Free Essays on Greeks

The Greeks in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries B.C. were creative. Unlike the societies before them the Greeks emerged as a group of people not remembered for their building designs, but rather for their creative ideas they created about life, society, and philosophy. The ideas they created would go on to spark a revolution in thinking that had never been done before in past societies. As a result from this new wave of thinking many philosophers is more important in Greek society than Homer. Homer reflected Greek ideas in his writings of the Iliad and Odyssey. The ideas in these books would go on to influence the society in which arà ªte (manliness) would become a very important virtue to the Greeks. Homers Odyssey is an epic adventure that follows the adventures of Odysseus. Odysseus is a man that encompasses all the characteristics of the ideal man in Greek society. These Greek ideals of a man include physical prowess, courage, fighting ability, personal honor, and protection of one’s family and property. Each of these virtues becomes apparent in the readings of the Odyssey. The Odyssey is also the story for the coming of age of Odysseus’s only son Telemachus. In the Odyssey Odysseus’s only son Telemachus finds himself to stand courage against the many suitor who pursue his mother, and their family riches. Chapter 2, and 3 embark young Telemachus on a journey to find the fortune of his fathers’ disappearance. In the beginning of chapter 2 young Telemachus is overwhelmed by the persistence of the suitors to marry his mother. Telemachus then proposes to the suitor that he will embark on a journey to find his fathers where about. Telemachus proposes that if his father is dead, than he will allow one of the suitors to marry his mother. However if he finds out that his father is still alive then he will wait for another year for his father to return, and if he does not he will then wed one of the suitors to his mother... Free Essays on Greeks Free Essays on Greeks The Greeks in the 4th, 5th, and 6th centuries B.C. were creative. Unlike the societies before them the Greeks emerged as a group of people not remembered for their building designs, but rather for their creative ideas they created about life, society, and philosophy. The ideas they created would go on to spark a revolution in thinking that had never been done before in past societies. As a result from this new wave of thinking many philosophers is more important in Greek society than Homer. Homer reflected Greek ideas in his writings of the Iliad and Odyssey. The ideas in these books would go on to influence the society in which arà ªte (manliness) would become a very important virtue to the Greeks. Homers Odyssey is an epic adventure that follows the adventures of Odysseus. Odysseus is a man that encompasses all the characteristics of the ideal man in Greek society. These Greek ideals of a man include physical prowess, courage, fighting ability, personal honor, and protection of one’s family and property. Each of these virtues becomes apparent in the readings of the Odyssey. The Odyssey is also the story for the coming of age of Odysseus’s only son Telemachus. In the Odyssey Odysseus’s only son Telemachus finds himself to stand courage against the many suitor who pursue his mother, and their family riches. Chapter 2, and 3 embark young Telemachus on a journey to find the fortune of his fathers’ disappearance. In the beginning of chapter 2 young Telemachus is overwhelmed by the persistence of the suitors to marry his mother. Telemachus then proposes to the suitor that he will embark on a journey to find his fathers where about. Telemachus proposes that if his father is dead, than he will allow one of the suitors to marry his mother. However if he finds out that his father is still alive then he will wait for another year for his father to return, and if he does not he will then wed one of the suitors to his mother...

Max Weber on Culture, Authority, and the Iron Cage

Max Weber on Culture, Authority, and the Iron Cage With Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim, W.E.B. DuBois, and Harriet Martineau, Max Weber is considered one of the founders of sociology. Living and working between 1864 and 1920, Weber is remembered as a prolific social theorist who focused on economics, culture, religion, politics, and the interplay among them. Three of his biggest contributions to sociology include the way he theorized the relationship between culture and economy, his theory of authority, and his concept of the iron cage of rationality. Weber on the Relationships Between Culture and Economy Webers most well-known and widely read work is The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. This book is considered a landmark text of social theory and sociology generally because of how Weber convincingly illustrates the important connections between culture and economy. Positioned against Marxs historical materialist approach to theorizing the emergence and development of capitalism, Weber presented a theory in which the values of ascetic Protestantism fostered the acquisitive nature of the capitalist economic system. Webers discussion of the relationship between culture and economy was a ground-breaking theory at the time. It set up an important theoretical tradition in sociology of taking the cultural realm of values and ideology seriously as a social force that interacts with and influences other aspects of society like politics and the economy. What Makes Authority Possible Weber made a very important contribution to the way we understand how people and institutions come to have authority in society, how they keep it, and how it influences our lives. Weber articulated his theory of authority in the essay  Politics as a Vocation, which first took form in a lecture he delivered in Munich in 1919. Weber theorized that there are three forms of authority that allow people and institutions to attain legitimate rule over society: 1. traditional, or that rooted in the traditions and values of the past that follows the logic of this is the way things have always been; 2. charismatic, or that premised on individual positive and admirable characteristics like heroism, being relatable, and showing visionary leadership; and 3. legal-rational, or that which is rooted in the laws of the state and represented by those entrusted to protect them. This theory of Webers reflects his focus on the political, social, and cultural importance of the modern state as an apparatus that strongly influences what happens in society and in our lives. Weber on the Iron Cage Analyzing the effects the iron cage of bureaucracy has on individuals in society is one of Webers landmark contributions to social theory, which he articulated in  The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber used the phrase, originally  stahlhartes Gehuse  in German, to refer to the way the bureaucratic rationality of modern Western societies comes to fundamentally limit and direct social life and individual lives. Weber explained that modern bureaucracy was organized around rational principles like hierarchical roles, compartmentalized knowledge and roles, a perceived merit-based system of employment and advancement, and the legal-rationality authority of the rule of law. As this system of rule common to modern Western states is perceived as legitimate and thus unquestionable, it exerts what Weber perceived to be an  extreme and unjust influence on other aspects of society and individual lives: the iron cage limits freedom and possibility. This aspect of Webers theory would prove deeply influential to the further development of social theory  and was built upon at length by the critical theorists associated with the Frankfurt School.