMPIRE TIMEFRAME AREA CAPITAL
MONGOLS XIII AD - XV AD CHINA TO MIDDLE EAST KARAKORUM
OTTOMANS XIV AD - XX AD EGYPT TO MESOPOTAMIA ISTANBUL
AZTEC XIV AD - XV AD MEXICO TENOCHTITLAN
INCA XV AD - XVI AD SOUTHWEST AMERICA CUZCO
MOGUL XV AD - XVIII AD AFGHANISTAN, NORTH INDIA DELHI
USA XIX AD - NOW NORTH AMERICA WASHINGTON
Causes of Paradigm Shifts
1. Nature (climate)
2. Demographics (population)
3. Technology (inventions)
3. Economics (flow of goods and services)
3. Culture (prophets, philosophers, writers, painters, architects, _)
4. Politics (individuals, e.g. kings, revolutionaries, presidents_)
Causes of Paradigm Shifts
Climate patterns cause population patterns which cause both conflict and innovation, which in turn cause other population patterns.
Case Study
1. Arabian and North-African deserts cause spread of Arabs towards East and North
2. Population boom in Islamic countries causes poverty and expansionist pressures
3. Sophisticated weapons, airplanes, cell phones_
3. Oil economy creates wealth in Arab world
3. Islam preaches jihad (fighting non-Muslims)
4. Osama bin Laden
What Early Humans Knew
Gathering
Hunting
Language
Clothes
Tools (2 million years, Africa)
Fire (1.9 million years, Africa)
Buildings (500,000 BC, Japan)
Burial (70,000 BC, Neanderthal)
Art (28,000 BC, Austria)
Lamp (17,000 BC, France)
Farming (14,000 BC, Mesopotamia)
Domesticated animals (12,000 BC)
Boat (8,000 BC, Holland)
What Early Humans Knew
Weapons (bow, sling, dagger, mace) (8,000 BC)
Pottery (7,900 BC, China)
Weaving (6,500 BC, Palestine)
Money
Musical instruments (5,000 BC, Sumeria)
Metal (4,500 BC, Egypt)
Bridge (4,000 BC, Egypt)
Wheel (3,500 BC, Mesopotamia)
Glass (3,000 BC, Phoenicia)
Sundial (3,000 BC, Egypt)
What Early Humans Knew
Prehistoric beliefs
Unity of Heaven and Earth (were separated by a God)
Immortality (life in the Afterlife)
Natural world pervaded by supernatural forces
Linguistic Families
Semitic languages: Akkadian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic (Ethiopic)
Egyptian
Indo-European (Italic, German, Indian...)
Dravidian (South Indian)
Sino-tibetan languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese)
Altaic (Turkish, Mongolian, Central Asian, Japanese, Korean)
Austric (Thai, Malay, Khmer, Vietnamese)
Niger-Congo
...

Linguistic Families
Literature
(Sumer, 2500 BC): "Flood"
(Egypt, 1800 BC): "Adventures of Sinuhe"
(Hittite, 1600 BC): "The disappeared God"
(Hittite, 1600 BC): "Kumarbi-ullikummi"
(Hittite, 1600 BC): "The dragon Illujanka"
(Egypt, 1500 BC): "Book Of The Dead"
(Ugarit, 1400 BC): "Baal & Anat"
(Babylon, 1200 BC): "Gilgamesh"
(Babylon, 1100 BC): "Enuma Elish"
(Babylon, 1000 BC): "Atrakhasis"
(India, 1000 BC): "Veda"

Homer (900 BC, Greece): "Iliad"
Homer (850 BC, Greece): "Odyssey"
Hesiod (850 BC, Greece): "Battle Of The Gods"
(Israel, 800 BC): "Ancient Testament"
(Babylon, 700 BC): "Descent of Ishtar to the underground world"
Sappho (Greece, b 612 BC)
Pindar (Greece, b 518 BC)
Lao Tzu (604, China): "Tao Te Ching"
Ancient Art

The Seven Wonders:
Pyramid of Cheops (by Hemon, Egypt, 2500 BC)
Hanging Gardens (Babylon, 580 BC)
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia (by Pheidias, Greece, 432 BC)
Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (Greece, 356 BC)
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Greece, 354 BC)
The Pharos of Alexandria (Egypt, 300 BC)
The Colossus of Rhodos (Greece, 290 BC)
Ephesus & Halicarnassus
Lions

What the Near East knew


Bibliography
Henry Hodges: Technology in the Ancient World (1970)
Arthur Cotterell: Penguin Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations (1980)
Michael Roaf: Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East (1990)
Hans Nissen: The Early History of the Ancient Near East (1988)
Annie Caubet: The Ancient Near East (1997)
Alberto Siliotti: The Dwellings of Eternity (2000)
Trevor Bryce: The kingdom of the Hittites (1998)
Ancient Civilizations
The Ancient Near East
Ancient Near East
The evolution of knowledge
End of the ice age
Climatic changes
Hunters follow game that moves to new areas (e.g., northern Europe)
Others turn to farming and hunting new game (cattle, sheep)
Technology ("what farmers need")
Deforestation
Irrigation
Pottery
Copper/bronze
Wheel
Yoke
Cities
Ancient Near East
Ancient Near East
15000 BC: end of the ice age
12000 BC: small urban centers develop in Mallaha (Jordan valley) and Mureybet (Syria), houses in pits
9500 BC: agriculture (sowing and harvesting)
8500 BC: 700m-long walls of Jericho (Jordan valley), houses on the surface of the ground, built of stone (2-3000 people)
8000 BC: domestication of animals, pastoral nomadic life
7500 BC: Catal Huyuk (Taurus mountains in eastern Anatolia), obsidian trade, no city streets, terraced roofs, wall paintings, built of mud (5-7000 people)
7000 BC: Hassuna culture (north Iraq): ceramic pottery, geometric motifs
The Near East
Catal Huyuk
Catal Huyuk
Catal Huyuk

6200 BC: Samarra culture (north Iraq): symbolic motifs on pottery, planned settlements, egalitarian society, funerary objects
6000 BC: Ubaid culture (south Iraq): irrigation, riverside settlements
5300 BC: Eridu culture (south Iraq): hierarchical social organization, monumental buildings (first ziggurats)
3500 BC: Sumerians control city-states between the lower Euphrates and Tigris rivers: Eridu, Ur, Uruk, Lagash, Umma, Nippur
3300 BC: Sumerians of Uruk invent pictographic writing on clay tablets
3200 BC: Sumerians invent the wheel
3100 BC: Sumerians of Uruk invent cuneiform writing
3000 BC: Sumerians employ mathematics on base 60 (360 degrees in a circle, 60 minutes in an hour)
Cities of Mesopotamia

2900 BC: Uruk has 40,000 people and is divided in an administrative city and a residential city, while agriculture is delegated to the subjects outside the city
2700 BC: a first dynasty creates the Elamite kingdom (Susa)
2340 BC: Sargon I of Kish builds a new capital, Agade (Akkad, later Babylon), adopts the Semitic language Akkadian instead of Sumerian, conquers the Sumerian cities and becomes the first emperor in history
2330 BC: Sargon's daughter Enheduanna is a poetess
2018 BC: the Sumerian empire disintegrates
1900 BC: Assur and Nineveh form an Assyrian kingdom
1800 BC: the Hittites invent iron and build the first weapons made of iron
1800 BC: the Babylonians employ a duodecimal system (a system based on 12 and 6) to measure time
The Hittites

1792 BC: Hammurabi, fifth king of the Amorite dynasty, is crowned king of Babylon
1500 BC: a caravan trader, Abraham, leads nomads from Sumer to Canaan and then on to Egypt (Hebrews)
1350 BC: Ugarit (in Syria) employs an alphabet of 32 letters
1250 BC: the Hebrews return from Egypt and establish a kingdom in Palestine
1250 BC: the Assyrian army employs iron weapons
1000 BC: the Phoenicians control trade in the Mediterranean
746 BC: Tiglath-Pileser III becomes king of Assyria and creates the Assyrian empire
700 BC: the Achaemenid dynasty is founded in Persia
612 BC: Babylonia and Media destroy the Assyrian empire

Babylonia and Assyria

600 BC: Zarathustra forms a new religion in Persia
600 BC: Phoenicians circumnavigate Africa
600 BC: Aramaic is the "lingua franca" of Syria and Palestine
521 BC: Darius of Persia expands the Persian empire beyond the Indus River
500 BC: Darius makes Aramaic the official language of the Persian empire
490 BC: Darius of Persia attacks mainland Greece
333 BC: Alexander invades the Persian empire
The Persian Empire
Hellenistic empires
What the Near East knew
Continues on Part II

What the Near East knew II


What the Near-East knew
Part II
What the Sumerians knew
Irrigation
Domestic animals (12,000 BC)
Urbanization
Ziggurats (monumental buildings for religious purposes) (5,000 BC)
Wheel (3,200 BC)
Wheeled vehicles (chariot 3,000 BC)
Bronze (3,000 BC, weapons and tools)
Boat
Fired mud bricks
Plow
What the Sumerians knew
Urbanization
Towns (mud-brick walls, flat roofs, no streets)
Cities (3,900 BC, 13 cities in 3000 BC)
Consequences of urbanization
Social classes
Technological innovation
Organized religion
Writing
Monarchy
Bureaucracy
What the Sumerians knew
Social classes
Ur's ziggurat (2250 BC)
What the Sumerians knew
What the Sumerians knew
Literature
Writing (3,400 BC)
Cuneiform language: 800 symbols, one per syllable
Scribes evolved pictures of objects into stylized representations of the objects, and eventually pure symbols
Function: business activities of temple and palace
3,000 BC: Curved lines replaced by linear strokes and wedges
Cuneiform used to render Sumerian, Akkadian, Elamite (neither Semitic nor Indo-European), Hurrian, Hittite (Indo-European)
Decline of cuneiform in 1000 BC with Aramaic's alphabetical system (easier to learn)
What the Sumerians knew
Cuneiform
What the Sumerians knew
Literature
Poetry, music and dance originated as collective expression of religious themes during rituals
The dance rhythm (clapping, stomping, chanting) evolved into rhythmic songs and rhymed poetry
Religious narratives (creation myths) evolved into epic poetry
Epic of Gilgamesh (2,600 BC): vain quest for immortality
Kings' List (2125 BC)
Enheduanna: poetry
The meaning became more important than the sound/rhythm
What the Sumerians knew
Literature
Sumerian not spoken anymore in 18th century BC, but scribes still use it
Cuneiform still in use till 2nd century AD
What the Sumerians knew
Trade
Gold from Indus valley
Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan
Silver from turkey
Copper from Arabia
Tin from Caspian Sea
What the Sumerians knew
Theocracy (4000-3000 BC)
Irrigation requires cooperation because river beds tend to change
Changing river beds causes expanded irrigation
Expanding irrigation causes expanding settlements
The whims of rivers are ascribed to gods
Thus priests are natural arbiters of the community
Religious cults acquire political power
Priests are natural arbiters of the economic surplus
Temples become administration buildings
Religious cults acquire economic power
The irrigation society naturally creates cities, and such city-states are theocracies
What the Sumerians knew
Warrior leaders (3000-2300 BC)
Territorial expansion leads to territorial disputes with other city-states
Wealth attracts immigrants (eg, Akkadians)
War becomes more relevant than administration
Priests are replaced by warriors
Cities are surrounded by walls
Standard of Ur
Sumerian Chariot
What the Sumerians knew
Metalwork
Ancient metal technology: copper
Chalcolithis age (4000BC): stone and copper technology coexist
Melting of metals (3500BC): copper+tin=bronze
Peak of bronze age (3000BC): smelting, casting, alloying, soldering
Bronze warfare: Sargon, first emperor (2340BC)


What the Sumerians knew
What the Sumerians knew
Religion
Anthropomorphic gods, associated with the forces of nature (wind, months)
Deification of kings
Hierarchical vision of the universe (unified pantheon)
Each city was the property of a deity
The goddess Nammu, who had no beginning in time, created the world and all living creatures
2500 BC: Enlil, dwelling in Nippur, becomes the greatest of the gods, and the god who punishes people
What the Sumerians knew
Evolution of Religion
Evolution from alien forces to the human society
Ancient times: a nature religion of natural spirits/forces (sky, wind, river, etc)
Identity between the natural phenomenon and the deity
Non-human forms were then replaced by human forms
This created a gap between the natural phenomenon (a lifeless event/object) and the deity (the force that causes/creates that event/object)
What the Sumerians knew
Evolution of Religion
Human-like deities began to behave like human beings
The world of natural phenomena became a model of the human world
The legends of deities became metaphors of natural phenomena
Deities became as a kind of aristocracy, humans became a kind of servants
Deities came to be worshipped like aristocracy, in abodes (temples) with servants (priests) and nhousehold chores (rituals)
What the Sumerians knew
Evolution of Religion
Deities came to be identified with the political leaders of the community/city/nation
Each city came to be dominated by a deity, and cities often grew around the main temple
The main deity of a city became a virtual ruler of the city, defending it against enemies and enforcing justice within the city (deity no longer related to natural phenomena but to human phenomena, i.e. politics)
National deities representing national aspirations
What the Sumerians knew
Evolution of Religion
Assembly of the deities in Nippur, presided by An and Enlil, made strategic decisions (eg, capital) for the entire Sumer nation
Will of the deities communicated to the human rules via dreams, omens, natural events
What the Sumerians knew
Pantheon
An: god of the sky, head of pantheon
Enlil: god of the wind, leader of the divine assembly (Nippur)
Ninhursaga, goddess of birth (Kesh)
Enki: god of irrigation waters (Eridu)
Nanna: god of the Moon (Ur)
Marduk: god of Babylon (2nd nillenium)
Assur: god of Assyria (2nd nillenium)
What the Sumerians knew
Creation myth ("Eridu Genesis")
Nammu: the Mother who gave birth to Heaven (An) and Earth (Ki, later Ninhursag)
All the gods are sons of An and his wife Ki
Enki, son of An and Ki, created the world
The gods created humankind and the Sumer cities
Humanity was created to serve the gods
The gods lived in the Eden (Bahrein island?)
Enki ate a forbidden plant and was cursed by his mother who cursed his rib which was cured by the goddess of life Nin-ti
Enlil, the god of the storm, caused the Flood
What the Sumerians knew
The meaning of life
Top: Man delivering offerings to goddess Inanna (Ishtar)
Middle: Men carrying offerings
Bottom: Sheep, crop, water
What the Sumerians knew
Uruk in 2700 BC (time of Gilgamesh):
Six kms of ramparts protected by 900 towers
10 square kms of houses, palaces, workshops and temples
50,000 people
Gilgamesh
King of Uruk (2300BC)
Leads a military expedition to a distance place to find cedar wood
Gilgamesh
Tablet 1
"The one who saw all _
He saw the great Mystery, he knew the Hidden:
He recovered the knowledge of all the times before the Flood.
He journeyed beyond the distant, he journeyed beyond exhaustion..."

Gilgamesh is two-thirds god and one-third human.
He is the most powerful king that ever existed, but is a brutal dictator.
The people of Uruk ask god Anu for help.
Anu sends a powerful savage, Enkidu,
He has sex with one of the sacred prostitutes of the temple
and suddenly becomes civilized and knowledgeable.
Gilgamesh dreams that a meteor falls to Earth which is so great that not even Gilgamesh can lift it.
Gilgamesh
Tablet 2
Enkidu moves to the city. Enkidu briefly fights Gilgamesh over a woman but then they become friends. When Gilgamesh decides to leave on a journey and confront the demon Humbaba, Enkidu follows him to protect him.

Tablet 4
Gilgamesh has several dreams, including a dream of the apocalypse:
"The skies roared with thunder and the earth heaved,
Then came darkness and a stillness like death.
Lightening smashed the ground and fires blazed out;
Death flooded from the skies.
When the heat died and the fires went out,
The plains had turned to ash."
Gilgamesh
Tablet 5
Gilgamesh and Enkidu find and kill the demon.

Tablet 6
The goddess Ishtar hears of the event and offers herself to Gilgamesh, but Gilgamesh despises her as a slut and a jinx. Ishtar then begs her father Anu to wreak vengeance on Gilgamesh and Uruk, threatening to
"...pull down the Gates of Hell itself,
Crush the doorposts and flatten the door,
And I will let the dead leave
And let the dead roam the earth
And they shall eat the living.
The dead will overwhelm all the living"
Gilgamesh
Tablet 7
The gods condemn Enkidu to hell for helping G. kill Humbaba:
"The house where the dead dwell in total darkness,
Where they drink dirt and eat stone,
Where they wear feathers like birds,
Where no light ever invades their everlasting darkness,
Where the door and the lock of Hell is coated with thick dust.
When I entered the House of Dust,
On every side the crowns of kings were heaped,
On every side the voices of the kings who wore those crowns,
Who now only served food to the gods Anu and Enlil,
Candy, meat, and water poured from skins.
I saw sitting in this House of Dust a priest and a servant...
There sat Etana and Sumukan,
There sat Ereshkigal, the queen of Hell,
Beletseri, the scribe of Hell, sitting before her."
Gilgamesh
Tablet 9
Gilgamesh fears that the gods will now come after him, and decides to set out on a journey to find out the secret of immortality.
Utnapishtim and his wife are the only humans who are immortal: they are the only humans who survived the Flood and now live at the mouth of all rivers.

Tablet 11
After many encounters (everybody telling him that his quest is futile), Gilgamesh meets Utnapishtim, who tells him the story of the Flood.
The Flood
Gilgamesh
Tablet 11/ The Flood
When the gods followed the suggestion of one of them (Enlil) and decided to punish the humans with the Flood, the goddess Ea warned Utnapishtim in time so that he could build an ark, gather all living beings and survive the Flood.
The Flood lasted for seven days and seven nights, and destroyed everything, but the gods felt remorse. The gods found Utnapishtim's ark on the top of Mount Nimush, and Enlil in person granted him immortality and the right to live at the source of all the rivers.
Gilgamesh
Tablet 11/ The End
Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that he will become immortal if he too can stay awake for six days and seven nights, but Gilgamesh falls asleep and sleeps the whole time and when he wakes up he is condemned:
"What do I do now, where do I go now?
Death has devoured my body,
Death dwells in my body,
Wherever I go, wherever I look, there stands Death"
Utnapishtim grants Gilgamesh only the secret to become young again. Gilgamesh does not trust him and brings back to Uruk the magic plant, but a snake eats the magic plant. Gilgamesh returns to Uruk and contemplates the city's splendour.
Kings List
"After kingship had descended from heaven, Eridu became the seat of kingship. In Eridu Aululim reigned 28,800 years as king. Alalgar reigned 36,000 years. Two kings, reigned 64,800 years. Eridu was abandoned and its kingship was carried off to Bad-tabira. . . .
Total: Five Cities, eight kings, reigned 241,200 years.
The flood then swept over. After the Flood had swept over, and kingship had descended from heaven, Kish became the seat of Kingship. In Kish .... Total: twenty-three kings, reigned 24,510 years, 3 months, 3 1/2 days. Kish was defeated; its kingship was carried off to Eanna.
Kings List
"In Eanna, Meskiaggasher, the son of (the sun god) Utu reigned as En (Priest) and Lugal (King) 324 years--Meskiaggasher entered the sea, ascended the mountains. Enmerkar, the son of Meskiaggasher, the king of erech who had built Erech, reigned 420 years as king. Lugalbanda, the shepherd, reigned 1,200 years. Dumuzi the fisherman, whose city was Kua, reigned 100 years. Gilgamesh, whose father was a nomad (?) reigned 126 years. Urnungal, the son of Gilgamesh, reigned 30 years. Labasher reigned 9 years. Ennundaranna reigned 8 years. Meshede reigned 36 years. Melamanna reigned 6 years. Lugalkidul reigned 36 years.
Total: twelve kings, reigned 2,130 years. Erech was defeated, its kingship was carried off to Ur...."
King List
Kings After the Flood
Dynasty of Kish: 23 kings ruled for 24,510 years (the first three all ruled 1,200 years, the second three ruled 960 years, the third three ruled 900 years)
Dynasty of Uruk: 12 kings ruled for 2,310 years
Dynasty of Ur: 4 kings ruled 171 years
Dynasty of Awan: 3 kings for 356 years
Kish 2: 8 kings for 3,195 years
Hamazi: 1 king for 360 years
Uruk 2: 3 kings for 187 years
Ur 2: 4 kings for 108 years
Adah: 1 king for 90 years
Mari: 6 kings for 136 years
Kish 3: 1 king for 100 years
King List
Kings After the Flood
Akshak: 6 kings for 99 years
Kish 4: 7 kings for 491 years
Uruk 3: 1 king for 25 years
Akkad: 11 kings for 197 years
Uruk 4: 5 kings for 30 years
Gutian: 21 kings for 91 years
Uruk 5: 1 king for 7 years
Ur 3: 5 kings for 108 years
Isin: 14 kings for 203 years
What the Sumerians knew
Where is Eden?
Legend of a pure land that knew neither sickness nor death, that Enki, son of An/Anu and god of subterranean freshwaters, turned into a lush garden (cuneiform tablet from Nippur)
"A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads" (Genesis)
Confluence (now at the bottom of the Persian Gulf) of Euphrates, Tigris, the Karum from Iran, and a dry riverbed in the Arabian desert?
Eden in Sumer: "uncultivated plain"
Adam in Sumer: "settlement on the plain"
What the Near-East knew
See Part III

What the Near East knew III


What the Near East knew
Part III
What the Akkadians knew
Creation myth
Eland the bull (northern mountains) and his wife Asherah the sea (Persian Gulf)
Their children-gods created the cities of Mesopotamia
What the Akkadians knew
Creation myth
The gods were tired of having to work in the fields for their survival
Enki created humans to work on behalf of the gods
Enlil, annoyed that humans proliferated and made so much noise, ordered the flood
Enki warned Atra-hasis who built an ark
What the Babylonians knew
Agriculture
Valleys and rivers as the source of civilization
Basic crop: barley grown on irrigated fields (requires manpower, equipment and coordination)
Social contract (aristocrats/paesants)
Astronomy, mathematics and medicine
Positional notation
Zero
What the Babylonians knew
Religion
Human life depends on the gods
But the gods depend on human labor and sacrifice
Religion as a cult of fertility
The temple is the household of the gods
The temple organizes agricultural activity for the whole community (men in the fields, women and children in the production of textile and food)
The temple (not the palace) is the identity of the people of the city
A temple rules only over one city
The destruction of a temple is a catastrophe
Largest temples: Marduk at Babylonia, Anu at Uruk
What the Babylonians knew
Religion
Anu, god of the sky
Ea, god of wisdom, master-magician
Ellil, original leader of the gods
(Gods reside in specific cities)
Ishtar, goddess of war (Uruk)
Marduk, son of Ea, leader of the gods (Babylon)
Nabu (Borsippa)
Sin (Ur)
Shamash (Sippar)
What the Babylonians knew
State
The king as the divinely appointed leader
The palace is the household of the king, who could be a foreigner (eg Amorites, Kassites)
The palace organizes agricultural activity for the well-being of the king (mainly through slaves captured in war)
The palace rules over more than one city
The destruction of the palace is a regime change, not necessarily a catastrophe
No tomb of a Babylonian king has ever been found
What the Babylonians knew
Business
Birth of the mercantile class (eg, trading surplus of food for metals)
Trade along the Euphrates
Silver as a means of payment for materials (2500 BC) but not labor
People's wages paid in cereals and beer
Birth of venture capital and usury
What the Babylonians knew
Scribes
Employed by temples, palace and merchants
Letters, contracts and accounting
Tablets
What the Babylonians knew
Hammurabi law code (2100 BC)
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
Pragmatic: avoid endless cycles of revenge
Each group has rights and duties proportional to its status
Protection of women and children from indiscriminate abuses
Even slaves have rights
Severe restrictions on female sexuality
Professional standards for physicians, architects and engineers enforced via draconian punishments
What the Babylonians knew
Hammurabi law code (2100 BC)
What the Babylonians knew
"Enuma Elish" (1700 BC):
Marduk, the supreme god (a third-generation god), and Ishtar (his wife), goddess of the Earth
The male freshwater ocean (Apsu) and the female saltwater ocean (Tiamat) created the elohim (gods) that created the world
Conflict between the gods (Apsu gets killed, Tiamat leads persecution of the gods)
Gods are tired of their tough life
Marduk creates humanity to be the servants of the gods
Grateful, the gods declare Marduk the supreme god
Struggle between order and chaos (Marduk's battle with Tiamat)
Enuma Elish
Enuma Elish
Enuma Elish
What the Babylonians knew
Divination
Summa alu
Compendium of omens related to the Earth
Enuma Anu Enlil
Compendium of omens related to the Cosmos
The future is predetermined by the gods
Rituals
The will of the gods can be changed by appropriate rituals
The same gods that created the future also created the rituals for humans to change the future
What the invaders knew
The Chariot
1700 BC: the Hyskos (Semitic people from Arabia) invade Egypt
1500 BC: the Hurrians (Indo-Europeans from the northern mountains) invade Mesopotamia
1600 BC: Indo-Europeans invade the Indus valley
1500 BC: the Shang invade China
Enabling technologies:
Metallurgy (lightness)
Woodworking (integration)
Tanning (comfort)
Domestication of horses (motor)
What the invaders knew
The Chariot
Origin
Border between steppes (horse civilization) and river valleys (metal civiliazions)
Hunting, farming, building
Effects
Increased speed tenfold (ox-transport: 3kms/hr, horse-transport: 30 kms/hr)
New class of warriors
Composite bow (invented at about the same time)
The Chariot
Mounted warrior
What the Hittites knew
What the Hittites knew
Old Hittite Kingdom (1720 to 1480 BC)
Great Hittite Kingdom or Imperial Hittites (1480-1190 BC)
Late Hittite City States (1190 to 712 BC)

What the Hittites knew

Oldest recorded Indo-European language (6,000 BC)
Iron (1,400 BC)
Extreme polytheism: the world is populated by a multitude of deities (every natural object is conscious and is inhabited by a deity)
Religious tolerance: all deities are legitimate dieties
The "Storm God" of Hatti as the supreme deity (married to the Sun Goddess of Arinna)
Temple of the Storm God at Hattusa (160x135m)
El and his consort Ashera, mother of Baal (Ras Shamra texts , 1,500 BC)
What the Hittites knew
Storm God (bull) from Alacah”yk
What the Hittites knew
Origins of the Indo-Europeans
Marija Gimbutas' thesis: warriors moved west and southeast from the Russian steppes 4,000 BC
Colin Renfrew's thesis: agriculture spread from Turkey west and east 7,000 BC
What the Hittites knew
Broadcasters of Mesopotamian culture to the Mediterranean civilizations, from Egypt to Greece to Phoenicia
No private property (the king owns all the land)
The bulk of the population are tenant farmers
Kings cremated not buried
What the Assyrians knew
Empire of Tiglath-pileser III (746 BC-727 BC)
Multi-ethnic imperial system
Scientific warfare
Army of peasants and slaves replaced by professional army from the conquered lands
Iron weapons employed on a massive scale
Balance of infantry, cavalry and chariots
Imperialist ideology
Warfare a religious duty
Control of subjects via terror
What the Babylonians knew
Empire of Nebuchadnezzar II (605 BC - 562 BC)
Babylonia has 100,000 people
Eight monumental gates
Esagila complex
Seven-story ziggurat
Hanging gardens
Babylonia
Babylonia
What the Persians knew
Bibliography:
Zaehner: "The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism"
What the Persians knew
God of Light vs God of Darkness
Spiritual, immaterial God
Zarathustra (b 628BC)
Good-evil dualism (the universe is under the control of two contrary gods: Ahura-mazda, the creating god who is full of light and good, and Ahriman, the god of dark and evil)
Monotheism
Eschatological (at the end of time, Ahura-mazda will emerge victorious)
Zurvan (500 BC): god of infinite time
What the Persians knew
The Cyrus Cylinder, 538 BC
First Charter of The Rights of Nations
The First Declaration of Human Rights
"Cyrus, King of Kings..., has dictated a new world order, for the man to be free, for the man to live as he pleases and be protected by the law, all men to have rights_
... by the will of Ahura Mazda, all subordinates and subjects of the Empire, nations of the four quarters, shall respect... the various religions of the Persian Empire. We shall not rule by force and oppress no nation. Each is free to accept or reject, we shall bestow internal autonomy to all states ...
What the Persians knew
The Cyrus Cylinder, 538 BC
What the Persians knew
What the Persians knew

What the Egyptians knew


Bibliography
Henry Hodges: Technology in the Ancient World (1970)
Arthur Cotterell: Penguin Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations (1980)
Rosalie David: Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt (1998)
Henri Stierlin: Pharaohs Master-builders (1992)
Arthur Cotterell: Penguin Encyclopedia of Ancient Civilizations (1980)
Alberto Siliotti: The Dwellings of Eternity (2000)
Ancient Civilizations
Egypt
Egypt
4000 BC: Egyptians trace their origins to the Mount Rwenzori range in East Africa
3500 BC: Egyptians invent the sail
3400-3100: two independent kingdoms
capital in Pe (north, Delta), chief deity Edjo (cobra goddess) worshipped at Buto
capital in Nekhen (south), chief deity Nekhbet (vulture goddess) worshipped at Nekheb
corresponding to the two geographical regions (Delta and Valley)
What the Egyptians knew
Sources
"Turin Canon" (13th c BC): Kings list, written in hieratic papyrus
Manetho: "Aegyptiaca" (3rd c BC): history of ancient Egypt, written in Greek
"Admonition of the Prophets" (): fiction that expresses the decline of the Old Kingdom
"Prophecy of Nefertiti" (): decline of the Old Kingdom
What the Egyptians knew
3000 BC: Narmer/Menes unifies Egypt and founds new capital Hiku-Ptah (Memphis) in the north (Delta)
Memphis: first megalopolis
This/Abydos (in the south): main religious center
Saqqara: royal burials
Hieroglyphic writing (3000 BC)
Calendar based on the three natural cycles (the solar day, the lunar month and the solar year)
Worship of the sun
Deities of animal form, later anthropomorphized
2900 BC: king Djer is buried at Abydos, seat of the cult of Osiris, lord of the Underworld and husband of Isis, and his "mastaba" becomes the grave of Osiris
What the Egyptians knew
The Narmer Palette commemorates the unification of Egypt
What the Egyptians knew
Hunters' Palette (3100 BC)
What the Egyptians knew
Oldest royal cemetery: Abydos
What the Egyptians knew
Old Kingdom (dynasties 3-6, 27th c.BC-22nd c.BC)
1.5 million people
Centralized theocracy
Only the king (demigod) is eternal
Religious centers: Iwnw/Heliopolis (Re), Hermopolis (Thoth), Memphis (Ptah)
Chief deity: Re/Atum/Khepri (Sun cult)
The king is the sun of Sun god (Re, Atum)
Six temples to the Sun (dynasty 5), modeled after Heliopolis' temple (never found)
What the Egyptians knew
Pharaoh
The king is a divine administrator, not a warrior
The Old Kingdom had few enemies
The Old Kingdom had no standing army
The king's job is to administer the land of the Nile, not to conquer
The king is assisted by a bureaucracy of court officials, provincial administrators, project supervisors, scribes, tax collectors
Projects are carried out by metalworkers, stonemasons, artisans, painters, etc employed by the king
What the Egyptians knew
Old Kingdom (dynasties 3-6, 27th c.BC-22nd c.BC)
Royal burial: pyramids (originally associated with sun cult)
Step Pyramid at Saqqara (Imhotep, 2620 BC)
Red Pyramid at Dahshur (2575 BC)
Great Pyramid at Giza (Hemon, 2550 BC)
The Sphinx is built in Giza for pharaoh Khephren (2515 BC)
Religious texts are inscribed in the burial chamber of pharoah Unas/Wenis (2350 BC)
Nobles' burial: tombs around the pyramid
What the Egyptians knew
Pyramid-driven economy
Pyramids and temples become a focus of Egypt's economy, from training to quarrying to transportation to engineering
Up to 70,000 workers per pyramid
Agricultural surplus used to feed the pyramid and temple workers
Furnishing pyramids and temples creates demand for luxury goods
What the Egyptians knew
Old Kingdom (dynasties 3-6, 27th c.BC-22nd c.BC)
Writing on papyrus (2700 BC)
Copper age (weapons and tools)
Sail (3,500 BC)
Mud bricks for domestic building, stone for monumental building
Limited use of the wheel (sledges instead of wheeled vehicles)

What the Egyptians knew
Old Kingdom (dynasties 3-6, 27th c.BC-22nd c.BC)
Women have the same rights as men except for education (which de facto keeps them out of the bureaucracy)
Saqqara/ Giza
Egypt
Rahotpe's stele (2600 BC)
Oldest royal sarcophagus (2600 BC)
Menkaura triad (2480 BC)
Limestone statue of scribe (2500 BC)
Diorite statue of Khafra (2500 BC)
What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew
First Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate Period (dynasties 6-17, 22nd c.BC-17th c.BC)
Osiris replaces Re, promising eternal life to everybody
Democratization and decentralization of power
The king is the son of Osiris (and the incarnation of Horus at death)
Egyptian Book of the Dead (2100 BC)
Ceremonies are held in Abydos to honor Osiris ("Osiris' mysteries") that recount the death and resurrection of the god (1900 BC)
What the Egyptians knew
Mysteries of Osiris
Stela of Nemtyemhat ("Ikhernofret Stela") at Abydos
The First Day: procession of Wepwawet:
The Second Day, procession of Wesir
The Night of Vigil
The Third Day: Wesir is reborn
Weighing of the Heart
The Papyrus of Ani (1250 BC)
What the Egyptians knew
First Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate Period (dynasties 6-17, 22nd c.BC-17th c.BC)
"The Adventures of Sinuhe" (1800 BC)
Political capitals: Memphis in the north and Thebes in the south
The first obelisks are erected at Heliopolis (2000 BC)
Chariot
Bronze age
What the Egyptians knew
Red granite sphinx at Tanis of Amenemhet III (1800 BC)
Black basalt pyramidion of Amenemhet III (1800 BC)
What the Egyptians knew
Senet
What the Egyptians knew
1640 BC - 1532 BC: Hyksos invasion of the Delta (during dynasties 15-17)
Semitic people from Palestine
Technological innovations
Horse-driven chariot (of Aryan origin)
The foreign world
Main political center: Memphis
Spoked wheel (faster chariots)
Egypt
What the Egyptians knew
Continued on Part II

What the Egyptians knew II


What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew
New Kingdom (dynasties 18-20, 1532 BC - 1070 BC)
Main political center: Thebes (liberated Egypt from the Hyksos)
Main religious center: Karnak (Thebes), temple of Amun (1530 BC)
Chief deity: Amun, associated with the north's Re and now regarded as creator of all people
The king's chief wife becomes the divine wife of Atum
Thebes as the original place of creation (creation myth)
Royal burial: rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings (Karnak)
Ramesses II rock-cut temples at Abu Simbel (1250 BC)
Karnak/ Luxor
Karnak
Abu Simbel
What the Egyptians knew
New Kingdom (dynasties 18-20, 1532 BC - 1070 BC)
Amenhotep I's experiment (1520 BC): Separation of Royal burial site and Royal cult sites
Divine cult complexes (houses of the gods) and Royal cult complexes, between the Nile and the necropolis (royal burial rites)
Sundial (1450)
What the Egyptians knew
New Kingdom (dynasties 18-20, 1532 BC - 1070 BC)
Burgeoning economy of Amenhotep III (1391-1353 BC) and Ramesses II (1290-1224 BC)
Urban expansion
Temple construction
Agricultural surpluses
Influx of gold from Nubia
Egyptian economy fuels Mediterranean trade
What the Egyptians knew
New Kingdom (dynasties 18-20, 1532 BC - 1070 BC)
Imports from Phoenicia:
Afghan tin
Cyprus' copper
Timber
Ships
Temples
Coffins
What the Egyptians knew
New Kingdom (dynasties 18-20, 1532 BC - 1070 BC)
Foreign policy (Palestine, Syria, Nubia, Mitannis, Hittites, Mesopotamia)
1458 BC: Tuthmosis III defeats the Mitannis and conquers Syria, the peak of Egyptian power
1415: Marriage between Tuthmosis IV and Artatama's daughter seal peace with Mitannis
1353 BC: monotheism (Atum) of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) and his wife Nefertiti at new capital Akhetaten (Amarna)
1275 BC: the battle of Kadesh
Tutankhamun Treasure (1300 BC)
Battle of Kadesh (1275BC)
The Chariot
Continued on Part III


What the Egyptians knew III


What the Egyptians knew
Part III
What the Egyptians knew
Third Intermediate Period, Late Period (dynasties 21-25, 1070 BC - 525 BC)
Political capital: Tanis (Delta), Thebes (Nubian dynasty 25)
Main religion center: Thebes
The king's elder daughter becomes the divine wife of Atum, is forbidden to marry and resides at Thebes
Royal burial: the Nuri pyramid 664 BC), the first pyramid in a thousand years
Egypt's weakness: still no iron
What the Egyptians knew
Third Intermediate Period, Late Period (dynasties 21-25, 1070 BC - 525 BC)
Foreign rulers: Libyan, Nubian, Greek mercenaries
671 BC: the Assyrians capture the capital Memphis
605 BC: the Babylonians (Nabuchadnezzar) defeat the Egyptians at Carchemish
525 BC: the Persians (Cambyses) defeat Egypt at Pelusium
What the Egyptians knew
Persian rule (525 BC - 332 BC)
Macenodian rule (332 BC -47 BC)
Foundation of Alexandria
Ptolemaic rulers (Greeks)
Roman rule (47 BC - 641 AD)
Arab rule (642:1252)
Mumluk rule (1252-1516)
Ottoman rule (1516-1798)
Egyptian rule (1811-1882)
British rule (1882-1922)
What the Egyptians knew
Agriculture
Valleys and rivers as the source of civilization
Social Order
800 hieroglyphs
Calendar of 12 months of 30 days
What the Egyptians knew
No word/hieroglyph for "religion"
Maat: goddess that personifies cosmic harmony and a model for human behavior
Human life must mirror cosmic order, and death is the vehicle to become part of that cosmic order
High priests to lead rites and festivals
Pharaoh as intermediary between gods and humans (son of the Sun god)
No theory of gods, only rites and festivals that make people mirror the divine order (as interpreted by the priests)
What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew
Dual hierarchy: the gods, the dead, the pharaoh, the priests, the people
What the Egyptians knew
Gods behave like humans: mythology not theology (legend of Isis, wife of Osiris, who died, etc)
Animals to represent gods (Apis the bull, Anubis the jackal, Uadjet the cobra, Horus the falcon, Thoth the ibis)
Every Egyptian is created by the gods (a divine nation)
Religion as a cult of fertility
Festivals to rehearse god's myths: "Osiris' mysteries" recount the death and resurrection of Osiris, lord of the Underworld, and bring salvation, resurrection and eternal bliss to humans
Book of Thoth (never found): summary of Egyptian knowledge and instructions for festivals


What the Egyptians knew
What the Egyptians knew
Tuat as the immortal omniscient creator and as the Underworld
Ptah (and later Amon) as the creator, and the other gods as a manifestation of his creative powers
Faith on a monumental scale (Karnak for Amon)
Obelisks
Pyramids
Step pyramid at Saqqara (2600 BC): a miniature city
Cheope's pyramid at Giza (2550 BC): a cosmic city
What the Egyptians knew
Ancient creation myths
Different creation myths from ancient times
What the Egyptians knew
Cosmogony of Hermopolis
Nun: age of no space and no time, no sky and no earth, primordial abyss
Nun: "nothingness, nowhere, darkness"
Nun: later became a ersonified deity, but no temples, primeval waters from which the sun god emerged
Eight attributes of primeval waters (endlessness, invisibility, darkness, etc) were also personified deities (one being Amun), and they gave rise to the egg that originated the world
Chief deity until 8th dynasty: Thoth (inventor of writing and law)
Chief deity after 8th dynasty: Atum
What the Egyptians knew
Cosmogony of Heliopolis
Atum: arose from the primeval waters (Nun) and created the universe
Atum: bisexual deity Khopri
Later trinity: Atum (immanent in Nun), Shu (Atum's son), Tefnut (Atum's daughter)
Shu and Tefnut parented Geb (earth) and Nut (sky)
Geb and Nut parented Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nephthys
Osiris and Isis parented Horus
What the Egyptians knew
Cosmogony of Memphis
Nun: product of the eternal mind Ptah, state of non-existence prior to creation
Ptah: creator of the world
All other gods were manifestations of Ptah's body parts
What the Egyptians knew
Thebes
Ken-Ken Ur laid the original egg
Chief deity from 12th dynasty on: Amun (inherited from Hermopolis and eventually associated with the sun god Re)
What the Egyptians knew
Abydos
Chief deity: Osiris (originally symbolized the annual rebirth of the land)
Risen from the dead, became the ruler of the world of the dead
Osiris determines if one will live forever or not
Osiris presides over the universal judgement (Book of the Dead)
Mysteries of Osiris
His wife Isis more famous during the Roman era outside Egypt
What the Egyptians knew
Cynopolis
Chief deity: Anubis, funerary deity all over Egypt
Oldest deity of Egypt: Min, god of the nomads and hunters (eastern desert) in the first dynasty
Pharaoh of divine origin (originally son of Re, and later manifestation of Amun)
What the Egyptians knew
Death = immortality
Mummies (2600BC-400AD)
Book of the Dead (1,600 BC): formulas to help the deads in the afterlife journey to Tuat and assume mythological shapes
Tomb not as the resting place of the dead, but as the instrument by which death can be overcome, a place of connection with the heavens and the afterlife ("spirit to the sky, corpse into the earth")
Death as the gateway to eternal life
Ba, the soul, vs Ka, the divine, the spirit (or spirits) that accompanies and guides human as well as divine beings, and that bestows immortality on the Ba
What the Egyptians knew
The self is made of multiple independent entities
The ba (immortal soul)
The ka (immortal divine quality)
The heart (site of the mind)
The shadow (khaibit)
The name (ren)
The body
_.

What the Egyptians knew
Royal burial
First dynasty (3032 BC): Abydos (tumuli)
Third dynasty (2707) - Eight dynasty (2216): Memphis (pyramid)
Eleventh dynasty (2119): Thebes (rock caves)
Twelfth dynasty (1976): Memphis (pyramid)
Seventeenth dynasty (1645): Thebes (rock caves)
Eighteenth dynasty (1550) - Twentysecond dynasty (946): Thebes, Valley of the Kings (rock caves)
What the Egyptians knew
The temple
Mansion of the god
Representation of the creation
Microcosm of the universe
What the Egyptians knew
Society
Motivation for linking the scattered communities of Egypt:
Irrigation
Motivation for bureaucracy:
Funerary monuments (e.g., pyramids)
Motivation for technological progress:
Funerary architecture (furniture, jewelry, pottery, clothing)
What the Egyptians knew
Society
Peasants (80% of population)
Artisans
Scribes (archivists, librarians, record-keepers, not writers)
Thoth, god of knowledge (patron of scribes)
"Adventures of Sinuhe" (1800 BC)
Architects: simple, imposing structures
Musicians: musical instruments
Doctors: medicine
What the Egyptians knew
Society
Governors
Central bureaucracy (headed by vizier and including treasury)
Priests (usually chosen from the scribes)
Priest-magicians
Oracles
What the Egyptians knew
Justice
Administered by precedents
Personified by goddess Maat
Chief justice was the high priest of Maat
All judges were also priests of Maat
What the Egyptians knew
Writing
Hieroglyphic system: 700 signs expressing different phonetic combinations
Mainly used for official and monumental purposes
Abbreviated scripts for business and literary purposes: Hieratic, Demotic, Coptic
A hieroglyphic sign can indicate either an object, an idea or a sound
Ambiguity of signs led to additional symbol to indicate the sound: pseudo-alphabet of 24 consonants
Used also to spell foreign words and names
What the Egyptians knew
Economy
Wheat and barley (bread and beer)
Wine
Linen
Papyrus (for ropes, sails, sandals, paper)
Imports
Gold from Nubia
Copper from the Sinai, Cyprus, Syria
Cedarwood from Lebanon
What the Egyptians knew
Monopolies of the king
Import/export
Quarries/mines
What the Egyptians knew
Egyptian women
Women could become Pharaoh
Laws were equal for men and women
Women could own land and run businesses
Women could divorce
People of both sexes could have more than one spouse
The wife was the mistress of the house, directing all household activities


What the Indians knew I


Bibliography
Gordon Johnson: Cultural Atlas of India (1996)
Henri Stierlin: Hindu India (2002)
Hermann Goetz: The Art of India (1959)
Alberto Siliotti: The Dwellings of Eternity (2000)
Heinrich Zimmer: Philosophies of India (1951)
Surendranath Dasgupta: A History of Indian Philosophy (1988)
Ancient Civilizations
India
7000 BC: Earliest settled societies (Mehrgarh)
3000 BC: Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley
2000 BC: Indus Valley is the largest bronze-age civilization
1800 BC: the civilization of the Indus Valley declines
1500 BC: Indo-Aryan tribes speaking Sanskrit invade India and settle in the Ganges valley
1100 BC: Aryans use iron
1000 BC: the Rig-Veda are composed in Vedic
900 BC: the Aryans are divided in four social classes
800 BC: end of Aryan migrations
600 BC: the Upanishads are composed in Sanskrit
Mohenjo-Daro
Mohenjo-Daro
India
527 BC: Siddhartha Gautama is enlightened (the Buddha)
500 BC: the ascetic prince Mahavira founds Jainism
327 BC: Alexander of Macedonia invades the Indus valley
323 BC: at the death of Alexander, Seleucus obtains India
304 BC: Chandragupta Maurya buys the Indus valley for 500 elephants
300 BC: the Ramayama is composed
259 BC: the Mauryan king Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta, converts to Buddhism and sends out Buddhist missionaries to nearby states
220 BC: the Maurya dynasty under Ashoka's son Bindusara expands to almost all of India
The Maurya Empire
India
200 BC: the "Mahabarata" is composed
150 BC: Patanjali publishes the "Yoga Sutras"
150 BC: the "Kama Sutra" is composed
100 BC: India is mainly divided into Bactria (northwest), Andhras (east) and Shungas (south)
100 BC: Buddhist sanctuary at Sanchi
78 BC: the Kushan expand into Kashmir and Punjab
India 100 AD
India
200: the Manu code prescribes the rules of everyday life and divides people into four castes (Brahmins, warriors, farmers/traders, non-Aryans)
233: The Sassanid (Persia) conquer the Kushan empire
318: Chandra Gupta founds the Gupta kingom in Magadha and extends its domains throughout northern India with capital at Patna
India 400
India
350: the Puranas are composed (a compendium of Hindu mythology)
380: Buddhist monks carve two giant Buddha statues in the rock at Bamiya, Bactria (Afghanistan)
465: the Ajanta caves


India
499: the Hindu mathematician Aryabhata writes the "Aryabhatiya", the first book on Algebra
510: Huns led by Mihiragula conquer Punjab, Gujarat and Malwa from the Gupta
528: the Gupta empire collapses under continuous barbaric invasions
600: shakti cult (mother-goddess)
650: Ellora caves
India 625
India
711: the Arabs conquer Sindh and Multan (Pakistan)
773: Kailasa temple at Ellora
800: kingdoms are created in central India and in Rajastan by Rajputs (warlords)


India 900

India
1030: the Solanki kings build the Jain temples at Mount Abu
1192: Turkic-speaking chieftains from Afghanistans led by Muhammad of Ghor defeat Prithvi Raj, capture Delhi and establish a Muslim sultanate at Delhi
1250: a temple to the Sun in the form of a giant chariot is built at Konarak
India, 1280
Delhi Sultanate, «00-1400

India
1526: the Mogul empire (Babur) destroys the Dehli Sultanate and unifies northern and parts of southern India
1550: Jain complex at Palitana
1627: Shivaji (Sivaji) founds the Maratha kingdom
1631: Sultan Shah Jahan builds the Taj Mahal
1639: Britain acquires Madras
1665: Britian acquires Bombay from Portugal
1688: the Moguls complete the conquest of India
1690: Britain acquires Calcutta
1707:Sultan Aurangjeb dies, destabalizing the Mogul Empire

Marathas794
India
304 BC - 184 BC: Maurya
184 BC - 78 BC: Sunga
78 AD -233: Kushan
318 - 528: Gupta
550 - 1190 : Chalukya
1192-1526: Delhi sultanate
1526-1707: Moghul
1707-1802: Maratha
What the Indians knew
Continues on Part II

What the Indians knew II



What the Indians knew
Part II
Indo-European Languages
Indo-European or "Aryan" languages: Indo-Iranian, Italic, Slavic, Germanic, Greek, Baltic, Celtic, Albanian, Armenian
5000 BC: the Kurgan culture in the steppes west of the Ural Mountains (Indo-Aryans)
3000 BC: Dravidian speaking people develop the civilization of the Indus Valley
3000 BC: the proto-indo-european language develops in Central Asia
2000 BC: the Kurgan culture spreads to eastern Europe and northern Iran
Indo-European Languages
1700 BC: Indo-Aryans migrate eastward, away from the other Indo-European peoples, and settle in Iran
1600 BC: Indo-Aryans invade India from the west and expel the Dravidians
1500 BC: Religious texts are written in Vedic, an Indo-European language
400 BC: Panini's grammar formalizes Sanskrit, an evolution of Vedic
Indo-European Languages
Today:
India has 112 mother tongues with at least 10,000 speakers
23 Dravidian (non-Indoeuropean) languages are spoken by 180 million people, mainly in the south (Tamil in Tamil Nadu, Telugu in Andhra Pradesh, Kannada in Mysore, Malayalam in Kerala)
Refresh your memory:
Semitic languages: Akkadian, Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Amharic (Ethiopic)
Egyptian languages
Sino-tibetan languages: Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Burmese
What the Indians knew
Castes (brahmans, warriors, merchants)
Karma ("action")
Dharma ("duty")
Duty depends on caste, age (four stages of life), sex (a woman's dharma is obedience to father, husband and son)
Samsara ("cycle of rebirth", mundane world, world of becoming))
Chakras (12 centers of energy located in the body, each associated with a different kind of consciousness/ energy, a ladder leading to higher consciousness/ energy)
Panchagavya ("Five Products of the Cow"): milk, butter, curds, urine, feces
What the Indians knew
Problem of evil
Right and wrong actions ("karma") increase positive and negative potential energy ("apurva", later also called "karma")
Karma causes apurva
Apurva (positive or negative energy) eventually is released and causes good or evil to the person
Misfortune is caused by prior wrongful deeds (is not only deserved but even required)
What the Indians knew
Problem of evil
Causality is a loop from the individual back to the individual
Nobody is an "innocent" victim (every victim is guilty of something done before or in a previous life)
Justification of the caste system (you are what you are because that is what you deserve)
Cosmic justice totally independent of gods
Pointless to try to improve one's lot
What the Indians knew
Rig-veda (1500 BC)
1028 hymns to a pantheon of gods
Polytheism
Deities as vehicles of the force
Sacrifice, prayer and ritual to please the deities
Rebirth
Karma determines rebirth
Salvation as avoidance of rebirth
Salvation achieved through devotional acts
Three goals of human life: artha (material success), dharma (righteous social behavior), and kama (sensual pleasures), plus release

What the Indians knew
The Vedas
Veda means "knowledge" in ancient Vedic
Beliefs of the Aryans
Yajur-Veda (1000 BC): rites of sacrifice
Sama-Veda: religious hymns
Atharva-Veda (900 BC): magic spells
Brahmanas (900 BC): priestly rites
All Vedas were reserved for male priests of the upper caste
What the Indians knew
Hindu cosmogony
Many different cosmogonies
The universe is a sphere centered on India, made of concentric heavens, hells, oceans, continents
The history of the universe is cyclic
from the golden age (Krita Yuga) to the present age (Kali Yuga) back to the golden age via fire and flood
Human life is cyclic (karma, samsara)
Brahma
The creator
Brahma: primordial being that originated a variety of gods and spirits
Unusually low-profile
What the Indians knew
Creation myth (later collected in the Puranas)
The Earth as a disk between two bowls, the heavens and the underworld (the cosmic egg of Brahma, "biranya garbha")
Infinite universes (infinite cosmic eggs)
Mt Meru as the center of the world
We live in the Kali Yuga (the Age of Iron), the final and most negative of four cycles (cosmic seasons)
Sati-yuga = 432,000 X 4 yugas = 1,728,000
Tretaa-yuga = 432,000 X 3 = 1,296,000
Dwaapara-yuga = 432,000 X 2 = 864,000
Kali-yuga = 432,000 X 1 = 432,000
1 Mahayuga (ten yugas) = 4,320,000 years
1 day of Brahma = 1,000 mahayugas = 4.32 billion years
The Earth is 1,955,889,031 years old
What the Indians knew
Hindu cosmogony
Shiva
God of ascetics and god of the phallus
Shiva beheaded his father, the incestuous Brahma, and was condemned to carry the skull until he found release in Varanasi
Shiva appeared on Earth in various human, animal, and vegetable forms
Kapalika sect carries skull to reenact the myth
Aghori sect are indifferent to pleasure or pain
Shiva's phallus is the central shrine of temples and the personal shrine of households
Vishnu the Sustainer and Shiva the Destroyer
What the Indians knew
Hindu cosmogony
Vishnu
Vishnu gave birth to the creator (Brahma)
Vishnu separated heaven and earth
Many incarnations (Avatar): Rama, Krishna,_
Vishnu the Sustainer and Shiva the Destroyer
What the Indians knew
Hindu cosmogony
Devi
The "Goddess"
The prime mover, who commands the male gods to do the work of creation and destruction
Durga, Kali,
Shakti, the female power
Lakshmi, the wife of Vishnu
Parvati, the wife of Shiva (daughter of the Himalayas)

What the Indians knew
Upanishads (600 BC)
The metaphysical counterpart of the Veda
Philosophical meditations on the meaning of life and the nature of the universe, rather than mythology of gods
Union of the individual soul ("atman") with the universal soul ("brahman"), rather than devotional acts
Reserved for male priests of the upper caste
What the Indians knew
Upanishads (500 BC)
Brahman: the absolute, the soul of the world
Atman: the divine within the self, the soul of the individual
Karma: moral determination of reincarnation
Samsara: endless cycle of death and rebirth, transience of ordinary life
Dharma: social and cosmic order
Dhyana: meditation
Maya: the multiplicity of the world as an illusion of the senses
Moksha: liberation from maya and experience of the brahman
Yoga: a method for salvation, of union of brahman and atman, of experiencing the divine within the self
What the Indians knew
Brahman
The ultimate cosmic principle
The first cause of the universe
The source of existence
Beyond all material forms
Pure knowledge
Eternal, infinite, and conscious being
It is the subject, not the object, of thought
Can only be described in negative terms (what it is not):
nirguna (without qualities)
nirakara (without form)
nirvishesha (without particularity)
nirupadhika (without limitations)
What the Indians knew
Upanishads (600 BC)
Salvation is liberation (moksha) from the illusory world (maya)
Moksha is achieved when the individual soul ("atman") knows the universal soul ("brahman")
The soul is divine
The order of the soul is a reflection of the order of the absolute
Thus understanding one's self is understanding the absolute
Self-knowledge is knowledge of the absolute
What the Indians knew
Upanishads (600 BC)
All matter/energy is made up of three qualities (gunas) in increasing order of fineness:
Tamas (inertia): the grossness, that gives rise to form, to the three dimensions of space
Rajas (change): the quality that gives rise to movement or force
Sattva (purity): the finest quality, that gives rise to life or thought
Sattva and tamas are opposed to each other, while rajas is complementary to both
What the Indians knew
Upanishads (600 BC)
The creation is the interplay of the three gunas
Before Creation: the primal equilibrium of sattva, rajas and tamas
Creation: when the three gunas begin to interact and the process of evolution begins
After creation: tamas destroys an existing state while, simultaneously, Sattva creates a new state
Evolution is the simultaneous process of creation and destruction due to the three gunas
Rajas maintains a bond between the sattva and tamas
What the Indians knew
Upanishads (600 BC)
An element of each quality is present in every object/event
The laws of nature are due to a combination of the three gunas
In the material world of the three gunas we react to objects and events
Only in enlightenment are the gunas completely transcended
What the Indians knew
Siddhartha Gautama (527BC)
Budh: to be aware
Salvation does not lie in eternal existence but in escape from the illusion of the self
Nirvana (state of complete liberation) via practice and enlightenment
Karma is not action but only causation



What the Indians knew
Buddha (527BC)
No atman: no enduring consciousness, consciousness is a substance not a being
Personal identity through time does not consist of a self that is continuously reborn but of a continuity of karma
Dharmas (elements of existence): the components of a cart exist, but the cart itself is only a concept and does not truly exist
Each dharma is relative to every other dharma, each dharma is caused by another dharma (conditioned existence)
Nothing exists for any period of time (no duration to dharmas, dharmas are momentary)
What the Indians knew
Buddha (527BC)
Each moment is an entirely new existence
No transmigration: souls do not migrate from this life to the next one (there is no self)
What the Indians knew
Buddha (527BC)
No god: no Brahman
Brahman becomes "righteousness" (dharma), living a life of moral and ethical standard (the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path)
Four-fold negation of nirvana (it is not true that we exist or do not exist, and it is not true that we both exist and not exist, and it is not true that we neither exist nor do not exist; i.e. nothing can be said about nirvana)
Gods are not creators of the universe, and cannot influence human life. They are subject to the same cycle of rebirth. Enlightenment is actually possible only for humans.

What the Indians knew
Buddha (527BC)
Ignorance causes desire ("tanha") which causes ignorance
Decay is inherent in all complex things
Suffering (existential suffering) is inherent in all living beings
Equality of all beings (no castes)

What the Indians knew
Buddha (527BC)
Eternalists: the soul is eternal
Annihilists: nothing is eternal and nothing is connected
The Third Way: the soul is not eternal, but all events influence other events

Buddhism
Theravada Buddhist scriptures ("Tipitaka"):
Buddha's sermons, or "Pali" canon
Monastic rules
Philosophical classics
Buddhism
Four Noble Truths:
Life is suffering ("dukkha")
All suffering is caused by ignorance of the nature of reality and by the attachment to Earthly belongings that results from such ignorance.
Suffering can be ended by overcoming ignorance and attachment.
The path to the end of suffering is the Noble Eightfold Path: right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right-mindedness, right contemplation.
Buddhism
The ultimate goal of the path is release from the human condition, i.e. from ignorance, from greed, and from suffering (to attain nirvana)
Nirvana is infinite consciousness
Nirvana can be attained by cultivating four attitudes ("palaces"):
love (kindness)
compassion (for negative events)
joy (for positive events)
fairness
Only monks can achieve nirvana
Five commandments (do not kill, steal, fornicate, take drugs, lie)
Buddhism
Human existence consists of five aggregates (skandhas): body, feelings, concepts, disposition to act, consciousness.
The five aggregates separate at death
At each point in time an individual is a combination of the five skandhas. The combination changes all the time.
The self (atman) changes continuously
Denial of the atman (anatman)
12-step chain of events that causes the continuous repetition of the cycle of birth and death, each life's karma influencing the following one (pratityasamutpada, dependent origination)
Buddhism
Meditation/mantra:
The mind changes all the time (Buddha)
The mind becomes the object of its thought
In order to become God, the mind has to focus on God
Each God is associated to a sound, a mantra
Concentrating on the mantra of God, the mind becomes that God (I.e., absorbs its power)
Same principle in Hinduism and Magic
Buddhism
528 BC: Siddhartha Gautama achieves enlightenment
479 BC: at the first Buddhist council Buddha's teachings (Sutta) and the rules of monastic discipline (Vinaya) are codified
383 BC: the second Buddhist Council at Vesali chooses Hinayana over Mahayana
259 BC: king Asoka of India converts to Buddhism and sends out Buddhist missionaries to nearby states
250 BC: Buddhists carve the first cave temples (at Lomas Rishi)
247 BC: Asoka calls for the third Buddhist Council at Patna to codify the Buddhist canon of scriptures (Tipitaka)
200 BC: Buddhism spreads in central Asia
50 BC: Hinayana Buddhism (the Pali canon) spreads in Ceylon, Burma, Thailand
50 AD: Mahayana Buddhism spreads to Tibet, China, Japan
100 AD: the Pure Land sutra is composed
Buddhism
350: Huiyuan founds Pure Land Buddhism in China
366: Buddhists begin the Mogao caves near Dunhuang in China
372: Buddhism is introduced in Korea from China
380: Buddhist monks carve two giant Buddha statues in the rock at Bamiya, Bactria (Afghanistan)
520: Bodhidharma travels to China and founds Chan (Zen) Buddhism
538: a delegation from Korea introduces Japan's emperor to Buddhism
560: Zhiyi founds Tendai Buddhism in China (centered around the teachings of the Lotus Sutra)
625: Shotoku Taishi adopts Buddhism and Confucianism as state religions of Japan
650: Vajrayana Buddhism (Tantrism)
750: Guru Rinpoche/ Padmasambhava converts Tibet to Buddhism
805: Saicho brings Tendai Buddhism to Japan
806: the monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi) introduces the Shingon (Tantric) school into Japan
Buddhist Art
Cave temples
What the Indians knew
Jainism (470BC)
Parsva (8th century BC)
Vardhamana Mahavira (6th)
What the Indians knew
Jainism (470BC)
Buddha: the soul of the individual does not exist
Mahavira:
The soul of the individual ("jiva") is the only thing that is eternal
The universe is the set of all souls (humans, animals, plants)
A jiva undergoes an endless cycle of rebirths
The actions of a jiva cause the jiva to become impure
In order to purify itself, the jiva must practise non-violence ("ahimsa") and austerity ("tapas")
Each jiva is responsible for its own purification/salvation
What the Indians knew
Jainism (470BC)
No god or universal soul
Perfect knowledge (kevala) is the goal
Syad-vada: any topic allows for 353 different valid viewpoints (there is no certainty, just "perhaps")
Kevala can be achieved through purification
Jiva (vital force that is in all humans, animals, plants and objects) and ajiva (atoms, space, time, motion, rest)
No difference between body and soul
Salvation by non-violence (including animals)
Salvation by self-starvation
Digambara naked monks
What the Indians knew
Jainism (470BC)
Karma is increased by acts of violence and sticks to jiva
Karma is reduced by abstaining from violence, lies, stealing, sex, ownership
Karma is completely removed only by death
What the Indians knew
Jainism (470BC)
Sanctuaries

What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
1. Samkhya
Oldest school (400 BC)
Atheism (no god)
Purusha: the self, the mind (infinite number of purushas)
Prakriti (Pra=first, Kri=to do) is the first cause (Matter, Nature, natural order of the universe) and is made of the three gunas (inertia, change and purity)
Prakriti is the active (female) material principle and it is the actor of samsara (cycle of rebirth)
Purusha is the inert (male) spiritual principle and it is a mere spectator of samsara (it is conscious of samsara)
What the Indians knew
Samkhya
The evolution of the world is due to the interaction between purusha and prakriti
The self neither affects nor is affected by nature: it is a mere spectator, it creates consciousness of the samsara which is occurring
Prakriti is, in turn, an amalgam of the three gunas (originally in perfect equilibrium)
Prakriti is both matter and mind. Purusha is the awareness of them. Both an object and its mental representation belong to the realm of prakriti: only the awareness of the mental representation belongs to the realm of purusha.
What the Indians knew
Samkhya
Prakriti evolves, purusha is immutable. Lower animals have bodies and minds, but not awareness.
There is no original creator, but there is a universal destiny/goal: prakriti will eventually dissolve and only purusha will be left
Ishvarakrishna (400 AD)
What the Indians knew
Samkhya
At each cycle of the universe, the sequence of creation is:
Mahat, an inner organ that represents awareness
Ahamkara, an inner organ that represents free will
Manas, an inner organ that represents the collective mind
Five sense-organs
Five organs of action
Five elements of matter
Purusa transforms the activity of the three inner organs into our conscious life
We cannot perceive nature directly, only a representation of nature through manas
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
2. Nyaya
Logic
Four kinds of means of knowledge (pramanas): perception, inference, analogy and testimony
Knowledge is a relationship between self and non-self
Atomism (the world is composed of an infinite number of elementary units)
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
3. Vaisesika
Epistemology
Metaphysics
Atomism (the world is composed of an infinite number of elementary units)
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
4. Purva-mimamsa
Interpretation of the first half of the vedas
Kumarila Bhatta (700)
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
5. Royal Yoga
Patanjali's "Yoga Sutra" (150 BC)
Theism: God Isvara (not the creator but an examplar of liberated being, a reference point for meditation, one of the many purushas)
Raya Yoga = Bhakti (devotion) + Karma (deeds) + Jnana (knowledge) Yogas
Discipline to achieve liberation (e.g., understanding of prakriti/purusha) and ultimate knowledge
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
Royal Yoga - Eight steps of meditation
Self-control (yama)
Devotional rites (niyama)
Postures (asana)
Regulation of the breath (pranayama)
Restraint of the senses (pratyahara)
Focusing the mind on a specific part of the body (dharana)
Meditation (dhyana) on a metaphysical object
Profound contemplation (samadhi) leading to the union and identification with the object of meditation (pure purusha)
Liberation (kaivalya) from the illusions of sense and limitations of reason
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
6. Vedanta
Badarayana (450BC)
Gaudapada: "Mandukyopanisad-karika" (750 AD)
Interpretation of the second half of the vedas
Systematic analysis of the nature of body, mind, and the ultimate
Inert matter originates from pure consciousness
All souls share in the absolute consciousness (Brahman = Atman) and are enveloped in karma
Phenomenal reality emanates from the absolute (Brahman)
Nothing is real but pure consciousness
Mind-body dualism is an illusion
What the Indians knew
Six darshana (schools) of philosophy
Vedanta
Monism (only one substance, Brahman=Atman)
Monotheism (only one God, as opposed to Vedic polytheism)
Theoretical counterpart to yoga
Subschools
Shankara - Non-dualism (advaita)
Ramanuja - Qualified monism (visistadvaita)
Dualism (dvaita)
What the Indians knew
Smriti (200 BC)
The Vedas are "shruti" ("what has been heard from the gods"). "Smriti" ("what is remembered") is a compendium of the Vedas/Upanishad for ordinary people
Sanskrit epics (Mahabharata, Ramayana)
Sanskrit Puranas (Vedic textbooks for women and lower-caste men)
Bhagavata-Purana (18,000 verses dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu and his human incarnations Krishna and Rama)
Several Dharmashastras and Dharmasutras
What the Indians knew
Bhagavad-Gita (200BC-200AD)
200,000 lines
An encyclopedia od Hinduism
Tale of the rivalry between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, which eventually destroy each other
Hundreds of side stories and meditations
What the Indians knew
Bhagavad-Gita/ Song of the Lord (book VI of Mahabarata, 100 BC)
Dialogue between Krishna (God incarnate) and a human hero before the battle
Attempt at reconciling worldly view of the Veda and metaphysical view of the Upanishad.
Three paths to religious realization
path of deeds (karma yoga)
path of knowledge (jnana yoga)
path of devotion to God (bhakti yoga)
Attempt at reconciling Vedantic monism and Vedic polytheism: the gods emanate from the godhead "without attributes")
What the Indians knew
Bhagavad-Gita/ Song of the Lord (book VI of Mahabarata, 100 BC)
Gunas are born from Prakriti
They cause the division of reality and unreality
Gunas create the illusion of the material world
The illusion keeps living beings under the control of Prakriti, i.e. of desire and attachment
The relative strength and combination of gunas determine the nature/behavior of beings
Sattva (purity) is pure knowledge
Rajas (change) is passion caused by desire and attachment and causing greed
Tamas (inertia) is darkness caused by ignorance and delusion and causing inaction
Each one tries to annihilate the others
What the Indians knew
Shanti Parvan (book XII of Mahabarata, 100 BC)
Only philosophical meditation
What the Indians knew
Ramayana (by Valmiki)
King Rama's wife is kidnapped by the demon Ravana
Rama recovers his wife the the help of the monkey Hanuman
In books one and seven Rama is an incarnation of Vishnu
What the Indians knew
Puranas (5th century)
Encyclopedias of folk tales, mostly taken from the Mahabharata
Stories the gods fighting the demons
Mythology of Vishnu (several incarnations and parables, including Rama and Krishna)
Mythology of Shiva (sex and violence, ambiguous qualities, pre-Aryan themes)

What the Indians knew
Bharata Muni: "Natya Shastra" (2nd c. BC)
Oldest extant manual on stagecraft
Scenography, choreography, music
What the Indians knew
Hinayana ("Theravada") Buddhism
The Pali canon (50BC, Ceylon, Burma, Thailand)
Individual nirvana as the goal (each individual has to take care of her own salvation)
Reality consists of an infinite number of momentary realities (dharmas)
Nirvana (liberation) and samsara (death and rebirth) are different (nirvana eliminates the world)
Arhat is the Theravadin who has achieved enlightenment
Buddhism
Deification of Buddha (Mahasanghika Buddhism)
Buddha as the eternal, omnipresent, transcendental being
The human Buddha was but an apparition of the transcendental Buddha
What the Indians knew
Mahayana Buddhism
Ashvaghosha: "The Awakening of Faith" (50AD)
Tibet, China, Japan
Prajna (wisdom) and karuna (love)
Universal nirvana as the goal
Bodhisattvas help individuals achieve salvation
Buddha nature (tathagata-garbha) of all living beings (gods, humans, animals)
All sentient beings can become Buddhas
Multiple Buddhas
Nirvana and samsara are neither different nor identical, nor both identical and different, nor neither identical nor different
What the Indians knew
Mahayana Buddhism scriptures:
"Tipitaka"
Additional non-Tipitaka sutras (Buddhavacana):
Avatamsaka sutra (Garland sutra, first sutra, 50 AD)
Saddharmapundarika Sutra (Lotus Sutra)
Sukhavativyuha Sutra (Western Paradise Sutra)
Vimalakirti Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra (Sri Lanka Sutra)
Praj€aparamita (Perfection of Wisdom)
etc
Buddhism
Trikaya (threefold nature) of the Buddha:
Dharma-kaya, the body of essence
The essence of the Buddha quality, consciousness, void
The universal quality of being, as revealed in the Lotus Sutra
It can only be known by intuition, not by reason
The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was an emanation of the body of essence
Infinite number of Buddhas in innumerable worlds to help sentient beings reach enlightenment
Buddhism
Trikaya (threefold nature) of the Buddha:
Sambhoga-kaya, the body of communal bliss/ enjoyment
God-like quality revealed during meditation
The five cosmic Buddhas that sustain the world (Vairocana, Aksobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amida, Amoghasiddhi) are manifestations of the body of communal bliss
Buddhism
Trikaya (threefold nature) of the Buddha:
Nirmana-kaya , the body of transformation
Human manifestation in a mortal body of the transient world of death and rebirth to save sentient beings (lead sentient beings to enlightenment)
The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, was the first body of transformation
Bodhisattvas can achieve Buddhahood (the body of essence) through ten stages of perfection
Buddhism
Trikaya (threefold nature) of the Buddha:
Nirmana-kaya , the body of transformation
Bodhisattvas is a sentient being that achieves Buddhahood (the body of essence) through ten stages
Bodhisattvas postpone nirvana to help others achieve enlightenment
Deification of bodhisattvas: Amida (God of infinite light), Avalokiteshvara (God of compassion), Maitreya (God of salvation)
The Amida Buddha dwells in a "pure land" where salvation can be achieved
Maitreya is a future Buddha who will come from Heaven to lead all beings to enlightenment)
Buddhism
Theravada
The Buddha as a supremely enlightened human being
Only one Buddha
Very difficult to achieve salvation
Arhat only saves himself
Atheistic
Mahayana
The Buddha as a manifestation of a divine being
Many Buddhas
Easier to achieve salvation
Bodhisattva can save others
Monotheistic
What the Indians knew
Avatamsaka sutra (Garland sutra, first sutra, 50 AD)
A description of enlightenment
All things are inter-related
No distinction between mind and body
No distinction between subject and object
No distinction between space and time
What the Indians knew
Nagarjuna (150 AD, Buddhist)
Founder of the Madhyamika (Middle Path) school of Mahayana Buddhism
Reality cannot be grasped (logical agnosticism)
All theories, including Buddhism, lead to inconsistencies
Dharmas neither exist nor don't exist ("four-fold negation")
We cannot distinguish between samsara and nirvana (they are both conditioned, samsara by karma and nirvana by meditation/practice)
What the Indians knew
Nagarjuna (150 AD, Buddhist)
The essential nature of reality is Sunyata (emptiness) of all things
The phenomenal world is a fiction of our mind, that creates categories/forms to understand reality
The Absolute does not need categories/forms and is therefore "empty"
There is a correspondence between the Absolute and reality as we see it
Dharmas do not exist, nor does the atman, nor do things
Emptiness is meditation that cleans one's mind of fictitious reality (the mind dissolves in emptiness)
What the Indians knew
Nagarjuna (150 AD, Buddhist)
Everything that exists owes its existence to something else
All absolute views must be wrong because everything is relative to something else
Absolute truth is not possible
Wisdom (prajna), which is direct insight, leads to higher and higher truth

Middle way between identity and difference, existence and non-existence, truth and falsity, eternity and non-eternity, ...

