Arete

ARETE

(A Call To Reason)

by

Zenius

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© 2011 by Zenius. All rights reserved.

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First published by AuthorHouse 07/30/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4634-3412-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-3413-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4634-3411-3 (ebk)

Library of Congress Number: 2011912126

Printed in the United States of America

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Contents

INTRODUCTION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

CHAPTER I

The Early Development of Life-Forms

CHAPTER II

Man’s First Appearance

CHAPTER III

The Beginning of Civilization

CHAPTER IV

THE ASTRONOMY OF MAN

CHAPTER V

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MAN

CHAPTER VI

THE PROFESSIONS OF MAN

BUSINESS

TEACHING

ENGINEERING

MEDICINE

LAW

ARCHITECTURE

MILITARY

CHAPTER VII

THE ART OF MAN

CHAPTER VIII

THE SCIENCE OF MAN

CHAPTER IX

THE SPORTS OF MAN

CHAPTER X

THE FAMILY OF MAN

CHAPTER XI

THE RETURN TO OUR

ANCIENT HOMELAND

CHAPTER XII

THE DYNAMIC UNION OF

GREEK IMAGINATION WITH

CHINESE GENIUS

APPENDICES

THE 100 MAJOR (BRIGHTEST) STARS

THE 100 MAJOR (BRIGHTEST) STARS

THE 100 MAJOR (BRIGHTEST) STARS

THE 100 MAJOR (BRIGHTEST) STARS

THE 100 MAJOR (BRIGHTEST) STARS

THE 100 MAJOR (BRIGHTEST) STARS

THE 100 MAJOR (BRIGHTEST) STARS

THE 100 MAJOR (BRIGHTEST) STARS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

1. Illustration 1 Conceptual Star

Map of Zenial Cornucopia (our regional stars)

2. Illustration 2 Conceptual Star

Map of Maxi-sphere (85 light-year radius sphere)

3. Illustration 3 Conceptual Star

Map of Local Stars, Constellations and Nebulae

4. Illustration 4 Conceptual Star

Map of The Greater Sphere (this part of our galaxy)

LIST OF TABLES

1. Table 1 The 30 Closest of the Major Stars

2. Table 2 The Brightest of the 30 Major Stars

3. Table 3 The 100 Major Stars

4. Table 4 Other Stars and Objects of Interest

5. Table 5 Listing of Neighboring Nebulae

INTRODUCTION

One of the objectives of this work is to open the door to those parts of our past that a proper documentation has not been done for, simply because we had not yet created the necessary tools for doing that. Intuitive deduction has been utilized where no facts bear light on a given period. That part of our past I refer to is the part that began there in the foothills astride the Jordan River; at the south end of the al Biqa Valley where civilization was birthed. A conjunction of regions occurs here near Mount Hermon. This author can imagine the patriarch Abraham standing on the slopes of this ancient mountain looking down the Jordan Valley past Mount Nebo, where the great prophet Moses would also stand 600 years later, for a similar reason and in the direction of Mount Sinai, some 4200 years ago trying to see into the future as he meandered into Canaan.

If in fact the Greatest Patriarch had taken the time to climb those slopes, he probably would not have realized he had been standing in the spot that an earlier figure of Biblical History may have stood. Circumstance had chronologically placed this great benefactor between the other two contributing figures who have endowed us with our Spiritual Heritage. The earlier figure was Noe (Noah); the latter figure to view this landscape from lower in the Jordan Valley was Moses.

The earliest settlement here had been by the first member of our species, Homo Sapiens-Sapiens, specifically, a man we call Adam, who lived about 75,000 BCE, that was located south along the Jordan River and the other being the final resting place of the survivor of a great ice-age melt-off flood, Noe (Noah), about 11,300 years ago located north along the banks of the old Orontes (Asi) River. It would seem rather ironic that this area that had been so historically significant was the very unique area where most of his disciples and Christ himself grew up. The site of Eden, then, it is thought by this writer, seems to have been located above present-day Israel and Ancient Samaria, several hundred feet in the sky. It was subverted by seismic activity and eroded completely as time went on and its remains might only be identified in the deep sediments of the Dead Sea. The site of man’s first city, then, would seem to be in close proximity to where language had been introduced and where simple mathematics was most likely invented.

