IT ALL STARTED IN GREECE

                                                       IT ALL STARTED IN GREECE

                                            HARRY THOMAS DANVERS

 

          Such were the words, as I remember them, from Dr. Dow, in the history class, during my underguduate years at Columbia.

                   "There appeared the crux of western civilization, which, in essence, was defined by three salient scholars. The first was Socrates, the second Plato and then Aristotle, who culminated everything previously complied into what he called "deductive reasoning" This later became the germ for scientific advancement, which was not only a boon for the Western World, rather all mankind…"

           The reason I remember these words bordered on several issues, which, instinctively, put me at a disagreeance.  In the first place there were many civilizations before Greece. What preceded the Egyptians, I was not sure, but Greece, to me, was but a drop in the philosophical ocean. The tapestry of minds, which had come down to us, was like a Turkish rug, continually to be walked over and left threadbare.

            Those were the thoughts that ran through my mind at the time; although I am not certain if they were the exact words. It was as though his rigid doctrine pierced my heart, which remains the guardian of the soul.

             I later went on to get my Masters and PhD in Philosophy and many years later retired from a small college in West Virginia.

             I expounded the curriculum, which Dr. Dow had expostulated and which I scorned, with subdued delight. I got my tenure, grew a beard, and shacked up with a student, in my final year before retirement. I don't recall how I performed, but she did pass the course.

           If it all started in Greece, with its rise and fall, then essentially there was nothing to learn. I considered that history is the conscience of mankind…and if it forever stoops to frivolity; where will it end?