The Continuous and the Discrete in Ancient Greece, the Orient, and the European Middle Ages

Author(s):  
John L. Bell
Keyword(s):  
2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-22
Author(s):  
Marek Maciejewski

The origin of universities reaches the period of Ancient Greece when philosophy (sophists, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, stoics and others) – the “Queen of sciences”, and the first institutions of higher education (among others, Plato’s Academy, Cassiodorus’ Vivarium, gymnasia) came into existence. Even before the new era, schools having the nature of universities existed also beyond European borders, including those in China and India. In the early Middle Ages, those types of schools functioned in Northern Africa and in the Near East (Baghdad, Cairo, Constantinople, cities of Southern Spain). The first university in the full meaning of the word was founded at the end of the 11th century in Bologna. It was based on a two-tiered education cycle. Following its creation, soon new universities – at first – in Italy, then (in the 12th and 13th century) in other European cities – were established. The author of the article describes their modes of operation, the methods of conducting research and organizing students’ education, the existing student traditions and customs. From the very beginning of the universities’ existence the study of law was part of their curricula, based primarily on the teaching of Roman law and – with time – the canon law. The rise of universities can be dated from the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of modernity. In the 17th and 18th century they underwent a crisis which was successfully overcome at the end of the 19th century and throughout the following one.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilson Alves de Paiva

A fictional book with five short stories that address the main pandemics in the world. The first story takes place in Ancient Greece, in 428 BC at the time of the Peloponnesian War. Tavros, the main character flees the plague by traveling to Gaul and discovers a mysterious water spring near the village of the Parisii. In AD 166, when Rome, is devasted by the plague, Marcus Aurelius sends out soldiers to the North. One of them, Lucius, arrives in the region of Lutecia and finds the same fountain that Tavros had been to. The water from this spring gives him strength to escape from the persecution of Christians and Jews. In his old age, Lucius becomes a Church elder and writes letters. One of them was read, many centuries later, by a Franciscan Parisian monk during the Middle Ages, who decides to pilgrimage to Jerusalem but is surprised by the Black Death. Back home, he is saved by the water spring, builds an orphanage and has his life converted into a book - which is red by a young journalist who takes the ship Demerara with his fiancée to Brazil in order to avoid the World War I, the Spanish flu and some Russian spies. The last story is about a Brazilian professor, called Lucius Felipe who, in 2019, travels to Paris to develop his postdoctoral studies. Unfortunately he has to return to Brazil due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But not before having visited Lutetia’s fountain and felt its power and the memories it holds.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (20) ◽  
pp. 42-46
Author(s):  
A.M. Kulish ◽  
V.V. Turpitko

Sport has always served to establish peace, to help different peoples of the world to study each other’s culture, to create conditions for the humane resolution of conflicts, to be an opportunity to express their talents. Therefore, he never fell out of sight of society. In this work, the authors present the formation and development of sports in Ukraine and abroad. The main features of the primitive community were identified. It is determined that the invention of the chariot for the physical culture of the states: Babylon, Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ancient India, China, Persia became the starting point for the further development of sports in this region. It has been found that ancient Greece made a significant contribution to the development of sports. After all, it was the basis of the main principles of modern professional sport. Attention is drawn to the Olympic Games that took place in Ancient Greece: their appearance, conditions, prohibition, and revival Pierre de Coubertin. Further new competitions (Paralympic Games, Olympic Games, etc.) were added to them. It is revealed that international organizations and institutions have been set up to control such competitions. The authors found that religion had a great influence on the formation of physical culture during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. Trends in the development of modern sport and the factors that influence it was found out. As a result, it was concluded that sports are currently in the process of transformation. Therefore, the authors indicate what has the greatest influence on the formation and continued existence of sports. The main stages of the formation of physical culture in Ukraine were analyzed. It is also established that Ukraine has built a domestic sport in accordance with world experience in this field. Keywords: sports, physical culture, Olympics, doping, consolidating function.


Literator ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
H. Ester

The labyrinth in literature: From Baroque to Postmodernism The labyrinth has proved to be an essential symbol of postmodernist literature and the philosophy of our time. This symbol has apparently had the power to bridge the centuries between Ancient Greece and the year 2000. In reality the labyrinth as a geometrical figure has acquired various meanings in the course of time. The history of the labyrinth as symbol shows that the constant elements are as essential as the changes in meaning from the Middle Ages until the present day. Two of the new symbolic elements that accompany the labyrinth on its way through various cultural periods are the garden and the path of life. During the Baroque the labyrinth, for example, represented the synthesis of garden, path and maze. At the end of the twentieth century the labyrinth once more becomes a dominant and significant structure. The labyrinth reflects the inability and perhaps impossibility to find the key to the centre of the world and to discover the truth behind the words we use. On the other hand, the labyrinth suggests that the search for meaning and truth is an aim in itself or even that this search can lead to new forms of wisdom. The labyrinth therefore is an ambivalent and fascinating symbol of our time. Dedalus and Ariadne, however, have not yet brought the salvation we are waiting for.


