tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64076557284790457762024-03-05T21:43:34.710+08:00The Historian and His FactsPark, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-83543964409041841722013-02-19T01:27:00.001+08:002013-02-19T01:27:14.075+08:00Analysis on Greek Political Thought: Plato<div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">INTRODUCTION</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Greece is considered as the most significant and distinctive civilization for its permanent legacies that contributed to the intellectual and moral progress of society by inventing the concept of a secular civilization. Daring assumption that man is able to discover the meaning of things existing and phenomena happening around him encouraged Greeks to think and speculate. They consider their society as “thinkers” and so came the wisdom from deep speculation. This is what is now known as “philosophy” derived from the Greek word <i>“philosophia”</i> which literally means “love of wisdom” In the free atmosphere to speculate and express one’s idea the Greeks were able to extend their knowledge to the various aspects of universe. Their knowledge and ideas therefore is the root of Western civilization and influenced most civilizations in the world. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Politics, as its very name suggests (derived from the Greek word “polis” which was city state) is also a Greek discovery. Concerning how to achieve a better society where in groups of people could co-exist and achieve justice, a number of Greek thinkers proposed their distinctive political philosophies. For that reason, early Greek civilization had already various forms of government and other political systems that other civilizations did not have. It is to say that the political philosophies that establish the foundation of the field so-called politics started from Greek. Thus it is even impossible to talk about political thoughts without speaking about Greek political thinkers. So do Roman thinkers. The mainstreams of politics that became integral part of the political inheritance of the world are Greece and Rome. If Greeks </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Here I have Plato, the greatest Greek philosopher throughout history, the author of “The Republic”, the matchless work that deserves to be called first political science, in that it applies systematic reasoning and critical inquiry to political ideas and institutions as the first philosopher to be introduced in dealing with history of political thoughts. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Plato was born in Athens around 427 BC. He lived during the Age of Synthesis. After his father's death his mother married a friend of Pericles so he was politically connected to both the oligarchy and democracy. After the Peloponnesian War, his mother's brother and uncle tried to persuade him to join in the oligarchic rules of Athens. Instead, Plato joined his two older brothers in becoming a student of Socrates.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Plato was an opponent of the relativism and skepticism of the Sophists; but, like them he focused on values rather than on physical science. Aristotle credits Socrates with emphasizing moral questions and precise definitions; and Plato surely absorbed these lessons.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Plato was no friend of the Thirty Tyrants, whose reign (404-403 BC) lasted only 8 months, but he also was not a friend of the Athenian democracy when it was restored. He alienated them by him method of critical interrogation. In 399 BC he was brought to trial with the capital crimes of religious impiety and corruption of youth, convicted, and sentenced to death. His friends offered to pay a fine instead of the death penalty. As Plato tells us in the Seventh Letter after Socrates' death, he became disenchanted with all existing political regimes."</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">About 387 BC, Plato founded a school in Athens, in a grove sacred to the demigod Academus, called the Academy. It was, in effect, a university of higher learning, which included physical science, astronomy, and mathematics, as well as philosophy. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">In 367 BC Dionysius died and was succeeded by his teenage son, Dionysius II, whose uncle, Dion, was a close friend to Plato. Dion invited Plato to come a school Dionysius for his future kingship. Plato, seeing that this was a way for him to complete his goal for a philosopher king decided to travel to Sicily and take control of the boy's studies. Dionysius II later had a fight with Dion, and exiled him, Plato was unable to convert the boy to philosophy and returned the Athens, where Dion had established residence. Plato continued correspondence with Dionysius II, and tried to have him reconcile with Dion. Dionysius II lured Plato into a trap, by telling him that he wanted to become a philosopher. Plato was trapped in Syracuse until 360. Where he traveled back to Athens and continued to function as president of the Academy. He died in 347 BC, at about the age of eighty.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> In the course of life mentioned above Plato’s matchless masterpieces “the Republic” (which I am going to mainly discuss in this paper), “the Statesman” and “the Laws” were written. Political thoughts expressed in those books were molded based on the experiences and relationships he had in the society of his time. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> I once again emphasize that knowing Plato’s experiences and relationships is very important in understanding how his political philosophy came about. What I mean by experience here is Plato’s observation on political systems and social conditions of Greece (Athens) and relationship here specifically means his relationship with Socrates, his teacher. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> The two factors or incidents greatly inspired Plato and influenced on his political philosophy. First, when Plato grew old enough, there was change in Athens governmental system from oligarchy to democracy. Moreover, Peloponnesian War after which Athens democracy became poorer people-centered gave chance for the poorer citizens to promote the rights. They predominated in the assembly and passed several votes to promote the pleasure and pecuniary interest of their classes. As a result, the poor classes came to have decisive voice in politics. Plato thought it was absurd that the city-state was led by silly group of people whose rule is justified by number of people. He was a witness of abuse of democracy in society. This anti-democrat feeling of Plato has later on brought the theory of dictatorship of “Philosopher King” which is completely opposed to democracy. The execution of Socrates made Plato’s standing firm as an anti-democrat. The death of his admired teacher Socrates urged him to leave secular politics and to concentrate on establishing his political philosophy. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Second, his political theory is established and greatly influenced by Socrates, his teacher. Socrates takes quite large part in Plato’s political philosophy. “The Republic” the representative work of Plato is a Socratic dialogue in which Socrates and various foreigners and Athenians discuss on various political, social and philosophical issues. In the Republic, Plato does not appear. It is quite noticeable that he appeals his philosophy just by giving dialogue of Socrates. It obviously means that Plato’s political philosophy is molded and greatly influenced by Socrates. In addition to that, the decisive incident that urged Plato to engage in political philosophy was also the death of Socrates. With these facts I would say that relationship of Plato to Socrates was basis of his political philosophy.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> With this background, in this paper I am going to precisely look into the core ideas in the Republic(three essential aspect of politics- republic, statesman and law) about ideal form of society and politics suggested by the greatest western philosopher, Plato. This analysis on Plato’s political thoughts is aimed to answer the questions: What is the ideal form of government and society? What is the highest value that we must pursue in society? How do we achieve a better society in which the highest value is embodied? And who is to rule our very society?</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The concept of the “Republic” is broad if we speak of its scope. Focusing on core idea of Plato, I would like to discuss on the main points of the Republic 1) criticism of governmental systems that cannot sustain themselves: timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. 2) Drawing of ideal state and principles that governs that ideal state. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Plato’s main purpose in the Republic was to suggest the ideal State. To strengthen his idea on the ideal state, it was necessary for him to criticize other forms of government existed at the time. He criticizes the four forms of government namely timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny. This criticism is actually for the sake of justifying his assertion on the ideal State.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">First, timocracy according to Plato is a rule by those which our State seeks to honor usually military leaders. Timocracy is a rule by men who are by natural constitution fitted for war rather than peace since their highest value are military stratagems and contrivances, and the waging of everlasting wars Honor is often equated with wealth and possession so this kind of gilded government leads to the people valuing materialism above all things. Timocrats are contentious, ambitious leaders who seek power for them to exercise. Therefore, timocracy cannot be an ideal state since the leader values authority, power, and ambition most instead of peace and welfare of people.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Second, Plato criticizes oligarchy for this type of government is a rule of a few selfish wealthy opportunists for private gain. Timocracy degenerates into Oligarchy when it rulers begins to devise public funds for their private gain. Those lovers of money and honor create two extreme classes, the rich and poor. In oligarchic state, the rich are constantly plotting against the poor. This state in which leaders (a few rich people) seek their own interest and even use public expenditure for private gain, cannot be an ideal type to follow.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Third is democracy that perhaps Plato hatred most. Democracy follows oligarchy in which the extreme gap between rich and poor exist. The poor overthrow to oligarchs and grant liberties and freedoms to citizen. Plato criticized democracy as a rule by many who are poor and lower classes. Plato considered democracy absurd for its rule is justified by number of people. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Last, too much freedom and liberties granted to the citizens may lead to a tyranny which Plato described as rule by a despot without regard for law. Under tyrant liberty getting gout of all order and reason, passes into the harshest and bitterest form of slavery. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Plato’s political theory is on basis of moral values. For that reason, Plato strongly emphasizes that the ideal society is where in justice exists and prevails. Thus the book the Republic is an attempt to resolve a major problem, namely injustice. Perhaps, for Plato even state existed in purpose of achieving justice, the highest value he pursued. In the Republic, Plato uses Socrates to argue for justice that covers both just person and the just city state. Justice is a proper, harmonious relationship between the warring parts of the person or city. According to Plato, that justice can be achieved only when, a person has and does what is his own.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> The definition of justice by Plato comes to me quite surprising because we do not usually connect justice with roles that we have in society. For Plato justice is being excellent in fulfilling one’s given role. He, who fulfils what he is destined to do with excellence, is a just man. And just state is composed of just men who know their own positions and roles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%; text-indent: 40pt;"> This unique definition of justice, the highest value a man must pursue, we came to have question that “then, what are the roles that a man can receive and must fulfill?” According to Plato, justice is the fruit which appears in consequences of each man’s doing that job for which he is best suited, thereby contributing to the good of State those talents with which he is gifted by nature.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Presenting the value to pursue, Plato now suggests class stratification in state. He presents three classes in states and put people to each class according to their naturally gifted ability. Plato stratifies the state into three classes: 1) artisans, 2) warriors, 3) legislators or guardians. Before deeper discussion about each class, I would want to first briefly discuss how this class stratification came to be.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Plato believed the state grows out of the nature of the individual so he refers human being himself to the state. Believing that the state is a natural institution reflecting the structure of human nature, Plato considers state as structurally the same with human nature. So if we are to analyze state, we must first understand human nature and his components.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Plato believed in triune concept of the biological nature of man: head, heart and stomach Relating three biological division of man to psychological aspect of man we can psychologically divide human nature: intellect (thinking), spirit (conation), appetite (physiological nature).</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">With this triune concept of Plato about human being, we can now analyze how Plato’s class stratification came to be. First, artisans may refer to stomach biologically and to appetite psychologically. Second, warriors may refer to heart biologically and to spirit (conation) psychologically. And last, guardians are referred to head biologically and to intellect (thinking). </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The three classes serve different functions in the state. Artisans are producer of basic needs of society like food, shelters and daily stuffs which are to satisfy appetite of people in the state. Warriors are protector of the state who had brave heart and courageous spirit. And guardians are to rule and lead the government of society. They are supposed to be wise and intellectual.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Each class requires different virtues and abilities for people in performing their given role in their classes: Temperance, courage, wisdom, justice. </span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> As pointed out above, the concept of justice, namely, everyone in his right place doing his rightful task as his nature deems fit, sets the stage for a proper understanding of Plato’s theory. Then, how do we achieve justice? How are we going to put people in right place to do their rightful tasks? According to Plato, the answer to the question would be education. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Education is one of the important roles of government which makes individuals capable of doing his work for by it, members of various classes are determined. If a person excels in temperance, then he is to belong to the class of artisan, if courage, he is to be warrior; and if wisdom, a guardian. Education is a tool to classify by which people are placed in right place. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> A government, as a body of ruling State, must offer proper education. For Plato, education is the way to achieve a just society. For that reason, Plato himself established academy to train and educate the youth who would be leaders of society. But education, for Plato in fact had more specific purpose. The major and specific role of education is to cultivate man of wisdom, a philosopher. Plato gave great importance to cultivating philosophers. Why did he? Plato’s emphasis on education has distinct purpose and it is related with his ideal state.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> I have mentioned four forms of State which Plato was against. Then now, what would be the ideal form of State that Plato was thinking? It is Aristocracy, the rule of the best, just and good or Monarchy, rule by a single just man. Plato actually favored a Monarchy by a great leader. And that great leader according to Plato must be a Philosopher. This is one of his main ideas of political theory, so-called “Philosopher King” Plato insists that philosophers for they are lover of truth and wisdom are to be a guardian to achieve ordered society. Plato’s criticism against other four forms of government was in fact to draw this conclusion of his ideal state, which is Monarchy (or Aristocracy) under a philosopher king. And philosophers are cultivated through education. The philosopher king is interested in knowledge of the highest magnitude, even that which surpasses justice, namely, ‘the good,’ and if we only have a guardian who has this knowledge our state will be perfectly ordered that people can serve their assigned tasks in rights places, justice is realized.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Contribution and Significance of Plato’s Political Thoughts</span></b></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"></span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Plato’s political philosophy is closely connected with moral philosophy. The ultimate goal of the society for Plato, was a society in which justice exists. Plato discussed about five forms of government as we see above: Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy and Tyranny. From Aristocracy (or Monarchy) which according to Plato is ideal form of state, the state may decline to following forms of government. This is how the state declines from ideal state:</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 200%;">Aristocracy </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 200%;">à</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 200%;"> Timocracy </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 200%;">à</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 200%;"> Oligarchy </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 200%;">à</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 200%;"> Democracy </span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 200%;">à</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 15pt; line-height: 200%;"> Tyranny</span></b></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Plato was born in Athens (a democratic state) when the Democracy was flourishing that every individual has given liberty and freedom. Moreover, as Athens went through Peloponnesian War, the poor and lower classes came to have more power and more freedom. During the time Athenian democracy was considered a great system of government for in it individuals could enjoy his rights and freely participate in politics. But Plato considered democracy as the last stage after which tyranny, the worst form of government comes. He criticized democracy as rule by many who are silly seeking their private gains. Plato warned people being granted excessive freedom. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Plato in his life witnessed evils spawn out of democracy in which people abuse their excessive freedom. The teachings and advices of wise men were ignored by foolish (and poor who were not educated) group of people. For the criterion of making important political decision was a number of people agreeing, the society was often led to wrong way by foolish people who were many in number. The society was no longer in order for it is led by people who were not wise and thoughtlessly seeking their private gains. The wise men saying truths were even executed, like Socrates, Plato’s mentor. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Witnessing all of the evils of democracy in which morality was degrading, Plato, as wise man, and lover of justice and morality bravely cried for moral society in which justice flourishes. This sharp and penetrating critique of democracy makes us, who are living in democratic society think about things that we usually overlooked. Plato’s worry became reality today. We are given freedom and rights to enjoy individual happiness. But as we witness, morality within society is seriously degrading and we cannot find a just society anymore. Is it more important to enjoy freedom than to achieve a justice society? Perhaps we are not realizing the fact that uncontrolled freedom can make us deviate from righteousness for we are such being that abuse what it is given. Plato is still alive here and asking us the question that will never perish as long as a society exists “What is a society for? What is the value that each one of us has to achieve in our very society?” and Plato tells us the answer, justice which most of us today neglect. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Plato is perhaps too idealistic for he is talking about Utopia which can never exist in reality. He himself knew that the ideal society he suggests was Utopia. However, Plato at least knew what value we, a civilized man in society ought to pursue. Although he was in some part idealistic, he still tried to move what he says to action. He established Academy to cultivate future leaders in expectation one of his student would be a philosopher king was to wisely rule the state. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Politics is the field in which moral value were degraded in seeking selfish- interests. In the midst of political immoralities, Plato is remembered as the philosopher who cried for just and moral society that became unachievable dream. By his political philosophy, we came to think about what Politics is once again. </span></div>
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Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-14195543107036687042013-02-19T01:21:00.005+08:002013-02-19T01:21:59.837+08:00Analysis on “The Social Sciences in the Last Two Hundred Years”<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> The very reason why we trace back the
historical evolution of social science specifically in the last two hundred
years is because the period shows how so-called social science is established
as distinct field of study and systemized in terms of methodology. History of
social science is no doubt more than two hundred years because the speculation
on social matter had already begun by ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle.
Therefore, it is quite important to grasp the implication of the author in
setting specific period time to be discussed in dealing with social science
more profoundly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As
mentioned above, social science already marked its beginning in ancient time. However,
we have to note that after fall of Roman Empire and as Church has become
dominant power in the continent, the intellectual activities in seeking for
knowledge remained stagnant during the medieval time as the emphasis was solely
given to God under the authority of church. People during that time were
discouraged in seeking knowledge about nature and attempting to explain the
world around them. Rather they were just forced to passively accept religious
account on the world. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> This
invulnerable wall blocking people from path to the knowledge began to break
since Renaissance movement. As humanistic spirit of the ancient Greek and Roman
was restored among people in Europe, and the emphasis was gradually given to
human being. Sooner beginning in 16<sup>th</sup> century, radical development
in science took place and we call this scientific revolution. In 17<sup>th</sup>
Century, Cartesian dualism was imbued to the people that they began to see the
nature as object to be explored and observed. And of course the best way to do
that was found in skepticism. Thus the author puts it, the latter half of the
seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth centuries were period of
triumph of natural science that in reached its peak as science. In contrast to
the triumph of natural science, social science remained stagnant that during
this period only few contributions were made in the field. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> It
was in the mid-eighteenth century that the interest in social science arose
again. This was in short due to change in pattern of the social fabric. Mid-eighteenth
century to the nineteenth century was the transitional period of socio-economic
system. Capitalism, rising middle class, civil revolutions and industrialism
had brought radical changes in society. New form of socio and economic institutions
thus became the object of critical analysis due to the problems and social ills
out of them. Here we get the clue why the author has set the time scope of 200
years in dealing with social science. The latter half of 18<sup>th</sup>
century was the threshold to the full-scale development of social science.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> That
the revival of interest in social science started from criticism of new form of
social, political and economic institutions gives us clue to find out method
used during the time. The social scientists, facing newly existing order paid
attention to the principle of a natural order of society from which the
existing order was compared and contrasted. This was “comparative method.” The
various data about social order were gathered to measure the existing society.
And this was quite effective yardstick to measure existing institution. The
theories of government based on natural order in group of human beings
suggested by Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau were not based on empirical research
but those profound analyses on natural order became firm ground for social
science and the object of comparison to which any existing social and political
institution could be compared. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Here
I would have to stress the significance of comparative method in social
science. The subject matter in social science itself is far more complex than
that of natural science. That is why social scientists dealing with history,
society, economy, politics and culture were fully satisfied with the
methodology of natural science as only genuine way of attaining knowledge. Subject
matters dealt in social science are not solely objective but very particular
from time to time and place to place. Due to this particular characteristic of
subject matter in social science, many of social scientists, and philosophers
in 19th century to 20</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span><span style="font-size: small;"> century made an attempt to break away from
natural science in terms of methodology. They necessarily distinguished eklaren
from verstehen and what is needed in human science was verstehen,
understanding. But matter of generalization still remains important because
knowledge that is only particular with no sense of general point is in fact
useless. One of the most important tasks of social scientists thus to find out
generalized true and knowledge out of particularity. The best approach to this
task I believe is comparative method. The theoretical basis of comparative
method admits the particularity of individual objects but by comparing them
from one another, one can draw relatively generalized conclusion out of particular
knowledge. So I would believe this was one notable break-through of social
science. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Moreover,
the comparative method opened the way to the theory of progress of mankind. It
wasn’t difficult for social scientists to notice improvement and refinement of
existing civilization when compared to those of ancient ones. Though,
definition of the term ‘progress’ may have been different among the scholars
that some scholars might have judged existing civilization as deteriorated in
terms of spirit or other immaterial matter, the theory of progress with
Darwinian theory of evolution made tremendous influence on development of
social science.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> In
19<sup>th</sup> century, social science proceeded to another stage of
development. The author points out three distinct features of social science
during the time: 1) elaboration and sharp definition of various discipline in
relation to one another; 2) social science became recognized as independent and
3) attempts to elaborate methods. Each field in social science established its
own system and structure and become specialized. The author reveals the tree
condition upon which specialized field in social science is established 1) recognition
of a set of new problem; 2) collection of data which will allow generalization
and 3) official recognition of the new discipline. Through these stages, the
specialized social science were actively developing. However, it must be noted
that specialization of each field in social science was not for the sake of specialization
and being independent from general stream of social science. Active attempts to
provide synthesis and unification out of specialization of tasks in social
science were made between 19<sup>th</sup> Century and 20<sup>th</sup> Century. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> This
attempt to unification faced several hindrances. Lack of common conceptual apparatus
was one difficulty encountered by social scientists. Especially different
terminology and conceptual definition among scholars hampered theoretical
generalization. Clannishness of many social scientists was also one great
obstacle to an effective synthesis of social science. But all these hindrances
can be overcome by steadfast effort among social scientist and realization of
their specialized field in the context of whole picture of the study of man and
society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Examining
the history of social science, we could also find that development of social
science has the same pattern through which natural science also passed. The
first stage would be recognition of a set of related problems. Interchange of
ideas can lead to elaboration of a set of generalizations. The second stage would
be conscious attempt to perfect methods of research in the respective
discipline. In the third stage, the theoretical rivalries tend to be submerged
in the efforts to elaborate propositions bridging the difference. Hegelian
dialectics can explain the third stage. There are conflicting or cooperating
theories in each field of social science. What we have to note is that
antithesis goes against not everything about thesis. What the author is
emphasizing in this chapter is that conflict occurs over not on fundamental theories
but on the matter of application and perspective on the theory. And those
rivalries and conflict can often lead to betterment of theory when synthesized.
