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Geothe: *
Goethe is chiefly recognized as a literary scion, Faustus & the Sorrows of Young Werther being 2 of his most prominent works. However, he also made aesthetic judgements & in these he promoted Neoclassicism, a cultural movement inspired by the art and culture of classical antiquity. It was born in Rome promoted by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, at the time of the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Goethe travelled to Italy in 1786; for him it was the warm passionate south, a place where the classical past was still alive, although in ruins. He was vitally interested in the remains of classical antiquity. Using Palladio and Winkelmann as touchstones for his artistic growth, he expanded his scope of thought in regards to Classical concepts of beauty and the characteristics of good architecture. In letters he periodically comments on the growth and good that Rome has caused in him. He stayed almost three months in Rome, which he described as "the First City of the World".
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Doric column: *
1 of 3 orders of Greek and later Roman architecture; the other 2 being the Ionic &Corinthian. It is easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of columns. The simplest of the 3 orders, though still with complex details in the entablature above; considered the male representation, Ionic being the female character.
ABOVE: the 3 orders of Greek columns- Doric on the far left, Ionian in the middle and Corinthian on the far right. Detail of capitals included
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Themistocles: *
Following victory at Artemisium & Salamis he continued to lead Athens but when he ordered the re-fortification of the city, the Spartans became hostile. Ostracized in 471 & exiled to Argos; in 478 BC the Spartans implicated him in the alleged treasonous plot with the Spartan general Pausanias. He fled Greece entering the service of the Persians; was made a Persian governor & lived there for the rest to of his life.
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polar:
IIt is initially far from clear how Spengler is using this term. However, on page 18 he refers to: "polar conceptions like the “soul and spirit," "good and evil..." Therefore he seems to be contrasting the state or characteristic of periodicity (the quality, state of being regularly recurrent or having periods) with that which is fixed like a guiding principle, unchanging, inert.
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<E>
Egyptians: *
During the the New Kingdom (the19th & 20th dynasties) Egypt reached the pinnacle of its power, it rivaled the Hittite, Assyrian & Mitanni Empires; following this it slowly declined; it was invaded & conquered by a succession of foreign powers, the Canaanites/Hyksos, Libyans, Nubians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Achaemenid Persians & Macedonians. After Alexanders death (332 BC), one of his generals, Ptolemy, established himself as the new ruler of Egypt. The Ptolemaic Kingdom ruled Egypt until 30 BC, when, under Cleopatra, it fell to the Roman Empire and became a Roman province.
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Stoic: *
founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium who believed allowing emotions to determine actions led to destructive errors of judgment; believed in universal causal determinism (cause & effect), meaning for every event there exist conditions that could cause no other event. Human freedom must be aligned with this. Stoics taught it is virtuous to maintain a will (called prohairesis) that is in accord with nature & beleived the best indication of an individual's philosophy were not words but behavior. A good life meant udnerstanding the rules of the natural order since they taught that everything was rooted in nature. They presented their philosophy as a way of life (lex divina). From its founding it was popular in Greece & in the Roman Empire (one of its adherents was the Emperor Marcus Aurelius) until the 3rd century AD; it declined after Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century.
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Aristotelian: *
(384–322 BC) Greek philosopher & scientist born in Stagira, Chalkidice (northern periphery of Greece); at 17 he joined Plato's Academy in Athens & remained there until 37. His writings are broad covering physics, biology, zoology, metaphysics, logic, ethics, aesthetics, poetry, theatre, music, rhetoric, linguistics, politics & government; they constitute a comprehensive system of philosophy. Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens & at the request of Philip II of Macedon, tutored his son Alexander. This gave Aristotle many opportunities & wealth. He established a library in the Lyceum which aided in the production of his many works written on papyrus scrolls; only a third of his original output survives.
Although initially indebted to Plato, following the latter's death he shifted from Platonism & immersed himself in empirical studies. He believed that peoples' knowledge was ultimately based on perception. His views on natural science represent the groundwork underlying many of his works. These writings on physical science profoundly shaped Western medieval scholarship & remained un-challenged until the Enlightenment.
His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic & were incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. In metaphysics, he profoundly influenced Jewish & Islamic philosophical and theological thought in the Middle Ages and continues to influence Christian theology, especially the Neoplatonism of the Early Church & scholastic tradition. He was also revered among medieval Muslim scholars. His ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics & his philosophy is still an object of academic study.
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<H>
Plato: *
His Theory of Forms is his most influential concept. Conceptions derived from the impressions of sense can never give us the knowledge of true being, of the forms, the non-physical ideas which represent the most accurate reality This can only be obtained by the soul's activity within itself, apart from the troubles and disturbances of sense, by the exercise of reason. The forms are typically described (in his dialogues, namely Phaedo, Symposium, Republic) as transcendent perfect archetypes of which objects in the everyday world are imperfect copies. Plato was the innovator of the written dialogue and dialectic forms in philosophy & founder of Western political philosophy, with his Republic, and Laws among other dialogues, providing some of the earliest extant treatments of political questions from a philosophical perspective.
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Almost all of works survived intact. As well as philosophy he also had a massive impact on Western religion & spirituality. He was mediated by Saint Augustine of Hippo, one of the most important philosophers and theologians in the foundation of the Western thought.
He was influenced by Socrates (his debt to Socrates is self-evident in the Dialogues) as well as Parmenides, Heraclitus & especially Pythagoras. Both
philosophers stressed an epistemology where men can know the deep structure of the world because mind's essential kinship with its archetypal structure. Plato (before Kepler) assumed a mathematical order which determined planetary motion despite observed irregularities. Like Pythagoras he describes the Kosmos as "one Whole of wholes" and as "a single Living Creature which encompasses all of the living creatures that are within it" (Timaeus). Like Pythagoras he saw a basic relation between proportion & idea of justice. Where Plato & Pythagoras differ was Plato’s emphasis on the transcendent. For Pythagoras, the divine is immanent in the Kosmos, where it may be encountered; Plato emphasized a transcendent metaphysics of forms accessible to the purified intellect only, divorced from the phenomena of nature.
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<I>
decree (astronomical theories): *
The political opponents of Pericles often sought ways to discredit him. An example of this is the trial of Phidias (a friend of Pericles) first for embezzlement of gold & then for impiety (circa 450 BC). A second example was the trial of Anaxagoras (500–428), one of the greatest scientists of antiquity. Anaxagoras had famously "predicted" the fall of the meteor that landed at Aegospotami nearby in 466; other rocks landed at Abydus and Potidaea. In 460 BC he went to Athens to become Pericles' mentor. He stayed 30 years (until 430 BC). As a friend of Pericles he was subjected to political attack. In 430 BC Pericles led an expedition against Epidaurus which failed badly; the return of the troops coincided with the virulent outbreak of plague in Athens. Religious hysteria against Pericles broke out, fomented by his political enemies. The seer Diopeithes added legitimacy to these attack; he proposed a decree that public accusations should be laid against persons who neglected religion, or taught new doctrines about things above (the heavens). This was directed against Anaxagoras, and thru him, Pericles. The Decree of Diopeithes led to the trial of Anaxagoras. Pericles spoke in his defence. In the end Anaxagoras was flogged, jailed and half-starved. He was forced to retire from Athens to Lampsacus in Troad where he died in 428.