9/12 Notes

• imbecility: incapability, feebleness, stupidity
• stenographer: a person who takes dictation in shorthand
• missive: a letter, especially a long or official one
• Initiative to Excellence- arete- Excellence of any kind-moral virtue-fulfillment of purpose or function- the act of living up to one's full potential
• arete involves all of the potential and abilities available to humans
• the highest human potential is knowledge- all other abilities are derived from this- knowledge about knowledge itself
• Agora- a place in Greece where meetings were held about important things with everyday people
• polis: political entities ruled by their bodies of citizens origin of the words politics, metropolitan, poll
• 508 BCE- The Birth of Democracy
• Socrates- young man worked as stonemason-he fought in Peloponnesian War- his working class background and battlefield experiences may have shaped the way he viewed the world- met with young students in workshops just outside the agora-asked a series of questions to determine their underlying beliefs and the extent of their knowledge
• led to scientific method, and the way you proved or disproved your theory through experimentation