The core of human knowledge seems to have developed from its continuing connection to the various sub-groups each contributing elements to and gradually gaining in turn from that cumulative base of knowledge that developed from the interaction of core with branch. The root of this knowledge base extends back in time to that invention of spoken language that the former character is identified with. Passing knowledge from one individual to another could have only been accomplished after this was done. Music seems to have played an early part in man’s development. It had probably been introduced some time after the invention of language and had the effect of encouraging improved social skills and providing much needed enjoyment for life-styles that were necessarily focused on hard and often monotonous behavior patterns. This was probably one of our earliest diversions, that continues to provide therapeutic value to our daily lives as complexity increases and available options for human expression have been minimized. Another of these diversions was the use of art to express our feelings. This medium came into use long before writing would allow man a better means to do so and, in fact, it may have been those early artists that created the symbols that would later become the basis for its creation. Employment of art has been invaluable as an additional way for the out-letting of our need for self expression and continues to serve in this role to provide us this important alternative option.

Not until man looked to the heaven, however, did he begin his climb upward to his complete enlightenment. The relationship of the awe we sometimes feel at observing the objects of distance space with the organized processes of thinking we employ probably did not develop until well after the flood. The field of astronomy had been a special case from earliest civilization and it remains foremost. I believe the use of thinking man has exhibited, existed sporadically before the flood, but because of the necessity of the expanding of his skill level as populations increased and space and time constraints were introduced into the lives of primitive man, new concepts had to be introduced. This was also about the time that the Chu arrived at the foothills of the Altai Mountains and the Native Americans arrived in the Western Hemisphere from the base of the Ural Mountains and the early Canaanites began the settlement of Africa, etc.

A new term is introduced here that refers to one of the family of man that achieves a level of intelligence that exceeds all previous members of our type of being after the time of Noe (Noah); that term is Super-genius. Each of the early figures were oriental thinkers that dominated in the period that extended from the middle of the Ninth Millennium BCE, to the end of the First Millennium CE, almost a deca-millennium period. Each has been assigned a Greek letter to distinguish them and they are noted in that way, whether or not their real name was actually known, throughout this text. The only non-oriental Super-genius that was able to break the grip on their Supremacy of Reasoning that they had exhibited was the Persian Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the Great Polymath who was born in the year 980 CE. These greatest of thinkers evidenced themselves by the progress that they stimulated and their importance to man’s continual rise cannot be overstated. The first of these (alpha-man) succeeded Noah as our brightest mind and his major contribution is seen as occurring when man’s next step toward enlightenment was likely taken early in the Ninth Millennium BCE.

The development of agriculture was one of the earliest products of man’s thinking through the problem of food shortage that came into common use in the more advanced parts of Eurasia by the middle of the Ninth Millennium BCE. The surplus food produced brought improved dietary features and the domestication of animals. Civilization, then, was able to expand into adjacent regions where several ancient cities were founded that include Damascus, Van, Jericho and Catal Huyuk that were founded by the end of the Ninth Millennium BCE, and later the cities, Ugarit, Aleppo, Byblos, Cayonu and Megiddo that followed in the Eighth Millennium BCE.

The next major step seems to have been the invention of irrigation that was most likely introduced in the second half of the Eighth Millennium BCE under the influence of (beta-man). Its utilization moved the use of agriculture into a world-wide system. To carry on the discussion of the influence these super-geniuses exerted, it seems as though they have had essentially no limit; geography can temporarily slow it, but the only true limit it encounters is time. Agriculture eventually found its way to North America. Irrigation was never exploited well in the New World. Civilization made monumental strides; the people that were out of the main avenues of communication and transportation, however, fell behind and later still would become labeled as primitive people. We have found that under the right circumstances these people can rapidly advance; they generally have the same natural ability, but the culture shock they encounter after being exposed to these advanced ideas when they move to more civilized areas inhibits their progress, however, they eventually acquiesce to these cycles. When another super-genius appears, everything that for many centuries had been accepted as the norm becomes fluid, and then, with this deeper insight, relocks to a higher level until a greater mind still, in turn, can again unlock that newer state we had reached and advance it even further. This has happened about a dozen times since the great melt-off of the glacial-age-ice more than ten thousand years ago. The migration into the Tigris, Euphrates and Nile Valleys by colonists from this core area for exploitation of these almost limitless resources further advanced the population levels and by domesticating other species of animals and improving the types and quantities of herbs, fruits, vegetables and grains products, they further enhanced their quality of life.

