Syros
Syros, or Siros or Syra is a Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is located 78 nautical miles south-east of Athens; the area of the island is 83.6 km2 and it has 21,507 inhabitants. The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano Syros, Vari. Ermoupoli is the capital of the island and of the Cyclades, it has always been a significant port town, during the 19th century it was more significant than Piraeus. Other villages are Galissas, Pagos, Manna and Poseidonia. Ermoupoli stands on a amphitheatrical site, with neo-classical buildings, old mansions, white houses cascading down to the harbour, it was built during the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s. The city hall is in the center of the town, in Miaoulis Square, ringed with cafés, seating areas, palm trees. Dubbed the "City of Hermes", Syros has numerous churches, such as Metamorphosis, Koimisis, St. Demetrius, Three Hierarchs, Evangelistria, St. Nicolas. There is a municipal library; the quarter of Vaporia is. There are numerous neo-classical mansions along the quarter’s narrow streets.
Ano Syros is the second town of Syros and was built by the Venetians at the beginning of the 13th century on the hill of San Giorgio, north-west of Hermoupolis. Ano Syros maintains a medieval atmosphere. Innumerable steps between narrow streets and houses with coloured doors lead to the top of the town; the medieval settlement of Ano Syros is accessible by car. The distance from the harbour up to the main entry point of the town is 1000 metres; the Catholic cathedral of Saint George dominates Ano Syros. The cathedral church was constructed during the 13th century. From the cathedral visitors have a panoramic view of the neighbouring islands of Tinos, Mykonos, Paros and Naxos; the history of settlement on Syros goes back at least 5,000 years, to the Early Bronze Age of the Cycladic civilization. This is. Archaeologists describe Early Cycladic III culture as Kastri culture. Kastri, dated by archaeologists to 2800-2300 BC, was one of the earliest settlements in Greece that were protected by stone walls with rounded bastions.
The cemetery of Chalandriani is associated with Kastri. Inside the fortification, the houses were packed close together, it is estimated. The site was first discovered and excavated in 1898 by Christos Tsountas, the "father of Cycladic research". Kastri had some of the earliest metalwork in the region, some of the earliest use of potter's wheel. Throughout history, the island was known as Syra Syros or Siros. In times, it appears to have been inhabited by the Phoenicians. In the Odyssey, Syros was the country of the swineherd Eumaeus; the island was the home of the philosopher Pherecydes, the teacher of Pythagoras. It possessed two leading cities and another city on the western coast where Galissas now stands; the island did not play an important role during antiquity nor the early Christian years, it was not a diocese at a time when the smallest island possessed its bishop. During Roman times the capital of Syros was situated in the area of contemporary Ermoupoli. At the end of ancient times, barbarian raids and piracy, which affected the Aegean for many centuries, led Syros to decline.
The island, along with the other Cyclades, was devastated several times during the Middle Ages by raiders from different directions including Sicilians, Arabs and Venetians. In the Byzantine years Syros constituted part of the Theme of the Aegean Sea, along with the rest of the Cycladic islands. After the overthrow of Byzantium in the Fourth Crusade by the Venetians and Franks in 1204, the island was definitively conquered by the Venetians under the leadership of Marco Sanudo; as part of the Duchy of the Archipelago, Syros would remain under Venetian rule until 1522. It was at this time. During the Latin period, the majority of the local community were Roman Catholics, but maintained the Greek language. During the reign of three and a half centuries of the Duchy of the Archipelago, Syros had a singular feudal regime. By the 16th century, the Ottoman fleet became dominant in the Aegean and the Duchy fell apart. In 1522 the corsair Barbarossa took possession of the island, which would be known as "Sire" during Ottoman rule.
However, negotiations of the local authorities with the Ottomans gave the Cyclades substantial privileges, such as the reduction of taxes and religious freedom. At the same time, following an agreement of France and the Holy See with the Ottoman authorities, the Catholics of the island came under the protection of France and Rome and so Syros sometimes was called "the Pope's island"; the Roman Catholic diocese of Syros was a Latin diocese, suffragan of Naxos. The Venetians had established there a Latin bishopric, subject to the Latin Archbishopric of Athens until 1525. From the time of the island's occupation by the Turks in the 16th century, the Greeks established an Orthodox metropolitan on Syros: Joseph is the earliest known, along with Symeon who died in 1594 and Ignatius in 1596; the island became for the most part Catholic. The list of titular bishops may be found in Eubel; the most celebrated among them is John Andrew Carga, whom the Turks strangled in 1617 because he refused to convert to Islam and because he was helping Greek revolutionaries hiding on the island.