What the Indians knew
Vasubandhu (350AD, Buddhist)
Founder of the Vijnanavada or Yogacara school (Consciousness Only) of Mahayana Buddhism
The way we see things is shaped by previous experience, therefore things do not exist, or, better, are inside our consciousness
Only consciousness exists
Consciousness is inter-subjective because each "mind" (vehicle of consciousness) influences the others
Karma is also inter-subjective, and therefore collective
What the Indians knew
Vasubandhu (350AD, Buddhist)
There are eight kinds of consciousness (vijnana): five senses, self (manas), practical consciousness, subconscious (alaya-vijnana).
The subconscious is a store of seeds planted by previous actions and is responsible for karma.
What the Indians knew
Ishvarakrishna (b 350AD)
Samkhya school
The material and and the mental are real
They emanate from the primordial substance (prakriti) that is evolving towards its final cause (purusha)
Prakriti is made of inertia (tamas), activity (rajas) and rationality (sattva)
The universe is but the vehicle for prakriti to reach purusha
Prakriti evolves into thought (mahat) and then the world splits into matter and mind
Matter is ruled by tamas, mind is ruled by sattva, and the two interact via rajas
What the Indians knew
Ishvarakrishna (b 350AD)
Everything evolves except purusha, which is the goal of evolution, and is at each step the fuel of evolution
Humans may liberate their purusha from their body and achieve kaivalya, a state of pure consciousness
What the Indians knew
Continues on Part III

What the Indians knew III


What the Indians knewart II
What the Indians knew
Tantra
Esoteric Hinduism
Dialogues between the god Shiva and his wife Parvati
Reversals of Hindu social practices (e.g., incest)
Reversals of physiological processes
Forbidden substances are eaten and forbidden sexual acts are performed ritually
"Five m's": maithuna ("intercourse"), matsya ("fish"), mansa ("flesh"), mudra ("grain"), mada ("wine")
The chakras of the body as steps in magic
Increasing psychosexual energy (the serpent power of Kundalini) to achieve the union of the god and the goddess
Buddhism
Tantrism/ Vajrayana Buddhism (650 AD)
Mainly Tibet
Esoteric
Mandalas (symbolic maps of the spiritual universe)
Ritual gestures (mudras)
Ritual recitations (mantras, eg "om mane padme hum - the jewel is in the lotus")
Female bodhisattvas
Buddhism
Carvaka school (600 AD)
Materialism and hedonism
Only one surviving author: Jayarasi Bhatta
Sacred literature is false
There is no god, there are no supernatural phenomena
The soul is not immortal
Karma is an illusion
Everything is matter, including mind
The goal of life should be just to... enjoy it
What the Indians knew
Shankara (b 788AD)
Vedanta Advaita (non-dualist) school of monotheism
Unifying view of the Hindu religion
Only one substance exists, Brahman
Atman as pure consciousness and equivalent to Brahman
Brahman and Atman are identical
The Atman cannot grasp its Brahman nature and the fundamental unity of everything, thus it perceives separate selves and objects and periods
"The self cannoy be denied because it would be the very self that does the denying" (cfr Descartes)
What the Indians knew
Shankara (b 788AD)
The phenomenal world of selves, objects and time periods is only an appearance (maya) that leads to the cycle of karma and samsara
Through a process of superimposition (adhyasa), the unity formed by atman and Brahman is refracted as a multitude of conscious beings
Reality is an indifferentiated unity. It can only be defined by saying what it is not.
Reality is immanency: the more permanent something is, the more real it is.
The phenomenal world disappears once Brahman is attained (moksha)
What the Indians knew
Shankara (b 788AD)
The key to achieving release from samsara is knowledge (jnana), the spontaneous mystical realization of the fundamental oneness of reality
The Path of Knowledge is the main path to salvation
What the Indians knew
Abhinavagupta (1000AD)
God is pure consciousness
The selves and the universe emanate from God
Both the ultimate subjective reality of the self and the ultimate objective reality of the universe are God
"Liberation is the revelation of one's identity"
The identity of the self is consciousness
Consciousness makes the universe appear
Therefore "Liberation is knowledge"
What the Indians knew
Abhinavagupta (1000AD)
Experiencing the flavor of a work of art requires not only that the work evoke a response, but also that the experiencer possess the aesthetic sophistication and knowledge required to respond in an appropriate way
The experience of a work of art is a process of exchange between the creator and the spectator
There are nine rasa (emotional experience incited by performance, poetry and art): shringara (the erotic), hasya (the comic), karuna (the compassionate or pathetic), raudra (the angry), bibhatasa (the unappealing), vira (the heroic), abhuta (the awe-inspiring), bhayanhaka (the terrifying), and shanta (the peaceful)
What the Indians knew
Ramanuja (1150)
Vedanta - Qualified monism (visistadvaita)
Brahman is God and contains everything that exists
Brahman and Atman are not the same
The Path of Devotion is the main path to salvation
The soul does not become one with God, but simply similar to God
Madhva (b 1197AD)
Vedanta - Dualism: objects exist as well as souls
What the Tibetans knew
Oracles
Bon (shamanism)
Mandala (a profound representation of the nature of the universe)
Gesar: bridging the nomadic culture and Buddhist ideals
Guru Rinpoche/ Padmasambhava (750AD): conversion to Buddhism, Samye monastery
Monastic life
Lamas (1578AD)
The Indian influence
Summary
Vedas: The belief of the Aryans, Multiple gods, deeds cause karma which causes good/evil, Castes
Upanishads: Atman, Brahman, Maya, Moksha, three gunas
Buddhism: No atman, no Brahman, life is suffering, suffering is caused by ignorance, all beings are equal
Jainism: Perfect knowledge (kevala) is the goal
Six darshana
Samkhy: The evolution of the world is due to the interaction between purusha and prakriti
Vedanta: All souls share in the absolute consciousness
Bhagavad-Gita: karma yoga, jnana yoga, bhakti yoga
Theravada vs Mahayana
Nagarjuna: The essential nature of reality is Sunyata
Summary
Vasubandhu (350AD): Only consciousness exists, Consciousness is inter-subjective
Tantra
Carvaka (600AD): Materialism
Shankara (b 788AD): Unifying view of the Hindu religion
Abhinavagupta (1000AD): God is pure consciousness
Ramanuja (1150): Brahman and Atman are not the same


What the Chinese knew I


Bibliography:
Charles Hucker: "China's Imperial Past" (1975)
Ian McGreal: Great Thinkers of the Eastern World (1995)
Alberto Siliotti: The Dwellings of Eternity (2000)
Ancient Civilizations
Yellow River valley
The Chinese Empire
2500BC: ink, tea and silk are invented
2205BC: the Xia dynasty is founded by Yu: Yellow River valley
900BC: I Ching
700 BC: the Chinese invent gunpowder
500BC: Confucius
500BC: Taoism
350BC: the period of the "warring states" is characterized by coins, iron weapons, public works (canals, walls)
221BC: Qin Shi Huangdi conquers all of China and becomes the first emperor of China (first Great Wall of China, about 5,000 kms)
The Chinese Empire
213BC: Shi Huangdi outlaws all schools of thought except the legalist one, and buries alive 346 scholars
210BC: Shi Huangdi is buried in a colossal tomb near Xian, surrounded by thousands of terracotta soldiers
206BC: the Han dynasty develops bureaucracy
200BC: Mao-tun unites the Huns (Xiongnu, Hsiung-nu) in Central Asia around Lake Bajkal and southeastern Mongolia
121BC: China defeats the Huns
106BC: the Silk Road
100 BC: the Chinese invent paper
2 AD: the Han empire has 57 million people, the most populous country in the world
50AD: Buddhism is introduced in China
520: Bodhidharma brings Chan/Zen Buddhism to China
Qin and Han empires
Chinese dynasties
Xia Dynasty 2070-1766 BC
Shang Dynasty 1766-1122 BC
Zhou 1122 - 403 BC
Warring States
Qin 256-210 BC
Han Dynasty 206 BC - 220 AD
Tang Dynasty 618-907
Sung (960-1279)
Mongol Yuan 1279-1368
Ming Dynasty 1368-1644
Manchu Qing 1644-1911
Republic 1912-1949
Communists 1949-present
What the Chinese Knew
Society as superior to the individual
Government as a natural phenomenon
Moral values
Cyclic patterns
Neither intolerance for other religions nor quest for material wealth
What the Chinese Knew
The "Six Classics" (four books of Confucianism and two books of Taoism)
Holistic approach to mind and body
Interaction among nature, man, and government (as opposed to supernatural mythology)
Fundamental unity of the physical, the emotional and the social
The numbers are the logic of the universe (yin/yang, ten heavenly stems, twelve earthly branches, five elements)
What the Chinese Knew
Holistic approach to meaning: a word/symbol is a sound that evokes emotions (not necessarily logical arguments)
Short cryptic sentences are "gestalt", not a simple statement
Each sentence is all the interpretations it can possibly have
What the Chinese Knew
Lungshan culture
Neolithic peoples of the northern Yangtze River plains
No bronze
No horse
No writing
What the Chinese Knew
Shang (1766 BC - 1122 BC)
From northern China
Chinese-speaking descendants of Lungshan neolithic peoples
Chariot-riding warrior elite
Sophisticated bronze technology
Chinese alphabet
Oracle bones for divination, oldest known form of Chinese writing (Anyang)
Human sacrifice
Succession from elder brother to younger brother and then to the oldest maternal nephew
Capital at Yin, near Anyang (1395BC)
No creation myth: no need to explain the universe, no need to explain where the Chinese race came from
Shang Oracle Bones
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
From western China
Chinese-speaking descendants of Lungshan neolithic peoples
Longest-lived dynasty of Chinese history
Idealized model for subsequent dynasties
Decentralized feudal rule (federation of city-states, parceling out of conquered territories among relatives and friends)
Expansion through the Yangtze River
Capital at Luoyang (771BC)
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
Mandate of heaven (tien-ming): the cosmos is dominated by Heaven (tien) which bestows the emperor (the son of Heaven) with the power to rule over the empire (tien-hsia)
Father-to-son succession system
Government's function is to provide peace, order and prosperity: Heaven wants humans to live harmoniously (both among themselves and with the rest of the universe)
Government should be humane and compassionate
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
Classes: bureucratic scholars, farmers, artisans, merchants (no priests, no intellectuals/artists)
Optimistic age: this life is all that matters, and it can always be improved
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
Silk (2,600 BC)
Coal (1,000 BC)
Gunpowder (700 BC)
Iron (513 BC)
Technological and organizational advances in agriculture (the "well-field" system)
The Grand (Jinghang) Canal (486 BC)
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
The universe is a single whole/organism, with no beginning and no end, and is divided in three main realms: an all-powerful Heaven (tien), Earth and Human
Polytheism: the world is inhabited by a multitude of spirits (one for each natural phenomenon) and ghosts
Humans have two souls, one that sinks into Earth and one that rises into Heaven
The supernatural is natural
Religion is natural philosophy: no holy wars, crusades, jihad, etc, no fear of damnation, no anxiety of salvation, no prophets, no dogmas
What the Chinese Knew
Zhou (1122 BC - 403 BC)
Yang and ying
I Ching
Confucius (native of the Zhou heartland)
Taoism
Legalism (7th c BC): totalitarian regimentation of society to serve the interest of the state
What the Chinese Knew
I Ching/ Book of Changes (900 BC)
64 symbolic hexagrams, each hexagram consisting of a pair of trigrams chosen from a family of eight basic trigrams, each named for a natural phenomenon
The eight trigrams represent the possible combinations of Yang and Yin, or unbroken and broken lines
Divination and numerology
Commentaries on change
"Yin" (quiescence)
"Yang" (movement)
What the Chinese Knew
Confucius/ Kung Fu-tzu (500 BC)
Lun Y (Analects)
Shih Shu (Four Books)
Philosophy of social organization
Literal objective: ethical basis for family
Abstract objective: social harmony through moral values
All humans are born alike
Human nature is not evil or good, humans become evil or good
The power of example
Ideal: the "chun tzu" (ideal person, humanity at its best)
What the Chinese Knew
Confucius
Cultivation of the self
Ultimate goal of an individual's life: self-realization through socialization

Foundations: yi (righteousness, fairness) and ren/jen (love, kindess, virtue, benevolence)
Yi includes "shu" (reciprocity: don't do to others what you would not want done to yourself)

Greed is source of evil
Limitation of self-interest
What the Chinese Knew
Confucius
Regularity and morality
Public = private
Duty of obedience of the subordinate to the superior (ruler, father, husband) contingent upon benevolence and care of the superior for the subordinate (subject, child, wife)
Benevolent ruler
Government by example of virtue (by moral education)
Transformative power of education
Indifferent to gods
What the Chinese Knew
Lao-tzu/ Laozi (520 BC)
"Tao-te Ching" (The Virtue of the Way)
The "tao" (the "way"): ultimate unity that underlies the world's multiplicity
The "tao" underlies the continuous flow and change of the world
The way things do what they do
Understanding the "tao" means identifying the patterns in the flow and change of the world (harmony with nature)
What the Chinese Knew
Lao-tzu/ Laozi (520 BC)
The fundamental pattern is the cycle
The cycle is due to the interplay of yin and yang
Contraries are aspects of the same thing
What the Chinese Knew
Lao-tzu
Philosophy of nature
Change is inherent in nature (not caused by a god)
"Tao" (empty void of infinite potential) is the supreme being
"Qi" is vital energy in constant flux that arises from the "Tao"
"Yin" and "Yang" are opposites that harmonize to direct the movement of Qi
Everything is made of yin and yang
Matter = energy (matter "is" Qi)
What the Chinese Knew
Lao-tzu
Action through inaction (wuwei, flow with the natural order)
Primacy of "feminine" behavior (yin)
Advocates a return to infancy (yin)
Critique of Confucianism:
Spontaneous behavior vs calculated behavior (eg, rituals, education, learning)
Government is an obnoxious interference with nature
What the Chinese knew
Taoism
Lao Tzu deified (142 AD)
Inclusive religion (local Gods, deified heroes)
Gods are divine emanation of the Tao
Very elaborate ritual to invoke/petition the Gods
Pantheon organized as a celestial court
Goddesses represent the "yin" of the world
Immortality (achieved via elixirs or discipline)
Mt Taishan
What the Chinese Knew
Mozi (Mo Tzu, b 470BC)
Anti-Confucianism
Heaven/God and spirits ensure the world's moral order (instead of Confucius' atheism)
Utilitarianism: moral values are determined by the welfare of the community (towards general utility and away from general harm)
But humans are selfish and cannot understand what is good for them as a whole
Mutual love (ai) produces mutual profit (li)
Universal love (one loves all fathers like his own father) can be achieved only by rulers who respect the Heaven (pseudo-monotheism)
What the Chinese Knew
Mozi (Mo Tzu, b 470BC)
Organized society is to be preferred over the original state of nature for utilitarian reasons
War is the worst ill (built anti-war militia specialized in defensive warfare)
Universal unbiased love (same love criteria for everybody) instead of Confucius' "partial love" (more love for one's own family than others)
What the Chinese Knew
Mozi (Mo Tzu, b 470BC)
Pragmatic view of language - its social function: guiding and coordinating group behavior
A word is defined by a way to shi (is this/right) and to fei (is not this/wrong) in using it. Society should prefer the shi/fei practice of natural `will' toward benefit (and against harm)
What the Chinese Knew
Civil war/ Warring states (403 BC - 256 BC)
Anarchy: Chinese nadir to Zhou's golden age
Iron weapons
Cast iron
Coins
What the Chinese Knew
Mencius/ Meng-zi (b 371BC)
"Mengzi" (second book of Confucianism)
Human nature (xing) was generated by Heaven
Heaven is good, therefore human nature is also good
All humans are equally good by nature
If people live a relaxed, orderly life, their good nature prevails
Humans should seek out their "lost child's mind" (good nature)
If the ruler cannot provide that orderly life, the people are relieved of their duties towards the ruler

What the Chinese Knew
"Zuangzi/ Chuang Tzu" (330BC)
Second classic of taoism
"If one asks about the Tao and another one answers it, neither of them knows it"
Taoism is ultimately relativism
Truth depends on the perspective
Words have meaning only insofar as they are part of a context (contextual semantics)
The "butterfly" model of life: am I piero dreaming of a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming of piero?
Death is part of life
What the Chinese Knew
Great Learning/ Da Xue (3rd c. BC)
Third book of Confucianism
Political program, from educating people to world peace
What the Chinese Knew
Doctrine of the Mean/ Zhong Yong (3rd c BC)
Fourth book of Confucianism
Metaphysical foundation
Unity of man and Heaven (Tian)
Zhong = equilibrium; Yong = harmony;
Xing (human nature) is from Tian
To follow Xing is to follow the Tao
What the Chinese Knew
Gongsun Long/ Kung-sun Lung (b 320BC)
Naming ("a white horse is not a horse")
Kung-sun Yang: "Shang-chun Shu/ Book of Lord Shang" (300 BC)
Oldest legalist treatise
What the Chinese Knew
Xun-zi/ Hsun-tzu (b 300BC)
Human nature is evil
Goodness must be learned (fundamental role of teachers in society)
All humans are equivally uncivilized by nature
Goodness must derive from society's action (wei)
Human nature (xing) is both innate (evil) and acquired (good) because of desires
Human selfishness requires draconian laws ("legalism")
What the Chinese Knew
Civil war/ Warring states (403 BC - 256 BC)
Poetry
Chu Yuan (332 BC): lush and verbose poems (chu-tzu style)
Shih style (folk songs)
Chu Yuan (332 BC)
The God of the River
With you I wander the Nine Rivers.
The whirlwind and the waves arise.
Riding the water chariot with the roof of lotus leaves,
I am drawn by two dragons and a hornless serpent.
Climbing on K'un-lun Mountains I look in the four directions.
My spirit wanders over the face of the deep.
The day is waning. Bemused, I forget my home.
I am dreaming of a distant shore.
In a fish-scale house, in a hall of dragons,
Under a purple-shell gateway, in a palace of pearl,
O spirit, why do you dwell in the waters?
Riding the white tortoise, chasing the spotted fishes,
I wander with you among the small islets.
The swift-flowing freshet comes swirling down-river.
With a gentle bow you turn towards the East.
So I escort the beautiful one to the south anchorage.
Wave after wave comes to welcome me;
Multitudes of fishes bid me farewell.
What the Chinese Knew
Qin (256BC - 210 BC)
Defeudalization: centralization of Chinese government in a non-feudal, non-hereditary, bureaucracy
Tripartite division of power (administration, military, censorship)
Eunuchs
Freehold farmers
Legalism
Meritocracy (emphasis on merit, not on inherited status)
De-facto abolition of social classes
Merchants despised as unproductive
Tyranny
What the Chinese Knew
Qin (256BC - 210 BC)
Standardization of the Chinese script -> fosters a national literature
Art: Cast bronze vessels, non-representational (decorative)
What the Chinese Knew
Han Fei (b 250BC)
Folk psychology centered on selfishness
"Han Fei Tzu" (200 BC) legalist synthesis, set of guidelines for rulers
Law is not divine or natural, it is human-made and pragmatic, based on a system of punishment and reward
Terracotta Figures/ reat Wall
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Tripartite division of power (ministers, army, censors)
Meritocracy
Noble families: landowner (up to several villages, mines, mills) + household, concubines, servants, slaves (up to thousands) + peasants working the land + astrologers, scholars, spies, bodyguards (up to hundreds) + army manning the fortifications (up to tens of thousands)
Rule by law (legalism)
Discrimination against merchants
Population explosion
Capital at Xian
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Classical scholarship (recovery and restoration of classic texts)
Historiography
Ssu-ma Chien: "Shih-chi" (90 BC), a history of the world and compendium of knowledge
Pan Ku: "Han-shu" (92 AD), history of the Han dynasty
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Education spreads and the dominant classes engage in literature (eg, poetry)
Emergence of the class of officials-scholars (recruited nationwide on the basis of their knowledge of the classics)
minimizes regional differences
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Buddhism
Neo-taoism
Absolute reality is nothingness (wu)
Escapism and hedonism (indulging in pleasure, evading social duties)
Government is only an expedient for the clever to dominate the masses
Religion of immortality incorporating traditional spirits (polytheistic church preaching salvation through immortality)
Alchemy
Kung-fu
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Metaphysical speculation
Balance of yin/yang forces
Cycles of five elements (wood, metal, fire, water, earth)
Wood is shaped by metal, metal is melted by fire, fire is extinguished by water, water is controlled by earth, earth is broken by wood
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Paper
Waterwheel (waterpower for grinding grain and casting iron)
Compass
What the Chinese Knew
Dong Zhongshu/ Tung Chung-shu (b 195BC)
Systematic theology based on Confucianism
Heaven ("Tian") creates moral values of people
Heaven creates patterns
People refine innate moral values by following patterns (rites; music, etc) and thus creating order in the world
Five fundamental forces: water, fire, earth, wood and metal
Everything arises from the forces
All phenomena are interconnected
What the Chinese Knew
Dong Zhongshu/ Tung Chung-shu (b 195BC)
The ruler is the personification of Heaven's will
Rulers must follow the patterns set by Heaven
The ruler must teach virtues to his subjects so that his subjects can bring out their innate goodness (i.e., harmony with Heaven)
Heaven's patterns change, rulers change
What the Chinese Knew
School of Yin-yang cosmology
Natural events are rewards/punishments for human behavior
Human behavior affects the future of nature
Destiny (ming) depends on deeds
All things are made of Qi which moves in patterns of "quiescence" (yin, form) and "activity" (yang, vitality)
Excessive yang creates supernatural beings
What the Chinese Knew
Wang Chong (b 27AD)
"Lunheng" (83 AD)
Nature is self-organizing
Tian is wuwei (Heaven is not a willing god, but rather the spontaneous way of Nature)
Natural phenomena have natural causes: no need for divine intervention or supernatural beings
What the Chinese Knew
Wang Chong (b 27AD)
Chance and predestination
Human behavior does not influence natural events
Destiny (ming) is fixed at birth (store of Qi) and can change (accidents of history)
Human behavior does not affect destiny
The human nature (xing) of an individual is a mixture of good and evil (and xing can even change within each individual)
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Poetry
The fu (baroque mixture of verse and prose, an evolution of the chu-tzu style)
Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju (179 BC): "Shang-lin Fu"
The shih style (the style of the folk songs)
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
Art
Sculpture, painting, ceramics
Representational and naturalistic
Painting as a true art by auteurs, sculpture/metalwork/ceramics as anonymous artisans' craft
Calligraphy as a branch of painting
What the Chinese Knew
Han (206 BC - 220 AD)
The "Silk Road" is inaugurated by Parthian king Mithridates II and Chinese emperor Wu-Ti (106 BC)
Silk Road
What the Chinese Knew
Post-Han
Poetry
The yueh-fu (free-form shih)
The lu-shih (shih with tonal rules besides formal rules)
Tao Chien/Qian (365): landscape poet
Sculpture: mostly a Buddhist enterprise (cliff grottoes of Yun-kang and Longmen/Luoyang)
Painting: Ku Kai-chih/ Gu Kaizhi (344)
Calligraphy: Wang Hsi-chih (321)
What the Chinese Knew
"Liezi/ Lieh-tzu" (300AD)
Third classic of Taoism
Natural cycle of life and death
Action without self-awareness (action of no action, wuwei)
Live in harmony with nature
Hedonistic self-indulgence
What the Chinese Knew
Guo Xiang/ Kuo Hsiang (300AD)
Commentary on the Taoist classic "Chuang-tzu"
Self-organization of nature: nature is a field of interacting processes
Everything in the universe is interconnected (every event has an influence on every event)
Acting without action (wuwei): natural wisdom as opposed to attained knowledge
Change is the universal force, everything is in constant flux
What the Chinese Knew
Creation myth (3rd c AD)
In the beginning, the heavens and earth were still one and all was chaos.
There was only one living being, Pan Gu, and he was sleeping.
When he woke up, he crack open the egg that was enveloping him, and that created our universe: sky and earth. The universe expanded, so the distance between the sky and the earth increased.
One day Pan Gu died, and his last breath created the wind and his last words created the thunder and his last gaze became the sun and his limbs created the mountains and his blood created the rivers and his muscles created the land and his hair created the stars.

Ku Kai-chih (344):
Ku Kai-chih (344): "Admonitions to the Court Ladies"
British Museum)
Yun-kang caves (near Datong) of 465 BCLuoyang caves (494 BC)
What the Chinese Knew
Chinese Buddhism
Pure Land Buddhism
Chan/zen
Tendai
Hua-yen
What the Chinese Knew
Huiyuan (350 AD)
Sukhavativyuha Sutra (Western Paradise Sutra)
Pure Land Buddhism: devotional Buddhism for obtaining from Buddha Amitabha (Buddha of infinite light) entry in the eternal paradise of the Pure Land
Devotion instead of meditation
Paradise is not a reward for one's good deeds, but a gift from the god for one's faith in her/him
Devotion consists in repeating "Homage to the Buddha Amitabha"

What the Chinese Knew
Chan (zen) buddhism
Bodhidharma (520AD)
Dhyana/meditation school of India, a fusion of Buddhism and Taoism
"The Platform Scripture of the Sixth Patriarch" (677)
Focus on attainment of sudden enlightenment ("satori")

What the Chinese Knew
Chan (zen) buddhism
Every individual possesses perfect wisdom but it requires meditation (oneness) for a mind to view its own potential of wisdom
Northern school (Shen-hsiu): gradual enlightenment through guided meditation
Southern school (Huineng): sudden enlightenment through self-revelation of the underlying wisdom
Later development (13th c, Japan):
Soto Zen: meditation (zazen)
Rinzai zen: Koan, problem with no logical solution assigned to students as a subject for meditation
What the Chinese Knew
Chan (zen) buddhism
Spontaneous thinking as opposed to philosophical investigation (zen is the "everyday mind", daily experience)
Spontaneous behavior as opposed to calculated behavior ("when hungry eat, when tired sleep")
"Before a man has studied Zen, mountains are mountains, and rivers are rivers. While a man is studying Zen, mountains are no longer mountains, and rivers are no longer rivers. When one has mastered Zen, mountains are mountains, and rivers are rivers."
What the Chinese Knew
Zhiyi (b 538AD)
Founder of Tiantai/Tendai Buddhism
Buddhist canon reorganized around the Saddharmapundarika sutra ("Lotus sutra")
The "Lotus sutra" reveals the "greater vehicle" ("mahayana") to save a larger number of people
Nirvana can be achieved in this life
Buddhahood is open to all people rather than to a few
The teaching of Buddhist philosophy is of paramount importance, and is delegated to bodhisattvas ("beings in truth")
Nirvana and samsara are identical (nirvana transforms the world rather than eliminating it)
What the Chinese Knew
Post-Han
The Grand (Jinghang) Canal (610, emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty in Xian)
Runs north to south connecting theYangtze, Huaihe, Haihe and Qiantang (Beijing,Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hangzhou)
The oldest and longest man-made waterway in the world (1,795 Km)
Summary
Fundamental unity of the physical, the emotional and the social
Holistic approach to meaning
I Ching
Confucius: Power of example, Public = private, Duty of obedience
Lao-tzu: Tao, Qi, Yin/Yang, Wuwei
Dong Zhongshu: Tian creats Xing and patterns
School of Yin-yang cosmology: Natural events are rewards/punishments for human behavior
Wang Chong: Nature is self-organizing, Tian is Wuwei
Summary
Guo Xiang (300 AD): Change is the universal force, everything is in constant flux
Chan buddhism: Spontaneous thinking, Spontaneous behavior
Tendai Buddhism: Nirvana can be achieved in this life, Buddhahood is open to all people


What the Phoenicians knew



Bibliography
Glenn Moore: Phoenicians (2000)
Phoenicians and Greeks
What the Phoenicians knew
Canaanites (Semitic people, ancestors of both Phoenicians and Hebrews, 2500 BC - 1000 BC)
El chief god of the Canaanites, and his wife Anat
1800 BC-1400 BC: Phoenicia occupied by Egypt
tin and lapislazuli from Afghanistan to Egypt
copper from Cyprus to Egypt
timber from Phoenicia to Egypt
12th c BC: Collapse of Egyptian and Mesopotamian economies
Reshaping of the old trade routes
Phoenician merchants became the protagonists not the serfs of international trade
What the Phoenicians knew
1200 BC: Phoenicians move from Arabia to the Mediterranean coast
Shipbuilding (1200BC) and navigation (north star)
11th c BC: urban expansion and commercial expansion abroad
Sea trade
Colonization
Silver of Spain prompts the creation of a series of ports from Lebanon to Spain
Trinity of gods: the father El/Baal, creator of the universe; the son Baal/Melqart, responsible for the annual cycle of vegetation; the heavenly mother Astarte/Asherar-yam/Baalat, protector of the homes
What the Phoenicians knew
Language
1500 - 1000 BC: Canaanites develop an alphabet of 24 symbols by removing the vowels from the old Semitic cuneiform alphabet
1000 BC: Byblos condenses original 30 signs to 22
300 BC: Aramaic, a dialect of Byblos, becomes the most common language of Near East from 300 BC to 650 AD
Phoenicians used their letters to mean numbers.
What the Phoenicians knew
What the Phoenicians knew
What the Phoenicians knew
What the Phoenicians knew
What the Phoenicians knew
City-states (Tyre, 950 BC; Carthage , 800BC)
Straits of Gibraltar
Celts
605 BC: Babylonian occupation (Nebuchadnezzar II)
600 BC: Phoenicians circumnavigate Africa
333 BC: Alexander annexes all Phoenician cities
146 BC: Rome destroys Carthage
64 BC: Phoenicia becomes part of the Roman province Syria
What the Phoenicians knew
Carthage (Kart-Hadasht) before the Punic wars
Founded by Tyre 9th BC
Independent after Nebuchadnezzar's invasion of Palestine
Metal trade
Society of merchants,
not warriors
Duty to sacrifice first-born
Army of mercenaries
Numidians
Libyans
Spaniards
Gauls
Italians
Greeks
What the Phoenicians knew
Celts

What the Greeks knew I



Bibliography
David Abulafia: The Mediterranean in History (2003)
Thomas Martin: Ancient Greece (1996)
Katerina Servi: Greek Mythology (1997)
Robin Sowerby: The Greeks (1995)
Peter Levi: The Greek World (1990)
Duby & Perrot: A History of Women in the West vol 1 (1992)
Phoenicians and Greeks
Greece
2800 BC: Minoan civilization in Crete (domed tombs)
2200 BC: Indo-European people (Acheans) invade Greece creating the Greek language and founding Mycenae
1900 BC: palace of Knossos in Crete
1900 BC: earliest writing in Crete
1628 BC: a volcanic eruption in Thera causes destruction in Crete (legend of Atlantis)
1600 BC: royal tombs of Mycenae
1450 BC: the Minoan civilization is destroyed by the Myceneans
1250 BC: walls and palaces of Mycenae
1184 BC: Troy falls to Mycenae
1100 BC: Mycenae is destroyed by Dorian invaders who have iron weapons
Phaistos Disc
Greece
1000 BC: Greeks colonize the eastern coasts of the Aegean Sea
950 BC: Greeks found Miletus in Ionia (Anatolia, Turkey)
900 BC: origin of the Homeric poems
800 BC: city-states or "polis" (Athens, Thebes, Megara, Corinth, Sparta)
800 BC: Greeks adopt the alphabet from the Phoenicians
776 BC: the first Olympic Games
760 BC: Euboea founds the colony of Cumae in Italy
750 BC: first inscriptions in the Hellenic Greek alphabet
725 BC: the poet Hesiod writes the Theogony
640 BC: Sparta adopts a militaristic form of government
632 BC: Athens abolishes the monarchy in favor of an oligarchy

Greece
610 BC: Miletus founds a trading post in Egypt
594 BC: Solon founds the Athenian democracy
585 BC: philosopher Thales in Miletus
582 BC: the Pythian games are established in Delphi and the Isthmian games are established in Corinth
575 BC: poetess Sappho
570 BC: the first coins are minted by Athens
530 BC: Pythagora founds Mathematics
525 BC: tragedy (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides)
461 BC: Pericles promotes the ideals of democracy and peace
461 BC: first Peloponnesian War between Athenians and Spartans
Greece
450 BC: sculptor and architect Pheidias
450 BC: Herodotus writes a non-theological history
450 BC: Hippocrates founds Medicine
438 BC: the Parthenon is inaugurated in Athens
399 BC: Socrates is tried and commits suicide
388 BC: Plato, a pupil of Socrates, founds his philosophical Academy, the first university
367 BC: Aristotle enters the Academia of Plato
332 BC: Alexander conquers Egypt
331 BC: Alexander conquers Persia and destroys Persepolis
324 BC: Alexander invades the Punjab in India
323 BC: Alexander dies, the empire rapidly collapses
Greece
Macedonian empire
Greece
149 BC: the Romans annex Macedonia as a province
86 BC: Roman general Sulla burns Athens
30 BC: the Romans conquer all of Greece
49 AD: Paul preaches Christianity in Greece
393: Roman emperor Theodosius forbids the Olympic Games because pagans and shuts down the temple of Zeus at Olympia
529: Roman emperor Justinian shuts down the Academia of Plato
What the Greeks knews
The Mediterranean
Boundaries
Steppes + Urals
Alps + Forests
Atlantic Ocean
Sahara + Gobi deserts
Peninsulas with long shores
Greece
Iberia
Italy
Asia Minor
Islands
Hilly fertile plains of rivers
What the Greeks knew
Cyclades (3000-1550BC)

What the Greeks knew
Minoans (2500-1400BC)
Palace society
Road system
Urban planning
No fortification, no depiction of warriors
Mother goddess is the source of both good and evil
Human sacrifice
Luxury goods from Egypt, metals from Italy, amber from the Baltics
Linear A script
Knossos, Crete (Minoan)
What the Greeks knew
Minoans
Frescoes (1500 BC)
What the Greeks knew
Mycenae (1600-1100BC)
Warrior civilization
Beehive shaped tombs ("tholoi")
Fortified palaces
Linear B, adapting Linear A to the Greek language
Mycenae, Peloponnesos (Achean)
What the Greeks knew
The Dark Age (1174-961 BC)
Arrival of Iron
Collapse of Hittite empire
Collapse of Mycenaean kingdoms
Sea trade:
Etruscans (metalwork)
Euboeans (precious metals, slaves and wood from Thracia)
Phoenicians (luxury goods of eastern empires for raw materials of western barbarians)
Not just trade but protected settlement: emporium + sanctuary
What the Greeks knew
The Dark Age (1174-700 BC)
Collapse of Mycenaean kingdoms
Disappearance of architecture and writing
Urban decline
Decline of gold and jewelry
Iron
A society of farmers and herdsmen
Warfare based on the heavily-armed mounted aristocrats who engage in duels
The wealthy urban civilizations of the bronze age become a legendary memory, originating myths
What the Greeks knew
Trojan War
Early 12th century BC
Troy (Anatolia, Turkey)
Commercial control of the Dardanelles
Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, obtains from Aphrodites the love of Helen of Troy, wife of Menelaus, the king of Sparta
Greeks form a coalition led by Agamemnon, Achean king of Mycenae
War decided by Greek heroes (Achilles, Patroclus, the two Ajaxes, Teucer, Nestor, Odysseus, Diomedes)
Ten-year siege
City of Troy captured with large wooden horse
What the Greeks knew
The Homeric poems (1000BC-800BC)
Homeros/Homer
a Greek from Ionia (Asia Minor), perhaps from the island of Chios
lived between 850 BC and 750 BC.
Blind wandering minstrel reciting poems from a very old oral tradition
Homer used material of 200 or 300 years before an alphabet reached Greece in the 9th or 8th century BC
What the Greeks knew
The Homeric poems (1000BC-800BC)
Ilyad
Tenth year of the war between the Acheans and Troy
Achilles' wrath (withdraws from battle because of his anger at Agamemnon, returns to avenge the death of his friend Patroclus, kills Trojan hero Hector)
Odysseus of Ithaca reluctantly joins the Greeks in the siege of Troy
Gods, oracles and heroes drive the action
Gods witness, root, plot and participate
Zeus also foresees the events and makes sure that Fate is respected
What the Greeks knew
The Homeric poems (1000BC-800BC)
Odyssey
Odysseus/Ulysses' adventures and ultimate return home ten years after the fall of Troy.
Cyclopes, nymphae, witches, sirens, monsters
Ulysses recovers his kingdom
Fantasy not war
What the Greeks knew
The Homeric poems (1000BC-800BC)
Heroic virtues
Fate (the best do not always win)
Life as a continuous titanic struggle
Gods are capable of evil
Separation of art and religion (the poet as a vehicle for the gods but not as a priest)
Hexameter
Unity of design
What the Greeks knew
Other epics
Achilles' victories over Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, king of Ethiopia,
Death of Achilles at the hands of Paris
Aeneas escaped the massacre and led the Trojan survivors to Italy

What the Greeks knew
Atlantis
Described by Plato (Timaeus and Critias)
Larger than Asia Minor and Libya combined
Flourishing civilization
Conquered all the Mediterranean peoples except Athens
12,000 ships
Chariots
Bronze weapons
Concentric waterways
Destroyed
What the Greeks knew
Thera
Minoan civilization
1628 BC: volcanic eruption
Troj
12,000 ships
Chariots
Bronze weapons
Concentric waterways
Destroyed

What the Greeks knew
The Greeks (700 BC)
Rapid (seven fold?) population increase in the 8th c BC
Trade replaces food production as leading activity
Tribal society replaced by polis
Warfare based on the phalanx (discipline infantrymen) that engages in battles
Adoption of Phoenician alphabet
Writing used by individuals, not only by thebureaucracy
Stone temple (700 BC)
Beautiful, well-proportionate structures
Static World
What the Greeks knew
Poleis (city-states): tyranny (Corinth), oligarchy (Sparta), democracy (Athens)
Sparta
Warrior society
Egalitarian society
Secret police
Every citizen is from birth until death
Austere living
The state comes before the family
Education = harsh discipline, martial arts, murder of serfs
Women train and live just like men
Economic activities banned
Sparta's strength: army
What the Greeks knew
Athens
Democracy (Solon's reforms 594 BC, Cleisthenes' constitution 50x BC, Pericles 461 BC-429 BC)
Checks in place to prevent individuals from acquiring too much power (even heroes were sent into exile)
Economic empire
Administration of justice based on politics and rhetoric (art of persuasion)
Demagogues (wealthy aristocrats) run the city life
Athens' military strength: the fleet
What the Greeks knew
Olympic games (776BC): festival of Zeus
affirmation of the pan-hellenic identity
athletes, dramatists, poets
agon (competition)
Hesiod (750BC)
Colonization (750BC)
Collapse of mythopoetic thought
Lyric poem
Archilochus (650 BC)
Sappho (600 BC)
Pindar (b 518BC)
Music and Dance
What the Greeks knew
Poikilo' Thron' Athanat' Aphrodita
Pai Dios Doloploka, Lissomai Se
Me M'asaisi Med' Oniaisi Damna
Potnia Thumon.

Alla Tuid' Elth' Ai Pota Katerota
Tas Emas Audos Aioisa Peloi
Eklues, Patros De Domon Lipoisa
Chrusion Elthes

Arm' Updeuxaisa. Kaloi De S'agon
Okees Strouthoi Peri Gas Melainas
Pukna Dinnentes Pter' Ap Oranothe-
-Ros Dia Messo
What the Greeks knew
The Greek Age (Circa 500 BC)
Masters of sea trade:
Western Mediterranean:Carthage
Central Mediterranean: Syracuse
Eastern Mediterranean: Athens
Same trade routes of the Phoenicians, Etruscans, Euboeans
What the Greeks knew
Synthesis of civilizations
Sculpture: Egyptian
Alphabet: Phoenician
Architecture: Asia Minor
Religion: Indo-European
Mythology: Minoan
Science: Mesopotamia
What the Greeks knew
Gods as vehicle of the force
Gods did not create the world, they only conquered it thanks to their powers
Powerful but not omnipotent gods
Problem of evil: gods are indifferent to humans and gods are not omnipotent, therefore evil just happens
Religion is worship and sacrifice
Oracles (persons through which the gods responded with advice/prophecy when consulted, often via enigmatic allegories)
Sanctuaries: Delphi (Apollo), Olympia (Zeus)
Delphi
Delphi
Delphi
What the Greeks knew
Religion as rational superstition
The gods are exempt from aging and death
The gods are powerful
The gods control natural phenomena and human destiny
Gods are capricious and there is nothing humans can do about it (Problem of evil)
The head of all gods (Zeus) was not one of the first and did not create the universe
Gods have no effect on the working of the universe.
Gods have feelings
Thus Science and Religion never contradict each other
What the Greeks knew
Religion as rational superstition
12 chief gods (the Olympians):
Zeus, his wife Hera,
Hephaestus (fire),
Athena (wisdom),
Apollo (poetry/music),
Artemis (wildlife),
Ares (war),
Aphrodite (love),
Hestia (hearth),
Hermes (messenger),
Demeter (agriculture),
Poseidon (see)
What the Greeks knew
Religion as rational superstition
Underworld
Hades ruler of the underworld
Persephone his wife, Persephone
Dark place located at the center of the Earth
Populated by the souls of dead people
Elysium (Elysian Fields): a perfect land located at the westernmost edge of the world where dead heroes lived forever
No organized church
Priests (oracles) were mere interpreters between gods and humans
What the Greeks knew
Heroism
Humans are halfway between beasts and gods
In virtue of their achievements, heroes are more godly than beastly (heroism is an everlasting quality just like the powers of the gods)
Heroes struggle against human destiny
Heroism is a titanic struggle to become more divine than human
Value system based on competition ("agon")
Olympia
What the Greeks knew
Calendar
432 BC: Hellenic luni-solar calendar
264 BC: "Attikos Hemerologia"
First year: Olympic Games of 776 BC
Luni-solar calendar of 12 months of 29 and 30 days
First day of the year: Summer Solstice
First day of the month: Noumenia
3 "decads" (ten days) per month
What the Greeks knew
Festivals
Hekatombaion (roughly beginning of summer)
7th: Hekatombaia (Apollo, offerings of "hekatombs" or large sacrifices)
Olympic Games (every four years)
12th: Kronia (Kronos, end of harvest)
28th: Panathenaia (Athena's birthday, procession depicted on the frieze of the Parthenon)
Metageitnion
Boedromion
5h: Genesia (festival to honor the dead)
15th: Eleusinian Mysteries (Demeter, nine-day festival every five years)
17th: Epidauria (Asklepios)
What the Greeks knew
Pyanopsion
6th: Proerosia (Demeter, agrarian festival before the plowing)
7th: Pyanopsia (Apollon)
8th: Theseia (Theseus)
8th: Oskhophoria (Dionysos, festival of the vintage)
11th: Thesmophoria (three-day secret festival of Demeter, women's only festival, mystery)
19th: Apatouria (three-day festival of boys and girls who are becoming free citizens)
30th: Khalkeia (Athena as goddess of technology, and Hephaistos, god of the smiths)
Maimakterion
15th: Pompaia (Zeus Meilikhios)
20th: Maimakteria (Zeus Maimaktos)
Poseideon (end of fall, beginning of winter)
26th: Haloa (Dionysos and Demeter, fertility festival, procession from Athens to Eleusis)
What the Greeks knew
Gamelion
27th: Theogamia/Gamelia (sacred marriage between Hera and Zeus)
Anthesterion
11th: Anthesteria (three-day festival of Dionysos, new wine is tasted and offered, banning of the evil spirits)
23rd: Diasia (Zeus Meilikhios, spring festival)
Elaphebolion
10th: Dionysia (five-day festival of Dionysos, procession with phalli, dramatic performances)
Mounikhion
6th: Delphinia (Apollon Delphinio)
16th: Mounikhia (Artemis)
19th: Olympieia (Olympian Zeus)
What the Greeks knew
Thargelion
6th: Thargelia (Artemis's birthday, Athens)
7th: Thargelia (Apollon's birthday, Athens)
24th: Kallynteria (spring-cleaning of the temple of Athena)
25th: Plynteria (washing of images of Athena)
Skirophorion
12th: Skira (Demeter, mainly women's festival, procession to Skiron)
14th: Bouphonia/Dipolieia (Zeus Polieos at protector of Athens)
22nd: Arrephoria (Athena)
What the Greeks knew
Parthenon's eastern frieze: the Panathenaic procession
What the Greeks knew
Orphic mysteries (mysticism)
Legendary poet and musician Orpheus
Legend: Zeus resurrected his son Dionysus and created the human race from the ashes of his assassins, the Titans
Mystery: humans have a dual nature: the earthly body (which comes from the Titans and feels pain) and the divine soul (which comes from Dionysus and leads to ecstasy)
The heavenly component increases with rites of purification and ascetism (which get rid of the evil Titanic elements)
After death, people who lived in evil will be punished, while the souls of people who lived in holiness will be completely liberated from Titanic elements and reunited with Dionysus
Earthly life determines if the soul will be happy or unhappy for eternity
Ultimate goal: union with the divinity
What the Greeks knew
Cult of Dionysus/Bacchus (mysticism)
God of frenzy (pleasure, wine)
Remnant of an earlier religion
Dionysus, god of wine and pleasure,
Accompanied by satyrs, centaurs, nymphs
Dionysus died each winter and was reborn in the spring
Dionysia involved dramatic performances
Female devotees (maenads) worship him in frenzied savagery, tearing children and animals limb from limb
What the Greeks knew
Dionysian Festival
What the Greeks knew
Eleusinian mysteries
Most important religious festivals
Lasted for 2,000 years
Four stages in the revelation of the mysteries
Demeter's search through the underworld for her daughter Persephone, abducted by Hades
Demeter as the bringer of immortality to humankind
What the Greeks knew
Eleusinian mysteries
Hymn to Demeter (7th c BC)
Demeter and Persephone were separated when Hades kidnapped Persephone in his chariot as she was gathering flowers, and took her with him into the underworld
The disconsolate Demeter searches all over the world for her in vain.
Hekate and Helios tell her what happened, and that it was approved in advance by Zeus himself
In protest, Demeter abandons her divine form and, disguised as an old woman from Crete, reaches Eleusis and finds employment as a nurse for a child
Demeter is about to turn the child into an immortal being through some secret rites when the child's mother interrupts her
Moved by Demeter's stubborness, Zeus forces Hades to free Persephone
What the Greeks knew
Nine days of the Eleusinian mysteries
Candidates for initiation to the mysteries of life gather in Eleusis
Candidates are purified in the sea
Candidates fast
Sacrifices and mystical dances
Candidates entered inside Demeter's temple in Athens
Procession from Athens to Eleusis with the staue of the boy-god Iakhos
Secret initiation inside the Adyton (3 days)
What the Greeks knew
Artemis
Illegitimate daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin sister of Apollo
Virgin goddess
Principal deity of Asia Minor (e.g., Ephesos)
Festivals: Brauronia, held in Brauron, and Orthia at Sparta
What the Greeks knew
Heroes: Heracles, Theseus, Jason, Perseus, Oedipus
Cosmogony:
Cronus originates the gods (father of Zeus)
Oceanus originates the rivers and the seas
Gods, geography and living beings are co-protagonists of the cosmic story
What the Greeks knew
Continues on Part II

What the Greeks knew II



What the Greeks knew
Part II
What the Greeks knew
Archaic sculpture
What the Greeks knew
Kouros (nude statue): harmony, sublime
What the Greeks knew
Greek Society
Athens 431 BC
Male citizens
Aristocracy (Eupatridae, descendants of first Greeks)
Political rights
Land ownership
Ran the polis
5-10% of population
Workers, traders, paesants, craftsmen
Enjoyed freedom never known before in history
But social and economic inequality
50,000 adult males
20-30% of the population
Greek Society
Athens 431 BC
Resident aliens (metoikoi: Thracians, Phrygians, Lydians, Syrians, Jews, Phoenicians, Egyptians, Arabians)
Free men
No political rights
No land ownership
Ran the economy
Paid taxes
25,000 (male) metics
15-20% of population

Greek Society
Athens 431 BC
Slaves
Athens a slave-based society (from sex to domestic chores to labor)
Not free
No political rights
No land ownership
Not based on racial or ethnic grounds
Anyone could become a slave (even Plato)
Did not pay taxes
100,000 slaves
40-50% of population
Greek Society
Athens 431 BC
Women
No rights outside the household
Typical newlyweds: groom over 30 and bride under 16
Stereotype: women have strong emotions and weak minds, thus they need to be protected from themselves and men need to be protected from them
Every woman had a "kyrios" (guardian): nearest male relative or husband
Women could not own property
Female citizens could marry male citizens but still had no rights
Greek Society
Athens 431 BC
Women
Only prostitutes, slaves and concubines were allowed to leave the house alone
Women could attendonly special religious functions for women
Women could not socialize with me
Women received no education
Wives were assumed and expected to be dumb: Heteras were providing the (intellectual, social, sexual) entertainment
Men could also use prostitutes, concubines and female slaves
Greek Society
Athens 431 BC
Homosexuality
Widespread and related to education: older male to younger male, older woman to younger woman

Greek Society
Athens 431 BC
Athenian empire
Evolution of the Delian League (478BC), originally created to defend Greece from the Persians (the NATO of the Aegian Sea)
Athens dominates because of superior fleet
Athens controls Black Sea agriculture and the flow of grains through the Hellespont/Dardanelles straight
Athens imposes puppet democratic governments on other cities
Other cities pay tribute to Athens and make donations to goddess Athena
Greek Society
Athens 431 BC
Athenian empire
Goddess Athena (the temple) acquires land that it leases to Athenian citizens
Athenian fleet and Athenian garrisons protect the other cities
150 subject city/states
Brain-drain of metoiko from the other cities: commerce, banking, craft, culture (Herodotus)
Greek Society
Athens 431 BC
Athenian empire/ Decline
Arrogance of a tyrant
No interest in the West
Lenghty conflict with Sparta + Persia (460-404 BC)
Repercussions: Civil wars throughout the Greek world
Destruction of Athenian empire
New hegemonic power: Thebes (371 BC - 346 BC)
Macedonia (346 BC - 317 BC)
Greek Society
Athens
Athenian empire/ Comparison with USA
Strength: Fleet, Fleet (Air, Sea)
Nemesis: Sparta, Soviet Union
Shared imperial threat: Persia, Germany/Japan
Postwar empire: Delian League, NATO
but_
Old enemy: alienated Persia supports Sparta, Germany/Japan incoporated in USA empire
Winner: Sparta, USA
Greek Society
Syracuse
Wealth and culture to match Athens (480-400 BC)
480 BC: defeats Carthage
474 BC: defeats the Etruscans
415 BC: defeats Athens
Greek Society
Greek Technology
Barely more advanced than neolithic technology:
Agriculture
Metallurgy
Pottery
Textile-making
No significant technological improvements
No significant improvement in manufacturing
Greek Society
Greek warfare
Phalanx warfare (allows a smaller, disciplined force to defeat a larger mob force)
Triremes (sea formations) (from Phoenicians)
Iron weapons (from Celts)
Catapult (Dionysius the Elder of Syracuse, 400 BC)
Persians wars (499-479BC)
End of the Archaic era and beginning of the Classical era
Greek Society
Colonization
Euboea: Cumae
Chalcis: Messina
Corinth: Syracuse
Achaea: Sybaris
etc
Greek Society
Colonization
A colony could be founded by more than one Greek city
The colony was largely independent
Colonies often at war with each other and with Carthage and Etruscans
Syracuse one of the most powerful Greek cities from 485BC to the second Punic War (218-201)
Second Punic War caused destruction of most Greek cities in Italy (Sicily became Rome's first overseas province)
Greek Society
Colonization
Colonization caused by population explosion and limits of productive land in Greece
Colonization caused by lack of natural resources (wood, minerals, cereals)
Emigration of poor Greeks in search for usable land
Profit margin of Athenian trade as venture capital to invest in colonies
Eastern Mediterranean as a laboratory-experiment for capitalism and imperialism
Greek Society
Exploitation of colonial cities
Taxation to maintain army and to police the (Greek) world
Taxation on resident aliens
Taxation to support temple-building
Benefits to colonial cities: no need to invest in their own army, focus on economy and culture
Greek Society
Trade:
450BC: Piraeus largest port in the western world
Athens exported: arms, luxury articles, wine, olive oil, ceramics, art, books
Athens imported:
cereals (Egypt, Libya, Ukraine), fish, cheese, fruit
iron, copper, wood, wax, ivory, wool, papyrus
tiles (Corinth), furniture (Miletos), carpets (Persia), textiles (Egypt), perfumes (Arabia)
slaves
Trader (emporos) mostly from the poor classes
Sea trade as a low-class plebeian occupation
Largest trade till 15th century Italy
Greek Society
Banks
The polis temple as a bank to fund the city's ventures (lender at low interest rate)
450 BC: first bank at Athens (Antisthenes & Archestratos)
Banking + trade = speculation
Athens
Capitalistic/imperialistic capital of the Greeks --> Cultural capital of Greeks
(Athens as today's USA, Greece as today's western world, the Eastern Mediterranea as today's world)

Continued on Part III

What the Greeks knew III


What the Greeks knew
Part III
What the Greeks knew
Greek Philosophy
The universe makes systematic sense, and we can make sense of it (rationality and intelligibility of the world)
Every particular thing belongs to a kind of thing
Kinds of things have similar behavior
Every thing has a set of properties that makes it the kind of thing it is
Problem of change: what is it that does NOT change when we say that something "changed"? What persists so that we can say that "it" changed?
What the Greeks knew
Thales (600 BC, Ionia):
Philosophy vs myth
Reason vs gods
Change and form and substance
Everything is water
Anaximander (600 BC, Ionia):
Apeiron generates the world and its elements
Everything (world and animals) evolves
The earth is floating in the vacuum
What the Greeks knew
Pythagoras (530 BC):
Mathematics as mysticism
Contemplating is more important than acting
Contemplation leads to logic/mathematics
Mathematics is evidence of eternal truths/divine truths beyond the human mind
Geometry is evidence of perfect forms beyond the forms of nature,
Ecstatic revelation of the essence of nature (Logic becomes religion)
The mind can only grasp numbers, thus everything must be a number
Numbers as the ultimate reality (eg, music, geometry)
Immortality of soul and metempsychosis (reincarnation)
What the Greeks knew
Pythagoras (530 BC):
Ascetic life
The earth is a sphere (shape of the earth during a lunar eclipse)
Irrational numbers
square root of 2
circumference/diameter of a circle (pi)
What the Greeks knew
Anaximenes
everything is air
Xenophanes
everything is earth
What the Greeks knew
Herakleites/Heraclitus (550 BC, Ephesus)
Change & movement
Everything changes all the time ("you can't enter the same river twice")
Even we ("we are and we are not")
Everything flows
Identity is defined by the process, not by the thing
Identity is a pattern (of flow, of growth, etc)
The essence of a natural kind is defined by the specific pattern according to which that natural kind changes over time. Eg, a tree is a tree because it grows from seed to branches and leaves
What the Greeks knew
Heraclitus (550 BC)
Knowledge of the absolute can only come from thought (logos) not from perception
Cyclic patterns
God as the personification of cosmic justice and distinct from the gods
Human laws originate from divine law
The universe is eternal fire
"War is the father of all things"
What the Greeks knew
Tragedy as narrative of the gods and heroes (500BC-400BC)
Aeschylus (525 BC): "Oresteides", humans instead of gods
Sophokles/Sophocles (496 BC): "Oedipus", horror of human condition
Euripides (485 BC): "Medea", madness rather than accept the humand condition
Music and Dance

What the Greeks knew
Parmenides (475 BC)
First dialectic philosopher (justifies his beliefs)
Nothing ever changes
Reality is eternal and timeless
Only one substance which is "the one", indivisible and infinite (monism)
Reality is a changeless whole
Nothing ever happens
The senses are illusions
Reality vs appearance
What the Greeks knew
Empedocles (b 490 BC)
All four elements (water, fire, air, earth) exist from the beginning in fixed proportions
Zenon/Zeno (475BC)
Paradoxes

What the Greeks knew
Anaxagoras (450 BC, Izmir)
Everything is divisible in smaller units
Each unit contains a dose of each element and of its opposite (everything is warm and cold, to some extent)
Infinitesimaly small (indivisible) atoms have existed ever since
Nous (intelligence, spirit) gives the atoms an order
Nous is the element that yields life (all movement that does not have a cause)
"Mind" (nous) as the organizing principle of the universe
Life was dispersed as seeds in the universe and eventually landed on Earth ("panspermia")
The Sun is a hot stone and the Moon is made of Earth
What the Greeks knew
Protagoras (b 485 BC)
The only reality is subjective knowledge
Judgements are relative to speakers
"Man is the measure of all things" (sofism)
What the Greeks knew
Herodotus (b485)
Explanation, not only storytelling
Non-theological history
Ethnography
Focus on the action of the individuals
Hippocrates (b475)
Medicine: disease is not a punishment by the gods
Anatomy
The mind resides in the brain
Thucydides (b 455BC)
Sociopolitical analysis
Focus on the action of human society
What the Greeks knew
Greek Art
Bronzi di Riace (460/430 BC)
Pheidias (450BC)
beauty, pathos, grandeur
Myron (450BC)
movement ("diskobolos")
Polyclitus (450BC)
proportion
symmetry
("doryphoros")
Parthenon (432BC)
Grace, harmony, grandeur
What the Greeks knew
Greek Art
Bronze of 550 BC from Armentium (Puglia)
What the Greeks knew
Bronzi di Riace (Athens, 460 & 430 BC)
What the Greeks knew
Zeus (Athens, 460 BC)
What the Greeks knew
What the Greeks knew
Acropolis
What the Greeks knew
Sokrates/Socrates (b469BC)
A philosophy of man not of cosmos
A practical philosophy not a theoretical one
Virtue is knowledge, and ignorance is the cause of all evil
Wisdom is knowing what one does not know
All learning consists in being reminded of what we already know
Arguments based on hypotheses and definitions
Eidos (form, idea, universal that can only be thought but non perceived with the five senses)

What the Greeks knew
Sokrates/Socrates (b469BC)
All humans are equal
Socrates' virtue ethics: to live virtuosly
Rule by the most virtuous
Gods cannot be capable of evil action
What the Greeks knew
Democritus (b460BC)
Everything is divisible in atoms
Atoms cannot be further divided
Atoms are always in motion
There are different kinds of atoms
Motion is governed by natural laws
The soul is also made of atoms and thought is a form of motion
Humans do not have a special status in the universe
What the Greeks knew
Platon/Plato (b427)
Academy (387 BC)
Senses are the problem, not the solution
Reality vs appearance
Particular vs universal
Objects and phenomena are like shadows on the walls of a dark smoky cave
Ideas/forms (such as "circle", "beauty", etc) are eternal and unchangeable
An idea/form (eidos) exists independently of the mind that thinks it and of the object that instantiates it.
Matter is characterized by change (becoming). Ideas (forms) are characterized by immanence (being).
What the Greeks knew
Platon
Forms cannot be perceived by the senses, but they can be known
We "know" what a circle or beauty are
Knowledge cannot be derived from sense experience
Knowledge can only be attained by reason
Knowledge is about eternal, unchangeable entities
Knowledge is about forms, universals
What the Greeks knew
Platon
The body is an obstacle to knowledge, only the soul ("psyche") can "know"
The value of introspection
Emphasis on innate knowledge: knowledge is "remembering" innate knowledge (anamnesis)
Body-soul dualism: immortal soul in mortal body
Man decays like an animal but lives forever like a god
The soul pre-existed the body, like all other forms
Soul: reason, will, emotion, instinct
The soul grows just like the body
Through proper training, the soul can become one with the ultimate idea of the universe
What the Greeks knew
Platon
"The soul is in the very likeness of the divine, and immortal, and intellectual, and uniform, and indissoluble, and unchangeable; and the body is in the very likeness of the human, and mortal, and unintellectual, and multiform, and dissoluble, and changeable" (Phaedo 80b)
"The body is the grave of the soul" (Cratylus 400b)
"The soul when using the body as an instrument of perception is dragged into the world of the changeable, and wanders and is confused" (Phaedo 79b)
What the Greeks knew
Platon
"Last of all, he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of it in the water, but he will see it in its own proper place, and not in another; and it will contemplate it as it is". ("Republic")
What the Greeks knew
Platon
The ultimate form (the form all all forms) is Good
Virtue (good) can be taught
To know Good is to do good
Ignorance is the cause of evil

What the Greeks knew
Platon
Hatred for Athenian democracy which had failed
Contempt for ordinary people's ability to choose the best system
Ordinary people judge based on their senses, which are misleading
Social and political problems are caused by the ignorance of ordinary people
Only philosophers can find out the truth
Need for a new form of government, not based on ordinary people but on philosophers
What the Greeks knew
Platon
Ideal republic:
Citizens fund but not govern the state
Auxiliaries educated in isolation (no family, no property) by the elite to become Guardians of the republic
Totalitatian regime by the Guardians
Equality of sexes
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles/Aristotle (b384)
Senses are the solution, not the problem
Systematic classification of knowledge
Knowledge is attained via logic ("Organon") and via observation
Emphasis on acquired knowledge: "There is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses"
Form (essence of an object, actuality) vs matter (common to all objects, potentiality)
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
Logic: how to obtain knowledge from observed facts
The law of non-contradiction is the foundation of all logical reasoning
Syllogism: inference rules that can be chained together to create truth
"All humans are mortal" and "All Greeks are humans" imply "All Greeks are mortal"
Modus pones: if you know that A causes B and that B causes C, then you can also assume that A causes C
Modus tollens: (A->C & NOT B->C) => NOT (B->A)
Excluded middle: It cannot be that P and NOT P
Dialectic (Plato-like) but also Analytic reasoning
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
Syllogism
Q: Some, Some not, All, None
Premise1: Q(A), B
Premise2: Q(B), C
Conclusion: Q(A), C
Examples: Some Greeks are human, All cows are big, No politician is honest
4x4x4= 64 possible syllogisms
Only 27 are valid
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
De Anima, De Memoria, De Somno
Three levels of cognition
Vegetative life (reproduction, metabolism)
Sensory-motor life (perception, locomotion)
Sentient life (reason, free will)
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
De Anima, De Memoria, De Somno
The soul (psyche) is the form of the body which is potentially alive
The soul (psyche) is individual and determines the identity of the body whereas the mind is shared by all rational beings (it is a way of sharing in god)
The soul makes the body "alive" (vital spirit)
The mind (that thinks) is immortal because it can think immortal things (such as mathematics)
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
De Anima, De Memoria, De Somno
"Nothing is in the mind that did not pass through the senses"
Perception is perception of form, causing physical change in the perceiver ("phantasms")
The sense "becomes" the form that it perceives
"The mind is, in a way, all things"
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
De Anima, De Memoria, De Somno
Thought (Nous) treated like a sensory organ
Thought becomes the phantasms that it is thinking
Thought is about phantasms, therefore we can only think what we perceive
(Active thought, De Anima III.5: eternal, not bodily)
Integration of senses (unity of consciousness) occurs in the heart
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
De Anima, De Memoria, De Somno
No separation between mind and body
Mind is part of life, Psychology is part of Biology
Psyche = animate features (including thought)
Pneuma = vital force that moves animals, constrained by desires and beliefs
The soul (psyche and/or pneuma) is the principle of vital movement of living beings, not something that can exist separately

What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
Physics
There is a reality that exists apart from anyone experiencing it, and human senses are capable of accessing it
The heavens are made of 55 concentric spheres with the Earth at its center
Four elements: earth, air, fire, and water
Natural state is rest
Celestial bodies are made of a "quintessence"
Natural state of the heavens is uniform circular motion
Heavier bodies of a given material fall faster than lighter ones
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
Four causes (aitia)
efficient (the agent and the agency)
material (the stuff)
formal (the form/idea)
final (the purpose)
the father is a cause of the child
bronze is a cause for a statue
the ratio of 2:1 is a cause of an octave
a good diet is the cause for good health
Efficient, formal and final ultimately coincide ("The form of a thing and what it is for and from which it originates are the same")
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
Metaphysics
God as the first cause of motion (the motor that does not move)
The thought of thought
God is form without matter (pure thought, immutable)
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
Virtue ethics
All humans share a single idea of Good
Every action aims at some end
There is a hierarchy of ends and a highest end, eudaimonia (happiness, well-being)
Bodily pleasure and ambition are not necessarily good (do not necessarily lead to happiness)
The highest virtue is contemplation/reasoning
Eudaimonia is best achieved via an active life of reasoning/contemplation
The function of the human being is to remain active and employ reason in her/his life
What the Greeks knew
Aristoteles
Mechanics
First engineering text of the western world
What the Greeks knew
Comedy (400BC)
Aristophanes (450 BC): "Lysistrata" (411 BC) the women force the men to make peace by refusing them sex
Macedonia (359-323 BC)
Praxiteles (350BC)
Serenity ("Aphrodite")
First monumental female nude in sculpture
(Destroyed in a fire at Constantinople in 475)
Ephesus & Halicarnassus
Continued on Part IV

What the Greeks knew IV


What the Greeks knew
Part IV
What the Greeks knew
Macedonia
Traditional buffer between Greece and the Barbarians
Land of constant warfare
Philip II unifies Greece (346 BC - 338 BC) in the League of Corinth
Alexander III conquers the Persian empire (334 BC - 325 BC)
Alexander's empire breaks down into regional kingdoms (323 BC)
Ptolemaic kingdom
Antigonid kingdom
Seleucid kingdom
Hellenism
What the Greeks knew
The Hellenistic Age (Circa 350 BC)
Revolution in trade routes and trade practices
Emergence of Rome
Macedonian conquests
Foundation of Alexandria
Hellenization of eastern Mediterranea
What the Greeks knew
Cynicism (350BC)
Absolute knowledge is impossible
Excessive attachment to material things is the problem
Individual freedom through renunciation of material things
Return to nature
All humans and animals are equal (Diogenes)
What the Greeks knew
Epicureanism (300BC)
Epicurus
Happiness (pleasure?) as the highest good
Superstitions and fear of death cause suffering/angst ("ataraxia") and keep us from appreciating life
Liberation from suffering via a correct theory of nature (reason):
Gods exist but have no role in human life
Human beings die with the death of the body
Democritus' materialism: the universe is material, made of atoms
Gods are material too (and indifferent to humans)
The soul is material
What the Greeks knew
Epicureanism (300BC)
Lucretius (95-55 BC)
Seneca (4 BC-65AD)
What the Greeks knew
Sceptics (300BC)
Pyrrho (365-270BC)
We can determine nothing, there is no absolute certainty
Angst (ataraxia) is caused by the search for knowledge because reason cannot explain everything and leads to contradictions
In order to achieve happiness, one has to avoid judgement/beliefs
Carneades (214-129 BC)

What the Greeks knew
Stoicism (300BC)
Zenon of Citium (344-262BC, Cyprus)
Some things are so obvious that they cannot be doubted (katalepsis)
Everything is matter
Laws of nature determine the evolution of the cosmos (cycle from big bang to big crush)
A ubiquitous active principle (a sort of eternal "fire") is both the source of life and the source of reason (both pneuma and logos)
God is the original fire (and cosmic mind)
The entire universe is made of god (pantheism)
What the Greeks knew
Stoicism (300BC)
The universe is a whole in which individual things/events make sense only in relationship to all the other things/events
Happiness is acceptance of what "is"
Happiness is accepting one's role in the universe
Surrendering the self to the order of the cosmos
Happiness is acceptance of god/nature
Happiness is living in harmony with nature
There is no evil because even evil events/things are mere aspects of a whole that is not evil
Four cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance
What the Greeks knew
Stoicism (300BC)
All human beings of all nations and all classes are equal
Inner man vs outer man (the spiritual and rational vs the physical and emotional being)
Each person is an embryo of divine fire or cosmic mind
Each person is partly divine
"Thou art a piece of God" (Epictetus)
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Epictetus, emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180)
What the Greeks knew
Eukleides/ Euclid (b300BC, Alexandria)
Geometry
Postulates (parallel lines)
Erarosthenes (b276BC)
Calculates the circumference of the Earth
What the Greeks knew
Archimedes (b287BC)
Mathematics and Mechanics
Principle of the lever
Law of hydrostatics
Aristarchus (b270BC)
The Earth is a planet
Planets revolve in circles around the Sun (heliocentric world)
What the Greeks knew
Harmony AND passion
Idealism AND realism
What the Greeks knew
Epictetus (100 AD)
Stoicism
The human reason is limited: there are many things that humans cannot know
God/Nature/Universe is pure/perfect reason
Because they don't know, it is pointless for humans to follow their intellect and strive for earthly things
Humans must accept fate, which comes from God's perfect intellect
Humans must be tolerant of the faults of other humans
Live according to nature
What the Greeks knew
Epictetus (100 AD)
Control thy passions, lest they take vengeance on thee.
First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
The good or ill of a man lies within his own will.
Let only what is necessary be said, and in a few words.
What the Greeks knew
Hipparchus of Nicea (b146 BC)
Earth at the center of the universe ("geocentric theory")
Ptolemy of Alexandria (145 AD)
Earth at the center of the universe ("geocentric theory")
Epicycles (planets attached to circles attached to Aristotle's concentric spheres)
Uniform circular motion of the planets in their orbits and of their orbits around the Earth
Diophantus of alexandria (250 AD)
The "Arithmetica"
Summary
Trade
Gods are vehicles of force
Harmony
Form and change
Mathematics (Pythagoras, Zenon, Euclides)
History (Herodotus, Thucydides)
Physics (Archimedes, Aristarchus, Ptolemy)

