Cosmos

Consumed by the mountain of reading I’ve had to do these last few days, I had completely forgotten to post about the HCJ lecture on Tuesday. Despite a reminder from Chris Horrie, like a true student, I still managed to forget about it. I’m going to fall back on the ‘video game generation’ excuse for why I have a memory span not much longer than a goldfish.

As a student with very limited knowledge on history, my notes from the lecture were left as incoherent scribbles as I tried to follow what was being explained to me. However fortunately I then watched the Cosmos link which, with the repeated use of pause and rewind, helped me make notes which actually followed in chronological order.

In the third century BC the city of Alexandria was renowned as the greatest city on Earth and in that city was a library, containing the work of the greatest minds of the time. The Greeks were extremely advanced in their way of thinking, discovering concepts which are still correct to this day, and unlike many civilizations intelligence was greatly supported by the heads of state. Eratosthenes discovered that the world was round, and worked out an incredibly accurate estimation of the circumference of the Earth, only incorrect by a few percent. Archimedes had the original ‘eureka!’ moment when he discovered how to work out the volume of an object. Euclid systemised geometry and Dionysius defined the parts of speech; verbs, nouns, etc. These are just a few of the great minds and their great achievements. The Romans were the source of power, so Greco-Roman society was very advanced. However in the middle ages the Romans became corrupt, and as this classical civilization disintegrated, most of the books and scrolls in the library of Alexandria were destroyed. They dropped the schools of philosophy and embraced the concept of a ‘God’ emperor. From St Augustine all emperors were seen as ‘resurrected Gods’. They then adopted Judeo-Christian faith where there is one God, so all people are equals.

The Dark Ages then emerged. This in basic terms was just a very long period where not much happened, only three books were published, and religion was key. Greek knowledge disappeared during this era.  The Dark Ages came to an end around 1300-1400 AD and the Arab world was flourishing. This was because the Arab world had more Greek knowledge, which gave them a great technological advantage over Europe. The knowledge was then taken from the Arab world, Al-Ghazali taught that the Ihya is all you need as your guide back to Allah, and all the knowledge you need is in the Qur’an.

The reformation moved religion to Protestantism, which is a simplified version of Christianity and is a more Jewish form. Here they still lacked Greek intellect as they burnt and drowned thousands of women because they thought they were witches. Then the Renaissance came and saved our bacon. The Renaissance was a cultural movement which reintroduced classical thinking, and the flowering of art, literature, science, and politics. Here began the rediscovery of classical Greek knowledge.

So in summary, thousands of years ago BC people were of great intellect. Then there was an awkward and unproductive period where they thought witches were running amok in their towns. Then the reformation and the renaissance got us back on track to where the Greeks started.

Here’s the Cosmos link which I guarantee you, although it has cheesy music and the presenter wears a turtle neck in the desert, is very informative. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3NAW1U-swc