Blog #6

1. I agree with Socrates when he says that wisdom begins with wonder. To be able to be wise you have to be wanting to learn. Wondering about how something works or why something happen is the first step to becoming wise.
2. Thrasymachus claimed that justice was whatever the strongest and most pwerful decided to be right. Plato disagreed with this statement. Plato says that most of the stime what the strongest and most powerful do is wrong. They only think about themselves. Plato thinks that there are four great virtues: courage wisdom, temperance, and justice.
3. Plato's ideal republics was to have the strongest and most intelligent rule and have people who are not intelligent be the lower class. The positive was that it started out well where intelligent people were at the the top, but the negative was that no one could move up in their position, meaning even if a non intelligent person had an intelligent son, he could not move up in the ranks.
4. My ideal of an ideal state is one like the U.S. (democracy) but without corruption and where everyone get equal rights and everyone has equal educational and job opportunities.
5. The Allegory of the Cave says that we can not get knowledge until we realize that what we see may not be true. This means that we can not just look at something on the surface but we have to see on the inside as well.

Blog #5

1. I would rather live in Sparta if I was a women because in Athens women were treated as items, kind of like slaves. The only job they had was to do domestic arts. In Sparta, girls were educated and treated more equal to men than in Athens. They were at least free to move around while in Athens they belonged to their husbands.
2. I would rather be a slave in Athens because at least some slaves could get important roles like a policeman.
3. I would much rather live in Athens if I were a boy because I would not need to serve in the army till I am 60.
4. I would rather live in Athens because once again I would not have to serve in the army till I am 60 and only work in the army.
5. Once again I would rather live in Athens if I were rich because I would not have to serve in the army. Not only that , but in Sparta rich, was basically anyone who was free and served in the army.
6. I would definitely rather live in Athens because in Sparta everything is about war and from a young age you only learn to fight. In Athens you have a choice and do not have to serve in the army for over 50 years.

Blog #4

I think when there is political and social/ economic strain new ideas in politics emerge because drastic measures are needed. It is obvious that whatever else is being done is not working and that something new must be done. Other times people try everything that they think could work and it still does not work. This is when human have to start thinking about new ideas, ones that they have never thought of before to save their country from the crisis. A good example for this was during the Great Depression. Nothing Herbert Hoover tried was working so people wanted someone who would come up with different ideas. When F. D. R. was elected he came up with a new idea, The New Deal, because he knew America had to do something different. His plan worked out well, and America got out of the Great Depression with the start of WWII.

Blog #3

I do not think that population growth was the most important development in the classical period. I think it was one of the most important. I think that trade was just as important as population growth. Population growth did help make more complex cities and faster methods of farming among a few things, but it also caused more diseases, deforestation, soil erosion, and made there be very little wood. Trade helped get materials that people could not farm even in large populations. It also probably helped get back things lost in the side effects of high population. Trade though would have been much harder if it were not for the population growth because with enough people, people will want more than just what they have since they can farm much better.

Blog #2

I think the biggest change in the classical era was the rise of China and India. There size greatly increased campared to what the were from 1 to 100 c. e. There population also increased, and became the highest in the world. In fact, it still is. China and India also affected countries and people around them such as the nomads. Also China developed canals which helped great in trades. The silk route was also a very important change that occurred which was the biggest trade route at the time. The collapse of the Han Dynasty in China was also a big change that happened near the end of the classical era.

Yali's Question

I think that the reason why people living in the Americas and Africa fell victim to Europe is because people in Europe wanted to become more advance while people in Africa and the Americas were fine living as they were. As the Europeans became more advance they sought more and more. Meanwhile the other nations continued to live satisfied being hunters and gatherers and did not need weapons like steel. They were good enough with stone to be able to hunt animals. The Europeans started to explore and found out there were other nations different from theres and decided they were not good enough and needed to be fixed. With there advanced technology they conquered Africa and the Americas easily. I think that part of the reason why the Europeans were the ones who sought greater technology was because of where they lived. Although I think that is part of the reason I think that the geography was not the main reason why Europe became more advance.