These early, almost imperceptible, steps toward that enlightenment were to be accelerated with the introduction of man’s most significant advancement about 6350 BCE; the creation, by an oriental genius (kappa-man), of a system for organizing human thoughts into a structured framework that would advance simple thinking into a much more complex thing, reasoning. One final word about super-geniuses; they are probably a phenomenon that has to do with the fact that as population increases, the probability of an approach to genetic perfection being attained is likely. Some of the first products of this new field, philosophy, were to be the creation of primitive medicine and rudimentary law in the Sixth Millennium BCE. There were other fields of knowledge that were improved from elementary status to master status utilizing the new concept. Business, teaching and engineering were among those fields that existed earlier in a more primitive form, but after being incorporated within this philosophical framework, acquired professional status. The invention of the sail probably occurred late in the Seventh Millennium BCE. This new mode of travel helped circulate, throughout the ancient world, the knowledge of this unique way of thinking and many of the other innovations that it allowed.

It is, by this writer, believed that the use of writing was developed much earlier than we will presently allow. Symbol writing, it is thought, was used long before the flood (some credit the Biblical character, Enoch, with its creation). This writer believes that about 4000 BCE another Oriental genius (delta-man) lived, who inspired the next great positive changes in the way man functions. The circle, that had inspired the thoughts of their earlier genius became a physical reality when the wheel was invented and that allowed man more mobility. Refinements to his earlier writing were then made that advanced the Humanities, eventually producing literary art. Another system we still utilize today that also predated the flood, noted here above, was the simplest form of mathematics, arithmetic, that had remained unchanged for millennia, was advanced; geometrical shapes were explored and some of the earliest steps that would eventually lead to the development of algebra, were made. By this time civilization had become or was well on its way to becoming historic. Those public records that began to show up became increasingly the basis for the remainder of the text and eventually as they became complete enough the need for Intuitive Deduction was eliminated. Writing had developed because of the need to represent a reality held verbally inexpressible, or not easily expressed, and the latter became a natural result of the requirement to define the quantity of items in the trading of goods. Both fields had developed sufficiently by the Third Millennium BCE so that advancements like medical texts, legal codes and early science were possible.

Several other contributing factors have arisen, since their introduction that have continued to propel man’s progress. These factors are essentially the pivotal influences that involved super-geniuses’ actions that have impacted the rest of society within historic times. As readers advance through this text, they should try to keep these critical points of history in mind; key times that are very much like our own. The first was the impact by the Oriental Philosophers on man’s civilized core after writing became a means to communicate ideas, possibly coming as early as the 27th Century BCE when the first character in Chinese history may have been the one to accomplish that. Huang Ti (epsilon-man), The Yellow King, lived about the time that the Pharaoh of Egypt, Djoser, was building its earliest pyramid and Gilgamesh, who ruled over Sumer, made his military expedition into a Cedar Forest, probably located in ancient Lebanon. The Chinese historian, Sima Qian, about 100 BCE, placed his reign early in the 25th Century BCE while another source notes that he was born in 2701 BCE. A second impact might have been later in the Third Millennium BCE, when King Yao (phi-man) came to power, a century or so before the Hsia Dynasty, and about the time the Old Kingdom of Egypt ended with Pepi II and Sargon I The Great established man’s first empire from his capital, Agade, in Sumer. This may have been about the time of the patriarch Abraham’s birth. A third impact, it seems, was during the 12th Century BCE, when the Duke of Chou (gamma-man) acted as regent for his nephew after his brother defeated the Shang Dynasty. This occurred at about the time of the reign of Ramses XI, last ruler of the 20th Dynasty and the New Kingdom and the great Assyrian ruler Tiglash Pileser I, founded their first empire. The last of the four great historical Oriental impacts occurred when Kung Fu Tzu Confucius (eta-man), the world’s greatest philosopher, lived. During his lifetime, the Persians had defeated the Lydians when he was five and, later, when he was twelve, the Babylonians, sometimes referred to as the Chaldaeans. The Persian king then freed the Jewish Nation and allowed them to rebuild their Temple at Jerusalem. He died in the year that the Battle of Plataea was fought near that small Boeotian city that brought victory to Greece over the Persians under Mardonius, a brother-in-law of Persian King Xerxes I (this made him a brother-in-law to his wife, the Biblical figure, Esther) and the commander of his army.

