European Humanities 2011
Spragins

Essay on the Greek Ideal

This essay is due Tuesday, October 18^th at 3:30 p.m.

Expectations:

• a clear and compelling thesis statement
• a coherent and persuasive argument
• excellent topic sentences
• specific evidence
• excellent quote choices
• proper MLA formatting of citations 
• your very best writing 

- revise awkward sentences
- eliminate punctuation and spelling mistakes

Outline:

I. Thesis Statement

Describe how the Greek ideal emerged and then evolved:

- How did philosophy emerge from mythology?
- What different forms of philosophy developed?
- How did Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle resolve the contradictions between these contrasting branches of philosophy?
- How did this Greek ideal influence the culture and political ideology of Athens during the 4th and 5th centuries BC?

Hint: The best essays will explore the problems that emerged as the Greeks tried to apply their vision of the ideal life to the realities of existence. Think about this: wisdom might be best defined as the ability to hold two contradictory
ideas in your mind at one time.

II. Greece in the Bronze Age: the Era of Mythology

- How did the ancient Greeks understand the natural world?
- What central irony did the ancient Greeks perceive in nature?
- How did the ancient Greeks seek to influence natural forces? 
- How did these myths change during the second millennium BC?

III. Homer and Herodotus

- What essential contribution did Homer make to the Greeks' understanding of man's relationship with Nature in the great epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey make?
- What irony is at the core of Homer's perception of heroism?
- Show how Herodotus' characterization of Themistocles was influenced by his reading of Homer.

IV. Pre-Socratic Philosophy

- Why did philosophy emerge in Ionia during the late 7th century BCE? 
- What is the relationship between philosophy, economics and democracy?
- What contrasting cosmologies did the early philosophers develop?
- How did the materialists (empiricists) (see Heraclitus) and the idealists (rationalists) (see Parmenides and Pythagoras) differ in their understanding of the world?
- How did Empedocles and Democritus try to resolve the conflict between the materialists and the idealists?
- What place did morality and ethics have in their thinking?
- Use words like skeptic, moral relativism, rhetoric

V. The Greek Ideal

- Why are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle justly regarded as the most important thinkers in the history of Western civilization?
- What was Socrates' great accomplishment?
- How did Plato and Aristotle both apply Socrates' teaching to the natural world?
(ie. how did they resolve the conflict between empiricists and rationalists?)
- How did Plato and Aristotle's philosophies contrast?
- How did both Plato and Aristotle preserve the centrality of morality within a scientific understanding of nature?

VI. The Greek Ideal in Politics

- How were the characteristics of the Greek Ideal reflected in the principles of Athenian democracy? (see Pericles' Funeral Oration)
- What problems can be observed in the application of these ideals to the realities of Athenian society?
- How did Plato criticize Democracy?

VII. Greek Tragedy

- How did Sophocles question the foundation of the Greek ideal in his tragedy Oedipus Rex?
- What ancient understanding of our place in the natural world resurfaces in the ritual of tragedy?
- How might Socrates have responded to Sophocles' tragic vision in Oedipus Rex? (No doubt, he saw the play.)

VIII. Conclusion

- Why are the philosophers, artists and leaders of Periclean Athens considered the originators of Western Civilization?
- Was their experiment in democracy a failure?
- How can we in America, over two and a half millennia later, learn from the successes and failures of the Greeks in their efforts to grasp nature and thus create a better world?