Anyhow, the direction of social science for the past two hundred years is set
to be optimistic with the influence of Darwinian theory of evolution which led
to the theory of progress. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
appreciate the discussion of the author on history of social science in the
past two hundred years that I believe the temporal scope of the discussion is
quite adequate. One thing I was sorry about discussion was there was no
sufficient account on the methodological shortcomings of social science
compared to the natural science and the effort of social scientists and
philosophers to compensate them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps,
social science, compared to natural science will never reach the point of
perfect system and structure in terms of methodology<i> </i>and the process of drawing conclusion because there is no theory
or assumption applicable to every social phenomenon. The subject matter of
social science is indeed complex and full of mysteries in some sense. So many interrelationships
exist between factors and there is uncountable number of variables behind a
single social phenomenon. That is why in social science, active specialization is
still taking place. The range of social science is far more extensive than that
of natural science. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 40pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Unsolved
questions and uncertainty in social science will still remain. However as the
author says there is “greatest promise for further progress in all fields of
social science lies in the mutual cross-fertilization of the various disciplines.”
Specialization and unification of various disciplines in realm of social science
would assure the development of social studies. And I would have to agree with
the author’s last remark “greater integration of the social sciences, each will
a well-developed theoretical system of its own, holds out the hope that Comte’s
dream of a generalized science of man and society may be achieved in practice.”
Yes, indeed endless conflict and cooperation between different fields of social
science will achieve it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-84912172295587026422010-04-04T23:21:00.011+08:002010-04-14T10:46:57.703+08:00History of World Civilization - Greek Civilization: Polis; Athens<div style="text-align: justify;font-family:times new roman;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">“Men are the Polis.”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">-Thucydides</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“Man is an animal whose nature it is to live in a polis”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">-Aristotle</span><br /></div><br />Greek Civilization in fact has great meaning to Western Civilization. According to Dr. Donald Kagan, the professor of Yale University in his lecture on “Introduction to Greek History (2007)” said that “the positions of the Greeks are at the most significant starting point of Western Civilization, which is the culture that most powerfully shapes not only the West but most of the world today.” Actually, Greek Civilization was not one of the four centers of world civilizations. However, unlike other civilization emerged in ancient time, Greek Civilization has been admired due to its significance in shaping its political, economic, social and cultural aspects.<br /><br />In speaking of Greek Civilization, there is Greek Bronze Age which includes Minoan and Mycenaean civilization. With Dorian invasion and the end of the Mycenaean civilization, there came “the Dark Ages”. During the Dark Ages, the cities and palaces, and other products of civilization were destroyed. Following the Dark Ages, there now came the emergence of city-states which the Greeks termed “Polis”. The period that the polis began to emerge can be considered not only as the time of recovery but also the peak of Greek Civilization in terms of politics, society, economy and culture.<br /><br />Polis actually means a lot in dealing of Greek Civilization. Perhaps, without the time of polis the Greek Civilization would not be significance. It is to say that during the time of polis, those characteristics of Greek civilization which distinguished Greek Civilization itself from other civilization were shaped during this time. M. H Hansen in his book “More Studies in the Greek Polis (1996)” emphasized the significance of polis in studying Greek civilization by saying that “The study of Greek political structures must begin with the polis.”<br /><br />Polis is generally defined as a city, a city state and also citizenship and body of citizens (Wikipedia). However, polis is something more than that. Polis is in fact something that cannot be defined in single word or sentence. M. H Hansen (1996) also said that “the question of what the polis is has no simple and straightforward answer. In fact, it is implicit in this collection of essays that there is not nor can there be any satisfactory, all-inclusive definition of a polis.” Aristotle, the great philosopher in the time of polis also said that “a man who is by nature is without a polis is either more or less than a man.” It is to mean that if a man does not need a polis, he is god because men need a polis. This saying of Aristotle may reflect the idea and concept of Greek people about a polis. To the Greeks, a polis was therefore what they essentially needed as long as they were a man.<br /><br />Poleis were city-states established by the group of Greek people who proudly termed themselves “Hellene”. They liked to distinguish themselves from other groups of people for they thought to have superior culture than others. For this reason, indeed poleis were not just place where Hellenes lived in but the pride and spirit of Greek people.<br /><br />From about BC 750 to the time when the poleis were invaded by Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia, Greek people had left a lot of achievements. The achievements of Greek people in several aspects of their civilization during the time of polis would explain why the polis is considered significant in dealing with Greek civilization.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Politics</span><br /></div><br />Greek city-states were self-governing and not ruled or controlled by any form of central power. Instead, it is noted that by the time of Aristotle (fourth century BC) there were more than hundreds of Greek Democracies. However none of those poleis that were democracies was as powerful, stable, organized as that of Athens.<br /><br />Sparta and Athens were most powerful and significant among the thousands of poleis. But since Sparta was a champion of oligarchy, the political system was not that different with that of other civilizations, in this chapter I would like to discuss about Athenian government which was democracy which was totally new at the time.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Athenian Democracy</span><br /></div><br />In Athens the political system had gone through several changes. Starting with Monarchy it changed to Oligarchy then to Democracy. The Origin of Athenian Democracy can be traced back to the time of Solon, the one of great wise men of Greece. Actually he did not believe in “democratika” which means “people-power” but the laws he constituted became the basis of democracy to be established in Athens. He was the one who arranged Athenian political society on a new basis. Solon’s constitution swept the political system in which only aristocrats could hold position by making wealth the sole qualification for office-holding. He also pushed through with the policy of Shaking-off of Burdens which in Greek is Seisachteia that cancelled all outstanding debts. In fact this law was to rectify the wide-spread of serfdom and slavery in Athens. Solon also divided the classes into four- pentakosiomedimnoi, hippeis, zeugitai and thetes and according to the class, the right of politics was given.<br /><br />Solon cannot be a founder of democracy but at least he opened the way of democracy by restricting aristocrat-centered political system and freeing the people and making them a citizen. Solon’s constitution was the starting point of Athens democracy.<br /><br />So what is democracy? It in Greek, is “democratika” which means “people-power”. Peter John Rhodes in his book “Athenian Democracy (2004)” explain about classical democracy in Athens that “the classical democracy of the fifth and fourth centuries was based as far as possible on active involvement of the citizens. Making decisions was entrusted to the citizen directly, in an ekklesia, assembly, open to all citizens.” Athenian democracy was direct democracy that the citizens could directly participate. The democratic government of Athens rested on three main institutions- The Assembly of Demos, the Council of 500 and the People’s court. The Assembly was an opportunity for Citizens to speak their opinion and to vote for certain matter of government of their city. The Council of 500 represented the full-time government of Athens. It consisted of 500 citizens, 50 from each of ten tribes. This body had authority to issue decrees on its own, regarding certain matter. But its main function was to prepare the agenda for meeting of assembly. The People’s court juried of citizens would listen to cases, would vote on the guilt or innocence of their fellow citizens, and vote on punishments for those found guilty.<br /><br />I would like to discuss more about the “Assembly” because it is what differs from the democracy today. Citizenship was not given to all the people living in Athens but to men only. Aristotle in his book “Athenian Constitution (1952)” explained about the citizenship and its qualifications that “Citizenship belongs to persons of citizen parentage on both sides, and they are registered on the rolls of their demes at the age of eighteen. At the time of their registration the members of the deme make decision about them by vote on oath, first whether they are shown to have reached the lawful age, and if they are held not to be of age they go back again to the boys, and secondly whether the candidate is a freeman and of legitimate birth; after this, if the vote as to free status goes against him, he appeals to the jury-court, and the demesmen elect five men from among themselves to plead against him, and if it is decided that he has no claim to be registered, the state sells him, but if he wins, it is compulsory for the demesmen to register him.”<br /><br />Although it was different with democracy today for Athens limited citizenship to adult man of Athens, the Athenian democracy is still significant for it became the basis or origin of democracy, the most prevalent political system nowadays not only in West but also in East.<br /><br />Athenian democracy was proven its superiority during the Persian war. Paul Cartledge, the professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge said that “It was under this political system that Athens successfully resisted the Persian onslaughts of 490 and 480/79…That victory in turn encouraged the poorest Athenians to demand a greater say in the running of their city, and in the late 460s Ephialtes and Pericles presided over a radicalisation of power that shifted the balance decisively to the poorest sections of society. This was the democratic Athens that won and lost an empire”<br /><br />It was after Persian War when the Athens formed “Delian League”. Formation of Delian League was quite significant as far as democracy was concerned. Peter John Rhodes (2004) mentioned that “the first signs of the concept of demo-kratia, people-power, appear about the time; shortly afterwards we find Athens imposing democratic constitutions on some members of its alliance, the Delian League and we find Athens being regarded as a champion of democracy” Victory in the war with Persia encouraged the people of low class to demand political rights. Herodotus once said that “Great things are won by great dangers.” Athenian Democracy may be a great thing won by great danger.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Education</span><br /><br /></div></div><div style="font-style: italic; font-family: times new roman; text-align: center;">The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.<br /><br />-Plato, Republic<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify; font-family: times new roman;"><br /><br />Undoubtedly, the world’s greatest philosophers are namely Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. They were the ones who founded the basis of Western philosophy. What we may notice about them is that they were the philosopher of Greece, during the time of polis. For Athenian education advocated training citizens’ intellectual ability. Unlike Sparta, the military whose purpose of education was to produce well-drilled marching army, Athenian interest in education was at producing intellectual, cultural, and artistic citizens.<br /><br />Rupert Clendon Lodge, the author of “Plato’s theory of Education (2001)” clarified the meaning of education base on theory of Plato shown in his book “Republic” that “Education is thought of as a specifically human institution: a social technique or art not found in rerum naturae, but invented by man. As a technical art, education represents, not nature, but a human improvement upon nature.” Base on his account on Plato’s theory on education, we would infer that Greeks had a different concept about education with that of people of today. For Greek people, education does not mean mere “schooling” but encompasses “socially controlled experience (Clendon, 2001)” Plato according to Rupert (1947) understood education as a definite art: an art which guides, reshapes, and controls human experience in accordance with an intelligible principle of value.” Education was offered to the citizen in purpose of humanizing and Hellenizing them and helping them fully understand about their Hellenic society. For that reason, education is for the sake of their lives in their Hellenic society.<br /><br /><br />For Athens, education was quite practical and closely related to society and politics. Plato, the greatest philosopher of that time also advocated education for citizenship, and education for leadership. Plato was quite interested in education so he founded Academia to educate his people. For he was an advocate of elitism, he also advocated education for producing elites who were future leader of the society.<br /><br />In Athens education began at the age of 6. When he/ she became 6 years old, he/she was sent to the schools which were all private at the time. For the teachers were mostly retired military man, the way of educating was quite strict. The students were taught mainly three subjects: Letters, Music and Gymnastic.<br /><br />As mentioned above, Athenian education was aiming to produce culturally, intellectually outstanding citizens. So the school offered students a letters class in which they learned how to read, write and speak. They were also taught literacy like the words of Homer. Aristotle in his book Politics said that “the literary education is to train the mind.” They were also educated to be able to play instruments for improving their artistic and aesthetic sense.<br /><br />Aristotle about music said “Music, though of no practical use, provides a noble and liberal employment of leisure.”With spiritual education, the students were given physical education like wrestling, boxing and javelin casting in purpose of improving extensive physical culture.<br /><br />At age 18, regardless of social status, all Athenian boys were required to attend military school for two years. After that if they wanted, they were able to enter the academies established by Plato and Aristotle for higher learning. Athenian people given philosophical lessons that widened their insights in lives and the world they live.<br /><br />As I have mentioned above, the education was quite practical in many ways for its aims were to offer proper understanding about the society and life and to improve the abilities needed in order for them to live as an Athenian.<br /><br />Education, as it goes to higher level, was often related with philosophy that could be considered as highly intellect activity. This education enabled Athenian people to achieve distinct and highly developed civilization.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Acropolis and Agora</span><br /></div><br /><br />In the polis, there were two special places: Acropolis and Agora. These two places had significant meaning in Greek Civilization. Acropolis may represent the center of religion in Greek polis and Agora would represent the center of political, social and economic activities.<br /><br />Most of polis at the time had a hill at the center of city. At first polis was referring to the hills in Greek city-states but as Greek city-states began to be called “polis” the hill became “acropolis”. The word “Akcros” meant “high”. So Acropolis would mean “highest city”. Since Acropolis was a hill, it was suitable spot to build wall to defend the city. Later on, people built the temple for gods and goddesses that were believed to guard poleis.<br /><br />In the mid-fifth century BC, when the Acropolis became the seat of the Athenian League and Athens was the greatest cultural centre of its time, Perikles initiated an ambitious building project which lasted the entire second half of the fifth century BC. Athenians and foreigners alike worked on this project, receiving a salary of one drachma a day. The most important buildings visible on the Acropolis today - that is, the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion and the temple of Athena Nike, were erected during this period under the supervision of the greatest architects, sculptors and artists of their time.<br /><br />Acropolis was indeed the ambitious project of Athenian people who were highly advanced in terms of culture. Parthenon was one of the most significant buildings in their project. It was a temple for the Greek god “Athena” located in Athenian Acropolis. The temple was built in purpose of housing a 40-foot-high statue of Athena Parthenos sculpted by Phedias. Parthenon is built in Doric order and its decorative sculptures are showing the high point of Greek art. A side from the significance of Parthenon in terms of religion, it also had great meaning as far as art was concerned.<br /><br />This monumental temple was indeed not only a great Doric style structure but the religious sprit of Athenian people. Athenian people dedicated this temple which they built on high hill in their polis to praise their guard goddess. The monumental religious festival such as Panathinaia was held in it. Many Athenians gathered in Acropolis their religious and cultural festivals. For during this time the religion was closely related arts and literature, the Acropolis would become not only the center of religion but also the center of culture and art. So Acropolis in Athenian civilization would symbolize its highly advanced cultural, religious and artistic spirit of Athenian people. Indeed, it is quite clear reflection of the splendour, power and wealth of Athens at its greatest peak, the golden age of Perikles.<br /><br />Agora was an open place of assembly where Athenian citizens gathered for a wide variety of purposes. On any given day the space might be used as a market, or for an election, a dramatic performance, a religious procession, military drill, or athletic competition. Here administrative, political, judicial, commercial, social, cultural, and religious activities all found a place together in the heart of Athens, and the square was surrounded by the public buildings necessary to run the Athenian government.<br /><br />The most significant of Athenian socio-political characteristic was active participations of citizens. For it was democratic society, the citizens could freely appeal their opinions and actively act and perform as a citizen. Guaranteeing the civil rights of citizens enabled Athenian citizens to perform what they can in society more freely and actively. This was driving force of Athenian society to be active society and lead itself to the advancement in politics, economy, and especially culture.<br /><br />That is why Agora was considered important. For Athens was society whose people were active and social, the place where those people gathered must have been considered significant. Indeed, with Acropolis, Agora was the center of politics, economy and culture.<br /><br />Public speeches and political agenda were delivered in this place. Active discussions about politics were done in this place. Market developed and economic activities were done in this place. Cultural and social activities like playing music and drama were performed in this place. This was Agora, the center of communication. Rome later on succeeded “Agora” which they renamed “Forum”.<br /><br />Likewise, Acropolis and Agora were the central places that clearly showed what Athenian civilization was. Every significant aspect of Athens was shown in these places. Religion, Politics, Economy and culture of Athens were all clustered in this area and performed.<br /><br /><br /><br />Poleis were the society formed by the people who called themselves “Hellenes”. In the word “Hellenes” there is pride and vigor of Greek people. Indeed, as mentioned above, they developed their own unique civilization which set up the foundation of Western civilization.<br /><br />Greek cultures developed with civilization were widespread through Hellenization project of Alexander the Great. The unique and independent Greek culture became root of Rome. Then it became the root of Westerns.<br /><br />What is the political system which is most prevalent today? It is democracy emerged in Athens. Who are the scholars whose theories are studied most today? Undoubtedly they are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle who lived at the time of polis. Their philosophies became the basis of Western philosophy.<br /><br />These evidences prove significance of Greek civilization. Greece is indeed mother country of West. Although Greece is not really strong and prosperous today, this country is still respected for its legacies and attributions to Western civilization. It is where Western civilization was born. And still, the world is under Hellenic influence. For about 2500 years, Hellenes have been existing in field of politics, economy and culture. When we deal with Western spirit and root, undoubtedly it will be Greece that we will be talking about.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Aristotle, Athenian Constitution in 23 Volumes, Vol. 20, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1952.<br /><br />Aristotle “Politics, Book V”<br />Peter John Rhodes (2004) Athenian Democracy Oxford: Oxford University Press<br /><br />Donald Kagan (2007). Introduction to Greek History. Open Yale Courses<br /><br />M. H. Hansen (1996) More Studies in the Ancient Greek Polis Oxford: Oxford Press<br /><br />John Porter (2009). The Archaic Age and the Rise of the Polis Retrieved 23:24 November 11 2009 from file:///F:/Polis.html<br /><br />Polis (March 28, 2010). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 18:08 March 28, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polis<br /><br />Michael Streich (2008). Forms of Government in Ancient Greek City States Retrieved from http://greek-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/forms_of_government_in_ancient_greek_city_states<br /><br />Paul Cartledge (2009). Ancient history in-depth Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml<br /><br />Christopher W. Blackwell (2003) Athenian Democracy: a brief overview Retrieved from http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/article_democracy_overview?page=3&greekEncoding=<br /><br />Rupert Clendon Lodge, Solomon Frank (2001) “Plato’s Theory of Education” London: Routledge<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-76817670867977764212010-02-17T16:01:00.012+08:002010-03-30T21:55:16.911+08:00Source- Greek Technology<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Since there always come two sources for each topic, I would not able to avoid comparision between two sources. This time, I am not really apprecitated with Wiki source. Although it succeeded to list the inventions and techonology developed during Ancient time of Greek Civilization and also state explanation about those things, the source is too limited to be used my study. The extent or degree that wiki is dealing with is too small or narrow in fact.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: times new roman;">Compare to Wiki, the second source was able to give much broader information about Greek Technology, not only techonology itself but the background, scientists and its significance. However, the problem with the source in comparision to Wiki, the second source was not arranged very well, its contents are somehow confusing and not clear. In categorazing and grouping the topic, I would say Wiki was better than the second one.</span><br /></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-78760185096297662842010-02-17T15:11:00.008+08:002010-02-17T15:37:33.082+08:00Source- Two sources on Greek Arts, differnt categorization<div style="text-align: justify; font-family: times new roman;">From the two different sources about Greek Art, I was able to find intersting fact that the two, even though they were dealing with same topic, were totally different as far as way of cateogirzation was concerned.<br /><br />The Source from Wikiepdia is actually well categorized source in my own opinion. Texts are categorized according to the different forms or kinds of art. (i.e. Pottery, Metal Vessels, Arcithecture etc.) It seems that the source focused on "ART" itself. I mean to say that the source is not really concerning about other aspect of Greek Civilization in relation to the Art. The source was able to give information about Greek Art but nothing more. <br /><br />But unlike Wikipedia source, the second source was more comprehensive and useful for me. As a historian, my concern is not really Art itself, but its implication, and relationship with other aspect of Greek Civilization. In the Second source, the texts were arranged according to the timeline, development, different civiliation, and other aspect of Greek Civilization. For example one of the contents of the source was "Ancient Greek Colonization and Trade and their Influence on Greek Art". Actually this kind of source was exactly what I was looking for. My concern was not only to widen my knowledge about Greek Art but also to find out its implication in Greek Civilization.