Summary
Sokrates: Philosophy of Man
Herakleites: Everything changes all the time
Parmenides: Nothing ever changes (the One)
Anaxagoras: "Nous" as the universal organizing principle
Democritus: Everything is made of atoms
Platon: Reality vs appearance
Aristoteles: Knowledge via logic and observation, Natural state is rest, God as the first cause of motion
Cinicism: Return to Nature
Epicurianism: Happiness as the highest good
Sceptics: reason leads to contradictions
Stoicism: Happiness is acceptance of what "is"

What the Romans knew I


Bibliography
Henri Sierlin: The Roman Empire (2002
David Abulafia: The Mediterranean in History (2003)
Duby & Perrot: A History of Women in the West vol 1 (1992)
John Norwich: A short history of Byzantium (1995)
Kevin Butcher: Roman Syria (2003)
The Villanovans
1000 BC: Iron civilization lives in northern Italy, probably not Indo-European
Cremation of the dead, and urns for ashes
1000 BC: Indo-Europeans invade northern Italy
The Etruscans
850 BC: Middle-eastern people (Villanovans?) settle inTuscany
750 BC: first Etruscan inscriptions
Only one manuscript survives
Not Indo-European
Confederation of city states
Elevated status of women
Monumental cemeteries
474 BC: Syracuse defeats the Etruscans at Cumae
283 BC: Rome conquers all of Etruria
The Etruscans
The Etruscans
Etruria: the Middle-eastern influence
The Roman Empire
753 BC: Roma (Rome) is founded by Romulus
616 BC: Tarquinius I becomes an Etruscan king of Rome
600 BC: the Forum is built
600 BC: oldest Latin inscriptions
509 BC: the last king is expelled and Rome becomes a republic
450 BC: the Twelve Tables of the Roman law
326 BC: the Circus Maximus opens
312 BC: the Via Appia is opened
275 BC: Rome conquers southern Italy (Greek colonies)
264 BC: the Romans destroy the last vestiges of the Etruscan civilization
202 BC: Scipio defeats Carthage and Rome annexes Spain
146 BC: Rome conquers Greece at the battle of Corinth
The Roman Republic
The Roman Empire
64 BC: Syria becomes a Roman province (end of Seleucid empire)
63 BC: Pompeus captures Jerusalem and annexes Palestine
53 BC: the first war against Persia (Parthia)
49 BC: Ceasar becomes dictator
47 BC: Ceasar invades Egypt and appoints Cleopatra queen
44 BC: Ceasar is killed
31 BC: Octavianus (Augustus) becomes the first emperor
13 BC: Augustus expands the borders to the region of the Danube
Map of Roman Empire
The Roman Empire
6 BC: Jesus is born in Palestine
43 AD: Claudius invades Britain
70 AD: Tito destroys Jerusalem
79 AD: the Vesuvius erupts and Pompeii is buried under ash
79 AD: the Colosseum is inaugurated
116: Trajan conquers Mesopotamia and the Parthian capital
The Roman Empire
The Roman empire
Ancient Roma
The Roman Empire
132: Jews, led by Bar-Cochba, whom some identify as the Messiah, revolt against Rome
136: emperor Hadrian definitely crushes a Jewish rebellion, forbids Jews from ever entering Jerusalem, and changes the name of the city to Aelia Capitolina
212: Caracalla grants Roman citizenship to all free people who live in the Roman Empire
250: Decius orders the first empire-wide persecution of Christians
284: Diocletian becomes emperor ruling from Nicomedia (Thrace)
313: Constantine recognizes the Christian church
330: Constantine rebuilds Byzantium and renames it Constantinopolis
360: pagan (Mithraist) general Julian (the "apostate") is declared emperor by his German troops
The Roman empire
Ancient Roma
Ancient Roma
The Roman Empire
380: Theodosius I proclaims Christianity as the sole religion of the Roman Empire
393: Theodosius forbids the Olympic Games
395: Theodosius divides the Roman empire in the Western and Eastern Empires, with Milan and Constantinople as their capitals
402: the western Roman empire moves the capital to Ravenna
410: the Visigoths sack Rome
450: Marcian is the first Roman emperor to be crowned by a religious leader (the patriarch of Constantinople)
452: the Huns invade Italy
455: the Vandals sack Rome
476: Odoacer, a mercenary leader of the Germanic soldiers in the Roman army, deposes the western Roman emperor and thereby terminates the western Roman empire

The Roman Empire
529: Eastern Roman emperor Justinian shuts down the Academia of Plato
533: Justinian's code of law ("Corpus Juri Civilis") is published
534: Justinian's general Belisarius destroys the kingdom of the Vandals and reconquers southern Spain and northern Africa
540: Justinian's general Belisarius reconquers Italy
600: Constantinople (Byzantium) has 500,000 inhabitants
602: the Persians (Sassanids) attack the eastern Roman empire in Asia Minor
627: the Sassanids are defeated
636: the Arabs invade the southern provinces of the Empire
800: Charlemagne, king of the Franks, is crowned emperor by Pope Leo III and founds the Holy Roman Empire
Roman empire 800
The Roman Empire
509BC-264 BC: Roman republic
264BC-49BC: Phoenician and Greek annexions
49BC-313: Roman Empire
313-406: Christian Rome
406-476: Barbarian invasions
527-602: Byzantine expansion
602-627: Persian wars
636-1038: Arab wars
1064-1099: Seljuk wars
1099-1204: Crusades
1204-1261: Latin empire
1261-1461: Greek empire
What the Romans knew
Continues on Part II

What the Romans knew II


What the Romans knew
Part II
What the Romans Knew
Greek!
Wars against Carthage resulted in conquest of the Phoenician and Greek civilizations
Greek pantheon (Zeus=Jupiter, Juno = Hera, Minerva = Athena, Mars= Ares, Mercury = Hermes, Hercules = Heracles, Venus = Aphrodite,_)
Remnants of indigenous religion: Quirinus, Janus, Vesta (no human-like personal histories and genealogies)
Greek city plan (agora/forum, temples, theater, stadium/circus)
Beginning of Roman literature: the translation and adaptation of Greek epic and dramatic poetry (240 BC)
Beginning of Roman philosophy: adoption of Greek schools of philosophy (155 BC)
Roman sculpture: Greek sculpture
What the Romans Knew
Greek!
Greeks: knowing over doing
Romans: doing over knowing (never translated Aristotle in Latin)
"The day will come when posterity will be amazed that we remained ignorant of things that will to them seem so plain" (Seneca, 1st c AD)
What the Romans Knew
The Mediterranean Sea (Mare Nostrum)
Rome was mainly a sea power, an Etruscan legacy
Battle of Actium (31 BC) created the "mare nostrum", a peaceful, safe sea for trade and communication
Disappearance of piracy
Sea routes were used by merchants, soldiers, migrants, slaves, craftsmen, politicians, philosophers_
Age of the maritime villas (instead of maritime fortifications)
Patterns of trade for major commodities in an annual cycle (just like annual patterns of agriculture)
What the Romans Knew
The Mediterranean Sea (Mare Nostrum)
Massive amount of commodities (oil, grain, wine) required to support the lifestyle of Roma (one million people)
Giant cargo ships
Infrastructure of ports (docks, warehouses, markets, living quarters), roads, ship building, ship sailing, credit exchange, etc
Circulation of people and ideas (e.g., Christianity)
What the Romans Knew
The Mediterranean Sea (Mare Nostrum)
From northern border of the world (Egypt, Mesopotamia) to_
"the" world (Greece) to_
the center of the world (Rome, Franks-Arabs-Byzantium)
What the Romans Knew
Society
The patricians (political rights, the "populus", people), the plebeians (can acquire property and wealth, but initially no political rights), the slaves
Law of the Twelve Tables (450 BC): plebeians obtain basic rights (in 367 BC a plebeian becomes consul)
Spoils of war: wealth to the patricians, land to the plebeians
Landowning a prerequisite for military service
Gradual extinction of the peasant farmers (expansion of large estates, system of slave labor, devastation of wars)
What the Romans Knew
Society
Citizenship: legal and tax priveleges (qualified for Roman law, exempt from the poll tax)
Citizenship extended to conquered neighbors (and even freed slaves) to gain support
All Italians granted full citizenship (88BC)
Senate de facto controlled by an oligarchy (the "optimates") that benefits most from the conquests
What the Romans Knew
Society
Poor urban population
Social conflicts between wealthy aristocracy and the poor
Growing wealth of the provinces
What the Romans Knew
Republic (senatus, praetors, consuls, decemvirate, triumvirate)
New aristocracy (running the senate) composed of patricians and wealthy plebeians
High standards of morality and integrity
Growing importance of the senate
defense
foreign affairs
finance
colonies
Law: attempt to unify humankind within a single language of government
What the Romans Knew
Slaves
The nobiles acquire land and their slaves farm it
Economy dependent on slavery
30% of population (1st c BC)
Gladiators: professional slave fighters for amusement
What the Romans Knew
Engineering
Roads: 70,000 kms (travel becomes relatively easy and unexceptional)
Arch (tall buildings, bridges, aqueducts, theaters)
City walls
Roma's technological mastery of the environment
But_
No waterwheel
No horses for agriculture
Aqueduct, Pool, Theater
Ancient Roma
What the Romans Knew
Flavian amphitheater or "Colosseum" (80 AD)
Multilevel system of vaults made of concrete
50,000 spectators
Similar size:
Verona
Siracusa
Pozzuoli
Capua Vetere
El Djem, Tunisia
Tarragona, Spain
What the Romans Knew
Agricultural society
Status symbols: land and slaves (not machines)
No liquid capital for investment
What the Romans Knew
Imported technology
Stone Age
Pottery making
Cloth making
Tool making
Early civilizations
Wheel
Metallurgy
Writing
Mathematics
Astronomy
Shipbuilding
Food preservation
Grape and oil cultivation
What the Romans Knew
Borders
Imperialism: the Roman empire assimilated ethnic groups that had already developed a viable economy and a stable society (absorbing vs enslaving)
Divide et Impera
One universal civilization under one universal emperor
What the Romans Knew
Roman units of measurement
League (leuga): the distance a person can walk in one hour
Mile: the distance a Roman legion can march in 1000 paces (2000 steps)
Foot: divided into 16 inches, not 12
Pound (libra): divided into 12 ounces
What the Romans Knew
Architecture
Vitruvius (40BC)
Three essential attributes of architecture: "firmitas, utilitas, and venustas" (firmness, commodity, delight)
What the Romans Knew
Julian Calendar (Julius Caesar, 45 BC)
Motivation: fight corruption of time-keeping bureaucrats
Greek astronomer Sosigenes
Solar calendar of 365 days (but 46 BC lasted 445 days)
Leap year every fourth year
753 BC was year 1 AUC (ab urbe condita)
11 min and 14 sec longer than the solar year
What the Romans Knew
Julian Calendar (Julius Caesar, 45 BC)
12 months
Month of Janus
Month of februa (the festivals of purification)
Month of Mars (originally, the first month of the year)
Month of opening
Month of Maia (or of maiores, festivals of old age)
Month of Juno (or of iuniores, festivals of youth)
Quintilis = Julius (July)
Sextilis = Augustus (August)
Eight-day week (market day, market day-7, etc)
Days within a month identified by distance to
Kalendae (first day in the month)
Nonae (the 7th day in 31 day months or the 5th day in other months)
Idus (the 15th day in 31 day months or the 13th in other months)
What the Romans Knew
Saturnalia
celebrated for seven days, from December 17 to 23
business holiday
gifts
Lupercalia
honoring Lupercus, a pastoral god, but basically the founding of Rome
celebrated on February 15
Equiria
honoring Mars
celebrated on February 27 and March 14
Horse races in the Campus Martius
Mithraism and Christianity (urban phenomena)
What the Romans Knew
Roman Social Economy
Wealthiest province: Africa
Cultural province: Eastern empire (Greek)
Maritime traders: Syrians
Merchants and lenders: Jews
What the Romans Knew
Cities
Roma (600,000 in 1 AD, 1million in 100AD)
Alexandria (500,000 in 100AD)
Ephesus (400K)
Cartago (350K)
Antiochia (350K)
Smyrna (250K)
Pergamum (150K)
...
Byzantium (30K)
_
Athens
What the Romans Knew
Population (circa 350)
Western Roman Empire
Britian: 0.75M
Gaul & Rhineland (France): 5M
Spain: 4M
Italy: 6M
Sicily, Sardinia & Corsica: 0.25M
Africa, Numidia, Mauretania (African coast): 3M
Rhaetia, Noricum, Pannonia & Dalmatia (Eastern Europe): 3M
Total Western Empire: 22M
What the Romans Knew
Population (circa 350)
Eastern Roman Empire
Moesia & Thrace (Balkans): 2.5M
Greece & Macedonia: 3.5M
Asia Minor (Turkey): 15M
Syria, Palestine & Mesopotamia: 6.5M
Egypt: 6.5M
Cyrenaica: 0.5M
Total Eastern Empire: 34M
Total Roman Empire: 56M
What the Romans Knew
Women
Women were not allowed to hold any office
All women were under male custody
But a father had more rights than a husband over a woman
Domestic chores increasingly delegated to slaves
Increasing education for women
Women were allowed to go out alone and to socialize
The shrine of goddess Vesta was open only to women, and the Vestal Virgins (in charge of the eternal sacred flame) wielded influence over public life (maintained the last wills of emperors and all citizens)
Eventually, the first women's liberation movement
What the Romans knew
Theater: Plautus (254BC)
Golden Age of Rome's literature
Ciceronian period (70 - 43 BC)
Prose: Cicero (106 BC), Julius Caesar (100 BC)
Science/philosophy: Terentius Varro (116 BC)
Poetry: Catullus (87 BC), Lucretius (99 BC)
What the Romans knew
Golden Age of Rome's literature
Augustan period (43 BC - 14 AD)
Architecture: temples, basilicas, marble
Poetry:
Vergilius/Virgil (70 BC): epic glorification of Rome's greatness
Horatius/Horace (65 BC): pleasure
Ovidius/Ovid (43 BC): eros, satire
Theater: Seneca (4 BC)
History: Livius/Livy (59 BC)
What the Romans knew
Cicero (106 BC)
Stoicism
Virtue and justice
What the Romans knew
Lucretius (99 BC)
Epicureanism
Materialism: the world is made of atoms
Human evolution from uncivilized to civilized society
Religion is evil
"Death is nothing to us_ it is only the natural fulfillment of life"
What the Romans knew
History: Tacitus (56 AD)
Biography: Plutarch (46 AD)
Philosophy: Epictetus (55 AD), stoicism, universal brotherhood of humankind, identity of nature and destiny, happiness by acceptance
Mosaics
What the Romans knew
What the Romans knew
Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius (180 AD)
What the Romans knew
Rite of Isis, fresco of Hercolanus
What the Romans knew
212 AD: citizenship extended to all free individuals of the empire
Foreign-born emperors:
Claudius (Gaul/France, 10 BC)
Trajan (Spain, 53 AD)
Hadrian (Spain?, 76 AD)
Septimius Severus (Africa/Libya, 145 AD)
Caracalla (Gaul/France, 188 AD)
Philip the Arab (Arabia/Syria, 204 AD)
Germanic generals
Stilicho
What the Romans knew
Terme di Caracalla (Caracalla's Baths): 217 AD
Open to every citizen of both sexes
Men and women bathed at different times
Free of charge
Capacity: 1,600
Statues, fountains, mosaics
Why: hygiene
How: hot bath in calidarium, lukewarm bath in the tepidarium, cold bath in the frigidarium, swim in the natatio (pool)
What: bath, pool, gardens, libraries, gymnasium, stadiums, lecture halls, stores, brothels
Why the Roman Empire Fell
Did not fall, merely evolved
Christians
Entertainment
Huns (exodus of Gothic tribes)
Too big, long borders
Slavery
Persia
No succession rule
Incompetent emperors
Plague
Gap between management and technology

What the Barbarians knew


Bibliography
Richard Fletcher: The Barbarian Conversion (1997)
Thomas Burns: Rome and the Barbarians (2003)
Thompson: The Huns (1996)
Peter Heather: The Goths (1996)
Gwyn Jones: A History of the Vikings (1984)

The Barbarians
Huns
48 AD: the Hsiung-nu empire is defeated by the Han and dissolves
376AD: Huns, led by Uldin, reach the Black Sea and the Danube, conquering the eastern Goths
408AD: the Roman patrician Aetius is taken prisoner by the Huns
412AD: Karaton unifies all Western Huns
425AD: Huns are hired by a western Roman general Aetius to fight in Italy
430AD: the new Hun leader Rugida (Rua) signs a peace treaty with the eastern Roman empire
433AD: Aetius becomes the de-facto ruler of the western Roman empire
434AD: Rugida (Rua) dies and is succeeded by Attila (a friend of Aetius)
435AD: Aetius employs Huns to fight Vandals and Franks
441AD: the Huns raid eastern Roman outposts along the Danube
452AD: Huns cross the Alps but renounce attacking Italy
469AD: the Huns disappear
The Barbarians
The Barbarians
Vandals
270AD: Vandals cross the Rhein
360AD: the Vandals convert to christianity
406AD: Vandals occupy Spain
407AD: Roman general Stilicho (of Vandal descent) stops the Vandals on their way to Italy
429AD: Vandals, led by Gaiseric, invade northern Africa and are recognized as an independent kingdom
534AD: the Roman general Belisarius recaptures Africa from the vandals
The Barbarians
Goths
0BC: Poland
150AD: Roman expansion in Europe halted
238AD: First Gothic incursion into the Roman empire
340AD: Christianization and literalization of the Goths (Ulfila and the "Gothic bible")
375AD: Ostrogoths become subjects of the Huns
378AD: the Romans are defeated at Hadrianapolis by Goths
395AD: Stilicho becomes supreme commader of the western Roman army
390AD: the Gothic general Alaric is hired as a Roman commander
395AD: Alaric unifies the Goths of the Balkans (Visigoths)
397AD: Stilicho attacks his old friend Alaric, but lets him repeatedly escape
401AD: Alaric invades Italy but is defeated by Stilicho (escapes again)
408AD: Stilicho is assassinated in a coup
410AD: Alaric sacks Rome
The Barbarians
Goths
476AD: Odoacer, a mercenary in the service of Rome, leader of the Germanic soldiers in the Roman army, deposes the western Roman emperor and thereby terminates the western Roman empire
507AD: Visigoths are defeated by the Franks and move to Spain
536AD: the Roman general Belisarius lauches a campaign to recover Italy
539AD: the Ostrogoths conquer Milan
561AD: the Ostrogoths are destroyed by the eastern Roman empire
580AD: Arian synod in Toledo
587AD: the new Visigothic king Recared converts to catholicism and the Gothic language is abandoned
711AD: the Moors invade Spain and destroy the Visigothic kingdom
718AD: Pelayo unites with the Visigothic leaders who have been defeated by Tariq, and creates the kingdom of Asturias in northwestern Spain, thus creating the kingdom of Leon
The Barbarians
Europe 500
The Barbarians
Franks
350: the Roman empire allows the Franks to settle in Belgium
447: Merovech (Meerwig) establishes the Merovingian dynasty among the Franks
486: Frank king Clovis I Chlodovech) conquers northern Gaul from the Romans
507: Clovis defeats the Visigoths
510: Clovis moves the Frankish capital to Paris
628: count Pepin I becomes the "major domi" (mayor of the palace)
732: the Muslim invasion of Europe is stopped by Charles Martel at the battle of Tours
751: the Carolingian mayor Pepin III deposes the Merovingian king and appoints himself king of the Franks
754: pope Stephen II anoints Pepin III king of the Franks
768: Pepin III dies and Charlemagne becomes king of the Franks
800: the Pope crowns Charles emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
Europe 700
What the Barbarians Knew
Horses
Mobility
The Roman Empire
What the Barbarians Knew
Partition of the Western Roman Empire
Italy: Ostrogoths
Spain: Visigoths and Suevi
France: Franks, Visigoths and Burgundi
England: Anglo-Saxons
Africa: Vandals
The Barbarians
What the Barbarians Knew
Population
Visigoths: 100,000
Vandals: 80,000
Burgundi: 25,000
Ostrogoths: 100,000

The Roman population was 100 times than the invading hordes
What the Barbarians Knew
Economic unity of the Mediterranean Sea (Western Europe, Middle East and Africa)
Roman money (solidus, gold)
Free trade

What the Barbarians Knew
Political unity of the Mediterranean Sea
All but the Anglo-Saxons acknowledged the Roman emperor of the East (foederati)
Barbarian kings were Romanized
Barbarians spoke Latin
They established themselves according to the Roman rule of hospitalitas (except the Franks)
They adopted the Roman code of law
They were all Aryans except the Franks (Catholics)
What the Barbarians Knew
Post-476 Western Roman Empire
Melting pot of
Goths (army)
Romans (administrators, land owners, farmers, law officers, tax officers)
Greeks
Syrians (maritime traders)
Jews (merchants, lenders)
What the Barbarians Knew
Post-476 Trade
Spices from China to Western Europe
Spices from India to Western Europe
Spices from Arabia to Western Europe
Papyrus from Egypt to Western Europe
Oil from Africa to Western Europe
Slaves from Central/Northern/Eastern Europe to Middle East and Africa via Western Europe
Europe 800

What the Jews knew


Bibliography
Bart Ehrman: Lost Scriptures (2003)
Elaine Pagels: The Origins Of Satan (1995)
Robert Eisenman: James the Just (1997)
Timothy Freke: The Jesus Mysteries (1999)
John Dominic Crossan: The Historical Jesus (1992)
Judaism
2500 BC: Canaanites live in the city-state of Jericho, a tributary of Egypt
1500 BC: a caravan trader, Abraham, leads Semitic nomads from Sumer to Canaan and then on to Egypt (Hebrews)
1400 BC: Canaanites found Urusalim (Jerusalem)
1300 BC: iron age in Palestine
1250 BC: Indo-European tribes (Philistines) move to Palestine (named after them) from the Aegean sea
1250 BC: the Hebrews move from Egypt to Palestine (Moses)
1230 BC: Hebrew leader Joshua conquers part of Palestine
1125 BC: the Canaanites are definitely defeated by the Hebrews
1020 BC: the Hebrew king David defeats the Philistines and unifies Israel with capital in Jerusalem
Canaanites, Philistines, Hittites
Judaism
930 BC: David's son Solomon builds a temple in Jerusalem for the Jews
922 BC: Solomon dies and the kingdom splits into Israel (north, Galilee) and Judea (south, including Jerusalem)
722 BC: Sargon II of Assyria conquers Israel and forcefully relocates Jews (first Jewish diaspora)
600 BC: King Josiah of Jerusalem destroys idols of all gods except Yahweh
587 BC: the Babylonians conquers Judea, and deport Jews to Babylonia (second Jewish diaspora)
538 BC: Cyrus of Persia sacks Babylon and frees the Jews
515 BC: the Jews rebuild the temple of Jerusalem
332 BC: Palestine is invaded by Alexander the Great
323 BC: Palestine is given to the Ptolemaics (Alexandria)
Judaism
260 BC: the Old Testament is translated from Hebrew into Greek by scholars of Alexandria (the "Septuagint")
198 BC: the Seleucids (Antiochus III) seize Palestine from the Ptolemaics
196 BC: the ascetic Jewish sect of the Essenes lives in a monastery at Qumran
168 BC: the Seleucid emperor Antiochus IV outlaws Judaism and mandates the worship of Greek deities
167 BC: Mattathias and his son Judas Maccabean lead a revolt of Judea against the Seleucids and win independence
104 BC: the Pharisees (who adopt the orthodox views of the Maccabeans) and the Sadducees (who adopt the Hellenist views of the Seleucids) fight for control of the temple
100 BC: the Dead Sea Scrolls are composed
63 BC: Pompeus conquers Palestine
Judaism
50 BC: Antipater helps Caesar during the civil war and is therefore granted citizenship and de facto rule of Judea
38 BC: Herod, Antipater's son, marries Mariam Maccabean
12 BC: Augustus becomes emperor of Rome (the "anointed")
6 BC: Herod murders his own sons
6 BC?: Jesus is born in Palestine
4 BC: Herod dies
14 AD: Augustus dies and Tiberius becomes emperor of Rome
26 AD: Pilate (Pontius Pilatus) is appointed procurator of Judea
30 AD: Jesus is crucified by the Romans
Sindone & Judea
What the Jews Knew
Western Semites
Proto-Sinaitic language (1800BC from Egypt)
Pastoral nomads in the Arabian desert
Habiru: nomad stranger
What the Jews Knew
El
God of the Jews
Nomadic God
God talks
God of punishment and wrath
Religion is obedience to God
God = Consciousness
Prophets
Indifference towards unbelievers
Moses (1,275 BC): Egypt-born founder of Israel (exodus) and Judaism (Pentateuch)
Yahweh (YHWH): faceless god, the only God
What the Jews Knew
Elohim (plural) "created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1)
Elohim is found 2570 times in the Bible, El 226 times
Remnants of an early polytheism/polydemonism
The ancient Semites believed that the world is surrounded, permeated and ruled by the Elohim, myriads of nameless supernatural beings (spirits) inseparable from one another
Elohim: the sum of the divine beings that inhabited any given place
Aryan gods had names and were individuals, Semitic gods had no names and were a crowd
What the Jews Knew
Elohim
Ethiopians (Amlak), Phoenicians (Elim)
Sumerians (3000): An and his wife Ninhursag fathered all the gods who created the Sumer cities
Akkadians (2000): Eland and his wife Asherah fathered the children-gods that created the cities of Mesopotamia
Babylonians (1700): The elohim created the world and eventually Marduk became their supreme god
What the Jews Knew
Evolution of God:
El (3500 BC): The Semitic word for God
Hittites (1500): El and his wife Ashera, mother of Baal
Canaanites (1500): El the supreme god
Yahweh originally a bedouin war god of the desert
Yahweh displaces Baal as the "son" of El
El is the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
El is the god of Israel ("El Elohe Yisrael", Gen. 33:20)
722 BC: El and Yahweh become synonymous
Deuteronomy (650 BC): Yahwe is the ONLY god
Isaiah (550 BC): There is no other god besides me
El
What the Jews Knew
The goddess of the Jews
Sumerians (3000): An and his wife Ninhursag
Akkadians (2000): Eland and his wife Asherah
Babylonians (1700): Apsu and his wife Tiamat
Hittites (1500): El and his wife Ashera
Canaanites (1400 BC - 800BC): El and his wife Anat
Jews (800 BC): Yahweh and his wife Asherah
Jeremiah (44:15-19, 7:17-18) denounces the people who worship "the Queen of Heaven"
King Josiah (600BC) destroys the statue of Asherah in the temple and expels the sacred prostitutes from the temple (Chronicles 34:3-7)
What the Jews Knew
Old Testament
History of the Jews
Echoes of Sumerian creation stories
Monotheism
Covenant between God and Abraham (Genesis 15:12-21): God grants the land of Palestine to Abraham's descendants in return for obedience
Tables of the Law or "commandments" (Exodus 31:18)
Negative god ("thou shalt not")
The Messiah: the deliverer and king of the Jews
Dynamic (not cyclic) world
What the Jews Knew
Thou shalt have no other gods before me
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy
Honor thy father and thy mother
Thou shalt not murder
Thou shalt not commit adultery
Thou shalt not steal
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox... nor anything that is his
What the Jews Knew
Adam (Eden, 3761 BC or 4004 BC)
Seth
Enosh
Cainan
Mahalaleel
Jared
Enoch
Methuselah
Lamech
Noah: flood (2105 BC)
Shem
Arphaxad
Salah
Eber
Peleg
Reu
What the Jews Knew
Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)
38 books in Hebrew and one in Aramaic (Daniel's) divided in three sections
Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)
The Prophets (Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Elisa, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc)
The Writings (Psalms, Proverbs, the book of Job, the Song of Songs, etc)
What the Jews Knew
Pentateuch
The first five books of the Hebrew Bible ("Torah"): Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy
Traditionally attributed to Moses
A multitude of different writing styles
Two different versions of the creation of the world
Two different versions of the covenant
At least four authors
A Yahwist narrative (950 BC)
An Elohist source (850 BC)
Deuteronomy (650 BC)
A priestly document (500 BC)
What the Jews Knew
Prophets
Ancient Mesopotamia: divination, sorcery, augury, soothsaying
First prophets: kingdom of Mari (Syria-Iraq border), 2000 BC
Strong sense of divine mission
Ecstatic visions
Foretelling the future in the form of divine revelations and interpreting natural events as divine messages
Interested only in events that affected the royalty
Totally indifferent to ordinary people
What the Jews Knew
Prophets
Biblical prophets
Advocated a higher form of morality and justice
Obsessed with rejecting idolatry
Progression towards ethical monotheism
Addressing the "people" of Israel
Addressing "all nations"
End of prophets age: return from Babylonia (537 BC)
Priests, rituals and laws prevail over prophets, revelations and visions

What the Jews Knew
Apocalyptic literature (500 BC - 200 BC)
An apocalypse is a revelation of future events
Dream-like vision
Symbolic imagery
Historical view of the era
The powers of evil are attacking God
God shall triumph and a new age will begin
Within the Bible: Revelation, Daniel
Outside the Bible: Enoch, The War of the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness, The Apocalypse of Moses, etc
What the Jews Knew
The problem of suffering:
Why do sinful Gentiles prosper and conquer the world, while pious Jews languish in captivity?
The Jews will be rewarded in the kingdom that is coming
The Messiah will come
The problem of evil:
Why does evil exist if God is omnipotent?
Because we disobeyed him
Correct Map Of The Countries Surrounding the Garden Of Eden, Or Paradise, With the Course of Noah's Ark During the Flood (Thomas Bowen, 1780)
Christianity
40 AD: Paul, a Jew from the city of Tarsus in Asia Minor, declares Christianity a universal religion
60 AD: the earliest gospels are composed
62-64 AD: Paul, James and Peter are executed
63 AD: Joseph of Arimathea travels to Glastonbury, Britain
66 AD: Jews, led by the zealots, revolt against Rome in Palestine
70 AD: the Roman general Titus defeats the Jews, captures Jerusalem, destroys the temple and expels the Jews from the region, who spread to Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Arabia, Egypt, Italy, Spain and Greece
73 AD: Jews expelled from Jerusalem concentrate in two communities, the western one at Yavneh/Jamnia/Jabne ("Alexandrian" Jews) and the "Babylonian" community, a tributary of the Parthians
Christianity
80 AD: the Jewish historian (and former general) Josephus writes the "Jewish Antiquities"
132: Jews, led by Bar-Cochba, whom some identify as the Messiah, revolt against Rome
135: the bishop of Rome Telesphorus institutes the birthday of Jesus (Christmas) as a Christian holiday
136: emperor Hadrian definitely crushes the Jewish resistance, forbids Jews from ever entering Jerusalem
136: the bishop of Rome, Hyginus, assumes the title of "pope"
150: the four official gospels assume their final form
180: the Gaul bishop Irenaeus writes against gnosticism
199: Victor I is the first African to be elected pope
235: the Egyptian (Coptic) philosopher Origen writes that the Roman empire is a divine will
Christianity
246: Paul of Thebes retreats to the Egyptian desert and becomes the first Christian hermit
276: Mani is crucified by the Sassanids for tring to incorporate Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism into one religion ("manicheism")
300: There are about 15 million Christians in the Roman empire, out of a population of 60 million
303: Diocletian orders a general persecution of Christians
311: Donatus claims that the people could determine how worthy of administering sacraments a priest is
312: Roman emperor Constantine converts to Christianity
318: Arius (b 256), a student of Lucian, preaches in Alexandria that Jesus was human and not divine ("Arianism")
318: Pachomius, a disciple of Anthony, organizes a community of ascetics at Tabennis in Egypt (Christian monasticism)
Christianity
325: Council of Nicaea discusses the divine/human nature of Jesus and approves the Christian canon (the New Testament) against "heretic" books
339: Athanasius of Alexandria visits Rome accompanied by the two Egyptian monks Ammon and Isidore, disciples of Anthony, who export the idea of monasticism
340: Christianization and literalization of the Goths (Ulfila and the "Gothic bible")
358: Basil founds the monastery of Annesos in Pontus, the model for eastern monasticism (perfect Christian life and constant penance, meditation + poverty + humility)
380: Theodosius I proclaims Christianity as the sole religion of the Roman Empire
Christianity
400: Jerome (Eusebius Hieronymus) translates the Bible into Latin (the "Vulgate")
431: Palladius is sent by the Pope as first bishop of Ireland
451: the fourth Ecumenical Council convened in Chalcedon condemns Dioscurus of Alexandria for monophysitism (Jesus is of one nature, only divine) and affirms that Jesus was one person of two natures (both human and divine)
529: Benedetto of Nursia founds the monastery of Monte Cassino and codifies western monasticism (absolute power of the abbot)
530: the Benedictine monk Cassiodorus encourages monks to copy manuscripts of the classics
533: Mercurius is elected pope and takes the name of John II, the first pope to change name upon election
Christianity
546: Columbanus founds monasteries in Ireland
590: the Benedectine monk Gregory I becomes Pope
600: Pope Gregory I promulgates the doctrine of salvation through confession and penance
601: monk Augustine converts king Ethelbert of Kent and establishes the see of Canterbury with himself as its first archbishop
636: Arabs capture Jerusalem
732: the Muslim invasion of Europe is stopped by the Franks at the battle of Tours
769: the cardinals decide that only cardinals can become popes
800: Pope Leo III crowns Charles emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
Christianity
822: Mojmir, prince of Morava, converts to christianity
826: Harald Klak of Denmark converts to Christianity
862: Boris of Bulgary converts to christianity
863: Cyril and Methodius from Constantinople write the Slavic bible in the first Slavic alphabet, glagolitic
870: The Serbs convert to christianity
904: Sergius III is elected pope thanks to a powerful Roman noblewoman, the first of a series of popes appointed by the Roman aristocracy
912: the Normans become Christian
948: the leader of the Magyars converts to christianity
988: Vladimir of Kiev converts to Christianity
995: most of Scandinavia converts
Christianity
Jewish establishment in the first century BC
Pharisees (lower-class, who adopt the orthodox views of the Maccabeans, centered upon synagogue and rabbi)
Sadducees (upper class, who adopt the Hellenists views of the Seleucids, centered upon the temple)
Ascetic sects (eg, Essenes)

Jesus gained notoriety by attacking the temple priesthood.
Jewish persecution of Christians ended when James, the brother of Jesus, allied with the Pharisees
Sadducees killed both Jesus and James, and eventually expelled Christians from Jerusalem
Christianity relocated in other areas of the Roman empire
Jesus
Jesus was born in the Roman Empire during the rule of Augustus, the first emperor
Jesus died under emperor Tiberius
Christianity
The Christianity that we know today is the dogma that the Roman empire forced on all its provinces
Rome was not the place where Christianity had been born and was not the cultural center of the world.
Christianity first spread in Palestine and Syria, then east to Armenia (the first country to convert) and to Greece, that was the cultural center of the empire.
When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, Christianity was "relocated" from Palestine to Rome
Rome decided to start counting with Peter (the first Christian martyr in Rome) and his descendants, the popes
Rome assembled the "New Testament" centuries after Jesus (325)
Christianity
The four official gospels were written in Greece
They are too antisemitic to have been written by Jews
Mark, Matthew and Luke (70-90AD) derive from a pre-existing text, called "Q", that tells the story of Jesus
John (120AD) is a reinterpretation of Jesus' ideas in terms of Platonic philosophy ("in the beginning was the word_")
All four official gospels were written after Paul wrote his letters. Paul's letters are the oldest Christian documents.
There are many other gospels not recognized by the early Church
Christianity
Papias of Hierapolis in 110 talks of the gospel of St Matthew as a collections of oracles, not of miracles.
Clement of Alexandria admits that two versions of Mark's gospel existed but one was being suppressed because it contained two passages that should not be viewed by average Christians
Justin Martyr (150) does not mention a New Testament, does not mention Mark, Matthew, Luke or John: he mentions the "memoirs" of the apostles
Christianity
Many Christian texts were banned possibly because they place the blame on the Romans (apocryphal)
Original Christianity perished in the Roman persecutions of the "disposyni" (Jesus' heirs in Palestine)
"Nag Hammadi library" (the "Gnostic Gospels")
"Dead Sea Scrolls "
Christian historiography
Jewish historian Josephus (37-96 AD)
Irenaeus (125 to 202)
Eusebius (Constantine's biographer)
Christianity
James
Brother of Jesus
The leader of the early Christians in Palestine
Paul treats James like the leader
James was more interested in rebelling against the Romans than in the kingdom of Heaven
James was a "purist" who did not tolerate the Greek/Roman contamination of Jewish religion
ideology of faith and goodness ("believe and perform good actions")
Martyrdom is not inherent in Paul's preaching, but it is in James' ideology
Christianity
Paul (Saul)
The Roman dogma (Christianity as we know it today) is based on Paul's understanding of Jesus' message
Paul was not one of the twelve and admits that he never met Jesus
Paul was a literate scholar, not an illiterate fisherman (like the apostles)
Paul was a Roman citizen and proud of it
Paul, unlike James, wanted Christianity for both Jews and non-Jews (no need for circumcision)
Paul's letters date from about the year 50, while the earliest gospel is from 60-70
Christianity
Paul
Paul's authentic letters talk of allegories (Galatians, 4/24) and symbols (Corinthians 10/6) as if to warn against a literal interpretation of the old testament
Paul's philosophy is similar to the Platonism preached by Philo of Alexandria (a contemporary of Jesus): "what is seen passes away, what is unseen is eternal" (2 Cor 4)
Paul interprets Jesus' religion as a religion for everybody, not just the Jews
God of love ("thou shall") instead of the negative god of Judaism ("thou shall not")
Goodness is inside the human soul, not in the covenant
Acceptance, not rebellion
Christianity
Desposyni
Blood relatives of Jesus (on his mother's side)
Ruled the ancient Jewish Christian church
Descendants of Joachim and Anna (Jesus' maternal grandparents)
Descendants of Elizabeth (Mary's cousin)
Descendants of Cleophas (Mary's cousin)
Pope Sylvester (314-335) replaced the Jewish desposyni with Greek bishops faithful to Rome
Outlaws in 5th century
Christianity
The historical Jesus
There is no record of Pilate trying and executing a man named Jesus.
Only two Roman writers of Jesus' time mention Christians (Pliny and Svetonius) but they don't mention Jesus.
The first Roman to mention Jesus is Tacitus, but almost a century after the death of Jesus.
Paul admits he never met Jesus, and his letters contain almost no reference at all to Jesus' life.Christianity
Mithraism
Mithras the son of the sun
Mithras sent to Earth to rescue humankind
Mithras was born of a virgin on December 25 in a cave
Mithras sacrificed himself
On the last day Mithras had a supper with twelve of his followers
At that supper Mithras invited his followers to eat his body and drink his blood
He was buried in a tomb and after three days rose again.
Mithras' festival coincided with the Christian Easter
Christianity
Osiris
Osiris was born on the 25th of December
Osiris died on a friday and resurrected after spending three days in the underworld
Christianity
Dionysus
Dionysus was hailed as `The Saviour of Mankind' and `The Son of God'
Dionysus was born on December 25 when Zeus the God visited Persephone, a mortal virgin
Announced by a star, Dionysus was born in a cowshed and visited by three Magis
Dionysus turns water into wine and raises people from the dead.
Dionysus is followed by twelve apostles
Dionysus was resurrected by Zeus his father after death
Christianity
Dionysus
The rituals in honor of Dionysus included a meal of bread and wine, symbolizing his body and blood.
An amulet of the 3rd century has been found that depicts a crucified man but bears the inscription "Orpheus Bacchus"
Dionysus was worshipped during a three-day Spring festival
Christianity
Augustus
The first Roman emperor, "Augustus", had the title of "saviour of the human race"
The legend was that Augustus had been born nine months after his mother was "visited" by the god Apollo
The greatest Roman poet of all time, Virgil, had foretold in 40BC that a king would be born of a virgin
Legend had it that, in the year of Augustus' birth, the Roman senate had ordered the murder of all other children. Christianity
John the Baptist
John "initiated" Jesus
Jewish historian Josephus did not know Jesus but he knew well John the Baptist
John the Baptist created a large movement that came to threaten Herod Antipas
Christianity
Jewish nationalism
The Jews of Palestine never accepted the rule of Rome.
Jewish prophets were sure that a Jewish kingdom, created by a messiah imbued with divine powers, was coming
After the Romans destroy Jerusalem, the"gnostic" attitude is born: Jesus not as the messiah, but as a message of knowledge, and the promised kingdom moved to the heavens. Christianity
Herod
Married the virgin princess Mary, last of the Maccabeans
Mary committed adultery with Herod's brother Joseph while Herod was in Rome (29 BC)
Herod executed Mary and his own sons (they had Maccabean blood)
Christianity
Moses
Survives slaughter of the innocents
Raised by a virgin
Stepson of the daughter of the king
Performs miracles
Leads Jews to the promised kingdom
Christianity
The Essenes
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The Essenes are not mentioned in the New Testament
Baptism
Cosmic battle between angels and demons, God and Satan
The forces of evil rule the world
The war in Heaven is also taking place on Earth
Messianic yearning (triumph of good)
Monastic life
Armed rebellion against the Romans
Christianity
Nag Hammadi
The "twin brother of Jesus"
Buddhist-style cryptic sentences
"The kingdom of Heaven is inside you, and it is outside you"
"The kingdom of Heaven has already come, but you do not recognize it"
Christianity
Crossan's historical Jesus
Lived in a world of
pervasive Greek culture
oppressive Roman rule
stagnating Jewish establishment
A philosopher who viewed the Kingdom of God as "here and now" among the poor.
A revolutionary advocating a society built on the principle that all people are equal
Rebelled against the hypocrisy of the religious authorities
Was killed for his words and actions but with no trial and no burial
The passion and the resurrection are fictional
Christianity
Eisenman's historical Jesus
Dead Sea Scrolls written after Christ
Dead Sea Scrolls are an encrypted history of the early Christian movement
Allegory of the battle between Roman collaborationists (Herodian dynasty, pharisees, Paul) and Jewish populists (Essenes, Zadokites, Rechabites, Sicarii, James)
Wicked Priest = high priest Ananas
Spouter of Lies = Paul
Righteous Teacher = James
Early Christianity was a battle between Paul and James
Christianity
Eisenman's historical Jesus
Jesus never existed
Rabbinic Judaism descends from pharisees
Christianity descends from Paul
Islam descends from James
What the Christians Knew
Jesus vs Moses
Jesus not only prophet but even son of God
God of love (New Testament) vs God of wrath (Old Testament)
Positive god vs Negative god ("thou shalt not")
Miracles and Parables vs Prophecies and Histories
Eternal damnation for unbelievers (as opposed to the Judaistic indifference for unbelievers)
Nature is God's love and Religion is love of God
Self-sacrifice vs Human sacrifices
Charity instead of gifts to the gods
Hermits (ascetism) and monks (piety)
What the Christians Knew
The Sermon of The Mount (New laws and old laws)
It was said: "an eye for eye, and a tooth for a tooth", but I say unto you, if anyone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other also, and if anyone wants to take your coat, give your cloak as well...
It was said, "you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy", but I say unto you, "love your enemies, bless them that curse you"...
You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
(Matthew 5-6-7)
What the Christians Knew
Heaven
Devil and Hell
Resurrection of the spirit, and life in the Afterlife (immortality)
Equality and universality: "there is neither Jew nor Greek_ neither male nor female for you are all one in Jesus" (Gal 3:28)
Appealing for slaves
Church
Problem of evil:
God gave humans free will and evil is due to human's misuse of free will
Humans can do something that God cannot do
What the Christians Knew
What Jesus represented
A synthesis of pre-existing cultures/civilizations
But a greass-roots, low-class (not patrician/intellectual) synthesis
Ideal of universality and equality
Ideal of love, charity
Good deeds towards other human beings, not towards the gods
What the Christians Knew
Platonism: Immortal soul vs mortal body
Philo Judaeus (30 AD, Alexandria)
Unified Platonic and Stoic philosophy and Judaism
Allegorical interpretation of the Jewish scriptures
God as a being without attributes, the ultimate knowledge and goodness
An intermediate world of ideas (Logos) acts between God and the world
These intermediate beings or ideas (Logos) are human-divine beings
Souls share in Logos the divine quaity of God
Souls are immortal because of their divine nature
Paradise is oneness of the soul with God
What the Christians Knew
Origines/ Origen (Alexandria, 220 AD)
Synthesis of Christianity and Platonism
Allegorical method of scriptural interpretation (threefold sense, corresponding to the threefold division of the person into body, spirit, and soul)
The soul pre-exists the body
Jesus as the Logos (incarnate word), who is with the Father from eternity
Nous vs Soul
What the Christians Knew
Plotinus (b205 AD, Egypt): neo-platonism
Transcendental and mystical aspects of Plato's philosophy (Phaedrus, Symposium)
Soul's ascent from the earthly life to contemplation of the eternal/infinite/absolute (the One), and eventually to full-fledged union with the One
The One cannot be defined, but only known in mystical vision
The world emanates from the One
The soul must return to the One
Nous is the substance of the forms, and also the medium that allows the soul to perceive the forms ("The knowledge of the thing is the thing")
What the Christians Knew
Plotinus (b205 AD, Egypt): neo-platonism
Nous is the eternal universal mind, that fuels each mind
The soul can achieve mystical union with the One through Nous
Three hypostases: the One, the Nous (the knowing mind) and the Soul
Problem of evil: evil is caused by matter, which is "absolute lack of" Soul, Nous, the One, I.e. doesn't really exist
The Otherworld as the world of ideas
What the Christians Knew
Augustine (425)
Two cities (what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God)
The City of God is a mystical, inner brotherhood
The City of God"is" the church
At the end of history there will be only the City of God
The defeat of Rome (the earthly City) heralds the coming of the heavenly City of God
Fusion of Christian mysticism and Roman legalism

What the Christians Knew
Augustine
Linear progression of time (instead of cycles)
History is not cyclic (Jesus died only once)
Second coming of Jesus as end of history
What is time (Confessions 6.14.17)
Primacy of the present (memory is present of past things, expectation is present of future things)
Time is subjective (is in the mind)
What the Christians Knew
Augustine
God created matter (not just shaped it)
God created time (there is no time before the creation)
Free will coexists with divine omnipotence (humans are responsible for their sins but not for their salvation)
Doctrine of original sin: All humans are sinners (sin is inherited)
Salvation via faith alone
Sin will be punished in the afterlife
Sinners and saints will be separated only at the end of history
What the Christians Knew
Augustine
The Christian church is universal ("catholic") not limited to the pious
The church is the instrument of the Holy Spirit to reform the world (implication: missionary work, especially among the Barbarians)
What the Christians Knew
Augustine
Problem of evil
Evil has not been created by God
Evil does not exist
Evil is the absence of good, therefore it is "less", not "more", than God
Evil (lesser degrees of good) emerged with free-willing creatures
God created our free will, not evil. Our free will causes evil.
We cannot comprehend why God invented such free-willing creatures and thus Evil
What appears to us mortals as evil is good in the context of eternity
From God's perspective, evil is good
What the Christians Knew
Augustine
Body vs Soul (grounded in Greek philosophy, not in Bible)
Separation of bodily life and spiritual life
Pleasures of the body detract/distract from the truth of the soul
Sexuality is evil
Celibacy and chastity
What the Christians Knew
The Christian paradigm
God dwells in Heaven (Paradise)
God is omnipotent, omniscient, infinitely good
The eternal destiny of a human is predetermined by God's decree (predestination)
Humans have free will to act as they please but their final destiny has already been determined
Heresy: you are responsible for your salvation or damnation (no predestination)
What the Christians Knew
The Christian paradigm
God is not only omnipotent, God is also Love (divine grace)
The beauty of Nature reflects the Love of God and the beauty of the Heaven
God created humans to live in a new paradise
Humans used free will to disobey God (Adam's original sin) and are now condemned to Hell
Humans cannot change their destiny
Humans can be saved only by divine grace
The coming of Jesus was a product of his Love
Salvation has been secured for humans by Jesus
Jesus: human, divine, both human and divine?
Trinity: one God in three persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
What the Christians Knew
The Christian paradigm
Jesus' human sacrifice (crucifixion and resurrection) reconciled humans to God
Salvation is obtained by faith in Jesus alone (baptism, prayers)
Humans have free will whether to cooperate with divine grace (repent, faith) or not
The souls of the ones who repent are admitted after death into Paradise
God's intention is to grant everybody an everlasting life
The end of the world is coming
Universal judgement, resurrection of all the dead
The imminence of the kingdom of God
The need for immediate repentance
What the Christians Knew
The Christian paradigm
"It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God" (Luke 18:25; Matt. 19: 16-30; Mark 10:17-31)
What the Christians Knew
The Christian paradigm
Hell
Hell is the place of punishment for Satan, the fallen angels and humans who die unrepentant of the original sin
The Devil hijacked humans
Jesus fought the Devil
Jesus' crucifixion was the defeat of the Devil
What the Christians Knew
The Christian paradigm
Satan
Ancient Judaism: creator of divisions, deceiver and accuser (lower case "satan", or "stn"), division within Israel, internal Jewish conflict
Later Judaism: adversary of God who tried to usurp God (Satan)
Revelation 12:7-9 (96AD): a fallen angel ("I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven", Luke 10:18).
Paul: the enemy within, demonizing pagans and heretics
Persia: Ahura-Mazda/Ahriman
Manicheism
What the Christians Knew
The Christian dogma and the decline of the Greek ideal
Rationality replaced by superstition
Virtue replaced by faith (the only virtue)
Justice in this world replaced with justice in the next world
Free exercise of reason replaced with obedience to Christian dogma
Greek tolerance for foreign faiths replaced by Christian intolerance
What the Christians Knew
Pseudo-Dionysius (500)
Our knowledge of God is that we cannot comprehend it
One rises to high levels of divine contemplation by defining God by what it is not
Negative theology
God is light, and every creature is born of and partakes in its light
Oneness of the universe
What the Christians Knew
Boethius (524)
Happiness is communion with God (stoicism)
The knowledge of God can be attained by studying the beauty and order of Nature
De Arithmetica
Apocalyptic faith
What the Christians Knew
Bestiaries
Symbolism
Allegorical interpretations of the nature of plants and animals
Real or fabulous animals as religious symbols for Jesus, the devil, the virtues and vices
"Physiologus" (written in Greek at Alexandria, 2nd c)
Eucherius (Lyons, 4th c): "Formularium spiritualis intelligentiae ad Veranium"
What the Christians Knew
Christian bureaucracy modeled after Roman bureaucracy
Pope = Emperor
Cardinals = Senate
Archbishops = Governors
Priests = Bureaucrats
Dioceses
What the Christians Knew
Monasticism
Pachomius (318)
Basil (358)
Ireland (445)
Benedetto (529): sing the praise of God at unison at every hour of the day
Columbanus (563)
What the Christians Knew
World Jewish Population
1875: 7.75 million
1900: 11 million
1938: 16.7 million
1950: 12 million
2000: 14 million
Summary
Evolution of the Semitic god
Linear progression of time
Christian god of love
Problem of evil
Fusion with Plato
Fusion with Aristotle
A synthesis of poor people's ideologies/beliefs

Tang & Song China


Bibliography:
Charles Hucker: "China's Imperial Past" (1975)
Ian McGreal: Great Thinkers of the Eastern World (1995)
Chinese dynasties
Xia Dynasty 2070-1766 BC
Shang Dynasty 1766-1122 BC
Zhou 1122 - 403 BC
Warring States
Qin 256-210 BC
Han Dynasty 206 BC - 220 AD
Tang Dynasty 618-907
Sung (960-1279)
Mongol Yuan 1279-1368
Ming Dynasty 1368-1644
Manchu Qing 1644-1911
Republic 1912-1949
Communists 1949-present
The Chinese Empire
650: the Tang dynasty extends the boundaries of China from Afghanistan to Vietnam
751: the Chinese are defeated by the Muslims at the battle of the Talas river in Central Asia
The Tang Empire
The Chinese Empire
960: Sung Tai-tsu founds the Sung dynasty
1115: the Jurchen (Manchu) invade from the north and establish the Jin/Chin dynasty with capital in Beijing, leaving only the south to the Sung
1264: the Mongols invade China and Kublai Khan founds the Yuan dynasty with capital in Beijing
1266: the Polo brothers travel from Venezia to China
1330: Bubonic Plague
The Yuan/Mongol empire
What the Chinese Knew
Tang (618 - 907)
Tripartite division of power (ministers, army, censors)
Rule by law (legalism)
Statutory punishment: death by strangulation, exile, forced labor, beating with bamboo cane
Capital at Xian
Largest and most cosmopolitan city in the world
Mostly Buddhist
One million people
Mongols, Indians, Arabs, Malays, Persians, Koreans, Japanese
What the Chinese Knew
Tang (618 - 907)
Government posts require education
National universities at Xian and Luoyang
Only sons of nobles and bureaucrats admitted to the universities
Degrees (in order of importance): chin-shih degree (literary talent), classical scholarship, law, calligraphy and mathematics
What the Chinese Knew
Tang (618 - 907)
Printing
Woodblock printing (7th c)
First printed book in 770 (one million copies of a Buddhist text)
Tang government's official gazette
Complete 130-volume edition of Confuciuan classics (953)
What the Chinese Knew
Tang (618 - 907)
World's first escapement (Xian, 725)
Porcelain (7th c)
Compass on ships (9th c)
Gunpowder (9th c)
Toilet paper
"The Chinese do not wash themselves with water but only wipe themselves with paper", Arab traveler (851)
What the Chinese Knew
Tang (618 - 907)
Buddhism ("Indianization of China"): state control of Buddhist monasteries (607)
Taoism
Dissolution of Taoist church and independence of individual monasteries
Deification of Confucius and Lao-tsu
Jade Emperor presiding over a hierarchy of deities
Confucianist revival
What the Chinese Knew
Fazang/ Fa-Tsang (b643 AD)
Hua-yen Buddhism
Avatamsaka sutra (Garland sutra, first sutra)
Dharmadhatu: multi-dimensional space-time of human experience
Fourfold view of the Dharmadhatu: phenomena (the world as we see it), the void (the essential nature of everything), the links between phenomena and the void, the web of all phenomena (whereas a phenomenon alone makes no sense, it is part of a web)
There is a fundamental reality/truth
Everything is connected
Leshan
Statue of Buddha at Leshan (near Chengdu), facing Mt Emeishan, the largest stone sculpture of Buddha in the world, completed in 803 AD
(courtesy Christian Kohler)
What the Chinese Knew
Jingang Jing/ Diamond Sutra (868AD)
Oldest (extant) printed book
What the Chinese Knew
Tang (618 - 907)
Poetry
Golden age of poetry (peaked in the reign of Hsuan-tsung 712-56)
All gentlemen are expected to produce poetry daily
Wang Wei (699): greatest landscape poet
Li Po/Bai (701): 20,000 poems, passionate, lyrical
Tu Fu (712): erudite, compassionate
Po Chu-i (772): simple, reflective
Li Shang-yin (813): word-painter (complex, metaphorical)
Birth of tzu, poetry of lines/stanzas of irregular length written for songs
Li Po (701)
Wang Wei (699)
The autumn hills hoard scarlet from the setting sun.
Flying birds chase their mates,
Now and then patches of blue sky break clear --
Tonight the evening mists find nowhere to gather.
Li Po (701)
"You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain;
I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care.
As the peach-blossom flows down stream and is gone into the unknown,
I have a world apart that is not among men."
Li Shang-yin (813)
The candle casts deep shadows on the screen,
The Milky Way dims and morning stars fade.
Chang-O must regret stealing the elixir,
As she broods in loneliness night after night.
What the Chinese Knew
Tang (618 - 907)
Fiction
Chuan-chi (fantastic tales), written in wen yen (formal prose)
What the Chinese Knew
Tang (618 - 907)
Painting
Yen Li-pen (7th c)
Wu Tao-tzu (8th c, possibly greatest painter of China's history but no painting survived)
Li Ssu-hsun (651, colorful representational landscapes)
Wang Wei (impressionistic landscapes)
Copper reserved for coin minting, and porcelain becomes a major industry for household items
Li Chao-tao (8th c)
Li Chao-tao: "Emperor Ming Huang's Journey to Shu" (8th c)
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Northern Sung 960 - 1127 Kaifeng
Southern Sung 1127 - 1279 Hangchow
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Scholar-officials become the dominant class in Chinese society
Autocratic meritocracy (chin-shih degree indispensable for government career)
Exceptional competence by government officials
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Rapid diffusion of printing
Publication of the entire Buddhist canon, the Tripitaka, for a total of 130,000 pages (983)
Flourishing industry (both government and private printers)
Rapid increase in literacy
Private academies (shu-yuan)
Ordinary folks become officials
Greatly expanded urban literate class
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Population boom (from 60 million in 1050 to almost 100 million in 1100), particularly in the south (northern Barbarians)
China world's most populous, prosperous and cultured nation in the world
Highest standard of living in the world
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Agrarian innovations
Optmization of wet-rice fields
Organized distribution of human waste from cities to the countryside
Water-control systems
Terracing of southern China's hills
Experimentation with rice seed breeding to shorten growing season
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Boom of commerce
Increased presence of merchants and craft shops in cities
Entire streets devoted to same merchandise (hang)
Guilds
Overseas trade encouraged by Sung government
Competition with Arab traders for control of East-West sea routes
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Boom of the iron and steel industry (about 50% in Kaifeng)
Large supply of cheap human labor
Yen Su (11th c): Leonardo-like genius
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Technology
Chang Ssu-Hsun's astronomical clock (976)
Su Sung's astronomical clock-tower at Kaifeng (1092, destroyed in 1126)
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Urbanization both
in the north (Kaifeng, northern capital, Luoyang, Taiyuan, Ta-ming)
and in the south (Changsha, Chi-an, Hangzhou/Hangchow, southern capital, Shao-hsing, Foochow, Chuanchou)
Hangzhou world's largest metropolis (two million)
Most advanced agriculture, industry and trade in the world... but no industrial revolution (governmental control of large-scale business)
Accelerated monetization causes chronic shortage of coins which leads to paper money
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
13-story 56m-tall octagonal Iron Tower of Kaifeng (1049)
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Northern barbarians: Chitan/Liao (916-1125) Jurchen/Chin (1115-1234), Mongols/Yuan (1264-1368)
Barbarian invasions intensify southern urbanization
Huge standing army, but only for defense purposes
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Revival of Confucianism (China's ideological orthodoxy) as a xenophobic/nationalist reaction to foreign cultural influence
Confucian reformers: Fan Chung-yen (989) scholars must care about the world's affairs
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Neo-Confucianism (tao-hsueh, "study of the way")
Confucian sociopolitical theories + Tao-Buddhist cosmological/metaphysical theories
The tao as the "Supreme Ultimate" (tai-chi), aggregate of perfect forms/principles (li) and the primordial matter (chi)
Tai-chi (form) and chi (matter) combine to create objects, people, etc
Yang/yin and heaven/earth as cosmic forces
Properties of things depend on the cosmic forces that operated on them at birth
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Neo-Confucianism (tao-hsueh, "study of the way")
Study, editing and annotation of the classics as the main occuptation of the intellectuals
Buddhism and Taoism as folk superstitions
Sao-chiao ("the three doctrines"): fusion of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Speculative Neo-Confucian schools of the 12th c
Rationalistic "Study of Principles" (Cheng-Chu school, originated from Cheng I, born 1033)
Monistic/idealistic "Study of the Mind" (Lu-Wang school, originated from his brother Cheng Hao, 1032)
Zhou Dunyi/Chou Tun-i (1017)'s "Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate"
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Cheng-chu's ethics
The self is one with the supreme ultimate (perfection), but li is contaminated by chi and achieving perfection requires "dusting off one's mirror" (resisting worldly desires)
Making one's intention sincere by extending one's knowledge by investiganting nature (understanding the principles of the supreme ultimate)
What the Chinese Knew
Zhu Xi/ Chu Hsi (b 1130AD)
Synthesizer of the Cheng-Chu school: one's nature is li (in harmony with the supreme ultimate) but one's mind is mixed with chi which distorts the li
Synthesis of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism
Selects the four classics of Confucianism ("The Great Learning" and "The Doctrine of the Mean" become two of the four books of the canon)
What the Chinese Knew
Zhu Xi/ Chu Hsi (b 1130AD)
Everything is endowed with both transcendent reality (form) and actual reality (matter)
Li-Qi dualism: reality is made of Li (form) and Qi (matter).
All humans share the same li, and all dogs share the same li, etc
All humans share the same Li, but each human has his own Qi
What the Chinese Knew
Zhu Xi/ Chu Hsi (b 1130AD)
Human nature (xing) is only form (Li), that exists before physical form, and it is good
Humans acquire Qi through interaction with the environment, which may lead to evil
Interaction with the environment causes the difference between principle and physical nature
The physical aspect of human nature (the ch'i) is not good, it is just an approximation of its ideal (good) aspect
What the Chinese Knew
Zhu Xi/ Chu Hsi (b 1130AD)
Education should try to restore the original nature by removing the pollution of the Li caused by interaction with the environment
There is a super-Li, a principle of all principles, the form of all forms, that is part of everything and that governs the entire universe: the Tai-ji
The more we learn the better we understand the ultimate principle of the universe
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Lu Chiu-yuan/ Lu Xiangshan (1139)
Synthesizer of the Lu-wang school
One's nature and one's mind are the same thing, and they are one with the supreme ultimate ("the universe is my mind and my mind is the universe")
"It is my mind that generates space and time"
Chen Liang (1143)
Lu-Wang school: material reality is the only reality
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Arts
Rise of the scholar-official-artist (poet, painter): educated gentlemen are expected to be both statesmen and artists
Golden age of art and literature: ideal of the universal man, combining the qualities of scholar, poet, painter, statesman
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Literature
Old-style prose (ku-wen)
Ou-yang Hsiu (1007) neo-Confucian
Historiography
Ssu-ma Kwang (1019)
Encyclopedic histories, such as "Shih-tung", begun by Cheng Chiao (1104), a monumental encyclopedic history of China
Diffusion of gazetteers (local histories)
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Literature
Poetry
Shih and fu only respectable poetic forms, but tzu widely popular (and now independent of songs)
Birth of Chu, colloquial erotic poetry
Li-yu/Hou-chu (937)
Su Shih/Tung-po (1037, greatest tzu master)
Su Shih (1037)
Su Shih/Tung-po (1037)
A fragment moon hangs from the bare tung tree
The water clock runs out, all is still
Who sees the dim figure come and go alone
Misty, indistinct, the shadow of a lone wild goose?

