Synthisophy 527 

Lesson 2:  Chapter 1 - The United States is a Democratic Republic 

 

Watch the video: http://www.synthisophy.com/1-democratic-republic.html – it recites everything on that webpage

Go into more detail on Ancient Greece:

Detailed review of Aristotle, Socrates, Plato

General history of Classsical Greece - https://ancient-greece.org/history/classical.html

 

The Athenian adventurous spirit, and their loyalty to their Ionian kin obliged them to assist the Greek colonies that were feuding with the powerful Persian Empire in Asia Minor. To aid the Ionian Revolt (499 BCE), led by Miletus, the Athenians landed a small garrison in Ionia to fight against the Persians and to spread the revolt. The Greek forces enraged the Persians by burning the capital of Lydia, Sardis in 498 BCE, but they were finally defeated in 494 BCE. The sacking of Sardis and the defiance of the Athenians invoked the wrath of the Persian king Darius who vowed revenge. In 490 BCE, he landed his forces twenty miles north of Athens, at Marathon. While the Spartans were occupied with a religious festival, the outnumbered Athenians under the leadership of Miltiades mounted a surprise attack and routed the dumbfounded Persians at Marathon to preserve Greek independence for the time being. The Athenians were notified of the presence of the Persians at Marathon by a Greek who had seen them land there.  He immediately ran the 20 miles to Athens, informed Militades of the presence of the Persians, and promptly died of exhaustion.. That is when the word marathon we use today in the English language was born.

It took ten years, but the Persian king Xerxes, determined to succeed where Darius failed, amassed what Herodotus described as the greatest army ever put together in order to attack Greece again. The Athenians, expecting a full attack from the Persians prepared for that moment as well. Under the leadership of Themistokles, they cashed the silver extracted from the newly dug mines of Lavrion, and built a formidable navy of triremes. Xerxes crossed the Hellespont in 480 BCE with his massive army and began annexing Greece through land and sea. The first line of defense for the Greek alliance of city-states was at the narrow passage of Thermopylae where Leonidas with 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians held back the mighty Persian army for three days before they fell to a man through deceit. At the same time the Athenian ships fought the Persian navy to a stalemate at nearby Artemision before it withdrew to the straights of Salamina.











The Athenians vacated the entire non-combat population from their city, so when the Persians arrived they met no resistance. They took vengeance on the buildings and temples of Athens by burning them to the ground, and anchored their fleet at Faliron in pursuit of the Greek navy that was sheltered at nearby Salamina Island. While the joint leadership of the Hellenes argued in typical Greek fashion if they should withdraw to the Peloponnese and where to engage the Pesians next, Themistokles, seeking an advantageous quick battle, invoked the Persian fleet into attacking as the Greek ships faked an early morning escape from Salamina. As the Persians pursued what they thought was a fleeing foe, the Greck triremes turned and engaged the surprised Persians inflicting massive casualties and decimating the Persian navy. With his navy destroyed, Xerxes feared that the Greek triremes would rush to the Hellespont to cut off his only way home, so he withdrew back to Asia leaving his able general Mardonious to fight the Greeks. The next year, in 479 BCE, this Persian army was defeated at Plataea by the alliance of Greek states under the leadership of the Spartan general Pausanias, putting a permanent end to further Persian ambitions to annex Greece.

The victory of the Greek forces at Marathon and Salamis are hailed as pivotal points in the development of western civilization. The reason being that, if the Persians were victorious all the achievements of Greece (and especially Athens) that followed immediately after and what is widely consider to be the foundation of western civilization, would not have transpired. Following the successful defense of their homeland, the Greek states entered a state of high development. Athens especially emerged as a major superpower that led a host of other Greek city-states (some willing, some unwilling, and some reluctant) in a defensive alliance, the Delian League, against the Persians. The tributes collected by the allies helped Athens expand and maintain a formidable, yet difficult, empire in the Aegean world. At the same time, Sparta led the Peloponnesian League, an alliance of states mostly from the Peloponnese that acted as a counter-balance against the perceived Athenian hegemony of Greece.