<br /><br />So, as a historian, I would prefer the second source but I would also say that as long as ART is a subject and concerned, Wikipedia source will be quite useful too. <br /><br /><br />Source 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_in_ancient_Greece<br />Source 2 http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHgreece.html<br /><br /><br /><br /></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-25003197783915857202010-02-01T09:11:00.014+08:002010-02-01T09:35:00.910+08:00Source- Comparision of Two Sources on Greek Religion<div style="text-align: justify; font-family: times new roman;">Regarding sources for Greek Religion, I would like to compare two sources posted in our module. The first source posted is from Wikipedia, well known internet encyclopedia which has extensive data. In my opinion the source the Wikipedia regarding Greek Religion, could give me general and broad view with well organized contents. However, one thing I felt something wanting was that it could not deal with depth study on the topic, Greek Religion. Well, the source from Wikipedia is quite nice to obtain general knowledge for certain topic but for more deeper studies, it might lack something. So I would like to recommend the source from Wikipedia for Elementary to High school students and even for college students who want to have general knowledge about the topic.<br /><br />For the second source from http://www.greekreligion.org/, I would say I am quite satisfied. Well, it offers us not only secondary sources but some primary sources which proffessionals and majoring students on the topic necessarily need. And the source deals with more deeper parts of the contents of the topic so the user may obtain not only general but also specific and deeper knowledge on it. Therefore, I would have to recommend the source for those who want to go for advanced study on Greek Religion.<br /><br /><br /></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-47430444940795650692009-12-03T19:46:00.004+08:002009-12-03T19:49:28.735+08:00Climate, and the Rise and fall of Civilization<span style="font-family:times new roman;"></span><div align="justify"><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">There are a number of different definitions of “Civilization”. Chamber’s Dictionary defines civilization as “a stage of development in human society that is socially, politically, culturally and technologically advanced” and Wikipedia considers it “a complex society or culture group characterized by dependence upon agriculture, long-distance trade, state form of government, occupational specialization, urbanism, and class stratification”. But one thing those definitions have in common is that civilization may refer to emergence of “Society”, the organized group or association, meeting to share a common interest of activity and all kinds of development (specifically material) occur in it.<br /><br />As humankind has gone through thousands of years, the civilization has been developed and progressed in many ways, but the essential (basic) form or basis of civilization has never changed. People settle in certain places and still form a group which we call a society and the society develops and progresses by interaction between people or societies. With this premise, we would say that it is quite meaningful to have a question that; why and how did civilization begin and emerge? What was the most influential factor of the emergence of civilizations?<br /><br />There are many assertions on the factors of the emergence of civilization; being able to domesticate, invention of farming, invention of tools etc. However, first of all of those assumptions, I would like to point out the common point of four centers of civilization which are very first of emergence of civilization; Mesopotamian, Indian, Egyptian, and Chinese Civilization which is geographical position and climate. Actually, we do not know exactly why people formed a group. The reason may be possibly found in psychology which deals with human instinct. But as a historian, what we can say about earlier people is that they formed a group and settled along the river bank and in where the climate was warm and humid and this tendency of group of people was found in all of four centers of civilization. This fact is really strong appeal for us not to overlook environmental factor and influence on the civilization. One scholar says I quote: Climate shifts have both helped to foster the rise of civilization and contributed to their demises. William Henry Mcneill in his book “Plague and People (1998)” emphasizes the importance of environmental biological factor in human society. Arnold Toynbee in his book “A study of history (1935-1948)” also mentions about environmental factor in civilization as he suggests “Challenge and Response” theory.<br /><br />If we notice that the early civilizations were based on agriculture, domestication and also on hunting and gathering food, we would know that the civilizations were strongly affected by climate and geographical factors. And in fact the geographical position of four centers of civilization which were suitable for farming, domesticating, hunting, and gathering food may be the important factor of emergence of civilization. We must not ignore the fact that all the four civilizations emerged in similar place in terms of geography and climate.<br /><br />Nick Brooks, in his paper “Cultural responses to aridity in the Middle Holocene and Increased Social Complexity (2006)” closely looks into the environmental, specifically climatic influence on the emergence of civilization. In his paper, he proposes that the four centers of civilizations especially Sahara were warm and humid but as the world faced a profound climatic and environmental changes: weakening of monsoon system and widespread of aridification during 6th and early 5th century BC in those centers, the social development and complexity achieved during the early civilization were driven. In other words, the civilization collapsed by environmental deterioration.<br /><br />Ancient civilizations, unlike nowadays, were quite dependant on environmental setting because of they were agricultural based. So the widespread of aridity was destructive enough to collapse the civilizations down. There was nothing the people could do in facing environmental challenge which was out of their control. As what Toynbee proposes, the civilization develops and progresses through facing and overcoming challenges but at the same time the civilization which was not able to respond to the challenge disappeared into history. As long as we, human beings are the part of the nature and environment, we cannot get ourselves out of environmental influence.<br /><br />As the evidence, I would want to talk about the crisis of our very own civilization being brought by environmental challenge. Our civilization, the world, is now at critical moment. Our abuse on our motherland resulted in global warming which can cause complete destruction of the Earth. This environmental challenge is (Although the human being caused it) now being stronger and driving our civilization into a corner. Like what Toynbee says, if we cannot respond to the challenge, the civilization we achieved might be vanished.<br /><br />Both recent civilization and ancient civilization face an environmental challenge. What is different from recent to ancient civilization is that the environmental challenge is caused by human being in recent time unlike which of ancient time that was made by nature itself. But the point is that the civilization faces environmental specifically climatic changes (When we say “Climate Change” it does not mean changing day by day, or week by week, or even month by month. What changes on that time-scale is weather, not climate. Climatic change happens in long duration) and the fate of civilization depends upon how people respond to that challenge. Not minding the cause of it (Whether human activity or nature itself), environmental (Climate) changes are great challenge which are perhaps impossible to be overcome to mankind and the societies.<br /><br />I see the two sides of Environment, climate in specific that can cause both rise and fall of civilization. As long as we are human beings, who are the part of environment, we will not be able to get out of the environmental influence. It is expected that especially during ancient time in which the societies were greatly dependant on agriculture and sensitive with climatic change, the environmental change was quite big challenge to people and civilization.<br /><br />Therefore, I would agree with the well-grounded scientific speculation of Brooks considering climate as the most important factor in the rise and fall of civilization. Noting that when people settled in certain place, climatic matter was considered important in choosing the place to for them settle (suitable for farming, domesticating etc.) and this was the beginning of civilization. To sum up the civilizations began with considering climate and collapsed when the climate went against them.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Sources:<br /><br />Toynbee, A. J. (1935-1948). A study of history (Vol. 1). London: Oxford University.<br /><br />McNeill, W.H. (1998). Plagues and Peoples. New York: Anchor Books.<br /><br />Brooks, Nick (2006) Cultural responses to aridity in the Middle Holocene and increased social complexity. Quarterly International, 151 (2006) 29–49. Retrieved January 07, 2009 from </span><a href="http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/WS/Documents/QI151Brooks_reform.pdf"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/WS/Documents/QI151Brooks_reform.pdf</span></a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">.<br /><br />Donald Kennedy (2000) Climate and Civilization, The Scientific Evidence for Climate Change and How Our Response to It May Influence National Polic. New York: State University of New York College at Oneonta<br /><br />Civilization (November 29, 2009) In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 08:37 November 29, 2009 from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />Civilization Chambers Dictionary (1996). Edinburgh: Chambers<br /></div></span>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-25951967186367657942009-10-30T08:09:00.000+08:002009-10-30T08:13:38.722+08:00Presentation of Critical Analysis of the Philosophy of an Historian<span style="font-family:times new roman;"><p align="justify"><br /><br /><strong>The Guns of August and the Philosophy of History<br /></strong><br /><br />“The Guns of August”, is a military history book written by Barbara Tuchman. It describes the First World War and the events behind of the war. The book was an immediate bestseller and was on the New York Times bestseller list for forty-two consecutive weeks and won the Pulitzer Prize. Even John F. Kennedy was so impressed by the book. He even gave copies to his cabinet and principal military advisors and commanded them to read it. Some people say that Kennedy drew from “The Guns of August” to help in dealing with the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Wikipedia)<br /><br />“The Guns of August” is written with great insight and historical knowledge. It is not just a book but a book which implies profound philosophy of history. As my last work in the subject Philosophy of History, I would like to look into the philosophy of Barbara Tuchman shown in the one of her greatest books “The Guns of August”. I will try to show the philosophies of history of various philosopher which are impressed into on the book. So I would like to discuss more on philosophy of Barbara Tuchman in narrating the story of the First World War rather the story itself.<br /><br />As I read the book, I was able to know that Tuchman used a priori imagination which has documentary support in narrating the stories of the World War I. In the first part of her book, she states that: “Sources for the narrative and for all quoted remarks are given in the Notes at the end of the book. I have tried to avoid spontaneous attribution or the “he must have” style of historical writing… All conditions of weather, thoughts or feelings and states of mind public or private, in the following pages have documentary support.”(Tuchman, 1962) Actually, she described feelings and states of mind of characters but as she says her descriptions are not spontaneous but based on historical facts. That is a priori imagination with historical knowledge and understanding. Some people say that Tuchman is a master of detail. As people read her book, they feel like they are in the war. I believe that describing of details is impossible with only documents. There must be a sort of imagination to describe details of an event.<br /> </p><p align="justify">In order to examine the philosophy of Barbara Tuchman and her view of the First World War, I carefully look how she begins the story. The story begins with funeral of Edward VII on May 20, 1910. The leaders of countries gathered to attend funeral of Edward, the King of England. Tuchman tries to explain the state of situation during 1910’s by describing hidden intention and state of the leaders and their countries: Germany, France, Russia, and Britain. Why does Tuchman begin the story of the World War I with the funeral of the king of England not the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand?<br /><br />Most of us think that the cause of breakout of the Great War was the assassination of Ferdinand. However Tuchman finds the real cause of the war from hidden tension and ambition of the countries in Europe. Indeed, for Tuchman, the assassination of Ferdinand was expected result of that tension between European countries.<br /><br />Back to the story, the death of Edward IIV implied quite many things. He was the brilliant diplomat and succeeded to bring changes in relationship with France and other European countries, and this brilliant diplomatic skill completely encircled Germany and her ambition. We would see in the story, during the funeral, that Wilhelm, the leader of Germany was quite excited because the leader of England, who quite successfully and completely encircled Wilhelm’s country and restrained the ambition of Germany weather it was shown or hidden. Now, with the death of Edward, there would come various changes in Europe relations. After the death of Edward, the leaders of European powers busily and secretly work for their ambition and this is well shown in description of personal state of minds of characters.<br /><br />Collingwood once said that “the principles and methods of natural science had been lately perfected and were being triumphantly applied to the investigation of the physical world.” (Collingwood, 1946) What I have noticed most in the book “The Guns of August” was that Barbara Tuchman followed what Collingwood said above in narrating the story.<br /><br />Barbara Tuchman is quite brilliant to describe one’s mind. I could see that she is able to view the situations in relations to characters’ state of minds. As I read the book, I felt like I became the one of the charters in the book. In the book she was able to explain the situation and how the tension had been made in 1910’s by describing personal state of mind of the leaders of European countries. In the first chapter, “A Funeral”, I was able to see many statements by which what the charters in the book feel and conceive were clearly shown. And that exactly fit to the situations. Base on my observation how Tuchman begin and describe the story, I would say that she uses the priori imagination and she through the story, encourages us to be one of the characters and to feel what he/she feels in the story. By using a priori imagination, Tuchman would believe that the readers will be able to have better understanding about the situation and background of the First World War. She has almost perfectly reenacted the setting of that period and described even quite details by using priori imagination base on historical document and her own understanding in relation with historical context of that time.<br /><br />What is great about Tuchman’s work is that imagination and documentary support (in order word “fact”) are balanced. A common error found in most of historical writing is unbalance of imagination and fact. In historical writing, the balance of fact and imagination (or let’s say narration) is quite important. Historical writing without imagination (I am talking about the imagination based on historical fact) but only historical documents are just “ideal chronicle” which is like recorder of all events ever happened but which cannot give any significance of the events according to Danto. And historical writing with too much imagination is just a fiction. So it is quite important to achieve balance among those.<br /><br />For that reason, I would want to say that Tuchman’s work is great in terms of historical writing. She has made great narrative based on her imagination with support of historical facts and documents. “The Guns of August” is neither just fiction of a lady nor listing tedious historical facts. Rather it is a great story which is written with well collected historical facts and documents. Therefore, I would consider “The Guns of August” as the complete work of incomplete history.<br /><br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Barbara W. Tuchman (1962). The Guns of August New York: Macmillan<br /><br />Collingwood, R. G. (1946). The idea of history. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Pp.<br />205-334 .<br /><br />Danto, A.C. (1985). Narration and knowledge. Columbia University.<br /><br />The Guns of August (October 29, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 00:17 October 29, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_August<br /> </span></p><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"></span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-51209534014054742692009-10-22T04:30:00.010+08:002009-12-09T10:45:45.188+08:00Monograph #14 William Henry Mcneill<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Spanish Flu Strikes the World</strong><br /><br /><br />“Plague and People (1998)”, the masterpiece of William Mcneill who is the one of the most respected historians nowadays, emphasizes great effect and vital role of disease throughout history. As an epidemic parasite, various diseases have struck the world. Some civilizations which could not cope with diseases declined and were killed off. On the other hand, diseases also have brought great innovation in several countries like Italy where the first quarantine emerged. Regardless of goodness and badness of the diseases’ effects on the world, I would say it is quite obvious that every time severe disease swept civilizations they caused great changes.<br /><br />In my monograph on Mcneill, I would like to present the one of the most severe diseases that struck the world and that caused great changes in the direction of the world history: Spanish Flu in 1918.<br /><br />The Spanish Flu was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly influenza a virus strain of subtype H1N1. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus. Most of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients. (Wikipedia)<br /><br />It was quite terrible disease. It killed about from 50 to 100 million people worldwide. And as estimated people, one third of the world population at the time became infected. The 1918 flu received its nickname Spanish flu primarily because the flue gained greater attention after it moved to Spain.<br /><br />The noticeable fact is that it was during the First World War when Spanish flu swept Europe and America. There were many combats between allied power and central power in Europe countries, and as America got involved by German attack on US ship, the war was becoming larger. A large number of army crowded in specific area, and most of soldiers’ immune systems were weakened because of stresses and chemical attacks. Indeed, it was quite great chance for pandemic to strike this large number of people.<br /><br />In fact, Spanish flu made great impact especially on the First World because of its unique feature that it killed many young adults, healthy victims rather than weak individuals and children. Its main target was soldiers, young adults who were fighting or would fight the war. It is quite interesting fact. Spanish flu seemed to be a pandemic which was prepared for the war because obviously its target was people in the war.<br /><br />During the War, 100,000 of American soldiers died. In fact, 43,000 of them, around 50% of casualties were killed by Spanish flu. This fact shows us how strong and horrible the Spanish flu was. It killed as many people as the army did. So some researchers even insist that it was Spanish flu that stopped the war. After Spanish flu, there came worldwide flu prevention and it led to invention of penicillin which is preventing flu.<br /><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">History tells us that every time strong diseases swept the world, there were great impacts at that time. We can easily find the examples of it aside from Spanish flu. Black Death which swept European countries during 14th century killed One-Third of Europe population only for 4 years. As a result of Black Death the feudalism, a political and social system which was strongly prevalent at the time was destroyed. Likewise, smallpox, yellow fever, and cholera which were extremely epidemic caused great changes in History.<br /><br />Perhaps, History has been being led by plagues that are something we, human beings cannot control. Our history is giving various evidences on it.<br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />McNeill, W.H. (1998). Plagues and peoples. New York: Anchor Books.<br /><br />Spanish Flu (October 5, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 18:52 October 5, 2009 from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu</span></a><br /><br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">Spanish Flu (2009) Retrieved from http://flu.emedtv.com/spanish-flu/spanish-flu.html</div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-46292678180905123272009-10-22T04:29:00.001+08:002009-10-22T04:30:34.249+08:00Position Paper #14 William Henry Mcneill<p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span></p><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>1<br /><br /><br />Parasitism</strong><br /><br /><br />William Mcneill suggests a quite unique approach to History that I have never seen from another thirteen philosophers of History I have ever studied. While the most of Historians analyze and explain historical matters with for instance, human reason, or certain scientific laws, Mcneill introduces us another interesting and probable view and approach to History: a naturalistic, specifically biological approach.<br /><br />In order for us to know why Mcneill, as not a scientist but a Historian takes biological approach to History, I would like to begin with quote from his book “Plagues and People (1998)”: “All animals depend on other living things for food, and human beings are no exception.”<br /><br />Indeed, it is undeniable that a human being is obviously dependent on other living things and his environment. Before we discuss about human history in terms of civilization, culture, society, politics and those things which are resulted by human’s rational ability that distinguishes a man from an animal as what used to be believed, we must not overlook our entity as a biological being. When we seriously consider ourselves as a biological being which is not much different from an animal in terms of biological matters, then we will realize why we should closely look into our history with a biological view or approach.<br /><br />When Mcneill talks about biological relationship of human being with other living organisms and environment, he takes “parasitism” as a main concern of that. Chambers Dictionary defines parasitism as a close association between two living organisms in which one (parasite) obtains food and physical protection from the other (host). Mcneill then divides parasitism into two: Microparasitism and Macroparasitism.<br /><br />Microparasites are tiny organisms that find a source of a food in human tissues suitable for sustaining their own vital processes. Some microparasites provoke acute disease and either kill their host after only a brief period of time, or provoke immunity reactions inside his body that kill them off instead. (Mcneill, 1998)<br /><br />Macroparasites exhibit similar diversity. Some kill at once, as lions and wolves must do when feeding on human or any other kind of flesh; others allow the host to survive indefinitely. (Mcneill, 1998)<br /><br />In parasitic relation, balance or equilibrium between parasite and host is the most important matter. If a parasite extracts too much from a host, it endangers a host and host might die. Once a host is killed off, parasite will also die. When a parasite kills the host, it kills itself because when a host dies, there will be no more sources for parasite to get from it. So it is quite important to maintain a balance and equilibrium between a parasite and a host. When a balance is destroyed, then according to Mcneill, it is epidemic. And the relationship remains stable, it is endemic.<br /><br />Mcneill considers human being as the greatest parasite. His book “Plagues and People (1998)” begins with the chapter “Man the Hunter” What is Mcneill emphasizes is that since the beginning, human being destroys and kills off a number of species in order for him to get what he needs for his life. He is a great parasite. For example, in Agricultural revolution, the first breakthrough of human civilization, ancient people killed a lot of species which are not sources of their foods. Actually that is the civilization, which progresses through killing off other species for their needs. As the result of development of language among men, men could be the strongest predator, or parasites in food chain. And that was the one of the motive power of the development of civilization. Killing hosts is what human being has been doing since the beginning of civilization. Man’s killing off his hosts is according to Mcneill, Macroparasitism. In order for human beings to sustain their lives, they had to rely on their hosts and they extracted things they needed from the hosts. That is civilization and society.