Baron Bray-Sackey
SAGE 230: Ancient and Medieval Civilizations
Dr Reynolds
10/12/2015
Throughout the SAGE 230 course many question have been raised on the human condition such as; What it means to live just and good? How do we best order relationships for the common good? What do we know and how do we know it? these themes have been recurrent in the stories of Gilgamesh, the Bible, Plato’s Cave and the Oedipus Trilogy. Further analysis has shown that to live a just and good life is to first gain knowledge and understand what it means to be good and just. Putting yourself first enables you to help others and lastly we are only able to really know what we experience and study. Furthermore these are great takeaways that can be personalized to improve our daily condition.
To live a just and good life in this sense is to have a system of moral values that you follow and accept but is socially approved and accepted by others. However the just and good life is a complex that plagues human nature because on one hand we strive to live in a way that is morally right and socially approved on the other hand we have to balance self sacrifice and determine what we value to be good because what is good to one person may not be good to another. In this vein of thinking Plato would say a just life refers to a person who possesses a good character and a sense of responsibility almost to the point of subservience moreover has reached the peak of knowledge and understanding because it is
Many ancient civilizations of this world started with people doing simple tasks in life. Early civilizations often hunted and farmed for food. Over time, society became accustomed to these simple things and started to interact, by several means. Interaction is so important in the development of human societies, since it brings about developments and innovations within several cultures of society.
For this reason, Pope Loe IX led other church officials in implementing reform efforts that would see ensure that the church could get back its lost power. For this reason, Pope Loe IX gave orders to the Roman Catholic clergy to dismiss the church officials that had taken part in selling church offices, and to renounce their wives (McKay et al., 2014). The orders were essential for ensuring that the church could control the corruption that was becoming rampant in the church. The measures were also essential for sending a message to the secular leaders, which was presumably an indication that they were working on regaining their lost power. After the death of Pope Leo, Gregory VII, Leo’s successor, continued with the reform work based on his ideological foundation (McKay et al., 2014). One of the reforms was the expelling of secular influence within church and the papal institution, which led to the expansion of the papal powers. such reforms solved the problems that the church was facing, which means that they were appropriate for the realization of the predetermined
Ancient civilizations made some important contributions to our life today. They started around 3500 BC. Ancient civilizations also achieved many things. Some of those things were new inventions, the use of new technology, writing systems and architectural skills. Two of the many civilizations that did these things were the Chinese and Egyptians.
In 1950, V Gordon Childe drew up a list of traits of to what he considered to be the common characteristics of early civilizations. According to Fagan & Scarre, a recent archaeologist Charles Redman divided Childe’s list into primary and secondary characteristics. The primary characteristics included cities and states, together with full-time specialization of labor, concentration of surplus, and a class-structured society. For the secondary, the characteristics included symptoms or by-products of these major economic and organizational changes: monumental public works, long-distance trade, standardized monumental artworks, writing, and the sciences (arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy)(Scarre and Fagan 2003). One of the most common characteristics involve was a large, dense population living in a city. This essay well state and describe two early cities in Mesopotamia and explore the layouts and characteristics of these two cities. Also, whether each city is unique or share common characteristics with each other. The two cities are Maskan-shapir and Ur.
An interesting question to ask oneself about ancient civilizations is “How did the various governments keep their respective populations under control?” By taking a look at some of the literature and forms of art, one can get an idea of the crafty techniques used by leaders to control the populace. The concept of social control has been around as long as civilizations have been. This can be seen in the Roman stoic ideals portrayed in the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, the Four Noble Truth’s teachings in India, and the emphasis on harmony in China with the Chinese Bronze Bell. It’s interesting to see the ways works of art and even religious texts were used to control the common people.
Moral Justice Morals define who you are and what kind of person you are. We can figure out what one’s morals are by the choices and actions someone makes. Is Macbeth a moral play and is justice served in the end? Macbeth is a moral play, and shows how good and bad morals can make a difference in the justice that is served. Ideas such as power changing one’s morals, the influence of others can change morals, and consequences for good or bad morals.