Startled, she gets up, looks back
With longing no one sees
And will not settle on any of the cold branches
Along the chill and lonely beach
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Birth of Chinese opera tsa-chu (recitation + singing + dancing + pantomime + acrobatics + string and percussion orchestra)
What the Chinese Knew
Sung (960-1279)
Arts
Monochrome porcelain
Chinese classical painting
No background
No details
No perspective (the viewer of the painting is not located in a specific point)
Landscape painting: Kuo Hsi (1020)
Kuo Hsi (1020)Kuo Hsi (1020)

What the Chinese Knew
Mongols/Yuan (1279-1368)
Capital al Peking
Ruthless Mongol oppression
Bleakest era in Chinese history
Chinese exploited by Mongol elite and their foreign clique (Jurchen, Chitan, Uighurs, Persians, Russians, Arabs and western Europeans)
Recruitment examination (chin-shih examination) tolerated but most posts go to Mongols
Population movement towards the south
Population decrease (60 million)
What the Chinese Knew
Mongols/Yuan (1279-1368)
Pax Tatarica
For the first time, safe travel is possible from the Mediterranean to China (e.g., Polo brothers)
Mongols patrons of religions
Taoist monk Chang-Chun appointed by Genghis Khan patriarch of all religious orders of the Mongol empire
Tibetan lama Phags-pa appointed imperial mentor of Kublai Khan
What the Chinese Knew
Mongols/Yuan (1279-1368)
Drama
Peak of Chinese opera tsa-chu and birth of nan-hsi or chuan-chi (a freer form of tsa-chu
Most famous tsa-chu is Wang Shih-fu: "Hsi-hsiang chi/ Romance of the West Chamber" (13th c)
What the Chinese Knew
Mongols/Yuan (1279-1368)
Painting
Calligraphy integrated in the painting
Calligraphy: Chao Meng-fu (1254)
Landscape painting: Huang Kung-wang (1269), Ni Tsan (1301)
Chao Meng-fu (1254)
Chao Meng-fu (1254)

What the Japanese knew


Bibliography:
Ian McGreal: Great Thinkers of the Eastern World (1995)
Japan
100 BC: rice and iron are imported into Japan by the migration of the Yayoi (related to the Mongols), who also bring a new language and a new religion
0 AD: shintoism becomes the national "religion" and the "emperor" is merely an official in charge of performing Shinto rituals and symbolic ceremonies
239: first visit by a Japanese envoy to China
500: Japan adopts the Chinese alphabet
538: the Korean kingdom of Paekche dispatches a delegation to introduce Buddhism to the Japanese emperor
604: prince Shotoku issues a Chinese-style constitution (Kenpo Jushichijo), based on Confucian principles, which de facto inaugurates the Japanese empire
605: Shotoku declares Buddhism and Confucianism state religions of Japan
Horyuji
Japan
710: Japan's capital is moved from Asuka to Nara, modeled after China's capital Xian
712: the collection of tales "Kojiki" (record of ancient times)
720: the "Nihon shoki" (history of Japan)
743: Japan's emperor Shomu founds the temple Todaiji in Nara (largest wooden building in the world) with a colossal Buddha inside
Nara: Todaiji & Daibutsu Den
Japan
794: emperor Kammu moves the capital to Heian-kyo (Kyoto)
804: the Buddhist monk Saicho (Dengyo Daishi) introduces the Tendai school
806: the monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi) introduces the Shingon (Tantric) school
909: first "monogatari" (long story)
1050: rise of the military class (samurai)
1175: Shinran introduces the Jodo (Pure Land) school of Buddhism
1191: Rinzai Zen Buddhism is introduced in Japan by the monk Eisai of Kamakura and becomes popular among the samurai
1192: the emperor appoints Yoritomo as "shogun" (military leader) with residence in Kamakura (bakufu system of government)
1227: Soto Zen Buddhism is introduced in Japan by the monk Dogen
Shintoism
Japan as a divine country
Basis for imperial institutions
Shinto is a religious form of Japanese patriotism
Japan and the Japanese people exist by divine creation
The emperor is a descendant of the gods
Ancient Japanese mythology
Emphasis on nature, cleanliness, purity, order, sincerity, tranquility
Righteous behavior, respect for nature
Nature is the manifestation of the divine
Shintoism
Polytheist
Pantheon of spirits ("kami") personifying aspects of the natural world
Yorozu-yomi: there are gods for everything (food, moutains, rivers, rocks)
800,000 gods, mostly the deified heroes of the nation
A religion to deal with the everyday problems and issues of people
Amaterasu (sun-goddess) is the highest god
Susano-no-mikoto (Amaterasu's brother) descended from heaven to roam the earth
Non-exclusive: a shintoist can be a buddhist, a catholic, _
Shintoism
Polytheist
Humans depend upon the spirits (kami), which are features of Nature (such as mountains, fertility, sun) and human ancestors
A kami is not the feature itself (eg, the mountain), but rather the spirit of that feature
Humans can affect Nature by properly honoring the gods/spirits
Humans become impure through their participation in society and they purify themselves by worshipping the spirits
Death is evil (no shinto funeral)
Shintoism
Kojiki (Chronicles of Ancient Events) and Nihongi/Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan)
In the beginning were the kami (primitive gods)
Izanagi (male) and Izanami (female) gave birth to the land of Japan
Izanami died
Amaterasu originated from Izanagi's left eye
Ninigi, the first emperor of Japan, was Amaterasu's grandson

Japanese genealogy
Shintoism
Shintoist shrine
Gate of the Gods (Torii) admit mortals to the realm of the divine
Blessed by emperor
Entering a shrine (divine territory) is an act of purification
Shinto priests were fortune-tellers and magicians
Shintoist shrine
Shintoism
The influence of Buddhism
Native gods as manifestations of Buddha
monk Kukai/ Kobo Daishi: Ryobu Shinto (merge of Buddhism and Shintoism)
Shintoism
Holiness of beauty (as opposed to beauty of holiness)
Cult of aesthetic and moral values (as opposed to aesthetic and moral values expressed in cults)
Two-fold structure of consciousness
Omote`: outward consciousness (social behavior)
Ura: inward consciousness
Primacy of community over individuality
What the Japanese knew
What the Japanese knew: Chinese
What the Japanese knew
Kusha school (625): Mahayana Buddhism
Hosso school (653): consciousness is the only reality
Ritsu school (754): Buddhist monastic discipline (vinaya)
Shingon school (806): Tantric Buddhism

What the Japanese knew
Prince Shotoku Taishi (b574)
"Constitution" (Kempo)
Social harmony (wa)
Government by consensus
Confucianism (ren, yi, li, etc)
Buddhism as the way to a universal state
What the Japanese knew
Kukai (806):
Founder of Shingon (Tantric) school of Buddhism
Centered around the cosmic Buddha Vairocana
Large pantheon of deities (Shinto gods are incarnations of Buddha)
Mantras to evoke Buddha (recitation not meditation)
Practices esoteric incantations to achieve enlightenment in one's lifetime
Even plants can attain Buddhahood
What the Japanese knew
Tendai Buddhism
Original enlightenment (hongaku): all beings can attain Buddha because all beings already have Buddha-nature
What the Japanese knew
Genshin (b 942AD, Buddhist):
Paradise (Amida's "Pure Land of Supreme Bliss")
Hell
Hohen (1133 AD, Buddhist):
"Pure Land" path (Jodo Buddhism)
Salvation by Amida Buddha to all those who sincerely seek his assistance by calling out his name (nembutsu)
Salvation by faith alone
Salvation can only occur after death
What the Japanese knew
Shinran (b 1173AD, Buddhist):
Disciple of Hohen (Jodo Buddhism)
Not just nembutsu but also shinjin (trusting Amida), which, once achieved, guarantees one's arrival in the Pure Land
Pure Land is a state of wisdom
The sage who reaches the Pure Land returns to the world of samsara to help others
Ippen (b 1239AD):
Pure Land but emphasis on meditation
What the Japanese knew
Kamakura shogunate (1185AD)
samurai (loyalty, selflessness)
sado (tea ceremony)
What the Japanese knew
Zen Buddhism (1191AD)
Satori: the sudden experience of the Buddha nature of all things
Zen monk as a spiritual samurai
Nirvana and samsara are identical (nirvana transforms the world rather than eliminating it)
Rinzai school: sudden enlightenment while concentrating to solve a koan ("sanzen", conversation with a master)
Soto school: gradual enlightenment through meditation in daily life ("zazen", sitting meditation)
What the Japanese knew
Zen Buddhism (1191AD)
Satori is facilitated by
martial arts,
tea ceremonies,
gardening,
Haiku poetry,
calligraphy,
No drama
Zen Gardens
What the Japanese knew
Dogen (b 1200AD, zen):
Philosopher of Time
Practice and enlightenment are dual aspects of the same process (the "casting off of body-mind")
Practice is not temporally prior to enlightenment
Identity of time and eternity
Identity of impernamence and nirvana
Zazen meditation and koan interpretation are equivalent
What the Japanese knew
Nichiren (1253):
Salvation by faith in the Lotus Sutra by invoking its title in a mantra (Tendai)
What the Japanese knew
Japanese Drama
Fusion of theater, music, dance
Fixed repertoire of plays, stylized characters
Gigaku (612): dances of masked dancers
Sangaku (700): tightrope walking, juggling, sword swallowing
Bugaku (750): solemn dances celebrating imperial events
What the Japanese knew
Japanese Drama
No (1300): solemn poetry, solemn dances, only male actors, sumptuous custumes, chorus, supernatural themes (gods, ghosts, devils, spirits)
Kyogen: farce (prose, no music)
Joruri (puppet theater, 1650): Chikamatsu Monzaemon
Kabuki (1650): spectacle rather than drama, emphasis on acting, music, dance
What the Japanese knew
Haiku (16th century)
Evolved from Buddhist "renga"
Three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables
A pair of contrasting images: a scene and an observation
Poetry = synthesis of visual and verbal
Basho Matsuo, Yosa Buson, Kobayashi Issa, Masuoka Shiki
What the Japanese knew
Basho Matsuo
What the Japanese knew
Sen No Rikyu (b 1522): wabi (quiet simple life) via sado (tea ceremony)
Suzuki Shosan (b 1579AD): work leads to enlightenment
Yamaga Soko (b 1622AD): Japan is superior to all other countries
Motoori Norinaga (b 1730): "mono no aware" (pathos of things)
What the Koreans knew
Wonhyo (b 617AD, Buddhist): universal interrelatedness of everything ("one mind")
Rock statue of the Buddha in Sokkur-am cave, in Kyongju (732 AD)
Chinul (b 1158AD, Buddhist): "no mind"

What the Muslims knew


What Islam knew
Bibliography
Albert Hourani: A History of the Arab peoples (1991)
Bernard Lewis: The Middle East (1995)
John Esposito: History of Islam (1999)
Mohamed Metalsi: Imperial Cities of Morocco (2001)
Majid Fakhry: A History of Islamic Philosophy (1970)
Edgar Knobloch: Monuments of Central Asia (2001)
Michael Jordan: Islam - An Illustrated History (2002)
Islam
1500 BC: the Jewish patriarch Abraham (Ibrahim) founds the shrine of Mecca ("kaaba")
350: the Aramaic-speaking Nabataeans (Jordan) develop the Arabic script
460: Persian king Firuz persecutes Jews, who emigrate to Arabia
500: southern Arabia is ruled by a Jewish kingdom
525: the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas of Yemen dies and Yemen becomes an Ethiopian (Christian) colony
610: Muhammad (Mohammed) preaches in Mecca
622: Mohammed and his followers migrate ("heijra") to Yathrib, which is renamed Medina
632: Schisms between Shiites and Sunnites, who choose Abu Bakr as the first Muslim caliph ("prophet's successor")
Islam
632: Abu Bakr declares war on the Roman and Persian (Sassanid) empires
636-42: the Arabs capture Jerusalem, Persia, Syria, Egypt
661: Ali is murdered and is succeeded as caliph by Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, first of the Umayyads
661: The capital moves to Damascus (in Syria rather than Arabia)
696: Arabic becomes the official language of the Islamic world
708: Arabs conquer Tangiers (Morocco)
709: Arabs invade Central Asia
711: The Arabs conquer southern Spain from the Visigoths
732: the Muslim invasion of Europe is stopped by the Franks
749: the Abbasid dynasty replaces the Umayyad dynasty
751: the Arabs defeat the Chinese at the battle of the Talas River
Islam
756: the last surviving member of the Umayyad dynasty flees to Spain, establishing a separate caliphate
762: the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur moves the capital from Damascus to Baghdad (near the old Persian capital)
809: caliph Harun Rashid dies, after expanding the caliphate from Gibraltar to the Indu river and having started translations of Greek manuscripts
825: caliph Al-Mamun sponsors translations for his "house of wisdom"
825: Al Khwarizmi of Baghdad writes a book on "Hindu numerals"
867: the Saffarids (shiite) in eastern Persia become independent
868: Egypt proclaims independence
945: the Buyids invade Persia from the Caspian Sea
962: the Ghaznavid kingdom is founded in Afghanistan
Islam
622-660: Early expansion
661-748: Umayyads
749-1258: Abbasids
868-962: Islamic kingdoms
992-1194: Seljuqs
1096-1291: Crusades
1212-1492: Christian reconquista
1263-1335: Ilkhanate (Mongol)
1301-1571: Ottoman expansion
1846-1956: European colonization
1952- : Islamic nationalism
What the Muslims knew
Desert
Razzia (Bedouin raid)
Qasida (desert encampment ode)
Exaltation of one's tribe
Longing for the loved one
Maqamat (mock-heroic prose and poetry mixed with religion, politics, geography
What the Muslims knew
The legacy of Judaism
Mohammed prayed towards Jerusalem
Mohammed worshipped the temple built by a Jew, Abraham, in Mecca
Mohammed founded Islam on the Ancient Testament
Most ancient mosques oriented towards Jerusalem, not Mecca
St John Damascene (675-749) considered Islam a heterodox form of Christianity
Recent excavations in the Middle East show that the Islamic conquest caused a boom (not a decline) in Christian church building
What the Muslims knew
The legacy of Judaism
Abraham (Ibrahim) led his tribe (Amorite invasion) from Ur to Haran to Canaan to (famine) Egypt to Canaan
Ibrahim and his son Ishmael built the Kaaba of Mecca as a shrine to his god
Ishmael (son of Ibrahim and the Egyptian slave Hagar) is the father of the Arab people
It was Ishmael, not Isaac, that God demanded from Ibrahim/Abraham as a token of his faith
All Jewish prophets are also Muslim prophets
Jesus was a prophet (messenger), but not divine
What the Muslims knew
Mohammed (622AD)
True monotheism (no Christian trinity)
Human (not divine) prophet
Brotherhood
Austere living
System of reward based on faith and deeds (as opposed to Augustine's divine omnipotence)
Little or no reference to New Testament
Manicheist idea of a succession of revelations given to different peoples
What the Muslims knew
Islam
Islam = submission to God
Muslim = subject
Prophet (nahi or rasul) = messenger
Quran (655): God's revelation as received by Mohammed
Hadith: actions and utterances of Mohammed
Old Testament and New Testament
Moses, Jesus, etc were "Muslims"
No authorized translation of the Quran
What the Muslims knew
Islam
Obligations
Shahada (testimony of faith)
Salah (ritual prayers five times a day)
Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca)
Ramadan fasting (ninth month of calendar)
Zakat tax (mandatory alm)
Jihad
What the Muslims knew
Islam
Free will does not exist
Problem of evil: Allah does what he wishes and it is not a business of any human being to argue or even try to understand it
Faith leads to Paradise
"Faith + Paradise + Jihad" instead of "Love + Purgatory + Piety" of the Christians
From "knowledge of certainty" (rational belief in Allah) to "eye of certainty" (instinctive belief in Allah) to "truth of certainty" (participating in Allah)
What the Muslims knew
Islam
Eschatological (like Christianity): there is an end of the world
The apocalypse will be preceded by the coming of the anti-Christ, al-Dajjal, who will appear East of Arabia, will establish 40 years of terror and will be defeated by the Mahdi (Jesus Christ reborn)
What the Muslims knew
Islam
Egalitarian religion: no superiority of one believer over another based on nobility, wealth, race, nationality
Appealed to the poor

No priestly mediation between believer and God
No equivalent of the Church
What the Muslims knew
Islamic society
Inequality between man and woman, believer and infidel, freeman and slave
A woman's identity was determined by her function in the family (daughter, sister, wife, mother)
Slave trade
Enslavement forbidden within the Arab empire
Nubia provided most slaves
Slave women for harems
Slave men for domestic and military use
What the Muslims knew
Islamic society
Dhimmi
Tolerated non-Muslim communities
Judicial independence (Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian laws)
Economic independence
Military and political dependence
Forbidden to marry Muslim women (death penalty)
Branding
What the Muslims knew
Islamic society
Ghazis: frontier warriors (mainly, central Asian steppes)
Mamelukes (9th century)
children of non-Muslim slaves from the steppes (Turks), raised in isolation (Cairo monastic barracks), instructed about Islam and trained as soldiers (mounted warriors)
Sons of Mamelukes were forbidden to become a Mameluke (not hereditary)
Decline caused by gunpowder (16th century, by Ottoman Turks)
What the Muslims knew
Islamic society
Boom of commerce
"The honest Muslim merchant will rank with the martyrs of the faith" (Mohammed)
"Merchants are the trusted servants of Allah upon Earth" (Mohammed)
Art of castle building
New crops (rice, sugarcane, cotton, bananas, etc)
Cotton for ordinary clothing (Mohammed himself)
What the Muslims knew
The Quran is a book about the structure of society
The duty of each Muslim is to struggle for the creation of a universal Islamic state (the "jihad")
The Quran and the Hadith state which should be the laws of such a state (the "shariah")
Islam's goal was to reform society and to form a nation.
Islam's mission is the reform of the whole world
Islam's mission is inherently political
What the Muslims knew
The state is a divinely ordained institution
Theocratic monarchy
The caliph as the "policeman" of the empire, the Ulama (Islamic scholars) as the legislative branch of the empire (and moral authority)
Justice
What the Muslims knew
Islamic theocracy
Sovereignty of Allah and viceregency of man (caliph)
Every Muslim who is knowledgeable about the Quran is entitled to interpret the law
Every Muslim is a caliph
The entire Muslim population (not just the priestly class) runs the Islamic state
Limited popular sovereignty under the suzerainty of God
Aim of Islamic state is to develop social justice
What the Muslims knew
Jihad is one of main duties of Muslims
with the heart (striving to be a better Muslim)
with the hand (using force to spread Islam)
with the word (converting infidels)
Muslims go to paradise if they carry out the jihad against the infidels
Superiority of the "mujaheddin" (Muslims who engages in jihad) over the "mumin" (Muslims who testify that there is no God but Allah and that Mohammed is his prophet)
What the Muslims knew
From the Quran (slaves):
Equivalence is the law decreed for you when dealing with murder - the free for the free, the slave for the slave, the female for the female (2:178)
No believer shall kill another believer, unless it is an accident. If you cannot find a slave to free, you shall atone by fasting two consecutive months (4:92)
What the Muslims knew
Muhammad's Last Sermon:
An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white except by piety and good action.
Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood
No Prophet or Apostle will come after me and no new faith will be born.
I leave behind me two things, the Qur'an and my Sunnah
What the Muslims knew
No continuity with previous civilizations
A new religion (Islam)
A new language (Arabic)
A new state (Quran/Hadith)

What the Muslims knew
Islamic eschatology
Jesus will herald the end of time
Mahdi will come after Jesus to establish peace and justice
The Day of Judgement
What the Muslims knew
Early Arab state (630-700)
Only Arabs are Muslims
Nude female bodies of early murals
Medina: erotic poetry and libertine society
Umayyad dogma (700-850)
Subjects encouraged to convert
Calligraphy replaces murals
Mystical society
What the Muslims knew
Hasan Al Basri (700 AD, pre-sufist)
Virtue, mortification, prayer, purity of heart to attain knowledge of God
Fear of Hell and hope of Paradise
Rabia Al Dawiyya (717 AD, pre-sufist)
Slave-girl
Extinction of the ego in mystical unity with God
Trust in God, and acceptance of his will ("rida"), is the only attitude that makes sense
Fear of punishment or hope of reward are meaningless
"Sidq": sincerity of love (love God not because of Paradise/Hell but only because of sincere love)
"I am too busy loving God to find any time to hate Satan"
What the Muslims knew
Abbasids (749-1258)
Persians, not Semitic
Revolution of the provinces
Capital moved from Damascus to Baghdad
End of Arab monopoly on power: Tribal aristocracy of Arabia replaced by cosmopolitan elite
Persian influence: Sasanid court traditions replace Arab tribal traditions
Civilian bureaucracy (diwan, vizir)
Madrasa (religious seminary)
Army reformed along Persian model
Contempt for Arab customs
Empire fragments into independet caliphate
What the Muslims knew
Abbasids
Paper
Algebra & Trigonometry
Epics (Ferdowsi's "Shah-nameh", 1010)
Love poetry
Sense of humour
No theater, no novel
Panegyric (exaltation of the ruler)
Greek philosophy
What the Muslims knew
Age of Translations: 786-825, in Baghdad
What the Muslims knew
Kalam (theology)
Qadarism: al-Basri (675)
free will
Mutazilism: ibn Ata (700)
Rational theology
The Quran is "created"
One is the creator of her/his own deeds
The essence of Allah is its attributes
Asharism: al-Ashari (873)
All good and evil is created by Allah
Good and evil are acquired by mankind
The essence of Allah is unknownable
What the Muslims knew
Kalam (theology)
Fundamentalist theologians vs hellenizing philosophers
God as prime mover or God as the One vs miracle-making God
God as a rational being vs God who issues moral law by diktat
Fundamentalist theologians vs mystics (Sufis)
What the Muslims knew
Ahmad ibn Hanbal (830): strict obedience to the Koran and the Hadith

What the Muslims knew
Sufism
More Greek philosophy than Quran
More Vedanta than Quran
Pantheism: God is the universe (God's reality is not external to the world's reality), everything is God (e.g., a mouse is God)
All religions are shadows of the true religion
What the Muslims knew
Sufism
Ascetism inspired by Christian hermits of Syria
Philosophy inspired by Buddhism
Music and dance ("whirling dervishes") to accompany the rituals of "remembrance of Allah" (dhikr)
840: the sufist Muhasibi preaches the path to truth
840: Islamic philosophy is founded by Kindi
900: the sufist Junayd preaches the ecstasy of enlightment
922: the sufist Hallaj is executed in Baghdad for heresy ("I am the truth", "I am He whom I love and He whom I love is me")
What the Muslims knew
Al Qindi (b 803): Aristotelian philosophy
Religious truths can be demonstrated philosophically
Abu Bakr al-Razi (Persia, b 865): Platonism
Truth must be found in Philosophy, not in Religion
The goal is to free the soul from the body
What the Muslims knew
Al Farabi (Persia, b 878): Platonism
Reconciling Islam and neo-Platonism
Allah (the One) is the ultimate reality
The world emanates from the One through a series of ten "intellects" (from unity to multiplicity)
Happiness is detachment from the body to unite with the One
Vision of the "virtuous city"
Religion as a symbolic system to express truth to non-philosophers

What the Muslims knew
Astronomy
Thabit ibn Qurra (836)
Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (903)
Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Yunus (950)
al-Biruni (973)
Mathematics
Al-Khwarizmi (780): algebra
Habash al-Hasib (825): sine, cosine, tangent
Umar al-Khayyam (1048): algebraic equations
Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi (1135): algebraic geometry
Medicine
Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari (783)
Abu Bakr al-Razi (850)
Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi (925)
Ibn Sina (981)
What the Muslims knew
Qushayri (986, sufist)
Higher and higher stages of knowledge/consciousness on the way to union with God
What the Muslims knew
Abdallah Ibn Sina/ Avicenna (Persia, b1023)
Reconciling Islam, Aristotle and Plato
Universe as a series of emanations from Allah, from the first intelligence to the "active" intelligence of the human body
The "active intellect" is universal (a sort of universal mind or consciousness), the "passive intellect" is individual (soul, reasoning)
Neo-Platonic trialism (intellect, soul, body)
What the Muslims knew
Abdallah Ibn Sina/ Avicenna (Persia, b1023)
Essence is not existence: something can be, without existing (we can imagine an elephant with wings, but this does not imply that elephants with wings exist)
Essences are like Platonic ideas, but need a mind in order to be
Existence (wujud) and essence (mahiyyah) are unified only in God: God is the uncaused first cause, the necessary existent, whose property "is" existence (essence = existence)
What the Muslims knew
Abdallah Ibn Sina/ Avicenna (Persia, b1023)
Creation is a necessary consequence of God's existence/essence
God is an eternal act of self-knowledge
This requires an intellect (in order to know)
The intellect contemplates God, itself as a necessary being, and itself as a merely possible being
This trinity of functions yields the trinity of intellect, soul/body and the starless cosmos
That intellect, in turn, also contemplates God and itself, thus yielding a new triad of intellect, soul/body and the starry sky
What the Muslims knew
Abdallah Ibn Sina/ Avicenna (Persia, b1023)
Creation is a necessary consequence of God's existence/essence
And so forth until the last intellect becomes the active intellect that yields the Earth and our souls/bodies
The soul is created attached to a body but it is immortal
What the Muslims knew
Abdallah Ibn Sina/ Avicenna (Persia, b1023)
Plato's Republic recast as the Ideal Islamic state based on shari'a
Astronomy, Mechanics and Music as branches of Mathematics
What the Muslims knew
Ghazali (Persia, 1095)
Repudiation of the philosophical method of discourse
The god of Aristotle and the god of Abraham are incompatible
Heresies
The world is eternal (vs it was created by God)
God is pure intellect (vs God is well acquainted with our material world)
Bodies will never resurrect
Only the scriptures provide truth
What the Muslims knew
Ghazali (Persia, 1095)
Three degrees of knowledge:
Certainty reached by demonstration is knowledge ("ilm")
Direct acquaintance with the state of "ilm" is immediate experience ("dhawq")
Acceptance of "ilm" on the basis of hearsay is faith ("iman")
What the Muslims knew
Ghazali (Persia, b1058)
Sense reality is dubious
"God created the creatures in darkness, and then sprinkled upon them some of his light"
I can doubt anything except the "I"
Causality is based on induction (the effect always follows the cause), but in reality there is no connection between cause and effect (the cause is Allah)
The world is not the same as Allah, since the world has a beginning (creation)
Allah is unity, the world is multiplicity, and the explanation is that they are not the same
What the Muslims knew
Ibn Rushd/ Averroes (Spain, b1126)
Commentaries on Aristotle
Only one truth that appears as two truths: religion for the uneducated masses and philosophy (falsafa) for the educated elite
There is no conflict between reason and revelation: whenever there is a conflict between philosophy and the scriptures, the scriptures must be interpreted as allegories
Ultimately, shari'a and falsafa are in agreement
What the Muslims knew
Ibn Rushd Averroes (Spain, b1126)
The world is an emanation of God, rather than a creation of God
Human knowledge is the effect of knowing, while Allah's knowledge is the cause of knowing
Both active intellect and passive intellect are universal (monopsychism), but there are as many "learned intellects" as souls : there is only one (universal, eternal) mind and each body learns a bit of it
What the Muslims knew
Moses ben Maimon/ Maimonides (Spain-Egypt, 1190)
Jewish philosopher
Reconciling the tenets of rabbinic Judaism with the Aristotelian philosophy
Faith and reason can coexist
Allegorical method of biblical interpretation
What the Muslims knew
Suhrawardi (Persia, b1153)
Dualism of light and darkness
Light (diffuse throughout the universe) is the source of being
Beings are more or less "luminous"
The Light of Lights is the cause of all things
All souls seek union with the Light of Lights
This is equivalent to a journey back to the origins of the soul
Primacy of essence over existence
What the Muslims knew
Ibn Arabi (Spain, b1165, sufist):
Unity of existence
Reality cannot be known by a subject as an object
Human consciousness is a mirror of divinity
God and human consciousness determine each other
God reveals himself to himself through human consciousness
That revelation is perpetually changing
What the Muslims knew
Ibn Arabi (b1165, sufist):
The human condition is one of longing, of both joy (for having experienced the divine) and sorrow (for having lost the divine), similar to the state of a rejected lover
The Sufi who achieves perpetual transformation is able to participate in the act of self-revelation (of creation)
The world then appears to be destroyed and re-created at every moment
The divine is being recreated in every moment
What the Muslims knew
Persian poetry
Ferdowsi (b 932): "Shah-nameh" (1010)
Omar Khayyam (1050): "Rubaiyat"
Sadi (1184): "Bustan"
Rumi (1207): "Mathnawi"
Hafez (1324): "Divan"
What the Muslims knew
Sack of Baghad (1258)
Bibliography:
Ian McGreal: Great Thinkers of the Eastern World (1995)
Japan
100 BC: rice and iron are imported into Japan by the migration of the Yayoi (related to the Mongols), who also bring a new language and a new religion
0 AD: shintoism becomes the national "religion" and the "emperor" is merely an official in charge of performing Shinto rituals and symbolic ceremonies
239: first visit by a Japanese envoy to China
500: Japan adopts the Chinese alphabet
538: the Korean kingdom of Paekche dispatches a delegation to introduce Buddhism to the Japanese emperor
604: prince Shotoku issues a Chinese-style constitution (Kenpo Jushichijo), based on Confucian principles, which de facto inaugurates the Japanese empire
605: Shotoku declares Buddhism and Confucianism state religions of Japan
Horyuji
Japan
710: Japan's capital is moved from Asuka to Nara, modeled after China's capital Xian
712: the collection of tales "Kojiki" (record of ancient times)
720: the "Nihon shoki" (history of Japan)
743: Japan's emperor Shomu founds the temple Todaiji in Nara (largest wooden building in the world) with a colossal Buddha inside
Nara: Todaiji & Daibutsu Den
Japan
794: emperor Kammu moves the capital to Heian-kyo (Kyoto)
804: the Buddhist monk Saicho (Dengyo Daishi) introduces the Tendai school
806: the monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi) introduces the Shingon (Tantric) school
909: first "monogatari" (long story)
1050: rise of the military class (samurai)
1175: Shinran introduces the Jodo (Pure Land) school of Buddhism
1191: Rinzai Zen Buddhism is introduced in Japan by the monk Eisai of Kamakura and becomes popular among the samurai
1192: the emperor appoints Yoritomo as "shogun" (military leader) with residence in Kamakura (bakufu system of government)
1227: Soto Zen Buddhism is introduced in Japan by the monk Dogen
Shintoism
Japan as a divine country
Basis for imperial institutions
Shinto is a religious form of Japanese patriotism
Japan and the Japanese people exist by divine creation
The emperor is a descendant of the gods
Ancient Japanese mythology
Emphasis on nature, cleanliness, purity, order, sincerity, tranquility
Righteous behavior, respect for nature
Nature is the manifestation of the divine
Shintoism
Polytheist
Pantheon of spirits ("kami") personifying aspects of the natural world
Yorozu-yomi: there are gods for everything (food, moutains, rivers, rocks)
800,000 gods, mostly the deified heroes of the nation
A religion to deal with the everyday problems and issues of people
Amaterasu (sun-goddess) is the highest god
Susano-no-mikoto (Amaterasu's brother) descended from heaven to roam the earth
Non-exclusive: a shintoist can be a buddhist, a catholic, _
Shintoism
Polytheist
Humans depend upon the spirits (kami), which are features of Nature (such as mountains, fertility, sun) and human ancestors
A kami is not the feature itself (eg, the mountain), but rather the spirit of that feature
Humans can affect Nature by properly honoring the gods/spirits
Humans become impure through their participation in society and they purify themselves by worshipping the spirits
Death is evil (no shinto funeral)
Shintoism
Kojiki (Chronicles of Ancient Events) and Nihongi/Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan)
In the beginning were the kami (primitive gods)
Izanagi (male) and Izanami (female) gave birth to the land of Japan
Izanami died
Amaterasu originated from Izanagi's left eye
Ninigi, the first emperor of Japan, was Amaterasu's grandson

Japanese genealogy
Shintoism
Shintoist shrine
Gate of the Gods (Torii) admit mortals to the realm of the divine
Blessed by emperor
Entering a shrine (divine territory) is an act of purification
Shinto priests were fortune-tellers and magicians
Shintoist shrine
Shintoism
The influence of Buddhism
Native gods as manifestations of Buddha
monk Kukai/ Kobo Daishi: Ryobu Shinto (merge of Buddhism and Shintoism)
Shintoism
Holiness of beauty (as opposed to beauty of holiness)
Cult of aesthetic and moral values (as opposed to aesthetic and moral values expressed in cults)
Two-fold structure of consciousness
Omote`: outward consciousness (social behavior)
Ura: inward consciousness
Primacy of community over individuality
What the Japanese knew
What the Japanese knew: Chinese
What the Japanese knew
Kusha school (625): Mahayana Buddhism
Hosso school (653): consciousness is the only reality
Ritsu school (754): Buddhist monastic discipline (vinaya)
Shingon school (806): Tantric Buddhism

What the Japanese knew
Prince Shotoku Taishi (b574)
"Constitution" (Kempo)
Social harmony (wa)
Government by consensus
Confucianism (ren, yi, li, etc)
Buddhism as the way to a universal state
What the Japanese knew
Kukai (806):
Founder of Shingon (Tantric) school of Buddhism
Centered around the cosmic Buddha Vairocana
Large pantheon of deities (Shinto gods are incarnations of Buddha)
Mantras to evoke Buddha (recitation not meditation)
Practices esoteric incantations to achieve enlightenment in one's lifetime
Even plants can attain Buddhahood
What the Japanese knew
Tendai Buddhism
Original enlightenment (hongaku): all beings can attain Buddha because all beings already have Buddha-nature
What the Japanese knew
Genshin (b 942AD, Buddhist):
Paradise (Amida's "Pure Land of Supreme Bliss")
Hell
Hohen (1133 AD, Buddhist):
"Pure Land" path (Jodo Buddhism)
Salvation by Amida Buddha to all those who sincerely seek his assistance by calling out his name (nembutsu)
Salvation by faith alone
Salvation can only occur after death
What the Japanese knew
Shinran (b 1173AD, Buddhist):
Disciple of Hohen (Jodo Buddhism)
Not just nembutsu but also shinjin (trusting Amida), which, once achieved, guarantees one's arrival in the Pure Land
Pure Land is a state of wisdom
The sage who reaches the Pure Land returns to the world of samsara to help others
Ippen (b 1239AD):
Pure Land but emphasis on meditation
What the Japanese knew
Kamakura shogunate (1185AD)
samurai (loyalty, selflessness)
sado (tea ceremony)
What the Japanese knew
Zen Buddhism (1191AD)
Satori: the sudden experience of the Buddha nature of all things
Zen monk as a spiritual samurai
Nirvana and samsara are identical (nirvana transforms the world rather than eliminating it)
Rinzai school: sudden enlightenment while concentrating to solve a koan ("sanzen", conversation with a master)
Soto school: gradual enlightenment through meditation in daily life ("zazen", sitting meditation)
What the Japanese knew
Zen Buddhism (1191AD)
Satori is facilitated by
martial arts,
tea ceremonies,
gardening,
Haiku poetry,
calligraphy,
No drama
Zen Gardens
What the Japanese knew
Dogen (b 1200AD, zen):
Philosopher of Time
Practice and enlightenment are dual aspects of the same process (the "casting off of body-mind")
Practice is not temporally prior to enlightenment
Identity of time and eternity
Identity of impernamence and nirvana
Zazen meditation and koan interpretation are equivalent
What the Japanese knew
Nichiren (1253):
Salvation by faith in the Lotus Sutra by invoking its title in a mantra (Tendai)
What the Japanese knew
Japanese Drama
Fusion of theater, music, dance
Fixed repertoire of plays, stylized characters
Gigaku (612): dances of masked dancers
Sangaku (700): tightrope walking, juggling, sword swallowing
Bugaku (750): solemn dances celebrating imperial events
What the Japanese knew
Japanese Drama
No (1300): solemn poetry, solemn dances, only male actors, sumptuous custumes, chorus, supernatural themes (gods, ghosts, devils, spirits)
Kyogen: farce (prose, no music)
Joruri (puppet theater, 1650): Chikamatsu Monzaemon
Kabuki (1650): spectacle rather than drama, emphasis on acting, music, dance
What the Japanese knew
Haiku (16th century)
Evolved from Buddhist "renga"
Three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables
A pair of contrasting images: a scene and an observation
Poetry = synthesis of visual and verbal
Basho Matsuo, Yosa Buson, Kobayashi Issa, Masuoka Shiki
What the Japanese knew
Basho Matsuo
What the Japanese knew
Sen No Rikyu (b 1522): wabi (quiet simple life) via sado (tea ceremony)
Suzuki Shosan (b 1579AD): work leads to enlightenment
Yamaga Soko (b 1622AD): Japan is superior to all other countries
Motoori Norinaga (b 1730): "mono no aware" (pathos of things)
What the Koreans knew
Wonhyo (b 617AD, Buddhist): universal interrelatedness of everything ("one mind")
Rock statue of the Buddha in Sokkur-am cave, in Kyongju (732 AD)
Chinul (b 1158AD, Buddhist): "no mind"

What the Middle Ages knew I


Bibliography
Norman Cantor: Civilization of the Middle Ages (1993)
David Abulafia: The Mediterranean in History (2003)
Fernand Braudel: The Mediterranean vol 1 (1949)
Lynn White: Medieval Technology and Social Change (1962)
Frances & Joseph Gies: Cathedral Forge and Waterwheel (1994)
Georges Duby: The Age of the Cathedrals (1981)
Gunther Binding: High Gothic Art (2002)
Xavier Barral: Art in the Early Middle Ages (2002)
The Middle Ages
800: the Pope crowns Charlemagne emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
834: Vikings (Danes) raid England
843: the Holy Roman Empire is divided among Charlemagne's sons
843: Genoa proclaims its independence from the Frankish empire
862: the Rus viking Ulrich founds Novgorod
889: Venezia (Venice) becomes independent
962: Otto I of Germany invades Italy and is crowned emperor by the Pope in Rome
981: Erik the Red discovers Greenland
1000: 7 million people live in France, 7 million in Iberia, 5 million in Italy, 4 million in Germany, 2 million in Britain
1000: Kaifeng (China) is the largest city in the world with about one million
1004: the ruler of Castilla assumes the title of king
1028: Canute conquers Norway after Denmark and England
Europe in the year 1000
The Middle Ages
1039: Cluny monastery becomes the head of a monastic feudal system
1066: William of Normandy (the Conqueror) ends the Anglo-Saxon rule of England
1088: Irnerius founds a school of law at Bologna, the first university
1095: Pope Urban II calls for a Crusade against the Muslims
1118: Arabs import gunpowder from China
1137: The cathedral of Saint-Denis is built in a new style, the gothic style
1138: Firenze declares itself an independent "commune"
1176: the Italian communes defeat the emperor
1189: the third Crusade is led by king Richard of England, king Philip Augustus II of France, and emperor Frederick Barbarossa
1204: the Crusaders sack Constantinople/ Byzantium
Europe in 1200
The Middle Ages
1206: Temujin (Genghis Khan) unifies all Mongol and Tatar tribes
1227: Genghis Khan dies and the empire is split among khanates
1230: Castilla and Leon are united under Ferdinand III of Castilla
1233: Gregory IX institutes the Inquisition
1240: Mongols take Russia, Poland, Balkans (Golden Horde)
1241: Hamburg and Luebeck sign a treaty (Hanseatic League)
1251: Mongols invade Persia and establish the Ilkhanate
1255: the Ilkhan invades the Middle East and captures Bagdhad
1257: Mongols led by Kublai (Yuan) conquer China
1258: Mongols conquer Mesopotamia and Syria
1260: Kublai declares Buddhism the state religion
1260: Mongols are stopped by an Arab army in Palestine
The Mongols
What the Mongols knew
Horses
Siege warfare
Catapult
Biological warfare (animal and human corpses)
The Mongols
Europe in 1300
The Middle Ages
1301: Osman founds the Ottoman dynasty in Anatolia (Turkey)
1309: French pope Clement V moves to Avignon
1337: Philippe VI of France and Edward III of England go to war ("Hundred Years' War")
1340: guns are fired from ships for the first time at the battle of Sluys
1348: the plague ("Black Death") spreads throughout Europe and kills 25 million people, 1/3 of the European population
1354: the Ottomas occupy Gallipoli, first outpost in Europe
1365: the turkic-speaking Timur overthrows the Chaghatai khanate conquers Persia
1398: Timur invades India and sacks Delhi, causing demise of the Delhi Sultinate
1405: Timur dies on his way to conquer China
Ottomans and Timur, 1405
The Middle Ages
1413: Poland and Lithuania sign a Treaty of Union
1453: France expels the English (end of "Hundred Years' War")
1453: the Ottoman Turks capture Constantinople/Byzantium and rename it Istanbul
1456: Gutenberg invents the printing press
1469: Aragonia and Castilla are united through marriage (Spain)
1480: Ivan III liberates Russia from the Mongols
1480: Spanish Inquisition
1487: Bartolomeu Dias rounds the Cape of Good Hope in Africa
1492: Spain expels the last Arab kingdom
1492: Cristoforo Colombo lands in America
1494: Pope Alexander VI brokers an agreement dividing the Americas between Spain and Portugal
Ottoman Empire in 1550
The Middle Ages
Europe
476-800: Barbarian kingdoms
800-1264: Holy Roman empire
831-1042: Viking expansion
1264-1494: French supremacy
1337-1453: Hundred Years' war between France and England
1494-1618: Spanish supremacy
1492: Reconquista
1494-1529: Italian wars
1354-1683: Ottoman expansion
1453: Fall of Constantinople/Byzantium
1413-1721: Poland-Lithuania expasion
The Middle Ages
Asia
Tang China 618-907
Arabs/Umayyad dynasty 622-749
Arabs/Abbasid dynasty 749-1258
Seljuqs 992-1118
Mongol empire 1190-1368
Delhi sultanate 1192-1526
Timur 1365-1469
Ming China 1368-1644
Moghul empire 1526-1858
Kremlin
What the Middle Ages knew
Continues on Part I

What the Middle Ages knew II


Continued from Medieval 0
What the Middle Ages knew
Christian conversion (300-1000)
Arab invasion (711-1492)
Monasticism (318-1347)
Feudalism (980-1453)
Cathedrals (900-1280)
Cavalry (8th c)
Holy Roman Empire (800)
Manors
What the Middle Ages knew
Christian conversion of the Pagans
During the Roman empire Christianity was an urban phenomenon
In the early Middle Ages, rural churches and monasteries spread it to the rural population ("pagus" = countryside)
What the Middle Ages knew
Christian conversion of the Pagans
340: Christianization and literalization of the Goths (Ulfila and the "Gothic bible")
360: the Vandals convert to christianity
371: Martin of Tours converts pagans
376: Visigoths convert to Arian christianity
432: missionary Patrick is taken prisoner to Ireland
450: the first British monasteries are established in Wales
496: Clovis converts Franks to catholicism
587: the Visigothic king Recared converts to catholicism
588: the Visigoths abandon Aryanism and convert to catholicism
597: Pope Gregory I dispatches monks to England
What the Middle Ages knew
Christian conversion of the Pagans
603: the Lombards convert to Christianity and move their capital to Pavia
650: Arianism disappears after the Lombards convert to catholicism
670: Whitby monk Caedmon translates the gothic Bible into Germanic vernacular (ancient english)
678: Wilfrid evangelizes in Frisia (Holland)
690: English missionary Willibrord evangelizes in Holland and Denmark
722: the Anglosaxon Benedectine monk Boniface (Wynfrid) evangelizes in Saxony
800: Pope Leo III crowns Charles emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
What the Middle Ages knew
Christian conversion of the Pagans
862: Boris of Bulgary converts to christianity
862: Ratislav of Moravia converts to christianity
870: The Serbs convert to christianity
912: the Normans become Christian
965: Denmark converts to christianity
966: the ruler of Poland converts to Christianity
988: Vladimir of Kiev converts to Christianity
995 : Olav I conquers Norway and proclaims it Christian
1008 AD: Sweden converts to Christianity
1385: Lithuania unites with Poland and converts to
1396: the English translation of the Bible, begun by John Wycliffe, is completed (the "Wycliffe" Bible)
What the Middle Ages knew
Arab invasion
Breakdown of the economic and political unity of the Mediterranean Sea
International trade shrinks
Papyrus disappears from Gaul (replaced by parchment)
Spices disappear from Gaul
Silk disappears from Gaul
Gold is replaced by silver in Gaul (silver "denarii")
Professional merchants disappear
What the Middle Ages knew
Arab invasion
Jews keep alive commerce - only economic link between Islam and Christianity (slaves, gold, spices)
Venezia only economic link between Holy and Eastern Roman Empires (slaves, gold, spices)
Netherlands only economic link with Scandinavia
What the Middle Ages knew
Commercial revolution
Pirates, bandits, warfare
Decline of urban life
Decline of trade
What the Middle Ages knew
Commercial revolution
Trade fairs of 7th-9th c (Champagne, Flanders, northern Germany)
Italian communes (10th c)
Birth of a real bourgeois class
What the Middle Ages knew
Capitals of Christianity
Constantinople/Byzantium (wealthiest city until 1000)
Anthioch
Alexandria
(Jerusalem)
(Rome)
What the Middle Ages knew
Byzantium
Wealthiest city until 1000
Hagia Sophia, Byzantium (537)
San Vitale, Ravenna (547)

What the Middle Ages knew
Monasticism and religious movements
Cluny (910) & Odilo (1000): first international network of monasteries, close ties with secular society
Saint Bruno - Carthusians (1084): radical desert-style monasticism
Cistercians (1098)
St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercian (1115): fanatical orthodoxy, isolated from secular society, crusades
Peter Valdo - Waldensian (1177): poverty
Albigensians/ Catharists (12th c): god of good vs god of evil
What the Middle Ages knew
Monasticism and religious movements
San Francesco/Francis d'Assisi (1206): poverty, humility, beauty of the world, argument based on example (rural view)
Domingo/Dominic de Guzman (1215): poverty but also philosophy, argument based on logic (urban view), and preaching against heresy
Inquisition (1233)
Black Death (1347)
What the Middle Ages knew
Monasticism
The Barbar wars in Italy drove both rich and educated men into the cloisters
Kings, aristocrats and bishops founded abbeys
Evangelization of the pagans: Saint Fructuosus (Spain), Gregory the Great, Augustine (Anglo-Saxons)
Anglo-saxon evangelization of the pagans: Wynfrith/Boniface (Frisia, Saxony), Willibrord (Holland, Denmark)
What the Middle Ages knew
Monasticism
Trivium: Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectics
Quadrivium: Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy
Grammar as an exegetical tool for understanding the Scriptures
Liturgy = Music
Emergence of polyphonal music (980-1130)
Art as a discourse on God
Not the nature of things but their mystical meaning
Late 12th c: the trivium not as the pinnacle, but only as preparation to the exegesis of the Bible
What the Middle Ages knew
Monasticism
The visible world is narrow, precarious, dangerous, decaying: the Church freed people from this world and offered a stable, safe, eternal alternative
_or burn in hell
What the Middle Ages knew
Monasticism
Through this door "Mens hebes ad verum per materialia surgit, Et demersa prius hac visa luce resurgit" (inscription of Suger on Saint-Denis' bronze doors)
Through this door the dull mind, through that which is material, rises to truth/ And, in seeing this light, is resurrected from its former submersion.
What the Middle Ages knew
Monasticism
The monastic ideal of withdrawal reflects a static peasant-and-warrior society
The urban society prompts the Church to reorganize into a totalitarian system modeled after the monarchy
Pope Innocent III (elected 1198) calls himself the king of all kings
The Church declares war on the heretics (eg, Albigensians) and on the schismatics (Constantinople, 1204)
What the Middle Ages knew
Lindisfarne Gospels (698)
Title both in English ("Onginneth Godspell_") and in Latin ("Incipit evangelium secundum Mattheum")
What the Middle Ages knew
Encyclopedias
Isidore of Seville (Spain): "Etymologiae" (600?)
What the Middle Ages knew
Feudalism
France: circa 980
Germany: circa 1130
What the Middle Ages knew
Feudalism
Causes
Break-down of the Carolingian empire
Endemic warfare
Disintegration of royal authority
Defense from Vikings, Saracens and Magyars can be provided more effectively by local "lords" than by the central army, which is slow to assemble and to move (conceived for planned large-scale aggression, not forprevention of unpredictable raids)
What the Middle Ages knew
Feudalism
Mounted "vassals" (warhorse)
The huge army of peasants is replaced by a small army of professional fighters
Service in wartime becomes an exclusive privilege (knights, chivalry)
What the Middle Ages knew
Feudalism
Early feudalism (from "fidelity"): cavalry soldiers rewarded with farms expropriated from the Church (Charles Martel)
Late feudalism: mutual obligation between a lord and a vassal (social peers, both from aristocracy), usually granting of fiefs (land and labor) in return for political and military services (hereditary from 11th century)
What the Middle Ages knew
Feudalism
Feudal pyramid (prince, barons, knights)
Decline caused by increasing mercenary relations between lords and knights
Signoria: obligation of the paesants towards the lord
What the Middle Ages knew
Feudalism and Church
Church's propaganda instills fear of God (and fear of death, esp after 1040)
Feudal lords seek to win God's favors and avoid damnation
Feudal lords donate wealth to the Church, which uses that wealth to finance its propaganda
E.g.: Henrik II bequeathed to Cluny his gold scepter, gold robe, gold crown, gold crucifix, etc.
Church even allows the living relatives to help the deceased achieve salvation
What the Middle Ages knew
Feudalism and Church
Church displays wealth to match power of the feudal lords
Most monks come from noble families
Monks are the Church's knights, fighting for the Lord
The universe as a large-scale feudal system, in which warfare is endemic and monks fight for God's empire
Apostles and Archangels are the court of God
What the Middle Ages knew
Feudalism and women
No place for women
Feudalism and knighthood a society of males
11th century art ignores women
Carcassonne & San Gimignano
What the Middle Ages knew
Cathedrals
Total art
architecture
sculpture
painting
carpentry
glasswork
...
What the Middle Ages knew
Cathedrals
Building cathedrals: a large enterprise
Master mason
hundreds of masons
thousands of laborers
hundreds of quarrymen
smiths and carpenters
carts, wagons, boats
What the Middle Ages knew
Cathedrals
Rebirth of the city
Most manor lords decide to move to the cities
Paris is the first real capital in western Europe since Rome
Reign of Louis IX (1226-70), wealthiest Latin king
1130: the most royal church is a monastery (St Denis), not a cathedral
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of cavalry
Massagets (Central Asia), VI BC: heavy cavalry with massive armour
India, II BC: the toe-stirrup
Barbarians, I AD: Saddle
Barbarians, I AD: Heavy horse - destrier
Eastern Roman Empire, 378 AD: Battle of Adrianople
China, V AD: the foot-stirrup
Eastern Roman Empire, 568: the Avars, riding horses with stirrups, invade Pannonia (Hungary)
Western Europe, VIII AD: the barbaric kingdoms adopt the stirrup
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of cavalry
Francia, 732: Charles Martel expropriates Church lands to support conversion of the Frankish army to cavalry
Roman church: need for cavalry to repel the Arab armies
Francia, IX AD: Charlemagne improves armors with iron
Subsequent centuries: armor, shield, lance, etc
Landowners run the horse-based economy (feudalism)
Development of an elite of mounted warriors
Constantinople, X AD: four regiments of cavalry and one of infantry
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of cavalry
New type of warfare based on the horse
New type of society based on land ownership
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of cavalry
Note the imitation of the equestrian statue of the Marcus Aurelius in Campidoglio
Note armor but no stirrup
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of motte-and-bailey castles
Originally a command post for the "castelan" (Carolingian official)
Disintegration of Charlemagne empire causes chaos
Viking raids
Masonry too costly for rural population
Timber + earth ("motte and bailey")
Quick and cheap to build
Easy to defend
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of manors
The plough: first application of non-human power to agriculture
Increased productivity but requires eight oxen
Cooperative agricultural community (the manor)
Three-field rotation (VIII): wheat/rye + oats/legumes + fallow
50% productivity increase
Elimination of famine by diversification of crops
Surplus of oats for horses
Horseshoes (IX AD)
50% increased productivity of horses over oxen (speed)
Horses replace oxen (XI AD)
Four-wheel wagon (XII)
What the Middle Ages knew
Northern Europe vs Mediterranean
The Roman world was a Mediterranean world
The Carolingian world was a landlocked Northern European world
The Arab invasion of Africa, Spain, southern Italy cut off the West from sea trade
The new agriculture spread in northern Europe and fostered rapid urbanization and higher standards of living
Holy Roman Empire
An empire with no fleet (Eastern Roman Empire and Arabs were great naval powers)
What the Middle Ages knew
Communes (1000)
Papacy (1059-1303)
Universities (1088-1400)
Crusades (1099-1270)
Guns (1200)
Magna Carta (1225)
Marco Polo (1266)
Humanism (1300)
Black Death (1348)
Fall of Byzanthium (1453)
Inquisition (1480)
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of the communes (after 1000)
No urban society survived the Barbarian and Viking invasions
Northern Europe: new towns, markets
Southern Europe: old towns, seatrade
Italian seatrading cities (Venezia, Genova, Milano_)
Hanseatic League (Luebeck, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Bruges_)
Northern France (Paris_)
Southern England (London_)
Rhinelands (Basel, Mainz, Aachn, Koeln_)
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of the communes (after 1000)
Domestic politics: struggle among guilds
Foreign politics: struggle against the lord
Weak imperial power
The Commune
Venice
What the Middle Ages knew
Western cities over 100,000 inhabitants in
526: Alexandria, Antioch, Byzantium, Rome
737: Byzantium
1000: Baghdad, Byzantium
1212: Baghdad, Cairo, Byzantium
1346: Cairo, Byzantium, Florence, Genoa, Ghent, Milan, Paris, Tabriz, Venice
What the Middle Ages knew
Papacy
Augustinianism: the state is the servant of the church
Clunyan reform: only cardinals can elect the pope (1059)
Gregorian reform: primacy of the papacy over the empire, infallibility of the Church, right of the pope to depose emperors (1073)
The Church as the unifying element of Europe
The Church controlled education
The Church controlled the arts
Bishops controlled non-inheritable lands
Latin
Medieval synthesis: Church, Cities, Kings (clergy, bourgeoisie, nobility)
Kremlin
What the Middle Ages knew
Continues on Part II

What the Middle Ages knew III


What the Middle Ages knewart II
What the Middle Ages knew
Scholasticism (1050)
Reason can prove the Christian revelation
Philosophy and science of Aristotle
Systematic understanding of Nature and Christianity
Monasteries
God is the source of both scientific and religious phenomena
God is truth
Therefore science must be consistent with religion
Averroes: two truths, one the approximation of the other
Scholastics: only one truth
What the Middle Ages knew
Scholasticism (1050)
Reason can prove the Christian revelation
Philosophy and science of Aristotle
Systematic understanding of Nature and Christianity
Monasteries
God is the source of both scientific and religious phenomena
God is truth
Therefore science must be consistent with religion
Averroes: two truths, one the approximation of the other
Scholastics: only one truth
What the Middle Ages knew
Universities
Medical school: Salerno (11th c)
Law school: Bologna (1088)
University
Paris (12th c): the French kings encourage education among clerics
Oxford (12th c): benefits from Paris' 1229 student riots
What the Middle Ages knew
Universities
Johannes Gratian: "Concordantia discordantium canonum" or "Decretum" (114x), father of canon law
Peter Lombard: "Liber Sententiarum" (1151), father of theology
Peter Comestor "Historia Scholastica" (117x) father of Biblical history
Full Latin translation of Aristotle from the Arabic (12th c)
What the Middle Ages knew
Universities
Logic as the main subject in the trivium
The scholars of the urban centers demand formal demonstrations of God's attributes
What the Christians Knew
Johannes Scotus Erigena (870)
Nature is divided into
that which creates but is not created (God as creator)
that which creates and is created (the ideas, or Logos)
that which is created but does not create (the objects in space and time)
that which which does not create nor is created (God as supreme end)
What the Christians Knew
Johannes Scotus Erigena (870)
The uncreated creator (God) originates...
...the created creators (the ideas) from which originate...
...the created non-creators (the objects), i.e. according to which Nature is formed, which returns to the...
...uncreated non-creator (God again)
Only God truly exists (God is the beginning, the substance and the end of the universe)
What the Christians Knew
Walafrid Strabo (9th c)
Commentary on the Bible
Man is composed of body, soul and spirit
The Bible contains three levels of meaning: literal, moral and mystical
What the Christians Knew
Anselm (1070)
Ontological argument to prove the existence of God
God is the greatest possible thing
Peter Abelard (1079)
Most influential of Parisian intellectuals
Aristotle rather than Plato
Reason
What the Christians Knew
William of Saint-Thierry (1085)
Progress from the body (center of animal life) to the soul (center of reason) to the spirit (center of ecstasy)
Focus on love: "De natura amoris"
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090)
Against dialectics and logic: "Quia amare dei est deus" (what causes us to love god is god)
The Virgin Mary, mother of God, as a symbol of love
Focus on love: "De amore Dei"
What the Christians Knew
Hugh of Saint-Victor (1096)
Every visible thing is a sign of the invisible truth that the soul will discover after death
Cogitatio to penetrate the secrets of the material world
Meditatio to penetrate the secrets of one's soul
Contemplatio to to intuit the real essence of the universe
What the Christians Knew
Jean Roscelin (1100)
Nominalism: forms and concepts only exist in our minds
Thierry of Chartres (12th c)
Physical explanation of the Genesis
Robert Grosseteste (1175)
Commentary on the "Physics" of Aristotle
Treatises on geometry, meteorology, and optics
The universe is light, and everything radiates from light
What the Christians Knew
Albertus Magnus (1206)
Compendium of living creatures
Amaury of Bene (13th c)
Pantheism: Everything is one, everything is god
What the Christians Knew
Islamic philosophy
Avicenna
Al-Ghazali
Averroes
What the Christians Knew
Siger de Brabant (Averroism):
Philosophy is independent of revelation
Thomas Aquinas (1264)
Reconciled Aristotle and Christianity
What the Christians Knew
Francesco d'Assisi
God is in nature
Intuitive knowledge of God
What the Christians Knew
Thomas Aquinas (1264)
There is only one truth, not two (logic can prove religion true)
Attributes of God can be proven logically
God is the mover that does not move (the first cause)
God is omniscient, omnipotent and perfect
Creation ex nihilo
In God, essence and existence are the same ("the essence of God is his existence", "existence is the substance of God", "God is in all things")
God is the ultimate process of self-realization
What the Christians Knew
Thomas Aquinas (1264)
Aristotelian view of mind
Vegetative life (reproduction, metabolism)
Sensory-motor life (perception, locomotion)
Sentient life (reason, free will)
The soul is the form of the body
God creates the soul (that did not pre-exist) and the soul is then immortal
All living beings have souls, but only humans have spiritual souls
The mind (intellect) is the device by which spiritual souls perceive other forms
Knowledge comes not from mystic revelation but from sensory experience
What the Christians Knew
Thomas Aquinas (1264)
Aristotelian view of mind
The mind does not perceive matter but form, not individuals but universals
Forms perceived by the mind become concepts (no innate ideas)
The soul is the form of the body and uses it to acquire knowledge
The quest for happiness is a quest for knowledge (the human essence is to understand)
True happiness can only be achieved in the afterlife (the "vision of the divine essence")
Reason can never attain full knowledge of God
Ethics: Greek virtues plus theological virtues (faith, hope, charity, love)
What the Christians Knew
Roger Bacon (1269)
Encyclopedia of logic, mathematics, physics, ethics, etc
Logic and observation allow an understanding of nature
Science to be founded on logic and observation
What the Middle Ages knew
Johannes Eckart (1308)
God is being, and being is God
Anything that "is" is God
Everything emanates from God
God is One, and brings the many into One
God is the being of all things
The soul can know God by forgetting itself, by renouncing its self-consciousness
The soul can do God's will by renouncing its self-will
Self-will causes inner conflict
What the Middle Ages knew
John Duns Scotus (1300)
Rigorous proof for the existence of God, the primary and infinite being
Human reason cannot grasp the nature of God (God is infinite, the human mind is finite)
One can only prove a few truths
Truth via reason AND divine revelation
Theology and philosophy are distinct: Theology is the (practical) discipline of the nature of God, Philosophy is the (theoretical) discipline of the "first cause"
Theology is concerned with saving souls
What the Middle Ages knew
Buridan, Jean (1300)
"Buridan's ass": the ass starves to death between two equally alluring and equidistant bundles of hay because it has no rational basis for preferring one bundle over the other
Appearance of motion is relative: there is no way to determine if it is the Earth or the universe that moves
What the Middle Ages knew
William Occam/Ockham (1320, England)
Separation of Logic and Metaphysics
Logic
Logic has no reality outside the mind
Universals (concepts) are in the mind: they are symbols devoid of reality ("nominalism")
Logic is processing symbols for the sake of the mind: abstract reasoning does not lead to certain knowledge
Human knowledge is limited to individuals, which truly exists and are open to observation.
Universals (or relations between individuals) are a fiction of the mind
What the Middle Ages knew
William Occam (1320)
Separation of Logic and Metaphysics
Separation of the profane and the sacred
Separation of science and Church
Metaphysics
Knowledge of God is possible only through revelation
The existence of God, the immortality of the soul, etc cannot be deduced logically but requires a profession of faith
What the Middle Ages knew
William Occam (1320)
Separation of Logic and Metaphysics
Logic has no reality outside the mind
Universals are in the mind
Logic is processing symbols for the sake of the mind
Knowledge of God is possible only through revelation
Human knowledge is limited to individuals, which truly exists and are open to observation, and to universals (or relations between individuals), which are a fiction of the mind
What the Middle Ages knew
Theory of impetus
Aristotle: nothing moves unless it is moved
Things can move if they are impressed with an original force, vis impressa
Nicholas Oresmus (XIV): metaphor of the universe as a vast mechanical clock built by God
What the Middle Ages knew
Knowledge of the Earth
Marco Polo: "Il Milione" (1298)
Pierre d'Ailly: "Imago Mundi" (14th c)
Albertus Magnus (13th c): the Earth is a sphere
Nicolas Oresme (14th c): the rotation of the Earth on an axis explains the daily motion of the universe
What the Middle Ages knew
Scientific investigation
Leonardo Fibonacci: "Liber Abacus" (1202)
Indian numerals
Fibonacci sequence (first recursive number sequence)
Roger Bacon
Benefectors of science: Alfonso of Castille and Frederick II (13th c)
Plus and minusigns (15th c)
Richard of Wallingford (14th c): Trigonometry
Guillaume St Cloud (14th c): Astronomy
What the Middle Ages knew
Bestiary
Hugo of St. Victor: "Tractatus de bestiis et aliis rebus" (12th c, Germany)
Richard de Fournival: "Bestiaire d'Amour" (13th c, France)
Albertus Magnus: "De animalibus" (13th c, Germany)
Vincent de Beauvais: "Speculum naturale" (13th c, France)
What the Middle Ages knew
San Bernardino da Siena (1470)
Scholastic economics
Defense of the entrepreneur
Justification of private property
Ethics of trade
What the Middle Ages knew
Love
Idealized (Platonic) love
Spiritual element
Allegorical element
Conventions of love discourse and behavior
What the Middle Ages knew
Chivalry (12th-14th c, originally northern France)
Importance of mounted warrior to fight Eastern barbarians and Muslims
Knighthood an expensive job (armor, horse, weapons)
Nobles grant land to mounted warriors in return for their services
Tournaments to train the knights
Knights/chevaliers form new caste of nobility
Initially (1000) they are feared like bandits by the Church, but slowly they devote an ever larger share of their wealth to the glory of God
What the Middle Ages knew
Chivalry (12th-14th c)
Courtly love: devotion to a lady (mostly adulterous love)
Knights embrace poetry and music to romance their lady
Heroism and Love
Asceticism and Eroticism
Tournaments as proof of valor and devotion
What the Middle Ages knew
Chivalry (12th-14th c)
Code of chivarly develops: Christian piety, social manners
The Peace of God forbids knights from attacking peasants, women, priests, merchants
The Truce of God forbids knights from waging war on sundays and holy days
Orders of the Knights
Code of chivalry inspired by the ideals of Christianity, i.e. transnational

What the Middle Ages knew
Chivalry (12th-14th c)
Increasing popularity of pilgrimage
St Peter's, Rome
Saint Sepulchrum, Jerusalem
Santiago de Campostela, Spain
The Church converts the knights into servants of God
Violence is bad, except when waged against non-christians
Knights protect the journey of pilgrims
Eventually, knights also become an offensive, not only defensive, army (crusades)
What the Middle Ages knew
Chivalry (12th-14th c)
Military religious orders of the 12th c
Originally founded in Jerusalem to protect the crusader states and escort pilgrims
Poverty and chastity vows
Their strategic role leads to increased wealth and power

What the Middle Ages knew
Chivalry (12th-14th c)
Hospitalers (the Knights of Saint John)
Originally founded (1091) to perform charitable functions near the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Jerusalem
Charter based on the monastic rule of Saint Augustine
Fortresses in Palestine (Krak des Chevaliers, Belvoir, Margat)
Muslim reconquer Palestine and Hospitalers move to Rhodes (1309)
Only Christian presence in the Eastern Mediterranean in 1453 (and Malta in 1530)
What the Middle Ages knew
Chivalry (12th-14th c)
Knights Templar (the Poor Knights of Christ, Hugh de Payens, 1119)
Charter modeled on the Cistercian monks
Fortresses throughout Palestine
Banking system to move donations from Europe to Palestine
Complex systems for the transportation of wealth to and from the Holy Land)
Cheques (safer than transporting large amounts of gold or silver)
Muslim reconquer Palestine and Templars' headquarters move to Cyprus (1291)
The Pope dissolves the order and transfers their property to the Hospitalers (1312)
What the Middle Ages knew
Chivalry (12th-14th c)
Teutonic Knights (the Knights of Saint Mary's Hospital)
Founded at Acre in Palestine in 1190 to defend a hospital
Limited to German noblemen
Monastic rule of the Templars
Eastern Europe (Prussia in 1226, forcible conversion of the Slavs,
Resettlement of Germans into Prussia, rapid expansion to Livonia,
Providing protection to the Hanseatic League,
Defeated by Poland/Lithuania in 1410)
What the Middle Ages knew
Decline of Chivalry
The large Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) requires extensive army of professional mercenaries, not just knights
English longbow increases the importance of archers
Gunpowder makes the armored knight irrelevant
Military importance of the knight declines, and the importance of chivalry rituals increases
Large financial burden implied by the rituals of knighthood
What the Middle Ages knew
Decline of Chivalry
Knights in the nation-state era wage war for the glory of their nation
Exclusive social distinction
Orders of knights in England, France, Bourgogne, Iberia
Code of chivalry specific to each nation
Golden Century
13th century = Golden Century
Improved communications between Europe and Asia thanks to the Mongol Empire
Improved business techniques thanks to the Italian merchant colonies of the Crusader states
Silver, copper and gold mines of Bohemia, Carpathians and Transylvania for coin minting
Improved sea trade in the Northern Sea thanks to supremacy of the Hanseatic League
Commercial banking in Italy thanks to large trading companies
Courier service thanks to branch offices ("scarsella" between Firenze, Genova and Avignon)
Golden Century
13th century = Golden Century
Agriculture improved by agronomy
Landlords still more consumers than producers
Deforestation of Europe
Labor-intensive one-crop grain cultivation
Land reclamation (both by free mountain peasants, castles, monasteries, city capitalists)
Textile improved by spinning wheel (first instance of belt trasmission of power)
Silk culture in Italy thanks to the Crusade of 1204
Golden Century
13th century = Golden Century
Manufacturing improved by mills
Machines
Golden Century
13th century = Golden Century
Population boom
Population almost doubled between 1000 and 1300 (38 million to 74 million)
End of Viking, Magyar and Saracen raids
Decline of slavery
Expansion of arable land (deforestation)
Improved agricultural techniques
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of machines
Horizontal water mill (Egypt, 2nd c. BC)
Vertical water mill (Vetruvius, 1st c. BC)
10th c. AD: mills pervasive for grinding grain, fulling clothes, pressing olives and tanning
Monasteries pioneered mill technology
The first waterpowered iron mills were Cistercian (Italy, Germany, England)
William the Conqueror's "Domesday Book" (1086) lists 5,624 mills
Papermill (1255 Genoa, 1348 Troyes, 1390 Nuremberg)
First water-powered paper mill: Fabriano, 1276
End of 12th c: windmill (England, North Sea)
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of machines
9th c. AD: crank (China, I c. AD)
1126: artesian well (invented by the Carthusians in Artois)
12th c. AD: trebuchet (catapult)
12th c. AD: paper (Spain, also from China)
13th c. AD: mechanical clock and planetarium
13th c. AD: spinning wheel (first instance of belt trasmission of power)
1285: spectacles (Italy)
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of machines
Textiles (11th-12th c)
Linen (ancient western technology)
Wool (Flanders)
Cotton (Pianura Padana)
Silk (Sicily, but mostly imported)
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of machines
Milano (12th c) center of military technology (weapons, armors)
Cannon (late 13th c)
Decline of the castle (15th c)
Handguns (end of 14th c)
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of machines
Horizontal loom of 1250 (manuscript at Trinity College, Cambridge)
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of machines
Water-powered blast furnace (13th-14th c)
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of machines
Escapement (end of 13th c)
Mechanical clock (13th c - 14th c)
First machine made entirely of metal
Initially to serve the need of astrologists (astronomical clocks) and made by blacksmiths
St Eustorgio (Milano, 1309)
Tower of Visconti palace chapel (Milano, 1335, first clock that struck automatically)
Giant clock of Strasbourg (1354)
First clockmakers (Jacopo di Dondi, who built the clock for the tower of the Carrara palace at Padua, 1344)
First household clocks: end of 13th c, made by goldsmiths/silversmiths, not by blacksmiths
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of machines
Theophilus Presbyter: "De Diversis Artibus" (13th c), Europe's first technical manual
The art of the painter
The art of the glass worker
The art of the metal worker
Each village acquires its own carpenter and smith
What the Middle Ages knew
Age of machines
Masonry Castle
Langeais, France (1000)
Hedingham, England (1140)
Krak des Chevaliers, Palestine (12th c)
Trebuchet (France, 12th c)
Crossbow (Italy, 11th c)
Bridge
Pont St Esprit (12th c): new technique
London bridge (1176-1209): house and shops
Firenze's Pontevecchio (1333)
What the Middle Ages knew
Firenze's Pontevecchio (1333)
What the Middle Ages knew
Alchemy
Elixir of eternal life
Transmutation of metals
Golden Century
Wool 1200-1300
Transformation from farmhouse/domestic occupation to international industry
England, rich in land for large-scale sheep grazing, exports the greater part of its wool to the Flanders
the Flanders, rich in population but not in grazing land, specializes in production of high-quality cloth
First manufactured good since the Roman empire to be driven by a broad international market
Golden Century
Wool 1200-1300
Men replace women at the looms
Wool production shifts from the countryside to the towns
Several specialists participate in the production of cloth
Wealthy merchants drive the industry
Consequences: concentration of capital and specialization of labor
Italians buy cloth at the Champagne fairs (six times a year) and resell it throughout the Mediterranean
Golden Century
Wool 1200-1300
Flanders & England to...
Firenze (200 companies, workday of 16 hours, workweek of 6 days) to...
other Italian cities (manufacturing, resale) to...
customers around the world
(Eventually both England and Firenze become cloth-making centers and compete with Flanders)
Golden Century
Flanders' cloth trade
Buys wool from England
Sells wool to local weaver
Buys cloth from local weaver
Sells cloth to local fuller
Buys finished cloth from local fuller
Sells cloth to local dyer
Buys dyed cloth from local dyer
Sells dyed cloth at Champagne or Flanders fair
Birth of a bourgeois class (drapers) and a proletarian class (the weavers)
First worker in history to strike: the weaver (Douai, 1245)
Golden Century
Land transportation
Bridges
Bridge-building boom of the 11th c
St Gothard Pass opens to pack animals thanks to bridges (1237)
Four-wheeled wagons prevail over two-wheeled carts
Comfort
"Chariots branlants" of the 14th c
Kocs (Hungary) capital of the one-horse, lightweight passenger vehicle
Land transport of goods faster (14-35 kms a day)
Golden Century
Revival of sea trade
Jews: most extensive trade network in the Mediterranean
Italian republics: triangular trade Byzantium-Arabs-Italy
Arabs: only within the Muslim world
Golden Century
Revival of sea trade/ Italy
High costs of sea trade: shares of investment ("carats")
Boom of 1150-1277
Multiplication of sea routes
Direct link between East and West Mediterranean
Direct link with the Flanders (1277) and England, causing the decline of Champagne fairs and land routes
Golden Century
Revival of sea trade/ Italy
Population boom and rapid urbanization (by 1500 seven of the ten largest cities in western Europe are in Italy)
Emigration of Greek intellectuals to Italian city-states (prodromes of humanism)
Golden Century
Revival of sea trade/ Italy
Navigation instruments
Compass
Charts
Hourglass
Two trips a year between Venezia/Genova and Egypt or Asia Minor
Golden Century
Revival of sea trade/ Italian dominance
Textiles from northern Europe to Byzantium and Arabs
Wood and iron from northern Europe to the Arabs (illegal)
Spices, perfumes, cotton and silk from the East to northern Europe
Produce and raw materials from the East to Italy's cities
Gold from Africa to Italian city-states
North-south imbalance: high added-value manufactured goods (England, Flanders, Northern Italy) for produce and raw materials (Arabs, Southern Europe)
Slaves from the Slavic countries to the East
Golden Century
Revival of sea trade/ Crisis (1291-1453)
Failure of Crusades (1291) caused Nautical Revolution
Goal: to increase productivity of maritime trade
New ship technology that would last till the steamship
Piracy on the rise
The unity of the Mediterranean is shattered again by the fall of Constantinople (1453) and the emergence of the Ottoman empire
Prodromes of the Renaissance
Mercantile cities 1300-1400
City-states (Genoa, Venezia, Milano, Firenze)
Economic empires (affecting three continents)
Aristocracy of wealth (wealth rather than birth)
Decline of feudal system (communal system)
High political instability
Prodromes of the Renaissance
Mercantile cities 1300-1400
Genoa
Venezia
Milano: military dictatorship
Firenze
Their wealth depends on external conditions
Prodromes of the Renaissance
Mercantile cities 1300-1400
Education
Geography
Accounting
Writing
Datini family: 120,000 letters between 1382 and 1410
Technology
Caravel
Clock
Universities
Prodromes of the Renaissance
Mercantile cities 1300-1400
The Guilds (wool, carpenters, goldsmiths,...)
Membership into the guilds based on profession, not politics
Shopkeepers and workers not admitted
Male only
Membership in a guild a condition for citizenry in the commune (the guilds as the basis for the 1293 constitution of Firenze)
Firenze: only 40% of male adult population admitted to guilds
Nobility: landowners
Prodromes of the Renaissance
Mercantile cities 1300-1400
Firenze
Banks and wool
Venezia
Gateway to Constantinople/Byzantium
Eastern spice trade
Naval supremacy (technological advances that enabled long-distance and winter voyages)
Prodromes of the Renaissance
Mercantile cities 1300-1400
Firenze's new morality
Florentine merchant = Athenian hero (titanic struggle/competition to excel, status symbol, eternal glory)
Conflict of value systems: Christian values of Church vs Economic values of Capitalism
Slave Trade
GenoaeneziaŹ80
Prodromes of the Renaissance
14th century = A Century of Disasters
Bankruptcies of Italian banks
Hundred-Year War (1337)
Famine (1315-17)
Black Death (1348)
Prodromes of the Renaissance
The Black Death (1348)
Caused by the urban revolution of the 11th-13th centuries
Caused by the revival in international trade

Caused the social transformation of the 14th-16th centuries
Prodromes of the Renaissance
The Black Death (1348)
Lower population led to
Increased land per person led to
Higher living standards
Meat-based diet
Lower supply of labor led to
Higher urban and agricultural wages led to
Higher living standards
Higher social status of workers and peasants
Investing in technological innovation
Prodromes of the Renaissance
The Black Death (1348)
More bequests from wealthy people led to
Creation of national universities which led to
Demand for books led to
Printing press
Scarcity of educated people led to
Adoption of vernacular languages instead of Latin in the universities
Prodromes of the Renaissance
Death
Danse Macabre (Jean LeFevre: "Je fis de macabre la dance", 1376)
Trionfo della Morte (Camposanto of Pisa, 1350)
The Art of Dying (Germany, 1400)
Prodromes of the Renaissance
Decline of the Italian city-states
1453: Fall of Constantinople
1494-1529: Italian wars (France, Aragon and the German emperor invade and split Italy)
1527: German mercenaries sack Rome
Italy becomes a battleground in the dynastic wars
Prodromes of the Renaissance
Decline of the Italian city-states
Venezia
Decline of Eastern trade due to the Ottoman conquests
Venezia loses naval supremacy
Firenze
Italian wars end with annexation of Firenze to the French "empire"
Continued on Medieval III

What the Middle Ages knew IV


What the Middle Ages knewart III
What the Middle Ages knew
Epics
"Beowulf" (900, Britain)
"Chanson de Roland" (1070, France)
"Edda" (1100, Scandinavia)
"Cantar del Cid" (Spain, 1140)
Chretien de Troyes (1160, France): "Perceval" (1190)
Wolfram Von Eschenbach (117#, Germany): "Parzival" (1210)
"Slovo o Ploku Igoreve" (1185, Russia)
"Nibelungen" (1205 , Germany)
What the Middle Ages knew
Poetry
"Manyoshu" (760, Japan)
Bilhana (850, India): "Fifty Stanzas of Secret Love" (900)
Hakim Ferdowsi (932, Persia): "Shah Nameh" (1010)
"Genji Monogatari" (1000, Japan)
Yusuf Balasaghun (1069, Kashgar): "The Wisdom Of Royal Glory" (1069)
Omar Khayyam (1050, Persia): "Rubaiyat" (1120)
Chu Hsi (1130, China)
Dante Alighieri (1265, Italy): "Commedia" (1300)
Kenko Hoshi (1283, Japan)
What the Middle Ages knew
Amour courtois
Love of the Virgin Mary
Love-based ethics of the knights
San Franciscan love of the world
Love as the main force of the world
Love as the meaning of life

