Could the author, elaborate on this ?

[Marios]

"The Greeks hate disorder and everything that can't be rationally explained. Alexander is tempted by everything that is unknown, he likes the risk. Unlike the Greeks Alexander was highly imaginative.The Greek soul lacked those feelings that express the restlesness and the will to reach unbounded territories and explore new and unknown things."It would be highly appreciated, if the above can be explained by the author of this paragraph. The link to this is on your page : http://www.pothos.org/alexander.asp?par ... othosThank You.
Marios

[nick]

Hi Marios -Although I am not the author of the text (Irina is, but she is visiting the site infrequently), I will take the freedom to explain.First, take into account that what Irina writes is about the 'ancient' Greeks. Civilisations go through evolution and development, and the modern Greek society is of course not a perfect mirror of the Greek society in Alexander's times. So she says saying nothing about modern Greeks.Second, cultural research has indicated that we might call the ancient Greek society a "short term orientated" society with a relatively strong "avoidance of uncertain situations". For example, in Herodotus it is Xerxes who expresses his amazement about the Greek love for "finding the thruth" - that means to be 100% absolutely sure of something. Ancient laws of physics and maths like Pythagoras and Archimedes are examples of this Greek tendency to discover "absolute truths" or models that describe our world in a way that can be verified. To the Persian mind - and to some other modern cultures - this was a waste of time, as they were convinced no facts could ever be proven with certaincy.Because of this cultural pattern the ancient Greeks are still seen as the forefathers of modern science. However, the medal always has two sides. The tendency to attest facts and models also included a distaste for situations or (social and cultural) patterns that could not be described in an orderly model. Hence the tendency of the Greeks to view others as "barbarians" - a term that also indicated a state of disorder in alien societies.Regards -
Nick