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WHY SHOULD HISTORY, INCLUDING THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, MATTER TO AVERAGE PEOPLE TODAY? If a society's people don't know their own history or that or other nations, how could that affect the decisions they make, such as in government (including voting) or business? What are the dangers of "cultural amnesia"? What values are we to choose? How should we think about choosing values? To learn about history and the humanities should help us to think more systematically about what the purpose of life should be. The purpose of philosophy is to consider how knowledge is gained and what the ultimate structure of reality is, including the basis of morality (ethics). Professional specialization has its dangers, as C.P. Snow warned in his book about the differences between scientists and historians/humanists, "The Two Cultures" 1959. Someone may be wise and intelligent in one area of life, such as at work, but unwise in others. He or she may be successful on job, yet still be a failure with family life, in dealing with the government, or others in the community. This is why general education exists for people wanting four-year degrees, since it helps to prevent students from casually falling into narrow specializations. Consider and ponder these quotes when thinking about whether it's worth knowing about history, the humanities, and philosophy: "Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness . . . Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to fulfill it," George Santayana (1863-1953) "The unexamined life is not worth living," Socrates (469-399 b.c.) "What experience and history teach is this--that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it," G.W.F. Hegel, (1770-1831). “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see," Winston Churchill (1874-1965). When people are distracted by the daily grind and struggles of going to work, taking care of their kids, watching TV, playing games, rushing home, etc., could they missing out on what really matters in life? Consider the error that Albert Speer, Nazi armaments minister under Hitler, Inside the Third Reich, admitted concerning his own life: "Moreover, the intensity with which I went at my work repressed problems that I ought to have faced. A good many perplexities were smothered by the daily rush. In writing these memoirs I became increasingly astonished to realized that before 1944 I so rarely--in fact almost never--found the time to reflect about myself or my own activities, that I never gave my own existence a thought. Today, in retrospect, I often have the feeling that something swooped me up off the ground at the time, wrenched me from all my roots, and beamed a host of alien forces upon me." Could we be making the same mistakes on a smaller scale in our own lives? Shouldn't we sometimes slow down, take a break from the buzz and bumble of life, and think about what the purpose and meaning of our lives are? God reveals through the Bible what the ultimate answers are, but first we must admit let's admit there's a need to think about the big questions in life. Specific controversies and documents: Did Hitler want to conquer the world? Did he want to attack Russia to get land for the German People? Or would he have been content just getting back some areas where Germans already lived? Pat Buchanan, in his book “Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War”: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World" makes the general case that America and Britain should have stood aside, and then let Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia mutually destroy each other. He also has argued that Hitler had little interest in taking over whole countries with large numbers of non-Germans living in them. Buchanan's ideas are by no means novel, since the British historian A.J.P. Taylor interpreted Hitler's motives in regards to Poland similarly. But as I argue in this essay, William Shirer's book "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" refutes Buchanan's alternative hypothetical history. This American journalist who worked for the Chicago Tribune and later the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in Germany during the 1930's quoted extensively from secret documents that reveal Hitler's real goals and plans for war. Buchanan WWII Critique.htm Buchanan WWII Critique.doc Buchanan WWII Critique.pdf Who was better off on average in 1830? A black slave living in the American South or an English farmworker? Who had the higher standard of living? Who had the better quality of life? How did the sexual division of labor affect both groups? How did the respective ruling classes keep control of the slaves and farmworkers? How did