What the Middle Ages knew
Vernacular literature
Roman de la Rose
Divine Comedy
Addressed to everybody, not only the Church
Compendiums of knowledge
Artists at the service of men, not of God alone
Narrative
What the Middle Ages knew
Poetry
Hafez (1324, Persia): "Divan"
Francesco Petrarca (1304, Italy): "Canti" (1374)
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340, Britain): "Canterbury Tales" (1400)
Inigo Santillana (1398, Spain): "Cancionero" (1449)
Villon (1431, France): "Testament" (1462)
What the Middle Ages knew
Humanism
Dante
Petrarca
Boccaccio
What the Middle Ages knew
Dante (1300)
What the Middle Ages knew
Dante (1300)
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, ch‚ la diritta via era smarrita (Inferno, I)
O superbi cristian, miseri lassi, che, de la vista de la mente infermi, fidanza avete ne' retrosi passi, non v'accorgete voi che noi siam vermi nati a formar l'angelica farfalla, che vola a la giustizia sanza schermi? (Purgatorio, X)
l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle (Paradise, XXXIII)
What the Middle Ages knew
Dante (1300)
O you proud Christians, wretched souls and small
Who by the dim lights of your twisted minds
Believe you prosper even as you fall,
Can you not see that we are worms, each one
Born to become the angelic butterfly
That flies defenseless to the Judgement Throne?
(Purgatorio, X)
What the Middle Ages knew
Prose
Giovanni Boccaccio (1313, Italy): "Decameron" (1353)
What the Middle Ages knew
Ars Nova: instruments
Profane values invade sacred music
What the Middle Ages knew
Art
Illuminated manuscripts
What the Middle Ages knew
Art
Christian worship as the driving force for every cultural activity (painting, architecture, literature, music_)
Aesthetic of imitation
Second Council of Nicaea (787): the visual artist to work for the Church, faithful to the letter of the Bible (only the Church is allowed to interpret the scriptures)
What the Middle Ages knew
Art
Giotto (1267, Italy)
"Trionfo della Morte" (1350, Camposanto di Pisa)
Andrej Rublev (1360, Russia)
Jan Van Eyck (1390, Holland)
Paolo Uccello (1397, Italy)
Rogier Van der Weyden (1400, Holland)
Masaccio (1401, Italy)
Piero della Francesca (1420, Italy)
What the Middle Ages knew
Art
"Trionfo della Morte" (1350, Camposanto di Pisa)
What the Middle Ages knew
Giotto: Cappella degli Scrovegni (1305)
Jan Van Eyck: The Virgin of the Chancellor Rolin. (1436)
Paolo Uccello: Battaglia di San Romano/Part III (1456)
Piero della Francesca: "Sacra Conversazione" (1474)
What the Modern Age knew
Painting
Masaccio: Trinity, Santa Maria Novella (1427)
What the Modern Age knew
Sculpture
Wiligelmo (1100, Italy)
Nicola Pisano (1212, Italy)
Giovanni Pisano (1248, Italy)
Donatello (1386, Italy)
What the Middle Ages knew
Architecture
Benedetto Antelami (1150, Italy)
Arnolfo di Cambio (1245, Italy)
Filippo Brunelleschi (1377, Italy)
What the Middle Ages knew
Paleochristian architecture
Constantine's churches (326-337):
S. Pietro, Roma
S. Giovanni in Laterano, Roma
S. Maria Maggiore, Roma
St Sophia, Constantinople
Nativity, Bethlehem
Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem
All built according to Trajan's Basilica
What the Middle Ages knew
Paleochristian architecture in Italy
S. Paolo fuori le mura, Roma (480)
S. Costanza, Roma (IV)
S. Lorenzo, Milano (370)
S. Sabina, Roma (425)
S. Stefano Rotondo, Roma (V)
S. Giovanni Evangelista, Ravenna (430)
Galla Placida's Mausoleum, Ravenna (V)
What the Middle Ages knew
Mosaic floor of Aquileia (4th c)







Door of Sta Sabina
What the Middle Ages knew
Paleochristian in the Eastern Roman empire
Qalat Siman, Syria (470)
St John of Studion, Constantinople (463)
St Demetrius, Salonika (490)
Justinian architecture (527-565)
Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (532)
SS. Sergius and Bacchus, Constantinople (530)
S. Vitale, Ravenna (547)
S. Apollinare, Ravenna (549)
St John, Ephesus (565)
Holy Apostles, Constantinople
Prominent domes leave behind the example of the Trajan basilican
What the Middle Ages knew
Paleochristian in the Eastern Roman empire
Hagia Sophia, Constantinople (532)
S. Vitale, Ravenna (547)
S. Apollinare, Ravenna (549)
What the Middle Ages knew
Late Byzantine architecture
Zwartnots, Armenia (VII)
Cathedral of Ani, Armenia (X)
Mt Athos monastery, Greece
Hagia Sophia, Kiev (XI)
Cathedral of the Transfiguration, Chernigov
Vladimir cathedral, Novgorod (XI)
Nezeri, Yugoslavia (XII)
Gracanica, Serbia (XIV)
Hodeghetria, Mistra (XIV)
Cathedral of the Dormition, Moskow (XV)
St Basil, Moskow (1553)
What the Middle Ages knew
Romanesque architecture
Carolingian renaissance
Carolingian emperors want to be heirs to the Roman emperors, thus build in the Roman manner
Imperial chapels a` la Ravenna
Harmony of square (Earth) and circle (Heaven) via the octagon
Same structure used in early baptisteries
Same structure of the Holy Sepulchre
Basilicas
Vast, plain rectangle
Rows of blind arcades
Three parallel aisles
Light wooden roof
Large windows for lighting
What the Middle Ages knew
Romanesque architecture
Carolingian renaissance
Feeling that contemporary culture is barbarian, and perfection can only be found in the styles of the past
Artists dream of reproducing the classical styles of Greece and Rome, not of innovating
What the Middle Ages knew
Romanesque architecture
Carolingian renaissance
Centula, St Riquier, France (789, destroyed)
Aachen cathedral (792) modeled after St Vitale
Germigny-des-Pres, France (806)
Lorsch (800)
Klosterkirche Niederzell, Reichenau (799)
Klosterkirche Mittelzell, Reichenau (888)
Klosterkirche Oberzell, Reichenau (900)
Corvey, France (880)
Quedlinburg (920)
Gernrode (960)
St Benigne, Dijon, France (1001)
St Philibert, Tournus, France (1009)
St Michael, Hildesheim (1001)
What the Middle Ages knew
St Michael's bronze doors, Hildesheim (1015)
What the Middle Ages knew
Romanesque architecture
Carolingian renaissance
What the Middle Ages knew
Romanesque architecture
Imperial cathedrals (Kaiserdome)
Speyer cathedral (1030-60)
Mainz cathedral (975-1137)
Worms cathedral (XI-XIII)
Germany
Maria Laach (1093)
Tournai cathedral, Belgium (1110)
Limburg (1215)
Bamberg (1237)
What the Middle Ages knew
Romanesque architecture
Mainz cathedral (975-1137)
Worms cathedral (XI-XIII)
What the Middle Ages knew
Romanesque architecture
France
Ste Foyes at Conques (1050)
St Sernin at Toulouse (1080)
Cluny III (1088-1121, destroyed)
Pontigny (1114)
Fontenay (1139)
Paray-le-Monial (1100)
Autun (1120-1135)
Vezelay (1104)
Orcival
La Trinite`, Caen (1062)
St Etienne, Caen (1068)
Jumieges, Rouen (1052)
Cluny III (1088)
What the Middle Ages knew
Romanesque architecture
England 1066-1200
Canterbury cathedral
Winchester cathedral (1079)
Durham cathedral (1093)
Chichester cathedral
Worcester cathedral
Lincoln cathedral
Old St Paul's cathedral, London (destroyed)
Norwich cathedral
Rochester cathedral
Gloucester cathedral
York cathedral
Westminster Abbey (1065)
Castle Hedingham, Essex (1140)
What the Middle Ages knew
Romanesque architecture
Spain
Santiago de Campostela (1078)
Santiago de Penalba (919)
S. Maria de Lebena (924)
Ripoll (1032)
Seo de Urgel (1131)
Tarragona cathedral (1171)
Lerida cathedral (1203)
Jaca cathedral (1054)
St Vicente, Avila (1109)
Zamora cathedral (1150)
Salamanca cathedral (1150)
Portugal
Tomar (1162)

What the Middle Ages knew
Romanesque art in Italy
S. Miniato al Monte, Firenze (1062)
S. Ambrogio, Milano (1080)
S. Sigismondi, Rivolta d'Adda (1089)
S. Marco, Venezia (1094-XVII)
Duomo, Modena (1099-1323)
S. Zeno, Verona (1123-1398)
Campanile, Pomposa
Battistero, Firenze (XII)
Leaning Tower, Pisa (1173-XIV)
Duomo, Pisa (1013-1180)
S. Clemente, Roma (1100)
Antelami: Battistero, Parma (1196)
S. Francesco, Assisi (1228-XIV)
Duono, Firenze (1296-1436)
Campanile, Firenze (1334-59)
Romanesque in Northern Italy
Romanesque art in Italy
S. Ambrogio, Milano (1080)
S. Marco, Venezia (1094-XVII)
S. Zeno, Verona (1123-1398)
Battistero, Firenze (XII)
Leaning Tower, Pisa (1173-XIV)
Duomo, Pisa (1013-1180)
S. Francesco, Assisi (1228-XIV)
Antelami: Battistero, Parma (1196)
Romanesque in Italy
Romanesque art in Italy
Duono, Firenze (1296-1436)
Campanile, Firenze (1334-59)
Duomo, Trani (1150-1250)
What the Middle Ages knew
Gothic architecture
Pointed arch
Rib vault
Flying buttress
What the Middle Ages knew
Gothic
1130: the most royal church is a monastery (St Denis), not a cathedral
Suger redesigns it on thelogical bases (St Denis preserved the mystical manuscript attributed to Dionysus the Aeropagite)
St Denis built at the peak of excitement for the conquest of Jerusalem (focus on Jesus, the one of the three persons that most mattered to the crusaders)
St Denis built on geometry and arithmetics (influence of Arab science) not only on empirical knowledge
What the Middle Ages knew
Gothic
Gothic cathedrals as scholastic theology
What the Middle Ages knew
Gothic architecture in France
St Denis abbey (1134-44): pointed arches, rib vaulting, enormous stained glass windows
Sens cathedral (1143), Noyon (1145)
Chartres cathedral (1146-94)
Laon cathedral (1160)
Notre Dame (1163): flying buttress
Bourges (1192)
Reims (1211-25)
Sainte-Chapelle (1242)
Chartreuse de Champmol (1385)
Strasbourg cathedral (1439)
Amiens cathedral (1220-66)
Coutances (1235), Beauvais (1247), St Urban at Troyes (1262)
Palace of the Popes, Avignon (1334)
Gothic Cathedrals of France
What the Middle Ages knew
Gothic architecture in Germany
Bamberg cathedral (1225)
Naumburg cathedral (1255)
St Elizabeth, Marburg (1257)
St Stephen, Vienna (1300)
St Vitus, Prague (1356-78)
St Sebald, Nuremberg (1361)
Ulm cathedral (1377)
Cologne cathedral (1248)
Limburg cathedral (1235)
Luebeck cathedral (1260)
Regensburg cathedral (1270)
What the Middle Ages knew
Gothic architecture in England
Canterbury cathedral (1174-1379)
Wells (1180)
Lincoln (1192)
Salisbury (1220)
Westminster Abbey (1246-1503)
Albi (1282)
Bristol (1306)
Lichfield (1325)
St Exeter (1328)
What the Middle Ages knew
Gothic architecture in Italy
Proto-gothic: new abbey church at Montecassino (1071): pointed arches and ribbed vaults
Duomo, Siena (1200-89)
Castel del Monte (1240)
SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venezia (1260)
Santa Maria Novella, Firenze (1268)
Palazzo Vecchio, Firenze (1299)
Duomo, Firenze (1334)
Palazzo dei Dogi, Venezia (1343)
Duomo di Milano (1385-1965)
Ca d'Oro, Venezia (1423)
What the Middle Ages knew
Gothic architecture in Italy
Palazzo dei Dogi, Venezia (1343)
Ca d'Oro, Venezia (1423)
What the Middle Ages knew
Gothic architecture in Spain
Toledo cathedral (1226)
Leon cathedral (1255)
Palma de Mallorca cathedral (1306)
Sevilla cathedral (1402-1518)
Alcazar, Segovia (1410-55)
Burgos cathedral (1440)
What the Middle Ages knew
Gothic architecture
Krak de Chevaliers, Syria (XIII)
Marienburg/Malbork castle, Poland (1309-1457)
New Kremlin (1485-1516)
Flanders
Utrecht cathedral (1265)
Antwerp cathedral (1352)


What the Americans knew


Ming & Manchu China


Bibliography:
Charles Hucker: "China's Imperial Past" (1975)
Chinese dynasties
Xia Dynasty 2070-1766 BC
Shang Dynasty 1766-1122 BC
Zhou 1122 - 403 BC
Warring States
Qin 256-210 BC
Han Dynasty 206 BC - 220 AD
Tang Dynasty 618-907
Sung (960-1279)
Mongol Yuan 1279-1368
Ming Dynasty 1368-1644
Manchu Qing 1644-1911
Republic 1912-1949
Communists 1949-present
The Chinese Empire
1368: the Ming dynasty is founded by a Chinese peasant and former Buddhist monk turned rebel
1421: construction of the Forbidden City begins in Beijing
1500: 100 million people live in the Ming empire
1644: the Manchus invade northern China and take Beijing, overthrowing the Ming and establishing the Qing dynasty

What the Chinese Knew
Ming (1368-1644)
Founded by a commoner
Emphasis on improving the lot of the poor and humbling the rich
Abolition of slavery
Confiscation of large estates
Extensive system of public education (national university and private academies)
Ho Hsin-yin (1517) organizes a utopian, egalitarian, self-regulated commune
Scholar-officials as natural leaders of society
What the Chinese Knew
Ming (1368-1644)
Chinese confident of their cultural superiority over the rest of the world
720,000 sheets of toilet paper are produced for the use of the court (Bureau of Imperial Supplies, 1393)
Population increases back to 100 million in 1500 and 200 million in 1600
Largest metropolis: Suzhou/ Soochow
Wealth as the main determinant of social status
Sao-chiao dominant religion
Forbidden City (1421)
What the Chinese Knew
Ming (1368-1644)
Portugal establishes the colony of Macao (1557)
Jesuits evangelise in China (1583)
Foreign trade a government monopoly
Silk from China traded for silver from South America in Manila (Spain)
Overseas merchants confined in Canton
More knowledge about China in the west than knowledge about the west in China
What the Chinese Knew
Wang Yang-Ming/ Shou-jen (b1472)
Neo-Confucian Lu-wang school
Emphasis on individualism
Moral virtues are part of the individual mind's intuitive knowledge
Unity of knowledge and action
Intuitive knowledge is the source of right action
Right action is the natural outcome of intuitive knowledge)
What the Chinese Knew
Wang Yang-Ming/ Shou-jen (b1472)
Holism
"The great man regards Heaven and Earth and the myriad things as one body, the world as one family, and the country as one person"
The objective stance of people who investigate the objects of the world is the wrong stance, because it fails to appreciate the unity of nature
Things have an identity only inside the human mind, whereas in nature they have no particular identity
It makes no sense to investigate objects as objects, but it makes sense to investigate objects as products of our mind.
What the Chinese Knew
Wang Yang-Ming (b1472)
Understanding the universe makes no sense, understanding the human mind makes sense
Virtue = knowledge
Humans have innate understanding of what good is
Goodness has to be reached inside, not be taught from outside
Then goodness will extend outside (eg, love)
What the Chinese Knew
Wang Yangming (b 1472)
"The master of the body is the mind"
"What the Mind generates are Thoughts"
"The object of Thoughts is Knowledge"
"Thought is about Objects"
What the Chinese Knew
Ming (1368-1644)
Tsung-shu (collections of classics): "Yung-lo Ta-tien" (1407) collection of 12,000 volumes of classics
Drama
Most famous chuan-chi is Tang Hsien-tsu (1550): "Ma-tan ting/ Peony Pavilion"
What the Chinese Knew
Ming (1368-1644)
Fiction
Novels (colloquial-language fiction)
Lo Kuan-chung (1330): "San-kuo chih yen-i/ Romance of the Three Kingdoms" (first published in 1522)
Shih Nai-an (14th c): "Shui-hu chuan/ Water Margin" (first published in 1540) best loved Chinese novel)
Wu Cheng-en (1506): "Hsi-yu chi/ Pilgrimage to the West" (fantastic/allegorical novel )
Wang Shih-chen (16th c): "Chin Ping Mei/ Golden Lotus" (erotic novel)
What the Chinese Knew
Ming (1368-1644)
Colloquial tales
Feng Meng-lung (1574)
Literary tales
Pu Sung-ling (1640): "Liao-chai chih-i/ Strange Stories from an Eccentric's Studio" (1740)
What the Chinese Knew
Ming (1368-1644)
Landscape painting: Shen Chou (1427)
Calligraphy/painting: Hsu Wei (1521)
Calligraphy/painting: Tung Chi-chang (1555)
Shen Chou (1427) su Wei (1521) ung (1555)
Hsu Wei (1521)
What the Chinese did not know
Manchus/Qing (1644-1912)
Greatest territorial extent
Prosperity
Population explosion (300 million in 1750, 412 million in 1850, mostly in the south)
Education widespread at regional level (decline of the national university)
Scholar-officials as collaborating with the foreign oppressors
What the Chinese did not know
Manchus/Qing (1644-1912)
Russian-Chinese treaty, first Chinese treaty with a European nation (1689)
Lagging firearm technology (cannons imported from Portugal)
Free-trade ideology from the USA (1800)
Boom of Chinese exports (tea, silk, ceramics) to the west (paid in silver)
Opium only western good that the Chinese want to buy
Contact with foreigners brings new crops (maize, potatoes, peanuts) sustain population growth, but land deforestation and utilization near saturation (probably reached around 1750)
What the Chinese did not know
Manchus/Qing (1644-1912)
Wealth gap (lavish lifestyle of the salt monopolists)
Rapidly growing class of the dispossessed (no land, no jobs)
Sao-chiao dominant religion
What the Chinese did not know
Manchus/Qing (1644-1912)
Neo-Confucianism: philological rediscovery of the original texts of the classics, before the Sung-Ming interpreters added their own biases ("school of Han")
Philology: Ku Yen-wu (1613), Tsui Shu/Tung-pi (1740)
"Ssu-ku Chuan-shu" (1770): collections of religious, historical, philosophical and literary classics
"Huang Ching ching-chieh" (1829): 366-volume compendium of classics
What the Chinese did not know
Dai Zhen/ Tai Chen (1724)
"Inquiry into Goodness" (1766)
Matter (chi) is all that exists, li is only the way it looks like to us
Each person's nature is different from other persons
A person's nature is her knowing mind
People's natures consist of yin, yang and the five elemental forces
Humans can be good because their knowing minds can understand others
Growth of the mind is similar to growth of the body
What the Chinese did not know
Manchus/Qing (1644-1912)
Fiction
Tsao Hsueh-chin (1724): "Hung-lou meng/ Dream of the Red Chamber" (realist novel)
Landscape painting
Chu Ta/Pa-ta shan-jen (1626)
Tao CHi/ Shih-tao (1630)
What the Chinese did not know
Most civilizations liked to explore new worlds. The Chinese never did, even if they had the technology.
The Polo brothers went to China, but no Chinese went to Venice.
The Portuguese and English explored the cost of China, but the Chinese rarely explored other coasts, not even Japan's
Indian monks traveled to China, but Chinese monks or philosophers did not travel to India

What the Renaissance knew I


Bibliography
Henry Kamen: Empire (2002)
Gregory Freeze: Russia (1997)
Paul Kennedy: The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987)
Europe 1500
What the Renaissance knew
1517: the Protestant Reformation begins (Luther `s "95 Theses")
1517: the Ottoman Turks capture Jerusalem, Syria and Egypt
1521: Spanish conquistador Cortes conquers the Aztec empire
1522: Ferdinand Magellan's expedition circumnavigates the globe
1526: Babur captures Delhi and founds the Mogul empire in India
1536: Spanish conquistador Pizzaro conquers the Inca empire
1555: the Ottomans conquer Mesopotamia from Persia
1557: Portugal establishes a trading post in Macao (first European settlement in the Far East)
1571: The Pope, Spain, Venezia and Genova destroy the Ottoman navy, thus halting Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean
1582: The catholic countries adopt the Gregorian calendar
1588: the Spanish Armada is defeated by the English
Europe 1600
What the Renaissance knew
1619: the Dutch begin the slave trade between Africa and America
1620: English pilgrims board the "Mayflower"
1637: the Teatro Tron opens in Venezia, the first opera house
1644: the Manchus invade China (Qing dynasty)
1618-1648 Thirty Years' war: France, England, Sweden win against Austria
1648: at the end of the war the population of Europe has declined from 30 to 20 million
1664: England acquires New Amsterdam from the Dutch
1682-1774: 100 Year War between Austria and the Ottoman empire
1688: the Moguls complete the conquest of India
1689: the British Parliament issues the "Bill of Rights"
17th century
What the Renaissance knew
Western Europe
1494-1618 Spanish supremacy
1618-1648 Thirty Years' war: France, England, Sweden win against Austria and Spain
1648-1815 French supremacy
1795-1815: Napoleonic wars: England, Russia, Austria, Prussia, Sweden defeat France and Spain
What the Renaissance knew
Eastern Europe
1354-1683: Ottoman expansion
1683: Poland-Lithuania and Austria defeat the Ottomans
1413-1721: Poland-Lithuania expasion
1523-1721: Swedish expansion
1700-1721: Great Northern War: Poland and Russia win against Sweden
1721-1991: Russian expansion
The Multi-national European Wars
1099-1291: Crusades
1214: The Pope and France defeat the Holy Roman Empire and England
1331-1453 Ottoman expansion: Ottomans win against Constantinople
1337-1453: Hundred Years' war between France and England
1492 Reconquista: Spain defeats the Arabs
1494-1526: Italian wars (France, German empire, Aragon)
1521-1526: the Ottomans win against Hungary and Austria
1571: Battle of Lepanto: the Pope, Spain, Venezia defeat the Ottomans
1587-1588: England wins against Spain (war over the colonies)
1618-1648 Thirty Years' war: France, England, Sweden win against Austria and Spain
The Multi-national European Wars
1654-1667 First Northern War: Russia wins against Poland-Lithuana
1655-1659 War of Jamaica: England and France defeat Spain
1655-1660 Second Northern War: Poland-Lithuania, Russia, Denmark and Holy Roman Empire wins against Sweden
1682-1699: Austria, Poland-Lithuania and the Holy Roman Empire defeat the Ottomans
1700-1721 Great Northern War: Poland and Russia win against Sweden
1702-1713 War of the Spanish Succession: England, Netherlands and Austria win against Spain and France
1736-39: Russia and Austria defeat the Ottomans
1756-1763 Seven Years' war: Prussia and Britain win against France, Austria, Russia, Saxony, Sweden and Spain
1768-74: Russia defeats the Ottomans
What the Renaissance knew
Population:
China 100 million
Europe 100 million
India 70 million
Southeast Asia 40 million
Middle East 25 million
Africa 20 million
Japan 15 million
Americas 15 million
What the Renaissance knew
Christian doctrine of just war
Jus ad bellum (permissible reasons for going to war)
Just cause
A right authority
A right intention
Proportional amout of force
Last resort
Peace as its goal
A reasonable hope of success
Jus in bello (permissible actions during war)
The principle of proportionality of means
The principle of noncombatant immunity
What the Renaissance knew
Printing (1456)
Exploration (1487)
Reconquista (1492)
Colonialism (1494)
World Trade (1500)
Reformation (1517)
Copernicus (1530)
Slavery (1650)
Nation states
Gunpowder
What the Renaissance knew
The gunpowder empires
Expensive military, which required capital and proto-industrial infrastructure
Reasons for success:
Gunpowder
Strong, centralized bureaucracy
East-West trade based on land transportation (roads, markets)
Knowledge (more than medieval Europe)
Gunpowder Empires
What the Renaissance knew
The gunpowder empires
Ottoman Empire (1301-1827)
14 million people in 1520 (Spain: 5 million, England: 2.5 million)
Constantinopole largest city in Europe (500,000)
Melting pot of races, languages and religions
Tolerance of other races/religions allowed exploitation of skilled Greeks and Jews
Janissaries (gun-carrying infantry recruited from Christian families)
The Damascus blade (steel)
Fleet
Muskets
Imperial workshops
What the Renaissance knew
The gunpowder empires
Ottoman Empire (1301-1827)
Origin: Turkey
Islamic world technologically and culturally ahead of Europe
Sophisticated urban society
Universities and libraries
Mathematics
Medicine
Industry
Islamic state for convenience
Salaried Ulama (salary proportional to usefulness to sultan)
Slowly enforcing Sunni uniformity
Istanbul, 1559
What the Renaissance knew
The gunpowder empires
Safavid Empire (1501-1722)
Origin: Persia
Shiite Islamic state created by a sufi order
Homogeneous race, language and religion
Control of the silk trade
Qanats
Only empire to bypass European traders acting as intermediary between China/India and Europe/Ottomans

What the Renaissance knew
The gunpowder empires
Mughal Empire (1526-1707)
Origin: Afghanistan
Islamic state in a Hindu country
Melting pot of races, languages and religions
Sufi-like approach to Islam (truth can be found in every religion)
Karkhanas (royal factories)
What the Renaissance knew
The gunpowder empires
Russian Empire (1552-1917)
Origin: Moscow
Christian Orthodox state
Homogeneous race, language and religion
Western weapons allow to subjugate the Central Asian horsemen
Monopoly of education under the Christian Orthodox church
Feudal agriculture (serfdom)
Foreigners segregated to prevent contagion of western ideas

What the Renaissance knew
The gunpowder empires
Europe
Mining (metal, esp from the German states)
Casting (experience in bronze casting of church bells transferred to casting cannons)
1453 (battle of Constantinople and end of 100-years war, both due to cannons)
Burgundy (leading gun maker, split between France and Austria in 1460)
Ditches around walls (Pisa, 1500)

What the Renaissance knew
The gunpowder empires
Reasons for downfall
Multi-ethnic nature
World-trade based on sea transportation (shipping, ports) controlled by Europeans
The printing press (knowledge gap with Europe)
What the Renaissance knew
The miracle of Europe
A dis-united Europe
Political fragmentation
Endless intestine wars
Different languages
Technologically, religiously and culturally backwards
Science, philosophy and technology imported from the Muslims
Costantinopole and Greece fallen to Asian and non-Christian powers
Fewer people and resources than China, India
What the Renaissance knew
The miracle of Europe
A dis-united Europe
...but a small country like Portugal could achieve conquest on a scale that China never achieved
What the Renaissance knew
The miracle of Europe
Unified large-scale bureaucracies
Ottomans (East and south Mediterranean, 1301)
Safavids (Mesopotamia & Persia, 1501)
Ming (China, 1368)
Mogul (Afghanistan to northern India, 1526)
Tokugawa (Japan, 1600)
Unified bureaucracies are
not competitive (heavy taxation, central control)
conservative (cultural obscurantism)
What the Renaissance knew
Ming China
Technologically and culturally advanced
Canal system
Naval superpower (1350 combat vessels in 1420)
Exploration (Cheng Ho, 1405-1433)
but_
steady decline
Conservativism of Confucian bureaucracy
1436: imperial edict bans seagoing ships
What the Renaissance knew
Ottoman Empire
Territorial over-extension
Loss of Asiatic trade due to Sunni- Shiite schism (1501)
Merchants and entrepreneurs mainly foreigners
Incompetent sultans (1566-1730)
Conservativism and obscurantism
Printing press forbidden
Innovation discouraged

What the Renaissance knew
Mogul Empire
Small conquering Muslim elite ruling over huge masses of poor Hindus
Hindu religious taboos preventing social (local rulers and Brahman priests), hygienic (protection of rodents and insects) and economic (caste system) progress
Marathas in the south, Afghanis in the north, British in the east
What the Renaissance knew
Tokugawa Japan
Unified in 1600
1638: construction of oceangoing vessels forbidden
Rapid decadence of military system
What the Renaissance knew
The miracle of Europe
Political fragmentation and decentralized power (due to geography: no unifying river-valley center of civilization, lots of mountains)
Arms race among local kingdoms and even city-states (no single center of power decisively outpowered the others)
Mercenaries competed for war contracts, artisans competed for warface commissions
Military-driven economies of scale
What the Renaissance knew
The miracle of Europe
The intra-European arms race peaked with the long-range armed sailing ships, which opened the doors to extra-European colonization
Oceanic trade routes contrlled by Europeans
Coastal lands vulnerable to European penetration
Imperialism
What the Renaissance knew
The miracle of Europe
Colonization and imperialism led to widespread wealth
Precious metals, spices, sugar, food (maize, tomato, fish), tobacco, rice, timber and later meat, cotton, grain
World trade fosters shipbuilding
Ports attract artisans
Artisans create more demand for technological innovation (science)
The printing press spreads knowledge
Shipbuilding fosters a secondary industry aimed at making maritime travel less unpredictable (cartography, instruments, metallurgy, astronomy, medicine)
What the Renaissance knew
The miracle of Europe
What kept the miracle going: continued competition among European powers for supremacy, anywhere anytime

What the Renaissance knew
The miracle of Europe
Portugal: expansion of spice trade
Madeira (1419) and sugar plantations
First public sale of African slaves in Europe (1444)
Cape Verde (1455) and sugar plantations and African slaves and gold trade
First European trading post in Africa (1482)
Bartolomeu Dias (1487) rounds the Cape of Good Hope (1487)
Vasco de Gama reaches India (1498)
What the Renaissance knew
The miracle of Europe
Portugal: expansion of spice trade
Pedro Alvares discovers Brazil (1500)
First European trade outpost in India (1504)
Alfonso de Albuquerque conquers Goa (1510), Sri Lanka, Malacca (1511), thus controlling all the "spice islands"
Lisbon triples in population between 1500 and 1550
What the Renaissance knew
The miracle of Europe
Habsburg Empire
1519-26: Carlos I (Karl V) inherits Spain, American colonies, southern Italy, Austria, Burgundy, Netherlands, Holy Roman empire (Germany), Hungary, Bohemia
1580: Portugal (only war conquest)
25% of the population of Europe
Natural enemies: Valois France, Ottomans, Tudor & Stuart England
What the Renaissance knew
The miracle of Europe
Habsburg Empire
Continuous wars:
1494-1529 Italy
1521-1739 Ottomans
1530-1555 Germany
1568-1648 Netherlands
1588-1659 England
Chronic budget deficits
1648: the "Peace of Westphalia" reduces the Germanic empire to a loose confederation of hundreds of independent entities, and replaces Spanish supremacy with French supremacy
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Ferdinando
1469: Union by marriage of Castilla (Isabella) and Aragonia (Ferdinando)
1492: Fulfillment of the reconquista with the occupation of Granada and the expulsion of Muslims and Jews
1492: Columbus
1494-1504: War with France over Italy (first Castillian war outside of Iberia)
1512: Spain conquers Navarra
1500-1520: 14,118 kgs of gold from the Caribbean
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Ferdinando
Limited, local wars
Domination of Western Mediterranean
Marriage alliances
Habsburg (Juana)
Tudor (Caterina)
Containment of France (Italy, Navarra)
Diplomacy (resident ambassadors)
Northern Italian bankers (mainly Genoa)
Luck (Columbus, the "New World")
1513: Vasco Nunez reaches the Pacific Ocean
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Carlos
1516: Archduke Carlos of Hapsburg inherits Spain, the "Low Countries", the "New World" and southern Italy
1520: Elected Holy Roman Emperor by dynastic right (union of Spain and Austria-Hungary)
1526: Married princess of Portugal
1529: Empire, Spain and Genoa defeat France for control of northern Italy
1530: Empire and Pope seize Firenze
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Carlos
Long period of peace in Spain
1530-1580: 50% increase in population of Castilla
Stability attracts Italian investment (mainly Genoa)
Genoa funds the "ingenios" (sugar mills) of the Caribbeans
Bankers of the empire: Northern Italy (mainly Genoa), Low Countries (mainly Antwerp), Germany (mainly Augsburg).
1516-1556: Genoa alone lent Carlos 11.6 million ducats out of a total of 29 million ducats (all Spanish bankers only 4.3 million)
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Carlos
Genoese fleet guarantees Spanish superiority in Western Mediterranean
Invasion of Tunis (1535): 18% of fleet from Spain, 40% from Genoa, 42% from other Italian states, and fleet under Andrea Doria
Gold from Peru
Silver from Mexico and Potosi
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Carlos
Navigational tools, ship design, maps/charts (Columbus found the New World by accident, but it was no accident that he returned three times to the same place)
1522: Ferdinand Magellan's expedition circumnavigates the world
1529: Spain surrenders spice islands to Portugal (spices are less important than gold and silver)
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Carlos
Conquest of the New World via "encomiendas" (private enterprise) not war campaigns
Spanish encomenderos only controlled a tiny part of the Americas (coastal areas, mining towns)
1519-21: Cortes conquers the Aztecs in Mexico (only 2 million survive war, disease and famine, out of a population of 25 million)
1531-36: Pizarro conquers the Incas in Peru
1530s: Slave trade centered on Nicaragua
1545: silver is discovered in Potosi
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Carlos
1510: First import of African slaves into America to man the sugar industry
1550s: Black population vastly outnumbers white population
Weakness of imperial control
Missionaries: Franciscans (1524), Dominicans (1526), Jesuits (1550)
Gold, God and Glory
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Carlos
African slaves mine silver in South America for Spain
Spain pays silver for Eastern spices, cotton and silk
and buys African slaves with cotton

What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Felipe II
1556: Inherits Spain, Milan, southern Italy, Low Countries, New World (plus son of Isabella of Portugal and husband of Mary Tudor of England)
Separated from the Germanic empire
Administrative control from Spain, not from the Germanic empire or southern Italy
1559: peace with France after 60 years of war and (third) marriage with Henry II's daughter Elizabeth
1564: Colonization of the Philippines
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Felipe II
But
still dependent on allies for capital and warfare
ineffective bureaucracy, treasury, etc
fragmented empire of autonomous regions
army made mainly of non-Spanish soldiers
the wealth of America controlled by foreigners, not by Spain
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Felipe II
1568-1648: 80 years war of the Low Countries
1571: Moriscos (Christianized Muslims) expelled
1571: Battle of Lepanto (Spain, Pope, Venezia and Genova defeat the Ottoman empire)
1580: Invasion of Portugal, maximum expansion of Spanish empire
1588: the Armada destroyed
1589-98 Wars of Religion in France
What the Renaissance knew
The Spanish Empire/ Felipe III & IV
1618-48: Thirty years war: end of Spanish supremacy in Europe
1655-59: Britain and France defeat Spain
1702-13: War of the Spanish Succession leaves a Bourbon as king of Spain, grandson of the king of France (loss of Gibraltar, Milan, southern Italy, I.e. of the Mediterranean)
1718-20: War in Italy against the Quadruple Alliance (Britain, France, Austria, Savoy)
What the Renaissance knew
Valois France
1557: Bankruptcy but...
Immense natural resources
Twice the population of Spain and four times the population of England
Diversified agriculture
What the Renaissance knew
Bourbon France (1661-1815)
French supremacy
Decline of Spain, Sweden, Poland, Ottomans
Old rival: Austria
Emergent powers: Russia, Prussia, Britain
Centralized military bureaucracy (standing army, royal navy)
Size of the army: 30,000 in 1659 - 97,000 in 1666 - 350,000 in 1710
What the Renaissance knew
Bourbon France (1661-1815)
French supremacy
Anglo-French wars: 1689-1815
1689-1697: Eight-year War (France against German states, England, Netherlands, Austria, Spain and Savoy ally with Germany)
1702-1713: War of the Spanish Succession (England, Netherlands and Austria win against Spain and France)
What the Renaissance knew
Prussia (1701-1815)
1701: kingdom founded
Efficient tax collection, bureaucracy and army
Collapse of Sweden and Poland
1763: annexation of industrialized Silesia
European population and armies in 1700
What the Renaissance knew
The cost of warfare
Lengthier and recurring wars
Larger armies (growth of infantry over cavalry and infantry)
More expensive fleets
What the Renaissance knew
Naval battles
Lepanto (1571): Christians stop Ottomans
Armada (1588): England stops Spain
Trafalgar (1805): England stops Napoleon
Navarino (1827): Christians defeat Ottomans
Tsushima (1905): Japan defeats Russia
Jutland (1916): Britain defeats Germany
Midway (1942): USA defeats Japan
What the Renaissance knew
Percentage of state revenues invested in warfare
Louis XIV (France, 1643): 75%
Petr I (Russia, 1682): 90%


George W Bush (USA, 2003): 16%
What the Renaissance knew
End of the nomadic tribes of the Steppes
Expansion of urban and agricultural cultures
Fire-power surpasses mounted army as main military tool
Islam
Consequence: increased stability for China, India and Europe
What the Renaissance knew
Most world trade occurred among Asians but the traders were Europeans
Chinese silk
Indian cotton
Chinese porcelain
Persian textiles
Persian tiles
Weapons
Atlantic Trade
America 1507
What the Renaissance knew
Southeast Asia's "age of commerce"
Commercial expansion by Javanese, Siamese, Malays, etc traders (15th, 16th centuries)
Rice, textiles, ceramincs, gold, silver, iron, copper, tin, lead, spices, etc
Ports of Pegu (Burma), Ayutthaya (Siam), Malacca (Malaysia), Aceh (Sumatra), Banten (Java), Brunei (Borneo), Manila (Philippines), etc
China, India, Japan, Persia, Arabia, Turkey, Western European powers
Western trading monopolies (17th, 18th) turning into
Western political hegemony (18th, 19th)
What the Renaissance knew
Firenze - Demographics
1200: 25,000 people
1300: 95,000
1350: 30,000 (plague)
1427: 40,000
1500: 50,000
1600: 70,000
Highly urban society
1427: average age 26, mediam age 22
What the Renaissance knew
Firenze - Economy (1500)
Industrial
270 textile workshops
84 wood-carving
83 silk
74 goldsmith
54 stone
Financial
Banks
Bardi (1209 branches in Europe and Asia Minor)
Peruzzi
Medici
Bankers of the Pope
What the Renaissance knew
Continued on Part II

What the Renaissance knew II


Part II
What the Renaissance knew
Prodromes of the Renaissance (Firenze)
Giotto: Naturalism + Classicism
Santa Maria Novella 1278-1360
Santa Croce 1295-1442 (Arnolfo di Cambio)
Palazzo Vecchio 1299-1314 (Arnolfo di Cambio)
Duomo, except dome 1296-1366 (Arnolfo di Cambio)
Campanile 1334 (Giotto)
What the Renaissance knew
Renaissance Art
Classical antiquity (just proportion, ideal form of beauty) as source of inspiration (the base, the shafts and the capitals of a church reflect the foot, the body and the head of the human body)
Biblical themes
Naturalism, ordinary life (Giotto and the anecdote of the fly)
Art as life (the angel of Piero della Francesca that stares at the viewer)
What the Renaissance knew
Renaissance Art
Market:
The Church (firenze: one cathedral, one baptistery and 100 churches for 95,000 people), not very rich but very big
The aristocracy, very rich but very small
What the Renaissance knew
Renaissance Art
Private patronage of art led (1450-1500) to art appreciation as an elitarian practice (birth of art critics and of art collectors)
Aesthetic led to appreciation of genius: originality, individuality, creativity (transition from Giotto's excellence to Michelangelo's madness)
Medieval art was imitation, Renaissance art was creation
What the Renaissance knew
Firenze 1420-1450
Brunelleschi's dome for the cathedral (1418-38)
two octagonal vaults, one inside the other
shape dictated by structural needs (architectural functionalism)
planes and spheres as dominant motifs (unlike gothic)
synthesis of gothic and classical
Brunelleschi's Spedale degli Innocenti (1421-55)
first neoclassical building in Europe ("wall architecture")
What the Renaissance knew
Firenze 1420-1450
Fra Angelico's frescoes in San Marco (1438)
Masaccio's Trinity in Santa Maria Novella (1425)
first full-perspective painting in western art
Light and shadow
Masaccio's The Expulsion of Adam and Eve (1427)
Donatello's David (1430-35)
What the Renaissance knew
Firenze 1420-1450
Masaccio's Trinity in Santa Maria Novella (1425)
What the Renaissance knew
Firenze 1420-1450
Lorenzo Ghiberti's Bronze doors ("Gates of Paradise") of the Battistero (1425-1452)
Michelozzo's Palazzo Medici (1444)
Donatello's Gattamelata (1453)
first bronze equestrian statue since ancient times
standpoint of the viewer
Donatello's Judith Slaying Holofernes (1455)
each side of the sculpture captures a different view of the action
Piero della Francesca's The Resurrection (1463)
What the Renaissance knew
Firenze 1420-1450
Donatello's Judith Slaying Holofernes (1455, Palazzo Vecchio)
Piero della Francesca's The Resurrection (1463,Museo Civico, Sansepolcro)
What the Renaissance knew
Firenze 1420-1450
Palaces for the Medici (1444-64) and the Pitti (Brunelleschi, 1440)
Leon Battista Alberti's facade for Santa Maria Novella (1442-1470)
Firenze, 1470
What the Renaissance knew
Italy
Bernardo Rossellino's Pienza (1459-62, cathedral, town hall, papal palace)
St Andrea, Mantova (1472-94, Leon Battista Alberti)
Laurana's Palazzo di Urbino (1465)
Certosa di Pavia (1494)
Urbino
What the Renaissance knew
Painting
Sandro Botticelli (1445, Italy): "Allegoria della Primavera" (1478)
Hieronymous Bosch (1450, Holland): "The Garden of Delights" (1504)
Leonardo da Vinci (1452, Italy): "Il Cenacolo" (1497)
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475, Italy): "Il Giudizio Universale" (1541)
Raffaello Sanzio/ Raphael (1483, Italy): "Scuola di Atene" (1511)
Pieter Bruegel (1528, Holland): "Triumph of Death" (1562)
Domenico El Greco (1541, Spain): "Toledo" (1599)
Pieter Rubens (1577, Holland): "Debarquement de Marie de Medicis" (1625)
Rembrandt (1606, Holland) : "Nightwatch" (1642)
Botticelli/ Raffaello

Bosch
Michelangelo/ Leonardo
Brueghel & El Greco
Rubens & Rembrandt
What the Renaissance knew
Architecture of the High Renaissance
Donato Bramante (1444, Italy)
Tempietto S.Pietro (Roma, 1502)
S. Pietro cathedral (Roma, 1506)
Palazzo Caprini (Roma, 1510)
Bramante's influence:
Antonio Sangallo il Vecchio: S.Maria della Consolazione (Todi, 1508)
Antonio Sangallo il Giovane: Palazzo Farnese (Roma, 1513)
Sanmicheli: Palazzo Bevilacqua (Verona, 1535)
Sanmicheli: Palazzo Grimaldi (Venezia, 1556)
Sansovino: Ca' Grande (1537)
Sansovino: Libreria di San Marco (1536)
What the Renaissance knew
Architecture of the High Renaissance
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475, Italy)
Libreria Laurentana (Roma, 1524)
Campidoglio (Roma, 1539)
St Peter's dome (Roma, 1546)
Andrea Palladio (1508, Italy)
Basilica (Vincenza, 1549)
Teatro Olimpico (Vicenza, 1580)
Villa Rotonda (1550)
Giacomo Barozzo da Vignola:
Villa Giulia (1551)
Villa Farnese (1559)
Chiesa del Gesu` (1568)
What the Renaissance knew
Architecture of the High Renaissance
Giorgio Vasari (1511, Italy)
Palazzo degli Uffizi (Firenze)
Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598, Italy)
Borromini (1599, Italy)
What the Renaissance knew
What the Modern Age knew
Sculpture
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475, Italy)
La Pieta` (1500)
David (1504)
Moses (1515)
Benvenuto Cellini (1500, Italy)
Pieta`, David, Mose
What the Modern Age knew
Architecture in the rest of Europe
Buda palace, Budapest (1460, destroyed)
Cathedral of the Dormition, Moskow (1475-1479)
Cathedral of the Annunciation, Moskow (1484-1489)
New Kremlin (1485-1516 )
Vladislav Hall of Prague Castle (1493)
St Michael, Moscow (1504)
Salamanca cathedral, Spain (1512)
Sigismond Chapel, Wawel cathedral, Poland (1521)
Segovia cathedral, Spain (1522)
Granada cathedral, Spain (1528)
Chateaux de Fontainebleau, France (1528-68)
What the Modern Age knew
Architecture in the rest of Europe
St Eustache, Paris (1532)
New Louvre, Paris (1546)
Escorial, Madrid (1562)
Town hall, Antwerp, Flanders1 (1571)
St Michael, Munich (1583)
Inigo Jones (1573, Britain)
Banqueting House (1619-22) in Whitehall, London
What the Renaissance knew
Music
Gregorian Music
Giovanni Palestrina (1525)
Claudio Monteverdi (1567): "Orfeo" (1607)
Antonio Vivaldi (1678): "Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Invenzione" (1725)
Handel (1685): "Concerti Grossi" (1740)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685): "Die Kunst der Fuge" (1750)
What the Renaissance knew
Poetry, Theater, Novel
Rabelais (1494, France): "Gargantua et Pantagruel" (1552)
Camoes (1524, Portugal): "Os Lusiadas" (1572)
Marlowe (1564, Britain): "Faust" (1592)
Shakespeare (1564, Britain): "Hamlet" (1601)
Vega Carpio (1562, Spain): "Fuente Ovejuna" (1614)
Cervantes (1547, Spain): "Don Quijote" (1615)
Donne (1572, Britain): "Holy Sonnets" (1615)
Calderon (1600, Spain): "El Gran Teatro del Mundo" (1633)
Moliere (1622, France): "Le Misanthrope" (1666)
Milton (1608, Britain): "Paradise Lost" (1667)
Racine (1639, France): "Athalie" (1691)
Daniel DeFoe (1660, Britain): "Robinson Crusoe" (1719)
Swift (1667, Britain): "Gulliver's Travels" (1726)
The Ideal City
What the Renaissance knew
A History of Printing
Egypt: papyrus
Rome: parchment
105: Ts'ai Lun's invents paper in China
793: the caliph of Baghdad establishes a paper factory
983: a 250,000 page Buddhist book is published in China
1023: paper money is printed in China
1155: a map is printed of western China
12xx: paper is "invented" in Spain
1255: a papermill opens in Genoa
1282: paper watermarks are produced in Italy
1390: papermill in Nuremberg
1450: newsletters begin circulating in Europe
1456: Gutenberg "invents" the printing press
What the Renaissance knew
Gutenberg's Printing Press (1456)
Based on technologies that had existed for a long time:
Wood block engraving
Raised letters (coinage)
Wine press
What the Renaissance knew
Gutenberg's Printing Press (1456)
First printing press in Italy: 1457
By 1480 every major city in Europe has a press
Before the press: 100,000 books in all of Europe
After the press
1534: first Frankfurt Book Fair
1545: Venezia introduces author's copyrights
1566:the first newspaper, Notizie Scritte, in Venezia
1571: Pope Paul IV issues Index of Forbidden Books
Venice printing capital of Europe: 2,789 books by 1500
77% in Latin
45% religious
What the Renaissance knew
Gutenberg's Printing Press (1456)
Spreading of humanism throughout Europe
Spreading of Lutheran ideas
Spreading of bourgeois ideas

What the Renaissance knew
Pico della Mirandola (b1463)
Oration on the dignity of man
Tries to reconcile all religions and philosophies
Leonardo (b1452)
Perspective
Art and Science
Forces shape nature
What the Renaissance knew
Base 10 and decimals
Babylonians: base 60 (sexagesimals)
Francois Viete: "Canon-mathematicus" (France, 1579)
Base-ten decimals instead of base-60 sexagesimals
"Sexagesimals and sixties are to be used sparingly or never in mathematics, and thousandths and thousands, hundredths and hundreds, tenths and tens, and similar progressions, ascending and descending, are to be used frequently or exclusively."
Simon Stevin: "De Thiende" (Nethelands, 1585)
Familiarised people with decimals
John Napier (Scotland, 1617): modern decimals (eg, 3.24)
What the Renaissance knew
Reformation (1517)
John Wycliffe (Oxford, 1381)
The value of a sacrament depends on the worthiness of the priest administering it
Salvation depends on predestination rather than on individual merit
Attack against the doctrinal, political and financial bases of the Church
Jan Hus (Prague, 1415)
Attack against the Church's liturgy
Desiderius Erasmus (Rotterdam, 1509)
Restoring a direct connection between the individual and the original meaning of ancient Christianity
What the Renaissance knew
Reformation (1517)
Martin Luther (Wittenberg, 1517)
Sola fede: salvation from faith alone (sin is inescapable and cannot be redeemed by penance or indulgence)
Sola scriptum: Faith comes from knowledge of God's scriptures (the Bible is the sole authority on God)
All faithfuls are equal
Johannes Calvinus (Geneve, 1541)
Faith/salvation is granted only to some (predestination)
What the Renaissance knew
Counter-Reformation
Ignatius of Loyola founds the Society of Jes us (Jesuits), which believes in free will and in salvation through good deeds (1540)
Soldiers of God

What the Renaissance knew
Reformation (1517)
The Bible rather than the Church as the source of religious authority
End of the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Pope
Emphasis on personal judgment
Protestant churches
German nationalist sentiment
What the Renaissance knew
Reformation (1517)
Consequences:
Regional political and cultural independence
Nationalist movements
Democratic aspirations
Decline of medieval system of authority
Free trade and banking (capitalism)
National languages and literature (instead of Latin)
What the Renaissance knew
Continues on Part II

What the Renaissance knew III


What the Renaissance knewart II
Trivia
What happened in
Italy, Spain and Poland between 4 Oct 1582 and 15 Oct 1582,
France between 9 Dec 1582 and 20 Dec 1582
Hungary between 21 Oct 1587 and 1 Nov 1587
Prussia between 22 Aug 1610 and 2 Sept 1610
Denmark between 18 Feb 1700 and 1 Mar 1700
Britain between 2 Sep 1752 and 14 Sep 1752
Greece between 9 Mar 1924 and 23 Mar 1924
Russia between 31 Jan 1918 and 14 Feb 1918
Turkey between 18 Dec 1926 and 1 Jan 1927?
Nothing. Each country's calendar has a gap when it adopted the new Gregorian system
What the Renaissance knew
Thomas More (1518)
A satirical account of life in Utopia
The interests of the individual are subordinate to those of society
All people must do some work
All land is owned in common
What the Renaissance knew
Giorgio Vasari (1550)
Virtue = creativity
What the Renaissance knew
Michel Montaigne (1580)
Essay
Prose
What the Renaissance knew
The Dutch renaissance (1568)
1568: Williams of Orange leads an uprising against Spain in the "Low Countries" ("Eighty Years' War")
1597: the Dutch found the colony of Batavia in Java (Indonesia)
1602: the Dutch East India Company is established in Holland
1624: Dutch colons colonize north-eastern Brazil
1625: Dutch colons found a trading post in America, Nieuwe Amsterdam (New York)
1641: Holland seizes Malacca from Portugal
1648: the "Peace of Westphalia" ends the Thirty Years' War, and Spain recognizes the independence of the United Seven Provinces (Holland)
1652: the Dutch found a colony in South Africa
1702-13: England, the Netherlands and Austria defeat Spain and France ("War of the Spanish Succession")
What the Renaissance knew
The Dutch renaissance (1568)
Erasmus humanism
campaign against ignorance and superstition
Calvinism
Thrift, industry, and hard work are forms of moral virtue
Business success is an evidence of God's grace
What the Renaissance knew
The Dutch renaissance (1568)
Proto-capitalist speculators
1636-37 Tulip mania ($2,000 for one bulb)
The middlemen of Europe
Middlemen of culture as well as trade
Mediterranean goods, art, mathematics, philosophy
A mission to map the world
Visual culture (painting, optics and cartography)
Art as an extension of the natural sciences
What the Renaissance knew
Baroque Age (1600-1680)
Monarchical absolutism
Restoration of order after the creative disorder of the renaissance
What the Renaissance knew
Baroque Age (1600-1680)
Monarchical absolutism
Restoration of order after the creative disorder of the renaissance
What the Renaissance knew
Tycho Brahe (1573)
Discovered a nova (a new star)
Planets move freely in space (not on crystalline spheres)
Aristotelian/Christian view:
The world below the moon is imperfect and dynamic
The world above the moon is perfect and static
Brahe's view:
The world below the moon is not as imperfect as we think
The world above the moon is not as perfect as we think
What the Renaissance knew
Johannes Kepler (1619)
Laws of planetary motion
Planets move in ellipses (motion is not uniformly circular)
Planets describe equal areas in equal times
The square of a planet's periodic time is proportional to the cube of its mean distance from the sun
The heavens are a machine
Harmony of the universe is in God's mind
The same harmony is reflected in music
The Earth is a living being
What the Renaissance knew
Johannes Kepler (1619)
What the Renaissance knew
Francis Bacon (1620)
"Idols" keep humankind from knowing more than it could
Idols of the Tribe: distortions due to the limitations of the human mind
Idols of the Cave: distortions due to education
Idots of the Marketplace:distortions due to language
Idols of the Theatre: distortions due to ideologies, philosophies, etc
What the Renaissance knew
Francis Bacon (1620)
Truth must be found via objective, unbiased, empirical observation, and inductive accumulation of evidence
Induction vs deduction
Knowledge is power
Goal of science is to control the world ("how to command nature itself"), i.e. technology
What the Renaissance knew
Christopher Marlowe
Dr Faustus: sells his soul to the devil in order to dominate the world
What the Renaissance knew
Hugo Grotius' "Rights of War and Peace" (1625)
Birth of international law
What the Renaissance knew
Galileo Galilei (1632)
Atomistic theory of matter
There is a reality independent of anyone perceiving it, and our senses represent it...
...but our senses cannot access it directly (only through the sensations)
What the Renaissance knew
Galileo Galilei (1632)
A body in free motion does not need any force to continue moving
If a force is applied, then what will change is the acceleration, not the velocity
Linear uniform motion as the natural motion of all objects
Acceleration is due to forces
Acceleration is the same for all falling objects
What the Renaissance knew
Galileo Galilei (1632)
Celestial objects are not perfect spherical bodies
The Heavens are not static and perfect, but subject to forces and continuously changing
The same natural laws apply on Earth and in the Heavens
Relativity: All physical laws are the same regardless of the observer's state of motion as long as the velocity of the observer does not change
What the Renaissance knew
Ren‚ Descartes (1644)
Doubt as the foundation of philosophy
All our beliefs based on our sensations can be doubted
Everything can be doubted except my own existence
Two substances: matter has extension, mind has thought, each has its laws, they communicate via the pineal glande (Dualism)
Equivalence between living and non-living matter
Animals are machines
Everything material can be reduced to mechanics
Human bodies are machines too but the soul is not

What the Renaissance knew
Descartes (1644)
What is unique about humans is thought
The mind is capable of representing the world of objects
The mind is a stage where ideas are illuminated by the inner light of reason (Cartesian theater)

Mathematics is certain knowledge (what cannot be doubted), from which other certain knowledge can be derived

Planets revolve around the sun because it is surrounded by a vortex
What the Renaissance knew
Descartes (1644)
God is the perfect thing
Existence is one of the perfections
Thus God exists
What the Renaissance knew
Descartes (1644)
We can arrive at "useful knowledge _ by which, knowing the force and action of fire, water, air the stars, the heavens, and all the other bodies that surround us_ we might also apply them in the same way to all the uses to which they are suited, and thus render ourselves the lords and possessors of nature."
What the Renaissance knew
Thomas Hobbes (1651)
Materialism
Nature is a mechanism
The motion of living beings is due to a force to eskew pain and a force to desire pleaure
The human body is a mechanism
Human behavior is caused by material phenomena, and is controlled by the competing motivations of appetite and aversion
The soul is part of the body (it represents its "vital" quality)
What the Renaissance knew
Hobbes (1651)
Force is transmitted by contact between bodies
There is a substance filling the void between bodies:
God is that substance
What the Renaissance knew
Hobbes (1651)
Human nature is evil. Good arises with society.
Human nature is inherently selfish and violent, bound to endless civil strife ("war of all against all")
The state provides stability and security for the people
Peace and security are more important than liberty and rights
The laws of the country (designed to maintain peace and security) are the equivalent of the laws of nature (designed to maintain order)

What the Renaissance knew
Christian Huygens (1656)
3500 BC Sundial
1400 BC, Egypt: Water clock (Clepsydra)
?: Hourglass
1335 AD: Mechanical clock
1510: Spring-powered clock by Peter Henlein
1656: Pendulum by Christian Huygens (first weight-driven clock with a pendulum)
What the Renaissance knew
Robert Boyle (1661)
Under conditions of constant temperature, the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely proportional.
Atomic theory of matter: matter is made of innumerable elementary particles
The features of objects are due to the features and motion of the particles they are made of

What the Renaissance knew
Baruch Spinoza (1677)
Power of reason
God has infinite attributes, two substances cannot share attributes, thus there is only one substance: God
Monism instead of dualism: only one substance and it is God/Nature
Pantheism: Nature is God
God/Nature has extension, thought and an infinite number of super-human attributes
What the Renaissance knew
Baruch Spinoza (1677)
Things and souls are dependent on other things and souls for their existence, thus they cannot be separate substances
Things and souls are (finite) aspects (modes) of that one (infinite) substance
What the Renaissance knew
Baruch Spinoza (1677)
God/Nature is both mental and physical ("Deus sive Natura")
Every "mode" is also both mental and physical
"Mind and body are one and the same individual conceived now under the attribute of thought and now under the attribute of extension"
Double-aspect theory: mind and matter are not substances albeit aspects of the same substance
The only substance is neither physical nor mental
Descartes' problem is solved because mind and body do not need to interact

What the Renaissance knew
Baruch Spinoza (1677)
Both mind and body strive (conatus) to defend themselves from destructive forces: the body wants to increase its survival through action, the mind wants to increase its understanding through reason
As the mind understands more and more, it comes to realize that everything that exists (including the mind itself) "must" be the way it is, because everything is but an aspect of God
We are free to understand that we are "modes" of existence of God, but we are not free to change God, therefore we do not have free will
Immortality is becoming one with God/Nature, realizing the eternity of everything ("intuition")
What the Renaissance knew
Baruch Spinoza (1677)
The human mind is the idea of the human body
Mind and body are mutually dependent processes that mimick each other
A person's actions should not be aimed at pleasing a God, but rather at acting in harmony with Nature
Salvation is living in harmony with Nature
Knowledge and meditation lead to a superior form of salvation: a direct intuition of reality and of the human condition
Suffering and death are natural phenomena that we must accept
What the Renaissance knew
Isaac Newton (1687)
Mathematical description of the motion of bodies in space and over time
Natural state is uniform straight motion
Absolute time and space made of ordered instants and points
Force as cause of change of motion (acceleration)
Gravitational force as cause of planetary motion
Action at distance
Unification of terrestrial and celestial mechanics
Conservation of energy
God is necessary to keep gravitation from destroying the universe
What the Renaissance knew
Newton (1687)
New view of the world
Mathematics and Mechanics can explain Nature
Matter is made of atoms subject to mechanical laws
"The smallest particle of matter may cohere by the strongest attractions, and compose bigger particles of weaker virtue. And many of those may cohere, and compose bigger particles whose virtue is still weaker. And so on for diverse successions until the progression ends in the biggest particles on which the operation in chemistry and the colors of natural bodies depend."
What the Renaissance knew
English ("Glorious") revolution (1688)
Constitutional monarchy
The king subject to the laws of Parliament
What the Renaissance knew
John Locke (1690)
Boyle's world:
Matter is composed of elementary particles
The features of objects are due to the features and motion of the particles they are made of
Ideas as the elementary particles of mind
All bodies possess "primary" qualities (solidity, extension, figure, number, and motion): qualities which are "inseparable" from the bodies themselves
Secondary qualities are the ones that produce sensations in observers (color, sound, taste)
Secondary qualities can be understood in terms of the primary qualities that produce them
What the Renaissance knew
John Locke (1690)
Perceptions are mechanical interactions with objects, that cause mechanical interactions within the nervous system and ultimately the brain, where "sensations" arise ("causal" theory of perception)
The sensations are caused by the objects, but all we know is the sensations, not necessarily the real objects
The world is not necessarily what appears to us
All knowledge derives from experience ("empiricism")
Knowledge is acquired
What the Renaissance knew
John Locke (1690)
Ideas rule our mind
Ideas derive from experience, although some ideas may derive from other ideas
The mind is helpless against simple ideas due to sense-experience
The mind can combine, relate and abstract ideas to form other ideas

What the Renaissance knew
John Locke (1690)
People have rights
Government has the duty to protect their rights and first and foremost their property rights
Three branches of government for "checks and balances"
Separation of church and state
Rule of the majority ("liberalism")
What the Renaissance knew
George Berkeley (1710)
Idealism
Critique of Newtonian world: matter does not even exist
All we know is our perceptions
We cannot directly know that there is an external world ("esse est percipi")
Reality is inside our mind: an object is an experience
The whole universe is a set of experiences
The only thing that exists is the experiences of our mind
The only thing that exists is mind
The soul always thinks
The world is exactly how it appears: it "is" what appears, and it is inside our mind
Our mind rules ideas
What the Renaissance knew
George Berkeley (1710)
Reality consists of finite, created minds; an infinite, uncreated mind; ideas
Objects do not exist apart from a subject that thinks them.
What the Renaissance knew
Gottfried Leibniz (1714)
Panpsychism
Only minds exist
There are infinite minds
Humans are not the only ones to have minds
Everything has a mind
Matter is made of minds
Minds come in degrees, starting with matter (whose minds are very simple) and ending with God (whose mind is infinite)
Reality is the set of all finite minds (or "monads") that God has created
What the Renaissance knew
Leibniz (1714)
A monad is capable of perceiving other monads and of changing its state of knowledge
Thought is just a kind of "perceiving".
Some perceptions are "unconscious" (inert matter only has unconscious perceptions)
When knowledge (awareness) increases, we feel pleasure. When knowledge decreases, we feel pain.
All monads want to increase their knowledge
We are born with the concepts of God and Mathematics
What the Renaissance knew
Leibniz (1714)
Monads have free will but their actions have been determined by God
There is no cause-effect relationship between events: God has pre-determined the harmony of the universe. Monads cannot influence each other. Monads are "clocks that strike hours together".
Space is an illusion: we perceive as "close" what we "know" better (are aware of)

What the Renaissance knew
Leibniz (1714)
"Universal characteristic": universal language based on the laws of Logic
Many possibly worlds: ideas in the mind of God (we live in the best of possible worlds)
Evil exists so that we can appreciate goodness

What the Renaissance knew
Calculus
Descartes: analytic geometry
Leibniz (1675
Newton (1666
Function
Limit
Derivative
Integral
What the Renaissance knew
Daniel Bernoulli (1738)
Macroscopic properties of objects are due to and can be explained by the motion of the particles that constitute them
First kinetic theory of gases
Expressed in probabilistic terms.
What the Industrial Age knew
David Hume (1740)
All ideas come from perception
"Mind" is a set of "perceptions" or ideas created from perceptions
The mind is a theater where perceptions play their parts in rapid succession
The self is an illusion
The self is like a republic, whose members have an independent life and change all the time but are united by a common constitution
The identity of the republic is provided not by its fluctuating contents but by the causal relationship that holds its members together
What the Industrial Age knew
David Hume (1740)
Mental life is a series of thoughts, feelings, sensations
There is no self
A mind is a bundle of inter-related mental events
The self is a fiction that we construct in order to define what binds these events together
What the Industrial Age knew
David Hume (1740)
Critique of causation
Induction is not always right: the scientific method does not always lead to truth
Experience determines our belief in cause and effect
Causality is probability, not certainty (the connection between the two events exists in the mind of the observer, not necessarily between the two events)
No absolute truth: any belief is as justified as any other
What the Industrial Age knew
David Hume (1740)
Thought is governed by two laws (associationism):
Contiguity: ideas that occur frequently together get associated
Resemblance: anything that is associated to an idea is also automatically associated to any similar idea (similar behavior to similar features)
Body-mind debate
Dualism: mind and body are made of two different substances
Substance dualism: the mind is a different (nonphysical) substance altogether from the brain
Descartes
a substance is characterized by that property that it cannot lack and still be the same substance (extension and "cogito")
Hume:
The mind is a theater where perceptions play their part in rapid succession
How do mind and body interact?
Body-mind debate
Monism: only one substance exists
Materialism: only matter exists
Hobbes
Everything is a mechanism
Idealism: only mind exists
Panpsychism: everything has a mind
Leibniz
Berkeley
The only thing that exists is the experiences of our mind
Pantheism: only God exists
Spinoza
How does one substance originate from the other?
Body-mind debate
Dualism
Substance dualism
Descartes, Hume
Monism
Materialism
Hobbes
Idealism
Berkeley
Panpsychism
Leibniz
Monadology
Spinoza
What the Industrial Age knew
Giambattista Vico (1744)
There is a single history of humankind, due to the fact that there is a single God, a single Creation, etc
The Fall determined the history of humankind
The natural sciences cannot explain nature because nature was created by God, and after the Fall humans cannot understand God's mind
One can only know one's creations
We can know the creations of other humans by using our mind to simulate theirs, but we can never know the creations of God because we cannot simulate his mind
Humans can only know history, culture, art and languages
What the Industrial Age knew
Vico (1744)
The study of human creations (humanities) relies on a method that is different from the study of divine creations (sciences)
Languages are the supreme achievement of humans, a consequence of the Fall, as humans got dispersed on Earth
Pattern ("corso e ricorso") of social development in every culture: from barbarism to civilization and then back to barbarism
Age of the Gods: religion and family emerge from the barbaric state
Age of Heroes: social order is created by a class rules the other classes
Age of Men: the lower classes obtain equality, but cause society to disintegrate
What the Industrial Age knew
Vico (1744)
This pattern replicates the stages of personal development from child (emotions) to middle age (self-critical) to old age (chaos)
The pattern endlessly replicate the pattern of fall, alienation and redemption
Pattern of artistic development from poetry to prose
Family is the institution that mediates between nature and culture
What the Renaissance knew
Music
Renaissance Music: Polyphony of independence voices
Baroque Music: Basso Continuo
Antonio Vivaldi (1678): "Cimento dell'Armonia e dell'Invenzione" (1725)
Handel (1685): "Concerti Grossi" (1740)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685): "Die Kunst der Fuge" (1750)
What the Renaissance knew
Baroque
The style of the Counter-Reformation
Jesuit evangelization
Rejoicing for the wonderful fate of Christians
What the Renaissance knew
Baroque/Roma
Carlo Maderno (1556)
S. Susanna (1597)
Nave and Fa‡ade of St Peter (1614)
Gianlorenzo Bernini (1598)
St Peter's Colonnade
Francesco Borromini (1599)
San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (1638)
S. Ivo della Sapienza (1648)
Piazza del Popolo (1662-79)
Spanish Steps (1723)
Trevi fountain (1732)
S. Maria della Salute, Venezia (1631)
What the Renaissance knew
Baroque/ Torino
Guarino Guarini (1624)
Chapel of the Holy Shroud (1667)
S.Lorenzo (1668)
Filippo Juvarra (1678)
Palazzo Madama (1718)
Stupinigi castle (1729)
Superga (1717)
Bernardo Vittone (1705)
Santa Maria della Visitazione, Vallinotto (1738)
San Bernardino, Chieri (1740)
Santa Chiara, Bra (1741)
Santa Maria di Piazza, Torino (1750)
S. Croce in Villanova di Mondovi` (1755)
San Michele, Rivarolo Canavese (1758)
What the Renaissance knew
Baroque & Rococo/Venice
S. Maria della Salute, Venezia (1631)
What the Renaissance knew
Baroque
S. Michael, Munich (1597), first baroque church north of the Alps
What the Renaissance knew
Rococo/Germany & Austria
Johann Bernard Fisher von Erlach (1656)
Karlskirche, Vienna (1716-37)
Hofbibliothek, Vienna (1722)
Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt
Schloss Pommersfelden (1711)
Halbthurn Palace (1711)
Lower and Upper Belvedere (1713-1723)
Mirabell Palace, Salzburg (1715)
Schoenborn Palace, Goellersdorf (1717)
Goettweig (1719)
Schlosshof Palace (1729)
Balthasar Neumann (1687)
Wuerzburg Residenz (1724-44)
Bruchsal (1731)
What the Renaissance knew
Rococo/Germany & Austria
Jakob Prandtauer: Monastery of Melk, Austria (1702)
Daniel Mathaeus Poeppelman: Zwinger, Dresden (1711-)
Asman brothers: Welterburg (1718)
Georg Bahr: Frauenkirche, Dresden (1726-)
Francois Cuvillies: Amalienburg, Munich (1734)
Gotthard Hayberger: Admont abbey library, Austria (1742)
Georg Wenceslaus von Knoebelsdorff: Sans Souci, Potsdam (1745)
Dominikus Zimmermann: Die Wies (1746)
Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena: Bayreuth theatre (1748)
Hildebrandt's Goettweig
What the Renaissance knew
Rococo/Slavic
Johann Santini (Bohemia, 1667):
Kladruby (1712)
Rajhrad (1722)
Zdar chapel (1719)
Paolo Antonio Fontana: St Anne, Lubartow, Poland (1738)
Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700):
Smolny convent, St Petersburg (1748)
Winter Palace, St Petersburg (1754)
What the Renaissance knew
Rococo/Spanish
Sacristy of the Charterhouse, Granada (18th)
Fa‡ade of Santiago de Campostela (1738)
Zacatecas cathedral, Mexico (1752)
Cordoba cathedral, Argentina (1687)
Mafra monastery, Portugal (1717-)
What the Renaissance knew
Rococo/French
Francois Mansart: Ste Marie de la Visitation, Paris (1632)
Hardouin-Mnasart: Les Invalides (1680)
Louis LeVau: Versailles (1669)
Guarini?: St Didier, Asfeld (1680)
Grand Place, Brussels (1696-)

What the Renaissance knew
Rococo/English
Christopher Wren (1632, Britain)
St. Paul's Cathedral, London (1675-1710)
St Stephen, Walbrook (1672)
John Vanbrugh:
Castle Howard (1699-)
Blenheim palace (1705)
James Gibbs:
St Martin-in-the-fields, London (1721)
Radcliff Camera (1739)

