Western Civ 2018

We watched more on the philosophy video by Hank Green and we also heard a story from Mr. Schick about how he helped a homeless person in Chicago by buying him a bagel, soup, and coffee. He tried to get him to go to his sister but he didn't want to. We talked about the part of philosophy called value theory. Value theory has two parts: Ethics and Aesthetics. Ethics involves human conduct while aesthetics involves the nature of beauty. We also talked about something that is basically a riddle that can't be solved. An example of this is "What was your face before your parents birth." Basically it's asking did you exist before your parents birth and will you continue exist after your death. Philosophy was made to make you think.

Today in western civ we watched a video on philosophy and all of the things it contains. The maker of the video of the author of the book The Fault in our Stars. Most of the things we talked about were just asking questions because that's what philosophy is all about. These questions included: "Do I have a soul?", "What is the world like?", "What's the nature of reality?", and many more. We also talked about Plato and Aristotle and the schools they had. Plato had The Academy and Aristotle had the Lyceum. We also talked about philos and mythos. Philos means science and mythos means storytelling. Philosophia means love of wisdom. Another way to look at philosophy as a way of thinking about questions.

In western civ we started to talk and work on our project. My group consists of Mert, Rafay, Ryan, and I. Our group is doing a project involving a map of Ancient Greece and showing where different things in Greek history occurred. Some of the things we're showing include the Peloponnesian War, Odysseus'  journey, Athens, Sparta, The Trojan War, and so much more. I wonder if any other groups decided to do what my group is doing or something similar to it. Oh well, we'll see what the others came up with on the presentation day. According to Mr. Schick not every class that we're having is going to be us working on our projects, we are still going to continue on things like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.

Today we started to talk about Socrates and other philosophers. Socrates had a very well-known quote "The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates was eventually put on trial because he was charged with two crimes: corrupting youth and disrespecting the gods. He defended himself by saying that he was just doing his job. He was found guilty and had to drink poison hemlock which is a really bad way to go. This is a picture called the death of Socrates. Socrates had a student named Plato. Plato wrote Socrates' teachings in a form called Apology. He had a book called Republic and it was one of the most influential books on philosophy ever written. Plato also had a student named Aristotle. He helped foster the fact that Athens is an intellectual destination. His school (the Lyceum) focused on cooperative research. Aristotle also tutored Alexander the Great. Now we are about to do a group project about what we have learned.

Today we had to take more notes on what we already took notes on after we finished the test. Some people had to take the test so it was a very silent class. I actually did better than I thought I did on the test. Just to recap the test was very easy (if you studied and took good notes). It was mostly on things like where the Greek islands and seas were and others involved things like the trireme and forms of government. Some of the new stuff we will talk about include Socrates, Pericles, Peloponnesian War, and ancient Greek plays and forms of art. There are two types of plays: tragedies and comedies. Tragedies focused more on love, hate, betrayal ad things like that. Comedies focus more on humor and other funny components. Well hopefully we talk about these things sometime soon or else these notes would just be pointless.

Today we took our test which surprisingly was open blog meaning we could use only our blog to help us. Most of it was easy a few problems tricked me up but nothing major. Some of it involved where certain islands and seas were in Greece while others involved things like the type of government and the trireme. Now we are starting to talk about Socrates and other philosophers. We also took some notes on Pericles. Pericles had three goals: hold and strengthen the empire, glorify Athens and preserve Athenian democracy. We also learned about types of Greek stories. They consisted of tragedies and comedies. Tragedies focused on things like betrayal, death, and anger. Comedies involved things like humor and less tragic things. Remember to enjoy your three day weekend and see all of you later.