the slaves and farmworkers resist their respective masters? While citing many primary and secondary historical sources, this document carefully compares and contrasts these two groups while describing the way they lived and worked on an everyday basis. Part of the original form of this document (roughly the first fourth) was accepted as an M.A. thesis in history at Michigan State University in 1997. This kind of history writing shows how falsely Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind" portrays the slaves' conditions while it romanticizes nostalgically the antebellum South. Were American Slaves or English Farmworkers Better Off? .htm Were American Slaves or English Farmworkers Better Off? .doc Were American Slaves or English Farmworkers Better Off? .wpd Were American Slaves or English Farmworkers Better Off? .rtf Were American Slaves or English Farmworkers Better Off? .pdf Why did the Southern states secede from the Union in 1860-61? Did they merely want a more decentralized form of government? Or were their arguments against the Federal government's powers merely a respectable fig leaf placed over their desires to keep the black man down? Read this essay to find out more about this subject: Why Did the South Oppose Federal Power Historically? .htm Why Did the South Oppose Federal Power Historically? .doc Why Did the South Oppose Federal Power Historically? .pdf What are the theology and doctrinal views of the Black Muslim movement, which Elijah Muhammad (Poole) and Malcolm X led? What should Christians think of the claims of Malcolm X's "Autobiography"? The goal of this analysis is to admit the systematic mistreatment that black Americans have received at the hands of whites while also pointing out why Islam is no solution to what ails black Americans. This essay is also a critique of the liberal view of race relations as well. from a conservative viewpoint. This is the "Alpha Version." The plan is to add a lot more at a future date. /Malcolm X Autobiography Analyzed Critically Alpha Version.doc Malcolm X Autobiography Analyzed Critically Alpha Version.rtf Malcolm X Autobiography Analyzed Critically Alpha Version.htm GENERAL HISTORICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS AND REVIEWS I wrote most of these essays and reviews while I was a grad student in history or a philosophy major at Michigan State University. They may help others doing research in a similar area (i.e., European labor history). Only a scanned pdf version for these documents is available. Essays dealing with philosophy: Analytic Synthetic Dichotomy of Kant Critiqued .pdf Aristotle's Theory of Teleology Is Useful .pdf Augustine and Aquinas: Philosophers on Reason and Faith .pdf The Ontological Argument for God's Existence Refuted .pdf Aristotle on ethics essay.pdf Socrates Injustice Never Pays Essay.pdf Historypdf/Medical Ethics Truth Telling vs Confidentiality.pdf Essays dealing with history: The Arrow War 1856-1860, China vs. Britain Was Needless .pdf Belgium's Early Industrialization and Its Effects on Workers .pdf Carlo Ginzburg "The Cheese and the Worms" Reviewed.pdf Christianity's Role in Creating American and British Nationalism .pdf Decline Then Rise: The Standard of Living Debate, England 1730-1850 .pdf E.P. Thompson "The Making of English Working Class" Reviewed .pdf German Workers Conditions Labor History Kaiserreich pre-1919 .pdf Hampson and Cassirer on the Enlightenment Reviewed.pdf Ideological Reasons for West's Rise Historically .pdf J. D. Chambers "Workshop of World" Reviewed .pdf Jacques Ranciere "Nights of Labor" Reviewed .pdf Kenneth Stampp "Peculiar Institution" Reviewed .pdf Lynn Hunt Politics Culture Class French Revolution Reviewed .pdf MacPherson on Locke's Political Philosophy Critiqued .pdf New Cultural History Foucault Reviewed .pdf Religious Solution to Alienation: Early 19th Cent US literature Analyzed .pdf Emile Guillaumin "The Life of a Simple Man" Reviewed .pdf Richard Trexler "Public Life in Renaissance Florence" Reviewed .pdf Soboul "Sans Culottes" E P Thompson "Crowd" Reviewed.pdf Tocqueville "Recollections" Reviewed .pdf William Doyle "Origins of French Revolution" Reviewed .pdf World War I British French War Aims 1916 1918 .pdf Barmann Von Hugel Promodern Theology.pdf Industrial Revolution Standard Controversies.pdf Samuel Morison Intellectual Life New England Reviewed.pdf Ottoman Turkey vs Safavid Persia.pdf Norman Viking Danish Conquests of England Compared.pdf Locke Two Treatises vs Filmer Patriarchia Essay.pdf LECTURE NOTES AND OVERHEADS FOR WESTERN CIVILIZATION CLASSES: Below is a set of lecture notes and overheads created for Western Civilization/Humanities classes that I used to teach at Detroit College of Business/Davenport University in the general period of 2000 to 2005. Some