<br /><br />When a man, macroparasite destroys equilibrium and balance in their society by too much extracting from his host, it is epidemic which leads the society unstable and destroyed. Stability of society can be achieved only when the balance between parasite and host is maintained and that is endemic. Likewise, we can bring the biological relationship to understand our society. We may as well put the relationship between certain groups of people into parasitic relationship. For example, in ancient time, kings, priests, aristocrats, and nobles were like parasite which relies on peasant. They extract grains from peasant. If kings and noble group extract too much from peasant, they destroy themselves. That is epidemic. So in order to achieve a stable society, the parasitic relationship should keep its balance and equilibrium so that it will remain endemic.<br /><br />I would agree with Mcneill’s idea. I believe a man is a part of nature so cannot live without nature and other living organisms. In fact, a man is ruling and controlling all the environments and living organisms as the greatest predator. However, our relationship to nature is indeed parasitic because we extract things from the nature and if we extract too much from it, it will die and we will die according to the rule of parasitism. That is why there must be balance in our relationship with other things. Therefore, what a human being has been learning throughout is how to cope and deal with his environment and how to maintain the balance and equilibrium with his hosts.<br /><br /><br /><strong>2<br /><br /><br />Equilibrium and Balance</strong><br /><br /><br />When we maintain equilibrium in our society, we know the population grows. With growth in population, the people need to achieve balance among them and to their environment. According to Mcneill, the balance is achieved through three mechanisms: Disease, War and Famine.<br /><br />First, as population grows, there may be more hosts for parasite, a disease. In large population, a disease will emerge to achieve that equilibrium. It kills off some of that growth in population. Second, increase in population of a certain group tempts a group to conquer other group and it leads to a war. It is a sort of macroparasitism. Third, when a large number of people extract too much from soil and plants the relationship of people to soil and to plant will be epidemic. It brings famine. Through these three mechanisms, the population pressure will be relieved. Therefore, it would achieve again the balance in parasitic relationship of human to his environment.<br /><br />Among three mechanisms, disease is the most emphasized factor that has been affecting on human civilization and History. Indeed, human history is full of struggle of mankind to cope with epidemic parasite, diseases. The advent of disease has always made great impact in human civilizations. It has brought not only epidemic result but also great innovation such as quarantine in Italy. Every time when mankind meet a new disease which it cannot cope with, a disease brings great changes in human society no matter it is whether epidemic or endemic.<br /><br />So it is obviously reliable to say human civilization thrives in the balance of their parasitic relationship and sometimes declines because of extreme unbalance resulted by epidemic parasitism. It can be found anywhere among men themselves, between man and plague, microparasite, and in other relationship with any other living things and environment. Therefore, I would like to say again that what we, human beings are learning throughout history is how to achieve balance with our hosts, and parasites. As a biological being, the key of our lives and civilization is found by biological approach to our history.<br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />McNeill, W.H. (1998). Plagues and peoples. New York: Anchor Books.<br /><br />Staloff, D. (1995) The search for a meaningful past philosophies, theories, and<br />interpretations [Audiobook]. The Teaching Company.<br /><br />Parasitism Chambers Dictionary (1996). Edinburgh: Chambers<br /></span></p><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"></span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-38482929757341131332009-10-22T04:26:00.000+08:002009-10-22T04:29:06.152+08:00Monograph #13 Hayden White<p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span> </p><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, and Emancipation Proclamation</strong><br /><br /><br />In narrating History, it is quite important matter for Historians what poetic strategies or literary strategies they are going to take to describe certain events in History. Hayden White proposes four modes of explotment, in narrating Historical events: Romance, Tragedy, Comedy and Satire. Each one of them would have different view and emphasis on a single event.<br /><br />Romance, according to White, is drama of self-identification, including a hero's triumph over evil. Tragedy is wherein a hero, through a fall or test, learns through resignation to work within the limitations of the world, and the audience learns as well. Comedy is in which there is harmony between the natural and the social; causes for celebration. Satire is the opposite of romance. In satire, people are captives in the world until they die.<br /><br />I would like to write my monograph about the life of Abraham Lincoln who was the one of the greatest leaders of America in four different views, modes of explotment: Romance, Tragedy, Comedy and Satire.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Romance<br /></strong><br /><br /><em>Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery,<br /> I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.</em><br /></p></span><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><em>-Abraham Lincoln</em><br /><br /><br />It was so heated argument. The 1858 campaign featured the Lincoln-Douglas debates, a famous contest on slavery. Lincoln warned that "The Slave Power" was threatening the values of republicanism, while Stephen A. Douglas emphasized the supremacy of democracy, as set forth in his Freeport Doctrine, which said that local settlers should be free to choose whether to allow slavery or not. (Wikipedia)<br /><br /> Although it was Douglas who was reelected as the senate, Lincoln became emerging a national political star by this debate. There were a lot of obstacles for Lincoln to achieve his dream which is to free slaves and make equal society. However, his brilliant speech impressed public and he was elected as a president of America in 1860. It was the first victory of anti-slavery over slavery.<br /><br />However, even after he became president, his opponents who advocated slavery did not stop being against Lincoln, their new leader. Finally the seven states- Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, and Arkansas declared themselves to be a new nation, the Confederate States of America.<br /><br />It was a great challenge for Lincoln. Did he have to give up his passion to free slaves? It was now time for him to answer to challenge of his opponents. He decided to fight. He did not compromise. Then Civil War in America has begun in 1861. Even during the war, he continued his work on freeing slaves and in July 1862, Congress passed the Second Confiscation Act, which freed the slaves of anyone convicted of aiding the rebellion. The goal was to weaken the rebellion, which was led and controlled by slave owners. Finally The Emancipation Proclamation, announced on September 22, 1862 and put into effect on January 1, 1863, freed slaves in territories not already under Union control. As Union armies advanced south, more slaves were liberated until all of them in Confederate territory (over three million) were freed. Then Lincoln said “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper.” (Wikipedia)<br /><br />After 2-3 years, Northern America defeated Southern America. And finally Lincoln succeeded to reunite America and completely abolish slavery in America.<br /><br /><br /><strong><em>Tragedy<br /></em></strong><br /><br />It was terrible. The war in one nation produced about 1,030,000 casualties which was 3% of the population. Based on 1860 census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6% in the North and an extraordinary 18% in the South.<br /><br />Lincoln could see this. It was a tragedy. People who had same nationality and blood had to fight just because of differences in their ideas and ideologies. While 4 million black slaves were freed in 1861-65, a number of white men died. It was too expensive to be a cost for freeing slaves. Lincoln succeeded to free the slaves but he failed to save the lives of a number of people in his country.<br /> <br />Anyway, after the victory, Lincoln attended the play Our American Cousin on April 14, 1865. As a lone bodyguard wandered, and Lincoln sat in his state box (Box 7) in the balcony, by John Wilkes Booth crept up behind the President and waited for what he thought would be the funniest line of the play ("You sock-dologizing old man-trap"), hoping the laughter would muffle the noise of the gunshot. When the laughter began, Booth jumped into the box and aimed a single-shot, round-slug 0.44 caliber Deringer at his head, firing at point-blank range. (Wikipedia) <br /><br />Lincoln died in 14 April 1865. It was not long after his victory. His life was just ended before he enjoyed his victory. <br /><br /><br /><strong><em>Comedy</em></strong><br /><br /><br />Civil war was actually a great conflict between South and North. Lincoln saw how terrible the war was and right after the war he tried to reconstruct Unite States. In early April, Grant took Petersburg and the Union army entered Richmond. Lincoln made a short trip to the fallen Confederate capital, and he was cheered wildly by freed slaves and Union soldiers. A Union general asked Lincoln how the conquered people of Richmond should be treated, and Lincoln answered, “If I were in your place, I'd let 'em up easy, let 'em up easy.” On April 9, 1865, just as Lincoln returned to Washington, Lee surrendered his army to Grant at Appomattox Court House, a village in Virginia. The war was all but over. (Encarta)<br /><br />On April 11, 1865, Lincoln addressed a celebrating crowd gathered outside the White House. Again he called for national unity and goodwill toward the defeated South. He appealed to his audiences to “join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the practical relation between states and Union.” (Encarta)<br /><br />Under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, North and South rapidly recovered their friendship. Although they had lost a lot of things by the war, there became strong United States. Then the Unity among states brought great development in politics, economy, and society.<br /><br /><br /><strong><em>Satire</em></strong><br /><br /><br />It seemed to be going right. It seemed to be successful. The war ended as Lincoln’s North defeated South. Lincoln showed his will to reconstruct United States, and friendship between North and South. His work was great, he proclaimed Emancipation, and won the war.<br />However, in fact, it was not like what was shown and seen. Just 3 days after the Civil War was completely over, Lincoln was assassinated by actor John Wilkes Booth.<br /><br />Lincoln died in 14 April 1865. It was not long after his victory. His life was just ended before he enjoyed his victory. Lincoln’s death showed that a man was nothing but captive of the world until he died. Lincoln may have thought that he just succeeded in everything but it was the time for him to die.<br /><br />So what happened after Lincoln’s death? What happened then after a great struggle of Lincoln and United States under his leadership? Nothing had changed. Blacks returned to a state of debt peonage which was even worse than slavery.<br /><br />Everything was done, but nothing had changed. A number of people died and everything was ruined in America. All of them were for change. However, changes United State was given were too small for their sacrifices. And they were facing a new challenge.<br /><br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Abraham Lincoln (October 6, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 04:37 October 6, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln<br /><br />American Civil War (October 6, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 00:21 October 6, 2009 from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />Abraham Lincoln Retrieved from Encarta Encyclopedia (1993-2003): Microsoft Corporation<br /><br />White, H. (1973). Metahistory: The historical imagination in nineteenth-century Europe.<br />Baltimore: John Hopkins University.<br /><br /><br />Rea, V. Metahistory. Retrieved October 10, 2007, from http://www.lehigh.edu/~ineng/syll/syllmetahistory.<br />html.</span></p><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"></span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-72324097233987552302009-10-22T04:21:00.003+08:002009-10-22T04:26:50.129+08:00Position Paper # 13 Hayden White<p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span> </p><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>1<br /><br /><br />History, A Result of Poetic Strategies</strong><br /><br /><br /><em>I will consider the Historical work as what is most manifestly is- that is to say, a verbal structure in the form of a narrative prose discourse that purports to be a model, or icon, of that past structure and processes in the interest of explaining what they were by representing them</em><br /><br /><em>-Hayden White (1973)</em><br /><br />Hayden White, as a post-structuralist, believes that in fact reality is jus our language. What does that mean? In fact, our world is full of uncountable number of events and phenomena and to be described and what describes them is language. It seems to be quite wild idea that but is not deniable. In fact we use our language to record, arrange, organize analyze and recreate Historical events. So I could not oppose post-structuralism insisting language is essential to History.<br /><br />Based on this concept, Hayden White says that History is in fact poetically constructed which means to say History is a result of different poetic and linguistic strategies that are employed to describe certain events in History. Therefore, History is narrative.<br /><br />White begins his book “Metahistory” by distinguishing the following levels of conceptualization in the Historical work: (1) chronicle; (2) story; (3) mode of emplotment; (4) mode of argument; and (5) mode of ideological implication. (White 1973) White tries to show what processes historical account goes through.<br /><br />First of all, the unprocessed or not organized data of historical record should be organized and arranged in sequence of the time this is what White call chronicle. Then chronicle is organized into a story by further arrangement of the event into components of a “spectacle” or process of happening, which is thought to possess a discernible beginning, middle and end. (White, 1973)<br /><br />If we have gone through the processes stated above, we are now to decide what particular poetic strategies to describe a story. This stage or let us say structure is what White emphasizes in his book. It is where his emphasis on role of language and literary strategies in History clearly shown. And this is the process<br /><br /><br /><strong>2<br /><br />Four Modes of Emplotment</strong><br /><br /><br />White tries to propose structure of History which is linked to language and literacy. So in His book “Metahistory (1973)” he proposes Western literacy tradition prescribe four structures of emplotment or ways of fashioning events into a narrative; romance, tragedy, comedy and satire. (Marie Hughes Warrington, 2009) This is actually the process to reconstruct historical events understandable to people.<br /><br />The Romance is fundamentally a drama of self-identification symbolized by the hero’s transcendence of the world of experience, his victory over it, and his final liberation from it- the sort of drama associated with the Grail legend or the story of the resurrection of Christ in Christian mythology. It is drama of the triumph of good over evil, of virtue over vice, of light over darkness. (White, 1973) The tragedy shows hero fails to resolve successfully problems. He cannot overcome the problems which he faces. The comedy is where temporary triumphs over adversity occur in the world by the protagonist by means of reconciliations or brief reconciliations. The satire is a tale of diruption208 in which ultimately death and the bad always wins. (Staloff, 1995)</span></p><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Those four modes of explotment are used to offer audiences a well explained, so understandable Historical account. It is quite interesting for me that there can be various forms of account and analysis according to different people who take different literary or poetic strategies to describe a single event. For example, if we see Lincoln’s life in the view of romance, we will emphasize his great struggle to free slaves in America. However if we see it in the view of tragedy, we will emphasize the scene that he was assassinated by his opponent.<br /><br />I agree with that those kinds of explotment can make more interesting and understandable Historical account anyway. However I would like to point out that putting Historical events and or stories into poetic reconstruction would distort their objectivity.<br /><br />I believe that the most of Historical writings and accounts cannot avoid taking a narrative form. However, I would like to remind myself and narrativists that when we narrate Historical events and explain them such modes of explotment, we must not damage and distort objectivity of the events. History is true story. So for me, as a Historian, delivering truth is more important matter than making historical events interesting to audience.<br /><br />Therefore, I would say that in narrating History we must be able to deliver not only insight and teachings based on our subjectiveness but also insights and teachings which are clearly object.<br /><br /><br /><strong>3<br /><br /><br />Modes of Argument</strong><br /><br /><br />White also proposes four structures of argument: formism, organicism, mechanism and contextualism<br /><br />Formalist tries to identify objects by classifying, labelling, categorizing: "any historiography in which the depiction of the variety, color, and vividness of the historical field is taken as the central aim of the work" (White, 1973)<br /><br />For the organicist, explanation ‘must take the form of a synthesis in which each of the parts of the whole must be shown either to mirror the structure of the totality or to prefigure the form of either the end of the whole process or at least the latest phase of the process’ (ibid.). (Marie Hughes Warrington, 2009)<br /><br />Contextualists believe that ideas and actions are best explained when they are placed in context or ‘colligated’. (Marie Hughes Warrington, 2009)<br /><br />Mechanistic writers try to identify and match ‘causes’ and ‘effects’. (Marie Hughes Warrington, 2009) They try to find laws that govern the operations of human activities.<br /><br />Among four modes of argument proposed by White, I prefer Contextualism. I believe that Collingwood’s a priori imagination can partially be sort of Contxtualism because a priori imagination is suggesting us to go into the event and think of what must happen and what the situation must be like. A priori imagination must be corresponding with historical context. It does not allow any sort of wild imaginations that are not regarding historical context. So as a person who agrees with Collingwood’s theory I would prefer the Contextualism among those modes of argument.<br /><br /><strong><br />4<br /><br /><br />Mode of Ideological Implication</strong><br /><br /><br />According to Hayden White, the ideological dimensions of a Historical account reflect the ethical element in the Historian’s assumption of a particular position on the question of the nature of Historical knowledge and implications that can be drawn from the study of past events for the understanding of present ones. (White, 1973)<br /></p></span><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">White proposes four modes of ideological implication: Conservative that says History evolves; Liberal that says progression of social History is the result of changes in law and government; Radical believes that Utopia is imminent and must be effected by revolutionary means; and Anarchist believes that the state is corrupt and therefore it must be destroyed and a new community must be started. The main concern of four ideological implications is Social, and possibly political changes. Conservatives are more suspicious of programmatic transformation of the society another three are optimistic about the rapid transformation in society. The four mode of ideological implication can also be categorized into two: Scientific and Realistic. Conservative and Anarchist are quite realistic while Liberal and Radical claim to be scientific.<br /><br />The categorization of ideological implication in History is quite interesting and I believe that it is a well analyzed work. We cannot deny that the most of Historical accounts implies specific ideologies of writers because every work has reflection of its writer’s idea, theory, interest etc.<br /><br /><br /><strong>5<br /><br /><br />Historical Style- Combination of Three Modes</strong><br /><br /><br /> Now, I would like to discuss the part which I am interested in most in Hayden’s work “Metahistory”. I am very much interested that Historical writings or accounts are structurally a combination of three modes that I have discusses above: Explotment, Argument and Ideological implications. And I would like to present a table of combination proposed by White:<br /><br /><em><br /></em><strong>Emplotment Argument Ideology<br /></strong>Romantic Formist Anarchist<br />Tragic Mechanistic Radical<br />Comic Organicist Conservative<br />Satirical Contextualist Liberal<br /><br />I am just amazed by precise analysis of Hayden White on Historical writings and accounts and how the modes are combined to be structure of Historical work. I cannot say I agree with all that White discusses but what he discusses is probable.<br /><br />I would like to admire his approach to Historical writing. No matter how much I agree or disagree with him, his idea that precisely suggests structure of Historical works is quite interesting. I would want to consider his work as unconventional and creative conception on History. <br /> <br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Marie Hughes Warrington (2009). 50 Key Thinker on History New York: Routlege<br /><br />White, H. (1973). Metahistory: The historical imagination in nineteenth-century Europe.<br />Baltimore: John Hopkins University.<br /><br />Staloff, D. (1995) The search for a meaningful past philosophies, theories, and<br />interpretations [Audiobook]. The Teaching Company.</span></p><div align="justify"></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-46878437521263325042009-10-19T14:08:00.003+08:002009-10-19T21:14:00.605+08:00Economic Philosopher #2 John Maynard Keynes<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>1<br /><br /><br />Introduction</strong><br /></span></div><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><div align="justify"><br />As I researched on John Maynard Keynes’s life and work, I was able to point out that most of his theories were quite situational and relative to factual cases. The reason for that is because in his life time, there were crucial events like the First and Second World War and the Great Depression which struck the world. Those events were in fact so influential in terms of economy. Before those events struck the world, the most of countries’ economic system was capitalism proposed by Adam Smith and other classical economist (Keynes called them ‘classical’). However as they had gone through those disastrous events (especially Great Depression), they faced the problems of capitalism especially in market economy. No, in fact most of them would not realize the problems. It was Keynes who realized the errors of classical economic system. He begins his book “General Theory of Employment, Interest, and d Money (1936)”, he shows his bold object and I quote:<br /><br />“I have called this book the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, placing the emphasis on the prefix general. The object of such a title is to contrast the character of my arguments and conclusions with those of the classical theory of the subject, upon which I was brought up and which dominates the economic thought, both practical and theoretical, of the governing and academic classes of this generation, as it has for a hundred years past.” -Keynes (1936)<br /><br />Actually, he does not deny everything about classical theory. However he confidently points out the errors of classical theory and boldly suggests his idea as “general”. Therefore, even though he is not strong opponent of classical theory, Capitalism, his ideas and suggestions are seemingly quite critical against it.<br /><br />Keynes’ remarkable books were published generally after he experienced various worldly problems so most of them were written thoroughly base on his practical experiences and accurate view points as a witness of the events. “The Economic Consequences of Peace (1919)” was published after the Treaty of Versailles, and his masterpiece “General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (1936)” was also published after he experienced the Great Depression.<br /><br />I strongly believe that in order to fully understand Keynes’ theories, it is quite necessary to grasp the errors of classical theories that were shown in historical context and background when Keynes was living. Indeed, studying his theories requires not only economic knowledge but also historical knowledge.<br /><br />As the one of the best economists among whom has ever existed, Keynes fearlessly challenges Classical theory that has been respected and advocated for a long time by various countries and people. John Maynard Keynes, who chose to be practical rather than to be theoretical, ends the introduction of his book “General Theory (1936)” by stating that:<br /><br />“I shall argue that the postulates of the classical theory are applicable to a special case only and not to the general case, the situation which it assumes being a limiting point of the possible positions of equilibrium. Moreover, the characteristics of the special case assumed by the classical theory happen not to be those of the economic society in which we actually live, with the result that its teaching is misleading and disastrous if we attempt to apply it to the facts of experience.” –Keynes (1936)<br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>2<br /><br /><br />The Life and Work of John Maynard Keynes<br /></strong><br /><br />John Maynard Keynes, (5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946) was a British economist whose ideas have been a central influence on modern macroeconomics, both in theory and practice. He advocated interventionist government policy, by which governments would use fiscal and monetary measures to mitigate the adverse effects of business cycles, economic recessions, and depressions. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics, and its various offshoots.<br /><br />John Maynard Keynes was born in Cambridge to a middle class family. His parents were both an intellectual. His father, John Neville Keynes was a lecturer of Cambridge University and his mother, Florence Ada Keynes was a local social reformer. So he would receive his father’s support in terms of expert coaching financial help.<br /><br />Keynes had his early education at home and in kindergarten. He attended St Faith's preparatory school as a day pupil from 1892-1897. Teachers described Keynes as brilliant, but on occasion, careless and lacking in determination. His health was often poor during this period, leading to several long absences.<br /><br />Keynes won a scholarship to study at Eton, where he displayed talent in a wide range of subjects, particularly mathematics, classics and history. Despite his middle class background, Keynes mixed easily with upper class pupils. In 1902 Keynes left Eton for King's College, Cambridge, to study mathematics. It was time when Keynes became interested in Economy as he met Alfred Marshall who considered Keynes as a future great economist.<br /><br />In his school, he was known as very active student. He was interested in philosophy especially ethical system of G.E Moor. At the same time, he was also a member of the semi-secretive Cambridge Apostle society. It was a sort of group in which the number of members was as small as not more than 12 and that pursued elitism. As he acted as a member of elite group, he became an advocate of elitism.<br /><br />Like many members, Keynes retained a bond to the club after graduating and continued to attend occasional meetings throughout his life. Before leaving Cambridge, Keynes became the President of the Cambridge University Liberal Club. In May 1904 he received a first class B.A. in mathematics. Aside from a few months spent on holidays with family and friends, Keynes continued to involve himself with the university over the next two years. He took part in debates, further studied philosophy and attended economics lectures informally as a graduate student. He also studied for his 1905 Tripos and 1906 Civil Service exams. Keynes was always confident he could find a solution to whatever problem he turned his attention to, and retained a lasting faith in the ability of government officials to do good.<br /><br />Keynes began his civil service in October 1906, as a clerk in the India office. However, he was not interested in the India office, so he resigned his position and went back to Cambridge to work on probability theory. It was the time when Keynes published his first professional economics article in Economics Journal in 1909. Then By 1913 he had published his first book, Indian Currency and Finance. He was then appointed to the Royal Commission on Indian Currency and Finance– the same topic as his book – where Keynes showed considerable talent at applying economic theory to practical problems.<br /><br />In January 1915 Keynes took up an official government position at the Treasury. Among his responsibilities were the design of terms of credit between Britain and its continental allies during the war, and the acquisition of scarce currencies. According to economist Robert Lekachman, Keynes's "nerve and mastery became legendary" due to his performance of these duties, as in the case where he managed to assemble — with difficulty — a small supply of Spanish pesetas.<br /><br />In 1919, when the First World War ended, the countries that had involved in the war gathered in Versailles to settle the matter after the war. Keynes was also there as a financial representative for the Treasury. His experience at Treaty of Versailles was so influential for him to sketch his idea and future outlook. Actually, Keynes strongly opposed the Articles agreed in the Treaty of Versailles especially about huge reparation imposed on Germany. Through his book, “The Economic Consequences of Peace”(1919) He insisted that Germany was not able to pay reparation required by allied powers and those harsh punishments would give chance an instigator to lead uprising. Keynes's predictions of disaster were borne out when the German economy suffered the hyperinflation of 1923, and again by the collapse of the Weimar Republic and the outbreak of World War II<br /><br />After returning to Cambridge, he published his Treatise on Probability (1921). where he dismantled the classical theory of probability and launched what has since become known as the "logical-relationist" theory of probability. Keynes's work caused something of a stir, arousing the young Cantabrigian logician, Frank P. Ramsey, to outline his own "subjective" theory of probability.<br /><br />Throughout the 1920s, Keynes remained active in public policy debates, channeled mainly through his numerous articles in the Nation and Atheneum, a Liberal-Labour weekly magazine which he helped purchase in 1923 (it was absorbed by the New Statesman in 1931). The best of Keynes public policy writings was collected in his Essays in Persuasion (1931). He was on the forefront of the battle against returning Britain to the gold standard on a pre-war parity (e.g. 1925). This led him to author two famous pieces in condemnation of laissez-faire economic policy (1925,1926). In 1929, he wrote an election pamphlet with Hubert D. Henderson advocating the use of public works to reduce unemployment and condemning the Treasury's fear of "budget deficits". In 1929, he also entered into a small debate with Bertil Ohlin and Jacques Rueff on German reparations problem. He also found time to marry the Russian ballerina, Lydia Lopokova in 1925<br /><br />Keynes' magnum opus the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money was published in 1936. It was indexed by Keynes's student, later the economist David Bensusan-Butt. The work served as a theoretical justification for the interventionist policies Keynes favored for tackling a recession. The General Theory challenged the earlier neo-classical economic paradigm, which had held that provided it was unfettered by government interference, the market would naturally establish full employment equilibrium.<br /><br />During World War II, Keynes argued in How to Pay for the War, published in 1940, that the war effort should be largely financed by higher taxation and especially by compulsory saving (essentially workers loaning money to the government), rather than deficit spending, in order to avoid inflation. In June 1942, Keynes was rewarded for his service with an hereditary peerage in the King's Birthday Honours. On 7 July his title was gazetted as Baron Keynes, of Tilton in the County of Sussex, and he took his seat in the House of Lords on the Liberal Party benches. In the mid-1944 negotiations that established the Bretton Woods system. The Keynes-plan, concerning an international clearing-union argued for a radical system for the management of currencies. He proposed the creation of a common world unit of currency, the Bancor and of new global institutions — a world central bank <span style="font-size:+0;">and the International Clearing Union. His idea founded the two new institutions, later known as the World Bank and IMF, as a compromise that primarily reflected the American vision.<br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Throughout his life Keynes worked energetically for the benefit both of the public and his friends – even when his health was poor he laboured to sort out the finances of his old college and to try to design an international monetary system that would benefit the whole world at Bretton Woods. Keynes suffered his final series of fatal heart attacks during negotiations for an Anglo-American loan he was trying to secure on favourable terms for Great Britain from the United States, a process he described as "absolute hell". Keynes died at Tilton, his farmhouse home near Firle, East Sussex, on 21 April 1946, a few weeks after returning from America.<br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>3.1<br /><br /><br />Classical Economist vs Keynes</strong><br /><br /><br />One economist has said that Keynesian revolution is the legacy of the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s. It was the longest, most widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century, and is used in the 21st century as an example of how far the world's economy can decline. The depression originated in the United States, triggered by the stock market crash of October 29, 1929 (known as Black Tuesday), but quickly spread to almost every country in the world. (Wikipedia)<br /><br />Compared to Classical economic theories, Keynes’ ideas were generally intuitive. As a witness of the Great Depression, he viewed the phenomena of the Great Depression quite differently with Classical economists. At the time, Keynes’ ideas were quite shocking and revolutionary because in some way, he upset the classical theories which were mostly prevalent and respected at the time. I would like to briefly points out different concepts between Classical economist and Keynes:<br /><br /><br /><strong>Price: Classical-</strong> Flexible <strong>Keynsian-</strong> Sticky<br /><strong>Period:</strong> <strong>Classical-</strong> Long <strong>Keynesian-</strong> Short<br /><strong>Main body:</strong> <strong>Classical-</strong> Market <strong>Keynesian-</strong> Government<br /><strong>Focus on:</strong> <strong>Classical-</strong> Supply <strong>Keyensian-</strong> Demand<br /><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">The Great Depression was a case of deflation. Deflation according to Chambers Dictionary is a reduction in the amount of money available in a country, resulting in lower levels of economic activity, industrial output and employment, and a lower rate of increase in wages and prices. In simply way, the Great Depression, a deflation would be cyclically explained:<br /><br />Fall of consumer’s expenditure à Decrease in aggregate demand à Excess stock à Decrease in manufacturing à Decrease in demand of labor à Unemployment à Family income decreases à fall of expenditure<br /><br />The most important and noticeable difference between Classical economists and Keynes is the view on flexibility of price. Classical economists believe that prices decided in market were flexible. According to them, when there is more demand than supply price immediately rises, and when there is more supply than demand, price immediately falls. To sum up the price is controlled flexibly by invisible hand and it will be of course taking place with long term. It is the ability of market economy. Therefore, if their assumption is true, there will never be excess demand and supply and unemployment. Base on these assumptions, classical economists insisted autonomy of market system even during the Great Depression. They say if there is deflation or inflation, invisible hand of market will control it and it will be ok. However Keynes thinks it differently. He criticizes them by saying that “The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.” According to him, price is sticky at least for short term so there may be excess supply and unemployment. Accordingly, even when there is more supply than demand price may not fall and excess supply may continue. So what Keynes proposes as a solution to fall of price is to deal with demand.<br /><br /><br /><strong>3.2<br /><br /><br />It is bad to save too much</strong><br /><br /><br />If we closely look into the phenomena of deflation in America, we would understand Keynes emphasizing matter of demand. Let us go back to the cycle of deflation. How can we cut off this cycle? Deflation simply means that there are products to buy but people are not able to buy it because they do not have money. They do not have money because they do not have a job. Yes, indeed the first problem that must be settled to escape from deflation is unemployment.<br /><br />Let us go deeper. As long as price is sticky at least for a short time, we have to deal with quantity. We have to increase quantity of product produced so that we can employ the people. They will earn money. As long as they have money they will buy things and demand increases. Then they escape from deflation.<br /><br />People during the Great Depression tried to raise the prices of commodities by restricting their supply. It seemed to be reasonable because they had excess stock. According to the classical theory, when there is less supply than demand the price rises. However Keynes says that “restriction is worse than useless.” (Keynes, 1933)<br /><br />Then he in his book “The Means to Prosperity (1933)” proposes five ways to raise prices and employment. I would like to present four of them and I quote:<br /><br />1. For commodities as a whole there can be no possible means of raising their prices except by increasing expenditure upon them more rapidly than their supply comes upon the market,<br /><br />2. Expenditure can only be increased if the public spend a larger proportion of the incomes they already have, or if their aggregate spending power is increased in some other way.<br /><br />3. There are narrow limits to increasing expenditure out of existing incomes,—whether by saving less or by increased personal expenditure of a capital nature. Anyone who can afford to spend more should be encouraged to do so, particularly if he has opportunities to spend on new capital or semi-capital objects. we must aim at increasing aggregate spending power. If we can achieve this, it will partly serve to raise prices and partly to increase employment.<br /><br />4. Putting on one side the special case of people who can earn their incomes by actually producing gold, it is broadly true to say that aggregate spending power within a country can only be raised either (i.) by increasing the loan-expenditure of the community; or (ii.) by improving the foreign balance so that a larger proportion of current expenditure again becomes income in the hands of home producers. By means of public works the Labour Government—though rather half-heartedly and in adverse attendant circumstances—attempted the first.<br /><br />These four means of raising price and employment are simply saying that it is bad to say too much. He strongly insists that people, the consumers and government should spend and increase expenditure. However, during the Great Depression, people had already lost their ability to consume. They had nothing to spend. Therefore, it was the government that must increase expenditure and input capitals to deflated economy. But the problem was that for a long time government had not been allowed to interfere in economy. It was because of Classical economists who insisted autonomy of market and minimizing of interference of government.<br /><br />Keynes had recognized several problem of classical theory which was dependent on market. Classical economists believed that the market economy was enabled to regulate prices and quantity of commodities by so-called invisible hand which refers to people’s behavior in their own interest. (Wikipedia) Great Depression happened primarily because of unstable prices and quantity of commodities. Classical economists believed that market with invisible hand, was going to regulate prices and quantity of commodities and everything would soon be ok. However, Keynes did not rely on the ability of market and insisted interference of government as long as people were not available to spend and increase expenditure.<br /><br /><br /><strong>3.3<br /><br /><br />New Deal</strong><br /><br /><br />The New Deal was the name that United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to a complex package of economic programs he effected between 1933 and 1935 with the goals of what historians call the 3 Rs, of giving Relief to the unemployed and badly hurt farmers, Reform of business and financial practices, and promoting Recovery of the economy during the Great Depression. (Wikipedia)<br /><br />Keynes believed that the remedy for the Great Depression was increasing of expenditure. It could be done by increasing consumer’s income. In order to increase consumer’s income unemployment problem must be settled. Since market was not able to handle unemployment problem, the government had to handle it. Government would spend money and begin national business to provide people a job.<br /><br />Franklin D. Roosevelt was the one who accepted Keynes’ idea. After he was elected as a president of the United States he drastically gave up the principle of Laissez-Faire and promoted interference of government. Simply New Deal was the trial to produce employment. So the government headed by Roosevelt then began programs to raise employment once again for instance national business to provide people a job. I would like to briefly list notable programs have been done by New Deal:<br /><br /><br />1. Reconstruction Finance Corporation a Hoover agency expanded under Jesse Holman Jones to make large loans to big business. Ended in 1954;<br /><br />2. Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), 1933-1942: employed young men to perform unskilled work in rural areas; under United States Army supervision; separate program for Native American;<br /><br />3. Public Works Administration (PWA), 1933: built large public works projects; used private contractors (did not directly hire unemployed);<br /><br />4. Civil Works Administration (CWA), 1933-34: provided temporary jobs to millions of unemployed;<br /><br />5. Works Progress Administration (WPA), 1935: a national labor program for more than 2 million unemployed; created useful construction work for unskilled men; also sewing projects for women and arts projects for unemployed artists, musicians and writers. (Wikipedia)<br /><br />The active interference of government headed by Roosevelt raised employment. And people would again act as a consumer and expenditure and demand increased. Indeed, Keynes’ idea was proven by New Deal, the breakthrough of the Great Depression.<br /><br />Government expenditure (National program & Business) à Employment à Increase in Consumer’s income à Increase in demand à balance in supply and demand à Stability in price and quantity of goods à Recovery<br /><br />To sum up, the solution to the Great Depression proposed by John Maynard Keynes was to spend and increase expenditure. And it was done by government’s active interference. This proposal was quite shocking and opposite of classical idea. However, history proves that it was the key to recovery from the Great Depression. Indeed, the Great Depression could be overcome by revolutionary economical reform. So we call Keynes’ ideas “Revolution”<br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />John Maynard Keynes (1936) General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan<br /><br />John Maynard Keynes. Library Economics Liberty Retrieved on 2 October 2, 2009 from </span><a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Keynes.html"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Keynes.html</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />John Maynard Keynes, 1883-1946. Retrieved on 2 October 2009 from </span><a href="http://homepage.newschool.edu/het/profiles/keynes.htm"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://homepage.newschool.edu/het/profiles/keynes.htm</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />John Maynard Keynes (September 30, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 00:07 September 30, 2009 from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />The Economic Consequences of Peace (May 11, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 18:37 May 11, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economic_Consequences_of_the_Peace<br /><br />John Maynard Keynes (1933) The Means to Prosperity London: Macmillan<br /><br />Deflation Chambers Dictionary (1996). Edinburgh: Chambers<br /><br />Great Depression (October 5, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 12:39 October 5, 2009 from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />New Deal (October 1, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 17:57 October 1, 2009 from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"></span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-40300708088588377572009-10-16T22:07:00.002+08:002009-10-16T22:13:44.662+08:00Monograph #1 Mircea Elide<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Christmas, an Aggregate of Archetypes<br /></strong><br /><br />The theory of Mircea Elide that proposes repetition of an archetype is most well shown in holidays that people commemorate and celebrate. Holiday itself is made by people as they repeated a specific archetype from generation to generation. The Christmas would show us not only repetition of an archetype but also the fact that people make rituals based on something that is related with a divine model.<br /> <br />Christmas is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. This is a popular holiday that is celebrated by both Christians and non-Christians. However, December 25 is not Jesus’ actual date of birth and this day has been chosen to correspond with other holidays that pagans were celebrating. There were many holidays or customs that were corresponded with Christmas.<br /><br />First one was The Roman solar holiday Dies Natalis Solis Invicti which means “the birthday of unconquered Sun” The use of title Sol Invictus allowed several solar deities to be worshipped collectively, including Elah-Gabal, a Syrian sun god; Sol, the god of Emperor Aurelian; and Mithras, a soldiers' god of Persian origin. Emperor Elagabalus (218–222) introduced the festival, and it reached the height of its popularity under Aurelian, who promoted it as an empire-wide holiday. This day had held no significance in the Roman festive calendar until it was introduced in the third century.<br /><br />Second one was a winter festival which is the most popular festival of the year in many cultures. Reasons included the fact that less agricultural work needs to be done during the winter, as well as an expectation of better weather as spring approached. Modern Christmas customs include: gift-giving and merrymaking from Roman Saturnalia; greenery, lights, and charity from the Roman New Year; and Yule logs and various foods from Germanic feasts. Pagan Scandinavia celebrated a winter festival called Yule, held in the late December to early January period. As Northern Europe was the last part to Christianize, its pagan traditions had a major influence on Christmas. Scandinavians still call Christmas Jul. In English, the word Yule is synonymous with Christmas, a usage first recorded in 900.<br /><br />And lastly, Saturn, a god of agriculture and Mitra, a god of sun of Iranians were worshipped at that day by people.<br /><br />The earliest reference to the celebration of the nativity on December 25 is found in the Chronography of 354, an illuminated manuscript compiled in Rome in 354. In the East, early Christians celebrated the birth of Christ as part of Epiphany (January 6), and this festival included the celebration of the baptism of Jesus. Christmas was promoted in the Christian East as part of the revival of Catholicism following the death of the pro-Arian Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The feast was introduced to Constantinople in 379, and to Antioch in about 380. The feast disappeared after Gregory of Nazianzus resigned as bishop in 381, although it was reintroduced by John Chrysostom in about 400.<br /><br />Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival that includes ivy, holly, and other evergreens. Christmas gift-giving during the Middle Ages was usually between people with legal relationships, such as tenant and landlord.<br /><br />In modern ages, people all over the world are celebrating and considering it a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion as opposed to communal celebration and excess.<br /><br />In the History and origin of Christmas, it is a noticeable fact that Christmas was associated with various pagan customs. And those customs were all derived from a myth and a divine model. Christmas can be considered as an aggregate of various archetypes derived from a divine being. This Historical analysis on Christmas can offer us an important source to explain Eliade’s view. It also shows that archetypes or ritual can possibly interact with each other.<br /><br />Christmas is mythical. People are celebrating the birth of Jesus whom they have not ever seen. The fact that God, a divine model has come to the earth in appearance of man is attractive enough to make people interested in it. Their interest and desire toward a divine events or being lead to the ritual, and as many people practiced it, it became an archetype that is repeated even today. And as it is mixed up with other rituals or archetypes derived from mythical or divine events or being, it became a good example to explain how people make their rituals and repeat archetypes and how the different archetypes or ritual interact with each other.<br /><br />Christmas, undoubtedly a most popular and well known holiday has been celebrated more than 1500 years all over the world regardless of religions, and nationality. It is a typical archetype and a ritual which is derived from a divine being. People are celebrating and repeating the event that has happened 2,000 years ago. We will be able to see how exactly Mircea Eliade pointed out the characteristics of an archetype and a ritual through “Christmas”<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Christmas. (2009, July 6). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18:50 July 6, 2009, from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christmas&oldid=300514140">http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christmas&oldid=300514140</a><br /><br />The History of Christmas (2009, July 6). Retrieved 19:10 July 6, 2009, from <a href="http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/christmas_history.htm">http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/christmas_history.htm</a><br /><br /><br />Christmas (2009, July 6). Retrieved 19:25 July 6, 2009 from http://enc.daum.net/dic100/viewContents.do?