After the second half of the 17th
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental questions about existence, values, reason and language. Such questions are posed as problems to be studied or resolved; the term was coined by Pythagoras. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument, systematic presentation. Classic philosophical questions include: Is it possible to know anything and to prove it? What is most real? Philosophers pose more practical and concrete questions such as: Is there a best way to live? Is it better to be just or unjust? Do humans have free will? "philosophy" encompassed any body of knowledge. From the time of Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to the 19th century, "natural philosophy" encompassed astronomy and physics. For example, Newton's 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy became classified as a book of physics. In the 19th century, the growth of modern research universities led academic philosophy and other disciplines to professionalize and specialize.
In the modern era, some investigations that were traditionally part of philosophy became separate academic disciplines, including psychology, sociology and economics. Other investigations related to art, politics, or other pursuits remained part of philosophy. For example, is beauty objective or subjective? Are there many scientific methods or just one? Is political utopia a hopeful dream or hopeless fantasy? Major sub-fields of academic philosophy include metaphysics, ethics, political philosophy and philosophy of science. Traditionally, the term "philosophy" referred to any body of knowledge. In this sense, philosophy is related to religion, natural science and politics. Newton's 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy is classified in the 2000s as a book of physics. In the first part of the first book of his Academics, Cicero introduced the division of philosophy into logic and ethics. Metaphysical philosophy was the study of existence, God, logic and other abstract objects; this division has changed.
Natural philosophy has split into the various natural sciences astronomy, chemistry and cosmology. Moral philosophy still includes value theory. Metaphysical philosophy has birthed formal sciences such as logic and philosophy of science, but still includes epistemology and others. Many philosophical debates that began in ancient times are still debated today. Colin McGinn and others claim. Chalmers and others, by contrast, see progress in philosophy similar to that in science, while Talbot Brewer argued that "progress" is the wrong standard by which to judge philosophical activity. In one general sense, philosophy is associated with wisdom, intellectual culture and a search for knowledge. In that sense, all cultures and literate societies ask philosophical questions such as "how are we to live" and "what is the nature of reality". A broad and impartial conception of philosophy finds a reasoned inquiry into such matters as reality and life in all world civilizations. Western philosophy is the philosophical tradition of the Western world and dates to Pre-Socratic thinkers who were active in Ancient Greece in the 6th century BCE such as Thales and Pythagoras who practiced a "love of wisdom" and were termed physiologoi.
Socrates was a influential philosopher, who insisted that he possessed no wisdom but was a pursuer of wisdom. Western philosophy can be divided into three eras: Ancient, Medieval philosophy, Modern philosophy; the Ancient era was dominated by Greek philosophical schools which arose out of the various pupils of Socrates, such as Plato, who founded the Platonic Academy and his student Aristotle, founding the Peripatetic school, who were both influential in Western tradition. Other traditions include Cynicism, Greek Skepticism and Epicureanism. Important topics covered by the Greeks included metaphysics, the nature of the well-lived life, the possibility of knowledge and the nature of reason. With the rise of the Roman empire, Greek philosophy was increasingly discussed in Latin by Romans such as Cicero and Seneca. Medieval philosophy is the period following the fall of the Western Roman Empire and was dominated by the ris
Greek Orthodox Church
The name Greek Orthodox Church, or Greek Orthodoxy, is a term referring to the body of several Churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the Septuagint and the New Testament, whose history and theology are rooted in the early Church Fathers and the culture of the Byzantine Empire. Greek Orthodox Christianity has traditionally placed heavy emphasis and awarded high prestige to traditions of Eastern Orthodox monasticism and asceticism, with origins in Early Christianity in the Near East and in Byzantine Anatolia; the term "Greek Orthodox" has been used to describe all Eastern Orthodox Churches in general, since "Greek" in "Greek Orthodox" can refer to the heritage of the Byzantine Empire. During the first eight centuries of Christian history, most major intellectual and social developments in the Christian Church took place within the Empire or in the sphere of its influence, where the Greek language was spoken and used for most theological writings.
Over time, most parts of the liturgy and practices of the church of Constantinople were adopted by all, still provide the basic patterns of contemporary Orthodoxy. Thus, the Eastern Church came to be called "Greek" Orthodox in the same way that the Western Church is called "Roman" Catholic. However, the appellation "Greek" was abandoned by the Slavic and other Eastern Orthodox churches in connection with their peoples' national awakenings, from as early as the 10th century A. D. Thus, today it is only those churches that are most tied to Greek or Byzantine culture that are called "Greek Orthodox"; the Greek Orthodox churches are descended from churches which the Apostles founded in the Balkans and the Middle East during the first century A. D. and they maintain many traditions practiced in the ancient Church. Orthodox Churches, unlike the Catholic Church, have no single Supreme Pontiff, or Bishop, hold the belief that Christ is the head of the Church. However, they are each governed by a committee of Bishops, called the Holy Synod, with one central Bishop holding the honorary title of "first among equals".
