We can think of this period of searching for the causes of natural phenomena in the natural world, and calling into question mythical explanations, as relating to our current global culture. How does your personal experience and worldview correspond to the worldview shift from mythical to naturally made by the Greeks, and where does this place you on the white rabbit's fur?

Context and Questions for Discussion Forum Unit 2 Myth and Wonder 8: Unit 3 Natural Philosophers Context of BF question Myths, or cosmological stories, are one of the ways of explaining the magic trick that Alberto describes in the chapter called "Top Hat." For pre-philosophical cultures, the myths were generally about gods and ancestors. "The natural won'd and the human world were not distinguishable domains in the archaic Greek universe, for a single fundamental order structured both nature and society, and embodied the divine justice that empowered Zeus, the ruler of the gods. \" Passions, pg. 1?. The Birth of Philosophy was a cataclysmic shift in human consciousness that eventually pulled the rug out from under the security of the Greek mythological world view. In a sense you could say that all hell broke loose! Tarnus tells us that: The primitive universe ruled by anthropomorphic deities began to give way to a world whose source and substance was a primary natural element such as water, air, or fire. in time, these primary substances would cease to he endowed with divinity or intelligence, and would instead he understood as purely material entities mechanically moved by chance or blind necessity. But already a rudimentary naturalistic empiricism was being born. And as man's independent intelligence grew stronger, the sovereign power of the old gods grew weak. Passions, pg.2El This passage from Passions is a classic example of the foundational structure of a worldview {which always contains a mythical or cosmological story}. What is fascinating, however, is that within it can be found the assumptio ns that drove the birth of philosophy and the search for natural explanations. 1. There Is an assumption that I"the universe Is an order whole\" within which humans could live an ordered existencecould count on the universe, so to speak. 2. There is no separation between the realm of the gods and the realm of humans~the \"ordered whole." [This reflects roots in the ancient indigenous past of tribal societies that view gods and ancestors as unseen but yet part of this worldnot transcendent.) 3. There is a single "fundamental order\" that structured both the natural and social world of humans and was the source of justice in the world. And if the true reality was entirely divorced'om common experience, then the very foundations ofhuman knowledge [epistemology] were called into question. ltseemed that the more man became freely and consciously self- determining, the less sure was of his footing. Passions, pg. 24-25. This Is the source of conflict between a mythological [religious] world view and a natural [science-informed} worldview. It Is a conflict that arose with the birth of philosophy in the 5th century b.c.e. and even in our technological, science-driven, global world, still has not found a universal solution. Questionsfs] The analogy of the magician pulling the white rabbit of the universe out of the hat holds true whether your worldview tellsyouthernagician is divine or natural {or maybe both?}. Your worldview will also place you some\" nbit's fur to dangling on the tip of its hairs. Scre ens hot Drawing on me \"an. rrnm'ruI-IGI-l, Sophie's World, your Reading Worksheet, quotations from Passions, my introduction above, and using your own experience and ideas, answer the question below: Question' " ' ' "' ' "eriod of searching for the cause and cal' rplanaions persor :orrespo Greelc u on th al phenomena in the natural world, bal culture. How does your ytilical to natural made by the A