History and Context of Journalism, Lecture one!

Having studied Philosophy and Ethics at A-level I felt reasonably confident with my Philosophy knowledge, oh how wrong I was! I did however feel at home when Chris mentioned that the first literary artefact which provides us of information to do with the European Civilisation was 'The Odyssey' which was written by Homer. Coincidentally I studied both 'The Illiad' and 'The Odyssey' whilst I studying Classical Civilisation at A-level. Shortly after the first piece of English Literature was 'Beowolf'' which was a short story about how the Saxons came to Britain and were troubled by a gigantic wolf. I was surprised to discover that I had never heard of this tale even having Studied English Literature at A-Level. I can see that both these stories of migration and of a journey display the ways in which the English Language and the English Culture has developed into the language and culture which we know today.

In ancient history the Greeks were a source of culture whereas the Romans were responsible for the source of power through their invention of roads and politics etc. Bertrand Russell believed that Greek Culture and the Middle Ages remained separate. Russell embraced Christianity since one God which means that we're all the same. We're not therefore divided by faith. The Greeks coincidentally believed that the Gods were ruled by Fate and therefore we're all ruled by Fate.

The rise of the Roman empire soon led to the Romans decline which resulted in 'The Dark Ages' around 300AD which lasted roughly a thousand years. There was no roads and the economy collapsed, there was also no democracy. On the other hand during the 'Dark Ages' in the Middle East the 'Golden Age of Islam' whilst us Britons suffered. During the whole period, roughly only three books were published! That's almost impossible to imagine when you think about how many books are published a day in this day of age! Islam believed to have buildings made of gold and to own a flying carpet. Arabs held onto Aristotle's beliefs such as Geometry, Maths and astronomy etc. Al Ghazali was a Religious fanatic who believed that everything that you ever needed to know was in the Quran.
Avicenna was a mathematician who argued that the Quran does not hold the answer to everything.
   Saint Augstine created the idea of 'Sin' and expanded this idea by preaching that if you sinned you would be condemned to an eternal hell.

Logic is part of of Greek science that was preserved by the Church in the Middle Ages. This logic was centred around the idea of 'syllogism'.  This idea of a Syllogism followed three rules:

•  All men are mortal.
• Socrates is a man.
• Therefore Socrates is mortal.

Most of Aristotle's work was lost during the Middle Ages but logic was preserved.

Protestantism was the movement to purify Christianity when the 'New Jews' returned to the Ten Commandments and the Old Testament. Novels and printing were therefore refound when the Bible began to be printed in foreign languages.

Hopefully I didn't go off on a complete ramble and that this made some sense, all that I know is that Philosophy and History doesn't come easy to me but it is really interesting to know where our lives as we know it originated from.