History and context of journalism lecture/reading one:

This lecture was rather interesting and reenforced the main points of the set reading (Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy), as well as allowing my to get a clear understanding of the text. The progression of Greek civilization seems to be based around, knowledge, science, ideas of religion and speculation of the ways of the world.
The lecture highlighted the regression of civilization in the west after the development of Greece and during the uprising of the roman during the dark age (which does sound pretty dark, no books, no art, whats the world without creativity?) this was really interesting and showed me that there was a point to what I had been reading and not just Russell telling me about some dead Greek guys. Instead I became aware of how the western world lost all recollection of any of the advanced Greek thought and ideas, for example, the make up of the cosmos or the existence of atoms, and started from scratch with lack of logic and dependence of religion. The cause; the obsession that the Romans had with power which was influenced by their exploitation of slaves and the closing of schools of philosophy and creating what they called the 'God' king. This contrasts greatly with the cultural and philosophical ideals/ways of the Greeks previous.
In the Romans decline and into the middle ages christianity was adopted and the idea of one God, differing, again, to previous trails of thought which accepted numerous gods and suggests that all people are for the same, creating a sense of great unity.

A few Greek philosophers that stood out in the hwp reading, were Heraclitus and Parmenides. Heraclitus believed that unity is formed by a combination of opposites, believed strongly in the element of fire, in that fire does not destroy is simply transmutes (strengthening his arguments for things ever changing, he said that one cannot walk in the same river twice), rejected the punishments of cosmic justice and believed permanent are seen to be a refuge from danger.
Parmenides is in opposition to Heraclitus and believes that things do not change and was greatly influenced by Pythagoras and invented metaphysics based on logic.