Greek Orthodox Churches are united in communion with each other, as well as with the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. The Orthodox hold a common doctrine and a common form of worship, they see themselves not as separate Churches but as administrative units of one single Church, they are notable for their extensive tradition of iconography, for their veneration of the Mother of God and the Saints, for their use of the Divine Liturgy on Sundays, a standardized worship service dating back to the fourth century A. D. in its current form. The most used Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church was written by Saint John Chrysostom. Others are attributed to St. Basil the Great, St. James, the Brother of God and St. Gregory the Dialogist; the current territory of the Greek Orthodox Churches more or less covers the areas in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean that used to be a part of the Byzantine Empire. The majority of Greek Orthodox Christians live within Greece and elsewhere in the southern Balkans, but in Jordan, the Occupied Palestinian territories, Syria, Cyprus, European Turkey, the South Caucasus.
In addition, due to the large Greek diaspora, there are many Greek Orthodox Christians who live in North America and Australia. Orthodox Christians in Finland, who compose about 1% of the population, are under the jurisdiction of a Greek Orthodox Church. There are many Greek Orthodox Christians, with origins dating back to the Byzantine and Ottoman periods, who are of Arabic-speaking or mixed Greek and Arabic-speaking ancestry and live in southern Turkey, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, they attend churches which conduct their services in Arabic, the common language of most Greek Orthodox believers in the Levant, while at the same time maintaining elements of the Byzantine Greek cultural tradition. Ethnic Greeks in Russia and Greeks in Ukraine, as well as Pontic Greeks and Caucasus Greeks from the former Russian Transcaucasus consider themselves both Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox, consistent with the Orthodox faith. Thus, they may attend services held in Old Russian and Old Church Slavonic, without this in any way undermining their Orthodox faith or distinct Greek ethnic identity.
Over the centuries, these Pontic Greek-speaking Greek Orthodox communities have mixed through intermarriage in varying degrees with ethnic Russians and other Orthodox Christians from Southern Russia, where most of them settled between the Middle Ages and early 19th century. The churches where the Greek Orthodox term is applicable are: The four ancient Patriarchates: The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, headed by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the "first among equals" of the Eastern Orthodox Communion The semi-autonomous Archdiocese of Crete The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Italy and Malta The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia The Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria The Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch The Greek Orthodox Church of JerusalemThe autonomous Church of Mount Sinai Three autocephalous churches: The Church of Greece The Church of Cyprus The Albanian Orthodox Church known as "Greek Orthodox Church of Alb
Natural science
Natural science is a branch of science concerned with the description and understanding of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatability of findings are used to try to ensure the validity of scientific advances. Natural science can be divided into two main branches: physical science. Physical science is subdivided into branches, including physics, chemistry and earth science; these branches of natural science may be further divided into more specialized branches. In Western society's analytic tradition, the empirical sciences and natural sciences use tools from formal sciences, such as mathematics and logic, converting information about nature into measurements which can be explained as clear statements of the "laws of nature"; the social sciences use such methods, but rely more on qualitative research, so that they are sometimes called "soft science", whereas natural sciences, insofar as they emphasize quantifiable data produced and confirmed through the scientific method, are sometimes called "hard science".
Modern natural science succeeded more classical approaches to natural philosophy traced to ancient Greece. Galileo, Descartes and Newton debated the benefits of using approaches which were more mathematical and more experimental in a methodical way. Still, philosophical perspectives and presuppositions overlooked, remain necessary in natural science. Systematic data collection, including discovery science, succeeded natural history, which emerged in the 16th century by describing and classifying plants, minerals, so on. Today, "natural history" suggests observational descriptions aimed at popular audiences. Philosophers of science have suggested a number of criteria, including Karl Popper's controversial falsifiability criterion, to help them differentiate scientific endeavors from non-scientific ones. Validity and quality control, such as peer review and repeatability of findings, are amongst the most respected criteria in the present-day global scientific community; this field encompasses a set of disciplines.
