西方文化导论课件16课后题答案.pdfVIP

(1) Give a brief account of the major achievements of Greek culture, such as those in religion, philosophy, literature and science. Greek religion really took shape during the Homeric Age and featured polytheism with gods taking humanform and feeling. Greek religion madea great contribution to Greek literature, philosophy and art. It is an important origin of Greek mythology which was fully developed by the religious tales of the Homeric epic and thus affected the later development of all kinds of Greek culture. Greek philosophy started with Thales (640 BC–547 BC) who believed that the material world originated in water. His philosophy was materialism. He was followed by Pythagoras who assumed that the key to the understanding of the world is numbers, on the opposition of the spokesman for idealism. The core Greek philosophers are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Socrates had scant regard for material wealth, but was keen on probing into the definition of some ethical and behavioral issues, such as “friendship ” and “courage ”. Plato established the Academy － the first Greek institution of higher learning. His contributions included his theory of ideas and his arguments on “republic ” which was supposed to embrace his ideals about a future state where humans could enjoy a happy life. Aristotle is also a learned man and his work covers wide-ranging areas. His reputation as a philosopher largely depends on his argument on metaphysics which he tried to achieve a compromise between matter and divinity. Literary representation centred round the two epic poems of the and the , Iliad Odyssey lyrical poetry