Class 2/28, Philosophy cont.

Today in class we continued the video on philosophy and today we only watched two minutes of the video. But, we did get a lot out of the two minutes we saw. Granted, we did have a shorter class today but still. Mr. Schick explained some weird phenomenons he has experienced in his life time. He talked about synchronicity (when two things separated by time and distance come together for an unknown reason) and how he thinks it real because of what happened when he was studying it in college. He explained that he had just started talking about synchronicity in his class at college and one of his favorite bands, the Police, dropped an album called Synchronicity. He also told us a story about a homeless man he met and it was really quite saddening to be honest and it opened up my eyes to how I think about some things in this world.

Class 2/26, Philosophy

Today in class we talked about one of my favorite subjects, philosophy. We only got four minutes into the Crash Course because we kept stopping to take notes and discuss what he was talking about. I really liked Mr. Schick's thing about you never step in the same river twice. It really made me think. I love that philosophy makes you think past the front of life and you actually have to question everything you know.
Notes:

• Philosophy- what is the nature of reality itself?, why do you do what you do, why do you feel what you feel, why do you think what you think, are any of my choices actually free
• Philos- science
• Mythos- storytelling 
• Philosophia- the love of wisdom
• Early definition of philosophy- the academic study of anything
• Plato's Academy
• Aristotle's Lyceum
• Philosophy came to be understood more as a way of thinking about questions 
• What is the world like or what is nature of reality?
• Is the world just made up of matter and energy, or is there something else going on?

How many people do you have to be before you can be you?

Class 2/23, Olympics

Today in class we started to discuss the group project we will be starting about elements of ancient Greek life. That is all we really did in class. Mr. Schick explained what the project would consist of. It is going to have a presentation of some sort, a paper, and then we are getting graded on how well we present. My group is Val, Sydney, and Jamie and were doing the ancient Greek olympics. We are doing a video demonstrating some of the events that were competed in the olympics in ancient Greece. We are going to do our talking presentation to the class about the background information of the games. We have some very interesting ideas for the video that may be more funny than accurate to the ancient games. Jamie is buying a horse mask and we are decorating scooters for the chariot races.

Class 2/22, Philosophers

Today in class we started to discuss the famous philosophers of ancient Greece. We went over the PowerPoint. Also Mr. Schick showed us how websites can be shady and not to trust them because they don't always have accurate information.
Notes:

• Socrates- looked to science and logic (not the mythological gods) for explanations of how the world worked, the Socratic Method fostered critical thinking
• More Socrates- "the unexamined life is not worth living.", Socrates was charged with impiety and corruption of the youth of Athens, on trial he did not deny what he had done and asked for free dinners for life, described himself as a horsefly and Athens as a lazy old horse, was found guilty and sentenced to death by poison hemlock
• Plato- a student and follower of Socrates, he wrote out Socrates' teachings, and described his trial in Apology, Republic was Socrates' discussion of justice and the ideal state - one of the most influential books on philosophy ever written 
• Aristotle- student of Plato, he helped foster the idea of Athens as an intellectual destination, his school, the Lyceum, that focused on cooperative research- building on knowledge gathered from all over the world
• Did Aristotle invent the internet?- not exactly but he did dream of having the sum of mankind's knowledge easily accessed in one location, he wrote extensively on such topics as logic, physics, biology, ethics, politics, rhetoric, motion, theatre, poetry, metaphysics, psychology, dreams, etc., he also tutored Alexander the Great

Class 2/20, Textbook Notes

Today in class we took notes from the textbooks.
Notes:

• Result of Goal 2- Pericles used the money to make Athens' navy the strongest in the Mediterranean and to strengthen Athenian military 
• Goal 3- used to money to glorify Athens 
• Result of Goal 3- used the money to buy gold, ivory, and marble and to pay artists, architects, and workers to beautify Athens
• The Parthenon- a masterpiece of architectural design and craftsmanship, was not unique in design, center of Pericles' plan, 23,00 square-foot temple, built in honor of Athena, contained Greek art, main sculptor was Phidias, made 30 foot tall sculpture of Athena, tried to make all figures grace, strength, and perfect form, faces of serenity, ideal beauty, this became classical art
• Greeks invented drama as art from 
• Wrote two types of plays tragedies and comedies
• Tragedy- a serious drama with common themes such as hate, love, war, and betrayal
• Comedy- contained scenes filled with slapstick situations and crude humor 
• Peloponnesian War- war between Athens and Sparta that was declared by Sparta in 431 BC, Sparta had a strong military, Athens had a strong navy, ended in a truce 

Class 2/16, Test

Today we took our test and it was not fun.  I was rather confused with some of the questions. I don't think that some of the questions were worded very well. For example, the question of what wasn't necessary to be a citizen of Athens but I thought that all the options given were necessary to be a citizen in Athens. Also, I didn't understand what the Homeric question was. I think that it was whether or not Homer was actually a person. I also think I got must of the map wrong. I'm not really sure honestly. I then took notes on the pages in the textbook. It was on the Golden Age of Greek civilization.
Notes:

• Pericles- successful politician, inspiring speaker, respected general, dominated Athens from 461-429 BCE (Age of Pericles)
• He had three goals- strengthen Athenian democracy, to hold and strengthen the empire, and to glorify Athens
• Goal 1- increased the number of public officials who were paid, now poor people could public office because they would receive pay
• Result of Goal 1- Athens had more citizens engaged in self-government than any other city in Greece, made Athens one of the most democratic governments in history
• Goal 2- after defeating the Persians, Athens took over the leadership of the Delian League and dominated all other city-states 

Class 2/15, Reviewing

Today in class we started to review for our test that is going to take place tomorrow. Mr. Schick put up on the board the things we needed to know for our test tomorrow. We didn't do much but read what he put on the board and either highlighted it in our existing notes or copied it down. We need to know about the different great, ancient civilizations that were built along rivers. For example, ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, etc.. We need to know the types of government that were in Greece and the groups that ruled over ancient Greece and when. For example, the Mycenaeans, 1600-1100 BCE. We also need to know basic vocabulary and the important rulers of Greece. We also need to know about Homer and his literature pieces. Also we need to know the seas around Greece and about its' geography and topography and how it influenced Greek civilization and culture.

Class 2/13, Movie Thing

Notes:

• The monuments in Greece still record two important decades in all of history
• Greeks achieved all of their advancements in math, science, literature, philosophy, and art while being at war
• Their achievements changed the world 
• Athens 508 BCE- the ordinary people had turned on their ruler demanding freedom after centuries of oppression 
• Cleisthenes had been brought up to be a ruler and look down upon regular people 
• He saw that these ordinary people have the right to be free and govern themselves
• Cleisthenes was told he was an aristocrat since he was a child 
• Athens was turned against itself
• The aristocrats were split down the middle fighting one another 
• The regular people had no part or share in anything 
• Greece was divided into many city states
• Each fiercely independent to and loyal to themselves 
• Spartans lives were centered around war and fighting 
• Spartans were ruthless and expanded throughout the land 
• They were a threat to all other Greece cities
• Cleisthenes was inspired by Greek stories
• Heroes were painted all over Greece to inspire citizens of greatness
• Claimed that he had the blessing of a goddess to become tyrant 
• Greece is in the middle of a grouping ancient civilizations 
• Everyone had something to sell from their land
• Athenians selling olive oil began to increase their wealth 
• Potters were considered very low in society 
• Hippies took over Athens ruling with a fair hand to begin
• His brother was murdered and he executed the entire murders family 
• Cleisthenes found that others were conspiring against
• Isagoras was another aristocrat brought to believe power was his and knew he had to get help from the Spartans to get rid of Cleisthenes
• Other aristocrats were targeted too 
• The ordinary people of Athens took their destiny into their own hands 
• They rose up in revolution
• On the morning of the third day Isagoras was forced to surrender
• This was Athens first step empire and glory
• First time citizens had seized power from their rulers
• Cleisthenes was asked to build a government and come back after being exiled 
• He had to design a system that would work for a revolutionary situation
• He created a large spot to meet to and discuss their state
• Cleisthenes instituted the simple vote
• White stone, yes, black stone, no
• A system of government that would change the state and the world 
• Democracy led to a flourishing of culture

Class 2/12, Gods and Goddesses cont.

