The Effect of Ethics from the Classical World on our current Western Culture.

Hundreds of years ago, classic civilizations shaped the path for our modern world in terms of ethics through culture, mythology, science, philosophy, religion, and prosperity in economics, and politics.

Ethics and morality are pretty much the same thing, and ethics are equivalent to moral philosophy. This is the philosophical study of moral values & rules such as the golden mean, virtue, right versus wrong, and other fundamental issues of practical decision making. Ethics are a set of principles governing morality and acceptable behaviour like personal behaviour, corporate behaviour, behaviour towards society, and behaviour towards the environment.
Moral philosophy (ethics) is used to determine what values we hold, or "what behaviour is “ethical”?". It is used around the world because it is, and has always been, part of our human history. Ethics is determined by everyday life through the choices we make as people and it originated when humans started to reflect on best way to live.

We see ethics through myths that are still vital in some societies and cultures today. Myths help humans examine how man copes with the physical, social, religious, and political environment. Just like characters from a book, we can learn important lessons and values in order to best live our life. We see these in stories like Narcissus & Echo, Midas, Daedlus & Icarus, Pandora, and The Bacchae. Myths provide mankind with gallery of models (positive & negative) and revealed eternal truths about the nature of man and our personal life quests. For example, we can see this from the Mycenaean’s who valued leadership and Heroism.

For the Minoans, Religion a big part of culture and they Gave women advanced rights and political power. During the Archaic period, with the beginning of the Phalanx formation, we see that there is a sense of community even in their military. From this we see that community had a profound impact on how the people functioned together in their society and what their culture truly valued. Alexander the Great “created” cultural exchange by a vast empire and the Romans valued women, who had prominent role in society (seen in their art).

Through science, our culture and technological improvements can all be the effect of the ancient worlds' society and advancements. Gaelin, the philosopher and doctor, “founded” physiotherapy, discovered nervous system, was skilled with modern surgical practices & tools, and introduced cosmetic surgery. Pythagoras investigated causes and reasons of nature, and believed that “Imbalance affected health and character”. Aristotle linked medicine with biology, botany, anatomy, and founded logic, physics, political sci, economics, psychology, meta-physics, and meteorology. It is because of people from the classical world like this that we have technological advancements that bring ethics into question.

Philosophers sought rational explanations of phenomena for the world. Socrates is and example or a moral philosopher. He asked questions like “How shall we live?”, “What is good?”, “What is truth?”, “What is just?”; and the answeres to these questions bring happiness in life. He was the first cosmopolitan. Aristotle is said to have created ethics by asking things like “What is existence?” and “What does it mean?”. The cynic, Diogenes said that “all that matters are true vs bad values” whereas skeptics don’t believe in truth. The believed that “persuasion, not truth, is better”. At the time, Athens centre of intellectual world and from this, the ideas of thinking spread to other parts of the world. Academic and philosophical conflict lead to the birth of debate (examples: Heraclitus & Paramenides, Zeno).

Political ethics involve dike/justice which provide a certain climate for citizens to abide by. This formation allowed for the ideals of justice to be put in practice, which in turn layed the groundwork for individualism and democracy. This began the “first among equals” concept. An example of debate regarding this was the war between the Greeks and the Persians (5th cent.). This war was a war of ideas such as freedom vs slavery. These are some ideals that rule our lives today. Going along with this, Salan worked with Athens’ existing laws and created new ones to benefit the people of the society (Reforms).

Overall, it can be said that classic civilizations shaped path for our modern world. However, I have to say that this is truly a personal opinion.

"In a sense, civilization as a way of life is still in the experimental phase. We do not know whether it will be as successful in the long run as the hunting and gathering existence that sustained our ancestors for most of human history." - The Ancient Mediterranean World (Pg 3)

Sources:
- Classic Civilizations notes & resources from class
- Conser, James A. Law Enforcement in the United States. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett, 2005. Print.
- "ethics." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 02 May. 2010 .
- "Ethics in the Workplace Improved During the Recession, National Employee Survey Shows." ERC: Ethics Resource Center. Web. 06 May 2010. .
- Garcia, John D. "CIVILIZATION AND ETHICS." CREATIVE TRANSFORMATION: A Practical Guide for Maximizing Creativity. 1991. Web. 02 May 2010. .
- Gilly, Thomas Albert., Yakov Gilinskiy, and Vladimir Sergevnin. The Ethics of Terrorism: Innovative Approaches from an International Perspective. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas, 2009. Print.
Holborn, Hajo. History and the Humanities. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1972. Print.
- Prasad, Rajendra. A Conceptual-analytic Study of Classical Indian Philosophy of Morals. New Delhi: Jointly Published by Centre for Studies in Civilization and Concept Pub. for the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy, and Culture, 2008. Print.
- Striker, Gisela. Greek Ethics and Moral Theory: The Tanner Lectures on Human Values. California: Stanford University, 1987. Print.

The Invention of the Arch

The arch is possibly the most significant element of architecture perfected by the Romans. It in itself has led to the inventions of vaulted ceilings, and domes. As these aspects got higher and higher, arches were then created in the form of buttresses to maintain the structural integrity of these edifices while adding to the dazzling set of features on these monolithic works of art. The Beauvais Cathedral in France is a incredible example of the evolution of Roman archwork. As shown in the image, the buttresses rise all the way to the roof using the basic principals of the arch to support the behemoth weight being pressed down and outwards by the force of gravity. The vaulted ceiling itself is an adaptation of the classic arch since in essence it's an extravagant show of arches criss-crossing the ceiling blending aspects of art and basics of structural integrity.
The dome is another extension from the arch. Essentially, if you had two symmetrical arches crossing each other in a perpendicular manner, you'd have four quadrants. Similar to cutting pizza slices, theoretically, you could cut an infinite number of slices. Using this principal, you could fill all the gaps in the four quadrants with and infinite number of arches, thus resulting in the dome. The most famous Roman example of the dome is its Pantheon with its famous oculus. To avoid the possibility of collapsing in on itself (before the invention of the buttress), the unknown architect designed in the inside with a series of ribs creating trapezoid shapes as shown in the image. This saves overall weight and the oculus doubles as a material saver by being the temple's main source of light.
Possibly the largest example of the arch is the Roman aqueducts. These engineering marvels were precisely measured and created to deliver water from large sources to the bathhouses of Rome. To overcome the obstacles of deep valleys and gorges, the Romans made strong use of their arches. Not only do they look gorgeous, but they save immense amounts of material while being structurally sound. All in all, the arch is an extremely important aspect of Roman architecture since it has countless uses that have been shown over the course of history.

Art is circular

I don't want to give away my thesis for my summative on Greek Art, but it is quite apparent. We know more about Greek art from its rebirth in the Renaissance, so I've taken all the significant movements since then and compiled them into the only fitting shape - a circle. There's no timeline because people tend to go back and forth, just like in politics. Perhaps a pendulum would be a more fitting metaphor, but I'm sticking with circle. I apologize for my messy writing.

"Elocutio"

The Etruscans incented the arch and one of the most recognizable thing in western society is the GOLDEN ARCH OF MCDONALDS ; Americas symbol !