instructors and lecturers on this subject may still find them of value in organizing their presentations. The "lecture notes" would help me present the material shown to the class using an overhead projector, which are called "overhead(s)" below in the file names. Often in the overheads (i.e., outlines for note taking by the class) I used what the educational psychologist Ausubel would call "advance organizers" in order to help the class retain and remember the material for the lecture better. I then would often base the essay questions on the tests at least in part on these advanced organizers. Overheads (note taking outlines) would be shown to the class being taught. Why Do History & Humanities Matter? Intro overheads.htm Why Do History & Humanities Matter? Intro overheads.doc Ancient Mesopotomia overheads.htm Ancient Mesopotomia overheads.doc Ancient Egypt overheads.htm Ancient Egypt overheads.doc Greek Classical Culture overheads.htm Greek Classical Culture overheads.doc Greek Classical Philosophy overheads.htm Greek Classical Philosophy overheads.doc Greek History Peloponnesian War Aristophanes overhead.htm Greek History Peloponnesian War Aristophanes overhead.doc Rome vs Greek Culture Roman Republic overheads.htm Rome vs Greek Culture Roman Republic overheads.doc Roman Pagan Religion overhead.htm Roman Pagan Religion overhead.doc Roman Philosophy overheads.htm Roman Philosophy overheads.doc Rome's Fall overhead.htm Rome's Fall overhead.doc Classical Art overheads.htm Classical Art overheads.doc Early Judaism overheads.htm Early Judaism overheads.doc Early Christianity overheads.htm Early Christianity overheads.doc Medieval Cultural Synthesis overheads.htm Medieval Cultural Synthesis overheads.doc Medieval Art Architecture overheads.htm Medieval Art Architecture overheads.doc Early Islam overheads.htm Early Islam overheads.doc Renaissance Art overheads.htm Renaissance Art overheads.doc Reformation and Counter-Reformation overhead .htm Reformation and Counter-Reformation overhead.doc Scientific Revolution Modern Philosophy overheads.htm Scientific Revolution Modern Philosophy overheads.doc Lecture notes for the instructor (i.e., me) that correspond to the overheads (i.e., note taking outlines for the class) above are listed below: Mesopotamia Ancient Egypt lecture notes.htm Mesopotamia Ancient Egypt lecture notes.doc Ancient Greek Culture Civilization lecture notes.htm Ancient Greek Culture Civilization lecture notes.doc Ancient Greek Culture Theatre lecture notes.htm Ancient Greek Culture Theatre lecture notes.doc Roman Culture Politics Religion lecture notes.htm Roman Culture Politics Religion lecture notes.doc Roman Republican Government lecture notes.htm Roman Republican Government lecture notes.doc Why Did Rome Fall? lecture notes.htm Why Did Rome Fall? lecture notes.doc Classical Art lecture notes.htm Classical Art lecture notes.doc Early Judaism lecture notes.htm Early Judaism lecture notes.doc Early Christianity lecture notes.htm Early Christianity lecture notes.doc Christian Art Architecture lecture notes.htm Christian Art Architecture lecture notes.doc Medieval Synthesis lecture notes.htm Medieval Synthesis lecture notes.doc Renaissance Art lecture notes.htm Renaissance Art lecture notes.doc The tests and corresponding study guides are listed below. The goal behind the tests was to balance the need for critical thinking while also requiring students to memorize specific facts that they may encounter again later on in life, such as on TV documentaries, movies, magazines, books, and/or newspapers. So the tests were relatively difficult (i.e., they did not use multiple choice questions, but instead fill-in the blank questions, essays), but by giving students study guides (including the essay questions) and by keying the lectures with asterisks () for terms that would show up on the tests, the material on the tests wasn't supposed to be a surprise. TESTS:* TEST 1 Origins to Greece.wpd TEST 1 Origins to Greece.pdf TEST 2 Rome Judaism Early Christianity.doc TEST 2 Rome Judaism Early Christianity.pdf TEST 2a Judaism Islam Christianity Art.wpd TEST 2a Judaism Islam Christianity Art.pdf TEST 3 Medieval Europe.wpd TEST 3 Medieval Europe.pdf TEST 4 Renaissance Art Philosophy Science.doc TEST 4 Renaissance Art Philosophy Science.pdf Study guides: Test 1 Origins to Greece study guide.htm Test 1 Origins to Greece study guide.doc Test 1a Origins to Rome study guide.htm Test 1a Origins to Rome study guide.doc Test 2a Judaism Christianity Medieval Europe study guide.doc Test 2a Judaism Christianity Medieval Europe study guide.htm Test 3 Judaism Christianity Art study guide.pdf Test 4 Renassiance Early Modern Europe study guide.htm Test 4 Renassiance Early Modern Europe study guide.doc [Home][Webmaster][Essays][Book][Links]