Notes:

• Who's who in the pantheon?
• Zeus- ruler of heaven and earth; father of Athena; god of the sky, weather, thunder, lightning, law, order, and justice, had a temper and was known to hurl thunderbolts
• Athena- goddess of wisdom, skill, warfare and peace, intelligence, battle strategy, and handicrafts, she was born from Zeus' head fully formed and armored, patron to the city of Athens
• Apollo- god of music, arts, knowledge, healing, Zeus was his father, Artemis was his twin sister, he's associated with the sun, his sister with the moon
• Poseidon- god of the sea, rivers, floods, earthquakes, brother of Zeus, king of the sea and waters
• Aphrodite- goddess of love, beauty, desire, sexuality, her lovers included Ares (god of war), Adonis (demigod of desire), and Anchises (a mortal who fathered a baby)
• Demeter- goddess of grain, harvest, and agriculture, Zeus' sister
• Greeks were certainly a warlike people- especially the Spartans
• Spartans were know for their tough, ruthless, infantry: soldiers who fought on land 

Class 2/9, Silence

Today in class we participated in a silent protest. We did not talk at all as class for the entire (well for the most part). All of our communication was through writing or it was typed. We had a few traitors among us. They were asked to stop or leave. They stopped. We are solely showing our right to protest. We are acting as the ancient Greeks standing up against authority. Except we are being much more peaceful in our approach. We showed our unity as a class and we exercised our rights. I think that we should be acknowledged for this idea. It is rather ground breaking. We showed how important it is to ask questions about the way things are going and to act upon them. We Dig Western Civ is a family.
Please enjoy the following pictures of puppies.


I also would like to know how this idea was pinned on me. I was the first suspect of starting this protest and I would like to know why. But puppies solve all. We are the Champions. We shall go down in history.

Class 2/6, Gods and Goddesses

Today in class we mostly just talked and argued today about the existence of the gods and goddesses. We took minimal notes because the notes prompted the discussion. We argued that some of the Greek gods may have actually been real and that they just wee regular people who did some extraordinary things. I also brought up the fact that our whole lives may have been a lie. For example, from a young age kids put all of their trust into adults and believe everything they tell and do as their told. Kids are naive and do not know any better so what if adults have just been feeding us lies our entire lives. Val also talked about her book she is going bury about how she was the ruler of the world so she could trick the people who find it in 2000 years. Then Frankie was talking about Ryan Gosling starting a santa cult. I still do not understand where his thought process was going with that.

Class 2/5, Last Day of Project

Today's class was the last class period that we had to work on our group project in class. We do have the rest of the day to finish it and turn it in.
Notes:
The second leader of Greece that began to make significant reforms in Greek society is Solon. Solon was born in Athens some time around 638 BCE. His family moderately wealthy and he a brother named Dropides. He came into power in 594 BCE as the archon of Greece. Solon was the beginning of reform of  the government in Greece. Solon made it so that no citizen could own another. He also outlawed debt slavery, meaning that if a citizen owed money to another, they could not be enslaved to that person. Solon made a social class system according to the wealth of citizens. The lowest class could not hold positions in political office. But, they could partake in assembly. The other three classes could hold positions in the government. Solon also made it so that any citizen could press charges against someone who had committed a wrongdoing against them.

Class 2/1, Class Project

Today in class we started our class project of making a textbook chapter. My group's section is about the leaders of Greece. I am doing Solon as my leader. I didn't get much done in my paragraph because   I was doing research on Solon and his background.