Critical Thinking

Van Doren believes in progress and not in a progress that is to be expected. Therefore, the progress in knowledge should not be one that is to be expected. He honors India for introducing the caste system. He prefers the western scientific knowledge of all because it grows and enables inferior theories to be replaced by better ones. Chinese people introduced Confucius but then Van Darren remarks that their main aim might be to enable tyranny. He proves that some of the excellent knowledge may turn out to be obnoxious. By Universal history, Van Doren meant all the things that humans have invented considered and perfected from the start of civilization to the twenty-first century. In primitive knowledge, he meant man valued culture. The ancient rulers feared change. They feared to lose their power and therefore kept most people uneducated. Knowledge of particulars means knowledge that has a theory. General knowledge is a knowledge valued by culture. Certain knowledge is quality knowledge. With knowledge come power and certainly this power will lead to happiness. It will enable a person to understand a man’s thoughts (Van & Doren, 28).

In China, there existed high inequality. The life in ancient China was survival for the fittest. Man was aware of his responsibilities but did not think big. With civilization, China granted its people freedom but with restriction. This freedom paved way for education in China and invention of advanced technologies. The Ancient Greeks also granted their citizens minimal freedom that enabled Aristotle, Plato and Socrates to report their results. The study of the stars medicine and society flourished in Greece because of freedom. It was later followed by the invention of telescopes and the theatres. In ancient India, there existed great disparity and survival for the fittest way of life just like in China. Monarchies also existed. They were taught fear and inequality in their religions and cultures. Despite all these, men learned to perform their responsibilities (Van and Doren, 23).

The Greeks invented the alphabet to add vowels to the Phoenician alphabet. They introduced the vowel symbols in the middle eighth century BC. The main purpose of the development writing was to enable record keeping. They later used it for purposes of art and science. Unlike the symbolic writing, the alphabet enabled record keeping. The importance of zero in the development of mathematics was to enable numbers to have an accurate interpretation. It was accompanied by punctuation marks for the figures to be understood. Zero was invented by the ancient Greek mathematicians. They used zero to represent unknown in recording astronomical data. Zero was used in the Indian mathematics in 650CE to represent nothing. The Chinese started using zero in the twelfth century. They used it in their mathematics (Nye, 13).

In Six Great Ideas by Mortimer J. Adler, Adler considers Aristotle’s ethics to be the ethics of common sense. According to him, this moral philosophy is wise and sensible. Aristotle’s ethics therefore provides all answers answerable by moral philosophy. It provides answers considered true and reliable. He trusts we are inspired by Aristotle’s ethics today compared to those who listened to his lectures first hand. This is because the ethical problems people experience have not changed over the years. The moral challenges to be solved by people today are similar to those of the past. He believes they only appear to people in different ways and therefore Aristotle’s ethics still applies.

Philosophy is mainly about great ideas according to Adler. Adler trusts Plato in his conclusion that ideas are matter that the individual’s mind can think. Adler reduces the ideas to six because he believes a philosopher should start with the six due to their nature of being good people and considerate beings. Three of the six ideas are criticized by truth, righteousness, and exquisiteness. The three of the six ideas are the ones we live by, act on freedom, parity and impartiality. Plato’s ideas theory might be wrong. According to him, there exists a reasonable world of altering physical things we control by our mind and the world of clear object. All these worlds according to him exist independently without our control. Even if no men or animals with senses subsisted, the world of reasonableness would subsist. Therefore, in his view, absence of human beings with the traits to consider matters such as truth and honesty, or impartiality and freedom would not prevent these objects to exist. Therefore, in Plato’s ideas theory, the idea of the good or the freedom idea might not be realistic (Adler, 12).

Works cited

Adler Mortimer J. The Great Ideas: a Retrospective, Vol. 2: Episodes 27-52, Library Edition. Blackstone Audio Inc, 2010. Sound recording.

Nye, Russel B. Modern Essays. Chicago: Scott, Foresman, 1963. Print.

Van, Doren C. L, Doren C. L. Van, and Doren C. L. Van. A History of Knowledge: Past, Present, and Future : the Pivotal Events, People, and Achievements of World History. New York: Ballantine Books, 1992. Print.