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Tabula Rasa
''Tabula rasa'' (; "blank slate") is the theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content, and therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception. Epistemological proponents of ''tabula rasa'' disagree with the doctrine of innatism, which holds that the mind is born already in possession of certain knowledge. Proponents of the ''tabula rasa'' theory also favour the "nurture" side of the nature versus nurture debate when it comes to aspects of one's personality, social and emotional behaviour, knowledge, and sapience. Etymology ''Tabula rasa'' is a Latin phrase often translated as ''clean slate'' in English and originates from the Roman ''tabula'', a wax-covered tablet used for notes, which was blanked ('' rasa'') by heating the wax and then smoothing it. This roughly equates to the English term "blank slate" (or, more literally, "erased slate") which refers to the emptiness of a slate prior to it being written on with chalk. Both may be renewed repe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel '' Infinite Jest'', which ''Time'' magazine cited as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. His posthumous novel, '' The Pale King'' (2011), was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2012. The ''Los Angeles Times''s David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years". Wallace grew up in Illinois and attended Amherst College. He taught English at Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College. In 2008, he died by suicide at age 46 after struggling with depression for many years. Early life and education David Foster Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, to Sally Jean Wallace (' Foster) and James Donald Wallace. The family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illino ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists.Quint. ''Inst.'' 10.1.93 Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus banished him to Tomis, a Dacian province on the Black Sea, where he remained a decade until his death. Overview A contemporary of the older poets Virgil and Horace, Ovid was the first major Roman poet to begin his career during Augustus's reign. Collectively, they are considered the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian described Ovid as the last of the Latin love elegists.Quint. ''Inst.'' 10.1.93 He enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, but the emperor Augus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tempora Mutantur
''Tempora mutantur'' is a Latin adage that refers to the changes brought about by the passage of time. It also appears in various longer hexametric forms, most commonly ''Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis'', meaning "Times are changed; we also are changed with them". This hexameter is not found in Classical Latin, but is a variant of phrases of Ovid, to whom it is sometimes mis-attributed. In fact, it dates to 16th-century Germany, the time of the Protestant Reformation, and it subsequently was popularised in various forms. Wording :''Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis'' ::can be strictly translated as: :"Times are changed; we, too, are changed within them." Like many adages and proverbial maxims drawn from the Latin cultural tradition, this line is in the hexameter verse used in Greek and Latin epic poetry. All other Latin verses cited in this page are hexameters as well. The fact that ''et'' follows ''nos'' and is accented in the hexameter's rhythm gives an emph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably Homer's ''Iliad''. The core of the ''Iliad'' (Books II – XXIII) describes a period of four days and two nights in the tenth year of the decade-long siege of Troy; the ''Odyssey'' describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war's heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. The ancient Greeks believed that Troy was located near the Dardanelles and that the Trojan War was a historical event of the 13th or 12th century BC, but by the mid-19th century AD, both the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Titanomachy
In Greek mythology, the Titanomachy (; grc, , , Titan battle) was a ten-year series of battles fought in Ancient Thessaly, consisting of most of the Titans (the older generation of gods, based on Mount Othrys) fighting against the Twelve Olympians, Olympians (the younger generations, who would come to reign on Mount Olympus) and their allies. This event is also known as the War of the Titans, Battle of the Titans, Battle of the Gods, or just the Titan War. The war was fought to decide which generation of gods would have dominion over the universe; it ended in victory for the Olympian gods. Greeks of the Classical Age knew of several poems about the war between the gods and many of the Titans. The dominant one, and the only one that has survived, is the ''Theogony'' attributed to Hesiod. The Titans also played a prominent role in the poems attributed to Orpheus. Although only scraps of the Orphism (religion), Orphic narratives survive, they show differences from the Hesiodic trad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Heroic Age
