Human Philosophical Reflections 1: Greece and Rome Philosophy, Changing Concepts of the Body, and the Games

Picture 1. Mechikoff & Estes, A History and Philosophy of Sport and Physical Education, Fourth Edition © 2006, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Philosophical Positions: The Body

Dualism

•        Explanation of human existence based upon both metaphysical and theological beliefs
•        Socrates and Plato
•        Has profound implications for physical education
•        Separates human existence into two parts, mind and body.

Greek Influence

• Greeks developed much of the Western world’s belief about the body and physical education
• Likely with Judaic and Phoenician influences
• Two metaphysical systems in Greece
• Naturalistic: man’s nature is both spiritual and corporeal (physical)
• Achieving balance is desired
• Emphasized physical and intellectual education

Phonology

Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and a fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts. The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details) and included:
* replacement of the pitch accent with a Stress (linguistics)|stress accent.
* simplification of the system of vowels and diphthongs: loss of vowel length distinction, monophthongization of most diphthongs, and several steps in a chain shift of vowels towards /i/ (iotacism).
* development of the Voicelessness voiceless Aspirated consonant|aspirated Stop consonant|plosives {{IPA|/pʰ/}} and {{IPA|/tʰ/}} to the voiceless Fricative consonant|fricatives {{IPA|/f/}} and {{IPA|/θ/}}, respectively; the similar development of {{IPA|/kʰ/}} to {{IPA|/x/}} may have taken place later (these phonological changes are not reflected in the orthography: both the earlier and later phonemes are written with Phi (letter)|φ, Theta|θ, and Chi (letter)|χ).
* development of the Voice (phonetics)|voiced plosives {{IPA|/b/}}, {{IPA|/d/}}, and {{IPA|/ɡ/}} to their voiced fricative counterparts {{IPA|/β/}} (later /v/), {{IPA|/ð/}}, and {{IPA|/ɣ/}}.

Morphology

In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes, a limited but productive system of compounding, and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in the nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive). The verbal system has lost the infinitive, the synthetically formed future and perfect tenses as well as the optative mood. Many of these have been replaced by Periphrastic (analytical) forms.

Plato

Plato (428 – 348 BC) Greek philosopher who was the pupil of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle – and one of the most influential figures in ‘western’ thought. He founded what is said to be the first university – his Academy (near Athens) in around 385 BC. Plato’s early works (dialogues) provide much of what we know of Socrates (470 – 399BC).



Reference: 

BinusMaya , PPT Human Philosophical Reflections 1.