These impacts have shaped our world and these Titans of the Mind continued purifying the methods of reason we apply, that when finally established in the west, allowed the Classical Greeks to bring enlightenment to the rest of Europe and as time went by, through them, to the whole Western Hemisphere. The Chinese provided the fuel and the Greeks the flame in its creation; the light we witness in the eyes of our friends. It will be the effort of this author, in trying to follow in the footsteps of the Classical Greek Philosopher, Socrates’ student, Plato and his pupil, Aristotle, in employing both of these creations of man to persuade the reader of the necessity to re-think the approaches that we presently employ in identifying the necessary modifications that should be made to our present state so that we will be better able to address the future needs that will be generated by our newly-found mobility in space as man Climbs Ever Higher, Toward The Heavens. The present offers the best opportunity for our returning to the default condition by conducting a reanalysis of the effects of our modern behavior patterns.

Europe slipped from a state in which intellectual pursuits were generally encouraged into one of Spiritual Growth, during those Dark Ages after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, in the 5th Century CE. The appearance of that first non-oriental super-genius since Noe (Noah), the Persian Polymath, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), would eventually bring the re-acquaintance of the European thinkers to their Classical Greek Heritage that brought realignment to their social value system that eventually yielded the rebirth of European Intellectualism, the Renaissance.

We must continue to try our best to understand where we have derived from, as it has everything to do with allowing us to chart a better course for the future that will guarantee our perpetuating existence. We must fashion or customize our own future by understanding our wants and needs. H.G Wells in 1920 CE stated that, Human History Becomes More and More a Race, Between Education, and Catastrophe. What we can count in our favor, however, is what we will define here as Evolutionary Existentialism, to create our own future as we evolve. As a minimum, in trying, we set ourselves apart from other species. What is of the utmost importance to man is his arriving at a state of wisdom that will be of the greatest value to him. This wisdom must feature a value system that should include his ability for maintaining the peace, to provide a good education for his youth, to provide good healthcare for all members of society, to insure justice and to allow for the equitable distribution of wealth.

The object we are endeavoring to produce, a philosophical framework that will yield an optimum structure of civilized thought, can be created by developing a more advanced educational system that will insure that the accomplishment of these above goals are met in order to bring the ultimate advantage that will guarantee the success to our youth. As readers proceed through these chapters, it will be essential for them to remember this ultimate target.

This text is written in a chronological sequence with observations on the parameters that have shaped our physical beings and so far as it is possible, on those factors that have shaped our spiritual nature as well. A classical approach has been attempted in presenting this study. The author’s first published work, Logos Arete, was a lexicon on the 3200 most important of the ancient Greeks providing available information about the lives of each. This writer will attempt to utilize this limited knowledge of the subject to take a fresh look at man from that perspective. The Greeks still maintain the high ground in regard to philosophy in the Western Hemisphere. This Modified Neo-Stoic view will feature a Circumspective Envelope, an all embracing source of data that places him at the exact center of the universe for the purpose of this necessary Study on Man. As time passes by, he should continually be made aware that from here looking ahead the same distance as looking back to Noah even the heavens will change. The star Vega will be returning as the Pole Star and our descendants may only dimly recall that we ever existed at all. We must maintain our focus on both entities; in regard to space, Here, and to time, Now!

As history becomes a current phenomenon that occurs and as we experience it with our senses, the deal changes; it no longer is history but becomes reality. What is important, then, is for us to remember that we must employ the Evolutionary Existentialism that was noted earlier in this Introduction, or in other words, implement those predetermined plans that will help steer our course into a future that should not be left to chance. Molding the future to fit our desires has been proven to be attainable and seems as though it is man’s only viable option. We do not want to deal with the desperation we will experience if we do not face the problems ahead of that manifestation of an unsolvable problem resulting from our ignorance, apathy or prejudice that forethought might have allowed us to avoid. The Boy Scout Motto that many of us have learned as children, Be Prepared, was never truer than it is today. It should also be pointed out that during the discourse that is to be encountered throughout this text one area of man is left undisturbed in fact it might be his most important part, His Soul. This matter is deferred to the greatest spokesperson of the ancient Greeks, Socrates, whose student Plato tutored Aristotle on that subject who quite capably, in turn, set forth in verse its best description, in On the Soul.

