"New ideas in politics and philosophy tend to emerge in times of social, political, and/or economic stress. How can this be explained?"
First of all, people are more open to new ideas when they are unhappy with their current situation. In times of happiness people are going to be less open to people coming in with radical new ideas on how to change things, because people don't want change. However, when people are unhappy, new ideas and change sounds wonderful. People will look to almost any idea with hope and this allows very smart people to capitalize on this by introducing their concepts. If a government is working well and people are happy with it, a philosopher with an idea for how to better run the government is going to be ignored. But if you take a government that is not working well and people that aren't happy that philosopher will be listened to. My point being, it is not only that these ideas are thought of during times of stress but that they are brought to the forefront by a population that will listen.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Population Growth in the Classical Period
Population growth was the biggest development of the classical period, true or false?
False. Population growth was simply a side effect of the other developments of the time. Once the other developments began to take form then population growth became a key factor in the progession of those developments. I am talking about devlepments such as the mass domestication of animals. Without such developments the population growth that we saw occur in that time period would not have been possible because there simply would not have been enough food. People did not start having a ton of kids and then find ways to feed all of them, it was the other way around. That being said, once there was enough food to have a large population then people could develop other things such as metal tools, new farming methods, new ways to build buildings or run governments. So while it while it was important in developing other things, population growth itself was not the biggest development of the period.
False. Population growth was simply a side effect of the other developments of the time. Once the other developments began to take form then population growth became a key factor in the progession of those developments. I am talking about devlepments such as the mass domestication of animals. Without such developments the population growth that we saw occur in that time period would not have been possible because there simply would not have been enough food. People did not start having a ton of kids and then find ways to feed all of them, it was the other way around. That being said, once there was enough food to have a large population then people could develop other things such as metal tools, new farming methods, new ways to build buildings or run governments. So while it while it was important in developing other things, population growth itself was not the biggest development of the period.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Changes of the classical period...
What were the main changes of the classical period?
The main changes of the classical period were that the world unified into nations and civilizations. This allowed for trade between nations in different parts of the world. Also, the critical mass of so many people living in one area allowed for civilizations to flourish because with advances in farming people could be architects or blacksmiths or scholars. Up until the classical period you would have small population bubbles or even small cities but none had the food supply to truly support a big enough population in which everyone would not have to farm or hunt. The breakthrough was really the domestication of animals and advances in farming which allowed significantly less people to produce significantly more food and thus support a very big population in a small area allowing civilization to form. Without these advances the civilizations could not be formed.
The main changes of the classical period were that the world unified into nations and civilizations. This allowed for trade between nations in different parts of the world. Also, the critical mass of so many people living in one area allowed for civilizations to flourish because with advances in farming people could be architects or blacksmiths or scholars. Up until the classical period you would have small population bubbles or even small cities but none had the food supply to truly support a big enough population in which everyone would not have to farm or hunt. The breakthrough was really the domestication of animals and advances in farming which allowed significantly less people to produce significantly more food and thus support a very big population in a small area allowing civilization to form. Without these advances the civilizations could not be formed.
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