There are a number of differences that draw a distinction between the post-classical civilizations of both India and the Middle East. This distinction is found in the contrasting Muslim rule of both the Ottoman and Mughal Empires. Similar in Turkic origin, both civilizations ran at a similar time period, sharing an interesting history of social relations from 1556 and ending in 1748. The most significant of these distinctions would be in the factor of social structure and gender roles. These differences lie in the factors of origin, the role of women, and social hierarchy.
What does it mean to lead a just life in principle and how should we behave in order to be just as an individual?
In the novels Being There and The Bloody Chamber there are several examples of characters constantly changing throughout the telling of the novel. Many of the characters of The Bloody Chamber are creatures who are half-human and half-beast, or else undergo some change from beast to human or vice versa. In Being There, we see Chance transform from a simple gardener to a man who is respected and loved by the whole country seemingly in a blink of an eye.
Have you ever pondered the thought that early civilization was very similar to today's civilization? Both civilizations could read, but only if you had the proper education. Being able to read put you at a much higher advantage and class than people who were illiterate. By separating the literate from the illiterate you created a class system, which eventually formed into a “State,” or what we now know it as, a government. Both kings and presidents rule the state and are at the top of the class systems. In the earliest civilization usually your king would be literate and would be able to count. The earliest civilizations and today’s civilizations are similar because we can both read and count, we each have a class system, and we both have a state.
The first civilizations, the foundations for future empires, were all founded and created between 3500 B.C.E. and 500 B.C.E. by groups of nomadic peoples who decided to settle in an area for certain group specific reasons. Some of the main states of the first civilization were Mesopotamia, Norte Chico, Egypt, Indus Valley, China, and Olmec. The second wave civilizations, built between 500 B.C.E. and 500 C.E., included the Persians, the Greeks, Romans, Chinese (Qin and Han), and India (Mauryan and Gupta). The first wave civilizations were sparked by the agricultural movement that led to the settlement of large groups of people in areas that became the cities and states that formed these first civilizations. The rise of civilization led to
Over the course of human history, humans and our ancestors have made tremendous strides. From Homo habilis making the first stone tools to the Egyptians building The Pyramids of Giza, human history is nothing short of intriguing. If it wouldn’t have been for each stride made by our ancestors we probably wouldn’t live in the world that we live in today. When the Neolithic Era began in 9600 BCE, human civilizations gradually started to spring up all over the world. Humans set up civilizations from Mesopotamia in the Middle East, to China in East Asia, and all the way to Caral-Supe in South America. Although these ancient civilizations were separated by thousands of miles, they all share common patterns and
When the term “Internet of Things” is first heard, some might envision a snow covered island inhabited by misfit toys that is stumbled upon by Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and companion Hermey like in the children’s Christmas classic Island of Misfit Toys. However, it is quite the opposite. The “Internet of Things” is a simple term used by tech geeks to describe the everyday electronics that connect and communicate to one another via the world wide web. So, how does the communication of millions of machines benefit humanity? And to a greater degree, can these devices behave badly like a toy from Island of Misfit Toys?
Most people believe that all ancient civilizations were the same: they all lived with a steadfast loyalty to their one and only king that ruled all of the lands, civilizations only achievements were monumental buildings, and they vacuously attacked neighboring societies to gain more land for millennia. While some of this knowledge is true to an extent, civilizations accomplished an abundance more than some realize. Some fail to register that early civilizations are unique from each other. Egypt and Mesopotamia were two distinct civilizations. Despite similarities such as both being river civilizations, Egypt and Mesopotamia contrasted with each other in the areas of, type of ruling, religion, and
Early civilization consisted of core values that defined the communities that resided within it. These communities were driven by numerous factors in which would decide the overall outcome of the civilization. Geography, social and economic values, and they’re culture all played an important role in the makeup of these civilizations.