What the Industrial Age knew


Bibliography
Gregory Freeze: Russia (1997)
Paul Kennedy: The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987)
Peter Hall: Cities in Civilization (1998)
Europe 1700
The Industrial Age
1756: Britain and Prussia declare war against France, Austria and Russia ("Seven Years' War")
1760: Abd Wahhab allies with Muhammad Ibn Saud and founds the Saudi state in Arabia, founded on a pure form of Islam
1770: James Cook lands in Australia and claims it for Britain
1776: the American colonies ratify the Declaration of Independence
1789: a popular uprising in Paris stars the French Revolution
1790: the French Academy invents the "metric" system
1700-1860: 15 million Africans are sold to the Americas (40 million die)
1795: Poland-Lithuania is divided between Russia and Prussia
1797-1815: Napoleonic wars
Europe 1815
The Industrial Age
1812-24: Independence movement in Hispanic America
1830: The world's population is 1 billion
1839: Opium war (China vs Britain)
1847: France invades Algeria
1848: gold is discovered in California, whose population is 6,000
1851: The population of the USA is 20,067,720 free persons and 2,077,034 slaves
1858: collapse of the Mogul empire in India
1859: Edwin Drake strikes oil in Pennsylvania
1861: Garibaldi unites Italy
1861-65: American civil war
1864: Karl Marx creates the First International in London, a coalition of socialist parties from all over the world
1871: Bismark unites Germany
Independence Wars in Latin America, 1826

Austro-Hungarian empire (1850)
The Multi-national European Wars
1756-1763: Seven Years' war: Prussia and Britain win against France, Austria, Russia, Saxony, Sweden and Spain
1768-74: Russia defeats the Ottomans
1795-1815 Napoleonic wars: Austria, England, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Prussia win against France
1787-92: Russia and Austria defeat the Ottomans
1806-12: Russia defeats the Ottomans
1828-29: Russia, France and England defeat the Ottomans
1853-56: Ottomans, England and France defeat Russia
What the Industrial Age knew
Industrial Revolution
Machines
Inventions
Coal & steam
Steel
Working class
Slave trade
The Industrial Revolution
1709: Abraham Darby smelts iron wth coal
1721: Thomas Lombe builds the first factory in the world (for silk)
1733: John Kay invents the flying shuttle (for the woollen manufacture)
1741: Lewis Paul, having invented a mechanical system to spin cotton, opens the first cotton mill
1757: James Watt improves the steam engine
1765: James Hargreaves invents the jenny (for the cotton industry)
1773: Richard Arkwright inaugurates the first mill of his system of factories
1779: Samuel Crompton invents the "mule" for the cotton industry, which reduces the cost of spinning by 95% in 20 years
1779: John Wilkinson builds the first cast-iron bridge, the first large cast-iro
n structure
1782: the first steamboat sails the Clyde (Glasgow)
1785: Edmund Cartwright mechanizes weaving (the "power loom")
1787: Robert Peel builds an integrated spinning, weaving and printing factory
1787: John Wilkinson builds the first iron boat
The Industrial Revolution
1812: Henry Bell starts the first commercial steamboat service in Glasgow
1819: The "Savannah" completes the first transatlantic crossing by a steamboat
1820: the first iron steamship is built
1831: Michael Faraday invents the transformer
1835: Manchester, the most industrial city in the world, has a population of 300,000 and 100,000 people are workers
1837: the telegraph
1869: the opening of the Suez canal (impassable by sail boats) boosts sales of steamboats
1866: the first practical dynamo is developed by Siemens
1888: Nikola Tesla invents the alternating-current motor
1879: the first steel steamboat crosses the Atlantic
1892: Britain tonnage and seatrade exceeds the rest of the world together
The Industrial Revolution
Manchester
Water mills + coal mines + Liverpool's port + technology
Middle class ran most of the enterprises
200 years of clock-making (cotton mechanics were clock-makers)
First polytechnic schools
Cotton: 0.6% of British industrial output in 1770, 9.2% in 1801, 25.3% in 1831 (more than 50% of the exports in 1830)
The Slave Trade
700: Zanzibar becomes the main Arab slave trading post in Africa
1325: Mansa Musa, the king of Mali, makes his pilgrimage to Mecca carrying 500 slaves and 100 camels
1482: Portugal founds the first European trading post in Africa (Elmira, Gold Coast)
1500-1600: Portugal enjoys a virtual monopoly in the slave trade to the Americas
1528: the Spanish government issues "asientos" (contracts) to private companies for the trade of African slaves
1650: Holland becomes the dominant slave trading country
1700: Britain becomes the dominant slave trading country
1807: Britain outlaws slavery
1848: France abolishes slavery
The Slave Trade
1851: The population of the USA is 20,067,720 free persons and 2,077,034 slaves
1865: the Union defeats the Confederates and slavery is abolished in the USA
The Atlantic Slave Trade
By trading country
Portugal/Brazil: 4.6m
Britain: 2.6m
Spain: 1.6m
France: 1.25m
Holland: 0.5m
U.S.A.: 0.3m
The Atlantic Slave Trade
Slavery in Africa: prisoners of war used as domestic servants (humane, not racist)
Slavery in Arabia: African captives used as domestic servants and small-business helpers (humane, racist)
Slavery in America: African captives used for mass (plantation) labor (dehumanized, racist)

Sugar consumption in Europe
1400: exotic rarity
1700: a necessity, but an expensive one
1800: 4 kgs/year per person
1900: 50 kgs/year per person
(2000 in USA: 30 kgs per person)
The Atlantic Slave Trade
History of Sugar Plantations 1200-1700
Muslims in Lebanon
Italian seatrading cities
Cyprus, Crete, Sicily
Labor-intensive
Capital-intensive
Portuguese possessions
Madeira (1480s): Italian techniques and capital, indigenous labor force
Sao Tome` (1500s): exclusively slave labor, faster-growing operations
Brazil (1540s): Amerindian and African slaves, larger and faster-growing operations
The Atlantic Slave Trade
History of Sugar Plantations 1700-1900
Caribbean islands, 1700s
Barbados, Jamaica (English): Estates over 200 acres, over 100 slaves
Martinique, Guadelupe , Saint Domingue (French): Estates over 1000 acres, over 200 slaves
USA Plantations, 1800s
Population not self-sustaining, required constant flow of new slaves
Diversification: tobacco, cotton
Cotton fueled industrial revolution
Large-scale, capitalist operations
Specialization and mass production
The Atlantic Slave Trade
History of Sugar Plantations 1700-1900
The Atlantic Slave Trade
The Triangular Trade
1773: Britain establishes a monopoly on the sale of Indian opium
1790s: Britain transforms opium from luxury good to bulk commodity
1800s: Opium sales make up 6 to 15% of British India's tax revenues
Indian opium --> China
Chinese tea --> England
British textiles --> India
1839: Opium war between Britain and China
What the Industrial Age knew
British Empire
Exporter of people and capital
Colonies as useful overflow for exploding population (between 1600 and 1950 about 20 million Britons emigrated)
Capital available from the slave trade (peaked in 18th century)
Self-appointed mission to redeem the world
Military power sustained by capacity to tax (2/3 times the % of GNP paid in taxes by France) and borrow (between 1750 and 1820, debt servicing in peacetime amounted to almost 50% of all government expenses)
What the Industrial Age knew
British Empire
Population in 1701:
France 19 million vs England 6 million
Population in 1801:
France 27 million vs Britain 16.3 million (of which 10 in England, 1.8 in Scotland, the rest in Ireland)
And nonetheless_.
1702-1713: Britain defeats France in the War of the Spanish Succession
1756-1763: Britain defeats France in the Seven Years' war
1795-1815: Britain defeats France in the Napoleonic wars
What the Industrial Age knew
1860
Britain has 2% of the world's population
Britain produces almost 20% of the world's manufacturing output
53% of the world's iron
50% of the world's coal and lignite
consumes 50% of the world's cotton
consumes six times more (fuel-based) energy than France

What the Industrial Age knew
British Empire
Global communications
steamships
railroads
telegraph
undersea cable
they unified colonies as "nations"
they fostered global trade
they created a worldwide logistical system
Enforced free trade
The world's banker
Global economic and legal system
Collapsed because of costs of maintaining its own legality
The foundations had been economic and its downfall was economic
British Empire
What the Industrial Age knew
The decline of the British aristocracy
1869: First transcontinental railroad in the USA connects the prairies with the Atlantic ports
1870s: Cheap wheat from the USA invades the British market
1880s: Land values in Britain collapse, and the power of the (land-owning) aristocracy is challenged by financiers and entrepreneurs
1906: the Liberal party, representing financiers and entrepreneurs, comes into power
1909: Lloyd George's reforms tax land to pay for sickness, invalidity and unemployment insurance
1924: First Labour government
What the Industrial Age knew
Coal economy
16th-17th century London
Coal heats homes better than wood
Wood scarce, coal plenty
18th century England
Coal wealth
Shipbuilding technology improved to transport coal to London
Canals built to transport coal
Railroads invented for coal (1825)
Pollution
Miners
What the Industrial Age knew
Coal economy
20th century USA
Melting Pot (Ireland, Poland, Italy, Bohemia, Lithuania,...)
Strikes (1900 salary: $1.15 to $4 per day)
1867-2000: 716 mining accidents in the USA, 15,183 miners killed
1899 production was more than 54,000,000 tons
What the Industrial Age knew
International Standards
1582: Gregorian calendar
1800: Metric system
1884: Greenwich time
What the Industrial Age knew
The first complete world census (1801)
China (295 million people)
India (131 million)
Russia (33 million)
France (27 million)
Ottoman Empire (21 million)
Germany? (14 million)
Spain (11 million)
Britain (10 million)
Ireland (5 million)
USA (5 million)
What the Industrial Age knew
Population growth in Europe
1750: 140 million
1800: 187 million
1850: 266 million
Population growth in Asia
1750: 400 million
1850: 700 million
Decline in diseases
Increased agricultural output
End of little ice age (1560-1850)

What the Industrial Age knew
The world's largest cities in 1800
Beijing 1,100,000
London 861,000
Canton 800,000
Istanbul 570,000
Paris 547,000
GDP per capite 1820
What the Industrial Age knew
Shares of world manufacturing output
1750: China 33%, France 4%, Britain 2%, USA 0.1%
1800: China 33%, Britain 4.3%, France 4.2%, USA 0.8%
1850: China 20%, Britain 20%, France 8%, USA 7%
1875: Britain 23%, China 14%, USA 13%, France 8%
1900: USA 23%, Britain 18%, France 7%, China 6%
What the Industrial Age knew
LaMettrie (1748):
The mind is a machine
Thought is the physical processes of the brain
Perception and learning are changes in the physical structure of the brain
Motion is intrinsic to matter (no need for a soul)
Organisms are machines, but goal-directed machines
Anatomical correspondence and behavioral correspondence between animals and humans
Man is an animal
Animals have feelings too
Life arose from a primordial soup and then evolved
What the Industrial Age knew
Charles Bonnet (1754):
The mind cannot influence the body ("epiphenomenalism")
The brain controls the body and causes the mind

What the Industrial Age knew
Enlightenment/ "Philosophes"
Reason
Knowledge
Atheism
Progress
What the Industrial Age knew
Enlightenment/ "Philosophes"
Charles de Montesquieu: "The Spirit of Laws" (1748)
Denis Diderot: "Encyclopedie" (1752)
Voltaire (1756)
Deism, a purely rational religion
Moral crusade against intolerance, tyranny, superstition
Freedom of thought
What the Industrial Age knew
JeanJacques Rousseau (1761)
Human nature is good
Evil arises with society
Science and arts create artificial desires which cause the loss of individual freedom
The "state of nature" is superior to the civilized state
Social contract surrenders the individual's rights to the community in return for protection
What the Industrial Age knew
Thomas Bayes (1764)
Probabilities
What the Industrial Age knew
Paul-Henri Holbach (1770)
The misery that afflicts humankind is caused by religion and superstition
There is no God who controls destiny and rewards or punishes individuals
The soul is a property of the physical body, which dies when the body dies
All natural phenomena can be understood in terms of the motion and features of matter
All that exist is visible to us
The history of the world is history of causes and effects
Every event has an influence on the universe
Ethics is enlightened self-interest
A state's goal is to preserve the general welfare ("ethocracy")
What the Industrial Age knew
Adam Smith (1776)
The production and distribution of wealth
Free enterprise system
Free competition and free trade
Competition works for the common good ("invisible hand")
The value of a commodity is the amount of labor that it commands
The division of labor results in efficiency which results in surplus value
Surplus value is legitimate reward for capitalists
What the Industrial Age knew
American revolution (1776)
A practical application of the Enlightenment
What the Industrial Age knew
Kant (1781)
Phenomena exist only insofar as the mind perceives them as ideas
The ultimate reality (the thing-in-itself, "ding an sich") cannot be experienced by the human mind
We experience the world as we perceive it through our (human) nature
We cannot know how things are in themselves
We cannot know the objects of the world, but only our perceptions of such objects
What the Industrial Age knew
Immanuel Kant (1781)
Idealism
There exists a thing in itself..
_but it is unknowable to us
The empirical world is my representation
Causality is a relation among representations, not between them and something else
Space, time and causal relationships are not features of reality in itself
What the Industrial Age knew
Kant (1781)
A-priori knowledge includes categories of quantity (unity, plurality, totality), categories of quality (reality, negation, limitation), categories of relation (substance-and-accident, cause-and-effect, reciprocity), and categories of modality (possibility, existence, necessity)
Anything that we experience is located by our mind in space and time and is classified by our mind within those categories
Space and time pre-exist, but only in our mind ("trascendentalist idealism")
What the Industrial Age knew
Kant (1781)
Knowledge is in our mind, and therefore everything that we know is in our mind (space, time, objects)
The qualia of an object (color, smell) are not in the object but in our mind, they are manufactured by the perceptive subsystem of our mind
One cannot "infer" the existence of objects (as Descartes had done)
What the Industrial Age knew
Kant (1781)
A-priori knowledge is indispensable to perception
Experience involves processing sense-data (applying a-priori categories to perceptions)
The human mind is an active originator of experience rather than just a passive recipient of perception
Perceptual input must be processed, i.e. recognized, or it would just be noise
Knowledge depends on the structure of the mind
It is this process of "recognizing" perceptions that generates consciousness (the self)
What the Industrial Age knew
Kant (1781)
Categories can only be applied to perceptions
Applying categories to non-perceived (abstract) ideas leads to an antinomy (a thesis and its antithesis can both be proven true), the domain of metaphysics
Antinomies can both be proven true:
1. "The world has a beginning in time and is limited as regards space" and "The world has no beginning and no limits in space"
2. "Every complex substance is made of simple parts" and "Nothing is composed of simple parts"
3. "Humans have free will" and "Humans have no free will"
4. "There exists a necessary being (God) in the world" and "There does not exist a necessary being (God) in the world"
The domain of the thesis is the mental world, the domain of the antithesis is the spatiotemporal world
What the Industrial Age knew
Kant (1781)
Analytic proposition: the predicate is logically contained in the subject
Examples: "Every thing has a size", "Americans are people"
Truth is self-evident once the concept is analyzed
Knowledge is not increased
Synthetic proposition: their truth is not self-evident
Examples: "My car is white", "This room is large"
Truth is based on experience of the world
Knowledge is increased
Empirical proposition: their truth depends on perception
Example: "My car is white", "Rob is American"
A-priori proposition: their truth does not depend on perception
Example: "Two plus two makes four"
What the Industrial Age knew
Kant (1781)
Analytic and empirical: ok
Analytic and a-priori: ok
Synthetic and empirical: ok
Synthetic and a-priori: can we increase our knowledge independently of experience?
Kant's thesis: Synthetic and a-priori judgments are possible (Physics is possible)
What the Industrial Age knew
Kant (1781)
A synthetic a-priori judgement is one that is true not because
1. experience
2. the predicate is logically contained within the subject
It can be proven true via a "transcendental argument", which is a set of methods to use the mind's own functioning to increase the mind's own knowledge. Example:
"There are objects that exist in space and time outside of me"
Proof: It would not be possible to be aware of myself as existing without presupposing the existence of something permanent outside of me to distinguish myself from
Synthetic a-priori knowledge:
"The amount of energy is always conserved"
"The angles of a triangle always add up to 180 degrees"
Physics is valid (Hume claimed it is not)
What the Industrial Age knew
Kant (1781)
Ethics: There is an absolute good
The existence of morality is as evident as the existence of physical objects
Categorical imperative: good actions are those that one would want as universal laws
What the Industrial Age knew
Kant (1781)
Proofs of God are flawed, the only evidence of God being that there is no justice (reward proportional to virtue) in this world, therefore there must be an afterlife
Reason is the final authority for morality ("choose your action as if the principle guiding your action were to become a universal law")
What the Industrial Age knew
William Jones (1786)
English and sanskrit descend from a common ancestral language, the Aryan language
What the Industrial Age knew
French Revolution (1789-94)
The Enlightenment
discredited revealed religion (Voltaire, Diderot)
discrediting the ancient regime (Rousseau)
emergence of a critical spirit
New political discourse
salons organized by women in Paris
the philosophes of Diderot's encyclopedia
the monarchy lost control of what its subjects were reading
penetration of British consumerist society
creation of a "publis sphere" outside the control of the state
What the Industrial Age knew
French Revolution (1789-94)
Fiscal exemption of the aristocracy
Aristocratic monopoly over upper church offices
Policy of selling offices with tax-exempt status to fund warfare
What the Industrial Age knew
French Revolution (1789)
May 1789-Sep 1791: National Assembly
Paris commune
Peasant riots in the countryside
Abolition of the aristocracy
Voting rights for male citizens
Oct 1791-Sep 1792: Legislative Assembly
Representing mainly the middle class
War against Austria, Prussia and Spain
Sep 1792: National Convention
End of monarchy
Jan 1793- Nov 1794: Robespierre's Terror
What the Industrial Age knew
French Revolution (1789)
Aug 1795-Nov 1799: Directory
Partial restoration of civil rights
End of war
Dec 1799-May 1804: Consulate
Napoleon's coup
May 1804-Jun 1815: Empire
Napoleon's imperial wars
What the Industrial Age knew
French Revolution (1789-94)
Not a class war between bourgeoisie and aristocracy (85% of people executed were commoners)
The "nation" replaced "God" and "King" (birth of nationalism)
What the Industrial Age knew
Georges Buffon (1789)
Earliest western account of the history of life and of the Earth that was not based on the Bible
Newton's natural forces to explain natural phenomena

What the Industrial Age knew
Jeremy Bentham (1789):
Human nature is governed by two fundamental motivations: seeking pleasure and avoiding pain
Moral values are to be based on the principle of utility: every action has to be judged based on how it augments or diminishes happiness
"The greatest happiness for the greatest number of people
What the Industrial Age knew
Johann Herder (1791)
Nature and human history obey the same laws
Each individual belongs to a community (nation) and inherits its history
Each community has its own criteria (eg, there is no absolute definition of happeness)
"I am nothing_ the whole is everything"
What the Industrial Age knew
Johann Fichte (1792)
The natural world is construed by an infinite self
Self = primordial action of the intellect that originates the individual selves
The Non-self (the natural world) is created by the Self as a challenge to itself
The Self continuously confronts the non-Self, which it has created, and their interaction defines each
The Self creates the Non-self as a field in which to operate, and thus needs the Non-self to appear an independent reality
The original Self was not conscious, but the selves produced by this interaction become conscious
What the Industrial Age knew
Thomas Malthus (1798)
Population growth depends on natural resources
Fertility leads to economic crisis
David Ricardo (1817)
Wages are determined by the price of food, which is determined by the cost of production, which is determined by the amount of labor required to produce the food, i.e: labor determines value
What the Industrial Age knew

Battery (1800)
Dalton (1803): matter is composed of atoms
What the Industrial Age knew
William Paley: Natural Theology (1802)
Teleological argument to prove the existence of God, adapted to Newton's law: the universe exhibits a purposeful behavior
The universe is a vast machine operating according to Newton's laws
Somebody must have built that machine
What the Industrial Age knew
Georg Hegel (1807)
Knowledge is possible even beyond Kant's antionomies
Spiritual nature of all reality
Only the absolute exists, everything else is an illusion
The absolute is both the infinite universe and infinite pure mind
Metaphysics is logic ("what is rational is real and what is real is rational")
Dialectical method (progress is the result of the conflict of opposites)
What the Industrial Age knew
Hegel (1807)
Any attempt to state the reality of something else (thesis) results in a contradiction (antithesis) that can only be resolved (synthesis) at a higher level, where both are true, which yields a new thesis, for which there exists an anti-thesis, which can be resolved in a synthesis, etc. All the way to the highest level, the absolute
Reality (nature as well as human history) is the dialectical unfolding of the absolute
As we understand more of the absolute, the absolute knows more of itself
What the Industrial Age knew
Hegel (1807)
Art investigates the absolute through forms of beauty
Religion investigates the absolute through symbols
Philosophy investigates the absolute through logic
The dialectical process progresses towards the absolute's full self-knowledge, which is the ultimate goal of everything ("God is God only in so far as he knows himself")
The absolute is thought that thinks itself
What the Industrial Age knew
Hegel (1807)
History is due to the conflict of forces/nations
An entity lays down a challenge, which becomes a thesis
An antithesis arises
A synthesis resolves the two on a higher plane
(eg, "revolution" is opposed by "reaction" and the synthesis is a new social order)
What the Industrial Age knew
Hegel (1807)
The human condition is one of alienation, because the individual sees herself as being distinct, instead of being united with the absolute
Philosophy's mission: to emancipate people from millennia of alienation
What the Industrial Age knew
Arthur Schopenhauer (1819)
Kant + Buddha
We can know reality in itself, but only from within, via self-knowledge, via the realization that we are "will" (striving nature of conscious beings)
Mind (conscious and unconscious) is will, which assumes the idea of the body in space and time
Will is the inner force of human life
"Will and acting are one"
Will is the true substance of the body
What the Industrial Age knew
Schopenhauer (1819)
Will is the inner reality of every natural phenomenon
Everywhere there is will: "impulse, persistence, determination"
All reality is will; there is one universal will
What the Industrial Age knew
Schopenhauer (1819)
The will's constant urge for achievement of ever more ambitious goals causes human unhappiness
We are victims of our insatiable will
We are either bored (because we are not letting our will act) or frustrated (because we can't achieve what our will wills)
The will is the origin of our sufferings: the less you "will", the less you suffer
The endless cycle of willing and suffering can be broken only by ceasing the striving, i.e. Buddhist-like resignation/contemplation
Salvation requires an "euthanasia of the will"
What the Industrial Age knew
Schopenhauer (1819)
Moral virtue is a way to reduce the evil power of will
Moral virtue is a way to realize that individuals are an illusion, that only Will (one shared will) exists
What the Industrial Age knew
The "Savannah" completes the first transatlantic crossing by a steamboat (1819)
What the Industrial Age knew
Maine de Biran (1824)
All knowledge is acquired through experience
But sense-experience does not determine the inner life: it is inner life that determines sense-experience
Will is always in relation to action
To act is to know, and viceversa
Perception is not passive, but active: perception is action
Psychology cannot be reduced to physiology because they study fundamentally different phenomena
They are equivalent descriptions of the same event
What the Industrial Age knew
Pierre Simon LaPlace (1825)
The universe is a set of particles interacting with each other according to Newton's laws
The future is fully determined (Given the initial conditions, every future event in the universe can be calculated)
Gravitational astronomy
Nebular hypothesis of stellar evolution

What the Industrial Age knew
Auguste Comte (1830):
Positivism
Three stages of human development, corresponding to three stages of the human mind
Theological stage (events are explained by gods, kings rule)
Abstract stage (events are explained by philosophy, democracy rules)
Scientific ("positive") stage (there is no absolute explanation, but empirical science provides useful generalizations)
Scientists should rule countries
What the Industrial Age knew
Karl von Clausewitz (1833)
A science of warmaking
The relationship between state and army
War is the continuation of politics by other means
It presupposes the existence of a state
Difference between the lawful/civilized warrior (disciplined and subordinate to the political leader) and the unlawful/savage warrior

What the Industrial Age knew
John Stuat Mill (1836)
Utilitarianism
Laws of nature control the universe and the mind
The environment controls the body
The mind is only an organ
What the Industrial Age knew
John Stuat Mill (1836)
Ethics
The moral value of an action depends on its outcome: a good action is one that has a good outcome
The best action is the one that pleases the greatest number of people
"Pleasure and freedom from pain are the only things desirable as ends" and viceversa (the only desirable things are those that promote pleasure and prevent pain)
What the Industrial Age knew
Utopian socialism
Charles Fourier (1808)
Reorganization of society around phalanxes
Claude Rouvroy de Saint-Simon(1825)
Scientists to lead society
Christianity to inspire industrialization
Industrialization to improve lives
Pierre Proudhon (1843)
Anarchy: elimination of government
Property is theft
Educate people so that government and police would become unnecessary
What the Industrial Age knew
Ludwig Feuerbach (1843)
Hegel mistakenly inverted the relationship between individuals and the Absolute
Religion is a projection of human values onto the concept of the divine
Humanistic philosophy (a philosophy that cares for the ordinary man) is the logical successor of all religious philosophy
"The new philosophy is the complete and absolute dissolution of theology into anthropology"
What the Industrial Age knew
Soren Kierkegaard (1846)
Hegel's metaphysical program is impossible because the philosopher cannot be a detached, objective, external observer: the philosopher is someone who exists and is part of what is observed (an "existing subjective thinker")
The very reason that we are interested in philosophy (in understanding our existence) is because we exist
Existence is both the thinker's object and condition
The truth that matters is the pathos of existing, not the truth of Logic
Logic is defined by necessity, but existence is dominated by possibility
What the Industrial Age knew
Kierkegaard (1846)
Necessity is a feature of being, possibility is a feature of becoming
Existence is choice
Possibility (choice) causes angst
There are no universal, objective standards to decide one's behavior: the choice is subjective
Each possible existence cannot be described, it can only be lived
What the Industrial Age knew
Kierkegaard (1846)
Communication: a contradiction in terms because the message is deformed by the experience of the messenger
Christianity is a communication of existence (what it is to exist)
The Christian God is an "absolute paradox" , "something that thought cannot think", which requires a leap of faith
"Man is a synthesis of the infinite and the finite"
Each individual struggles to maintain that synthesis/unity, and the struggle causes unhappiness ("man is not yet a self")
What the Industrial Age knew
Kierkegaard (1846)
Stages of life
Untruth (aesthetic stage): the individual lives immediately (in the moment)
Ethical stage: the individual lives according to principles (family, society, etc)
In the truth (religious stage): the individual lives according to faith in God
What the Industrial Age knew
Kierkegaard (1846)
The only possible interpretation of Kierkegaard's philosophy is the different styles of his works (not the contents)
Aut-aut: aesthetic being (whose life is paralyzed by multiple possibilities/choices) and ethic being (whose life is committed to one possibility/choice)
The anguish of Abraham: is it really an angel, and am I really Abraham? What proof do I have?
What the Industrial Age knew
Karl Marx (1847)
What is the value of a product (time/cost of producing it vs price people are willing to pay for it)
The capitalist class exploits the working class by keeping the "surplus value" produced by the working class
By reinvesting the "surplus value" the capitalist class increases its control of society
The working class is "alienated" because producer and product are separated
Private property is the result of the process of alienation, and viceversa
The working class is further alienated because the capitalists own the production system
What the Industrial Age knew
Karl Marx (1847)
The interest of capitalists is to maximize profits
Society is divided into two antagonistic classes: proletariat (workers) and bourgeoisie (owners of production)
The division of labor alienates workers from the product of their labors
Workers do not own the product of their work
Workers give more than they receive
Socialism: all citizens own the means of production
Just distribution of wealth and services
Human needs, not profits
Communism: full equality, class-less society
What the Industrial Age knew
Marx (1847)
The economic system of a civilization (the way the civilization produces goods) determines the organization of its society
Society is organized in social classes that struggle for power
Hegel's dialectics must be applied to classes instead of nations
Hegel's idealistic dialectics recast as "materialistic" dialectics (historical/dialectic materialism)
The history of humanity is the history of class struggles
What the Industrial Age knew
Marx (1847)
All nations go through five economic stages: slavery, feudalism, capitalism, socialism (collective ownership of property), communism (rule of the people)
The ultimate goal of history is a class-less society of peers (Hegelian synthesis = communism)
Society with government (as a separate institution) will evolve into communism
The working-class shall overthrow the capitalist class
What the Industrial Age knew
Hermann von Helmholtz (1847)
Sense data from the senses are turned by the mind into percepts which are conscious experiences of the environment
The physiological states of animals are due to physical and chemical forces (not to vital energy)
Perception and action are mediated by a process in the brain
Perceptions are derived from unconscious inference on sense data
Perceptions are mere hypotheses about the world
All knowledge comes from experience
Perceptions are hypotheses based on our knowledge.
Knowledge is acquired from perceptions
What the Industrial Age knew
George Boole (1854)
Logical propositions denoted by symbols
Laws of logic denoted by operators
What the Industrial Age knew
Georg Riemann (1854)
General class of geometries, that comprises the classical Euclidean geometry as a special case
Spaces with any number of dimensions
Space can be curved instead of flat
The curvature of space is measured by a "curvature tensor"

What the Industrial Age knew
Poetry
Blake (1757, Britain): "Marriage Of Heaven And Hell" (1790)
Hoelderlin (1770, Germany): "Der Archipelagus" (1800)
Wordsworth (1770, Britain): "Prelude" (1805)
Heine (1797, Germany): "Buch der Lieder" (1827)
Goethe (1749, Germany): "Faust" (1832)
Leopardi (1798, Italy): "Canti" (1835)

What the Industrial Age knew
Fiction
Goethe (1749, Germany): "Wilhelm Meister" (1796)
Stendhal (1783, France): "Le Rouge et Le Noir" (1830)
Balzac (1799, France): "Le Pere Goriot" (1834)
Flaubert (1821, France): "L'Education Sentimentale" (1845)
Bronte (1818, Britain): "Wuthering Heights" (1847)
Dickens (1812, Britain): "David Copperfield" (1850)
Melville (1819, USA): "Moby Dick" (1851)
Gogol (1809, Russia): "Dead Souls" (1852)

What the Industrial Age knew
Theatre
Goldoni (1707, Italy): "I Rusteghi" (1760)
Sterne (1713, Britain): "Tristram Shandy" (1760)
Lessing (1729, Germany): "Minna Von Barnhelm" (1763)
Schiller (1759, Germany): "Wallenstein" (1799)
Buchner (1813, Germany): "Woyzeck" (1837)
What the Industrial Age knew
Art
Francisco Goya (1746, Spain): "Aquelarre" (1821)

What the Industrial Age knew
Neoclassic Architecture
Richard Boyle: Chiswick villa, England (1725)
Matthew Brettingham: Holkham Hall, England (1734)
Luigi Vanvitelli: Palazzo di Caserta (1751)
Jacques Soufflot: Pantheon, Paris (1754)
Victor Luis: Grande Theatre, Bordeaux (1773)
Robert Adam: Home House, London (1775)
Charles Cameron: Agate Pavillion (1780)
Etienne Boullee: Cenotaph for Isaac Newton (1784, never built)
William Thornton: Capitol, Washington (1792)
Friedrich Gilly: Monument to kaiser Friedrich, Berlin (1797, never built)
Madeleine, Paris (1806)
Antonio Niccolini: San Carlo theatre, Napoli (1816)
Leo von Klenze: Walhalla, Regensburg (1821)
Karl Schinkel: Altes Museum, Berlin (1823)
Gottfried Semper: Hoftheater, Dresden (1835)
What the Industrial Age knew
Music
Mozart (1756): "Don Juan" (1787)
Schubert (1797): "Unfinished Symphony" (1822)
Beethoven (1770): "Symphony No 9" (1824)
Berlioz (1803): "Symphonie Fantastique" (1830)



What the Victorian Age knew


1862: the Mogul dynasty ends and India becomes a British colony
1868: the feudal system of Japan is dismantled and the emperor is restored
1876: general Custer and his troops are massacred by the Sioux
1884: France expands in Indochina after defeating China
1884: an international "meridian" conference decides to divide the Earth in 24 time zones, starting with Greenwich's meridian
1885: an international conference at Berlin divides Africa among the European powers
1885: William Le Baron Jenney builds a ten-story building in Chicago
1900: 2,300 automobiles are registered in the USA, of which 1,170 are steam-powered, 800 are electric, and 400 are gasoline-powered
Europe 1900
Europe 1919
The Victorian Age
1900: life expectancy in the US is 47.3
1904: Japanese-Russian war
1911: collapse of the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China is born
1912-13: Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece form a coalition and drive the Ottoman empire almost completely out of Europe ("Balkan war")
1914-1918: World War I
1915: the Ottoman empire slaughters 1.2 million Armenians
1917: Russian revolution
The Multi-national European Wars
1870-71: Prussia wins against France
1877-78: Russia defeats the Ottomans
1904-05 Japanese-Russian war: Japan wins against Russia
1914-18: Serbia, Russia, France, Britain, Japan, Italy, China, USA win against Austria, Germany and Turkey
1939-45: Britain, USA, Russia win against Germany, Italy and Japan
Russo-Turkish Wars
Reasons: Black Sea, Caucasus, Balkans, Bosphorus, Orthodoxes
1736-39: Russia & Austria defeat the Ottomans
1768-74: Russia defeats the Ottomans and annexes Crimea
1787-92: Russia & Austria defeat the Ottomans
1806-12: Russia defeats the Ottomans and annexes Bessarabia
1828-29: Russia, France and England defeat the Ottomans, and Greece becomes independent
1853-56: The Ottomans, England and France defeat Russia
1877-78: Russia defeats the Ottomans, and Serbia and Montenegro gain independence
What the Victorian Age knew
Russia expansion in Asia
1552: Ivan the Terrible conquers the Mongol khanate of Kazan
1556: Ivan the Terrible conquers the Mongol khanate of Astrakhan
1581: Cossacks begin colonizing Siberia
1639: the Cossacks reach the Pacific Ocean
1718: Russia defeats the Khazak horde
1741: the Russian explorer Vitus Bering "discovers" Alaska
1801: Russia annexes Georgia
1808: Russia establishes the colony of Noviiy Rossiya in California
1828: Russia captures Armenia and Azerbaijan from Iran
1854: Russia annexes Khazakstan
1868: Russia invades Tajikstan and Uzbekistan
1881: Iran loses Turkmenistan to Russia
1904: The Trans-Siberian Railroad is completed
What the Victorian Age knew
Japanese-Russian war (1904-05)
Japanese naval supremacy in Asia
First time that a non-European nation defeated a European nation (decline of the prestige of colonial powers)
Limit of Russian expansion in the Far East
Financial bankruptcy for both
The USA mediates peace treaty (end of USA isolationism)
What the VictorianAge knew
Boer war (1899)
Defensive war based on trenches and long-distance rifles
Guerrilla warfare
Europe 914
The Victorian Age
Partition of Africa (1885)
Congo to Belgium,
Mozambique and Angola to Portugal,
Namibia and Tanzania to Germany,
Somalia to Italy,
Western Africa and Madagascar to France,
Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana to Britain
Africa
What the Victorian Age knew
Population explosion (1880-1910):
Russia +50%
Germany +43%
Austria-Hungary +35%
Britain +26%
Emigration (1880-1910):
26 million Europeans emigrate to the Americas
What the Victorian Age knew
Emigration from Europe to America & Australia
Causes:
Population growth
1750-1800: 34%
1800-1850: 42%
1850-1914: 76%
Industrialisation
Revolution in transportation
Abolition of slavery
Pogroms
Famine

What the Victorian Age knew
19th century Emigration
1800 - 1940: 50 Million people left Europe
50% went to United States, rest to Latin America and Australia
UK 1800 - 1940: 17 million left Britain+Ireland
Germany 1800 - 1940: 6 million
France 1800 - 1940: 500.000
Scandinavia 1800 - 1940: 2 million
Austria-Hungary 1800 - 1940: 5 million
Iberia 1800 - 1940: 6.5 million
Russia 1800 - 1940: 2.5 million
Italy 1800 - 1940: 10 million
1876-1976: 13,5 million Italian migrants went to European countries, 6 million went to North America
Eastern European Jews 1882 -1913: 2 million
What the Victorian Age knew
Nations
After the French revolution, nationalism becomes the main factor of war
National aspirations by the people who don't have a country
Nationalism is fed by mass education (history, geography, literature)
Exaltation of the past
What the Victorian Age knew
Nations
Exception: Austrian empire
Multi-ethnic 50-million people empire (Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Poles, Ukrainians, Italians, Slovaks, Romanians, Croatians, Serbs, Slovenes)
Franz Joseph's reign from 1848 to 1916 provides stability
Exception: Ottoman empire
Multi-ethnic 24- million people empire (Turks, Arabs, Hungarians, Slavs, Armenians, Kurds, Lebanese, Greeks)
What the Victorian Age knew
A European world
National societies (in Europe)
Settler societies (Canada, USA, Australia, South Africa): Europeans displace the natives
Mixed-race societies (Latin America)
Subject societies (India, Africa): few Europeans rule over huge masses of natives
Small countries (Britain, France) control continents
Fewer and shorter Intra-European wars but many wars of conquest elsewhere
Europeans control 35% of the planet in 1800, 67% in 1878, 84% in 1914
What the Victorian Age knew
Japan
Only non-European civilization to "modernize" rapidly (to become a "nation")
Gold
Gold
1492: total gold of Europe is about 20 tons
Spain's gold trade
gold of the natives
Mexico (9% of total world production)
1850: total gold of Europe and former colonies is 4,665 tons
1848: gold is discovered in California, USA
1851: gold is discovered in Australia
1886: Gold is discovered in South Africa
1896: gold is discovered in Alaska, USA
1900: the USA is world's leading producer of gold, producing about 119 tons annually (second is Canada at 42)
Gold
Gold
1920: South Africa is the world's leading supplier of gold, producing about 224 tons annually (second is the USA at 77)
1970: South Africa produces 1,000 tons of gold annually (second is the USSR at 220)
1980: the price of gold is about $26 per gram (all time high)
1991: the USA produces about $3.4 billion of gold a year
2000: the price of gold is about $10 per gram
Total production since the beginning of time: 120,000 tons
Yearly worldwide production: 2,500 tons (South Africa 400, USA 350, Australia 300, Canada 150, China 150, Indonesia 150, Russia 125)
GDP per capite 1900
Paris
Paris
Belle Epoque (40 years of peace 1871-1914)
Boheme
Cafes (middle-class) replace salons (aristocracy)
Montmartre
Cafe-concert (Moulin de la Galette)
Dance halls (Moulin Rouge)
Brothels
Students
1881: the Chat Noir cabaret opens in Paris
Convergence of sex, art and politics
Paris
Paris
Impressionism
Prodromes: Corot, Manet's "Olympia" (1865)
Monet: "Impression: Sunrise" (1872)
Symbolism
Prodromes: Charles Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal" (1857)
Arthur Rimbaud: "Le Bateau Ivre" (1871)
Paul Verlaine: "Romances sans Paroles" (1874)
Stephane Mallarme`: "L'apres-midi d'un Faune" (1876)
Vincent van Gogh: "Sunflowers" (1888)
Paul Gauguin: "Vision after the Sermon" (1888)
Fauvism: Henri Matisse (1905)
Paris
Paris
Cubism
Picasso: "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (1907)
Futurism
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's "Futurist Manifesto" (1909)
Dadaism
Dada performs at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich (1916)
Anarchic
Surrealism
Breton's "Surrealist Manifesto" (1924)
Freud' influence: the unconscious, dreams
Automatism
Berlin
Electricity
1847: Werner Von Siemens founds a company to exploit the telegraph
1866: the first practical dynamo is developed by Siemens
1879: Siemens demonstrates the first electric railway
1881: Siemens demonstrates the first electric tram system
1887: Emil Rathenau founds the Algemeine Elektrizitats Gesellschaft, specializing in electrical engineering, whereas Siemens specializes in communication and information
1890: AEG develops the AC motor and generator (first power plants) and alternating current makes it easy to transmit electricity over long distances
1910s: Greatest center of electrical production in the world
Berlin
1910: Berlin third largest city in Europe
1910: 60% of Germans live in cities
1875: Germany's industrial output surpasses France's
1900: Germany's industrial output surpasses Britain's
Berlin
Expressionism
Prodromes: Victor von Falk's best-selling gore novel "The Executioner of Berlin"
Berlin's megalopolis: population grew from 1.9 million in 1890 to 3 million in 1910
1918: the Bauhaus opens in Weimar
1918: Dada exported to Berlin
1919: "Das Kabinett von Dr Caligari" brings expressionism to cinema
1924: Neue Sachlichkeit
1925: Piscator produces "Trotz Allerdem", a multi-stage multi-media event
1926: Walter Gropius opens the new Bauhaus in Dessau
1927: Brecht writes the manifesto of the "epic theatre"
Berlin
Great Depression
1929: unemployment in Germany is 1 million
1930: unemployment in Germany is 3 million
1932: unemployment in Germany is 6 million
What the Victorian Age knew
Physics
1850: Claudius discovers entropy
1864: James Clerk Maxwell unifies electricity and magnetism
1887: Heinrich Herz discovers radio waves
1895: Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovers X rays
1896: The electron is discovered
1896: Antoine Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity
1900: Max Planck invents Quantum Theory
1905: Einstein publishes the "Special Theory of Relativity"
1910: Heike Kamerlingh Onnes discovers superconductivity
1911: Ernest Rutherford discovers that the atom is made of a nucleus and orbiting electrons
What the Victorian Age knew
Transportation
1825: Britain inaugurates the first railway in the world
1869: The Union and Central Pacific railroads create the first transcontinental railroad
1873: baron Friedrich von Harbou of Prussia invents the dirigible
1885: Daimler and Maybach invent the motorcycle
1886: Karl Benz builds a gasoline-powered car
1903: Wilbur and Orville Wright fly the first airplane
1913: Ford installs the first assembly line
1936: Heinrich Focke flies the first helicopter
What the Victorian Age knew
Appliances
1886: Josephine Cochrane invents the dishwasher
1902: Willis Carrier invents the air conditioner
1911: General Electric introduces the first commercial refrigerator
1937: Chester Carlson invents the photocopier
1946: Percy Spencer invents the microwave oven
What the Victorian Age knew

Sport
1896: the French philanthropist Pierre Decoubertin revives the Olympic Games
1903: the first Tour de France of cyclism
1930: the first World Cup of football is held in Uruguay
What the Victorian Age knew
Media
1839: Louis Daguerre invents the "daguerrotype"
1844: Samuel Morse invents the telegraph
1849: Antonio Meucci invents the telephone
1876: Alexander Bell demonstrates the telephone
1877: Thomas Edison invents the phonograph
1886: the first consumer camera is introduced by Kodak
1892: popular music becomes big business
1895: the Lumiere brothers invent cinema
1901: Guglielmo Marconi conducts the first transatlantic radio transmission
What the Victorian Age knew
Office
1868: Christopher Latham Sholes invents the first practical typewriter
1884: James Ritty invents the cash register
1885: William Burroughs develops an adding machine
What the Victorian Age knew
Ideas
Evolution (Darwin, Mendel, Bergson, Spencer)
Physics (Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism, Relativity)
Logic (frege, Peano, Cantor, Peirce, Saussure)
Pragmatism (Peirce, James)
Nietzsche
Psychology (Wundt, James, Freud, Thorndike, Jung)
Phenomenology (Husserl)
World War I
What the Victorian Age knew
Herbert Spencer (1855)
Formation of order is a pervasive feature of the universe
The universe evolves towards a more and more complex state
Living matter originates from a common state, then it evolves into different kinds
Kant's a-priori knowledge is determined by evolution
"Survival of the fittest"
Human progress (wealth, power) results from the triumph of more advanced individuals, organizations, societies and cultures over their inferior competitors
What the Victorian Age knew
Alexis Tocqueville(1856)
USA and Russia will become the superpowers of the future
Majority rule can be as oppressive as a totalitarian regime
What the Industrial Age knew
Charles Darwin (1859)
Animals evolved
Evolution=variation+selection
Adaptation
Struggle for survival
Adam Smith's economics transferred to nature
Design without a designer
What the Victorian Age knew
Ethical theories based on the theory of evolution
Herbert Spencer: A System of Synthetic Philosophy (1860)
T.H. Green: Prolegomena to Ethics (1883)
Samuel Alexander: Moral Order and Progress (1889)
Social Darwinism: application of Darwin's theory to human societies
What the Victorian Age knew
Gregor Mendel (1865)
Phenotype vs genotype
Units of transmission of traits

What the Victorian Age knew
Paul Broca (1861)
Brain lesions
Brain structure
What the Victorian Age knew
Hippolite Tayne (1865)
Artistic milieu
What the Victorian Age knew
Thermodynamics
Classical Physics: the world as a static and reversible system that undergoes no evolution, whose information is constant in time
Classical physics is the science of being
Thermodynamics describes an evolving world in which irreversible processes occurs
Thermodynamics is the science of becoming
The science of being and the science of becoming describe dual aspects of nature
Entropy and irreversibility
What the Victorian Age knew
Thermodynamics
A macroscopic system in equilibrium is described by global properties (temperature, pressure, volume)
Global properties are due to the the motion of its particles (e.g., temperature is the average kinetic energy of the molecules of a system)
A macrostate can be realized by different microstates
The transition from one state of equilibrium to another is governed by the laws of Thermodynamics:
0. Systems that are in equilibrium with each other share the same temperature
1. Heat is a form of energy, that abides by the law of conservation of energy
3. Absolute zero temperature can never be reached
What the Victorian Age knew
Thermodynamics
Clausius' entropy (1850): any transformation of energy has an energetic cost
Natural processes generate entropy
Heat flows spontaneously from hot to cold bodies, but the opposite never occurs
What the Victorian Age knew
Thermodynamics
The second law of thermodynamics : entropy (of an isolated system) can never decrease
Some processes are not symmetric in time
Change cannot always be bi-directional
We cannot always replay the history of the universe backwards
Some things are irreversible

What the Victorian Age knew
Ludwig Boltzmann (1877)
How the properties of atoms determine the properties of matter
Solution: probabilities
A statistical description of a system can be made in terms of the distribution f(r,v,t)
number of molecules= f(space range, velocity range, time range)
Statistical Mechanics: statistical description of ensembles of discrete molecules (spheres) obeying classical mechanics and subject to perfectly elastic collisions)
Relationship between Mechanics (which is reversible in time) and Thermodynamics (which is irreversible)
What the Victorian Age knew
Ludwig Boltzmann (1877)
Many different microscopic states of a system result in the same macroscopic state
Boltzmann's statistical definition of entropy: the entropy of a macrostate is the logarithm of the number of its microstates
S = K * Log(W)
Entropy is a measure of disorder in a system
Boltzmann's eternal doom: the universe must evolve in the direction of higher and higher entropy
The universe is proceeding towards the state of maximum entropy
What the Victorian Age knew
James Maxwell (1873)
Electricity and magnetism are the same phenomenon
Electric bodies radiate invisible waves of energy through space (fields)
The number of coordinates needed to determine a wave is infinite
Mathematical relation between electric and magnetic fields (field equations)
Light is made up of electromagnetic waves

What the Victorian Age knew
James Maxwell (1873)
The electric field and electric charge density are related
The magnetic field lines must be closed loops (there are no magnetic monopoles)
The electric force is created by changes in the magnetic field
The magnetic force is created by changes in the electric field
What the Victorian Age knew
James Maxwell (1873)
Electric and magnetic fields behave like mechanical stresses in a solid medium
A solid medium must exist and pervade the whole universe (the "ether")
Light waves are waves in such a medium
What the Victorian Age knew
Brentano (1874):
The mental and the physical are different substances
Intentionality
Causal relationship between phenomena

What the Victorian Age knew
Georg Cantor (1879)
Set Theory
Transfinite numbers
Zeno's Paradoxes: "if space is infinitely divisible in finite points, then_"
Solutions to Zeno's Paradoxes
Hume: space and time are composed of indivisible units having magnitude
Kant: contradictions are immanent in our conceptions of space and time, so space and time are not real
Hegel: all reasoning leads to contradictions which can only be reconciled in a higher unity
What the Victorian Age knew
Georg Cantor (1879)
Cantor's solution to Zeno's Paradoxes
A one-dimensional line is not a sum of an infinite number of infinitely small points, but a set-theoretic union of an infinite number of unit-sets of zero-dimensional points
What Zeno proved is a general property of space...
There is no point next to any other point: between any two points there is always an infinite number of points
The non-denumerable infinity of points in space and of events in time is much larger than the merely denumerable infinity of integers.
An infinite series of numbers can have a finite sum
What the Victorian Age knew
Gottlob Frege (1884)
Quantifiers and variables
Mathematics is a branch of Logic
"Sense" (intension) vs "reference" (extension): "the star of the morning" and "the star of the evening"
Propositions of Logic can only have one of two referents, true or false
What the Victorian Age knew
Giuseppe Peano (1889)
Axiomatization of the mathematical theory of natural numbers:
1. Zero is a natural number.
2. Zero is not the successor of any natural number.
3. Every natural number has a successor, which is a natural number.
4. If the successor of natural number a is equal to the successor of natural number b, then a and b are equal.
5. Suppose:
(i) zero has a property P;
(ii) if every natural number less than a has the property P then a also has the property P.
Then every natural number has the property P.
What the Victorian Age knew
Charles Peirce (1883)
An object is defined by the effects of its use: a definition that works well is a good definition ("pragmatism")
An object "is" its behavior
The meaning of a concept consists in its practical effects on our daily lives: if two ideas have the same practical effects on us, they have the same meaning
The meaning of a concept is a function of the relations among many concepts: a concept refers to an object only through the mediation of other concepts
What the Victorian Age knew
Charles Peirce (1883)
Truth is usefulness and validity: something is true if it can be used and validated
Truth is defined by consensus. Truth is not agreement with reality, it is agreement among humans (reached after a process of scientific investigation)
Truth is "true enough"
Truth is not eternal: it is decided by the situation
Truth is a process, a process of self-verification
Beliefs become fixed through experience/verification
Beliefs lead to habits that get reinforced through experience
What the Victorian Age knew
Charles Peirce (1883)
The process of habit creation is pervasive in nature
All matter acquires habits
Matter is mind whose "beliefs" have been fixed to the extent that they can't be changed anymore
Habit is what makes objects what they are
An object is defined by the set of all its possible behaviors
I am my habits
Randomness is absence of identity
The laws of Physics describe the habits of matter, because what we observe is the habits of nature (eg, heavenly bodies have the habit of attracting each other, thus the laws of gravitation)
What the Victorian Age knew
Charles Peirce (1883)
Systems evolve because of chance, which is inherent to the universe ("tychism")
Habits progressively remove chance from the universe
The universe is evolving from absolute chaos (chance and no habits) towards absolute order (all habits are fixed)
Darwinian evolution of systems towards stronger and stronger habits
Beliefs are a particular case of habits, that also get fixed through experience
What the Victorian Age knew
Charles Peirce (1883)
Semiotics
Signs: index (a sign which bears a causal relation with its referent), icon (which bears a relation of similarity with its referent), and symbol (whose relation with its referent is purely conventional)
Eg:
[broooom_],

and "CAR"
What the Victorian Age knew
Charles Peirce (1883)
A sign consists of a signifier and a signified
The relation between signifier and signified (eg CAR and the car) is arbitrary
A sign refers to an object only through the mediation of other signs (interpretants)
What the Victorian Age knew
Charles Peirce (1883)
There is an infinite regression of interpretants from the signifier to the signified (the signified is a representation of a representation of a representation of a _. of the signifier)
A dictionary defines a word in terms of other words, which are defined in terms of other words, which are defined in terms of_
Knowing is semiosis (making signs)
Semiosis is an endless process
The universe "is" those signs
What the Victorian Age knew
Friedrich Nietzsche (1886)
Human behavior is caused by the will to power (urge to order the course of one's experiences)
Truth is an illusion
Knowledge is an illusion
Truth and knowledge are only relative to how useful they are to our "will to power"
What the Victorian Age knew
Friedrich Nietzsche (1886)
Morality is a device invented by the weak to assert their will to power over the strong
Christian values are a "slave morality", a morality of the weak ones
Christian values are obsolete ("God is dead")
The new morality is the morality of the "uebermensch" ("superman"), who is above the masses and is interested in solving the problems of this world, not of the otherworld
What the Victorian Age knew
Henri Bergson (1889)
Reality is an endless flow of change of the whole
The upward flow is life, the downward flow is inert matter
The universe is like a cable railway on a steep incline, with simultaneously ascending and descending cars
There is an "elan vital" (vital force) that causes life despite the opposition of inert matter
What the Victorian Age knew
Henri Bergson (1889)
In human beings Intellect and Intuition have become separated faculties
Intellect is life observing inert matter
Intuition is life observing life
Intellect is related to space (inert matter is located in space)
Intuition is related to time (life is located in time)
Intellect can only understand inert matter, not life
Intuition can grasp life
We join (flow with) inert matter when habits take over the intellect
What the Victorian Age knew
Henri Bergson (1889)
Intellect is simply the contemplation of inert matter
Space appears to exist to the intellect (space is a practical way to organize inert matter)
The intellect divides reality into objects
The "time" coordinate of Newtonian physics is (like space) an artifice to represent inert matter (Newtonian time is a form of space)
What the Victorian Age knew
Henri Bergson (1889)
"Time" (not Newton's time) appears to exist to intuition (time is a practical way to organize life)
Intuition does not divide reality into objects: it grasps the flow of the universe as a whole
Time is the sequence of conscious events
We have a memory for habits and a memory for events
Time is our memory of events
What the Victorian Age knew
William James (1890)
Both matter and mind are constructed out of experience: the same reality is both in the mind and in the world, it is both an event of a person's biography and of the history of the world
Minds are made of experience (experienced events)
What the Victorian Age knew
William James (1890)
The function of mind is to help the body live in an environment
The brain is an organ that evolved because of its usefulness for survival
Consciousness is a sequence of conscious mental states, each state being the experience of some content
Consciousness is not a substance, it is a process ("the stream of consciousness")
Unitary and continuous consciousness (analogous to newton's unitary and continuous space)
What the Victorian Age knew
William James (1890)
Perception leads to action in the environment (not necessarily conscious)
The brain is organized as an associative network, and associations are governed by a rule of reinforcement
Long-term and short-term memory
Habits as built of stimulus-response patterns
Beliefs are rules for action
The function of thinking is to produce habits of action
Beliefs and habits are equivalent
A belief/habit gets reinforced as it succeeds
What the Victorian Age knew
Henri Poincare` (1892)
"Chaos" theory: a slight change in the initial conditions results in large-scale differences
Eternal return: every isolated system returns after a finite time to its initial state
The speed of light is the maximum speed
Mass depends on speed
No experiment can discriminate between a state of uniform motion and a state of rest
Lorentz transformations
Non-Euclidean geometries have the same logical and mathematical legitimacy as Euclidean geometry
What the Victorian Age knew
What the Victorian Age knew
Hendrik Lorentz (1892)
Unify Newton's equations for the dynamics of bodies and Maxwell's equations for the dynamics of electromagnetic waves in one set of equations (Lorentz transformations)
Contraction of bodies
What the Victorian Age knew
Civil Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau: "Civil Disobedience" (1849)
Leo Tolstoy: "The Kingdom of God is Within You" (1894)
Mahatma Gandhi: "Satyagraha" (1896)
Martin Luther King: "I Have A Dream" (1963)
Olympics
Olympics
Athens 1896
1. USA 11 7 2
2. Greece (GRE) 10 18 17
3. Germany (GER) 6 5 2
4. France (FRA) 5 4 2
5. Great Britain (GBR)2 3 2

Berlin 1936
1. Germany (GER) 33 26 30
2. USA 24 20 12
3. Hungary (HUN) 10 1 5
4. Italy (ITA) 8 9 5
5. Finland (FIN) 7 6 6

Rome 1960
1. USSR (URS) 43 29 31
2. USA 34 21 16
3. Italy (ITA) 13 10 13
4. Germany (EUA) 12 19 11
5. Australia (AUS) 8 8 6
What the Victorian Age knew
K'ang Yu-wei (1898)
Neo-confucianism
The world is a One ("heaven, earth, and the myriad things are all of one substance with myself")
All things are part of the "ch'I" from which the world emanates
This world is a world of misery and grief
Release from suffering is through "progress"
What the Victorian Age knew
K'ang Yu-wei (1898)
Human history progresses from the age of disorder to the age of order to the age of peace
Progress to remedy suffering includes nine obstacles to be removed (nations, races, classes, gender bias, etc)
Jen would then be universal love for all creatures
Competition is not the engine of progress, but the biggest obstacle to true progress
What the Victorian Age knew
Classical world of psychology (Wundt, 1874)
Actions have a motive
Motives are mental states, hosted in our minds and controlled by our minds
Motives express an imbalance in the mind, between desire and reality
Action is an attempt to regenerate balance by changing the reality to match our desire
Assumption: human action is rational
Dreams?
What the Victorian Age knew
Sigmund Freud (1900)
The mind is divided in conscious (rational motives) and unconscious mind (reservoir of unconscious motives)
There is a repertory of motives that our mind, independent of our will, has created over the years, and they participate daily in determining our actions
Separation of motive and awareness
Repulsive picture of the human soul
What the Victorian Age knew
Freud (1900)
Libido (sexual desires)
A child is a sexual being
Parents repress the child's sexuality
The child undergoes oral, anal and phallic stages before entering the latency stage
Boys desire sex with their mother and are afraid their father wants to castrate them
Girls envy the penis and are attracted to their father
What the Victorian Age knew
Freud (1900)
" When a boy enters the phallic phase... he becomes his mother's lover. He wishes to possess her physically_ and he tries to seduce her by showing her the male organ... seeks to take his father's place with her_ His father now becomes a rival_ whom he would like to get rid of_ The boy's mother has understood quite well that his sexual excitation relates to herself... she threatens to take away from him the thing he is defying her with_ she delegates its execution to the boy's father, saying that she will tell him and that he will cut the penis off_"
What the Victorian Age knew
Freud (1900)
A dream is only apparently meaningless: it is meaningless if interpreted from the conscious motives.
The dream is perfectly logical if one considers also the unconscious motives
Meaning of dreams are hidden and reflect memories of emotionally meaningful experience
"Latent content" of the subconscious yields "manifest content" of the dream
Dreams are fulfillment of infantile wishes
Dreams rely on memories and are assembled by the brain to deliver a meaning
Dreams are not prophecies but memories
Free associations are evoked during the dream
What the Victorian Age knew
Freud (1900)
Mental life is originally unconscious. It becomes (potentially) conscious through perception (of the external world)
The ego perceives, learns and acts (consciously)
The super-ego is the (largely unconscious) moral conscience which originates during childhood throught conflicts with the parent figures, and which is the principal instrument of repression
The id is the repertory of unconscious memories (created by libido)
The most unconscious memory is the "death wish", the impulse to annihilate one's own existence
What the Victorian Age knew
Freud (1900)
Neurosis involves a process of denial of emotionally painful memories
Overcoming these defenses is easier during the waking than in the hypnotic state (free associations)
The causes of neurosis are largely sexual

What the Victorian Age knew
Wilhelm Dilthey (1900)
Founder of Hermeneutics
Human knowledge can only be understood as involving the knower's life lived in a historically conditioned culture
Understanding a text implies understanding the relationship of expression to what is expressed, a "holistic" process that involves the "spirit of the age"
All cultural products are analogous to written texts
What the Victorian Age knew
Edmund Husserl (1901)
The essence of things is not its physical constituents or physical laws, but the way we experience them
"Phenomenology" is the science of phenomena
Science caused a crisis by denying humans the truth of the reality that they experience (by proving that phenomenon and being are not identical)
Advocates a return to the primary experience of the world
Phenomena and being are one and the same

What the Victorian Age knew
Edmund Husserl (1901)
Consciousness is intentional: consciousness is "consciousness of"
The intentionality of consciousness correlates the act of knowing (noesis) of the subject and the object that is known (noema)
The phenomenon is intuitively known to the subject
The essence (eidos) of the phenomenon is the sum of all possible "intuitive" ways of knowing the phenomenon
This has to be achieve after "bracketing out" the physical description of the phenomenon (the description given by the natural sciences)
What the Victorian Age knew
Edmund Husserl (1901)
What is left is a purely transcendent knowledge of the phenomenon
Subject and object are not separated
What the Victorian Age knew
George Moore: Principia Ethica (1903)
The concept of good is learned by intuition
Good is not an experimental quantity
Good cannot be deduced logically
Moral is what produces good
What the Victorian Age knew
George Santayana (1906)
Human beings are physical systems that can be explained by the laws of Physics
Minds are caused by bodies (mind is an emergent property of matter)
Minds cannot influence bodies
What the Victorian Age knew
Albert Einstein (1905)
Laws of nature must be uniform
Laws must be the same in all frames of reference that are "inertial"
The speed of light is the same in all directions
Lorentz transformations
The length of an object and the duration of an event are relative to the observer
All quantities must have four dimensions, a time component and a space component (e.g., energy-momentum)
Equivalence of mass and energy (E=mc2)
What the Victorian Age knew
Albert Einstein (1905)
Space and time are not absolute
"Now" is a meaningless concept
The past determines the future
Nothing can travel faster than light
Time does not flow (no more than space does), it is just a dimension
What the Victorian Age knew
Hermann Minkowski (1908)
Space and time are different dimensions of the same space-time continuum
Each observer has a different perspective on the events in the space-time continuum (e.g., length or duration)
Past and future are segments of space-time continuum
Each observer's history is constrained by a cone of light within the space-time continuum
Each observer's history is a "world line", the spatio-temporal path that the observer is actually traveling through space-time
"Proper" time is the spacetime distance between two points on a world line (the time experienced by the observer as she travels along its world line)
What the Victorian Age knew
Margaret Murray performs autopsy on an Egyptian mummy at the Manchester Chemical Theater
What the Victorian Age knew
Defiance of conventions
Negation of aesthetic and moral values
Futurism (1909): machines
Dadaism (1916): chance, irrationality
Surrealism (1924): unconscious, dreams
What the Victorian Age knew
Nishida Kitaro (1911)
Symbiosis between European rationalism and Zen Buddhism
Western Rationalism provides the rational foundations (a robot without feelings or ethics), Zen provides the feelings and the ethics
"We don't exist because we think, but we think because we exist."
"To know is to love and to love is to know"
Action-intuition: discovering the self in creative activity and realizing the place of this personal creativity in the historical context
What the Victorian Age knew
Nishida Kitaro (1911)
Eternal now
The "eternal now" contains one's whole being and also the being of all other things
The infinitisemal brief presence of the "here-and-now" creates past, present, and future.
"Mu" (nothingness) creates a spacetime topology
Mu = unmeasurable moment in spacetime ("less than a moment") that has to be "lived" in order to reach the next "mu"
Mu also creates the time-experience, self-consciousness and free will
What the Victorian Age knew
Nishida Kitaro (1911)
The present is merely an aspect of the eternal
"We do not feel the past: to feel something in the past is a feeling in the present"
The eternal generates all the time a self-determining present (at every mu)
"Mu no basho ronri" (place of nothingness): nothingness as field, place or topos
Unifies "pure experience" and field of force
What the Victorian Age knew
Nishida Kitaro (1911)
Unity of subjective and objective reality
"Only one reality exists in the universe"
"Phenomena of consciousness are the sole reality"
"Objective reality does not exist apart from subjective consciousness"
"That which Newton and Kepler observed and took to be the order of natural phenomena is actually the order of our phenomena of consciousness"
"Subject and object do not exist separately, for they are the two relative sides of one reality"
"The self does not exist apart from the world that it sees"
What the Victorian Age knew
Nishida Kitaro (1911)
Unity of subjective and objective reality
Each self and each thing is an expression of the only reality of the world (cfr Leibniz's monad)
The self is not a substance: it is nothingness ("to study the self is to forget the self")
What the Victorian Age knew
Nishida Kitaro (1911)
The historical world
The creative now not only creates time, but also space
Each present is a unique combination of space and time
Time can be viewed as both linear and cyclical, but converges in both states at the same space point
This point is the historical world
History is an ascending self-realization of the absolute
What the Victorian Age knew
Nishida Kitaro (1911)
Ethics
"Morality is not a matter of seeking something apart from the self: it is simply the discovery of something within the self"
"There is only one true good: to know the true self"
"Our true self is the ultimate reality of the universe, and if we know the true self we not only unite with the good of humankind in general but also fuse with the essence of the universe and unite with the will of God"
What the Victorian Age knew
Nishida Kitaro (1911)
Ethics
"We individuals are entities which have developed as cells of one society. The essence of the nation is the expression of the communal consciousness that constitutes the foundation of our minds"
"At present, the nation is the greatest expression of unified communal consciousness. But the expression of our personality ... demands something even greater: a social union that includes all human kind."
What the Victorian Age knew
Nishida Kitaro (1911)
God
"God transcends time and space, is eternal and indestructible, and exists everywhere"
"God is none other than the world and the world is none other than God"
"The universe is not a creation of God but a manifestation of God"
"To love God is to know God"
"Religion is the culmination of knowledge and love.
"Religion is not to be sought for the sake of spiritual peace. Religion is a goal, not a means to something else."