&m=all&articleID=b22k0537a<br /> </span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-61499593051047516712009-10-14T21:57:00.001+08:002009-10-14T22:00:15.540+08:00Monograph #12 Fernand Braudel<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Development of Transportation, Vehicle</strong><br /><br /><br />Transportation is the movement of people and goods from one location to another. Transport is performed by modes, such as air, rail, road, water, cable, pipeline and space. The field can be divided into infrastructure, vehicles, and operations. (Wikipedia)<br /><br />As Civilization emerged, and farming and domesticating which resulted in surpluses began, there came trade between groups. What is really important in trade is transportation. In order to trade, people needed to move their goods to trade. This need urged people to seek efficient way of transportation and it was the beginning of development transportation.<br /><br />Since BC 3500 when the civilizations began, technology and means of transportation has been developing until now. Therefore, I would say the development of transportation would be a good example of events which takes place in long duration time span that Fernand Braudel proposes.<br /><br />When we talk about transportation, the most of us would first think of vehicle which is a mechanical means of conveyance, a carriage or transport. (Wikipedia) So I would like to focus on how vehicle has been developing in long time of History by following chronicle.<br /><br /><br /><strong><em>BC 3500</em></strong><br /><br /><em>Fixed Wheels on carts are invented – The first wheeled vehicles in History. Other early wheeled vehicles include the chariot.</em><br /><br />The wheel is quite great invention in human civilization. The oldest wheel was found in Mesopotamia. We all know that wheel is everywhere on all our cars, trains, airplane, machines, wagon and most factory and farm equipment. We cannot imagine that we move things without wheel. It is so amazing that we, resent people still use a wheel which invented 5,500 years ago. <br /><br />River boats are invented – Ships with oars<br /><br />Vehicle was invented not only on land but also on water. In Mesopotamia, the first boats were built out of inflated and stretched animal skins and clay pots. The Egyptians used reeds. Early wood boats included: rafts, canoes, and dugouts.<br /> <br /><strong><em>BC 2000</em></strong><br /><br /><em>Horses are domesticated and used for transportation.<br /></em><br />Sculptures and drawings that date from the 2nd millennium BC show men and women on horseback. Using Horses as means of transportation played vital role from ancient countries to before a car invented.<br />181-234<br /><br /><em>The wheelbarrow is invented.</em><br /> <br />Chuko Liang (181-234 A.D.) of China is considered to be the inventor of the wheelbarrow. Liang was a general who used the wheelbarrows to transport supplies injured soldiers. The Chinese wheelbarrows had two wheels and required two men to propel and steer.<br /><br /><br /><strong><em>1492</em><br /></strong><br /><em>Leonardo da Vinci first to seriously theorize about flying machines - with over 100 drawings that illustrated his theories on flight</em><br /><br />He had over 100 drawings that illustrated his theories on bird and mechanical flight. The drawings illustrated the wings and tails of birds, ideas for man carrying machines, and devices for the testing of wings. The Ornithopter flying machine was never actually created. It was a design that Leonardo da Vinci created to show how man could fly. The modern day helicopter is based on this concept. Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks on flight were reexamined in the 19th century by aviation pioneers.<br /><br /><strong><em>1620</em></strong><br /><br /><em>Cornelis Drebbel invented the first submarine - an human oared submersible</em><br /><br />Designs for underwater boats or submarines date back to the 1500s and ideas for underwater travel date back even further. However it was not until the 19th century that the first useful submarines began to appear.<br /><br /><br /><strong><em>1787<br /></em></strong><br /><em>Steamboat was invented</em><br /><br />In 1769, the Scotsman James Watt patented an improved version of the steam engine that ushered in the Industrial Revolution. The idea of using steam power to propel boats occurred to inventors soon after the potential of Watt's new engine became known.<br /><br /><strong>1862</strong><br /><br /><em>Jean Lenoir makes a gasoline engine automobile</em><br /><br />Belgian-born engineer, Jean JosephÉtienne Lenoir invented and patented (1860) a double-acting, electric spark-ignition internal combustion engine fueled by coal gas. In 1863, Lenoir attached an improved engine (using petroleum and a primitive carburetor) to a three-wheeled wagon that managed to complete an historic fifty-mile road trip.<br /><br /><strong><em>1867</em></strong><br /><br /><em>First motorcycle invented</em><br /><br />American, Sylvester Howard Roper (1823-1896) invented a two-cylinder, steam-engine motorcycle (powered by coal) in 1867. This can be considered the first motorcycle, if you allow your description of a motorcycle to include a steam engine.<br /><br /><em><strong>1903<br /></strong><br />The Wright Brothers invent and fly the first engined airplane</em><br /><br />Orville Wright (1871-1948) and Wilbur Wright (1867-1912) requested a patent application for a "flying machine" nine months before their successful flight in December 1903, which Orville Wright recorded in his diary.<br /><strong><br /><em>1926</em></strong><br /><br /><em>First liquid propelled rocket launched</em><br /><br />Liquid fueled rockets were first theorized by Tsiolkozski in his "Investigation of Interplanetary Space by Means of Reactive Devices," published in 1896. His idea was realized 27 years later when Robert Goddard launched the first liquid fueled rocket.<br /><br /><em><strong>1947</strong></em><br /><br /><em>First supersonic jet flight</em><br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Dr. Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle are both recognized as being the co-inventors of the jet engine. Each worked separately and knew nothing of the other's work. Hans von Ohain is considered the designer of the first operational turbojet engine. Frank Whittle was the first to register a patent for the turbojet engine in 1930. Hans von Ohain was granted a patent for his turbojet engine in 1936. However, Hans von Ohain's jet was the first to fly in 1939. Frank Whittle's jet first flew in in 1941.<br /><br /><strong><em>1969</em></strong><br /><br /><em>First manned mission (Apollo) to the Moon</em><br /> <br />"That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." Neil A. Armstrong uttered these famous words on July 20, 1969, when the Apollo 11 mission fulfilled Kennedy's challenge by successfully landing Armstrong and Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. on the Moon. Armstrong dramatically piloted the lunar module to the lunar surface with less than 30 seconds worth of fuel remaining.<br /><br /><strong><em>1981</em></strong><br /><br /><em>Space shuttle launched</em><br /><br />After a gap of six years, NASA returned to human spaceflight in 1981, with the advent of the Space Shuttle. The Shuttle's first mission, STS-1, took off on April 12, 1981, demonstrating that it could take off vertically and glide to an unpowered airplane-like landing.<br /><br /><br /><br />In this quite long duration of time span, we are able to see how the transportation has been developing. The changes in transportation technology were quite gradual and slow but steady. As what we see, technological advancement in transportation brings us even outside the Earth.<br /><br />Actually, the changes and development of transportation did not occur at once and they do not seem that they were giving great impact every time when each of them took place. However, the development of transportation very much contributed on development of human society and civilization in fact.<br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Transport (September 25, 2009) In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:03 September 25, 2009 from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />Vehicle (September 20, 2009) In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:16 September 20, 2009 from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />Braudel, F. (1982). On history. (S. Matthews, Trans.). University of Chicago. (Original<br />work published 1969).<br /><br />The History of Transportation (2009) About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. Retrieved September 25, 2009 from<br />http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_transportation.htm</span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-29182358399529411892009-10-14T21:56:00.001+08:002009-10-23T04:54:12.822+08:00Position Paper # 12 Fernand Braudel<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>1<br /><br /><br />The Three Time Span<br /><br /></strong><br />Personally, I am quite impressed by Fernand Braudel’s vision on History. I am able to notice that he has quite different view point with other Historians. While other Historians seek significance of some special events which are dramatic and exciting and which took place mostly in a short time, he would like to take a long and wide view on History which focuses on long duration events that are not really exciting and interesting. I am not insisting that his work is way better than any other philosophers of History. Rather I would want to point out the value of his work in establishing unbiased and not narrow view on History.<br /><br />Danto, who advocates narrative form of account and interpretation of History willingly or unwillingly, focuses more on short-term events (Which Braudel calls History of event) than long duration events. Although Braudel idea challenges Danto’s view, I still admit Danto advocating narrative account because this sort of analysis can give us emphasis and important teachings from certain noticeable events. I believe that Danto’s narrative account and Braudel’s long duration events are the two big pillars required in building up proper and unbiased view on History.<br /><br />Fernand Braudel is much interested in different types of time span and rhythm. He believes that historians must not only consider the relations of coexisting elements (for example, cultural, geographic, economic and political developments) but also those over different periods of time (for instance, long-term and short-term developments). (Marie Hughes Warrington, 2009) The three types of time span Braudel proposes are: history of event, history of conjucture, and history of Long duration.<br /><br />First, history of event may be 5 years, 7 years or around 10 years. This time span is suited to the study of things like major events (Staloff, 1995). The sort of events which is noticeable like wars and revolutions take place in relation with individual time span. I would say that individual time span and the events took place during that time span is where the most of narrativists focus on because the events of individual time span are generally absorbed with dramatic development with exciting revelation.<br /><br />Second, history of conjucture may be measured in decades. The events of social time span generally take place cyclically in 20 to 50 years duration. The sort of events during social time span is generally referring to business cycle, technological development and so on.<br /><br />Third, and last, history of Long duration which is Braudel is interested in most. It is not measured in decades but in centuries. Ecological, geographical history and rise and fall of civilization are the sort of events which take place in long duration time span. Those changes and developments are extremely slow and gradual.<br /><br />Braudel uses metaphor in his account on time span. According to him, history of event is surface of the water, history of conjucture is the wave, and history of long duration is the tidal force. What does that imply? The events the most of us and specially narrativist interested in are like surface of water which occurs as a result of movement of wave. And the deeper cause of moving wave is tidal force.<br /><br />Braudel actually wants to concentrate on Historical events which refer to tidal force rather than surface events. He insists that long duration time span is actually deeper study of History. That is why he sometimes criticizes narrativists like Danto who are generally focusing on surface of History. I believe that his point is that while we are too much focusing on surface of water we might overlook the importance of wave and tidal force which are actually fundamental cause or factor of surface of water.<br /><br />Braudel wants us to consider the ‘deeper waters’ of the style of history as well as its content and boundaries. (Marie Hughes Warrington, 2009)<br /><br /><br /><strong>2<br /><br /><br />Braudel’s Structuralism<br /></strong><br /><br />So what part of History in particular is Braudel interested in? Actually, his study is rarely dealing with dramatic event but structure which exists beneath the surface of events and with the conjuctural comprises what he calls unconscious History. (Staloff, 1995)<br /><br />Structuralism is defined as a method of analyzing phenomena, as in anthropology, linguistics, psychology, or literature, chiefly characterized by contrasting the elemental structures of the phenomena in a system of binary opposition. We can see structure as a distinct pattern of relationship between persons, institutions and entities within a society. Therefore, I would say Braudel’s study profoundly looks into social changes with regards to the structures.<br /><br />Braudel is considered as Historian who revolutionized 20th century study of his discipline by considering the effects of such outside disciplines as economics, anthropology, and geography on global History. (Wikipedia) In order to precisely look into the structure of History, Braudel chooses to study economics, anthropology and geography which require wide and long view to study because the events of such studies take place in long duration time span. He believes that once we know deeper level of time (tidal force) then we can with them why we have the wave and surface we see.<br /><br />I would like to support Braudel’s idea. I strongly believe that Historians must cultivate widened and deepened perspective on History. In order to understand History properly, we must not stay at surface of the sea of History but must go deeper to see waves and tidal force which move the sea of History. Knowing events of long duration time span give us profound and precise understanding of events of short time span. So I would want to say that narrativists need to cultivate their knowledge of long duration event also rather to much focus on the dramatic events in order for them to improve their account of their studies.<br /><br />I would like to highly value Braudel for pointing out the fact that fundamental causes and factors of the events like wars and revolutions (which are dramatic) which the most of students who study History are mainly dealing with are found in long duration time span that is boring, too ordinary and seeming not important. His idea suggests us to avert our eyes to ordinary people and their lives rather to focus only on dramatic and exciting events. Braudel insists that our lives must be recovered structurally.<br /><br />Braudel’s idea promises us to recover the experiences of ordinary people and treat their lives as integral part of History. (Staloff, 1995) While Hegel is insisting History that of Great man, Braudel suggests us to look into the ordinary people’s lives and experiences. While Danto and other analytic narrativist are absorbed in dramatic and exciting like surface of the sea which flows fast, Braudel suggests us to look into the events that are not dramatic and exciting but really important like deep water of the sea which flows slow without any sound but which is strong force that is moving whole sea.<br /><br />For recent people who are pursuing incentive, dramatic and exciting Historical events, Braudel’s theory would be great challenge. His theory helps us to have unbiased and balanced view. He sharply points out what are not really noticeable and we easily pass by without any impression in studying History. I am quite impressed by his work on History.<br /><br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Staloff, D. (1995) The search for a meaningful past philosophies, theories, and<br />interpretations [Audiobook]. The Teaching Company.<br /><br />Hegel, G.W.F. (2001). The philosophy of history (J. Sibree, Trans.). Kitchener, Ontario:<br />Batoche Books.<br /><br />Danto, A.C. (1985). Narration and knowledge. Columbia University.<br /><br />Braudel, F. (1982). On history. (S. Matthews, Trans.). University of Chicago. (Original<br />work published 1969).<br /><br />Marie Hughes Warrington (2009). 50 Key Thinker on History New York: Routlege<br /><br />Fernand Braudel (September 25, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 18:11 September 25, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Braudel </span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-80557222246764125682009-10-14T21:53:00.000+08:002009-10-14T21:55:18.397+08:00Monograph # 11 Arthur C. Danto<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Gwang-Ju Student Movement</strong><br /><br /><br />For few years after 3.1 Movement in 1919, there was no such movement against Japan to cry for the nation’s independence. And Japanese colonial policy became harsher than before. In 1920, there was a great depression which swept all over the world. It has resulted as food shortage in Japan. As a way out, Japan increased the quantity of rice she took from Korea, her colony by force. The Japanese policy of hard exploitation brought Koreans to great frustration. Under the frustration, depression and suffering, Koreans were losing their passion and willingness to achieve their nation’s independence. They were too busy to think of the independence of the nation.<br /><br />Would you believe if it was just an incident of a fight between a 16-year-old Korean boy and a number of Japanese middle school students that set the fire to the movement for nation’s independence once again?<br /><br />One day, it was October 29, 1929, as usual the school train from Gwang-Ju arrived Na-ju. In the train there were both Korean and Japanese students. When the train arrived to the station, Japanese students Hukuda, Danaka and others ridiculed and did violence to Korean girls, Park Gi-ok and Lee Gwang Chun. Hukuda snatched down Park’s hair and never stopped ridiculing.<br /><br />Park Jun-Chae, the brother of Park Gi-ok coming into the station saw his sister was being insulted and tried to stop them. But Japanese did not listen to him. Japanese policeman who saw them fighting came to Park Jun-Chae and beat him up with other Japanese there. It was known to other Korean students and group fight between Korean and Japanese students has begun in the station.<br /><br />It was continued up to November 3, the one of the biggest Japanese national holiday that celebrated birth of Meiji. What was so interesting was that November 3 of 1929 was October 3 in the lunar calendar, the national holiday of Korea that commemorated beginning of Korea. During the commemorative ceremony of Meiji day, Korean students refused to sing Kimigayo, the national hymn of Japan and this once again set fire to fighting between Koreans and Japanese. The group fighting was widened to fighting of all the students in Gwang-Ju region and it was not fighting anymore but a movement of Korea against Japan.<br /><br />At first, the fighting began with 10-20 people. But later on, the number of people who were involved in the fighting became 500 and again, it became 3000 number of students and citizens participated in the movement<br /><br />Korean students organized the Student Movement Organization and tried to extend their movement to all the regions in the nation. They also made propaganda movement saying that:<br /><br />1. Let us recapture our unjustly arrested students.<br /><br />2. Let us strongly forbid entrance of polices into the schools.<br /><br />3. Let us abolish colonial educational system.<br /><br />4. Let us establish up our own educational system <br /><br />The movements continued until Japan gave up her colonial rule in Korea. In fact, student movement set fire to many of patriot in Korea and brought other movement for independence once again.<br /><br />The small quarrel between 16 years old Korean boy and other Japanese students just because Japanese insulted Korean girls, brought national movements once again. 24 years later, the government of Korea commemorated the students who fought for their nations by setting November 3 as a Student Independence Movement day. They still remember the students, a young sprit, which brought courage and fire to their nation. <br /><br /><br /><br />Source:<br /><br />Gwang-Ju Student Movement Retrieved on 20 September 2009 from </span><a href="http://kin.naver.com/detail/detail.php?d1id=11&dir_id=110101&docid=3366206&qb=saTB1sfQu/2/7rW/&enc=euc-kr&section=kin&rank=7&sort=0&spq=0"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://kin.naver.com/detail/detail.php?d1id=11&dir_id=110101&docid=3366206&qb=saTB1sfQu/2/7rW/&enc=euc-kr&section=kin&rank=7&sort=0&spq=0</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />Gwang-Ju Students’ Independence Movement Retrieved on 20 September 2009 from </span><a href="http://kin.naver.com/detail/detail.php?d1id=6&dir_id=612&docid=779118&qb=saTB1sfQu/2/7rW/&enc=euc-kr&section=kin&rank=10&sort=0&spq=0"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://kin.naver.com/detail/detail.php?d1id=6&dir_id=612&docid=779118&qb=saTB1sfQu/2/7rW/&enc=euc-kr&section=kin&rank=10&sort=0&spq=0</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />Student’s Day (September 20, 2009). Dusan Encyber. Retrieved on September 20, 2009 from http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=759222 </span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-14439765799862000192009-10-14T16:12:00.001+08:002009-10-14T16:15:37.891+08:00Position Paper # 11 Arthur C. Danto<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>1<br /><br />Substantive and Analytical Philosophy</strong><br /><br /><br />What is History indeed? Is it merely study of what happened in the past? Suppose that we know everything ever happened before and its detail, then could we say that we know History? The answer is obviously “no”. I am not insisting that knowing what happened in the past is not important. Rather, I would like to emphasize that History is something more than knowing about past.<br /><br />Arthur C. Danto, in the first part of his book “Narration and Knowledge (1985)” tries to talk about two kinds of inquiry are covered by the expression ‘Philosophy of History’ as substantive and analytical philosophy of History. When he talks about substantive philosophy of History, he would like to sharply distinguish whole of History from whole of past. It is quite interesting topic for me as I study philosophy of History. Danto, in his book “Narration and Knowledge (1985)” supposes that we have Ideal Chronicle by which we know everything that ever happened. Then he says that even if we know all the events took place in the past, and we have ideally complete account of them, it is still not whole of History. Rather, it is good source or data for whole of History. (Danto 1985) Base on this theory, I would say that History is something more than knowing about past events.<br /><br />Then, he suggests two distinct kinds of such theories, descriptive and explanatory. What he means by descriptive theory is simply which seeks to show a pattern amongst the events which make up the whole past. And explanatory theory refers to explaining of what descriptive theory has found. (Danto, 1985) I would agree with Danto insisting that those two kinds of theories must be connected to be qualified as a philosophy of History. It is quite obvious and simple idea. If we are to explain some Historical events, out explanation should be based on factual evidence and support of descriptive theory. And also description without explanation is just meaningless. I believe that studying History must contain both description and explanation.<br /><br />However, Danto was actually opposite to substantive philosophy. For me some parts of substantive theory were agreeable that say about connection of descriptive and explanatory theory. But like Danto, I would have to disagree with substantive theory. And I find the error of substantive theory in Danto’s line explaining of it and I quote: “a truly successful Historical theory would go beyond the data gathered by History, not only reducing them to a pattern, but predicting, and explaining, all the events of future History. (Danto 1985) This line simply means that substantive Historians are trying to write the History of events before it they have happened. I think it is quite wild idea. I believe that God would tell us what will happen through His servant and we call it a prophecy and I actually believe in it. However, it seems to be so wild for me that we can make prediction of the event that will take place in the future based on our Historical understanding. Moreover, the problem is that substantive Historians also try to give an account of the past events based on the account of future.<br /><br />So I would agree with Danto saying that our knowledge of the past is always limited by our ignorance of the future. (Danto, 1985) This is a main point of analytical philosophy of History proposed by Danto. Actually, some events are somehow predictable but indeed in general we do not know what will happen in the future.<br /><br /><br /><strong>2<br /><br /><br />Incomplete History<br /></strong><br /><br />That is why History is incomplete. History cannot be completed at once or in one generation. True Historical understating actually comes later. The result that one’s act will bring is not known at that time but later. For instance, when Rosa Park refused to sit at the back of the bus, none of people in that bus knew that the incident in that bus would initiate the Civil Right movement in the United States.<br /><br />Indeed, History is History because it is story of the past. What does it mean? History is that of future people. We cannot really consider our time as History right now but it will be History for our next generation. Therefore, the analysis of Historical event of Rosa Park does not belong to those who were in that bus but to people of the future from the time that event took place. People who come later are the one who can give significance of the event of Rosa Park which was starting point of Civil Right movement in the United States.