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Lorrane Kabert

The 345973893876th Leader

11/17/15; 9:40 AM — 11:00 AM

Class Notes

Motives of Cyrus’ followers:

  • Friendship
  • Admiration (thauma)
  • Relief
  • Hope
  • Cyrus’ bravery
  • Cyrus’ good fortune
  • Gratitude
  • Love of gain

Cyrus is a great example of ambivalence (chameleons) → Question

  • Manipulation

Relate similar characteristics between all the leaders we have discussed

11/17/2015; 5:00 PM — 8:00 PM

Read Plutarch’s Life of Alexander the Great, Parts One and Two (of seven).

Thoughts/Comments

These are some weird dreams that they’re having at the beginning of this story.

Alexander the Great was a pretty boy it seems

  • He wanted excellence and fame vs. wealth
  • He had many people looking out for him and nurturing him, and even a tutor
  • had confidence in the horse riding, his father was so proud and cried
  • he had love for the art of healing, instilled in him by Aristotle?
  • he loved reading and learning, just like Cyrus
  • Macedonians were calling Alexander king, but Philip the general, Philip was proud though
  • Cannot believe he received the kingdom at age 20

Seeing that Aristotle was Alexander’s tutor, I immediately thought of Socrates and Alcibiades

Alexander must have really smelled that good, for them to mention it. → this makes me think about Alcibiades and how much he kept himself up

11/21/2015; 3:00 PM — 3:30 PM

Compare and contrast Alexander to Cyrus, especially in terms of their character. What stories of Alexander, or themes of his early life, remind you of stories we have read of Cyrus?

Cyrus

  • Loved learning
  • built a great empire from something small
  • instituted laws, great with administration
  • left a legacy
  • brought many other cultures into his ruling
  • conquered and allowed freedom
  • wiser

Alexander

  • loved learning
  • great military leader
  • born into a great empire
  • borrowed rules from Cyrus
  • legacy did not last, crumbled after death
  • lost men because he took on other cultures
  • conquered and destroyed
  • saw others from other cultures as barbarians
  • leading generals went to war with one another
  • accomplished more in a shorter time

11/19/2015; 9:40 AM — 11:00 AM

Class Notes

Book 4 chapter 2, sub chapter 10

Epimeleia — attentiveness

The more people working on the problem the more specialization

We are progressing to a global model

He can draw on culture as needed

Homogeneity is what Cyrus strives for

I think it is interesting how Alexander adapted the persian clothing after he defeated them. Also, he made his people marry other cultures. He himself having married some persians. I think about how Cyrus integrated other cultures but I do not think he want as far as making his people marry others.

11/20/2015; 3:30 PM — 9:30 PM

Read Plutarch’s Life of Alexander the Great, Parts Three through Seven.

“Alexander was naturally munificent, and became still more so as his wealth increased. His gifts, too, were accompanied by a kindly spirit, with which alone, to tell the truth, a giver confers a favour.” — Just Like Cyrus!!

“ These philosophers were reputed to be clever and concise in answering questions, and Alexander therefore put difficult questions to them, declaring that he would put to death him who first made an incorrect answer,” — — Pretty harsh!

“ The thirty thousand boys whom he had left behind him under institution and training were now so vigorous in their bodies and so comely in their looks, and showed besides such admirable dexterity and agility in their exercises, that Alexander himself was delighted; his Macedonians, however, were filled with dejection and fear, thinking that their king would now pay less regard to them.” Interesting

It is crazy that he never lost a battle in 15 years

He named sooo many cities after himself after conquering, kinda cocky

“ she was jealous of Stateira, and therefore deceived her by a forged letter into coming where she was, and when she had got her there, slew her, together with her sister, threw their bodies into the well, and filled the well with earth” Savage wow

  • people liked that Alexander legally married Roxana

“ Passing on, then, to the sixth, Alexander asked how a man could be most loved; “If,” said the philosopher, “he is most powerful, and yet does not inspire fear.” Of the three remaining, he who was asked how one might become a god instead of man, replied: “By doing something which a man cannot do”; the one who was asked which was the stronger, life or death, answered: “Life, since it supports so many ills.” And the last, asked how long it were well for a man to live, answered: “Until he does not regard death as better than life.” This is a very interesting set of questions. It made me wonder how I would answer them and if I agree.

So, then, turning to the judge, Alexander bade him give his opinion. The judge declared that they had answered one worse than another. “Well, then,” said Alexander, “thou shalt die first for giving such a verdict.” “That cannot be, O King,” said the judge, “unless thou falsely saidst that thou wouldst put to death first him who answered worst.” — — I do not really understand this. I am assuming that Alexander himself like the answers, so he did not like that the judge thought that they were wrong.

Here is a job listing for the Dean of the college of arts and sciences at Clark University in Atlanta. Note that there is a long list of knowledge, skills, and abilities expected of the role. Do you think Alexander would make a good candidate? Why or why not? What other characters from the Life of Alexander might be more qualified? Would you yourself expect to be qualified for this role in 10–20 years?

I think that Alexander is best when it comes to military related issues. I think that Cyrus would be good for this job because of his administration skills, ability to institute rules, and him being a people person. Cyrus also has more longevity vs. Alexander. Cyrus had the experience of building something from the ground up whereas Alexander was born into a strong empire. Cyrus would probably know better how to build up the programs in the arts of college and sciences.

I honestly do not know if I would be qualified for this role in 10–20 years. Of course I expect to continue to mature as I get older and overcome more challenges. The reason I wouldn’t qualify is because I am not a very creative person if it does not deal with STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and math). I could accomplish any task on the list, but the problem would be the quality. I would put my best into it but seeing as it is not something I am inclined to, I do not know if I would be making the proper adjustments. I am still learning how to filter opinions from other people. Being in a position like this I can only imagine how many opinions you get presented with every day. There are other employees, friends, students, parents, and other affiliates of the institution. So it would take a great amount of discernment to pick and choose the most valuable ones. I also do not like that a requirement is overlooking so many other people and their jobs. It is definitely a lot to keep up and and it anything goes wrong, it falls back on you.

“People are going to second-guess anything you do.” — Bill Gates

  • This is so unbelievably true. The older I get, the more I realize it.