The scale of study can range from sub-component biophysics up to complex ecologies. Biology is concerned with the characteristics and behaviors of organisms, as well as how species were formed and their interactions with each other and the environment; the biological fields of botany and medicine date back to early periods of civilization, while microbiology was introduced in the 17th century with the invention of the microscope. However, it was not until the 19th century. Once scientists discovered commonalities between all living things, it was decided they were best studied as a whole; some key developments in biology were the discovery of genetics. Modern biology is divided into subdisciplines by the type of organism and by the scale being studied. Molecular biology is the study of the fundamental chemistry of life, while cellular biology is the examination of the cell. At a higher level and physiology look at the internal structures, their functions, of an organism, while ecology looks at how various organisms interrelate.
Constituting the scientific study of matter at the atomic and molecular scale, chemistry deals with collections of atoms, such as gases, molecules and metals. The composition, statistical properties and reactions of these materials are studied. Chemistry involves understanding the properties and interactions of individual atoms and molecules for use in larger-scale applications. Most chemical processes can be studied directly in a laboratory, using a series of techniques for manipulating materials, as well as an understanding of the underlying processes. Chemistry is called "the central science" because of its role in connecting the other natural sciences. Early experiments in chemistry had their roots in the system of Alchemy, a set of beliefs combining mysticism with physical experiments; the science of chemistry began to develop with the work of Robert Boyle, the discoverer of gas, Antoine Lavoisier, who developed the theory of the Conservation of mass. The discovery of the chemical elements and atomic theory began to systematize this science, researchers developed a fundamental understanding of states of matter, chemical bonds and chemical reactions.
The success of this science led to a complementary chemical industry that now plays a significant role in the world economy. Physics embodies the study of the fundamental constituents of the universe, the forces and interactions they exert on one another, the results produced by these interactions. In general, physics is regarded as the fundamental science, because all other natural sciences use and obey the principles and laws set down by the field. Physics relies on mathematics as the logical framework for formulation and quantification of principles; the study of the principles of the universe has a long history and derives from direct observation and experimentation. The formulation of theories about the governing laws of the universe has been central to the study of physics from early on, with philosophy yielding to systematic, quantitative experimental testing and observation as the source of verification. Key historical developments in physics include Isaac Newton's theory of universal g
Europe
Europe is a continent located in the Northern Hemisphere and in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south, it comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Since around 1850, Europe is most considered to be separated from Asia by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas and the waterways of the Turkish Straits. Although the term "continent" implies physical geography, the land border is somewhat arbitrary and has been redefined several times since its first conception in classical antiquity; the division of Eurasia into two continents reflects East-West cultural and ethnic differences which vary on a spectrum rather than with a sharp dividing line. The geographic border does not follow political boundaries, with Turkey and Kazakhstan being transcontinental countries. A strict application of the Caucasus Mountains boundary places two comparatively small countries and Georgia, in both continents.
Europe covers 2 % of the Earth's surface. Politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a total population of about 741 million as of 2016; the European climate is affected by warm Atlantic currents that temper winters and summers on much of the continent at latitudes along which the climate in Asia and North America is severe. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast. Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization; the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD and the subsequent Migration Period marked the end of ancient history and the beginning of the Middle Ages. Renaissance humanism, exploration and science led to the modern era. Since the Age of Discovery started by Portugal and Spain, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at various times the Americas all of Africa and Oceania and the majority of Asia.
The Age of Enlightenment, the subsequent French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars shaped the continent culturally and economically from the end of the 17th century until the first half of the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to radical economic and social change in Western Europe and the wider world. Both world wars took place for the most part in Europe, contributing to a decline in Western European dominance in world affairs by the mid-20th century as the Soviet Union and the United States took prominence. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the West and the Warsaw Pact in the East, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1949 the Council of Europe was founded, following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill, with the idea of unifying Europe to achieve common goals, it includes all European states except for Belarus and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, a separate political entity that lies between a confederation and a federation.
The EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The currency of most countries of the European Union, the euro, is the most used among Europeans. In classical Greek mythology, Europa was a Phoenician princess; the word Europe is derived from her name. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, "wide, broad" and ὤψ "eye, countenance", hence their composite Eurṓpē would mean "wide-gazing" or "broad of aspect". Broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. There have been attempts to connect Eurṓpē to a Semitic term for "west", this being either Akkadian erebu meaning "to go down, set" or Phoenician'ereb "evening, west", at the origin of Arabic Maghreb and Hebrew ma'arav. Michael A. Barry, professor in Princeton University's Near Eastern Studies Department, finds the mention of the word Ereb on an Assyrian stele with the meaning of "night, sunset", in opposition to Asu " sunrise", i.e. Asia.
