From Orphism to the Milesians in ancient Greece

Comments · 15

• TZ

  @tzmythos · 6 years ago

  I smiled to see the students in this lecture, who looked totally disinterested ... too young and experienced, I think, to be interested in the nature of reality or thinking about it. I think that philosophy requires a degree of maturity and curiosity about ideas.

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• SH

  @ShahryarKhan-KHANSOLO- · 6 years ago

  Amazing lectures! Such depth and breadth of knowledge displayed. It is a dream of mine to arrive at this level someday. I should, however, make a few corrections. Descartes did not discover calculus and linear algebra. The rudiments of calculus were first developed by Descartes’ contemporary and fellow Frenchman, Pierre de Fermat, in the early part of the 17th cen and then later developed fully by Newton and Leibniz. Linear algebra was properly developed by Hermann Grassmann in the 1800s although others, such as Leibniz and Cramer had worked on its rudiments before. Also, Newton’s physics did not rely on Descartes’ physics; rather, Newton flatly rejected the mechanistic picture of the world (everything, including all forces, can be explained by small interlocking parts influencing each other) put forth by the Cartesians and instead developed his theory of gravity as an action-at-a-distance theory, without the use of any mechanical mediators. As Chomsky said, “in the debate about mind and machine, Newton exorcised the machine”. Descartes’ main contributions to mathematics are the invention of cartesian geometry and using this, the development of analytic geometry, a new and powerful branch of math that connected algebra with geometry and helped enormously in the discovery of calculus (side note: Fermat also developed analytic geometry independently, apart from tremendous contributions to number theory).

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• MA

  @marcocenci · 9 years ago

  On the  problem of the origins of greek philosophy, the connections between greek religion, orfic tradition and scientific method, I suggest the papers of Jean Pierre Vernant, easy to find on the internet. More difficult to get on line, but as illuminating as Vernan's, are the works of Giorgio Colli.

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• AR

  @arturhashmi6281 · 4 years ago (edited)

  I stydy Orphism for many years now, i have read every ancient source showed for public view today and with all symphaty for this man he made few mistakes and doubtly correct assumptions, about history, geography and theology of those movements wich he have mentioned, but i believe he is wise in spirit and he gets archetype connection between them, which is the clue

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• RA

  @RAMANKHANDELWAL- · 3 years ago

  plz share which books to read for this subject?

• AG

  @agar1956 · 12 years ago

  Thanks Dr Shivakumar. Our Plato reading group has struggled a bit because we did not investigate the pre-Socratics first. Your lecture shows me that the pre-Socratics also have to be considered alongside this other new movement entering the Greek tradition.<br>By the way, it is puzzling that this video is described in the notes under the main title as &quot;History of Economic Theory&quot;?

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• DI

  @Discovios · 13 years ago

  The Ionians &nbsp;were Greeks of the older tribes.

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• SA

  @salhalabi4974 · 3 years ago

  بالنسبة لانتشار الإسلام بالقوة لا أعتقد أن أحداً يصدق أن دين هندي له أتباع بالملايين عاشوا آلاف السنين لم يستطع أحد التغلب عليهم جاءت جماعة من العرب من البادية و أجبرتهم على الانطواء بالقوة !! التاريخ يحدثنا أن الإسلام دخل للهند عن طريق التجار العرب قبل أن يصل الفتح الإسلامي عام 1000للميلاد. و لولا قبول ملايين الهنود لهذا الدين لما استطاع الدخول للهند بالمطلق .. شعب الهند حينها كان أضعاف عدد شعوب العرب كلها لا يمكن إخضاعهم بالقوة

• AB

  @abdelrahmanmustafa8937 · 2 years ago

  This reminds me of Alexander the Great during the Hellenistic period travelling East to India and learning from the Indian Naked masters (Gymnosophists)

• AB

  @abdelrahmanmustafa8937 · 2 years ago

  Is it true that the world&apos;s largest population is Indian and thus Hinduism is the largest religion?