<br /><br />History is somehow process of present or future people to evaluate various past events. Consider that French people of 18th century did not really realize that they were making monumental civil movement for freedom. In fact, they were just hungry and angry at unjust king and his kingdom. It is their descendants who evaluate and consider the civil movement took place during 18th century as monumental. Likewise, this simple but obvious explanation on Historical understanding and evaluation could prove the error of substantive philosophy of History that I have stated above.<br /><br />Those who come later have privilege to evaluate and give meaning to Historical events took place. And it is History indeed. That is why Ideal Chronicle is not really History but just sources of History.<br /><br />So, if Ideal Chronicle is not complete History, and if we cannot explain Historical events with Ideal Chronicle, then how can we analyze and explain them? What form should Historical text take? Danto has the answer to these questions. The answer is “Narration”<br /><br /><br />3<br /><br /><br />Narration and Knowledge<br /><br /><br />According to Danto, History is simply a story of the past and the form of stories is always in narrative. I would have to agree with him because it is a general fact that most of Historians tell us stories.<br /> <br />Narrative form of stories actually has the ability that Ideal Chronicle does not have. This ability of narration is that it can tensed sentence. What does it mean? Narration enables Historian to speak of extended events by employing what Danto calls Project verb which is a certain range of our verbs of description of action refer to events which actually are not discrete at all. (Staloff, 1995)<br /><br />Ideal Chronicle cannot say for instance, in September of 1939 the Second World War began because the declaration of the war came some time later. Likewise, Ideal Chronicle cannot give significance of certain event. What it can contain is just description of event happening in present tense.<br /><br />As what I have stated above, giving of significance of certain event belongs to future people from the time that the event takes place. In other word, narration of Historical event belongs to future. That is the privilege of the people who come later.<br /><br />Let us go back to the Second World War. Unlike Ideal Chronicle, narration can give significance of the Second World War by using project verbs. In narration, we can say like this: “In September of 1939, the Second World War which would be the most terrible fighting which has never happened before has begun. This war was intended by Hitler, the German leader who had ambition of conquest all of European continent.”<br /><br />Truly, Ideal Chronicle cannot give us significance of the Second World War like specifically when it began, and what was the factor that caused it. The reason why narration of the people or let us say Historians, can give significance of the World War II is that they have knowledge of historical context of that time in terms of states of each of European nations and their relationship with one another etc. And they even know how it ended. So narration may use synthesis of Historical context in order to explain certain Historical event and of course it would be much better account of event than ideal chronicle whose ability is merely description of state of the events happening.<br /><br />Some are saying that narration would distort and exaggerate events as it tries to make them dramatic, exciting and interesting. In fact, it is true that narrative form of Historical text sometimes loses its objectivity. However, I would say that what is good about narrative is that it can still give us significance and emphasis of certain events. Therefore, as long as narrative account does not get out of factual Historical context in order to be too dramatic, I would want to consider it as one of the best way in bringing account of Historical knowledge. <br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> I wish and believe that what I argue above could give clear account of importance and value of narration in History. I strongly agree with Danto saying History is a story. Isn’t it that the word “History” itself tells us something? History is his story, a man’s story.<br /><br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Danto, A.C. (1985). Narration and knowledge. Columbia University.<br /><br />Staloff, D. (1995) The search for a meaningful past philosophies, theories, and<br />interpretations [Audiobook]. The Teaching Company.<br /><br />Braudel, F. (1982). On history. (S. Matthews, Trans.). University of Chicago. (Original<br />work published 1969).</span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-61179871912793866282009-10-01T10:56:00.005+08:002009-10-02T11:11:04.065+08:00Monograph # 10 Carl Gustav Hempel<p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong><span style="font-size:0;"></span></strong></span></p><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span></p><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Industrial Revolution</strong><br /><br /><br />Alvin Toffler tries to explain how human society and civilization has been developing by suggesting three waves- First (Agricultural), Second (Industrial) and Third (Digital) wave. A new wave changes existing stream of civilization and emerges usually in the form of revolution. Based on his idea I would say that it is quite important for us to study about those three waves which made a great impact on human history.<br /><br />What I would like to discuss in this paper is the Second wave, the industrialization, which brought great change to societies and civilizations in the world by overthrowing agriculture-based system. With Hempel’s theory of cause and effect, I am going to point out what caused the industrial revolution (the effects) within Europe, specifically in Britain. It will be quite interesting to carefully examine the causes of the great wave, which is one of the most noticeable impacts on History.<br /><br />According to Hempel, the occurrence of an event (E) is explained when a statement describing that event (Explanandum) is logically deduced from general laws (L) and conditions that preceded the event (C) (Explanans). A general law is a universal claim that is capable of being confirmed or refuted by suitable empirical evidence. (Philosophy of Natural Science, p. 50) This is represented in the schema shown below:<br /><br /><br /><br />C1, C2, C3 … Cn<br />(Statement of antecedent condition)<br /><br />L1, L2, L3 … Ln<br />(General laws) </span></p><p align="justify">↓</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">--------------------------------------<br />E<br />(Description of the event to be explained)<br /><br /><br />In order to explain the Industrial revolution in Great Britain during 18th century (E), I would like to state several causes which are from the fields of politics, economy, society, technology, diplomacy, and geography.<br /><br />C1: Stability in politics brought by Puritan Revolution and Glorious Revolution during 17th century.<br />C2: Growth of labor population in the city resulted by enclosure movement<br />C3: Invention of Steam machine<br />C4: Natural and Financial resources from the colonies<br />C5: Location which is geographically suitable to trade with other nations<br />C6: Abundance in resources like coal and iron ore<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:times new roman;">The First cause (C1) was the stability in politics brought by Puritan revolution and Glorious Revolution. As Britain has gone through the changes in politics, the political system, which was too much King-centered, collapsed and the citizen-centered political system was established. This change has caused the political unrest to die down. This also influenced people to concentrate on economic development, invention of the things and new technologies.<br /><br />The Second cause (C2) was the growth of labor population in the city, which resulted by enclosure movement. Enclosure movements is a process in many European countries by which commonly held or unoccupied lands or wastelands passed into private ownership.(Encarta, 2003). Under this process of agricultural revolution, the farmers who owned small area of lands were forced to submit their lands or to sell their lands with exorbitant price. These farmers went to the urban cities to get a job. It caused a great increase in population of cities and brought urbanization. According to Adam Smith, the productivity generally increases when the population increases.<br /><br />The Third cause (C3) was the most important one in industrialization. It was the invention of steam engine. James Watt, a Scottish engineer, invented a steam engine, a mechanical device used to transfer energy to steam into mechanical energy for a variety of application, including propulsion and generating electricity. This has brought great improvement in productivity with efficient using of energy which enabled generating machines in factories.<br /><br />The Forth cause (C4) was the natural and financial resources from the colonies. Since Britain defeated Spain on the sea in 1588 during Queen Elizabeth era, the number of British colonies greatly increased. Britain received, from its many overseas colonies, the profits from the British slave trade between Africa and the Caribbean, which helped fuel industrial investment. It has been pointed out, however, that slave trade and West Indian plantations provided only 5% of the British national income. (Wikipedia) And a number of British colonies also provided British market places where Britain could sell her goods.<br /><br />The Fifth cause (C5) was the location with which they had a geographical advantage in trade with other nations. Britain was located in an open area since it was an island. This geographical feature provided great advantages in trading with other countries.<br /><br />The Sixth cause (C6) was the abundance of resources within the territory. At that time, there was a development of machinery, which worked instead of man. In order to produce machines, iron and coal, which was used to generate machines, were needed. Great Britain was abundant in terms of those natural resources. Based on abundance in resources, Great Britain could build up more factories and machines, which are directly related to productivity. It also brought development of transportation. Constructing rail loads made it possible to travel anywhere in Britain in a short time and it enabled quick supply of goods and services.<br /><br />Under those conditions (C) that I stated above, Industrial revolution (E) would take place in Britain. Those causes are connected to the effects by several general laws. I would state:<br /><br />L1: Political stability enables people to engage in economic activities<br />L2: Growth of population means increase in labor power and increase in labor power brings improvement in productivity<br />L3: Efficiency in process of producing things brings improvement in productivity<br />L4: Large amount of capital and resources enables mass production and large- scale production and colonies can serve as a market place<br />L5: Development in transportation brings Smooth and quick transport of goods and services<br />L6: Abundant natural resources enable equipment<br /><br /><br />The main conditions or basis for industrialization to take place are from large amounts of capitals, the increase in labor power, the enhancement in transportation, the technological development, and the possession of market places. According to the general laws I stated above, those causes I have mentioned can make the best environment for industrial revolution (E) to take place.<br /><br /><br /><br />Cause (C) → General Laws (L) → Effect (E)<br /><br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Hempel, C.G. (1942). The function of general laws in history. In The Journal of<br />Philosophy, 39, 35-48.<br /><br />Marie Hughes Warrington (2009). 50 Key Thinker on History New York: Routlege<br /><br />Enclosure movement Retrieved from Encarta (1993-2003) Microsoft Corporation<br /><br />Industrialisation (September 25, 2009) In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 21:59 September 25, 2009 from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrialization">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrialization</a><br /><br />Robert L. Heilbroner. The World Philosophers New York: Touchstone book</span></p><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"></span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-69957278161148267302009-10-01T10:54:00.001+08:002009-10-04T18:51:03.208+08:00Position Paper # 10 Carl Gustav Hempel<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>1<br /><br /><br />Cause and Effect</strong><br /><br /><br />It is not arguable that every event has its cause, and normally, the causes of events, which happens around us, can be understood by our common senses. Human beings in general have a tendency to seek hidden causes or factors behind events. We ask ‘why’ when something happens and we answer ‘because’ to a question about an event. It is also applied in history. We are studying not just what happened in the past but also the causes, factor, insight behind the events. When we say that we understand a certain event, it means that we understand not only the event itself but the causes, the factor that made the event happen. According to Collingwood, we, Historians, should not be satisfied only with the past events themselves but must go deeper and draw things behind the events.<br /><br />Carl Gustav Hempel, a German positivist philosopher, tries to point out causation from each historical events and he also insists that general laws plays a vital role in explaining and substantiating the events. I quote: “General laws have quite analogous functions in history and in the natural sciences, that they form an indispensible instrument of historical research, and they even constitute the common basis of various procedures, which are often considered as characteristics of the social in contradiction to the natural sciences. (Hempel, 1942)<br /><br />What are the general laws? The term General law is used in the field of science and that means according to Hempel, “the idea that the statement in question is actually well confirmed by the relevant evidence available. (Helmpel, 1942) And we may call this as ‘universal hypothesis’. Obviously, he tries to study history with scientific approach which requires empirical knowledge. He says that “in every case where an event of a specified kind C occurs at a certain place and time, an event of a specified kind E will occurs at a place and time which is related in a specified manner to the place and time of the occurrence of the first event. (Helmpel, 1942)<br /><br />Actually, I do not like the scientific approach to history because I believe that there are many things that cannot be explained by scientific notions and laws. However, I would have to agree with Hempel in some parts. I cannot deny that there is a cause behind an effect. It is a very simple but absolute law of the world. The water boils when the temperature is at 100 . The effect that water boils will not occur unless the temperature rises up to 100 . Likewise, also in history there is a certain thing that causes a certain event and the most of causations are general and easy for us to understand. And general laws play an important role that connects cause and effect.<br /><br />I have always opposed a scientific approach in history, but this time I would have to say that historians need a scientific mind and perspective in order for them to study history more profoundly. But it does not mean that every historical event can be explained by certain laws and formulas. I do not think every universal hypothesis fits to explain certain events.<br /><br />There are things that can be generalized and explained by certain laws. For example, we all generally know that a revolution might occur when people are being starved and they are being oppressed by unjust authority. This general law, or let’s say common sense, helps us explain a revolution by suggesting the causation of a revolution. That is why Hempel insists that a general law gives us a big help in explaining or studying historical events.<br /><br />However, we should not overlook the fact that there are events that cannot be explained by general laws all the time. We cannot always give a clear and obvious explanation about the causation of event. And there will now be what positivist call “Pseudo-explanation”<br /><br /><br /><strong>2<br /><br /><br />Pseudo Explanation<br /></strong><br /><br /><em>Based on metaphors rather than laws; they convey pictorial and emotional appeals instead of insight into factual connections; they substitute vague analogies and intuitive ‘plausibility’ for deduction from testable statements and are therefore unacceptable as scientific explanations. (Ibid., p. 234)</em><br /><br /><br />A Pseudo explanation is not really obvious and factual. This term is used by positivists when they criticize the explanations that are not scientifically obvious and clear. However, I believe that a pseudo explanation which is mocked by positivist is quite useful tool in explaining and interpreting history.<br /><br />I have been arguing that there are many things that cannot be explained by certain laws or scientific explanations. This is the limit positivists face. Those events which are not describable with specific laws are used to be under the pseudo-explanation which suggests metaphors and vague analogies rather than factual insight.<br /><br />This sort of explanation seems to be much similar with Collingwood’s ‘a priori imagination.’ A priori imagination, even though it must be based on historical context, is not obvious and factual. In fact, a priori imagination is quite probable and can give us certain teachings and insight behind the events. However, we cannot say it is absolutely factual all the time since it is more on vague analogies and plausibility. I do not deny that Collingwood’s a priori imagination is not really obvious compared to scientific explanation. But it can draw certain insights and teachings behind history which positivist can’t give.<br /><br />For example, when we say about Michelangelo Buonarroti, a brilliant artist during Renaissance period, can we give clear scientific laws which can explain the causation of his creative works? Can we say about the event that he creates things could happen because of x% of y cause and y% of x cause?</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"></div></span><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">I am not driving out Hempel’s idea from historical study. I strongly agree with his idea of cause and effect. And as a Historian, a trial to draw the cause of certain event is quite necessary. However, I believe that we cannot give a general law and a scientific law for all the events. Sometimes, we must use our priori imagination to understand and interpret certain historical events. And we cannot say that this kind of imagination is nothing but a guess at all because a priori imagination proposed by Collingwood must be containing proper and wealthy knowledge and understanding of historical context and human mind (because a priori imagination is mainly dealing with human reason). The imaginations based on strong foundation of knowledge and historical context are reliable.<br /><br />Hemple’s trial to explain history by giving probability of causation which brings certain events is quite unfamiliar but interesting with me. However, I would say that it is quite impossible for us to give exact percentage of chance of an event happening because there are causes that we can’t realize and find out behind of the events. We cannot say that these x,y, and z are everything that caused the event. What we can do is only suggesting this certain event (cause) would have caused the event (effect) most.<br /><br />I would take the method of studying history which synthesizes ideas of both Hempel and Collingwood. I believe that historians must be able to find out general laws which are acceptable to common sense and that connect a cause and effect. But at the same time, historians should not be always bound by demand of scientific and general laws for all the events. We may as well take a priori imagination which positivist considers as pseudo explanation to analyze and interpret the historical events that cannot be explained in scientific means.<br /><br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Collingwood, R. G. (1946). The idea of history. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Pp.<br />205-334 .<br /><br />Marie Hughes Warrington (2009). 50 Key Thinker on History New York: Routlege<br /><br />Hempel, C.G. (1942). The function of general laws in history. In The Journal of<br />Philosophy, 39, 35-48.<br /></span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-23041185358499354662009-09-30T10:12:00.001+08:002009-09-30T10:12:57.992+08:00Monograph #9 Robin George Collingwood<p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong></strong></span> </p><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>The Holocaust</strong><br /><br /><br /><em>We find ourselves obliged to imagine it as having occupied intermediate positions when we were not looking. That is already an example of historical thinking<br /><br />-Robin George Collingwood (1946)<br /></em><br /><br />Throughout History, the most terrible slaughter, “the Holocaust” was genocide of approximately 6 million European Jews during the Second World War, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler. (Wikipedia)<br /><br />This systematic killing of people is something that has never been before. It was not a war. It was killing of people done by one state against powerless people. Some of people say that the Holocaust was the result of personal hatred of Hitler against Jews which came from scar he got from Jewish people when he was young. This is somehow possible assumption. However could we kill like 6 million of people just because we hate that race? Can we generalize the Holocaust just as the event that occurred because of one’s hatred against Jewish people? It is quite obvious that there was hidden intention and factor made Hitler conceived this terrible extermination aside from his personal hatred of Jews. And the hidden intention and factor can be drawn from his life and experiences.<br /><br />There was a reserved man whose dream was to be a painter. He was an ordinary man. No, he was not ordinary because his life was full of failures. In everything he did, he experienced failure. He was Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany who raised his nation up from ashes to the position of one of the strongest nations in Europe.<br /><br />It was during the First World War when his life began to change. During the war, He was a runner, one of the most dangerous jobs on the Western Front, and was often exposed to enemy fire. He participated in a number of major battles on the Western Front, including the First Battle of Ypres, the Battle of the Somme, the Battle of Arras and the Battle of Passchendaele. He was twice awarded for his bravery. He received the Iron Cross, Second Class, in 1914 and Iron Cross, First Class, in 1918, an hoor rarely given to a Gefreiter. On 15 October 1918, Hitler temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack. It was as Hitler has said this experience that he became convinced the purpose of his life was to “save Germany”. However, Germany was completely defeated by America, Great Britain and France in this war. Germany was imposed huge amount of reparation and forbidden to arm herself in treaty of Versailles. The articles signed in treaty of Versailles were designed to make Germany powerless. Germany had no choice but to accept the treaty of Versailles. German defeat was great shock to Hitler as much as his loyalty to his nation. <br /></p></span><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Hitler saw how the defeat in the First World War made Germans frustrated, discouraged, and hopeless. They lost their self-esteem as a German. Hitler, in his book “Mein Kampf” discuss two important things- criticism against accepting of Government the Treaty of Versailles and emphasis superiority of German race and vulgarness of Jews.<br /><br />He already knew that the key to German recovery from frustration after defeat was recovery of self-esteem of German people as a German. And the means he chose to recover racial self-esteem of German people was the persecution of Jewish people who at the time had achieved economic dominance and the ability to control and manipulate the mass media to their own advantage.<br /><br />Hitler was trying to make German people recognize that German race was quite better than any other races specially Jews. Actually, his method was quite effective to convince German people. Under Hitler’s leadership, the German people quickly recovered their self-esteem and it enabled Germany overcome the hardships she faced as the result of the war.<br /><br />The Holocaust was incentive to German people. Hitler succeeded to brainwash German people that German was the best in the world through persecuting other races. It was actually great driving force which led German to recovery and to once again become super power in Europe.<br /><br />So what was his hidden intention behind the Holocaust? For Hitler, the holocaust was not simply for satisfaction of his hatred against Jews but the key of recovery of German self-esteem which would lead Germany to be the one of the strongest nations in Europe once again. <br /><br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Adolf Hitler.(September 20, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:09 September 20, 2009 from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hitler"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hitler</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />Holocaust (September 19, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 10:23 September 19, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/holocaust <br /><br />The Holocaust, Retrieved from Encarta Encyclopedia (1993-2003): Microsoft Corporation<br /><br />Tony Mcaleavy (2004). Twentieth Century History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press<br /><br />Collingwood, R. G. (1946). The idea of history. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Pp.