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If you read "Africa, Asia and the History of Philosophy" you'll see how this whole story of "Ancient Greeks were great philosophers but then their knowledge was

If you read "Africa, Asia and the History of Philosophy" you'll see how this whole story of "Ancient Greeks were great philosophers but then their knowledge was buried during the Dark Ages by Muslim conquerors and when their knowledge was recovered during the Renaissance by Jesuit scholars the torch of wisdom lit bright again and the world found Enlightenment, yada yada" is the same sort of thing as tribal myths of "primitive" cultures

zshrdlu 8y ago
Watches helplessly as reading list grows faster than I can consume it.
toasterlovin 8y ago
FWIW, I think the standard narrative is that knowledge of the great Greek and Roman works was lost in Europe as a result of the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the immense reduction in civilizational complexity that it entailed, not as a result of Muslim conquest.
- jschwartzi 8y ago
  And further you'll find the standard narrative is that the Arabic world was responsible for preserving many of the great classical works and for advancing knowledge of mathematics and science during the middle ages.
  - aestetix 8y ago
    Not solely responsible. For example, they didn't care about artistic works, and so they didn't take any cares to preserve greek plays.
eli_gottlieb 8y ago
>Ancient Greeks were great philosophers but then their knowledge was buried during the Dark Ages by Muslim conquerors Don't be silly. It was Christian Europe that lost and discarded the non-religious philosophical texts, and the Muslim Middle East that preserved them and advanced from them.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  Yeah, I mean, that's a even the standard narrative; the idea that they were lost due to Muslim conquest and rediscovered by Jesuits I've never heard before, and it isn't even superficially plausible since there was no general Muslim conquest for them to be lost in, and the Jesuits were formed too late to rediscover them and spark the Renaissance.

zshrdlu 8y ago

Watches helplessly as reading list grows faster than I can consume it.

toasterlovin 8y ago

FWIW, I think the standard narrative is that knowledge of the great Greek and Roman works was lost in Europe as a result of the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the immense reduction in civilizational complexity that it entailed, not as a result of Muslim conquest.

jschwartzi 8y ago
And further you'll find the standard narrative is that the Arabic world was responsible for preserving many of the great classical works and for advancing knowledge of mathematics and science during the middle ages.
- aestetix 8y ago
  Not solely responsible. For example, they didn't care about artistic works, and so they didn't take any cares to preserve greek plays.

eli_gottlieb 8y ago

>Ancient Greeks were great philosophers but then their knowledge was buried during the Dark Ages by Muslim conquerors Don't be silly. It was Christian Europe that lost and discarded the non-religious philosophical texts, and the Muslim Middle East that preserved them and advanced from them.

dragonwriter 8y ago
Yeah, I mean, that's a even the standard narrative; the idea that they were lost due to Muslim conquest and rediscovered by Jesuits I've never heard before, and it isn't even superficially plausible since there was no general Muslim conquest for them to be lost in, and the Jesuits were formed too late to rediscover them and spark the Renaissance.