a history of knowledge by charles van doren easy bib

Romans prefer their home, not adventure -Rome fell, Greeks won war (culture is preserved & used), although they lost the actual battles -What Greeks knew, Romans knew -Romans are practical -Common Law: >Twelve Tables.The Code of Justinian - Knew about roads.Center for the Study of The Great Ideas Biographical Sketchĭr.

the knowledge of a primitive man includes the particulars that most animals (dogs, cats, foxes, mice, etc) know >they know where they are, understand timing, where to get food and protection, where the best shelter is -animals know particulars (a squirrel has a nest in that tree) -humans know particulars AND have general knowledge (all living things are born and also die) -therefore animals and the primitive man are 'dumb', while human beings are 'conscious' -two types of our general knowledge are characterized by certainty >self-evident propositions (a finite whole is greater than any of its parts) (a thing cannot both be and not be at the same time and in the same respect) >faith ( -the certainty in mathematics is the certainty we put there -the notion that the world must be what we believe it to be because we believe it to be that way, brings both comfort and discomfort -knowledge does not always bring happiness >ignorance is bliss as long as you remain ignorant -once you know you are ignorant, you can't stop the thirst for knowledge, and humans can become unhappy from thisģ000 BC: -humans learned how to survive and cultivate nature, and humans made man-made tools, systems, and products -new ways of killing and torturing, which were used to rule large populations -everywhere, a state of war existed, between one people and another, as well as between a ruler and his people -enemies (such as the saber-toothed tiger & mammoth) of humans became extinct, domesticated, or denominated as 'game' -the exploitation of the animal and vegetable kingdoms was justified by divine decree (Adam and Eve story) -in kingdoms where the strong ruled the weak, rulers and priests worked together, so laws of force, although possibly cruel, were also 'divine', so they were also right -Egypt: >change is bad -India: >caste system -Chinese: >birth doesn't mean anything, but knowledge does *Literacy controls business *The idea of social equality is inherently revolutionary (influenced through religious figures like Jesus, Confucius, Buddha, and Muhammad) -Greeks first to create a complete alphabet -Babylonians and Egyptians first to understand what zero is

A history of knowledge by charles van doren easy bib