Slavic Review ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 118-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana Boym

Osip Mandel'shtam, “Fransua Villon”Mikhail Bakhtin, “Slovo v romane”The two epigraphs disclose a crucial “genre gap” between Osip Mandel'shtam and Mikhail Bakhtin. If for Mandel'shtam dialogue is essential to lyric, for Bakhtin the dialogical discourse identifies the novel as a genre in opposition to monologic, self-centered and self-sufficient poetic language. In his essays “Fransua Villon” and “O sobesednike,” Mandel'shtam discusses different dimensions of dialogue—the dialogue between various historical epochs—modernity and Middle Ages, Ancient Greece and Renaissance, the dialogue between the author and the distant reader, and finally, the dialogue between the poet's diverse selves. The latter is called “lyrical hermaphroditism” and described in its multiple incarnations, including “ogorchennyi i uteshitel', mat’ i ditia, sudiia i podsudimyi, sobstvennik i nishchii.“ Mandel'shtam's “lyrical hermaphroditism” does not signify a Platonic ideal of androgynous wholeness, a reconciliation of two polarities.


2018 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
pp. 548-556
Author(s):  
Ilaria Zamuner

AbstractIn Italian language there are two words, alitta and alipta, derived from the same latin etymon alipta, shaped on gr. ἀλείπτης ‘who anoint’; however, the two terms have different categories and meanings: alitta (f.) ‘mixture of aromatic substances’ and alipta (m.) ‘who anoint’. The story of ‘alipta’ is traced from ancient Greece until contemporary age – through the middle ages – to clarify the passages that have determined the independent origin of the two terms in the Italian language.


2020 ◽  
pp. 373-387
Author(s):  
Arleta Witek

In the ancient times horse riding took over the heart of aristocracy. The horse was considered as a unique creation, which was a representation of noble origin. In ancient Greece, the rider was identified with a warrior. Around the horses appeared a lot of political and social meanings, especially important in the Middle Ages and the early modern period. An important role, that horses used to have in the society, was reflected in the art: painting and sculpture. The Republic of the Nobles was a country that loved horses more than others, gave them new symbols and meanings.


Author(s):  
Grégoire Chamayou

Touching on issues of power, authority, and domination, this book takes an in-depth look at the hunting of humans in the West, from ancient Sparta, through the Middle Ages, to the modern practices of chasing undocumented migrants. Incorporating historical events and philosophical reflection, the book examines the systematic and organized search for individuals and small groups on the run because they have defied authority, committed crimes, seemed dangerous simply for existing, or been categorized as subhuman or dispensable. The book begins in ancient Greece, where young Spartans hunted and killed Helots (Sparta's serfs) as an initiation rite, and where Aristotle and other philosophers helped to justify raids to capture and enslave foreigners by creating the concept of natural slaves. The book discusses the hunt for heretics in the Middle Ages; New World natives in the early modern period; vagrants, Jews, criminals, and runaway slaves in other eras; and illegal immigrants today. Exploring evolving ideas about the human and the subhuman, what we owe to enemies and people on the margins of society, and the supposed legitimacy of domination, the book shows that the hunting of humans should not be treated ahistorically, and that manhunting has varied as widely in its justifications and aims as in its practices. The book investigates the psychology of manhunting, noting that many people, from bounty hunters to Balzac, have written about the thrill of hunting when the prey is equally intelligent and cunning. An unconventional history on an unconventional subject, this book is an in-depth consideration of the dynamics of an age-old form of violence.


This chapter studies the development and basic ideas of Western aesthetic thoughts by reviewing the aesthetic history of ancient Greece and the Middle Ages and by investigating the modern and contemporary aesthetics. It initially discusses the dominant classical Greek aesthetics, the medieval aesthetics, the 19th century aesthetics, and finally the modern aesthetics. The chapter finds that while the history of aesthetics is marked by countless schools of thoughts, only a few people of rare talent have made significant contribution to the entire human civilization through their aesthetic theories and ideas.


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