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A site for knowledge. Lessons from Dr. Antonitus Rameduccio and Dr. Ivan Schaebermeir. "To teach the necessity of studying the past for the stability of our culture, and our future." |
| Dr. Antonitus Rameduccio
University of Rome La Sapienza Professor of Antiquated History PhD in Ancient Philosophy. |
Dr. Ivan Schaebermeir
University of Würzburg, Germany Professor of Modern Philosophy PhD in Anthropology, minor in Human Psychology |
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Latest Work: “We’ve all wanted to be a Greek” |
Latest Work: “From Athens to Washington D.C.” |
| The Official "Why do we Study?" Podcast
From The Sands of Time, A Documentary Network A special about Greek culture and it’s modern influences With interviews of both Dr. Rameduccio and Dr. Schaebermeir |
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| With Dr. Antonitus Rameduccio | With Dr. Ivan Shaebermeir |
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2.Philosophical and Scientific innovations of the Greeks 3.Interest of Greek culture |
2.How our culture has been shaped by the Greeks 3.Influence on Democracy and what it can do for us |
| Narrator:
“Over the past three thousands years, the Western world has based its industry, technology, educational systems and civil order upon traditional concepts from ancient societies that have ceased to exist long ago. Ironically, these peoples understood the workings of the human mind long before modern electronic applications were processed to visualize the actual picture of the brain, and had a strong understanding of how human beings tended to interact with the world and other humans around them. And while these people were reigning long before the Common Era, they still shape the way in which our world works today.” |
| Dr. Rameduccio:
“The ancient Greeks were an intellectual society that praised nature like a religion, often looked towards it for influence, and studied it in order to understand and be able to explain what went on in the world around them. From this, great thinkers like Archimedes and Socrates brought us the basic concepts we use for math and philosophy. In the case of Archimedes, the mathematical languages of Algebra and Calculus could be spoken from his studies; and with Socrates, the growth of Science and Philosophy has expanded to a revolutionary level since he conceptualized his method of finding questions to explain answers.” |
| Dr. Schaebermeir:
“In our modern day, we take the institution of Democracy for granted and think of it as a relatively modern concept. When, in fact, this system has existed for over three thousand years. Many forget that it’s truly a Greek concept, designed to include total public participation, and have been overcome by a mindset that participation is unnecessary. Yet the fact has surfaced that even if half or so of the population isn’t putting in their share of time, the engine cannot run at its maximum efficiency and reap the benefits that its creators sought to capture." |
| Dr. Rameduccio:
“It’s a fact that every enlightened society throughout the history of the Western world has looked back towards the Greeks for a foundation in order to make their own innovations. Now when I say enlightened, I’m referring to a social and intellectual trend of incorporating the concepts of Science, Mathematics, Philosophy, Politics, Literature and Art all together for the good and betterment of society. Typically, this has been achieved by following the trend the Greeks took three thousand years ago, and applying it to the standards of the modern world. The Romans did this with their copies of Greek bronze statues, Sixteenth-century Italians with their concepts of symmetry and mathematical perfection, and the unorthodox Europeans during the Enlightenment took influence from the Greeks for the concept of “All man are created equal.” |
| Dr. Schaebermeir:
“We’ve all heard the statement “history repeats itself,” and from a scientific standpoint, the statement is true. To cut off ties from historical information, and to seize the studies of lessons learned from past history, is to diminish the opportunity of a society in the future. After all, times change and so do societies. In my opinion, it would be advantageous to us now in the 21st century to excel off of the achievements of our Greek predecessors. Considering this, we live in a capitalistic world where each of us has to work an equal amount in order to reach towards the heights. For this matter, a majority of us do not have time to do anything other than educate ourselves in order to enter the work force and continue working in order to keep living and receive payments. This concept allows for an equal division of citizens part of the working class, middle class and high class. In contrast, one of the most important eras of the Greek Empire had a sharp division between the high and low classes. With the complete lack of a middle class, the rich stayed at the top and the workers stayed at the level of slaves. For this, those at the top had the benefit and ability to sit around and essentially philosophize about the world. And this is the reason why we now have in-depth studies conducted by thinkers such as Aristotle and Plato to depict the world around and inside of us.” |
| The question has been asked before, “why do we study Greek Philosophy?” It’s a legitimate question considering so many people over so many periods of time have been boasting about how they have mastered the study of Greek Philosophy. Many have utilized their newfound knowledge to create majestic artworks (Kleiner 593), pioneer through worlds of new sciences (Rocha 51:13), or develop new technology through traditional mathematics that revolutionizes the era in which it were created. But the main component to understand about them all is that they all serve to remind us that we’ve all wanted to a Greek. And why shouldn’t we want to be? After all, they were a scientific society (Rocha 06:23) that left more for us to study than any other culture before them (Rocha 27:43) and became so advanced that they could live up to the title of a leisure society (Darien Line 2). European society from the 16th century gave way to the educational glory that we now consider a “Renaissance man” through the fostering of ancient Greek educational values, and now Americans today still believe in the concept of the Renaissance man (Greto Paragraph 3). So why do we study Greek Philosophy? The answer is simple, because we all want to be a Greek. |
| So here we are, in the United States in the year 2007 governing ourselves by a system we call Democracy. But do we know what Democracy is? It begins with each citizen under the system giving all that they can for the good and the stability of the state and national government (Rocha 39:13, 39:50). Everyone who takes part in Democracy should be well knowledgeable about its workings and the up-to-date news pertaining to it (Rocha 47:50). But today, we’ve kind of forgotten about all of these things. That’s why we should look at Washington D.C. with more respect, much the same way we look at Athens as being such an enlightened city-state from ancient Greece. If the main goals of Democracy were reestablished, America could truly live up to its own goal of integration of all people worldwide. Plus, all of the havoc-wreaking corporate owners who spew all of this non-sense about “efficiency this, efficiency that” would truly be able to reach the concept of efficiency, but with the more artistic and thoughtful approach that was first created by the ancient Greeks. We can’t change the fact that the year is 2007, but we can change the way in which our path will continue in the future, all the way from Athens to Washington D.C. |