Today we went over questions that were going to be on the test. One of them involves matching the civilization to the river that flows through it. We also have a map of Ancient Greece and we have to tell which sea is what and where certain islands are and stuff like that. Some of the test also revolves around the government of Ancient Greece and about Homer and his stories. Homer had two well-known stories: The Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad is all about the Trojan War and the people who fought in it. The Odyssey is about a hero from the war trying to get home but is thrown off by Poseidon. During this story he lands on many different islands, these islands include a cyclops, people who eat these leaves and become really high, and an island filled with a bunch of gorgeous women. Based upon what we talked about in class it looks like this test s going to be easy.

Today in western civ we learned that we are going to have a test on Friday. Right now I am doing my blog in class because I have nothing else to do. Basically this test is on everything we learned about Ancient Greece. I had to help Scott with some notes because he was doing something else and didn't get them. We also got our projects back and my group did decent on it. Basically everyone is doing their blog now because that's all they can do now. People were very mad about having the test on Friday because they had other tests on that day so they kept on trying to push it to Monday. That  didn't work, so Friday it is. Till next time this is your Friendly Neighborhood Logan signing off.

Today in western civ we talked more about the Greek fighting style the phalanx. It basically has one weakness, if the enemy has archers and they shoot their arrows, if the phalanx doesn't notice it then it will get them but if they notice it then they can raise their shields and block it. Here are some facts about the Greek army during the Persian War. They had iron weapons, foot soldiers, spears, swords, shields, the phalanx, home-field advantage, and motivation to preserve democracy. The Persian army had archers followed by cavalry, and then lightly armored infantry. They also had huge numbers, they were a long way from home and they had a professional army built with mercenaries. This was very interesting to learn about and I am so eager to learn about what's next.

Today in western civ Mr. Schick wasn't feeling well so our task was to get some notes from the textbook, copy them down, and transcribe them into our blog. Some of the things I learned from the book was about the phalanx. This was a fearsome fighting formation used a lot in Ancient Greece. I had learned about this at my previous school but now I'm diving deeper into it. I also learned more about democracy which is a government ruled by the people. Helots were peasants who were forced to live on the land that they worked on. One of the major things I learned about was the Persian Wars. These were wars between Greece and Persia. During this war Darius was the king of Persia. If I remember correctly, he collaborated with Hippias to get back at the Greeks. I am unsure if that took place in the Persian Wars or not but it is still a cool piece of information. I also learned about the Olympic Games. The history of it goes with Greek mythology. In this story, Zeus hurled a lightning bo

Today I western civ I didn't get to do much because I had a nosebleed. So I was in the nurse's office for the majority of class. When I came back we were talking about Greek gods and goddesses. Some of the gods and goddesses we talked about were Poseidon, Aphrodite, and Demeter. Poseidon was the god of the sea. Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty. Demeter was the goddess of corn and grain. Then we started to talk about Sparta and how they are trained to be soldiers once they are seven years old. We also talked about a ship called the Trireme. This ship was a technological marvel. It had three levels and could seat 170 men on the boat. This ship could also be used as a battering ram and could poke holes in enemy ships.  Mr. Schick had a wooden version of the Trireme which was really cool.

Today in western civ we continued to work on our presentations. My part was done so I had to help out other people in my group. The photo I used to represent geography was this.  This is a topographical map of Ancient Greece. Topographical maps are meant to give you a real life interpretation of what the place actually looks like. The mountainous areas on the map are shown as very rugged regions. Greece is a peninsula. which means that it is surrounded by water on three sides. This can also show what lad is flat and arable. Yes, topographic maps are made by cartographers.

Today we started to do a project about all the things we had learned in western civ. So we got into groups and each group had a specific part of the essay. My group is in charge with geography, lifestyle, jobs, and culture. We each had a different part of our topic to work on in my group. I worked on the geography of Ancient Greece. Some of the things I had to mention were how mountainous it was, what land was arable or suitable for farming, what they ate, and the islands that are in the Ionian and Aegean Seas. The Greeks also had poor/limited natural resources so trade was very important. Also the city-states that they developed they were very loyal to them. One last thing, is that because they had mountainous terrain, it was difficult to unite the Ancient Greeks.