Great%20Thinkers%20Unit%20I

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Great Thinkers Unit I

• Confucius
• Plato (Socrates)
• Jesus
• Aristotle
• Sophocles

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Who are some of ourmodern day great thinkers?
Stephen Hawking
Dalai Lama
Ayn Rand

• Gandhi 

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    Confucius 551-479 B.C.E. (Before the Common
Era)
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Confucius Biography

• Considered China's greatest philosopher
• made no claim to divinity
• a temple in every county in China
•  

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• Revered as foremost teacher supreme sage
• Taught rituals, music, archery, charioteering,
  literature, and mathematics
• Broke down the precedent of teaching only the
  wealthy
•  

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• Born to impoverished noble family at a time in
  China when centralized government had collapsed
  into a feudal system
•  
• Mostly self-educated
•      
• He believed humanity could be set on the right
  path (Dao) and that goodness was possible.
•   

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• Restored order at a time of chaos
• Believed in...
• avoidance of needless war
• reduction in taxes
• allieviation of severe punishment
• humaneness decorum
• love for our fellow man loyalty

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The Analects of Confucius

• Notes and journals kept by his disciples and put
  together after his death

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Confucius 2010
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Relevance of ConfuciusToday

• Despite the determinisms of the day . . . this I
  feel is true That we are more nurture than
  nature that what we are taught, generally
  speaking, is what we become that torturers are
  made slowly, not minted in the womb. As are those
  who resist them. I believe that what rules us is
  less the material world of goods and services
  than the immaterial one of whims, assumptions,
  delusions, and lies that only by studying this
  world can we hope to shape how it shapes us that
  only by attempting to understand what used to be
  called, in a less embarrassed age, 'the human
  condition' can we hope to make our condition more
  human, not less."
• Taken from Harper's "Duhumanized" by Mark Slouka

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Confucius Jokes...

• In "The Analects of Confucius" Confucius liked to
  play with words and metaphors in which there
  would be several layers of meaning ... Confucius
  jokes often play on the double meanings of words.
  Confucius say Man who live in glass house
  should
• change in basement.
• Man who run in front of car get tired.
• Man who run behind car get exhausted.
• Man who drive like hell, bound to get there!
• Man who get hit by car, get that run down feeling.

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What do you know about Socrates?

• What is the Socratic method?
• Who was Socrates famous student?
• What did Socrates think about freedom
• of speech?

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Where is Athens, Greece, the home of Socrates and
Plato?
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Parthenon, a temple in the Acropolis
Acropolis, a citadel
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Socrates

• Invented a dialectical method of discovering
  truth with reasoned arguments, creating induction
  deduction
• (This method is not debate which implies a winner
  and a loser nor is it rhetoric, which sways
  through persuasive or emotionally charged
  diction.)
• Believed he had a divine mission to test all
  statements, and that a voice guided him in all
  his acts.
• Lived 100 years after Confucius.
• Tried for civil disobedience.
• Poisoned in prison.

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Plato(427-347 B.C.E.)
we must prefer the steadiest and the bravest,
and as far as possible the most handsome (from
The Republic).
Isnt he handsome, intelligent, and athletic?
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Plato

• Plato was Socrates most brilliant and most good
  looking pupil.
• Plato wrote down his memories of what he heard,
  adding to this his own ideas.
• Founded the first university in the ancient world
  where Aristotle attended.

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Socrates taught Plato. Plato taught Aristotle.
Doesnt young Aristotle look handsome,
intelligent, and athletic?
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Interesting Proposals of Kallipolis

• Humans are not born of their parents, but of the
  city itself.
• Cultural activity must be strictly censored and
  controlled (It is imperative for the rulers of
  the city to supervise the makers of tales.)
• Those who are no longer useful to the city must
  therefore go without medical care, even to the
  point of death, so be it.

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Allegory of the cave is recorded in Platos The
Republic
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Aristotle

• Born 384 BC
• A student at Platos Academy for 20 years. (Left
  because he was disappointed in the the direction
  of the school as Plato neared death.)
• Counseled kings and princes
• Returned to Athens and founded the Lyceum, a
  university
• Wrote about all subjects including Poetics where
  he defined catharsis and tragic hero.

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Socrates Plato Aristotle

• SPA
• they have great ones in Greece!

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The Historical Jesus of Nazareth(Born 4 B.C.E.
Died 29 C.E.)

• Founder of Christianity
• Born in Bethlehem
• Carpenter of Nazareth, a town in Galilee.
• Matthew and Luke write that it was a virgin
  birth, but also trace his kinship to David
  through Joseph who was engaged to Mary.
• Little is known of his youth.
• Pauls letters are the first biblical accounts

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• But about the year 28 or 29 C.E. his life
  interacted with the career of John the Baptist.
• Jesus heard John's preaching and joined the
  crowds for baptism in the Jordan River.
• Following Jesuss baptism he went into the desert
  for prayer and reflection.

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Who was Jesus?

• The images of Jesus throughout history are as
  varied as the people who have embraced him-the
  Son of God, the Divine Word by whom the world was
  created, the Passover sacrifice on behalf of the
  people, the Suffering Servant who takes on the
  sins of the world, the new High Priest, or more
  recently, Jesus the intellectual genius, the
  liberator of the oppressed, or the feminist. Each
  group and generation sees in Jesus a reflection
  of itself.
• Scholar Claudia Setzer

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What did Jesus teach?

• People should not to cling to the past.
• God would overthrow old institutions and ways of
  life for a wonderful new futureKingdom of God.
• This future would be especially welcomed by the
  poor, the powerless, and the peacemakers.

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The Disciples

• Twelve disciples were fishermen or common
  workers.
• Sometimes he talked to large crowds, sometimes
  just the twelve, or Peter, James, and John.
• Taught disciples to pray, i.e. Lords Prayer.

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Leading up to his death

• On a Sunday, Jesus, hailed as Son of David
  entered Jerusalem.
• The next day Jesus drove out of the Temple
  money-changers and those who sold pigeons as
  sacrifice.
• This angered a small group of priests in charge
  of the Temple and disagreements ensued. Priests
  and teachers, wanting to get rid of him, waited
  until after the feast of Passover.

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Death (cont.)

• On Thursday of the same week, Jesus had a meal
  with his disciples.
• After the meal he went to pray. Judus led the
  priests and temple soldiers to Jesus.
• The temple court proclaimed him a blasphemer.
• Taken to Roman governor (Pilot) who crucified him.

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Resurrection

• The Gospels report that on Sunday morning, Jesus
  rose from the dead and met his disciples.
• Only Christs followers testified to the
  resurrection, so the debate has continued through
  the centuries.
• The faith in the resurrection of Jesus is a major
  reason for the rise and spread of the Christian
  faith.

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Gospels

• Pauls letter were written before the gospels.
• For forty years after Christs death, the stories
  in the Gospels existed as an oral tradition.
• Stories were published 140 years after his death.
• Matthew and John (disciples) were qualified
  witnesses of the facts they recount in the
  Gospels.

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What do the Jews think of Jesus?

• Jewish writers typically separated Jesus the Jew
  from the Christianity that incorporated him,
  approving of the former but disliking the
  latter.

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What do Muslims think of Jesus?

• In Islam, Jesus is considered to be a Messenger
  of God and the Messiah who was sent to guide the
  Children of Israel with a new scripture, the
  Gospel. The belief in Jesus is required in Islam,
  and a requirement of being a Muslim. The Quran
  states that Jesus was born to Mary as the result
  of virginal conception, a miraculous event which
  occurred by the decree of God.