The first ten chapters of this book give those parameters of our being that can assist us in answering those questions that are necessary to be resolved in order for us to fully understand ourselves, such as who are we, where did we come from, how did we get here, when did we arrive, what are our strengths, what are our weaknesses, in what direction are we headed, when will we get there, why are we here, and what are our priorities, etc. They address man’s past.

The eleventh chapter gives the diagnosis of the state that man finds himself in, at the present time. What is it about man then that will allow him to condescend to behavior that is less than his best, without his giving any consideration to the consequences of his action: We Are, After All, Civilized, Are We Not? This chapter will feature a thorough examination of our primary institutions; the home, marriage and the family and will try to show where our social values need to be reestablished. It is clear that those more civilized and sophisticated elements of world society hold these institutions in very high esteem. It seems equally clear that the less civilized and sophisticated elements of the world society, does not. It probably lies in the fact that there are a far greater number of people that find themselves in the latter condition than in the former. Their home may be a cave, the mother is forced to raise her child alone and more likely than not, in poverty and the family is probably dysfunctional. They would, in all likelihood, be in favor of anarchy. It may be understandable that their values would be quite different from the more affluent former example, but their situation will never change if their value system remains as is. The prognosis is not a good one; if nothing is done to redirect Man from the destructive path he has determined to take and reset himself on a better course, the decisions that he has made will result in those consequences that will be adverse to his continued participation in this ecosystem. Economics does seem to play a part, but only a minor one. The groups that are advantaged or superior culturally do not necessarily possess more assets. It seems perfectly clear to this observer, that if we truly are to consider ourselves civilized we must protect the values that tend to lift us above the mundane and at every level of society to encourage their protection, if we are to succeed. We, the civilized people throughout the world, must stand together and set a better example for our children to follow. In addition, we have to convince those, the less-fortunate, to adopt those proven multi-millennial functioning institutions that will improve their fate as well.

Chapter twelve gives the reader a few ideas about the possible course of treatment that might be attempted for addressing the illness man suffers that might correct the social direction we have mistakenly taken and then to keep us on the path that will ultimately produce the preferred result. It is not far from us that the answer can be found. The basis for meaningful change can be found in the philosophy of the ancient Greek, Socrates, who instructed his student Plato on ethics, the first philosopher who commented on that subject. Socrates never authored anything, but several of the ancient Greek writers wrote about his opinions and quoted him. Earlier philosophers from the Greek World, like Pythagoras from the Island of Samos and Heracleitus from the Ionian city of Ephesus, and Oriental thinkers like Kung Fu Tzu (Confucius) and Zoroaster, taught moral principles, however, not until that greatest Greek became involved in the matter did the philosophically systematic field that would assist in guiding social behavior exist at all, and that is precisely where we have to begin the effort for reform, with the martyred philosopher of Athens, who enlightened us as to how we should behave, if we are to continue our spiral upwards in a socially healthy manner. We have been very fortunate in having had his primary student, Plato provide for us a semi-biographical account of his life, a record about this man and his belief system. Xenophon, an associate of his, also gives us additional insight into the life of the great man as does Simon, a friend of his who referred to him in a dialog. Following in his footsteps had always been an acceptable behavior pattern and this writer does not see any problem with underwriting its continuance. The direction this book moves in then is in an ethical vein that that great Greek has directed us toward in an effort to assist in our insuring that The Future of Our Kind Will be Bright.

By The Author

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This work is dedicated to the memory of a hometown hero of mine that will be remembered here, not for being the great song-writer she was, but for the caring heart she bore for us, maybe the unworthy, but the loved none-the-less. Her name was Carrie Jacobs-Bond.

CHAPTER I

The Early Development of Life-Forms

It began, this Trek Impossible, nearly four billion years ago on this host Planet Earth at an environmentally perfect spot in what is now the North Pacific Ocean. The forces were right and the chemistry was on line. It happened in spite of the quadrillion to one odds against the natural creation of a one—celled life form, our most ancient ancestor. It is even possible that inter-stellar material containing some minute remains of organic matter that had developed in a different star—system became part of the matrix involved. That matter may have originated within an earlier developing neighboring star