The Greek Heroic Age, in mythology, is the period between the coming of the Greeks to Thessaly and the Greek return from Troy. It was demarcated as one of the five Ages of Man by Hesiod. The period spans roughly six generations; the heroes denoted by the term are superhuman, though not divine, and are celebrated in the literature of Homer. The Greek heroes can be grouped into an approximate chronology, based on events such as the Argonautic expedition and the Trojan War. Over this course in time, many heroes in Greece, such as Heracles, Achilles, Hector and Perseus, came to be prominent figures in Greek mythology. Early heroes Many of the early Greek heroes were descended from the gods and were part of the founding narratives of various city-states. They also became the ancestors of later heroes. The Phoenician prince Cadmus, a grandson of Poseidon, was the first Greek hero and the founder of Thebes. Perseus, famous for his exploits well before the days of his great-grandson, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Matrix
''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in ''The Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano, and depicts a dystopian future in which humanity is unknowingly trapped inside the Matrix, a simulated reality that intelligent machines have created to distract humans while using their bodies as an energy source. When computer programmer Thomas Anderson, under the hacker alias "Neo", uncovers the truth, he joins a rebellion against the machines along with other people who have been freed from the Matrix. ''The Matrix'' is an example of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction. The Wachowskis' approach to action scenes was influenced by Japanese animation and martial arts films, and the film's use of fight choreographers and wire fu techniques from Hong Kong action cinema influenced subsequent Hollywood action film productions. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pausanias (geographer)
Pausanias ( /pɔːˈseɪniəs/; grc-gre, Παυσανίας; c. 110 – c. 180) was a Greek traveler and geographer of the second century AD. He is famous for his ''Description of Greece'' (, ), a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from his firsthand observations. ''Description of Greece'' provides crucial information for making links between classical literature and modern archaeology. Biography Not much is known about Pausanias apart from what historians can piece together from his own writing. However, it is mostly certain that he was born c. 110 AD into a Greek family and was probably a native of Lydia in Asia Minor. From c. 150 until his death in 180, Pausanias travelled through the mainland of Greece, writing about various monuments, sacred spaces, and significant geographical sites along the way. In writing ''Description of Greece'', Pausanias sought to put together a lasting written account of "all things Greek", or ''panta ta hellenika''. Living in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Delphi
Delphi (; ), in legend previously called Pytho (Πυθώ), in ancient times was a sacred precinct that served as the seat of Pythia, the major oracle who was consulted about important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. The oracle had origins in prehistory and it became international in character and also fostered sentiments of Greek nationality, even though the nation of Greece was centuries away from realization. The Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks considered the centre of the world to be in Delphi, marked by the stone monument known as Omphalos of Delphi, the omphalos (navel). The sacred precinct of Ge or Gaia was in the region of Phocis (ancient region), Phocis, but its management had been taken away from the Phocis (ancient region), Phocians, who were trying to extort money from its visitors, and had been placed in the hands of an Amphictyonic League, amphictyony, or committee of persons chosen mainly from Central Greece. According to the Suda, Delphi took its n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cultures, including most Western cultures. Some noteworthy examples of porticos are the East Portico of the United States Capitol, the portico adorning the Pantheon in Rome and the portico of University College London. Porticos are sometimes topped with pediments. Palladio was a pioneer of using temple-fronts for secular buildings. In the UK, the temple-front applied to The Vyne, Hampshire, was the first portico applied to an English country house. A pronaos ( or ) is the inner area of the portico of a Greek or Roman temple, situated between the portico's colonnade or walls and the entrance to the ''cella'', or shrine. Roman temples commonly had an open pronaos, usually with only columns and no walls, and the pronaos could be as long as th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Greek Phrases
Αα ''(h)a'' ; :''Ageōmétrētos mēdeìs eisítō.'' :"Let no one untrained in geometry enter." :Motto over the entrance to Plato's Academy (quoted in Elias' commentary on Aristotle's '' Categories'': ''Eliae in Porphyrii Isagogen et Aristotelis categorias commentaria'', '' CAG'' XVIII.1, Berlin 1900, p11813–19). ; :''Aeì Libýē phérei ti kainón''. :"Libya always bears something new", Aristotle, ''Historia Animalium''. :Compare Latin ''Ex Africa semper aliquid novi'' "From Africa always something new", Pliny. ; :''Aeì koloiòs parà koloiôi hizánei''. :"A jackdaw is always found near a jackdaw" :Similar to English "birds of a feather flock together." ; :''Aei ho theos geōmetreî''. :"God always geometrizes" — Plato :Plutarch elaborated on this phrase in his essay Πῶς Πλάτων ἔλεγε τὸν θεὸν ἀεί γεωμετρεῖν "What is Plato’s meaning when he says that God always applies geometry". Based on the phrase of Plato, above, a pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