The same naming motive according to "cartographic convention" appears in Greek Ἀνατολή. Martin Litchfield West stated that "phonologically, the match between Europa's name and any form of the Semitic word is poor." Next to these hypotheses there is a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning "darkness", which produced Greek Erebus. Most major world languages use words derived from Europa to refer to the continent. Chinese, for example, uses the word Ōuzhōu. In some Turkic languages the Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa; the prevalent definition of Europe as a geographical term has been in use since the mid-19th century. Europe is taken to be bounded by large bodies of water
Auguste Comte
Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte was a French philosopher and writer who formulated the doctrine of positivism. He is sometimes regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term. Influenced by the utopian socialist Henri Saint-Simon, Comte developed the positive philosophy in an attempt to remedy the social malaise of the French Revolution, calling for a new social doctrine based on the sciences. Comte was a major influence on 19th-century thought, influencing the work of social thinkers such as Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, George Eliot, his concept of sociologie and social evolutionism set the tone for early social theorists and anthropologists such as Harriet Martineau and Herbert Spencer, evolving into modern academic sociology presented by Émile Durkheim as practical and objective social research. Comte's social theories culminated in his "Religion of Humanity", which presaged the development of non-theistic religious humanist and secular humanist organizations in the 19th century.
Comte may have coined the word altruisme. Auguste Comte was born in Montpellier, Hérault on 19 January 1798. After attending the Lycée Joffre and the University of Montpellier, Comte was admitted to the École Polytechnique in Paris; the École Polytechnique was notable for its adherence to the French ideals of republicanism and progress. The École closed in 1816 for reorganization and Comte continued his studies at the medical school at Montpellier; when the École Polytechnique reopened, he did not request readmission. Following his return to Montpellier, Comte soon came to see unbridgeable differences with his Catholic and monarchist family and set off again for Paris, earning money by small jobs. In August 1817 he found an apartment at 36 rue Bonaparte in Paris' 6ème and that year he became a student and secretary to Henri de Saint-Simon, who brought Comte into contact with intellectual society and influenced his thought therefrom. During that time Comte published his first essays in the various publications headed by Saint-Simon, L'Industrie, Le Politique, L'Organisateur, although he would not publish under his own name until 1819's "La séparation générale entre les opinions et les désirs".
In 1824, Comte left Saint-Simon. Comte published a Plan de travaux scientifiques nécessaires pour réorganiser la société, but he failed to get an academic post. His day-to-day life depended on financial help from friends. Debates rage as to. Comte married Caroline Massin in 1825. In 1826, he was taken to a mental health hospital, but left without being cured – only stabilized by French alienist Jean-Étienne Dominique Esquirol – so that he could work again on his plan. In the time between this and their divorce in 1842, he published the six volumes of his Cours. Comte developed a close friendship with John Stuart Mill. From 1844, he fell in love with the Catholic Clotilde de Vaux, although because she was not divorced from her first husband, their love was never consummated. After her death in 1846 this love became quasi-religious, Comte, working with Mill developed a new "Religion of Humanity". John Kells Ingram, an adherent of Comte, visited him in Paris in 1855, he published four volumes of Système de politique positive.
His final work, the first volume of La Synthèse Subjective, was published in 1856. Comte died in Paris on 5 September 1857 from stomach cancer and was buried in the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery, surrounded by cenotaphs in memory of his mother, Rosalie Boyer, of Clotilde de Vaux, his apartment from 1841–1857 is now conserved as the Maison d'Auguste Comte and is located at 10 rue Monsieur-le-Prince, in Paris' 6th arrondissement. Comte first described the epistemological perspective of positivism in The Course in Positive Philosophy, a series of texts published between 1830 and 1842; these texts were followed by A General View of Positivism. The first three volumes of the Course dealt chiefly with the physical sciences in existence, whereas the latter two emphasised the inevitable coming of social science. Observing the circular dependence of theory and observation in science, classifying the sciences in this way, Comte may be regarded as the first philosopher of science in the modern sense of the term.
Comte was the first to distinguish natural philosophy from science explicitly. For him, the physical sciences had to arrive first, before humanity could adequately channel its efforts into the most challenging and complex "Queen science" of human society itself, his work View of Positivism would therefore set out to define, in more detail, the empirical goals of sociological method. Comte offered an account of social evolution, proposing that society undergoes three phases in its quest for the truth according to a general'law of three stages'. Comte's stages were the theological stage, the metaphysical stage, the positive stage; the Theological stage was seen from the perspective of 19th century France as preceding the Age of Enlightenment, in which man's place in society and society's restrictions upon man were referenced to God. Man blindly believed, he believed in
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