Human Geography

Today in Western Civilization class we learned about philosophy and how much of an impact it has on the thought process of most humans. The definition of philosophy is "the academic study of anything". But in reality, it has just started to be understood more as a way of thinking about questions. Questions like "why do you think what you think", "why do you do what you do" and "why do you feel what you feel". These are pretty basic questions that philosophers will attempt to crack down on and answer. There are two major concepts; Mythos(mythology/storytelling) and Philos(Philosophy/science). Then there is philosphia, the love of wisdom. This all started with Socrates who's name was Philosopherlapalooza. Im pretty sure that's where they got the term philosophy from or is that just me!

Today in Western Civilization class we began to work on a small group project. For the project, my group is planning on creating a floating model that will symbolize Ancient Greece. We will fill a piece of plastic Tupperware and fill it with water. We will then place a self-created model of Ancient Greece inside the Tupperware and let it float, symbolizing how Greece would appear resting over the ocean. We are still working out the kinks of the model, once finished it will look very accurate.

Today in western civilization class with Mr. Schick we learned about the legend himself, Socrates. Socrates was a greek philosopher who spread to the youth that they should think for them selves as individuals. This was one of the two reasons that he was sentenced to death. The reasons are that he was corrupting the youth and that he was thinking other then the greek mythological beliefs. He died by drinking a poison hemlock drink in prison. He was offered to escape and safely leave Athens, yet he wanted to stay loyal to the Athenian rule of democracy.

 Today in Western Civilization Class with Mr. Schick we wrote notes in our notebook, here's what I got. Democratic Principles and classical culture flourished during Greece's Golden Age. At its height, Greece set lasting standards in art, politics, literature, and philosophy that are still influential today. Perciles led Athens during much its golden age.  Perciles was a very skillful politician, he was an inspiring speaker, and he was also a very well behaved and well respected general While in office, Perciles had three goals in which he wished to achieve. 1. To strengthen Athenian Democracy, 2. hold and strengthen the empire, and 3. to glorify Athens 

Today in western civilization we had a test. The test was fairly easy, however he did let us use our blog so that helped a lot. After everyone finished up the test we read the big book under our desks and we took notes for the rest of the class.                    And yea, that pretty much sums up what I did in western civilization today.

The Greek diet consists of grains, grapes, olives, and fish.  Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge in Peloponnesus The Trojan War was fought in the 12th or 13th century BCE Dorians were far less advanced The trade-based economy collapsed, writing disappeared for 400 years. Talk about a culture in decline...  Except for the fact that the Dorians ruling from 1150 to 1750 was the Dark Ages. The Odyssey was 12110 lines of dactylic hexameter The Iliad was about the Trojan War while the Odyssey was about the man Odysseus and his long journey back to his family. The Homeric Question- Homer may have been a mythical creation himself Homer was a blind, wandering minstrel; an heroic figure Polis- a fundamental political unit made up of a city and the surrounding countryside. Monarchy- rule by a single person Aristocracy- rule by a small group of noble, very rich, landowning families. Oligarchy- wealthy groups, dissatisfied with aristocratic rule, who seized power. Tyrant- a pow

The Greek diet consists of grains, grapes, olives, and fish.  Mycenae is located on a rocky ridge in Peloponnesus The Trojan War was fought in the 12th or 13th century BCE Dorians were far less advanced The trade-based economy collapsed, writing disappeared for 400 years. Talk about a culture in decline...  Except for the fact that the Dorians ruling from 1150 to 1750 was the Dark Ages. The Odyssey was 12110 lines of dactylic hexameter The Iliad was about the Trojan War while the Odyssey was about the man Odysseus and his long journey back to his family. The Homeric Question- Homer may have been a mythical creation himself Homer was a blind, wandering minstrel; an heroic figure Polis- a fundamental political unit made up of a city and the surrounding countryside. Monarchy- rule by a single person Aristocracy- rule by a small group of noble, very rich, landowning families. Oligarchy- wealthy groups, dissatisfied with aristocratic rule, who seized power. Tyrant- a powerf

Today in western civilization we talked mostly about way between the Persians and the Greeks. The first thing that we learned about was the meaning of the words infantry and a phalanx. Infantry are the soldiers that fought on land. The phalanx was a close-rank, dense grouping of warriors armed with long spears and interlocking shields. They were also soldiers that would slowly advance toward the enemy until they broke through their ranks. The Persians against the Greeks had many perspectives before they fought. Greece, in size comparison, appears to be little and insignificant in size. The Persians had a huge army whom had an unlimited supply of resources. The Greeks had iron weapons, hoplites, and had the home field advantage. The Persians on the other hand had first archers, calvary, huge numbers, lightly armored infantry, and a professional army.

In western civ, mr schick is feeling horrible. These are the notes that I took. By 750 B.C., the city state, or polis, was the fundamental political unit in Ancient Greece. Most city states controlled between 50 and 500 acres of territory. City states' governments were either a monarchy, aristocracy, or an oligarchy. In later times, tyrants began to take over. Even more later in time, Athenian reformers moved toward democracy, rule by the people. In Athens, citizens participated directly in political decision making.

The first thing we learned about today was direct democracy. We learned that its where the state(or in this case the city state) is ruled by its citizens. Rule is based on citizenship and the majority rule decides vote. In the agora, citizens argued and made speeches. We hen talked about the strong naval force that Athens had. They had the strongest naval power in the world at the time, along with the greatest war ships ever created in their time period.

Today in the class we worked on the group essay that was assigned to us by Mr. Schick. We were assigned to work on government in Greece. It was a very difficult essay to compose because we had to add in all of the contributing factors within the idea of government. For example, we talked about Cleisthenes and we also talked about Isagorous and the major roles that they played in Greece's government. We also talked about how  Government in Greece has changed drastically throughout its history and these changes in government have determined greece’s fate throughout history. A new form of government was born in Greece thousands of years ago, before Christ’s birth, and has influenced countries all around the world to adopt that same system. This new government was democracy, born many years after aristocracy, Greece’s leaders decided a new methodology may have been required to keep Greece stable and adopt new ideas, not only from the rich, but from average citizens. An aristocracy is a

Today in western civilization class with Mr. Schick we received out pop quizzes back, I did not do particularly well on it, however my bogs will eventually cancel it out and the bad grade will be history. I got a failing grade on that , however we have just been assigned a new assignment which will give me a lot of English experience as well as western civilization facts. The role that my group chose was the government of a ancient greece. The teacher Mr. Schick id a alldtsrt snd spirit