Greek/Hellenistic Tradition Augustine View
In Book XIX of Augustine's City of God, his focus is on the end of two cities -- "the earthly and the heavenly" (843), which he explains while simultaneously illustrating the nature of the Supreme Good. He tells the reader that peace and happiness, which exists in the heavenly city, can also be experienced on earth. The cities are, in fact, entangled in this, the earthly, world. Augustine explains to us the many different ways humans try to combine virtues and pleasure in order to find peace and happiness in life, but he claims that none of these ways are answers, none of these ways will bring a person peace nor happiness; on the contrary, combining virtues and pleasures can bring insecurity and thus unhappiness. Man does not know, according to Augustine, how to combine both virtue and pleasure, so the goal of life becomes about how to live according to a certain wisdom, which can eventually take us down the path to eternal happiness. The goal is to incorporate justice into one's own life.
When comparing Augustine's City of God to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, it becomes apparent that Augustine, though critical of Aristotle's work, echoed some of Aristotle's theories related to virtue and justice. Both philosophers were in pursuit of a just society and they both believed that goodness was key; however, it was in their ideas about what made up goodness that made them different. Even though Aristotle believed that God was needed in society for the chief reason of people having a responsibility to something else (other than themselves, making them selfish), which would encourage them to be good citizens, and Augustine believed that God was not to be used as a part of the government, both wanted the same thing in the end: justice and goodness.
Aristotle believed that moral virtues set out to help us behave rightly. He notes that...
Hellenistic Art As Hellenistic art is gradually transformed into Roman and early Christian art, the concept of pathos continues to play an important role. Discuss pathos in the evolution from Hellenistic to Roman art and the emergence of pietas as a marker of Roman/Early Christian art. The Hellenistic period is focusing on artworks created in the timeframe between: the death of Alexander the Great (in 332 BC) to the beginning of ancient
Hellenistic Philosophy The Skeptics view anxiety as arising from the inability to ascertain right or wrong through the use of reason. Anxiety also arises through an immoderation in affect in the apprehension of the reality of evident things. Freedom from anxiety can be achieved by ceasing to ascertain reality of non-evident things through reason and to withhold judgment in such situations. According to the Epicureans, anxiety arises from an apprehension of
As such the Hellenistic style of paining was used partially as a marketing tool to attract followers. However, it was also used to convey religious elements in a manner that was appealing to many non-believers during the period. To obtain the attention of the general population, the artwork needed to be stunning both visually and conceptual. As such the Hellenistic was the ideal candidate in which to achieve these
Hellenic Tombs One of the ways in which the art, history and architecture of ancient cultures can be understood and investigated is through what is left behind to be examined. Some of the most permanent artifacts that are available for examination are ancient tombs which have stood the test to time. From these tombs one can not only understand and form opinions of the architecture and historical context of the time,
The Human Form: Archaic to HellenisticThe development of the human figure in Greek art from the Archaic Period through the Hellenistic Period is represented by changes in artistic technique, themselves reflective of cultural and philosophical value shifts in Greek society. As Greece became more philosophical and sophisticated, its art�especially that which depicted the human form�also appreciated in terms of idealization, realism, and drama.During the Archaic Period (600-400 BC), Greek art
Ancient Indian art starting from the 3-century BC experienced a considerable influence of Hellenistic traditions In general, Greek state-cities in Middle Asia had a number of typical features of Greek urban culture so that life of its inhabitants was quite similar to traditional life of Greeks in Mediterranean. Urban architecture, ethics, dress code and social relations in Asian Hellenistic colonies were quite similar to classical Greek traditions. For example, Greek-Bactrian city
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