The competitive spirit, suspicion, and animosity toward each other that characterized all Greek cities re-emerged once the external danger of the Persians threat subsided, and with the two dominant empires occupying opposite ends of the political and cultural spectrum, it was not long before the underlying differences and mistrust spilled over in a particularly long and nasty conflict: the Peloponnesian War. While Sparta and Athens were the primary adversaries, just about every other Greek city took part at one time or another. With Sparta possessing the stronger land forces, and Athens dominating at sea with its navy of triremes, the war lasted for from 431 until 404 BCE with the Peace of Nicias interrupting it briefly in 421-418 BCE. After surviving a decimating plague in 430/9 BCE and a devastating defeat in Sicily by Syracuse in 413 BCE, Athens drained of resources finally capitulated to the Spartans in 404 BCE.

The Classical Period, 500 to 300 BC, produced remarkable cultural and scientific achievements. The city of Athens introduced to the world a direct Democracy the likes of which had never been seen hitherto, or subsequently, with western governments like Great Britain, France, and USA emulating it a thousand years later. The rational approach to exploring and explaining the world as reflected in Classical Art, Philosophy, and Literature became the well-grounded springboard that western culture used to leap forward, beginning with the subsequent Hellenistic Age. The thinkers of the Classical Greek era have since dominated thought for thousands of years, and have remained relevant to our day. The teachings of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle among others, either directly, in opposition, or mutation, have been used as reference point of countless western thinkers in the last two thousand years. Hippocrates became the “Father of modern medicine”, and the Hippocratic oath is still used today. The dramas of Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides, and the comedies of Aristophanes are considered among the masterpieces of western culture.












The art of Classical Greece began the trend towards a more naturalistic (even in its early idealistic state) depiction of the world, thus reflecting a shift in philosophy from the abstract and supernatural to more immediate earthly concerns. Artists stopped merely “suggesting” the human form and began “describing” it with accuracy. Man became the focus, and “measure of all things” in daily life through Democratic politics, and in cultural representations. Rational thinking and Logic became the driving force behind this cultural revolution at the expense of emotion and impulse. The most striking illustration of this “Logic over Emotion” approach is frozen on the faces of the statues of the temple of Zeus west pediment at Olympia. In the complex array of sculptures, it is easy to know who is a “Barbarian” and who is a “civilized Hellene” through the expression of their faces. Barbarian Centaurs exhibit an excess of emotion, while Lapithae women and Apollo remain collected and emotionless even in the direst of situations.


Look at the seven Greek philosophers at bottom of Democratic Republic webpage,
http://www.synthisophy.com/1-democratic-republic.html

have students choose one and look up info on them at Wikipedia et al on their phones. Or if they have another, look that one up. Then share info.

Socrates, 470 – 399 BC, died at age 71, see wikipedia

Plato,  428/27 or 424/423 to 348/347, died at age 80,   See wikipedia

Aristotle, 384-322 BC, died at 62, see wikipedia

Others of possible interest

Hippocrates, Pythagoras, Plutarch, Archimedes

Free on-line book: A Smaller history of Greece: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2096/2096-h/2096-h.htm

 

US Constitution
Review Federalist quotes
Structure of federal government, walk through the Articles I, II and III for the 3 branches of government on-line on the screen
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript


Media Outlets

Click on some outlets one on your site: http://www.synthisophy.com/media-outlets.html

See what the latest news is, see Left, Center and Right

Ask students what other media they get news from, what other news sources do they use.

 

Cover the removing of the Fairness Doctrine, and the impact that had on media

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FCC_fairness_doctrine

 

Last hour for group political discussion. Break the class down into groups of 4. You may use this time to discuss the topics covered in the lecture for better understanding, and addressing any questions or concerns you may have on those topics as they apply to society today.  Also, please come to each class with two political topics that you’d like to discuss. These topics can be on a wide range of issues, as long as the issues affect society. You may also discuss those topics amongst the group.

Have someone in each group provide a summary of what was discussed.

Full class discussion if students so desire


Paper #1: Define synthisophy. Describe our Democratic Republic and the structure of our federal government, and about our news media outlets. Due next week.