"Zettai mujunteki jikodoitsu" ("absolute contradictory self-identity", unity of opposites)


Ethics
"Morality is not a matter of seeking something apart from the self: it is simply the discovery of something within the self"
"There is only one true good: to know the true self"
"Our true self is the ultimate reality of the universe, and if we know the true self we not only unite with the good of humankind in general but also fuse with the essence of the universe and unite with the will of God"
"We individuals are entities which have developed as cells of one society. The essence of the nation is the expression of the communal consciousness that constitutes the foundation of our minds"
"At present, the nation is the greatest expression of unified communal consciousness. But the expression of our personality ... demands something even greater: a social union that includes all human kind."
What the Victorian Age knew
Gyorgy Lukacs (1911)
Epic stage: system of meaning in which human alienation does not exist, the soul does not perceive any separation from the world,object and subject were not divided, history and nature were one
People are made into things and therefore lose their identity
A style of thought might be imputed to a social class
"Development in history is nor random or chaotic, not is it a straightforward linear progression, but rather a dialectic development. In every social organization, the prevailing mode of production gives rise to inner contradictions which are expressed in class struggle"
What the Victorian Age knew
Edward Thorndike (1911)
Animals learn based on the outcome of their actions ("law of effect")
The mind as a network
Learning occurs when elements are connected
Behavior is due to the association of stimuli with responses that is generated through those connections
A habit is a chain of "stimulus-response" pairs
What the Victorian Age knew
Carl Jung (1912)
Parallels between ancient myths and psychotic fantasies
Motives are not in the history of the individual but in the history of the entire human race
Unconscious as a repertory of symbols
Unconscious: Freud's personal unconscious (repressed memories) + collective unconscious (inherited motives shared by all humanity)
Collective unconscious: a shared repertory of archaic experience represented by "archetypes" which spontaneously emerge in all minds
Mythology is the key to understanding the human mind
Predispositions by all human brains to create some myths rather than others
What the Victorian Age knew
Carl Jung (1912)
Libido is not just sexual
Dreams reflect the collective unconscious
Dreams connect the individual with the rest of humankind
Mandala as the archetypical symbol of the self
Trance ("active imagination") helps become one with the archetypes and achieve immortality
The goal of psychoanalysis is spiritual renewal
Self-deification through the mystical connection with our primitive ancestors ("We must dig down to the primitive in us"_ "a new experience of God")
A race is identified by the archetypes that bind all individuals of the race together with their ancestors
What the Victorian Age knew
Ferdinand Saussure (1913)
"parole" (a specific utterance in a language, performance) vs "langue" (the entire body of the language, competence)
Structuralism: the phenomena of human life (e.g, language) are intelligible only inasmuch as they are part of a network of relationships
A sign is meaningful only within the entire network of signs
The meaning of a sign is its relationship to other signs ("Strictly speaking, there are no signs but differences between signs")

What the Victorian Age knew
Ferdinand Saussure (1913)
A sign requires both a signifier and a signified (a concept in the mind)
The relation between a signifier and a signified is arbitrary (The meaning of a sign is totally arbitrary)
Semiotics: science of signs
What the Victorian Age knew
Ferdinand Saussure (1913)
Linguistic sign: the signifier is the sound and the signified is the thought
A linguistic sign is a link between a sound and a concept (not the link between a name and a thing)
Phoneme: the basic unit of language
Morpheme: the basic unit of signification
Mytheme: the basic unit of myth
Phonemes can stand in two kinds of relationship: diachronic ("horizontal") and synchronic ("vertical")
What the Victorian Age knew
David Griffith (1915)
What the Victorian Age knew
Albert Einstein (1917)
Relativity for systems accelerated with respect to one another
Principle of Equivalence: Forces produced by gravity are in every way equivalent to forces produced by acceleration
It is no possible to distinguish between gravitational and accelerational forces by experiment (e.g, an acceleration of 9.8 m/sec2 in outer space is "equivalent" to gravitational force on the Earth)
All forces (gravitational or not) are due to acceleration
Newton's hypothesis that every object attracts every other object is unnecessary
What the Victorian Age knew
Albert Einstein (1917)
Masses curve spacetime.
Spacetime's curvature determines the motion of masses.
Einstein's law of gravity: Every object, which is not subject to external forces, moves along a geodesic of spacetime (the shortest route between two points on a warped surface), its "world line"
Spacetime "is" the gravitational field
What the Victorian Age knew
Albert Einstein (1917)
When an object appears (in 3D space) to be "at rest" but under the effect of gravitational attraction, it is actually being "accelerated" (attracted) towards the center of the earth along its world-line (in 4D spacetime) which happens to be curved by the spacetime curvature caused by the Earth's mass
It is spacetime that is curved, not the geodesic.
What the Victorian Age knew
Albert Einstein (1917)
Gravitation is not a force
Physics = Geometry of space-time
Gravitation = space-time curvature
Relativity theory is ultimately about the nature of gravitation
Relativity explains gravitation in terms of curved space-time, i.e. Geometry
"Gravitational force" becomes an effect of the geometry of space-time
What the Victorian Age knew
Albert Einstein (1917)
The curvature of space-time is measured by a "curvature tensor" (Riemann's geometry)
Each point is described by ten numbers (metric tensor)
Euclid's geometry is one of the infinite possible metric tensors (zero curvature)
Other geometries describe spaces that are not flat, but have warps
What causes the "warps" is energy-mass
Clocks slow down in a gravitational field
Light is deflected in a gravitational field
What the Victorian Age knew
Albert Einstein (1917)
Cosmological constant to counterbalance the effect of gravity
What the Victorian Age knew
World War I
Causes
Rapid mass mobilization
Population explosion
Decline of the Papacy
Colonialism
Nations (nationalist spirit)
What the Victorian Age knew
World War I
War machine
Firepower (200 divisions)
Grenades, cannons, machine guns, torpedoes, bombs
Transportation: battleships, submarines, zeppelins, air fighters, trains, cars, tanks (1916)
Lack of adequate communication (no radio or telephone)
Psychological war
Propaganda (press, cinema)
Criminalization of the enemy
The Victorian Age
World War I
Serbia, Russia, France, Britain, Japan, Canada, Australia, Italy (1915), China (1917), USA (1917) win against Austria, Germany and Turkey
60 million men mobilized
Casualties: 8 million in battle
Russia 2m
Germany 1.8m
France 1.3m
Austria 1.2m
Britain 900,000
Turkey 600,000
Italy 500,000
USA 116,000
The Victorian Age
World War I
Winners and Losers
Britain
France
Germany
Austria
Russia
Japan
USA
Italy
Turkey
The Victorian Age
World War I
New countries:
Poland (part of Austria and Germany)
Czechoslovakia
Yugoslavia (including Serbia)
Hungary
Romania doubles in size
Iraq, Palestine, Transjordan, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia
Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine
What the Victorian Age knew
Art
Pierre Renoir (1841, France): "Bal du Moulin de la Galette" (1876)
Vincent Van Gogh (1853, Holland): "Starry Night" (1889)
Edvard Munch (1863, Norway): "The Scream" (1893)
Henry Rousseau (1844, France): "Sleeping Gypsy" (1897)
Gustav Klimt (1862, Germany): "Beethovenfries" (1902)
Marc Chagall (1884, Russia): " I and the Village" (1911)
Oskar Kokoschka (1886, Germany): "Die Windsbraut" (1914)
What the Victorian Age knew
Neogothic Architecture
Augustus Pugin: Houses of Parliament, London (1840)
Ralph Adams Cram: St John the Divine, New York (1892)
What the Victorian Age knew
Revivalist Architecture
Charles Garnier: Opera, Paris (1861)
Joseph Poalaert: Palais de Justice, Brussels (1866)
Henry Richardson: Trinity Church, Boston (1872)
Paul Abadie: Sacre Coeur, Paris (1874)
Giuseppe Sacconi: Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele (1885)
JF Bentley: Westminster Cathedral, London (1895)

Neuschwanstein
What the Victorian Age knew
Art Noveau
Antoni Gaudi (1852)
Sagrada Familia, Barcelona (1883-XXI)
Casa Batllo, Barcelona (1905)
Otto Wagner
Steinhof Asylum, Vienna (1905)
Louis Sullivan (1856)
Auditorium Building, Chicago (1889)
Carson Pirie Scott, Chicago (1904)
Bernard Maybeck (1862): Palace of Fine Arts (1915)
What the Victorian Age knew
Modernism
Richard Turner: Palm House, Kew (1845)
Crystal Palace, London (1851)
Giuseppe Mengoni: Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, Milano (1860)
Hendrik Berlage: Stock Exchange, Amsterdam (1898)
Municipal Building, New York (1906)
Eliel Saarinen: Railway Station, Helsinki (1910)
Cass Gilbert: Woolworth Building, New York (1913)
Max Berg: Jahrhunderthalle, Breslau (1913)
Peter Jensen Klint (1853): Grundvig Church, Copenhagen (1913)
Henry van de Velde (1863): Werkbund Theatre, Cologne (1914, destroyed)
Peter Behrens (1868): Turbine Hall, Berlin (1909)
Hans Poelzig (1869): Grosses Schauspielhaus, Berlin (1918, destroyed)
What the Industrial Age knew
Expressionism
Peter Behrens (1868): Turbine Hall, Berlin (1909)
Max Berg: Jahrhunderthalle, Breslau (1913)
Peter Jensen Klint (1853): Grundvig Church, Copenhagen (1913)
Henry van de Velde (1863): Werkbund Theatre, Cologne (1914, destroyed)
Hans Poelzig (1869): Grosses Schauspielhaus, Berlin (1918, destroyed)
What the Victorian Age knew
Sculpture
Auguste Rodin (1840, France)
What the Victorian Age knew
Fiction
Hugo (1802, France): "Les Miserables" (1862)
Tolstoj (1828, Russia): "War and Peace" (1869)
George Eliot (1819, Britain): "Middlemarch" (1872)
Zola (1840, France): "L'Assommoir" (1877)
Dostoevsky (1821, Russia): "Brothers Karamazov" (1880)
Assis (1835, Brazil): "Memorias Postumas" (1881)
Hardy (1840, Britain): "Tess Of The D'Ubervilles" (1891)
Hauptmann (1862, Germany): "Die Weber" (1892)
Perez Galdos (1843, Spain): "Tristana" (1892)
Queiros (1845, Portugal): "Casa de Ramires" (1897)
Mann (1875, Germany): "Buddenbrooks" (1901)
James (1843, USA):"Golden Bowl (1904)
Conrad (1857, Britain): "Nostromo" (1904)
Gorkij (1868, Russia): "The Mother" (1907)
Schnitzler (1862, Austria): "Der Weg ins Freie" (1908)
Kafka (1883, Germany): "Der Prozess" (1915)
What the Victorian Age knew
Theatre
Ibsen (1828, Norway): "Wild Duck" (1884)
Strindberg (1849, Sweden): "The Dream" (1902)
Cechov (1860, Russia): "The Cherries Garden" (1904)
Wedekind (1864, Germany): "Die Buchse der Pandora" (1904)
Shaw (1856, Britain): "Pygmalion" (1914)
What the Victorian Age knew
Poetry
Baudelaire (1821, France): "Les Fleurs du Mal" (1857)
Browning (1812): "The Ring And The Book" (1869)
Rimbaud (1854, France): "Une Saison En Enfer" (1873)
Verlaine (1844, France): "Romances Sans Paroles" (1874)
Mallarme` (1842, France): "L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune" (1876)
Hopkins (1844, Britain): "The Wreck Of The Deutschland" (1876)
Dario (1867, Nicaragua): "Prosas Profanas" (1896)
Machado (1875, Spain): "Campos de Castilla" (1912)
Tagore (1861, India): "Gitanjali" (1913)
Valery (1871, France): "La Jeune Parque" (1917)

What the Victorian Age knew
Music
Mussorgskij (1839): "Boris Godunov" (1868)
Wagner (1813): "Der Ring des Nibelungen" (1872)
Brahms (1833): Symphony No 4 (1885)
Verdi (1813): "Otello" (1887)
Dvorak: Symphony 9 (1893)
Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra (1896)
Skrjabin: Divine Poem (1905)
Mahler: Symphony 9 (1909)
Schonberg: Pierrot Lunaire (1912)
Debussy: Jeux (1912)
Stravinskij: The Rite Of Spring (1913)
Ives: Symphony 4 (1916)
Prokofev: Classic Symphony (1917)
Satie: Socrates (1918)

The Modern World 1919-1945


Bibliography
Gregory Freeze: Russia (1997)
Paul Kennedy: The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987)
Peter Hall: Cities in Civilization (1998)
Edward Kantowicz: The World In The 20th Century (1999)
HH Arnason: History of Modern Art (1977)
Herbert Read: A Concise History of Modern Painting (1959)
Jonathan Glancey: 20th Century Architecture (1998)
MOCA: At The End of the Century (1998)
Christian Delacampagne: A History of Philosophy in the 20th Century (1995)
Eric Rhode: A History of the Cinema (1976)
Robert Sklar: Film (1993)
Eileen Southern: The Music of Black Americans (1971)
Ted Gioia: A History of Jazz (1997)
Mark Prenderast: The Ambient Century (2000)
The Modern Age
1920: Mahatma Gandhi founds a non-violent liberation movement
1922: Mussolini, leader of the Fascist party, seizes power in Italy
1928: Alexander Fleming invents penicillin, the first antibiotic
1929: the world's stock markets crash
1930: The world's population is 2 billion
1931: Japan invades Manchuria
1931: the Empire State Building, the tallest building in the world
1933: Hitler, of the Nazist party, becomes chancellor of Germany
1936: Stalin's purges in the Soviet Union (13 million die)
1937: Japan invades China
1939-45: World War II (55 million die)
1945: the U.S. drops two atomic bombs on Japan
1945: the United Nations Organization is founded in New York
The Modern Age
World Population in 1900
China 467 million people
Europe 325 million
North/ Central & South America 178 million
Africa 13.5
World's largest cities in 1900 (West only)
London 6,480,000
New York 4,242,000
Paris 3,330,000
Berlin 2,424,000
Chicago 1,717,000
The Modern Age
The Modern Age
Shares of the world manufacturing output
1900: Britain 18.5%, Germany 13.2%, France 6.8%, Russia 8.8%, USA 23.6%
1929: Britain 9.4%, Germany 11.1%, France 6.6%, Soviet Union 5.0%, USA 43.3%
The USA's output is larger than the combined outputs of the six world powers (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan)
1938: Britain 9.2%, Germany 13.2%, France 4.5%, Soviet Union 17.6%, USA 28.7%

The Modern Age
The rise of the USA
Only major country to benefit from WW I
World's financial center moves from London to New York
Largest creditor in the world
Largest manufacturing output in the world
Largest agricultural output
Largest stock of gold
Giant domestic market and giant firms
but minimal political role
El Camino Real in the 1920s
The Modern Age
Per capita income in 1914 (and 2000)
USA $377 ($38,000)
Britain $244 ($26,000)
Germany $184 ($27,000)
France $153 ($26,000)
Japan $36 ($38,000)
The Modern Age
The stock market crash of 1929
Causes
Unregulated stock market
Stock market ruled by large-scale speculators
Artificially high prices
Disconnect between a stock price and a company's worth
Unethical practices
Easy-money policy of the Federal Reserve
Ordinary folks bought stocks with borrowed money
The Modern Age
The stock market crash of 1929
End of USA's greatest period of prosperity (relative to the rest of the world)
Beginning of the Great Depression
Deflation
Roosevelt's New Deal (1933)
The Modern Age
The Modern Age
Percentage of national income spent on defense in 1937
USA 1.5%
Britain 5.7%
Germany 23.5%
France 9.1%
Italy 14.5%
Soviet Union 26.4
Japan 28.2%
The Modern Age
The New Isms
Lenin and Stalin: communism
Mussolini: fascism
Hitler: nazism
The Modern Age
The Russian revolution
1885-1913: Economic boom (steel output rises from 0.183m tons to 4.9m tons, railway grows from 3,800 kms to 80,000 kms)
Bourgeoisie (middle class) virtually non-existent
Industrialization driven by the czars, not by the middle class, and funded by foreign loans
Large peasant class opposed to industrialization
Marxist opposition to the czars: ideological split between Mensheviks (Marxism that requires first a bourgeois-democratic revolution) and Trotsky's Bolsheviks (Marxism that skips the bourgeois-democratic society and aims for the dictatorship of the proletariat, or "permanent revolution")
The Modern Age
The Russian revolution
First 1917 revolution (february) caused by food shortage (women, workers, soldiers)
Widespread land expropriation by peasants (march-september)
Second 1917 revolution (october): a coup by the Bolshevik Party (Lenin), a practical application of Trotsky's ideology
Lenin's Marxism: a party of the proletariat, socialism in the name of the international proletariat
The Modern Age
The Russian revolution
Stalin's Marxism-Leninism:
Single centralized institution (a vast, pervasive bureaucracy) in charge of every aspect of life ("nomenklatura" system)
Mobilization of all human and material resources to generate economic power (crash industrialization) which generates political and military power
Collectivist economy
Large terror apparatus
Export of "revolutions"
An ideological empire
The Modern Age
Ideologies of mass killings
Lenin: Scientific, to create absolute dictatorship (of the proletariat) via absolute violence
Stalin: Political, to safeguard and increase his own power
Hitler: Racist, to annihilate inferior races
Mao: Idealist, to create a just society
The Modern Age
Reasons for Jewish persecutions over the centuries
Indifference towards national borders
Indifference towards the plights of gentiles
Higher learning, thus preminence in business, technology, science, arts
Gospels accused Jews of killing God
The Modern Age
World War II
Britain, USA, Russia win against Germany, Italy and Japan
The Holocaust
Leagues of Nations (UN, NATO, EU, _)
Yalta
The Modern Age
Wars and massacres:
1911: Chinese revolution (2.4 million)
1915: the Ottoman empire slaughters Armenians (1.2 million)
1914-18: World War I (8 million)
1917-21: Soviet revolution (5 million)
1931: Japanese Manchurian war (1.1 million)
1934: Mao's Long March (170,000)
1936-37: Stalin's purges (13 million)
1936: Italy's invasion of Ethiopia (200,000)
1936-39: Spanish civil war (600,000)
1939-45: World War II (55 million)
What the Modern Age knew
Physics
1919: Bohr-Rutherford atom
1920: Arthur Eddington suggests that nuclear fusion fuels the sun
1924: Louis DeBroglie discovers that matter is both particles and waves
1927: Werner Heisenberg discovers the uncertainty principle
1929: Edwin Hubble discovers that the universe is expanding
What the Modern Age knew
Synthetic materials
1907: Leo Baekeland invents the first plastic ("bakelite")
1925: Cellophane is introduced
1930: Polystyrene is invented
1935: Wallace Carothers invents nylon
What the Modern Age knew
Media
1914: composer Jerome Kern invents the "musical"
1926: films with synchronized voice and music are introduced (talking movies)
1927: the juke-box is introduced by Automatic Music Instrument
1927: Philo Farnsworth invents the television in San Francisco
1940: Peter Goldmark invents color television
What the Modern Age knew
Office
1937: Photocopier
What the Modern Age knew
The North Atlantic transatlantic liners
1819: "Savannah", first transatlantic steamboat (18 days)
1850-1897 British ships dominate the market
1898: Germany's "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse" (first German ship establishs new record for the fastest Atlantic crossing), "Deutschland" and "Kronprinz Wilhelm"
1907-29: Britain's "Lusitania" and "Mauretania", new record holders
1929-38: Golden age
Germany's "Bremen" and "Europa", Italy's "Rex", France's "Normandie" (1934), Britain's "Queen Mary" (1936)
Britain-New York: 4 days
What the Modern Age knew
Art 1918-1945
Claude-Oscar Monet (1840, France): "Nimphee" (1926)
Rene' Magritte (1898, France): "Faux Mirroir" (1928)
Salvator Dali (1904, Spain): "La Persistence de la Memoire" (1931)
Paul Klee (1879, Germany): "Ad Parnassum" (1932)
Max Ernst (1891, Germany): "La Ville Entiere" (1936)
Pablo Picasso (1881, Spain): "Guernica" (1937)
What the Modern Age knew
Architecture
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867):
Fallingwater House, Pasadena (1937)
Guggenheim Museum (1956)
Adolf Loos (1870)
Chicago Tribune tower (1920-22)
Joze Plecnik (1872)
Sacred Heart, Prague (1928)
Chamber of Trade, Ljubljana (1925)
Zale (1938)
Marcello Piacentini (1881)
EUR, Roma (1938-1942)
Walter Gropius (1883, Germany)
Bauhaus, Dresden (1925)
What the Modern Age knew
Architecture
William van Alen
Chrysler Building, New York (1928)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886):
Seagram Building, New York (1954-57)
Erich Mendelsohn (1887, Germany)
Einstein Observatory, Potsdam (1921)
Empire State Building, New York (1933)
Rockefeller Center, New York (1931-37)
Edwin Lutyens (1869): Catholic Cathedral, Liverpool (1933, unfinished)
What the Modern Age knew
Skyscrapers
Empire State Building New York 381m 1931
Chrysler Building New York 319m 1930
What the Modern Age knew
Sculpture
Constantin Brancusi (1876, Romania)
Hans Arp (1887, Germany)
What the Modern Age knew
Poetry 1918-1945
Blok (1880, Russia): "The Twelve" (1918)
Rilke (1875, Germany): "Duineser Elegien" (1923)
Milosz (1911, Poland): "Poem of the Stony Time" (1933)
Pessoa (1888, Portugal): "" (1935)
Garcia Lorca (1898, Spain): "Llanto por la muerte de Ignacio Sanchez Mejias" (1935)
Yeats (1865, Ireland): "Sailing to Byzanthium" (1939)
Montale (1896, Italy): "La Bufera" (1941)
Hikmet (1902, Turkey): "In This Year" (1941)
Stevens (1879, USA): "Notes Toward A Supreme Fiction" (1942)
Eliot (1888, USA): "Four Quartets" (1942)
Jimenez (1881, Spain): "La Estacion Total" (1946)

What the Modern Age knew
Fiction 1918-45
Joyce (1882, Ireland): "Ulysses" (1922)
Proust (1871, France): "A la Recherche du Temp Perdu" (922)
Svevo (1861, Italy): "La Coscienza di Zeno" (1923)
Forster (1879, Britain): "Passage to India" (1924)
Fitzgerald (1896, USA): "Great Gatsby" (1925)
Gide (1869, France): "Les Faux-Monnayeurs" (1925)
Woolf (1882, Britain): "To The Lighthouse" (1927)
Moravia (1907, Italy): "Gli Indifferenti" (1929)
Witkiewicz (1885, Poland): "Insatiability" (1930)
Celine (1894, France): "Voyage a Bout de la Nuit" (1932)
Faulkner (1897, USA): "Light in August" (1932)
Musil (1880, Austria): "Man Without Qualities" (1933)
Bulgakov (1891, Russia ): "The Master and Margarita" (1940)
Camus (1913, France): "The Stranger" (1942)
Hesse (1877, Germany): "Das Glasperlenspiel" (1943)
Borges (1899, Argentina): "Ficciones" (1944)
What the Modern Age knew
Theatre 1918-45
Pirandello (1867, Italy): "Sei Personaggi In Cerca d'Autore" (1921)
Cocteau (1889, France): "Orphee" (1926)
Brecht (1898, Germany): "Leben Des Galilei" (1939)

What the Modern Age knew
Music 1918-45
Szymanowski: Stabat Mater (1926)
Janacek: Slavonic Mass (1926)
Webern: Symphony (1928)
Ravel: Concerto in D (1931)
Bartok: Music for Strings, Perc and Celesta (1936)
Varese: Ionisation (1933)
Berg: Violin Concerto (1935)
Hindemith: Mathis del Maler (1938)
Messiaen: Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps (1941)
Petrassi: Coro di Morti (1941)

What the Modern Age knew
Comics
Little Nemo (1905)
Popeye (1929)
Buck Rogers (1929)
Tintin (1929)
Mickey Mouse (1930)
Dick Tracy (1931)
Alley Oop (1933)
Brick Bradford (1933)
Flash Gordon (1934)
Li'l Abner (Al Capp)
Terry Lee (1934)

What the Modern Age knew
Cinema 1918-45
Griffith: The Birth of a Nation (1915)
Sjostrom: Phantom Chariot (1920)
Stroheim: Greed (1924)
Ejzenstein: Battleship Potemkin (1925)
Lang: Metropolis (1926)
Sternberg: Das Blaue Engel (1930)
Marx: Duck Soup (1933)
Chaplin: Modern Times (1936)
Renoir: La Grande Illusion (1937)
Hawks: Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Welles: Citizen Kane (1941)
Capra: John Doe (1941)
What the Modern Age knew
Ideas
Philosophy of Science
Behaviorism
Cognitivism
Quantum Mechanics
Formal Systems
Linguistics and Semiotics
Holism, Existentialism
What the Modern Age knew
The Atom
Niels Bohr (1913)
Electrons are arranged in concentric shells outside the nucleus of the atom
The number of electrons equals the atomic number of the atom
The outermost shell of electrons determine the chemical behavior of the atom
Paul Rutherford (1919)
The nucleus of the atom contains positively charged particles (protons)
The number of protons is equal to the number of electrons
What the Modern Age knew
The Atom
James Chadwick (1932)
The nucleus of the atom contains chargeless particles (neutrons)
Isotopes are atoms of the same element (containing the same number of electrons/protons) but with different numbers of neutrons
Elementary forces:
Electromagnetic force
Gravitational force
Nuclear force
What the Modern Age knew
Samuel Alexander (1920)
Synthesis of Kant, Hegel, Darwin, Wundt, Bergson, Einstein
Emergent evolution: existence is hierarchically arranged and emerges via an ongoing evolutionary process
Matter emerges from space-time
Life emerges from matter
Mind emerges from life
God emerges from mind
What the Modern Age knew
Bertrand Russell (1921)
No substance ("neutral monism"): everything in the universe is made of space-time events, and events are neither mental nor physical (both matter and mind are meaningless over-simplifications of reality)
Matter is less material than Newton thought, and the spirit is less spiritual than Berkley thought
They are different ways of organizing space-time
What truly exists is "events"
The difference between matter and mind is simply the "causal" relationships that are brought to bear
What the Modern Age knew
Bertrand Russell (1921)
Sensations are both material and mental
A sensation is part of the object that can be constructed out of it
A sensation is also part of the mind in whose biography the perception occurred
An object is defined by all the appearances that emanate from the place where it is towards minds
A mind is defined by all the appearances that start from objects and reach it
What the Modern Age knew
Bertrand Russell (1921)
Consciousness allows us to perceive some of the processes that occur in our brain
What a neurophysiologist really sees while examining someone else's brain is a part of her own brain
The irreducibility of the mental to the physical is an illusion: the mental and the physical are different ways of knowing the same thing, the former by consciousness and the latter by the senses
Consciousness gives us immediate, direct knowledge of what is in the brain, whereas the senses can observe what is in the brain
The mental is a transparent grasp of the intrinsic character of the brain.
Consciousness is just another sense
What the Modern Age knew
Edward Sapir (1921)
Language and thought influence each other
Language also shapes thought
The structure of the language has an influence on the way its speakers understand the environment
Language contains a hidden metaphysics
Language contains an implicit classification of experience
Grammatical and categorial patterns of language embody cultural models
Language is a culturally-determined system of patterns that creates the categories by which individuals not only communicate but also think
What the Modern Age knew
Victor Sj”str”m: Korkarlen (1920)
Murnau: Nosferatu (1922)
What the Modern Age knew
Oswald Spengler (1922)
History is cyclical, not linear (not unlimited evolution/progress
High Cultures: Indian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, Mayan-Aztec, Arabian (Hebraic and Islamic), Classical (Greece and Rome), Western (European), each lasting about 1000 years
Histories of various cultures follow a similar pattern
All aspects of a culture (art, politics, science) share underlying principles which differ from culture to culture
What the Modern Age knew
Oswald Spengler (1922)
Each High Culture has as a distinguishing feature a "prime symbol" or soul, generally derived from its religion, which permeates its art, science, and politics:
Egyptian: the "Path" (preoccupation with the sequential passages of the soul)
Classical: the "point-present" (preoccupation with the neighborhood, the domestic, the space of immediate visibility: Euclidean geometry, two-dimensional painting and relief-sculpture, lack of facial expression of Grecian statues)
Western: the "Faustian" soul (upward reaching for the absolute/infinite, as in the vertical style of Gothic cathedrals and classical music)
What the Modern Age knew
Oswald Spengler (1922)
Culture is "organic", follows a life pattern:
Spring: the time of the origin of its basic principles, i.e. birth of its religion
Summer: its "best shape", when all facets are working according to the culture's principles, the age of its greatest achievements
Autumn: principles break down, mega-cities are born, money drives politics, citizens question traditions, art is non-intuitive, atheism spreads, and eventually a benign despot takes over to restore order
Winter: despots battle each other for control of the planet, masses are indifferent, cities depopulate, masses gradually return to traditional values
What the Modern Age knew
Oswald Spengler (1922)
Western civilization:
A culture of directedness and will ("Faustian")
Western religion requires us to convert others
Western art has a perspective, a direction
Western music is directed toward a tonal center
Western science is about changing the world
Western mathematics is not only geometry (which is static) but also calculus (dynamic)
Western civilization ended its summer in the second half of the 18th century, began its autumn with Napoleon, and entered its winter in the 19th century
What the Modern Age knew
Oswald Spengler (1922)
A culture moves in the direction of its destiny, regardless of individual choices: one can choose to contribute or to be irrelevant
Supreme duty of the individual: striving for the destruction of capitalism and democracy
What the Modern Age knew
Behaviorism deals with mental terms only to the extent that they are related to behavior
Watson (1913):
Mental states are unscientific
Stimulus-response patterns explain animal behavior
Ryle:
The mind is not another substance but simply a domain of discourse ("ghost in the machine")
Eliminative materialism (Feyerabend, Rorty, Churchland)
Mental states (beliefs, hopes, etc) do not exist
The mental is the subject of "folk psychology"
What the Modern Age knew
Gestalt Psychology
An individual stimulus does not cause an individual response
Form is the elementary unit of perception: we do not construct a perception by analyzing a myriad data, we perceive the form as a whole
Max Wertheimer (1912)
Perception is more than the sum of the things perceived
Form is the elementary unit of perception
Wolfgang Kohler (1925)
Problem-solving as sudden insight
Restructuring of the field of perception

What the Modern Age knew
Gestalt Psychology
Karl Lashley (1930)
Functions are not localized but distributed around the brain
Every brain region partakes (to some extent) in all brain processes
The brain as a whole is "fault tolerant"
Memory as an electromagnetic field and a specific memory as a wave within that field
What the Modern Age knew
Otto Selz (1920s)
To solve a problem entails to recognize that the situation and to fill the gaps
Information in excess contains the solution
Infer = anticipate
To solve a problem = to comprehend it
Comprehending = reducing the current situation to a past situation
What the Modern Age knew
Kurt Goldstein's theory of disease (1939)
The organism cannot be divided into "organs": it is the whole that reacts to the environment
"Disease" is a manifestation of a change of state between the organism and its environment
Healing does not come through "repair" but through adaptation of the whole system
The organism cannot simply return to the state preceding the event that changed it, but has to adapt to the conditions that caused the new state
A local sympton is not meaningful to understand a "disease", and the organism's behavior during a disease cannot be explained as a response to that specific symptom
A sick person's body undergoes mass-scale adjustments
What the Modern Age knew
Jean Piaget (1923)
The mind grows, just like the body grows
Living beings are in constant interaction with their environment
Survival depends on maintaining a state of equilibrium between the organism and the environment
Regulation of behavior in order to continuously adapt to the information flow from the environment
Cognition, therefore, is but self-regulation
What the Modern Age knew
Jean Piaget
Cognitive process = a loop of assimilation and accomodation that proceeds in stages
Progress from simple mental arrangements to complex ones (from literal to abstract)
Not by gradual evolution but by sudden rearrangements of mental operations
Cognitive growth = transition from a stage in which the dominant factor is perception, which is irreversible, to a stage in which the dominant is abstract thought, which is reversible
Semantics (relations between signs and objects)
Pragmatics (relations between signs, objects and users)
What the Modern Age knew
Martin Buber (1923)
Human existence is defined by the way in which we engage in dialogue with each other, with the world, and with God
Two types of relationships:
I-It (subject to object) relationship
Viewing both objects and people by their functions, as means to an end
The I is detached from the It
The being of the I belongs to I, but not to It
I-You (subject to subject) relationship
Experiencing both objects and people
A new level of awareness (dynamic, creative)
The I is unified with the You
The being of the I belongs both to I and to You
What the Modern Age knew
Martin Buber (1923)
I-You is the natural state.
I-You antedates the I
I-It postulates the I
God is the Eternal You
We can't define God. It can only be experienced.
Proving God's existence or defining God reduces God to an I-It relationship
What the Modern Age knew
Quantum Mechanics
Energy quanta (1900): atoms can emit energy only in discrete amounts (Max Planck)
Energy-frequency equivalence (1905): the energy of a photon is proportional to the frequency of the radiation (Albert Einstein)
Structure of the atom (1913): electrons turn around the nucleus and are permitted to occupy only some orbits (Niels Bohr)
Dualism (1923): waves and particles are dual aspects (Louis de Broglie)
Wave function (1926): wave of probabilities (Max Born)
Anti-matter (1928): positively charged electron (Paul Dirac)
What the Modern Age knew
Quantum Mechanics
The state of a particle is described by a "wave function" which summarizes ("superposes") all the alternatives and their probabilities
Erwin Schrodinger's equation describes how this wave function evolves in time
The wave function describes a set of possibilities
A measurement causes a "collapse of the wave function": only one eigenvalue is possible after the measurement, the one that is measured
A measurement introduces irreversibility: the collapse cannot be undone
What the Modern Age knew
Quantum Mechanics
An observable quantity can assume a range of values (its "eigenvalues"), each one with a given probability
An observer can measure at the same time only observables which are compatible
Werner Heisenberg's "uncertainty principle": there is a limit to the precision with which we can measure quantities
What the Modern Age knew
Quantum Mechanics
Forces are due to exchanges of discrete amounts of energy ("quanta")
Equivalent descriptions: wave and particle, energy and mass, frequency and wavelength
Space-time is discrete
The vacuum is not empty
There is a limit to how small a physical system
Randomness
Schroedinger's cat
Non-locality
What the Modern Age knew
Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics
Niels Bohr: only phenomena are real
Werner Heisenberg: the world "is" made of possibility waves (particles are merely "potentialities")
Albert Einstein: an incomplete description of the universe ("hidden variables")
John Von Neumann: consciousness
Paul Dirac: our knowledge of a system
Hugh Everett: a multiverse
What the Modern Age knew
John Von Neumann (1932)
The flow of time is mysteriously altered by measurements
The classical world emerges from the quantum world thanks to measurement
A continuous process of the probabilistic kind gives rise to a discontinuous process of the deterministic kind
Measurement of a system consists in a chain of interactions between the instrument and the system, whereby the states of the instrument become dependent on the states of the system
Eventually, states of the observer's consciousness are made dependent on states of the system, and the observer "knows" what the value of the observable is
Somewhere between the system and the observer's consciousness the "collapse" occurs
What the Modern Age knew
Vladimir Vernadsky (1926)
Biosphere
What the Modern Age knew
Sergei Eisenstein: Bronenossets Potyomkin (1925)
What the Modern Age knew
Fritz Lang: Metropolis (1927)
What the Modern Age knew
Martin Heidegger (1927)
Man is unique in that it can question the nature/essence of being
Man is not a "what" but a "who"
Man is part of the world but is also the observer of the world
Man is not Dasein (existence) but Dase-in ("existing in" the world)
The world is not a world of particles or formulas: it is a world of meaning, that the mind can understand

What the Modern Age knew
Martin Heidegger (1927)
We exist as part of the world
The world and the mind cannot be separated
We cannot detach ourselves from reality because we are part of it
We just "act", we are "thrown" in an action
Subject and object do not exist independently and cannot be separated
Unity of the "dasein" (being)
What the Modern Age knew
Martin Heidegger (1927)
Technology alienates humans because it recasts the natural environment as a "Bestand" to be utilized for the purpose of humans
"The Earth reveals itself as a mining district_ the Rhine itself appears to be something at our command_e.g, a supply of power... no longer the river running through the native country"
People lose their identity because the natural environment that provided them with an identity is now simply a store of resources to be exploited
What the Modern Age knew
Buster Keaton: The General (1927)
King Vidor: The Crowd (1928)
What the Modern Age knew
Krishna Chandra Bhattacharyya (1930)
Absolute of knowing = Truth
Absolute of willing = Freedom
Absolute of feeling = Value

What the Modern Age knew
Rudolf Carnap (1928)
Experience comes as wholes, not as items
Construction of the world arises from the experienced events of a lifetime
The meaning of a proposition is its method of verification
Truth is coherence within a set of beliefs
A language is defined by
a set of formation rules that specify if a sequence of symbols is a valid sentence in that language
and a set of transformation rules that allow to transform one valid sentence into another valid sentence
What the Modern Age knew
Alfred Whitehead (1929)
The world is unitary, not fragmented into "things"
The history of the world is a continuous process, not fragmented into "events"
Things and events are temporary clusters of world features
The fundamental sense is touch
All senses are (like touch) a physical interaction between the observer's body and the environment
What the Modern Age knew
Alfred Whitehead (1929)
Perceptions are the foundation of mind, therefore mind is part of the bodily interaction with the world
Nature is permeated by mind
Every particle is an event having both an "objective" aspect of matter and a "subjective" aspect of experience
Some material compounds, such as the brain, create the unity of experience that we call "mind"
What the Modern Age knew
Alfred Whitehead (1929)
Process theology: God and the universe are evolving together
What the Modern Age knew
Logic
The laws of thought are the laws of logic
Paradoxes
"I am lying"
The class of classes that do not belong to themselves ("the barber who shaves all barbers who do not shave themselves")
The omnipotent god
Russell & Whitehead (1913): Axiomatization of Mathematics
Wittgenstein (1921): Axiomatization of Language
Hilbert's formal systems (1928)
Goedel's theorem of incompleteness (1931)
Turing machine (1936)
What the Modern Age knew
Tarski's definition of truth (1935)
Truth is defined in a meta-language
Correspondence theory of truth: the definition of truth is in the world (truth as correspondence with the facts)
"Model-theoretic" semantics: models of the world yield interpretations of sentences in that world
The meaning of a proposition is the set of situations in which it is true
What the Modern Age knew
Ernst Cassirer (1929)
The human mind is a symbolic system
Understanding the world is turning it into symbols
Animals live in the world
Humans live in a symbolic representation of the world
All cultural artifacts are symbolic forms that mediate between the individual's consciousness and the world/nature
Cultural artifacts are not products but functions

What the Modern Age knew
Ernst Cassirer (1929)
Evolution from mythos to logos:
Language and myth were originally one
They split and myth led to art while language led to logic
Symbols are built on Kant-like innate categories
What the Modern Age knew
John Maynard Keynes (1930)
No self-correcting mechanism to lift an economy out of a depression exists
Unused savings prolong economic stagnation
Government spending
Utopia: state in which citizens no longer need to worry about survival, but can focus on their hobbies
"For the first time since his creation man will be faced with his real, permanent problem: how to use his freedom"
What the Modern Age knew
Josef von Sternberg: Das Blaue Engel (1930)
Marx Brothers: Duck Soup (1933)
What the Modern Age knew
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1932)
Intuitive absolute idealism
"The successive emergence of the material, the animal, the organic, the animal, the human and the spiritual" (as told by Evolution theories) highlight a "cosmic evolution to reveal the Spirit"
Evolution does not end with the emergence of human consciousness, but continues with the emergence of a super-consciousness capable of realizing the union with a reality that science cannot grasp
What the Modern Age knew
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1932)
The empirical world exists (not an illusion/maya) and it is "the Absolute in action_ as creator" (Isvara, of whom Visna, Siva, etc are different aspects)
There are three forms of pramana (knowledge): perception, logic and intuition.
Intuition is the fundamental form of cognition, when the mind works as a whole to grasp the essence of reality (knowledge by being)

What the Modern Age knew
Muhammad Iqbal (1932)
Humans are imperfect egos
God is the absolute ego
God is the supreme ideal for all the other egos (cfr Nietzsche's Uebermensch)
The process that leads to perfection is a process not of passive acceptance of God's will but a process of active social life
What the Modern Age knew
Karl Jaspers (1932)
Existence (Dasein) is existence in the world ("situated" existence)
Existence is orientation in the world
It is impossible to transcend the human experience
Freedom of the individual (to choose another existence and the risks that come with it)
Real freedom of choice is impossible because we are what we are (historically, socially, etc)
Freedom is only acceptance of one's destiny

What the Modern Age knew
Karl Jaspers (1932)
Communication is the way an existence realizes itself, but even communication is a mirage: an existence cannot truly join with other existences
An existence is a contradiction in terms
Each existence can only glimpse the essence of its own existence (it cannot change it)
What the Modern Age knew
Alford Korzybski (1933)
Animals: hunters and gatherers = bind to territory, i.e."space-binders"
Humans: agriculture = bind to a memory of the past and prediction of the future, i.e. "time-binders"
Time-binding is enabled by a nervous system that is capable of constructing and manipulating symbols
Time-binding allows to transmit knowledge to succeeding generations
What the Modern Age knew
Alford Korzybski (1933)
The rate of growth of human knowledge is exponential
Language allows time-binders to categorize/generalize experiences and communicate them to others
What the Modern Age knew
Alford Korzybski (1933)
General Semantics to remedy the limits of language:
We have fewer words and concepts than experiences: we "confuse" similar situations
We must evaluate a situation less by intension (its category) and more by extension (its unique features)
We must avoid categorization/generalization and spot the unique characteristics of a situation
What the Modern Age knew
Biology
1859: Charles Darwin (Evolution=variation+selection)
1865: Gregor Mendel (Units of transmission of traits)
1906: William Bateson ("Genetics")
1920s: Thomas Hunt Morgan ("chromosomes")
1920s: Population Genetics (Probabilities)
1940s: Modern Synthesis (variation=mutation)
What the Modern Age knew
Fredrick Bartlett (1932)
Encoding
Schemas
Optimized storage
Reconstructing = finding meaning (explaining)

What the Modern Age knew
Karl Popper (1934)
Science is not inductive
Science is hypothetico-deductive
Truth is relative to a theory
A scientific theory provides the means to falsify it
No definition of absolute truth is possible
What the Modern Age knew
George Herbert Mead (1934)
Consciousness is not a separate substance, but the world in its relationship with the organism
Consciousness is in the world, outside the organism
Objects of the environment are colored, beautiful, etc: that "is" consciousness
Objects do not exist per se, they are just the way an organism perceives the environment
It is our acting in the environment that determines what we perceive as objects
Different organisms may perceive different objects
The environment results from the actions of the organism
We are actors as well as observers (of the consequences of our actions)
What the Modern Age knew
George Herbert Mead (1934)
Any change in the organism results in a change of the environment.
Those objects have qualities and values that constitute what we call "consciousness"
Consciousness is not a brain process: the switch that turns consciousness on or off is a brain process
Consciousness is pervasive but only social species can report on their conscious experiences
A self always belongs to a society of selves
Consciousness is a product of socialization among biological organisms
The mind is socially constructed: society constitutes an individual as much as the individual constitutes society
What the Modern Age knew
Charles Chaplin: Modern Times (1936)
Jean Renoir: La Grande Illusion (1937)
Howard Hawks: Bringing Up Baby (1938)
John Ford: Stagecoach (1939)
What the Modern Age knew
Charles Morris (1938)
Theory of signs
Syntax studies the relation between signs and signs
Semantics studies the relation between signs and objects
Pragmatics studies the relation between signs, objects and users
What the Modern Age knew
Burrhus Skinner (1938)
Behaviorism
All forms of learning can be reduced to conditioning phenomena
All learned behavior is the result of selective reinforcement of random responses
Mental states (what goes on in our minds) have no effect on our actions
Similarity between reinforcement and natural selection: random mutations are "selected" by the environment, random behavior is also selected by the environment
What the Modern Age knew
Fung Yu-Lan (1938)
Rational Confucianism
Li (principle/form) and Ch'I/Qi (material/matter) are the fundamental categories of metaphysics
Existence is the continuous process of Qi realizing Li
The whole of these processes of "existence" is the Tao (as constant renewal of the universe)
What the Modern Age knew
Existentialism
Reacting against Hegel's metaphysical speculations
Focus on the human experience
Philosophy of the crisis of values
The object and the subject of existentialism are the same: the I
Kierkegaard

What the Modern Age knew
JeanPaul Sartre (1943)
Human nature is not predetermined
We are radically free
Existence (subjectivity) precedes essence (human nature)
There is no "human nature" because there is no God to conceive it.
At first, man is nothing. Then he defines himself. He will be what he made himself to be.
Each individual is fully responsible for what he is.
"There is no reality except in action"
What the Modern Age knew
JeanPaul Sartre (1943)
Indirectly, each individual's choice on what to be has an effect on all humans
"In choosing myself, I choose man"
Each individual has "total and deep responsibility"
This causes anxiety
Existentialism abolishes God, but recognizes that this act increases (not decreases) the individual responsibility for his actions
It complicates, not simplifies, his moral life
"We are alone, with no excuses"
What the Modern Age knew
JeanPaul Sartre (1943)
Consciousness is "intentional": its only function is to refer to objects
The objects of knowing exist outside consciousness: the subject and the object are separated
Consciousness depends on objects, not objects on consciousness
If consciousness is conscious of something, that something is not part of consciousness, it must exist outside consciousness, because consciousness can only refer to it (i.e. the self is an object of consciousness, not the subject)
There is nothing inside consciousness
Consciousness per se is nothingness
What the Modern Age knew
Sartre (1943)
Freedom is the condition of nothingness, when consciousness is not invaded by objects and can reflect
This freedom causes angst because it causes the revelation of one's own nothingness
Human existence is characterized by "nothingness", the will to negate, and is therefore doomed to failure
Absolute freedom of choice is the main moral value, which entails one's responsibility for her own decisions
Industrial-age society causes "serialization", a loss of the self
What the Modern Age knew
Erwin Schrodinger (1944)
Biological organization is created and maintained at the expense of thermodynamic order
Life displays two fundamental processes: creating order from order (the progeny has the same order as the parent) and creating order from disorder (as every living system does at every metabolic step, eating and growing)
Living systems seem to defy the second law of Thermodynamics.
What the Modern Age knew
Erwin Schrodinger (1944)
They live in a world of energy flux (not a closed world)
An organism stays alive in its highly organized state by absorbing energy from the environment and processing it to produce a lower entropy state within itself.
"Living organisms feed upon negative entropy_ Life is "negentropic".
The existence of a living organism depends on increasing the entropy of the rest of the universe.
What the Modern Age knew
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1945)
Perceptual relation to the world
Perceptual constants
Critique of cognitivism
Human freedom is never total: it is limited by our embodiment
What the Modern Age knew
Kenneth Craik (1943)
Mind may be a particular type of machine which is capable of building internal models of the world and process them to produce action
Internal representation
Symbolic processing of such representation
Intelligence = inferential processing of knowledge
What the Modern Age knew
Western Pacifism
30: Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount"
1661: Quakers
1713: Abbe' de Saint-Pierre's "Perpetual Peace"
1816: Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace founded in London
1864: Geneva Convention
1901: Nobel Peace Prize
1916: Conscientious objection is recognised in Britain
1921: Herbert Runham-Brown founds War Resisters' International
1929: Erich Maria Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front"
1930: Mahatma Gandhi's passive resistance
1962: Bob Dylan's "Blowing In The Wind"
1963: Nuclear Test Ban treaty
1968: Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
1971: Greenpeace

What the Modern Age knew
See modern39

The Modern World 1939-1945


Gregory Freeze: Russia (1997)
Paul Kennedy: The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987)
Edward Kantowicz: The World In The 20th Century (1999)
HH Arnason: History of Modern Art (1977)
Herbert Read: A Concise History of Modern Painting (1959)
Jonathan Glancey: 20th Century Architecture (1998)
MOCA: At The End of the Century (1998)
Christian Delacampagne: A History of Philosophy in the 20th Century (1995)
Eric Rhode: A History of the Cinema (1976)
Robert Sklar: Film (1993)
Eileen Southern: The Music of Black Americans (1971)
Ted Gioia: A History of Jazz (1997)
Mark Prenderast: The Ambient Century (2000)

The Modern Age
World War II:
Britain, USA, Russia (allies) win against Germany, Italy and Japan (axis)
Allied: China, Poland, Holland, France, Yugoslavia, British colonies, French colonies, Dutch colonies
Axis: Hungary (nov 1940), Romania (nov 1940), Bulgaria (mar 1941), Finland (jun 1941), Thailand
61 countries with 1.7 billion people (3/4 of world's population)
110 million military personnel (USSR 12.5m, USA 12m, Germany 11m, British Empire 8.7m, Japan 7m, China 5m)
55 million people dead (25m military + 30m civilian)
The Modern Age
Germany invades
Czechoslovakia (march 1939)
Poland (september 1939)
Norway (april 1940)
Holland (may 1940)
France (june 1940)
Yugoslavia (april 1941)
Greece (april 1941)
Egypt (april 1941)
Russia (june 1941)
The Modern Age
World War II
German blitzkrieg
Panzer war
Air force
More modern weapons and vehicles
Battle of Britain (aug 1940 - may 1941)
First battle fought entirely in the air
Radar
Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942)
Deciphering the Japanese code
First battle fought entirely by aircraft carriers
The Modern Age
World War II
Hitler's oil source: Romania + synthetic oil
Japan's oil source: USA
Russia's oil source: Caucasus
Britain's oil source: USA and colonies

Japan-USA war: the first oil war
USA oil embargo july 1941
Japan plan to invade oil-rich countries in Southeast Asia
Only one impediment: Pearl Harbor fleet (Dec 7, 1941)
The Modern Age
World War II
Stalingrad (sep 1942 - jan 1943)
Larger production base of the Soviet Union
Bombing of Germany (jun 1943 - )
UK Air Force: night bombing (carpet bombing, feb 1942-)
US Air Force: daylight surgical strikes (aug 1942 -)
Combined effect: round-the-clock bombing
Germany: V1 (jun 1944) and V2 (sep 1944) rockets
Kursk (jul 1943 - sep 1943)
First battle almost entirely fought by tanks
American aid through Gulf and Bering
Tehran conference between Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill
First war with massive civilian casualties
The Modern Age
A war of extermination
Genocide (1941-45)
Jews 6m out of 8.8 (67%)
Gypsies 250,000 out of 1.25m (20%)
Untermensch
Russians 3.3
Ukrainians 3m
Poles 2.4
Belarus 1.4
Leningrad siege (1941-43)
Russians 1.5m
Ustasha (1941-44)
Serbs 330,000
The Modern Age
A war of extermination/ Japan
13/12/1937 - 3/1938: Rape of Nanking or "Nanjing Datusha" (369,366 Chinese killed, and 80,000 women raped)
18/4/1942: 250,000 Chinese civilians murdered in retaliation for Chinese help to USA airmen
23/12/1943 - 14/2/1944: Rape of Manila (all male Filipinos 14 and older condemmed to die, 100,000 killed)
1937-45: Forced prostitution or "jugun ianfu" (400,000 Chinese women, 250,000 Korean women, 90% death rate, largest and most deadly mass rape recorded in history)
1933: Shiro Ishii'ss medical experiments in Manchuria (victims vivisected while still alive)
The Modern Age
A war of extermination/ Japan
Only nation that used biological weapons in WW II
1939: Shiro Ishii's biological experiments in Harbin, China (10,000 prisoners died)
1940: Air bombing of Chinese villages with germs of bubonic plague (october 1940, Quzhou), cholera (1940, Yunnan), anthrax, etc (200,000 die)
Only nation that used chemical weapons in WW II
POW camps
10 million Asians were used as slaves and only 5,000 or so survivors may still be alive.
Death rate in Japanese prisoner camps: 38.2 %
25/4/1943-6/44: 16,000 PoWs and 80,000 Asian slave labourers died constructing the Thai-Burma railway
The Modern Age
A war of extermination/ Japan
Japan is responsible for the casualties of more than 20 millions in Asia

Germany: program to exterminate a people
Japan: exercise in terror to subjugate a people
The Modern Age
A war of extermination/ Japan
13/12/1937 - 3/1938: Rape of Nanking or "Nanjing Datusha" (369,366 Chinese killed, and 80,000 women raped)
18/4/1942: 250,000 Chinese civilians murdered in retaliation for Chinese help to USA airmen
23/12/1943 - 14/2/1944: Rape of Manila (all male Filipinos 14 and older condemmed to die, 100,000 killed)
1937-45: Forced prostitution or "jugun ianfu" (400,000 Chinese women, 250,000 Korean women, 90% death rate, largest and most deadly mass rape recorded in history)
1933: Shiro Ishii'ss medical experiments in Manchuria (victims vivisected while still alive)
Only nation that used biological weapons in WW II
1939: Shiro Ishii's biological experiments in Harbin, China (10,000 prisoners died)
1940: Air bombing of Chinese villages with germs of bubonic plague (october 1940, Quzhou), cholera (1940, Yunnan), anthrax, etc (200,000 die)
Only nation that used chemical weapons in WW II
POW camps
10 million Asians were used as slaves and only 5,000 or so survivors may still be alive.
Death rate in Japanese prisoner camps: 38.2 %
25/4/1943-6/44: 16,000 PoWs and 80,000 Asian slave labourers died constructing the Thai-Burma railway
Japan is responsible for the casualties of more than 20 millions in Asia


Germany: program to exterminate a people
Japan: exercise in terror to subjugate a people
The Modern Age
A war of extermination
Area bombing
Hamburg (july 1943): 45,000
Dresden (feb 1945)
Tokyo (may 1945): 80,000
Hiroshima (aug 1945): 150,000
Nagasaki (aug 1945): 100,000
The Modern Age
World War II
The first information war
Germany: Enigma machine
US & UK: the computer
The Modern Age
World War II
Reversal of fortunes
UK+US: Northern Africa (nov 1942 - may 1943)
US: Pacific (jun 1943 - ): American long-range bombers
UK+US: Italy (jul 1943 - may 1945)
UK+US: France (jun 1944): Allied air superiority
URSS: Romania (aug 1944)
URSS: Bulgaria (sep 1944)
URSS: Finland (sep 1944)
URSS: Yugoslavia (oct 1944)
URSS: Hungary (nov 1944)
URSS+UK+US: Germany (oct 1944 - apr 1945)
US: Philippines (oct 1944 - ): kamikaze (jan 1945)
US: Bombing of Japan (nov 1944 -
URSS: Poland (dec 1944)
Yalta conference (feb 1945)
US: Japan (apr 1945 - aug 1945): atomic bomb
The Modern Age
World War II Casualties (military+civilian):
Soviet Union 13m + 7m (Ukraine 7m, Belarus 2.2m)
Indonesia 4m
China 3.5m + 10m
Germany 3.25m + 3.8m (2m Jews)
Japan 1.75m + 380,000
Vietnam 1m
Poland 600,000 + 5.3m (3m Jews)
British Empire 452,000 + 60,000
U.S.A. 400,000 + 0
Italy 330,000 + 80,000
Yugoslavia 300,000 + 1.3m
France 250,000 + 360,000
Romania 200,000 + 465,000
Hungary 120,000 + 280,000
Philippines 120,000
Finland 100,000
Malaysia 100,000
World War II
Sharing the responsibility
Britain: Britain had one of the largest crowd of Hitler sympathizers in the world
France: very few French volunteered to fight against Hitler
Italy: there were no partisans fighting Mussolini before he started losing the war
Poland: anti-semitism was already rampant before Hitler invaded Poland
Romania: Romania was second only to Germany in killing Jews and Gypsies (200-300,000)
Soviet Union: many Soviet citizens welcomed Hitler's army and enrolled to fight against Stalin
World War II
Sharing the responsibility
Soviet Union: unprovoked invasion of Poland (1939), Finland (1939), Lithuania (1940), Latvia (1940), Estonia (1940), Bulgaria (1944), Japan (1945)
USA: opposition to the war against Hitler was always high (the USA Congress passed a "neutrality act" after Hitler invaded Poland)
On the other hand...
Germany: many German officers, intellectuals and politicians plotted to overthrow Hitler throughout his reign, with two major assassination attempts in 1939 and 1944 (and one involving Rommel himself)
World War II
Sharing the responsibility
The German invasion of France in 1940 caused minimal destruction to historical buildings and few civilian casualties, but the Allied invasion of Germany killed about one million German civilians and destroyed thousands of monuments
The German blitz on Britain of 1939-40 killed 40,000 civilians, but the Allied bombing offensive of 1943-45 killed about 500,000 German civilians (British concentrated on night-time carpet bombing of German cities, which killed mostly civilians, whereas Americans concentrated on daytime bombing of industrial and military targets)
World War II
Sharing the responsibility: where are the innocents?
Italy: ally of Hitler
Finland: ally of Hitler
Hungary: ally of Hitler
Romania: ally of Hitler
Bulgaria: ally of Hitler
Slovakia: ally of Hitler
Croatia: ally of Hitler
France: ally of Hitler
Switzerland: banker of Hitler, deported thousands of Jews
Spain: did not participate, but supported Hitler
Portugal: did not participate, but supported Hitler
Sweden: let Germany use its territory to avoid an invasion
Ireland: declared netutrality after Germany started war
Soviet Union: secret pact with Hitler to split Poland
USA: declared netutrality after Germany started war

World War II
World War II
World War II
Modern World
Frank Capra: John Doe (1941)
Orson Welles: Citizen Kane (1941)
Ernst Lubitsch: Heaven Can Wait (1943)


The Modern World 1946-1968


Bibliography
Gregory Freeze: Russia (1997)
Paul Kennedy: The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987)
Edward Kantowicz: The World In The 20th Century (1999)
HH Arnason: History of Modern Art (1977)
Jonathan Glancey: 20th Century Architecture (1998)
MOCA: At The End of the Century (1998)
Christian Delacampagne: A History of Philosophy in the 20th Century (1995)
Eric Rhode: A History of the Cinema (1976)
Robert Sklar: Film (1993)
Eileen Southern: The Music of Black Americans (1971)
Ted Gioia: A History of Jazz (1997)
Mark Prenderast: The Ambient Century (2000)
Piero Scaruffi: History of Rock Music (2003)
The Modern Age
1946: Churchill delivers in the USA the "Iron Curtain" speech
1946: Communist guerrillas begin a liberation war against France in Indochina
1947-1967: Independence of British colonies, from India to Aden
1947: one million people die in riots due to the partition of India and Pakistan
1948: first Arab-Israeli war
1949: Mao Zedong proclaims the People's Republic of China
1949: NATO is formed by the western Europe and the USA
1949: The Soviet Union detonates its first atomic bomb
1950: China invades Tibet
1950: Korean war (4 million die)
1952: Japanese companies license the technology of the transistor from the USA
The Modern Age
1956: the first Japanese car is sold in the USA
1957: Albert Sabin develops the polio vaccine
1957: Italy, Germany, France found the European Community
1957: the Soviet Union launches the Sputnik
1958: Mao's"Great Leap Forward": 30 million people die
1960: The world's population is 3 billion
1961: the Soviet Union builds a wall to isolate West Berlin
1962: France recognizes Algeria's independence
1964-73: Vietnam vs USA (three million Vietnamese die)
1964: China becomes the fifth nuclear power
1964: Mario Savio founds the "Free Speech Movement"
1966: Mao launches the "Cultural Revolution": millios die
1966: the summer of Love of the hippies in San Francisco
The Modern Age
Media
1948: 12-inch 33-1/3 RPM long-playing vinyl record
1954: first transistor radio
1962: the audio cassette is introduced
The Modern Age
World's population in 1950
China 562,579,779
India 369,880,000
United States 152,271,000
Russia 101,936,816
Japan 83,805,000
Indonesia 83,413,921
Germany 68,374,572
Brazil 53,443,075
United ingdom 50,127,000
Italy 47,105,000
The Modern Age
Decolonization
Arab nationalism (Nasser)
Israel
Mao
Gandhi
Ho Chi Min
Africa
Che Guevara
The Modern Age
The decline of Britain
William Beveridge (1945): the state must provide social insurance for the sick, the old, the unemployed (welfare state)
Clement Attlee's Labour government (1945-51): comprehensive social program aimed at reducing the inequalities in income, education, housing, medicine caused by capitalism
Trade unions
Diversity (did not join European Community, did not adopt metric system, left-hand driver seat, etc)
Outdated industrial infrastructure
Commonwealth (a cost, no longer a revenue)
The Modern Age
The decline of Britain
British intellectuals detached from the economy
"The intellectual world failed to perceive that the bough on which they were fairly comfortably resting depended on business vitality which they tended to scorn" (Keith Joseph)
The Modern Age
Cold War
The Domino theory
Nuclear Deterrence
The Wall
Korea and Vietnam
Cuba and Chile
National ways to socialism
Caudillos and guerrillas
Liberation movements
Weapons of mass destruction
Consumerism
The media
The moon landing
The youth culture
Women's liberation
Bipolarism in Europe: the social-democratic state
Terrorism
The Modern Age
Civil wars of the Cold War
China 1946-49 (USSR wins)
Korea 1950 (USA wins) 4,000,000
Vietnam 1962-75 (USSR wins) 3,000,000
Laos 1965-75 (USSR wins)
Cambodia 1969-75 (USSR wins)
Indonesia 1966 (USA wins)
Malaysia 1950-65 (USA wins)
Bolivia 1965-67 (USA wins)
Cuba 1959-today (USSR wins)
Chile 1973-89 (USA wins)
Peru 1970-99 (USA wins) 20,000
Colombia 1979-today (USA wins)
Ethiopia 1974-91 (USSR wins) 1,000,000
Angola 1975-2002 (USSR wins) 500,000
El Salvador 1980-92 (USA wins) 100,000
Guatemala 1960-96 (USA wins) 40,000
The Modern Age
Cold War
USA block
Western Europe
Israel
Iran
Pakistan
Latin America
British Commonwealth
The Modern Age
Wars and massacres:
1946-49: Chinese civil war (1.2 million)
1947: Partition of India and Pakistan (1 million)
1948-2003: Arab-Israeli wars (70,000)
1950-53: Korean war (4 million)
1954-62: French-Algerian war (1 million)
1958-61: Mao's "Great Leap Forward" (30 million)
1964-73: USA-Vietnam war (3 million)
1966-69: Mao's "Cultural Revolution" (11 million)
1967-70: Nigeria-Biafra civil war (1 million)
Nuclear Proliferation
The Modern Age
Arab-Israeli wars:
I (1947-49): 6,373 Israeli and 15,000 Arabs die
II (1956): 231 Israeli and 3,000 Egyptians die
III (1967): 776 Israeli and 20,000 Arabs die
IV (1973): 2,688 Israeli and 18,000 Arabs die
Intifada I (1987-92): 170 Israelis and 1,000 Palestinians
Intifada II (2000-03): 700 Israelis and 2,000 Palestinians
GDP per capite 1950
The Modern Age
Per capita income in 1950 (and 2000)
USA $2,536 ($38,000)
Britain $1,393 ($26,000)
Germany $1,001 ($27,000)
France $1,172 ($26,000)
Japan $382 ($38,000)
The Modern Age
Share of world product 1960 1970 1980 2000
USA 25.9 23.0 21.5 31.9
European Union 26.0 24.7 22.5 27
Japan 4.5 7.7 9.0 13.4
Soviet Union 12,5 12.4 11.4 -
China 3.1 3.4 4.5 3.7
What the Modern Age knew
Modernist Architecture
LeCorbusier (1887):
Notre-Dame-de-Haut, Ronchamp (1950-1955)
Chandigarh High Court, India (1952)
LaTourette monastery, France (1957-60)
Erich Mendelsohn (1887)
Einstein Tower, Potsdam (1917)
JM Van der Meij
Scheepvaarthuis, Amsterdam (1912)
Pierluigi Nervi (1891)
Vatical Audience Hall, Roma (1971)
St Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco (1971)
Gio Ponti (1891):
Pirelli Building, Milano (1956)
What the Modern Age knew
Modernist Architecture
Hans Scharoun (1893):
Philharmonie, Berlin (1956)
Achilles Rizzoli (1896)
Alvar Aalto (1898):
Saynatsalo Townhall, Finland (1952)
Finlandia Hall (1967-75)
Louis Kahn (1901)
Salk Institute, La Jolla (1959)
Dhaka capitol buildings, Bangladesh (1960)
Kimbell Art Museum, Texas (1972)

What the Modern Age knew
Modernist Architecture
Arne Jacobsen (1902)
Royal SAS Hotel (1960)
Marcel Breuer (1902)
St John's Abbey, Minnesota (1953-63)
Philip Johnson (1906)
Munson-Williams-Proctor Museum, Utica (1957)
Crystal cathedral, Los Angeles (1980)
AT&T Building, New York (1984)
Oscar Niemeyer (1907):
Chapel of Sao Francisco, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (1940-43)
Cathedral, Brasilia (1970)
What the Modern Age knew
Modernist Architecture
Felix Candela (1910)
Church of the Miraculous Virgin (1954)
Eero Saarinen (1910, Finland)
TWA terminal, New York (1962)
Gateway Arch, St Louis (1948-65)
Lincoln Center (1962-66)
Kenzo Tange (1913):
National Gymnasium, Tokyo (1964)
Cathedral, Tokyo (1965)
Ieoh Ming Pei (1917):
NCAR, Boulder, Colorado (1961-67)
What the Modern Age knew
Sculpture
Henry Moore (1898, Britain)
Giacomo Manzu (1908, Italy)
What the Modern Age knew
Poetry 1946-68
Neruda (1904, Chile): "Canto General" (1950)
Andrade (1902, Brazil): "Claro Enigma" (1951)
Seferis (1900, Greece): "Emerologio Katastromatos" (1955)
Ritsos (1909, Greece): "Moonlight Sonata" (1956)
Pound (1885, USA): "Cantos" (1960)
What the Modern Age knew
Theatre 1946-68
Beckett (1906, Ireland): "En Attendant Godot" (1952)
Durrenmatt(1921, Switzerland): "The Visit of the Old Lady" (1956)
Pinter (1930, Britain): "Caretaker" (1959)
What the Modern Age knew
Music 1946-68
Cage: Concerto for Prepared Piano (1951)
Boulez: Le Marteau Sans Maitre (1954)
Nono: Canto Sospeso (1956)
Stockhausen: Gesang der Junglinge (1956)
Xenakis: Orient Occident (1960)
Britten: War Requiem (1962)
Penderecki: Passio Secundum Lucam (1965)
Berio: Sinfonia (1968)
What the Modern Age knew
Poetry 1946-68
Pasolini (1922, Italy): "La Religione del Mio Tempo" (1961)
Holan (1905, Czeck): "A Night with Hamlet" (1964)
Brodsky (1940, Russia): "Stop in the Desert" (1970)
What the Modern Age knew
What the Modern Age knew
What the Modern Age knew
Cinema 1946-68
Kurosawa: Rashomon (1950)
Wilder: Sunset Boulevard (1950)
DeSica: Miracle in Milan (1951)
Mizoguchi: Ugetsu Monogatari (1953)
Kazan: On The Waterfront (1954)
Bergman: Seventh Seal (1956)
Siegel: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Hitchcock: North By Northwest/ Intrigo Internazionale (1959)
Godard: Breathless (1959)
Fellini: La Dolce Vita (1960)
Ford: The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)
What the Modern Age knew
Cinema 1946-68
Edwards: The Great Race (1965)
Aldrich: Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1965)
Antonioni: Blow-Up (1966)
Bunuel: Belle de Jour (1967)
Polansky: Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Kubrick: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Leone: Once Upon a Time in The West (1968)
Peckinpah: The Wild Bunch (1969)
What the Modern Age knew
Mechanical Office (1900-1950)
Typewriter (1829)
Telegraph (1858)
Telephone (1876)
Adding Machine (1885)
Electrified Office (1950s)
Electric Typewriter
Calculating Machine
Photocopier
Telefax
Telex (1958)
Touch-tone Phone (1963)
Hand-held Calculator (1967)
IBM Computers (1964)
What the Modern Age knew
Communication
Telephone cable across the Atlantic (1956)
First telecommunication satellite (1962, Telstar)
Transportation
Pan Am's first transatlantic flight (1939)
Long-distance jet (1958)
Wide-body jet (1967)
What the Modern Age knew
Media Revolutions
Mass Newspaper (1890s): Linotype (1875) + Hoe Press (1840)
Cinema (1920s)
Sound (1930s)
Commercial Television (1950s)
Satellite Tv (1980s)
Internet (1990s)
Cheap Forms of Mass Entertainment
What the Modern Age knew
Genetics
1944: Oswald Avery (DNA)
1953: Francis Crick and James Watson discover the double helix of the DNA
1960s: Translation of Four-letter Genetic Code Into Twenty-letter Language of Proteins
1988: first genetically engineered animal (Harvard Univ)
1990: the Human Genome Project is launched
1994: the first genetically engineered vegetable (Flavr Savr tomato) is introduced
1997: British biologist Ian Wilmut clones a sheep, Dolly.
2002: American scientists synthesize a live virus from chemicals
What the Modern Age knew
Space exploration
1957: the Soviet Union launches the first artificial satellite (Sputnik)
1961: Yuri Gagarin becomes the first astronaut
1962: Americans lift into orbit the first telecommunication satellite (Telstar)
1969: Neil Armstrong is the first man to set foot on the Moon
1970: First spacecraft on Venus
1971: First spacecraft on Mars
1981: the U.S. launches the first space shuttle
1990: the Hubble space telescope is launched
2001: the Voyager leaves the solar system
2003: several unmanned spacecrafts land on Mars
What the Modern Age knew
Astronomy
50 billion galaxies in the universe
200 billion stars in the Milky Way (our galaxy)
Nine planets around the Sun (our star)
One light-year = 9,461 billion km
Pluto (last solar planet) = 5.9 billion kms from the Sun (less than 0.001 light-years)
Alpha Centauri (nearest star) = 4.3 light-years
Sirius (brightest star in the sky) = 8.7 light-years
Center of the Milky Way = 26,000 light-years from the Sun
Andromeda (nearest galaxy) = 2.2 million light-years
What the Modern Age knew
Physics
1965: Microwave background radiation are discovered
1967: Theory of Quarks (Quantum Chromodynamics)
1968: Theory of Big Bang
1974: Superstring Theory
1998: Adam Riess discovers that the expansion of the universe is accelerating (dark energy)
2001: the Voyager leaves the solar system
2003: 95% of the universe is invisible
2003: several unmanned spacecrafts land on Mars
What the Modern Age knew
Computers
1946: the first non-military computer, Eniac, is unveiled
1947: William Shockley invents the transistor at Bell Labs
1951: The first commercial computer is built, the Univac
1955: Artificial Intelligence
1956: Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby invent the microchip
1958: Texas Instruments builds the first integrated circuit
1965: Gordon Moore predicts that the processing power of computers will double every 18 months
1965: DEC introduces the first mini-computer, the PDP-8, that uses integrated circuits
What the Modern Age knew
Software
1964: IBM introduces the first "operating system" for computers (the OS/360)
1969: the Unix operating system is born
1972: Ray Tomlinson invents e-mail
1981: the IBM PC runs an operating system developed by Bill Gates' Microsoft
1985: the Internet
1999: the world prepares for the new millennium amidst fears of computers glitches due to the change of date (Y2K)
1999: Microsoft is worth 450 billion dollars, the most valued company in the world
What the Modern Age knew
Science Fiction
Ancient times
Monsters
Unicorn
Loch Ness
Abominable Snowman
Werewolves
Vampires
Frankenstein (1818)
What the Modern Age knew
Science Fiction
Novels
Jules Verne: "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865)
Herbert Wells: "The Time Machine" (1895)
Herbert Wells: "The War of the worlds" (1898)
Films
Georges Melies: "A Trip to the Moon" (1902)
Protazanov: "Aelita" (1924)
Fritz Lang: "Metropolis" (1926)
Radio
Orson Wells's "The War of the Worlds"
What the Modern Age knew
Science Fiction
Novels
Karel Capek: "R.U.R." (1921)
Yevgeny Zamjatin: "We" (1924)
Hugo Gernsback' sci-fi magazine "Amazing Stories" (1926)
Aldous Huxley: "Brave new world" (1932)
Comics
"Buck Rogers" (1929, Phil Nowlan & Dick Calkins)
"Alley Oop" (1933, Vincent Hamlin)
"Brick Bradford" (1933, Clarence Gray & William Ritt)
"Flash Gordon" (1934, Alex Raymond)
"Superman" (1938, Jerome Siegel/Joe Shuster)
What the Modern Age knew
Science Fiction
Films
Robert Wise: "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1950)
Mate: "When Worlds Collide" (1951)
Christian Nyby: "The Thing" (1952)
Fred Wilcox: "Forbidden Planet" (1956)
Siegel: "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956)
Kurt Neumann: "The Fly" (1958)
Comics
"Fantastic Four" (1961, Stan Lee/Jack Kirby)
"Barbarella" (1962, Jean-Claude Forest)
"Spiderman" (1962, Stan Lee/Steve Ditko)
What the Modern Age knew
Science Fiction
TV Series
"The Twilight Zone" (1959-1964)
"The Outer Limits" (1963-1965)
"Lost in Space" (1965-1968)
"Land of the Giants" (1968-1970)
"The Immortal" (1970-1971)
"Star Trek" (1966-1969)
What the Modern Age knew
Science Fiction
Novels
George Orwell: "Nineteen Eighty-four" (1949)
Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1953)
Ray Bradbury: "Fahrenheit 451" (1953)
Ivan Efremov: "Andromeda Nebula" (1956)
Stanislaw Lem: "Solaris" (1961)
Frank Herbert: "Dune" (1965)
Roger Zelazny: "Lord of Light" (1967)
Philip Dick: Do Androids Dream (1968)
Michael Crichton: "Andromeda Strain" (1969)
Neil Stephenson: "Snow Crash" (1991)
What the Modern Age knew
Science Fiction
Films
Godard: "Alphaville" (1965)
Schaeffer: "Planet of the Apes" (1968)
Stanley Kubrick: "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968)
Spielberg: "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977)
George Lucas: "Star Wars" (1977)
George Miller: "Mad Max" (1979)
Ridley Scott: "Blade Runner" (1982)
Novels
James Ballard: "Crash" (1973)
Michael Moorcock: "Cornelius" (1977)
William Gibson: "Neuromancer" (1984), cyberpunk
What the Modern Age knew
Sexual Revolution
1897: Havelock Ellis: Studies in the Psychology of Sex (1897-1936)
1863: Karl Heinrich Ulrichs defends the rights of homosexuals in Germany
1892: Clelia Mosher's survey of 45 women in the USA proves that women can have orgasms
1897: "La Fronde" feminist newspaper debuts in France
1903: first nudist colony opens in Gemany
1916: Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic and founds Planned Parenthood
1948: Alfred Kinsey's "Sexual Behavior of the Human Male" (1948)
1953: Playboy
1960: Gregory Pincus invents the birth control pill
1973: abortion is legalized in the USA
1995: out-of-wedlock birth rate rises from 4% in 1965 to 23.6% in the USA
1997: the divorce rate in the USA reaches 50%
What the Modern Age knew
Divorce Rate 1996
What the Modern Age knew
Feminism
1789: Marie Gouze aka Olympe de Gouges: "Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizen"
1792: Mary Wollstonecraft's "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"
1837: Sarah Grimke's "Letters on the Equality of the Sexes"
1848: Queen's College is established to provide women with a higher education
1848: First women's rights convention in the USA
1903: the suffragette movement (Women's Social and Political Union) is founded in Britain by Emmeline Pankhurst
1918: universal female suffrage in Germany
1919: Millicent Garrett Fawcett's "The Women's Victory"
1920: universal female suffrage in the USA
1949: Simone de Beauvoir's "Le Deuxieme Sexe"
1963: Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique"
1964: Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the bases of sex
What the Modern Age knew
Feminism
1966: National Organization for Women (NOW)
1970: Germaine Greer's "The Female Eunuch"
1971: journalist Gloria Steinem founds the first first feminist magazine, "Ms Magazine"
1978: more women than men enter college in the USA
1981: Andrea Dworkin's "Pornography - Men Possessing Women"
1982: Carol Gilligan's difference femminism
1982: Madonna
1989: Riot grrrrls in Seattle
1991: Donna Haraway's "Simians, Cyborgs, and Women"
1992: Camille Paglia's "Sex, Art and American Culture"
1992: Susan Faludi's "Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women"
2001: Kathy Rudy's "Radical Feminism, Lesbian Separatism and Queer Theory"
What the Modern Age knew
Feminism
Women own only 1% of the world's wealth, and earn 10% of the world's income, despite making up 51% of the population
When childcare and housework are taken into consideration, women work longer than men in both the industrialised and developing world (by 20% in the industrialised world, and 30% in the developing world).
Sweden has the highest number of women in national legislature at 42%. The United States has just 11%. The world average is just 9% (2000)
What the Modern Age knew
Gay Rights Movement
1953: Alfred Kinsey's "Sexual Behavior of the Human Female"
1969: "Stonewall riots" and birth of the Gay Liberation Front
1979: first gay rights march in the United States
2001: same-sex marriage is recognized in Holland
What the Modern Age knew
Ideas
Philosophy of Mind (Machine Intelligence, Theories of Mind)
Holism
Structuralism (Anthropology, Linguistics, Semiotics)
What the Modern Age knew
Capitalism
Joseph Schumpeter: Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942)
John Kenneth Galbraith: The Affluent Society (1958)
Milton Friedman: Capitalism and Freedom (1962)
Michael Porter: Competitive Strategy (1980)
What the Modern Age knew
Machine Intelligence
Turing's test (1947)
Von Neumann's self-reproducing automata (1947)
Norman Wiener's Cybernetics (1947)
Shannon's Theory of Information (1949)
Artificial intelligence (1955)
Neural Networks (1957)
Simon & Newell: physical symbol processor
Expert Systems: Knowledge VS Information (1965)
Marvin Minsky's Frame (1974)
Roger Schank's Script (1975)
John Holland's Genetic Algorithms (1975)
What the Modern Age knew
The Brain
1891: Santiago Ramon y Cajal's neuron
1898: Edward Thorndike's connectionism
1949: Donald Hebb's selective strengthening of synapses and cell assemblies
1950s: Electrical activity of the brain
1960s: Neurons communicate via chemicals ("neurotransmitters")
1960s: The left hemisphere is dominant for language and speech, the right hemisphere excels at visual and motor tasks


