On Thursday, August 22, 2019 at 12:13:26 PM UTC-4, pyotr filipivich wrote:

> >I have often wondered if I was magically teleported 2500 years back and was
> >in either the academy of Athens or Jerusalem and tried to answer their
> >questions on science would I be faced with a similar situation?

> Would you understand the questions? Remember, in 500 BC, you are
> at least two paradigm shifts back from the twentieth century. SO
> many concepts we accept, still have to have their foundations worked
> out.

You certainly would understand the question if you understood Attic Greek. We can understand their writings almost perfectly, once familiar with the immense Greek vocabulary.

Greek culture is the DNA of Western Civilization, in good part because Christianity loved Aristotle.

Leave Jerusalem out, though, not a science place. Remember that later on, in the second century B.C., the Hasmonean Dynasty REJECTED all things Greek. A fact still celebrated today with a holiday. Imagine, celebrating choosing religious dogma over Greek science and philosophy... talk about mal paso. There were many Jews who embraced Greek culture at the time, though, but they lost the fight.

On Sat, 31 Jul 2021 12:07:43 -0700 (PDT), Tiglath <temp6@tiglath.net>
wrote:

>On Thursday, August 22, 2019 at 12:13:26 PM UTC-4, pyotr filipivich wrote:
>
>> >I have often wondered if I was magically teleported 2500 years back and was
>> >in either the academy of Athens or Jerusalem and tried to answer their
>> >questions on science would I be faced with a similar situation?
>
>> Would you understand the questions? Remember, in 500 BC, you are
>> at least two paradigm shifts back from the twentieth century. SO
>> many concepts we accept, still have to have their foundations worked
>> out.
>
>You certainly would understand the question if you understood Attic Greek. We can understand their writings almost perfectly, once familiar with the immense Greek vocabulary.
>
>Greek culture is the DNA of Western Civilization, in good part because Christianity loved Aristotle.
>
>Leave Jerusalem out, though, not a science place. Remember that later on, in the second century B.C., the Hasmonean Dynasty REJECTED all things Greek. A fact still celebrated today with a holiday. Imagine, celebrating choosing religious dogma over Greek science and philosophy... talk about mal paso. There were many Jews who embraced Greek culture at the time, though, but they lost the fight.

Again, you miss his point.

Much of our moderen thinking is rooted in the ideas of the ancient
Greeks (etc) but have reached us via several evolutionary steps.
Without knowledge and understanding of those steps the ancient Greeks
(etc) would have a hard time understanding exactly what pyotr
filipivich was driving at.
--

Regards,

Eric Stevens