<br />205-334 </span></p><div align="justify"></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-80895852389303957762009-09-30T10:06:00.001+08:002009-09-30T10:11:59.131+08:00Position Paper #9 Robin George Collingwood<p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>1<br /><br /><br />History, Something More Than Past Events<br /></strong><br /><br />As a Historian, I do not want to define history just as ‘a study of the past’. History tells us not just what happened in the past but gives us teachings that each of Historical events implies. I do not value history like Antiquarian Historians who valued history just because it was old. Perhaps, the events of the past are not really important to me but the teachings and insights that the events imply are really precious to me. History is not just an observation on the past things but it is a science which requires precise analysis and investigation because historians should be able to profoundly look into the inside of specific historical events and not just the appearance of the events.<br /></span></p><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Robin George Collingwood is the one who thought of history as a ‘Science of human nature’. Collingwood was quite active in treating and studying history. He believed that historical events are interpreted as the expression of particular thought and mentality of culture, which are from human reason.<br /><br />The philosophers like Kant and Hegel believed that the history was the work of human reason and I also partially agree with that view of history. Actually, the reason is not the most important factor that makes and moves history (It is God’s prudence) but it still takes an important role in history. The presence and development of human reason is obviously shown in historical events if we notice. I believe that the human society has been developing in accordance with development of human reason. No development of human reason means no development in society at all. For that reason, Collingwood tried to study about human mind, or reason, the cognitive part of mind.<br /><br />The concept of Collingwood, which considers history as a science, is quite different from Scientism of philosophers of Enlightenment. He did not see history and reality of human reason as fixed. I believe that he thought of history as a science because studying history requires precise analysis and carful investigation and not based on the belief that history can be interpreted and analyzed as it is put into some formulas and rules.<br /><br />I agree with the view of Collingwood on history. His view elevates the value of history by emphasizing the fact that history is not just past events, but there is something more behind them of which our studies should be focused on. And he believed that we can obtain real and accurate understanding about Physical world through this natural science. I quote: “the principles and methods of natural science had been lately perfected and were being triumphantly applied to the investigation of the physical world.” (Collingwood, 1946)<br /><br />I strongly argue that a Historian should be able to point out the rational activity of human reason which makes certain phenomenon occurs. We should not be satisfied by just getting information about the event itself. We must go deeper and draw the real factor behind external appearance which caused an event. What made it happen? What did this event imply? This is the worth of History. Some say that history is boring and somehow passive. However, we see in Collingwood’s theory how much we should be active in studying history and that history is the study which requires high intellectual level. If the history is just about past events, we have nothing to do but to memorize them in their chronological order. However, the virtue of history makes me proud to be a historian. This is what is really exciting and interesting about history. History is quite a fundamental study that carefully and precisely looks into human reason and rational activity and cause, which crucially affect every event in the world of humans.<br /><br />Therefore, I believe that Collingwood has made a great contribution on philosophy of history by pointing out the true value of history and giving us a clear direction so that we can know where to focus on in studying history.<br /><br /><br /><strong>2</strong><br /><br /><br /><strong>A Priori Imagination, Walking in History</strong><br /><br /><br /><em>The history of thought, and therefore all history, is the re-enactment of past </em></span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><em>thought in the historian's own mind.<br /><br />-Robin George Collingwood (1946)</em><br /><br /><br />However, the problem is how we will be able to draw hidden insights and teachings behind the events. Actually, most of historical records are not presenting the state of human reason and how it works behind the story but it only shows what exactly happened during a certain period. This is a great obstacle for historians to analyze and interpret the historical events by means of investigating rational aspect of human being.<br /></p></span><p align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Collingwood was aware of this problem and proposed the solution to it. The solution is the use of “a Priori Imagination’. It helps us to profoundly look into the historical events and gives us understanding and analysis about inside of the events. A priori imagination is reenacting the past events using our own imagination and rational ability to assume what the situation must be like and what the state of mind of historical character must be like in accordance with historical context. In other words, a priori imagination simply refers to putting one’s self into a certain historical events and being a character in the events. Collingwood gave an example of a priori imagination. By being Caesar before he went across the Rubicon we may as well be able to understand what was in his mind, which was what caused the events after he went across the Rubicon. We cannot exactly know what Caesar was thinking about at that time but the historical context and our rational ability can at least assume what Caesar could have thought. This is a great help for us to have better understanding about the events made by Caesar.<br /><br />Likewise, a priori imagination requires a high level of rational ability and precise analysis about historical context, which is the situation of society at that time. We should not use a priori imagination thoughtlessly and blindly. It is not an easy thing.<br /><br />A historian’s a priori imagination should fit with historical context of the events. I quote: The historian not only re-enacts past thought, he re-enacts it in the context of his own knowledge. (Collingwood, 1946)<br /><br />I stated above that Collingwood was quite an active Historian. He suggested to us to go into history and meet the reality of history rather than being an armchair of historians who makes large scales of schematization with no reality and no real practice. I quite agree with his attitude in studying history. I believe that historians ought to throw away passive attitude in studying history. We have to stop looking at history in a third person’s view. Rather, we must be a part of history. We must depart from our desks and go into history and walk into it. I strongly believe that this active attitude will bring great understanding and analysis of history.<br /><br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Kant, I. (1824). The idea of a universal history on a cosmopolitical plan. (De Quincey,<br />T., Trans.). In London Magazine. (Originally published in 1784).<br /><br />Hegel, G.W.F. (2001). The philosophy of history (J. Sibree, Trans.). Kitchener, Ontario:<br />Batoche Books.<br /><br />Collingwood, R. G. (1946). The idea of history. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Pp.<br />205-334 .<br /><br />Nietzsche, F. (2007). On the use and abuse of history for life (I. C. Johnston, Trans.).<br />(Originally published in 1873). Retrieved March 27, 2008, from<br />http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/Nietzsche/history.htm.<br /><br />Marie Hughes Warrington (2009). 50 Key Thinker on History New York: Routlege<br /> </span></p><div align="justify"></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-7886248709824576262009-09-16T20:58:00.001+08:002009-09-16T21:00:42.156+08:00Monograph #8 Arnold J. Toynbee<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>The League of Nations, Response to the First World War</strong><br /><br /><br />It was terrible. Everything was gone and destroyed. From August 1914 to November 1918, the terrible war, which has never ever been before, swept all over the European continent. Of the 65 million men who were mobilized, more than 10 million were killed and more than 20 million wounded. There was also tremendous loss in resources. People of the world were all shocked by the fact that such terrible war had happen.<br /><br />Actually, there have been a lot of big and small wars in Europe. However, the war that took place in 1914 was totally different from the wars in Europe. There has never been such world-sized war. Imagine how the lives of people were ruined. By this Great War, the European continent was filled with sorrow and cries of the victims of the war. There was no winner of the war.<br /><br />It would be considered as the most disastrous event that human species have ever experienced since the world began. Now the world had to face the greatest challenge that was never met before. To respond to that challenge the world leaders gathered in Versailles on Jan 18, 1919 during Paris Peace Conference.<br /><br />Woodrow Wilson, the President of the United States was the one who determined what to do in order to appease to the terrible misery of the world that was brought by the great challenge of the war. He proposed, Fourteen Points for Peace:<br /><br />1. abolition of secret diplomacy by open covenants, openly arrived at;<br />2. freedom of the seas in peace and war, except as the seas may be closed in whole or part by international action for enforcement of international covenants;<br />3. removal of international trade barriers wherever possible and establishment of an equality of trade conditions among the nations consenting to the peace;<br />4. reduction of armaments consistent with public safety;<br />5. adjustment of colonial disputes consistent with the interests of both the controlling government and the colonial population;<br />6. evacuation of Russian territory, with the proviso of self-determination;<br />7. evacuation and restoration of Belgium;<br />8. evacuation and restoration of French territory, including Alsace-Lorraine;<br />9. readjustment of Italian frontiers along clearly recognizable lines of nationality;<br />10. autonomy for the peoples of Austria-Hungary;<br />11. evacuation and restoration of territory to Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania, granting of seaports to Serbia, and readjustment and international guarantee of the national ambitions of the Balkan nations;<br />12. self-determination for non-Turkish peoples under Turkish control and internationalization of the Dardanelles;<br />13. an independent Poland, with access to the sea; and<br />14. Creation of a general association of nations under specific covenants to give mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity.<br /><br />These proposals of Wilson convinced people and based on the Fourteen Points for Peace, the League of Nations, which was the very first international organization that promotes world peace by enacting international laws, was founded. Actually, the idea of the League of Nations had been outlined by Immanuel Kant who insisted that there should be international organization that can control conflicts and promote peace between states. His claim came to be true after the First World War.<br /><br />Regardless of how the League of Nations was successful, it is highly valued as the first international organization for peace due to its contributions to great development of international laws. Truly the League of Nations was a cornerstone of growth and development of the international promotion of peace and later on, it was continued on by United Nation.<br /><br />Perhaps, the establishment of such organization that brings development and progress in international laws which promote world peace should have been before. However, that happened after the Great War damaged the world a lot. Ironically, what brought the establishment of peaceful international organization, which greatly contributed in development of international laws, was the First World War. Perhaps, if there was not such a strong challenge in the First World War, there would not have been any types of development of international organizations and laws.<br /><br /><br />Source:<br /><br /><em>14 points for peace</em>. Retrieved from Encarta Encyclopedia (1993-2003), Microsoft Corporation<br /><br /><em>The First World War</em> Retrieved from Encarta Encyclopedia (1993-2003), Microsoft Corporation<br /><br /><em>The League of Nations</em> (September 14, 2009) In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:58 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations<br /><br /><em>International laws</em> (September 11, 2009) In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 00:53 from http://en.wikipedia.org/?title=International_law<br /><br /><br /> </span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-87306713894773766492009-09-16T20:56:00.001+08:002009-09-16T20:58:39.472+08:00Position Paper #7 Arnold J. Toynbee<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>1<br /><br /><br />Challenge and Response</strong><br /><br /><br />Arnold Toynbee considers Civilization as the important unit in the analysis of History because civilization is the aggregate in which cultures, institutions and all the human acts interact with each other and are united. So I believe that History can simply be a study of civilizations. Civilization shows not only materialistic and social development of human species but also all the aspects of human life, specifically how human reason has been developed and progressed. Civilization truly contains everything that we need to analyze and understand the past. Therefore, the view of Toynbee, taking civilization as the important subject in History, is reasonable and appropriate in studying History.<br /><br />What distinguishes a man from an animal? It is the rational ability of the mankind. It led mankind to take ways of life that was different from other animal species. Man’s reason and potentials have caused the developments and progressions of human species and it came to be shown as the emergence of Civilization. Civilization is truly the work of human reason. About the emergence of Civilization, Toynbee insists that the emergence of civilization was caused by challenges and their rightful responses. It means that as human species faced various problems and difficulties in their lives, they tried to do something in response to overcome the problem and the result of the response was the development and progresses of civilization. Truly I believe that everything human invented and innovated is made to satisfy the needs of human species. The needs of men have always come when they face the challenges.<br /><br />I actually agree with Toynbee’s challenge and response theory. I would like to support his idea with one of Kant’s nine theses. Kant states:<br /><br />Fourth Thesis: <em>The means employed by Nature to bring about the development of all the capacities of men is their antagonism in society, so far as this is, in the end, the cause of a lawful order among men.</em> (Kant, 1784)<br /><br />This thesis of Kant, which is in some ways inconsistent, can give us important keys to understand the challenge and response theory of Toynbee. Mankind meets the challenge of antagonism in its society which brings conflicts and disorder. However we see that human species respond to this challenge by establishing law and order among them. That is why Kant insists social antagonism causes the lawful order among men.<br /><br />Likewise, most of the changes and innovations have taken place as a response to the challenges and needs that mankind faced. If there was no challenge of floods that damaged the lives of people in Nile River, there could not possibly be a development of irrigation. If there was no challenge of illnesses, there could not be a development of medical science. History proves that when human beings face challenges they work to overcome it and through this struggle they achieve the progressions in their society.<br /><br />I would also like to point out the fact that dialectic process is applied to the theory of challenge and response. Hegel insists that the human societies and civilizations are developed through dialectic process. Dialectic process proposed by Hegel is defined as: an interpretive method, originally used to relate specific entities or events to the absolute idea, in which some assertible proposition (Thesis) is necessarily opposed by an equally assertible and apparently contradictory proposition (antithesis), the mutual contradiction being reconciled on a higher level of truth by a third proposition (Synthesis). (Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary) Actually, antithesis challenges against thesis. However we see that the coming of antithesis leads us to reach synthesis which is better than thesis. Without antithesis (challenge), synthesis (response) would never come.<br /><br />I strongly believe that men are overcomers. I would like to refer human species to a surfer. Surfer does not fear the big waves. For him, it is a chance to go higher and overcome the waves. Likewise, we need the waves of challenge because they will give us the way to develop and progress in our civilization.<br /><br /><br /><strong>2<br /><br /><br />Transitional Period</strong><br /><br /><br />According to Toynbee, when a civilization begins, they tend to pass four phases: Growth, Breakdown, Disintegration, and Universal state.<br /><br />First, the growth of civilization is achieved through the challenges and responses. Human species face various obstacles, but as they overcome them, the civilization goes forward and progresses. Growth happens because of creative individuals who exhibit a pattern of withdrawal from and return to society.<br /><br />Second, the breakdown of civilization in ‘a time of trouble’ happens when the minority of creative individuals loses their creativity because of their habit of “resting on their oars”. As they tend to stay in their success in the past, they stop distributing creative ideas. Therefore, they fail to meet the next challenge successfully.<br /><br />Third, the breakdown of civilization is followed by the disintegration of civilization. It splits into three crucial elements: ‘a dominant minority’, which is a degenerate stage of a formerly creative minority; ‘internal proletariat’ which is a mass of people within the civilization who no longer have any allegiance to the dominant minority and may rebel against it, and an ‘external proletariat’ that exists beyond the frontiers of the civilization and resists being incorporated into it.<br /><br />Last, the universal stage appears as a part of disintegration of civilization. It brings political unity and during this stage there is “endeavor to create a state of society in which the whole of mankind will be able to live together in harmony, as members of an all-inclusive family” (Toynbee.) So in this stage, they offer unintended advantages to other institutions although sometimes universal stages fail to save themselves,<br /> </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">I couldn’t totally agree with Toynbee’s view of ‘breakdown of civilization’ and ‘disintegration of civilization’. I believe that the human civilizations and societies always advance forward. I do not deny that there are times that seem to breakdown and cause disintegration of civilization. However I say that those times are just another process for the civilization to go up to the next steps. Times of trouble do not mean the end of civilization; rather it means the coming of new civilization which is more developed. So I would rather call those periods as transitional periods than the breakdown and disintegration of civilization. During those times, the minority of people who were once creative is replaced by another new minority of creative people who will lead the next civilization. The time of trouble itself is the challenge to the world. Through successfully responding to the challenges the civilization will grow more. And it is shown as coming of new civilization with new creative minority.<br /><br />The civilizations like Mesopotamian, Indus, Egyptian, and Chinese have vanished into History. However I do not want to say that they are destroyed or broken down. I believe every civilization has existed before has become a manure for the next civilization’s development. Therefore, I insist that the world always advances forward but does not retrogress.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Sources:<br /><br />Toynbee, A. J. (1935-1948). A study of history (Vol. 1). London: Oxford University.<br /><br />Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View(1784). Translation by Lewis White Beck. From Immanuel Kant,“On History,”The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1963. Retrieved June 13, 2009, from </span><a href="http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/kant/universalhistory"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/kant/universalhistory</span></a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">. htm<br /><br />Hegel, G.W.F. (2001). The philosophy of history (J. Sibree, Trans.). Kitchener, Ontario:<br />Batoche Books.<br /><br />Marie Hughes Warrington (2009). 50 Key Thinker on History New York: Routlege<br /><br />Nonfiction Classics for Students (2002). New York: Thomson Gale</span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6407655728479045776.post-29621061058587330852009-08-30T14:44:00.001+08:002009-08-30T14:49:18.241+08:00Monograph #7 Max Weber<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>Che Guevara, the Symbol of Charisma<br /></strong><br /><br />About 60 years ago, there was a medical student who was interested in many of intellectual studies like philosophy, sociology, political science and history. His name was Che Guevara. As he grew up, he became interested especially in Latin America.<br /><br />In 1951, he took a year off from his medical study to travel to Latin America. Nobody knew at the time that this ordinary college student who loved Latin America would be the one who would make a great stroke in the History of not only Latin America but all over the world. As he traveled around Latin America he was struck by the crushing poverty of the remote rural areas, where peasant farmers worked in small plots of land owned by wealthy landlords. Such things he experienced totally changed his life and his dream.<br /><br />During the journey he visited the mining town that was owned by an American capitalist and he saw the burial grounds for the laborers and Indios who worked like an animal but were not treated as they deserved. He felt great compassion to those workers and at the same time he felt abhorrence and angry against the ones who sucked the blood of Indios and laborers. Likewise he many times witnessed the life of Indios of Latin America who were being seized by bourgeois and capitalists. Such experiences made Guevara give up his life as a doctor and take the life of a revolutionist who would fight for the rights of the suffering people under bourgeois and achieving equality among men.<br /><br />After the fatal meeting with Fidel Castro, Guevara in June 1955 in Mexico, he began to lead guerilla movements in Cuba, the country in Latin America that was suffering under American oppression. He organized an army of 82 men and fought against the millions of army of Batista, the governmental officer.<br /><br />It is actually not imaginable for an army of 82 to defeat millions of army. After a month there were only 12 people left. However, Che Guevara has made it happen. The united and determined army under the great leadership of Che Guevara and the native Cuban people, who were convinced by charismatic but generous leadership of Che Guevara, were the motive power of his victory. Finally he and his people succeeded in freeing the Cuban people from the dictatorship of Batista.<br /><br />Even after the victory in Cuba he didn’t stop working for Utopia in which everyone is happy and enjoys life. He did not enjoy the authority and power he got after the revolution. He was able to live a wealthy life and did have to get involved in such movements again. But then he again went to Bolivia to set the fire of revolution against the spoilt government and the unjust rulers. Also in Bolivia there were a number of followers of Che Guevara. However in this guerrilla movement, Guevara was captured and executed.<br /><br />Regardless to the matter of ideology, Che Guevara is still being remembered as a brilliant charismatic leader of 20th century who fought for the people who were suffering under unjust authority and spoilt traditions.<br /><br />The charisma of Che Guevara is still affecting many young people and it is still setting a fire of revolution in the hearts of the people who remember him.<br /><br /><br /><br /><em>It is not a matter of wishing success to the victim of aggression, but of sharing his fate; one must accompany him to his death or to victory.<br /><br />- Ernesto 'Che' Guevara<br /><br />If you tremble indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine.<br /><br />- Ernesto 'Che' Guevara<br /><br />Each spilt drop of blood, in any country under whose flag one has not been born, is an experience passed on to those who survive, to be added later to the liberation struggle of his own country. And each nation liberated is a phase won in the battle for the liberation of one's own country.<br /><br />- Ernesto 'Che' Guevara<br /></em><br /><br /><br />Source:<br /><br />Che Guevara(August 30, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:47 August 30, 2009 from </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Che_Guevara</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />Ernesto 'Che' Guevara Quotes & Sayings Retrieved August 30, 2009 from </span><a href="http://www.just-quotes.com/ernesto_che_guevara_quotes.html"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://www.just-quotes.com/ernesto_che_guevara_quotes.html</span></a><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br />Che Guevara. Retrieved August 30, 2009 from http://blog.naver.com/rlathdwk59?Redirect=Log&logNo=90045518050</span></div>Park, Sungbeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09954942075101624044noreply@blogger.com3