What the Modern Age knew
Absurdism
Alfred Jarry: Ubu Roi (1896)
Franz Kafka
Theatre of the absurd: Samuel Beckett (1949), Jean Genet, Eugene Ionesco
Human beings exist in a meaningless, irrational universe
Senseless dialogue and senseless action to describe senseless lives
What the Modern Age knew
Gilbert Ryle (1949)
The mind is not a separate substance but simply a domain of discourse
The mental vocabulary does not refer to the structure of something, but simply to the way somebody behaves or will behave
The mind "is" the behavior of the body.
Physical objects exist, mental objects are merely vocabulary
Descartes invented a myth: the myth of the mind inside the body ("the ghost in the machine")
What the Modern Age knew
Ghose Aurobindo (1949)
Brahman first involutes (focuses on itself), next materializes (the material universe), and then evolves into consciousness
Human consciousness is the highest stage of consciousness so far achieved by Brahman
Social, cultural and individual life in human societies are still imperfect because the human stage is not the last, highest stage
What the Modern Age knew
Carl Schmitt (1950)
Critique of Liberalism
The political is, ultimately, a friend/enemy distinction
Armed force used to be a means to achieve limited territorial goals
European nation-states fought territorial wars
Wars became increasingly ideological

What the Modern Age knew
Carl Schmitt (1950)
America developed a universal friend/enemy distinction
America makes a universal claim for its moral values ("liberal democracy")
The American wars became a crusade for universal goodness against a criminalized enemy
America's mission became to export "liberal democracy"
American politics tends toward a universal state
Soviet expansionism was a primitive military despotism
American expansionism is ideological in nature
What the Modern Age knew
Adam Innis (1950)
Communications determine civilizations
Communications determine people's interests (what they think about),
languages (how they think about them) and
communities (where they think about them).
Mesopotamia: clay tablet, stylus, cuneiform script
Greece: pen and alphabet
Middle Ages: pen and paper
Reformation: press and paper
20th century: celluloid, radio waves, ...
What the Modern Age knew
Billy Wilder: Sunset Boulevard (1950)
John Huston: The African Queen (1951)

What the Modern Age knew
Akira Kurosawa: Rashomon (1950)
Vittorio DeSica: Miracolo a Milano (1951)
Yasujiro Ozu: Tokyo Monogatari (1953)
What the Modern Age knew
David Bohm (1952):
The quantum "wave" is a real wave, due to a real field, that acts upon particles the same way a classical potential does
This field is due to a potential that permeates the universe
Position and momentum of a particle are no longer incompatible
Bohm's wave is a real wave that guides the particle (the "pilot-wave")
Everything is both a particle and a wave, and is acted upon by both a classical potential and a quantum potential
What the Modern Age knew
David Bohm (1952):
Bohm's potential plays the role of Einstein's "hidden variables"
Bohm's quantum potential acts beyond the 4-dimensional geometry of spacetime
The quantum field is, in turn, affected by all particles
Everything in the universe is entangled in everything else
The universe is one indivisible whole
What the Modern Age knew
David Bohm (1952):
The universe is un undivided whole in constant flux
The thinker and the thought cannot be separated
"subject- verb- object: the key actor is the verb, not the subject, and the verb unites the subject and the object in one, undivided action
At the level of the "implicate order" ("higher dimension") there is no difference between matter and mind
That difference arises within the "explicate order" (the conventional space-time of Physics)
As we travel inwards, we travel towards that higher dimension, the implicate order, in which mind and matter are the same
What the Modern Age knew
David Bohm (1952):
As we travel outwards, we travel towards the explicate order in which subject and object are separate
Every particle has a rudimentary mind-like quality
Matter has mental properties, as well as physical properties
The two sides cannot be separated because they are entangled in the same quantum field
What the Modern Age knew
Sayyid Qutb (1952)
Philosopher of militant Islam
Islamic holy war (jihad) as the duty of every Muslim
Against Islamic regimes
Integralist view of society
Violent Muslim resistance to regimes that are not truly Islamic
Ibn Taymiyya's verdict of 1300: Jihad legitimate against Mongols even if they converted to Islam
A Muslim might justly assassinate an unjust Muslim ruler (he is not a Muslim anymore)
What the Modern Age knew
Sayyid Qutb (1952)
Against the infidels
Jahiliyya ("pagan ignorance") is the main evil in the world
Secular society violates God's sovereignty on Earth by creating new rules which override the wishes of God
Jahiliyya is rebellion against God's sovereignty on earth
Christians are all destined for hell
Jewish conspiracy against Muslims
America's separation of church and state is "the" problem
Hatred of capitalist culture
What the Modern Age knew
Sayyid Qutb (1952)
Dream of a purified world
"the worship of God alone,
the foundation of human relationships on the belief in the Unity of God,
the supremacy of the humanity of man over material things,
the development of human values and the control of animalistic desires,
respect for the family,
the assumption of the vice-regency of God on earth according to His guidance and instruction
the rule of God's law (Shari'a) "
What the Modern Age knew
Francis Crick and James Watson (1953)
Life is encoded in the double helix of the DNA
It is not the chemical composition that matters (it is almost the same for every individual) but the sequence (the order) of the nucleotides (which varies from individual to individual)
What the Modern Age knew
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953)
Language has a function
Words are tools
Assertions, commands, questions, etc
Language is a game between people
The meaning of a proposition can only be understood in its context
Truth is a multi-faceted concept: different statements can be all true without being true in the same way ("alethic pluralism")
The meaning of a word is due to the consensus of a society
To understand a word is to understand a language
To understand a language is to master the linguistic skills
What the Modern Age knew
Wittgenstein (1953)
Definitions are ambigous or implausible
Categories are based on "family resemblance", not on features
There is no ghost in the machine, no mind that understands, just "understanding"
What the Modern Age knew
Savage (1954)
Subjective probability
What the Modern Age knew
Elia Kazan: On The Waterfront (1954)
Don Siegel: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Rock'n'Roll
What the Modern Age knew
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1955)
Evolution is a general law of nature
Matter has always obeyed to a law of "complexification" (the universe's matter-energy is progressing towards ever increased complexity)
Humanity marks the stage when evolution leaves the "biosphere" and enters the "noosphere" (human consciousness and knowledge)
The evolution of the noosphere will end in the convergence of matter and spirit into the "omega point"
Reconciling science and religion;
What the Modern Age knew
Artificial Intelligence (1955)
Turing's test
Simon & Newell's symbolic systems
Expert Systems
Neural Networks
Common Sense
What the Modern Age knew
Claude Levi-Strauss (1955)
Myths from different cultures (myths whose contents are very different) share similar structures
Myth is a language: Myth is made of units that are put together according to certain rules
There are the equivalent of "langue" and "parole" for myth: its "langue" is its timeless meaning, its "parole" is its historical setting
Myth also exists on a third level: its flexibility/adaptability (myth can be manipulated -without losing its basic shape)
What the Modern Age knew
Claude Levi-Strauss (1955)
Mytheme is the elementary unit of Myth (several sentences representing an event, a scene, etc)
A mytheme is a "bundle of relations"
Mythemes can be read both diachronically (the story that is being told, the sequence of events) and synchronically (the timeless meaning of it, the "themes")
The themes of myths are relations/tensions between two opposing concepts (e.g., between selfishness and altruism)
Mythical thinking is logical thinking
What the Modern Age knew
Claude Levi-Strauss (1955)
Myths use that binary logic because it is the logic employed by the human mind
"Myths think in men without their knowing"
Mythical thinking is inherent to the human mind
Mythical thinking is the human way of understanding nature and the human condition
Myths provide access to the way the human mind works
What the Modern Age knew
Disneyland (1955)
The distinction between real and unreal disappears
People are only connected to the world by images created by someone else
What the Modern Age knew
Noam Chomsky (1957)
Human brains are designed to acquire a language
They contain a "universal grammar"
We speak because our brain is meant to speak
What the Modern Age knew
Chomsky (1957)
Performance vs competence
we understand sentences that we have never heard before
The number of sentences in a language is potentially infinite, but there is a finite system of rules that defines which sentences can be built
That system of rules is what identifies a language and differentiates it from other languages.
Grammar= rules that account for all valid sentences of the language
Independence of syntax from semantics (well-formed vs meaningful sentence)
What the Modern Age knew
Chomsky (1957)
Application of formal logic to linguistics
Language = set of sentences
Sentence = finite string of words from a lexicon
Grammar = set of rules that determine whether a sentence belongs to the language
A language is "recursively enumerable"
Deductive approach to language: how to derive all possible sentences of a language from an abstract structure
What the Modern Age knew
Chomsky (1957)
"Deep structure" = fundamental relationships among linguistic components
"Surface structure" = the sentences that are actually uttered
One deep structure for many surface structures
Chomsky's "standard theory":a grammar is made of a syntactic component (phrase structure rules, lexicon and transformational component), a semantic component (a "logical form" that assigns a meaning to the sentence) and a phonologic component (which transforms it into sounds)
What the Modern Age knew
Chomsky (1957)
"Deep structure" = fundamental relationships among linguistic components
"Surface structure" = the sentences that are actually uttered
One deep structure for many surface structures
Chomsky's "standard theory":a grammar is made of a syntactic component (phrase structure rules, lexicon and transformational component), a semantic component (a "logical form" that assigns a meaning to the sentence) and a phonologic component (which transforms it into sounds)
What the Modern Age knew
Chomsky (1957)
Learning a language = innate knowledge plus experience
Universal linguistic knowledge ("universal grammar")
Language "happens" to a child, just like growth
Government binding: differences between languages can be summarized into a set of constraints
Universal grammar = linguistic genotype
What the Modern Age knew
Linguistics
Syntax
Semantics: anaphora, ambiguity, ...
Pragmatics
What the Modern Age knew
Eric Hoffer (1958)
"Mass movements do not usually rise until the prevailing order has been discredited.
"The discrediting is not an automatic result of the blunders and abuses of those in power, but the deliberate work of men of words with a grievance. "
"The preliminary work of undermining existing institutions, of familiarising the masses with the idea of change, and of creating a receptivity to a new faith, can be done only by men who are, first and foremost, talkers or writers. . . "
"The masses listen to him because they know that his words, however urgent, cannot have immediate results. The authorities either ignore him or use mild methods to muzzle him"
"Thus imperceptibly the man of words undermines established institutions, discredits those in power, weakens prevailing beliefs and loyalties, and sets the stage for the rise of a mass movement."
What the Modern Age knew
Ingmar Bergman: Jungfrukallan/ Virgin Spring (1959)
Alfred Hitchcock: North By Northwest (1959)
Federico Fellini: La Dolce Vita (1960)
What the Modern Age knew
Hilary Putnam (1960)
Meaning is not in the mind" ("water" in "twin earths")
Meaning exhibits an identity through time, but not in its essence
Most people know what gold is, and still they cannot explain what it is
If some day we found out that Chemistry has erred in counting the electrons of the atom of gold, this would not change what it is
The meaning of the word "gold" is not its scientific definition, but the meaning that a community has given it
What the Modern Age knew
Functionalism
If a mental state can be realized in more than one physical state, is the physical state important at all?
What is it that makes a physical state of the brain also a mental state? the function it performs (eg, thermometer)
Mental states have a function
A mind doesn't necessarily require a brain
The mind is a symbol processor, and mental states are related to computational states
The mind is the software and the brain is its hardware
The execution of that program (the mind) in that hardware (brain, computer,_) yields behavior

What the Modern Age knew
Holism
Pierre Duhem: Scientific hypotheses cannot be tested in isolation from the whole theoretical network in which they appear
What the Modern Age knew
Willard Quine (1960):
A hypothesis is verified true or false only relative to background assumptions
Each statement in a theory partially determines the meaning of every other statement in the same theory
The structure of concepts is determined by the positions that their constituents occupy in the "web of belief" of the individual
No part of a scientific theory can be proved or disproved; only the whole can

What the Modern Age knew
Willard Quine (1960):
There are infinite interpretations of a discourse depending on the context
A single word has no meaning, its referent is "inscrutable"
The meaning of language is not in the mind of the speaker
Words have a meaning only relative to the other words they are connected to in the sentences that we assume to be true.
The meaning of a sentence depends on the interpretation of the entire language. Its meaning can even change in time.
It is impossible to define what a "correct" translation of a statement is from one language to another, because that depends on the interpretations of both entire languages.
Translation from one language to another is indeterminate.
What the Modern Age knew
Hans Blumenberg (1960)
All theories are built on metaphors
Three historical stages
Absolutism of reality (absolute reality of nature)
Absolutism of trascendence (only one, absolute god)
Absolutism of science (absolute space and absolute time)
What the Modern Age knew
Hans-Georg Gadamer (1960)
Hermeneutic phenomenology
Hermeneutics = philosophy of understanding
Understanding as the "fusion of horizons" between a past text and a present interpreter

What the Modern Age knew
Ilya Prigogine (1961)
Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics
Irreversible processes are ubiquitous in nature
Life happens far from equilibrium
"Conservative" systems vs "dissipative" systems (subject to fluxes of energy and/or matter)
Dissipative systems give rise to irreversible processes
Order can be created either from equilibrium systems or from non-equilibrium systems that are sustained by a constant source (by a persistent dissipation) of matter/energy
All living organisms are non-equilibrium systems
What the Modern Age knew
Ilya Prigogine (1961)
The non-linearity of a system drives the system to ordered configurations, i.e. create order
Non-equilibrium and non-linearity favor the spontaneous development of self-organizing systems, which maintain their internal organization by trading matter/energy with the environment
Nonlinear systems driven away from equilibrium can generate instabilities that lead to bifurcations
When the system reaches the bifurcation point, it is impossible to determine which path it will take next: chance
Once the path is chosen, determinism resumes
What the Modern Age knew
Emmanuel Levinas (1961)
Ethical version of phenomenology
Ethics precedes ontology
Preeminence of the Other (the "you")
Ethics is not a matter of self-convenience
God as the ultimate manifestation of the Other
"The essence of discourse is ethical"


What the Modern Age knew
John Langshaw Austin (1962):
"Locutionary" act (the words employed to deliver the utterance)
"Illocutionary" act (the type of action that it performs, such as warning, commanding, promising, asking)
"Perlocutionary" act (the effect that the act has on the listener, such as believing or answering)
All language is an illocutionary act
"Is the king of France bald"?
What the Modern Age knew
Thomas Kuhn (1962)
Scientific progress is not linear
At any point in time a scientific paradigm (a consensus of the scientific community) rules
New evidence is accomodated in the ruling paradigm
A paradigm shift occurs when the ruling paradigm collapses
What the Modern Age knew
Jrgen Habermas (1962)
Critique of Western capitalist democracies
"Deliberative democracy" requires free, uncoerced, unconditioned, open debate among equal citizens, and would reject widely-held western assumptions (e.g., private property)

What the Modern Age knew
Jaakko Hintikka (1962)
An agent's beliefs can be characterized as a set of possible worlds
An agent playing a card game is basically trying to deduce what cards are held by the opponent
A possible world represents one state of affairs which is compatible with what is known.
The agent "believes" something to be true if that fact is true in all possible worlds
What the Modern Age knew
Saul Kripke (1963)
Semantic interpretation for modal logic
('it is possible that')
('it is necessary that')
What is necessarily or possibly true
The modal proposition p is true if and only if p is true in all possible worlds
A necessary truth is one that is true in all possible worlds (e.g., 2+2=4)
A possible truth is one that is true in some world (e.g., 'I am a millionaire')
What the Modern Age knew
Roland Barthes (1964)
Ecriture as distinguished from style, language, and writing
The text as a system of signs
The reader is the space in which all the signs of the text unite ("the birth of the reader_ the death of the author")
A sign can also function as a signifier
A "higher order" of signification (connotation) is about meaning that arises in cultural
Mythology is the second order of signification
What the Modern Age knew
Lev Vygotsky (1964)
Language provides a semiotic mediation of knowledge and therefore guides the child's cognitive growth
Cognitive faculties are internalized versions of social processes
What the Modern Age knew
Marshall McLuhan (1964)
The medium affects the communication ("the medium is the message")
Media shape our environment
What the Modern Age knew
Herbert Marcuse (1964)
Analysis of the operation of mass societies
Analysis of the unhappiness caused on the individual by the operation of mass societies
Marx's analysis of socio-economic inequality + Freud's analysis of human psyche
Consumer society is sustained by sexual repression
Western (liberal capitalistic) society is inhuman and oppressive

What the Modern Age knew
Ronald Laing (1964)
Schizophrenia is a rational reaction to alienation: alienation (the disintegration of the real self) causes the individual to invent a false self
Madness is an attempt by the individual to remedy the maddening conditions that society created
Madness is a natural healing process
Madness is a consequence of existential anxiety
"Schizophrenic is a special strategy that a person invents in order to live in an unlivable situation"
"Madness... is potential liberation and renewal"
"Schizophrenia is a social fact and the social fact a political event"
What the Modern Age knew
Richard Rorty (1965)
Any theory is inevitably conditioned by the zeitgeist of its era
Philosophy cannot discover the world
Philosophy is a genre of literature
Science cannot independently justify its findings
Science is a genre of literature
We can't know the world
Pragmatic conception of truth: Truth is a relative concept
What the Modern Age knew
Robert Aldrich: Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (1965)
Stanley Kubrick: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Sam Peckinpah: The Wild Bunch (1969)

What the Modern Age knew
Michelangelo Antonioni: Blow-Up (1966)
Luis Bunuel: Belle de Jour (1967)
Sergio Leone: C'era Una Volta il West (1968)
Roman Polanski: Rosemary's Baby (1968)

What the Modern Age knew
James Jerome Gibson (1966)
"Ecological Realism"
Meaning is located in the interaction between living beings and the environment
The process of perceiving is a process of picking up information that is available in the environment
Information originates from the interaction between the organism and its environment
Information = continuous energy flow of the environment
What the Modern Age knew
Michel Foucault (1966)
Western societies jail fools, while older societies acknowledged their existence
Western societies repress the creative force of madness
Western societies torture the mind of criminals, whereas older societies tortured their bodies
Western societies control individuals by training their minds
Western societies are vast mechanisms of supervision and repression
Western society has developed "bio-power"
Liberal democratic societies are not any less oppressive than totalitarian regimes
History is not a monodimensional class struggle, but many parallel social conflicts (prisons, asylums, schools...)
What the Modern Age knew
Michel Foucault (1966)
We "know" the world through the theories we believe in
Epistemes (structures of knowledge) determine our experience in the world (humans are not autonomous sources of knowledge - "man is a recent invention")
The objects of science exist only insofar as science exists ("there was no life before biology")
Knowledge and power are identical
What the Modern Age knew
Michel Foucault (1966)
History of sexuality
Anatomo-politics (the politics of the human body)
Bio-politics (the politics of human population)
What the Modern Age knew
Jacques Derrida (1967)
Deconstruction
Language is not a tool to represent the world, but a world in which we live
Language changes ideas as it expresses them
The author of a text is not the only source of its meaning
The meaning of a text changes over time
There are multiple legitimate interpretations of a text, multiple layers of meaning
Language is constantly shifting


The Modern World 1969-1990


Bibliography
Gregory Freeze: Russia (1997)
Paul Kennedy: Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987)
Edward Kantowicz: The World In The 20th Century (1999)
Jonathan Glancey: 20th Century Architecture (1998)
MOCA: At The End of the Century (1998)
Christian Delacampagne: A History of Philosophy in the 20th Century (1995)
Robert Sklar: Film (1993)
Ted Gioia: A History of Jazz (1997)
Mark Prenderast: The Ambient Century (2000)
Piero Scaruffi: History of Rock Music (2003)
The Modern Age
1969: Man walks on the moon
1970: Palestinian terrorism
1972: USA president Richard Nixon visits China
1973: Arab countries impose an oil embargo against the West
1974: India detonates an underground nuclear weapon
1974: The world's population is 4 billion
1975: The Khmer Rouge seize power in Cambodia and kill 1.7 million people
1975: the Baader-Meinhof terrorizes Germany
1975-90: civil war in Lebanon (40,000 people will die)
1978: Deng Xiaoping seizes power in China
1978: the Red Brigades terrorize Italy
1979: the Green Party is founded in Germany
1979: Islamic clerics (ayatollahs) seize the power in Iran
The Earth from the Moon
The Modern Age
1980-88: Iraq attacks Iran (600,000 Iranians and 400,000 Iraqis die)
1980: US uses Pakistan to help rebels fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan
1981: first cases of AIDS are discovered 1983-2002: One million people die in the Sudanese civil war
1986: the US has 14,000 nuclear warheads and the Soviet Union has 11,000
1987: The world's population is 5 billion
1989: Chinese students join in a pro-democracy protest in the Tiananmen Sq
1989: The Berlin Wall is destroyed
1989: the Japanese economy enters a recession
1991: The Soviet Union is dismantled
The Modern Age
Cold War
Average defense budget during the cold war: USA 5.5% of GNP vs USSR's 15%
Between 1980-85 US defense budget rose 51%
The Modern Age
The US Empire
The fall of communism
The spread of democracy and capitalism
Free trade zones
The global village
Druglords
AIDS
Marketing (as a threat to democracy)
Islamic fundamentalism
Silicon Valley
The African wars
Nuclear proliferation
The age of wealth
Nation building
The Modern Age
The US Empire
The new regional powers
European Union
Russia
Turkey
Israel
Iran
China
India
Japan
Vietnam
Australia
Nigeria, South Africa
Brazil, Argentina
The Gulf War
Central Asia
Hyper-terrorism
The Modern Age
The US Empire
Not an empire (Athens, Venice)
Revolutionary (not imperial) mission to spread liberal democracy around the world
Liberation (not expansion) wars
Enemies: Anti-liberalism, enemies of liberal democracy (Nazism, Fascism, Communism, Islam)
Civilization of cosmopolitan immigrants

The Modern Age
USA defeats
Vietnam (1975)
Iran (1979)
Lebanon (1983)
Somalia (1992)
The Modern Age
Wars and massacres:
see file:///c:/web/politics/massacre.html

The Modern Age
Silk: World trade
Sugar: Multinational capitalism (slave trade)
Cotton: Industrial revolution
Oil: Global village (transportation, electrical energy)
Each economic driver decayed when the following one turned it from luxury good to bulk commodity
The Modern Age
Worldwide Industrialization
British industrialization: driven by the inventions of independent entrepreneurs (small firms)
USA and German industrialization (late 19th century): driven by systematic innovation (organized R&D and mass production) under the control of corporate managers (large public companies, specializing in the high end of a specific market)
Japanese and South Korean industrialization (1960s): driven by learning (how to make existing technology more effective) under the control of engineers (family-owned diversified business groups, specializing in the bottom end of many different markets)
What the Modern World knew
Japan's economic miracle
Between 1950 and 1973 GDP grows at an average 10.5% yearly
Japan's GDP grows from one third of Britain's in 1952 to twice Britain's in 1980
Quality Assurance
Miniaturized high-tech
Electronic appliances
Between 1960 and 1984 car production increases from 1% to 23% of world car production
Semiconductors
What the Modern World knew
Japan's economic miracle
Universal education
Low military budget
Social ethos
Low turnover (loyalty)
The Modern Age
International Trade
1900s: Passenger ships -> movement of people (emigration)
1960s: Fast transportation & long-distance communications -> movement of goods
(1990s: Telephone/Internet -> movement of jobs)
The Modern Age
Average yearly incomes in 1997
USA $29,000
Mexico $8,000
Nigeria $900
The Modern Age
The Modern Age
Population explosion
1950: 2.5 billion
2000: 6.1 billion in 2000
2025: 8 illion
Half of the world's annual population growth of 77 million people occurs in six countries: India, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia.
"Hyper-urbanization": by 2025, the portion of the world's population living in urban areas will increase to nearly 60% of total population
1950: only one city (NYC) exceeds 10m
2000: 20 cities exceed 10m
2020: Tokyo 29m; Lagos 24m
The Modern Age
The Modern Age
1 Tokyo, Japan 28m
2 Mexico City, Mexico 18.1m
3 Mumbai (Bombay), India 18m
4 Sao Paulo, Brazil 17.7m
5 New York, United States 16.6m
6 Shanghai, China 14.2m
7 Lagos, Nigeria 13.5m
8 Los Angeles, United States 13.1m
9 Kolkata (Calcutta), India 12.9m
10 Buenos Aires, Argentina 12.4m
11 Seoul, South Korea 12.2m
12 Beijing, China 12m
13 Karachi, Pakistan 11.8m
14 Delhi, India 11.7m
The Modern Age
Population explosion
Rapid population growth leads to farm fragmentation, land degradation, deforestation, famine.
Most of the 3 billion people to be added to world population in the next 50 years will be born in areas where land resources are scarce
1950-1981: grainland expanded from 587 million hectares to 732 million hectares
1982-2000: grainland fell to 656 million hectares
Rwanda (Africa's most densely populated country) 1950- 1990: population tripled from 2.1 million to 6.8 million, per-capita grainland availability fell to 0.03 hectares
USA grainland in 2000: 0.21 hectares per person
The Modern Age
The decline and fall of Western civilization
Lower birth rates in the West
Immigration from Asia and Africa
Higher birth rates of immigrants
Population explosion in Africa and Asia
Free trade and offsourcing
The Modern Age
Margaret Thatcher's revolution (1979-90)
Economic: restoring competitivity of British economy
Fighting inflation
Austere program of industrial efficiency
Privatization of nationalized industries and services
Tax reduction
Constitutional: centralizing power and limiting the power of organized labor
Moral: praise of self-reliance and contempt for the unemployed
Consequence: forced transition from industrial economy to service economy
The Modern Age
Francois Mitterrand (1981-95)
First socialist president
1983: Franco-German cooperation (the "European engine")
1983: Financial rigor and industrial competitiveness instead of socialist doctrine of state-controlled economy
1984: Transformation of the Common Market into a political and monetary Union
1986: Labor flexibility instead of union-controlled labor policies

Chronic unemployment
Muslim immigration and population growth
The Modern Age
Media
1971: the video-cassette recorder (VCR)
1972: Ray Tomlinson invents e-mail (1972)
1973: Martin Cooper at Motorola invents the cellular telephone
1979: Sony launches the "Walkman" portable stereo
1980: CNN, the first cable tv devoted to world news
1981: MTV debuts on cable tv
1981: the compact disc (CD)
1995: the DVD
The Modern Age
Computers
1971: Federico Faggin at Intel invents the micro-processor
1972: Ray Tomlinson invents e-mail (1972)
1974: the first personal computer is introduced (Altair 8800)
1977: the Atari introduces the first video game console
1977: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak develop the Apple II
1981: IBM introduces the PC ("Personal Computer"), that spreads world-wide
What the Modern Age knew
Architecture
Paolo Soleri (1919)
Arcosanti, Arizona (1972)
Jorn Utzon (1918)
Sydney Opera House (1957-72)
John Portman (1924)
Embarcadero Center, San Francisco (1968-83)
Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles (1986)
James Stirling (1926)
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart (1977)
Cesar Pelli (1926)
Canary Wharf Tower, London (1984)
Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1998)
Johann Otto von Spreckelsen (1929)
La Grande Arche, Paris (1982-1990)

What the Modern Age knew
Architecture
Frank Gehry (1929)
Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (1997)
Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles (200?)
Richard Rogers (1933):
Centre Pompidou, Paris (1972-76)
Lloyds Building, London (1978)
Millenium Dome, London (1999)
Michael Graves (1934)
Public Services Building, Portland (1980)
Humana Building, Louisville (1982)
Richard Meier (1934):
Getty Center, Los Angeles (1997)
Norman Foster (1935)
Willis Faber Dumas Building, Ipswitch (1974)
Hong Kong Shangai Banking Building, Hong Kong (1979)

What the Modern Age knew
Architecture
Ricardo Bofill (1939)
Espaces de Abraxas (1978)
Mario Botta (1943):
SFMOMA, San Francisco (1995)
Dominique Perrault (1953)
Bibliotheque de France (1997)
Architectural wonders
What the Modern Age knew
Skyscrapers
Sears Tower Chicago 442m 1974
World Trade Center New York 417m 1973
Aon Center Chicago 346m 1973
John Hancock Center Chicago 344m 1969
What the Modern Age knew
Music 1969-99
Sostakovic: Symphony 15 (1971)
Feldman: Rothko Chapel (1971)
Ligeti: Double Concerto (1972)
Gorecki: Symphony 3 (1976)
Part: De Profundis (1980)
Lutoslaski: Symphony 3 (1983)
What the Modern Age knew
Fiction 1969-99
Nabokov (1899, Poland): "Ada" (1969)
Goytisolo (1931, Spain): "Don Julian" (1970)
Kadare (1934, Alabania): "Chronicle in Stone" (1971)
Danilo Kis (1935, Serbia): "Clessidra" (1972)
Pynchon (1937, USA): "Gravity's Rainbow" (1973)
Puig (1932, Argentina): "El Beso de la Mujer Arana" (1976)
Vargas Llosa (1936, Peru): "La Tia Julia" (1978)
Rushdie (1947, India): "Midnight's Children" (1980)
Morrison (1942, USA): "Tar Baby" (1981)
Kundera (1929, Czeck): "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1985)
Saramago (1922, Portugal): "Ricardo Reis" (1984)
What the Modern Age knew
Cinema 1969-99
Boorman: Zardoz (1973)
Scorsese: Mean Streets (1973)
Coppola: The Godfather Part II (1974)
Altman: Nashville (1975)
Anghelopulos: Traveling Players (1975)
Bertolucci: 1900 (1976)
Lucas: Star Wars (1977)
Malick: Days of Heaven (1978)
Cimino: The Deer Hunter (1978)
Olmi: L'Albero degli Zoccoli (1978)
Allen: Manhattan (1979)
Tarkovskij: Stalker (1979)
Spielberg: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
What the Modern Age knew
Cinema 1969-99
Szabo: Mephisto (1981)
Greenaway: The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
Scott: Blade Runner (1982)
Gilliam: Brazil (1985)
Wenders: Wings of Desire (1988)
Tarantino: Pulp Fiction (1994)
Jeunet: City of Lost Children (1995)
Von Trier: The Kingdom (1995)
Kusturica: Underground (1995)
Lynch: Lost Highway (1997)
Woo: Face/Off (1998)
Smith: Dogma (1999)
Nolan: Memento (2001)
What the Modern Age knew
Afro-American Music
Blues
Gospel
Jazz
Rhythm and Blues
Rock and Roll
Soul
Disco-music
Hip-hop
Techno
What the Modern Age knew
Jazz 1969-99
Ornette Coleman: Free Jazz (1960)
Charles Mingus: The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (1963)
John Coltrane: A Love Supreme (1964)
Don Cherry: Symphony For Improvisers (1966)
Sun Ra: Atlantis (1967)
Anthony Braxton: For Alto (1968)
Miles Davis: Bitches Brew (1969)
Art Ensemble of Chicago: Les Stances A Sophie (1970)
Carla Bley: Escalator Over The Hill (1971)
Anthony Braxton: Saxophone Improvisations (1972)
Sam Rivers: Streams (1973)
Randy Weston: Blues To Africa (1974)
Terje Rypdal: Odyssey (1975)
George Lewis: Solo Trombone Record (1976)
Leroy Jenkins: Solo Concert (1977)
Leo Smith: Mass on the World (1978)
What the Modern Age knew
Jazz 1969-99
Dollar Brand: African Marketplace (1979)
Anthony Davis: Lady of the Mirrors (1980)
Joe McPhee: Topology (1981)
Henry Threadgill: When Was That (1982)
Borbetomagus: Barbet Wire Maggot (1983)
Ronald Shannon Jackson: Pulse (1984)
David Torn: Best Laid Plans (1985)
Henry Threadgill: You Know the Number (1986)
Hank Roberts: Black Pastels (1987)
Bobby Previte: Claude's Late Morning (1988)
Tim Berne: Fractured Fairy Tales (1989)
Charlie Haden: Dream Keeper (1990)
Don Byron: Tuskegee Experiments (1991)
Maria Schneider: Evanescence (1992)
Franz Koglmann: Cantos I-IV (1993)
Toshiko Akiyoshi: Desert Lady (1994)
What the Modern Age knew
Rock Music 1969-99
1965 Bob Dylan: Highway 61 revisited
1966 Bob Dylan: Blonde On Blonde
1967 Velvet Underground & Nico
1968 Van Morrison: Astral Weeks
1969 Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Replica
1970 Nico: Desert Shore
1971 Faust: Faust
1972 Klaus Schulze: Irrlicht
1973 Popol Vuh: Hosianna Mantra
1974 Robert Wyatt: Rock Bottom
1975 Neil Young: Tonight's The Night
1976 Patti Smith: Radio Ethiopia
1977 Suicide: self-titled
1978 Pere Ubu: Modern Dance
1979 Pop Group: Y
What the Modern Age knew
Rock Music 1969-99
1980 Bruce Springsteen: River
1981 Rip Rig Panic: God
1982 Dream Syndicate: Days Of Wine And Roses
1983 Cocteau Twins: Head Over Heels
1984 Husker Du: Zen Arcade
1985 Foetus: Nail
1986 Big Black: Atomizer
1987 Swans: Children Of god
1988 Sonic Youth: Daydream Nation
1989 Peter Gabriel: Passion
1990 Royal Trux: Twin Infinitives
1991 Slint: Spiderland
1992 Morphine: Good
1993 Vampire Rodents: Lullaby Land
1994 Lisa Germano: Geek The Girl
What the Modern Age knew
E.S.P.
Egyptian magicians (2700 BC)
Greek oracles (700 BC)
Jewish Kabbalah
Clairvoyance
Magicians
Miracles
Nostradamus' prophecies (1555)
Mediums
London's "Society for Psychical Research" (1882)
Hypnosis
Telepathy
Telekinesis
Levitation
What the Modern Age knew
U.F.O.'s
1947: first widely publicized sighting of a UFO
Flying saucers
Green humanoids
S.E.T.I.
What the Modern Age knew
Ideas
Consciousness (Brain, Mind, Cognition)
Matter (Cosmology, Elementary Particles, Self-Organization)
Language (Pragmatics, Metaphor)
Life (Ecology, Sociobiology, Memetics, Gaia)
What the Modern Age knew
Niels Jerne (1968)
Immune system as a Darwinian system
The immune system routinely manufactures all the antibodies it will ever need
When the body is attacked by foreign antigens some antibodies are selected
A concept chosen by the environment among a pre-existing array of concepts
Mind manufactures chaotic mental events that the environment orders into thought
Socrates: all learning consists in being reminded of what we already know
What the Modern Age knew
Niels Jerne (1968)
The genes encode a "library". The environment picks up a specific book
The mind already knows the solution to all the problems that can occur in the environment in which it evolved over millions of years
The mind knows what to do, but it is the environment that selects what it actually does
What the Modern Age knew
Big Bang model (1968)
Quantum fluctuations in an infinitely small universe "created" the universe (space, time and matter) in a "big bang" (George Gamow)
Time slowly turned into spacetime giving rise to spatial dimensions
Spacetime started expanding (Alan Guth's "inflationary" model )
What the Modern Age knew
Big Bang model (1968)
What the Modern Age knew
Quarks (1963)
Protons and neutrons are made of 18 quarks (Murray Gell-Man) held together by gluons
Six leptons: the electron, the muon, the tau and their three neutrinos
Four fundamental forces (gravitation, electro-magnetism, strong and weak)
Virtual particles (bosons) mediate the four fundamental forces: (photon, eight gluons, three weak bosons, graviton?)
Elementary particles: leptons, quarks and their anti-particles (total of 48) plus 12 bosons (total of 60)
What the Modern Age knew
Standard model
Fermions (spin 1/2, 3/2 etc.) make up matter
Bosons (particles with integer spin) are force carriers
Hadrons (neutron, proton, etc) are made up of quarks in groups of two (mesons, containing a quark/antiquark pair) or three (baryons)
The Standard Model
What the Modern Age knew
What the Modern Age knew
Venus
Astronomy
What the Modern Age knew
Brandon Carter (1973):
Anthropic principles: our very existence as intelligent creatures constrains the universe to be what it is (if just one of the fundamental constants were different, we wouldn't exist)
Weak Anthropic Principle (WAP): "the observed values of all physical and cosmological quantities are not equally probable but they take on the values restricted by the requirement that there exist sites where carbon-based life can evolve and by the requirement that the universe be old enough for it to have already done so."
What the Modern Age knew
Brandon Carter (1973):
Strong Anthropic Principle (SAP): "the Universe must have those properties which allow life to develop within it at some stage in its history"
Participatory Anthropic Principle : we are necessary to the existence of the universe, as it takes an intelligent observer to collapse the universe's waves of probabilities into concrete reality
Final Anthropic Principle: once the universe has brought intelligence into being, it will never die out
Life in this universe must necessarily arise given the way it is construed
This universe has been designed for life to arise
What the Modern Age knew
Martin Scorsese: Mean Streets (1973)
Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather (1974)
Robert Altman: Nashville (1975)

Death Penalty
Abolition of the death penalty
Sweden 1921
Italy 1947
Israel 1954
Britain 1973
Canada 1976
Spain 1978
Brazil 1979
Peru 1979
France 1981
Argentina 1984
Australia 1985
Germany 1987
Poland 1997
Chile 2001
Turkey 2002
Death Penalty
2002
112 countries which have abolished the death penalty in law or practice
76 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes
16 countries have abolished the death penalty for all but wartime crimes
20 countries retain the death penalty in law but have not carried out any executions for the past 10 years
83 countries retain and use the death penalty
Death Penalty
2001: some 3048 prisoners were executed in 31 countries, of which 90% in just four countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the USA
2002: some 1,526 people were executed in 31 countries, of which 81% in China, Iran and the USA
China: 1,060
Iran: 113
USA: 71
Saudi Arabia: 48
Sudan: 40
Vietnam: 34
Tajikstan: 28
Egypt: 17
What the Modern Age knew
John Rawls (1973):
Rational definition of justice
The principles that people would agree with if they did not know what their strengths and weaknesses are
Maximum individual freedom compatible with other people's freedom
Inequalities are justified only when the least advantaged individuals maximally gain from them
fair equality of opportunity tobenefit from inequalities
What the Modern Age knew
Paul Grice (1975):
The speaker and the hearer cooperate
Language has meaning to the extent that some conventions hold within the linguistic community
The speaker wants to be understood and cause an action
Conversational implicature: what a speaker implies
Four maxims help the speaker say more than what she is saying
There is more to a sentence than its meaning: a sentence is "used" for a purpose
What the Modern Age knew
Julian Jaynes (1977):
Ancient texts were composed by nonconscious minds
Human beings were guided by "hallucinations" (eg, God)
Hallucinations would form in the right hemisphere of the brain and would be communicated to the left hemisphere of the brain, which would then receive them as commands
Language did not serve as conscious thought: it served as communication between the two hemispheres of the brain
The bicameral mind began breaking down under the pressure caused by the complexity of the environment
The hallucinated voices no longer provided automatic guidance for survival
What the Modern Age knew
Julian Jaynes (1977):
Consciousness was invented by human beings through a process that entailed the loss of belief in gods
Awareness of an action tends to follow the action
Awareness of an action bears no influence on the outcome
Consciousness requires metaphors and analogy
Metaphors and analogies map the functions of the right hemisphere into the left hemisphere and make the bicameral mind obsolete
Consciousness expanded by creating more and more metaphors and analogies
Ultimately, consciousness is a metaphor-generated model of the world
What the Modern Age knew
Jean-Fran‡ois Lyotard (1979)
Postmodernism
Metaphysics is pointless ("incredulity towards metanarratives")
The rational self (capable of analyzing the world) is a fiction
What the Modern Age knew
Fernand Braudel (1979)
Traditional history was built around the acts and facts of "great men"
L'"Histoire Totale" focuses on the forces that shape societies
Geography and economics
The Ecole des Annales founded in 1929 by Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre
What the Modern Age knew
Francisco Varela (1979)
Cognition as embodied action (or "enaction")
The world is not a given, but reflects the actions in which we engage, it is "enacted" from our actions (structural coupling)
Organisms do not adapt to a pre-given world
Organisms and environment mutually specify each other
Life is an elegant dance between the organism and the environment.
The mind is the tune of that dance.
What the Modern Age knew
Humberto Maturana(1980)
"Autopoiesis" is the process by which an organism can continuously reorganize its own structure
Adaptation consists in regenerating the organism's structure so that its relationship to the environment remains constant
Living systems are units of interaction
They cannot be understood independently of their environment
The relationship with the environment molds the configuration of a cognitive system
What the Modern Age knew
Wilson Edward Osborne (1975)
Sociobiology
The biological basis of social behavior
The social behavior of animals and humans can be explained from the viewpoint of evolution
Behavior is determined by the genome
What the Modern Age knew
Conquest of Mars
What the Modern Age knew
Exploration of Jupiter
What the Modern Age knew
Voyager 2
Jupiter on July 9, 1979,
Saturn on August 26, 1981,
Uranus on January 24, 1986,
Neptune on August 24, 1989,
Leaves solar system in 2001
What the Modern Age knew
Richard Dawkins (1976)
Genes want to live forever
"Replicator" vs "vehicle"
A replicator is a repository of information that is preserved over time and spread over space
The body is a vehicle
The body is a machine for copying genes
What survives is not my body but my genes
What the Modern Age knew
Richard Dawkins
Meme: the cultural counterpart of the gene (ideas)
A meme is the unit of cultural evolution, just like a gene is the unit of biological evolution
Ideas exhibit variation (copying with mistakes) and selection (pruning mistakes)
When a meme enters a mind, it parasitically alters the mind's process so that a new goal of the mind is to propagate the meme to other minds
Just like genes use bodies as vehicles to spread, so memes use minds as vehicles to spread
The mind as a machine for copying memes, just like
Memes have created the mind, not the other way around
Just like it is genes that drive evolution, it is memes that drive thought
What the Modern Age knew
Richard Dawkins
The "extended phenotype" includes the world an organism interacts with
The organism alone does not have biological relevance
What makes sense is an open system made of the organism and its neighbors
The control of an organism is never complete inside and null outside: there is a continuum of degrees of control, which allows partiality of control inside (e.g., Parasites operate on the nervous system of their hosts) and an extension of control outside (as in the cobweb)
The very genome of a cell can be viewed as a representation of the environment in the cell
What the Modern Age knew
Terrence Malick: Days of Heaven (1978)
Woody Allen: Manhattan (1979)
Andrei Tarkovsky: Stalker (1979)
What the Modern Age knew
James Lovelock (1979)
The rules of life work at both the organism level and at the ecosystem level, and eventually at the level of the entire planet
Gaia
What the Modern Age knew
George Lakoff (1980):
Language is grounded in our bodily experience
Language is embodied, which means that its structure reflects our bodily experience
Our bodily experience creates concepts that are then abstracted into syntactic categories.
Syntax is a direct consequence of our bodily experience, not an innate property
Grammar is shared (to some degree) by all humans for the simple reason that we all share roughly the same bodily experience
What the Modern Age knew
George Lakoff (1980):
All metaphors are ultimately based on our bodily experience
Metaphor = the process of experiencing something in terms of something else
The human conceptual system is metaphorical in nature, as most concepts are understood in terms of other concepts
Language comprehension always consists in comprehending something in terms of another
All our concepts are of metaphorical nature and are based on our physical experience
We understand the world through metaphors, and we do so without any effort, automatically and unconsciously
What the Modern Age knew
George Lakoff (1980):
Language was created to deal with physical objects, and later extended to non-physical objects by means of metaphors
Conceptual metaphors transport properties from structures of the physical world to non-physical structures
Metaphor is central to our understanding of the world and the self
Metaphor is pervasive is that it is biological: our brains are built for metaphorical thought
Metaphorical language is but one aspect of our metaphorical brain
What the Modern Age knew
George Lakoff (1980):
Language was created to deal with physical objects, and later extended to non-physical objects by means of metaphors
Conceptual metaphors transport properties from structures of the physical world to non-physical structures
Metaphor is central to our understanding of the world and the self
Metaphor is pervasive is that it is biological: our brains are built for metaphorical thought
Metaphorical language is but one aspect of our metaphorical brain
What the Modern Age knew
AIDS
1980: AIDS has already spread to all continents
1981: first cases of AIDS are discovered in the USA
1984: HIV is identified as the cause of AIDS
1999: peak of the AIDS epidemics in the West (33 million cases of AIDS of which 22 in Africa, 8 in Asia, 2.5 in the Americas, 0.5 in Europe)
2000: 21 million people have died worldwide of the AIDS epidemics
2001: 3 million people die worldwide of the AIDS epidemics and 40 million are infected (70% in Africa)
What the Modern Age knew
Steven Spielberg: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Ridley Scott: Blade Runner (1982)
Peter Greenaway: The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
Terry Gilliam: Brazil (1985)
What the Modern Age knew
Carol Gilligan (1982)
Ethics from the female perspective
Male ethics emphasizes reciprocity, separation, justice.
Female ethics emphasizes consensus, connection and empathy.
Three stages of the ethics of care:
Individual survival
Self sacrifice is goodness
D not hurt others or self
What the Modern Age knew
Alasdair MacIntyre (1982)
Virtue is social practices that confer a personal identity on individuals, consistent with the goal of improving ordinary life
What the Modern Age knew
Michael Gazzaniga (1985)
Several independent brain systems work in parallel
Evolutionary additions to the brain
Many minds coexist in a confederation
A module located in the left hemisphere interprets the actions of the other modules and provides explanations for our behavior
Beliefs do not preceed behavior, they follow it. Behavior determines our beliefs
It is only by behaving that we conceptualize our selves
There are many "i"'s and one "i" that makes sense of what all the other "i"'s are doing
The verbal self keeps track of what the person is doing
What the Modern Age knew
Robert Ornstein (1986)
Many minds each operating independently and specialized in one task
The brain is a confederation of more or less independent brains
Minds compete for control of the organism
I am many persons but at any point in time I am aware of only one of them
What the Modern Age knew
Gerald Edelman (1987)
The human genome alone cannot specify the whole complex structure of the brain
Individual brains are wildly diverse
"Neural Darwinism": application of Jerne's "selectional" theory of the immune system to the brain
The brain develops categories by selectively strengthening or weakening connections between neural groups
Neural groups "compete" to respond to environmental stimuli
Each brain is different because its ultimate configuration depends on the stimuli that it encounters during its development
What the Modern Age knew
Gerald Edelman (1987)
Adhesion molecules determine the initial structure of neural groups, the "primary repertory"
Experience determines the secondary repertory
Repertories are organized in "maps", each map having a specific neural function
A map is a set of neurons in the brain that has a number of links to a set of receptor cells or to other maps
Maps communicate through parallel bidirectional pathways, i.e. through "reentrant" signaling
Reentry is more than feedback: there can be many parallel pathways operating simultaneously
The process of reentrant signaling allows a perceptual categorization of the world
What the Modern Age knew
Gerald Edelman (1987)
Categorization is a process of establishing a relation between neural maps
Categories (perceptual categories, such as "red" or "tall") do not exist phisically, they are not located anywhere in the brain: they are a (on-going) process.
A further level of organization leads to (pre-linguistic) conceptualization
Conceptualization consists in constructing maps of the brain's own activity, or maps of maps
A concept is not a thing, it is a process
The meaning of something is an on-going, ever-changing process
What the Modern Age knew
Gerald Edelman (1987)
Brain processes aredynamic and stochastic
The brain is not an "instructional" system but a "selectional" system
The brain is not a direct product of the information contained in the genome, it uses much more information that is available in the genome, i.e. information derived from experience, i.e. from the environment
What the Modern Age knew
Gerald Edelman (1987)
Primary consciousness (being aware of the world)
Two kinds of nervous system...
1. Memory continuously reorganizes ("recategorizes")
2. Learning as ranking of stimuli ("value-laden" memory, instinctive behavior)
Intelligent behavior + "instinctive" behavior
Primary consciousness arises from "reentrant loops" that interconnect "perceptual categorization" and "value-laden" memory ("instincts")
What the Modern Age knew
Gerald Edelman (1987)
Higher-order consciousness (language and self-awareness)
Distinction between the self and the rest of the world
Social interaction_ anatomical changes _phonology_ _permanent categories...Semantics...Syntax
Unique to humans
What the Modern Age knew
Zhang Yimou: Hong Gaoliang (1987)
Wim Wenders: Der himmel uber Berlin (1988)
Aki Kaurismaki: Leningrad Cowboys go to America (1989)
Theo Angelopulos: To Pio Stin Omichli/ Landscape In The Mist (1988)
What the Modern Age knew
Allan Hobson (1989)
Dreams are a window on some processing that goes on in the brain while we sleep
The brain is rapidly processing a huge amount of information in whatever order
Our consciousness sees flashes of the bits that are being processed
These bits seem to compose stories of their own, and the stories look weird
Remembering and forgetting occur during dreams
Rem sleep is important for consolidating long-term memories
What the Modern Age knew
Francis Fukuyama (1989)
The end of history: the end of the ideological debate
Liberal democracy triumphed
Industrialism is inescapable
Capitalist industrialism is the most efficient kind of industrialism
What the Modern Age knew
Paul MacLean (1990):
"Triune" brain: each brain corresponds to a different stage of evolution
Each brain is connected to the other two, but each operates indivually with a distinct "personality"
Reptilian brain for instinctive behavior (brain stem, cerebellum, autonomic system)
Old mammalian brain for emotions that are functional to survival, as in "avoiding pain and achieving pleasure" (limbic systemi, i.e. hippocampus, thalamus amygdala)
New mammalian brain for higher cognitive functions (neo-cortex)
Mechanical behavior, emotional behavior and rational behavior arose chronologically and now coexist and complement each other
Jung's conscious, unconscious, collective unconscious

The Modern World 1991-


Bibliography
Piero Scaruffi: Thinking about Thought (2003)
Piero Scaruffi: History of Rock Music (2003)
The Modern Age
1991: The Soviet Union is dismantled
1991: the USA leads an international coalition that attacks Iraq
1992-99: 150,000 people die in the Algerian civil war
1994: Ethnic massacres in Rwanda cause half a million of deaths
1998: Osama bin Laden, wages a holy war against the USA
1998: Pakistan becomes the eight nuclear country
1999: The world's population is 6 billion
2000: Population: China 1.2 billion, India 1 billion, USA 280 million
2000: The most populated U.S. state is California with over 30 million people
2000: 21 million people have died worldwide of the AIDS epidemics
2001: Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist organization attacks the USA
2002: a common currency, the euro, is introduced throughout Europe
2003: the USAdeposes Saddam Hussein in Iraq
What the Modern World knew
Collapse of the Soviet empire (1989-91)
Budget deficit
Pope John Paul II and Solidarnosc
Chernobyl disaster
War in Afghanistan
Ossified functionalism of the nomenklatura
Corruption and graft
Archaic non-competitive economy
Dysfunctional state companies (steelworks, mines, shipyards)
Decaying infrastructure (railways, air traffic, telephone grid, power distribution grid)
Stagnating or declining standards of living
Degraded quality of life (pollution, housing, hospitals, schools)
Germany 1989
Eastern Europe 1991
What the Modern World knew
The Marxist prophecy
Marx:
The proletariat will rule the world
The economy will be based on manufacturing
The capitalists will disappear
2000:
The proletariat is getting extinct, replaced by machines
Services are overtaking manufacturing
The workers have become capitalists (stock market)
What the Modern World knew
War against Terrorism
Al Qaeda (worldwide)
GIA (Algeria)
Chechnen terrorism (Russia)
Moro (Philippines)
Jemaah Islamiyah (Indonesia)
Kashmiri terrorism (India)
FARC (Colombia)
What the Modern World knew
The Economic Superpowers
1871: Britain, Germany
1919: Britain, USA
1946: USA, Soviet Union
1991: USA, Japan, Germany
2001: USA, China, European Union
What the Modern World knew
2001 Military budget ($100M, % of GDP)
USA: 3479, 16.55%
Russia: 91, 18.35%
Britain: 348, 6.10%
France: 244, 11.08%
Germany: 207, 9.80%
Japan: 405, 5.98%
China: 204, 7.65%
What the Modern World knew
USA Economy of the 1960s
Multinational corporations
Increasing dependency on oil
Computers ("mainframes")
USA Economy of the 1970s
Spiraling inflation
Oil crisis
USA Economy of the 1980s
Personal computing
Transition from manufacturing to services
What the Modern World knew
USA Economy of the 1990s
Global village (free trade)
Booming stock market
Internet-based services and commerce ("dotcoms")
What the Modern World knew
USA Economy of the 2000s
Deflationary pressures
Information Technology leading to ever higher productivity
ERP, SCM, CRM, eCommerce
Soaring energy prices
Worldwide distribution of labor ("offsourcing")
Concentration of wealth at the top
Downward pressure on wages
What the Modern World knew
USA Federal budget 2003
What the Modern World knew
R&D expenditures
What the Modern World knew
USA debt (2003): $6.8 debt
Debt per person: $24,000
What the Modern World knew
What the Modern World knew
Globalization
Ever-growing markets
Ever-higher productivity (technology)
Borderless managers
Agricultural products and raw materials lose their value
Knowledge-intensive goods becoming dominant
World capital flows increasingly detached from trade patterns
What the Modern World knew
The largest companies of 2003 by revenues
Walmart $260b
British Petroleum $230b
Exxon Mobil $220b
Shell $200b
General Motors $190b
Ford $160b
Daimler Chrysler $150b
Toyota $150b
General Electric $130b
What the Modern World knew
The Age of the Pacific
Japan, China, Asean, Australia, India
The combined gross product of Asian-Pacific countries increases from 7.8% of world GDP in 1960 to 16.4% in 1982 and to over 20% in 2000
USA trade shifts from Europe to Asian-Pacific
What the Modern World knew
World's population in 2000 (official census):
China 1,261,832,482
India 1,014,003,817
United States 275,562,673
Indonesia 224,784,210
Brazil 172,860,370
Russia 146,001,176
Pakistan 141,553,775
Bangladesh 129,194,224
Japan 126,549,976
Nigeria 123,337,822
What the Modern World knew
World's population in 2000 (estimates):
1. China 1,286,975,468
2. India 1,049,700,118
3. United States 290,342,554
4. Indonesia 234,893,453
5. Brazil 182,032,604
6. Pakistan 150,694,740
7. Russia 144,526,278
8. Bangladesh 138,448,210
9. Nigeria 133,881,703
10. Japan 127,214,499
What the Modern World knew
What the Modern World knew
Worries of the western world
1960s: Pollution, Nuclear holocaust
1980s: Heart diseases, Drugs, Crime,
2000s: AIDS, Cancer, Islam
What the Modern World knew
Causes of death (year 2000)
Heart (17 million, 31% of total)
Tobacco (4.9 million)
Pneumonia (4.4 million)
Cancer (3.2 million)
Lung cancer (1.1 million), Stomach cancer (765,000), Colon and rectum cancer (525,000), Liver cancer (505,000)
AIDS (3.2 million)
Tuberculosis (3 million)
Malaria (2.1 million)
Alcohol (1.8 million)
Car accidents (1.2 million)
Hepatitis B (1.1 million)
What the Modern World knew
Causes of death
Measles (1 million)
Suicide (830,000)
Typhoid (600,000)
Shigella (600,000)
Rotavirus (600,000)
Homicide (520,000)
Drowning (500,000)
Neonatal tetanus (400,000)
Breast cancer (385,0000)
Wars (312,000)
Influenza (250,000)
Illicit drugs (223,000)
Cholera (120,000)
Total: 55 million (year 2000), of which 17 million due to infectious diseases, of which 9 million in children
What the Modern World knew
The human population in 2000
750 million people chronically under-nourished
1 billion malnourished
1 billion illiterate
1.2 billion with average annual income lower than $1,100 (USA: $38,000 per capita)
The USA (4.65% of world population) produces 32.9% of the world's gross product
The USA, Japan and Germany (8% of the world's population) produce 50% of the world's gross product
The USA, Japan and the European Union (12% of the world's population) produce 75% of the world's gross product
What the Modern World knew
The human population in 2000
During the Black Death of 1348 the supply of people dropped, and thus the price of people rose (both urban and agricultural wages increased in the following centuries, basically until the slave trade, helping increase the living standards in Europe)
During the 20th century, the supply of people increased dramatically...
What the Modern World knew
The human population in 2000
The fall of Communism created a huge reservoir of cheap, skilled labor in Eastern Europe, China and India
Consequences
Cheap goods_
Offsourcing...
What the Modern World knew
Estimated population in 2050
1 India 1,601,004,572
2 China 1,417,630,630
3 United States 420,080,587
4 Indonesia 336,247,428
5 Nigeria 307,420,055
6 Bangladesh 279,955,405
7 Pakistan 267,813,495
8 Brazil 228,426,737
9 Congo (Kinshasa) 181,260,098
10 Mexico 147,907,650
What the Modern World knew
Estimated population in 2050
14 Russia 118,233,243
24 Germany 73,607,121
29 Britain 63,977,435
30 France 61,017,122
35 Italy 50,389,841
47 Spain 35,564,293
Europe's population in 2004 was 726 million (of which 455 in the European Union)
Europe's population in 2050 may shrink to 565 million people
What the Modern World knew
Total Population of the World
1950 2,556,000,053
1960 3,039,451,023
1970 3,706,618,163
1980 4,453,831,714
1990 5,278,639,789
2000 6,082,966,429
2010 6,848,932,929
2020 7,584,821,144
2030 8,246,619,341
2040 8,850,045,889
2050 9,346,399,468
What the Modern World knew
1950-1990: Nuclear holocaust
1990- : Global warming
What the Modern World knew
Y2K
Computer viruses
Spam
What the Modern World knew
A United Europe
Roman Empire: 31 BC - 476 AD
Charlemagne: 800 AD - 814 AD
Napoleon: 1799 - 1814
Hitler: 1939 - 1945
European Union: 1957 - ...
What the Modern World knew
A United Europe (2004)
25 states
455 million people
738,573 sq kms
GDP of 9.613 trillion euros (more than $10 trillion)
What the Modern World knew
World product/ PPP (2003)
Europe $10.84 trillion (379 million people)
USA $10.40 trillion ( 290 milion)
China $5.70 trillion (1,287 million)
Japan $3.55 trillion (127 million)
India $2.66 trillion (1,049 million)
Russia $1.35 trillion (144 million)
Brazil $1.34 trillion (182 million)
What the Modern World knew
China's economic miracle
China's GDP growth peaks at 14.2% in 1992
China's energy consumption growth peaks at 15.3 percent in 1993
What the Modern World knew
China's GDP Growth Rate
Mars
Hubble elescope
What the Modern Age knew
Internet
1969: the computer network ArpaNET is born in the U.S.
1972: Ray Tomlinson invents e-mail
1984: the Domain Name Server is introduced to classify Internet addresses with extensions such as .com
1985: the Arpanet is renamed Internet
1990: computer viruses spread over the Internet
1991: the World-Wide Web (invented by Tim Berners-Lee) debuts on the Internet
1993: Marc Andreesen develops the first browser for the World Wide Web (Mosaic)
1994: Jerry Yang launches the first search engine, Yahoo
What the Modern World knew
What the Modern World Knew
Net Economy
Yahoo
Amazon
Priceline
Ebay
Google
Evite
Craigslist
What the Modern Age knew
Colin McGinn (1991):
Consciousness does not belong to the "cognitive closure" of our organism
Understanding our consciousness is beyond our cognitive capacities
"Mind may just not be big enough to understand mind"
Objection: "Cognitive closure" changes during the course of a lifetime
Objection: "Cognitive closure" has evolved over the centuries
What the Modern Age knew
Daniel Dennett (1991):
The mind is occupied by several parallel "drafts"
A "draft" is a narrative that occurs in the mind, triggered by some interaction with the world
At every point in time, there are many drafts
One of the drafts is dominant in the brain, and that is what we are conscious of
"Consciousness" simply refers to the feeling of the overall brain activity
What the Modern Age knew
Daniel Dennett (1991):
There is no place in the brain where consciousness resides
Consciousness does not flow at all, there is no single stream of consciousness
The continuity of consciousness is an illusion
It doesn't even exist all the time: "probing precipitates narratives"
The goal of the parallel drafts is to manage "memes"
What the Modern Age knew
William Calvin (1991)
A Darwinian process in the brain finds the best thought from the many that are continuously produced
Cerebral code (the equivalent of genetic) allows for reproduction and selection of thoughts
A neural pattern copies itself repeatedly around a region of the brain
"Thoughts" compete and evolve subconsciously
Dreaming occurs all the time but we can't see them when we are awake
Our actual thought is simply the dominant pattern in the copying competition
Circuits in the cerebral cortex act as copying machines
Variants compete for cortex space
What the Modern Age knew
Merlin Donald (1991)
The human mind developed in four stages:
Episodic mind: remembers repeating episodes, learns stimulus-response associations, cannot retrieve memories without environmental cues, lives entirely in the present.
Mimetic mind: maintains motor-based representations, retrieves memories independent of environmental cues, redescribes experience based on knowledge, understands the world, communicates intentions and desires, makes tools
Mythic (narrative) mind: constructs narratives, builds myths
Theoretical (symbolic) mind: manipulates symbols
What the Modern Age knew
Tsui Hark: Wong Fei-hung (1991)
Takeshi Kitano: Sonatine (1993)
Krzysztof Kieslowski: Rouge (1994)
Bela Tarr: Satantango/ Satan's Tango (1994)
Quentin Tarantino: Pulp Fiction (1994)
What the Modern World knew
John Ralston Saul (1992)
Grand economic theories rarely last more than a few decades
Open-market theory -1929
Communism 1917-1991
Keynesianism 1933-1979
Globalisation 1976-
Globalization
Ever-growing markets
Ever-higher productivity (technology)
Borderless managers
What the Modern World knew
John Ralston Saul (1992)
Critique of Globalization
Caused by geopolitical vacuum
Nation states replaced with transnational corporations
But natural resources and consumers live in real places
Modern democratic society is only superficially based on the individual and democracy
Knowledge has not made people more conscious: people live in inscrutable worlds where languages are highly technical
Money markets are pure inflation, cause instability, and produce no real growth
Global market forces do not serve the public good
What the Modern Age knew
Stuart Kauffman (1993)
Self-organizing systems: the fundamental force that counteracts the universal drift towards disorder
Structure arises from the interaction of many independent units
Complexity can be formally defined as nonlinearity
Spontaneous emergence of order, or self-organization of complex systems, is ubiquitous
Organisms change their interactions in such a way to reach the boundary between order and chaos
What the Modern Age knew
Stuart Kauffman (1993)
Systems at the boundary between order and chaos have the flexibility to adapt rapidly and successfully
Living organisms are a particular type of complex adaptive systems
Life was not only possible and probable, but almost inevitable
A universal law of emergent collective behavior of complex chemical networks
Nature herself does the job that God was supposed to do: creation of order
What the Modern Age knew
Lee Smolin (1994)
Loop Quantum Gravity
Merging Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity
Space and time are made of discrete units just like matter is made of atoms and energy comes in quanta
Quantum states of space are related to "spin networks"
Spin networks describe the geometry of space
Quantum states of spacetime are related to "spin foams"
The big bang is a bounce
What the Modern Age knew
Antonio Damasio (1995)
Locations where the brain binds features together: convergent zones
A convergence zone is not a "store" of information but an agent capable of decoding a signal (of reconstructing information)
Convergence zones behave like indexes that draw information from other areas of the brain.
A convergence zone is the instructions to recognize and combine features (bring back the memory of something)
Convergence zones enable the brain to work in reverse at any time
What the Modern Age knew
Antonio Damasio (1995)
The assembly ("binding") of consciousness requires more than a working memory: a system of "convergence zones"
"Movie in the mind" consciousness (how a number of sensory inputs are transformed into the continuous flow of sensations of the mind):
Constructed from sensory mappings
First order narrative of sensory mappings
Unchanged throughout a lifetime
Shared by other species
Purely non-verbal process
What the Modern Age knew
Antonio Damasio (1995)
"Self" consciousness
Topography of the body
Topography of the environment
Self vs nonself
Second-order narrative in which the self is interacting with the non-self
An "owner" and "observer" of the movie is created
Verbal process
Body's homeostasis (continuity of the same organism)
The self is continuously reconstructed
The "I" is not telling the story: the "I" is created by stories told in the mind
"You are the music while the music lasts" (Eliot)
What the Modern Age knew
Graham Cairns-Smith (1995)
A rudimentary system of feelings was born by accident
Evolutionary usefulness evolved more complex feelings
The organism was flooded with emotions and a "stream of consciousness" appeared
Verbal language allowed to express it in a more sophisticated way than the primitive facial language
Thought was born.
With language, thought and deep emotions, the conscious "I" was born
Consciousness originated from the evolution of emotions
What the Modern Age knew
Lars von Trier: Riget/ Kingdom (1995)
Emil Kusturica: Underground (1995)
Jan Svankmajer: Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)
Manuel de Oliveira: Viagem ao Principio do Mundo (1997)
Abbas Kiarostami: Ta'ame-gilas (1997)
David Lynch: Lost Highway (1997)
John Woo: Face/Off (1998)
Hirokazu Kore-eda: Afterlife (1998)
What the Modern Age knew
Rodolfo Llinas (1996)
Neurons are active all the time
The activity of neurons generates patterns of behavior all the time
Neurons are always active, even when there are no inputs
Neurons operate at their own pace, regardless of the pace of information
A rhythmic system controls their activity
The neurons are telling the body to move even when the body is not moving
The environment selects which movement the body will actually perform
Movement is not reactive: it is active and automatic
An organism has only limited control of its brain
What the Modern Age knew
Rodolfo Llinas (1996)
A scanning system that sweeps across all regions of the brain 40 times a second
A wave of nerve pulses sent out from the thalamus and triggering all the synchronized cells in the cerebral cortex that are recording sensory information
The cells then fire a coherent wave of messages back to the thalamus
Only cortex cells that are active at that moment respond to the request from the thalamus.
Consciousness originates from the constant interaction between the thalamus and the cortex
Every function in the body is controlled by a rhythmic system that occurs automatically
What the Modern Age knew
Steven Mithen (1996)
Four kinds of intelligence (four "modules" in the brain) evolved independently:
Social intelligence: the ability to deal with other humans
Natural-history intelligence: the ability to deal with the environment
Tool-using intelligence
Linguistic intelligence (language, metaphor and analogy)
The hunters-gatherers of pre-history were experts in all these domains, but those differente kinds of expertise did not mix
What the Modern Age knew
Steven Mithen (1996)
"Cognitive fluidity" caused the cultural explosion of art, technology, farming, religion, _
What caused cognitive fluidity?
Self-awareness may have integrated intelligences that for thousands of years had been kept separate.
Mitten's evolutionary theory mirrors Annette Karmiloff-Smith's theory of child development
What the Modern World knew
Samuel Huntington (1996)
Western Civil War
1648:
The modern international system is born with the Peace of Westphalia
Conflicts of the Western world are among monarchs attempting to expand the territory they ruled
Monarchs create nation states
1793:
Nationalism is born with the French Revolution
Conflicts are among nations
Nation states create cultural dogmas
What the Modern World knew
Samuel Huntington (1996)
Western Civil War
1919:
Ideologies are born with the Russian Revolution
Conflicts are among ideologies (nazism, communism, democracy)
Cultural dogmas create western civilization
What the Modern World knew
Samuel Huntington (1996)
Clash of Civilizations
1991:
The fall of Communism and the triumph of Capitalism ends the Western Civil War
Globalization weakens the nation state as a source of identity
Conflicts are among civilizations (Western, Islamic, Confucian, Japanese, Islamic, Hindu, Slavic-Orthodox, Latin American, African)
Capitalism creates regional economic blocs (European Union, Asean, etc)
What the Modern Age knew
Peter Galison (1997)
Scientific revolutions are due to new tools (rather than new ideas)
The progress of science is driven by tools

What the Modern Age knew
Kevin Smith: Dogma (1999)
Pedro Almodovar: Todo Sobre Mi Madre (1999)
Majid Majidi: Color Of Paradise (2000)
Christopher Nolan: Memento (2001)
Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu: 21 Grams (2003)
Michel Gondry: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
What the Modern Age knew
Peter Gardenfors (2003)
How self-conscious beings came to be: first sensations, then attention, then emotions, then memory, then internal representations, then planning, then the self, then free will and finally language
Perceptions (the interpretation of sensations, which are representations directly related to the world) vs "detached" representations (representations about something that is present here and now)
Detached representations allow a being to "become increasingly detached from the immediate vicinity"
What the Modern Age knew
Peter Gardenfors (2003)
The self presupposes a you
The "I" emerges from a network of inter-related cognitive functions
Language came last: human language is very much about the "I" and the "you"
Language is an emergent property of cognitive systems (it is a natural evolution of cognitive skills that preexisted it)
What the Modern Age knew
Skyscrapers
Taipei 101Taipei 509m 2003
World Financial Center Shangai 460m 2005
Petronas Towers Kuala Lumpur 452m 1998
Asia Plaza Kaoshiung Taipei 431m 2008
Jin Mao Tower Shanghai 421m 1998
CITIC Plaza Guangzhou 391m 1997
Shun Hing Square Shenzhen 384m 1996
Central Plaza Hong Kong 374m 1992
Bank of China Tower Hong Kong 369m 1989
Emirates Office Tower Dubai 355m 2000
The Centre Hong Kong 350m 1998
Tuntex & Chien-Tai Tower Kaohsiung 348m 1997
Skyscrapers
What the Modern Age knew
Knowledge