What can we learn today from the ancient Greeks?



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Eric Weiner "Geniality Geography: Finding the World's Most Creative Destinations from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley." Vilnius: Vaga, 2017 The English Language Is Ema Bernotyota

The ancient Greeks were not really golden boys. They had a grotesque jar that lasted weeks and drunk an incredible amount of wine, but their achievements in architecture, arts, literature and philosophy, mathematics, politics and sports are amazing at this time. day.

The Eagle Weiner book "Geniality Geography" (Ema Bernotaitė, 2017), published by bestselling author Eagle Weiner, describes a journey back in time to the most creative places in the world – from the ancient Athens to the present Silicon Valley. The book provides intriguing ideas on why and how bright ideas are flashing in certain places at a given time. Has the spirit, which inspired Socrates, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and many others, still spread in the air? And if so, maybe it's possible to close it in the bottle?

So why did ancient Greece prosper like no other civilization? Here are ten reasons, according to Eric Weiner, that drove the creativity of this civilization, which may be worth learning from us.

Perfectionism and Competition

Their desire was so strong that the Greek masters erected the sculpture at least effort before you. The Parthenon also symbolized something else: an open pursuit of other city-states. The architect who designed the Parthenon, Ictine, had seen the temple of Zeus in Olympia and wanted to break it. The competition has always pushed the Greeks forward – from sports to theater and loan. Maybe such pbadionate competition can explain their genius?

The original bodily and rational articulation

Unlike us, the Greeks did not distinguish between physical activity and mental activity. In the famous Plato Academy, predecessor of contemporary universities, there were conditions for the improvement of the body and the intellect. For the Greek, body and mind were two parts of an integral part of the universe. The healthy mind and the unhealthy body did not fit. Imagine the sculptor of Rodin's "Thinker" and you will have a true Greek ideal: a naked man drowned in thought

A non-confessed approach to art and creation

The Greeks Did not have the word "to". If you had asked the Greek poet what he was doing, he would answer that he was engaged in poieses literally it means "do". Art has taken so much of everyday life that it was considered a virtue. It was functional. Beauty was an addition. Today, for many of us, our art still does not live up to our prose routine. We proclaimed the special art, but maybe we helped where it could not be done?

Inner Motivation and the Enjoyment Process

What effect does the promised reward have on creative thinking? For example, in one experiment, a group of volunteers was divided into two parts. Both groups were invited to make a collage. It is said that his work will be appreciated by the commission of artists and that the authors of the most creative collage will receive a monetary prize. Another group was told to have fun.

The results were astonished. Those who were neither appreciated nor observed, the collages seemed to be the most creative. From the study, we can say that people are the most creative when they are motivated by the interest, pleasure, satisfaction and challenge posed by the work itself, rather than by the external pressure. However, why does sport get better athletes than coaches? Why is the Nobel Prize attracted by so many researchers? It is obvious that experienced designers encourage competition, but inexperience inhibits.

Corollary of Regularity and Irregularity

Let's take a look at Greek myths, which were not light but chaos. It is therefore not surprising that the mess of Greek stimulates creative thinking. For example, many do not realize that Partenon is a hidden combination of regularity and irregularity. Because each column is slightly curved one or the other. This is characteristic of their wise engineering, while in Athens are aligned with curves and wings, order and chaos. In the city, you will find a very strict code of laws and a stormy market place, such as a ruler statue, without any perceived order of interconnected streets

The Microcultural State

It s & # 39 proves that during periods of fragmentation (degradation) humanity has made the greatest creative leaps. This trend is also called Danilevsky's law. According to him, people are more likely to reach the highest creative potential when they belong to a free nation, even if it is small enough. After all, nature hates not only emptiness but also monopoly.

The Imperfect Creative Environment

One of the biggest misunderstandings about geniuses is the belief that they are reminiscent of paradise. Not far away. In fact, paradise and genius are incompatible things. There are no demands on heaven, so there is no need to look for new creative ways to satisfy them, but it also helps raise the geniuses. After all, Athens was a dirty little town, located on a merciless land, surrounded by ferocious neighbors and living people who, from the point of view of deception, did not use handkerchiefs, rubbed their fingers, pricked themselves and died tuberculosis.

The Athenians have matured because the challenges have fallen to them from all sides, "- wrote Friedrich Nietzsche . In other words, creativity is a reaction to it. Greek painting was a response to exceptional lighting (indeed, the Greek painter Apolodorus had invented the way to translate the depth), Greek architecture was an answer to a difficult terrain and Greek philosophy Answered to a difficult and uncertain life span Do not remember the recipe of genius And perhaps?

Inferiority and equality

As we have said, the greatest paradise's disadvantage is that it is perfect and therefore causes no reaction.That's why rich people and places often include stagnation.Atones was and was not rich.They can be called a place where public luxury and poverty reign The house of wealth is not different from the poor. The personal belongings of the Athenians seemed very suspicious, the drama of Aischil was filled with stories about the troubles he had left behind.

Almost everyone, from artisans to doctors, earned a similar one. The laws limited how much money could be spent at funerals, and women banned more than three travel dresses. In ancient Athens, poverty was not a shame: more than others were believed to be wealthy. Thus, the former Greek Steve Jobs would indeed be dead without shame and without glory. And while public athletes were extremely expensive, at best they were implemented for other funds. Partenon and other magnificent structures were built by the Delo (equivalent of NATO).

Walking

For most ancient geniuses, the best thoughts came walking. They did everything outside. The house called back the room. They spent less than half an hour in their daily routine. "As long as it takes time to do business with his wife." This is confirmed by research and history further. For example, in writing Charlemagne's song, Charles Dickens traveled between London and London for 15-20 miles, sculpting history.

And recently, psychologists from Stanford University did an experiment: they divided the participants into two groups. They were asked to find other ways to use everyday things. The results confirmed that levels of creativity were twice as high for walkers as for seated ones. It does not matter if it is walking outside or inside. In addition, it was taken for a walk only for 5-16 minutes.

Taika

Although most of its history, Athens was preparing for war, was fighting or seeking to recover from the war. However, between the Persians and the Peloponnesian wars, from 454 to 430 m. pr Kr., The kingdom of peace in Athens, at that time, Pericles had spent twice as much for cultural projects as the Parthenon. Peace is therefore one of the necessary conditions at the golden age, since war negatively affects all forms of creativity and living conditions

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