Homework 2/26

No, I do not buy Menzie's argument that Zheng He's fleet made it to America before Colombus. He has a good-sounding theory but no real evidence. A huge part of Menzies' argument is that Nicollo Dicontti passed on Chinese maps to the Europeans. When there is a statue of Zheng He next to an unknown foreigner, Minzies automatically jumps to the conclusion that the unknown foreigner is Nicollo Dicontti. He also takes the fact that Zheng He's ship travels 40 knots, and makes it so that the 40 knots takes the ships to the African cape where he wants it. He uses many ideas about sea charts and fits them into his theory. He believes we must accept this theory because he is a former marine and assumes we wouldn't know any better about sea routes and winds. I think he finds a few interesting ideas to support his thesis, but none of them seem to be cold-hard evidence, which is what historians will need to accept his argument. 

Homework 2/13

1. Aztecs learned urban tradition in the valley of Mexico

2. Aztecs were "barbarian"

3. Aztecs went on a pilgrimage

1. Nobles did the warfare, individuals sacrificed on battlefields were nobles

2. The Aztec Empire was a tribute empire

1. Did anyone rebel/complain against the high levels of human sacrifice?

Homework 2/10

What are the five examples of proof that Aquinas gives to prove the existence of God?

1. Everything on earth changes and moves as a result of something else; therefore the first mover must be powerful and does not need anything to move IT. This force is God.

2. Everything is a cause and effect chain- the ultimate first cause, before everything else, is God.

3. There must be something that exists first because of itself, this is God.

4. For one thing there is always something better than the first. So there must be something that is "truest, and best, and most noble, and in consequence, the greatest being". This greatest being would be God.

5. Natural things, lacking reason, move because of a purpose of a greater power, not by chance. This greater power is God.