Thesis. Antithesis. Synthesis.

When we think of philosophy, ancient Greece comes to mind.  The Roman Empire adopted the accumulated wisdom of Greece as they advanced Western Civilization.

During the "Dark Ages," the teachings of Aristotle, Hippocrates, Pythagoras, Archimedes and Socrates were all trod under foot by Barbarians after Rome fell, right?

No.

Greco-Roman traditions carried on with the Byzantines, who still thought of themselves as "Romans" even after Rome had been reduced to ruins.

Islam took the baton of wisdom as well as the capital of Constantinople before having it again plowed under by later brands of extremists.

In the ninth century, while the Muslims were still on the rise, Emperor Charlemagne brought knowledge back to the forefront in what historians call the Holy Roman Empire in central Europe. Charlemagne purportedly never learned to write in any of the five or six languages he could read and speak, but he was a brilliant military and administrative leader who encouraged his subjects to learn.



With the arrival of the Renaissance, scientific research in Europe began anew.  Over subsequent decades, brilliant minds like Copernicus, Galileo and Newton challenged ancient precepts, often resulting in the Catholic Church damning them for daring to recite truths that went against fundamentalist teachings, such as challenging the belief that the earth was the center of the universe.

With the Age of Reason, you might say that science and philosophy went back to the drawing board, trying to prove previously accepted truths for themselves, challenging the wisdom of the ages, and establishing alternative theories proven through scientific experimentation and observation.

While we may think of Germanic giants of that era more in terms of music, with prominent names like Beethoven and Mozart, brilliant philosophers also emerged, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who helped bridge the gap between purely scientific, "Classical" ways of thinking to the "Romantic Era" notion that an observer is an active participant who conveys meaning, a concept that becomes clearer when illustrated.



German philosophers pioneered the concept of climbing a metaphorical ladder to "absolute knowledge" using the method summarized in the title of this post: "Thesis.  Antithesis.  Synthesis."

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel used something akin to that method on a regular basis, but it was actually the lesser known Johann Gottlieb Fichte who defined it with that particular phrasing (in German, of course).

Essentially, it means that rather than simply coming up with a thesis, the best possible solution will be found by also considering the antithesis, or opposite theory, to eventually arrive at a synthesis.  Recently in the forefront has been a debate between those who believe we all must be quarantined in order to stop COVID-19 from spreading no matter what happens to the economy,  versus those who advocate for citizens living freely, allowing the free market to buzz along and self-correct as usual.



For several weeks, the original thesis of quarantine won the day relatively unchallenged in order to "flatten the curve"  so our health care system did not become overwhelmed.  Those who believed that to be an overreaction to "the latest flu epidemic" went along on the promise that it would just be a couple of weeks or maybe a month at most.  Many governors and big city mayors, however, adopted that shutdown as the end all, be all strategy, one that gave them sweeping power that they are now reluctant to relinquish.

With these extended lock-downs becoming increasingly destructive to the economy in general and to small businesses in particular, the antithesis argument has now gained strength and is pushing back more forcefully.

For some reason, people on both sides of this COVID-19 dichotomy --- and in fact most other political arguments these days --- treat their counterparts as straw men proponents of the extreme opposite position while they often voice some less strict version themselves to indicate how much more reasonable they are.  It's that desire to be seen as reasonable that makes synthesis possible.



In fact, the best resolution will usually be found only by considering both extremes and then synthesizing the two through progressive point and counterpoint propositions with open minds.

Some people in favor of universal quarantine now accept limited freedoms to go outside in moderation and compromises like curbside service for retail stores trying to compete against Amazon.  Mandated masks and maintaining a six foot "social distance" are generally advocated by that side in conjunction with gradually expanded freedoms, not unlike the restrictions on all women accepted in Islamic cultures as the norm at any time in public.

On the other hand, many people like me have said we should quarantine people with the illness plus specifically those in nursing homes, which have continued to be a source of something like 40 to 50% of all deaths involving COVID-19.  I would further say that at-risk groups with serious pre-existing medical conditions should self-quarantine.

However, I would go on to say that the USA is a free republic.  If a 95 year-old veteran who stormed the beaches at Normandy despite imminent carnage before him wants to go out for an ice cream cone at McDonald's during a pandemic, then by what right does dapper Governor Gavin Newsom stop him?  That proposition would lead to a counterpoint, as we gradually continue up the ladder.

Note that neither position is as extreme as the original thesis and antithesis attributed by the opposing side, and by gradually working through the steps of reason, we may come up with a synthesis acceptable to both sides.  Hopefully that progresses beyond simply acceptable to being regarded as the best possible outcome by all parties.

The Great Wall

The words "Great" and "Wall" currently bring to mind President Donald Trump, who famously won the highest office in the world with the catch phrases "Make America Great Again" and "Build the Wall."

The original Great Wall, however, began as fragmented fortifications almost 2,900 years ago in what is present day China.   The Chinese states of Qin, Wei, Zhao, Qi, Yan and Zhongshan fought among themselves and also against Asians from the north.

Through military conquest, Qin Shi Huang united all of China under his rule, similarly connecting the fragments of wall together for the first time.  Qin employed forced labor to protect his new empire from the Mongolians and other possible invaders from the north, completing the rammed earth project in 212 B.C.

Beyond the unifying metaphor of the Great Wall that solidified the northern border, Emperor Qin united his empire with a standardized common language and a system of government based on Legalism, replacing feudalism with bureaucratic rule.

On the one hand, Legalism assumes people need laws to act properly, so we might infer that an underlying premise is that people by nature are evil, but it also means equal treatment under the law for all people, regardless of social status.

This populist concept of legal equality for aristocrats and peasants might not sound like a radical breakthrough to Americans ingrained with the phrase "with liberty and justice for all," but even in our enlightened country, we know government leaders often can be "above the law," from "fixing tickets" to leveraging influence to become super wealthy as "public servants" to literally getting away with murder.

Generations before China united, Qin Shi Huang's ancestors understood that the underlying strength of their smaller kingdom in general and the military in particular came from the strong backs of peasants, not privileged aristocrats wielding arbitrary power.  That early test of meritocracy on the smaller state scale proved successful in not only winning battles but also increasing tax revenues, laying the groundwork for the first Empire.

It wouldn't be a large stretch to believe that peasant troops fighting under such a system would respond with greater loyalty, providing the margin of victory that allowed Emperor Qin to unite China under his rule.

In some ways, that was the story of our American Revolution.

It's no wonder the Qin Empire is revered as one of China's greatest.  In fact, the name Qin is pronounced "Chin" and is the root of the country's name, China.

His unprecedented power would not enable Qin to live forever.  Ironically, he ruled as Emperor for only 11 years before he died from ingesting an Elixer of Life containing toxic mercury, which his physicians said would make him immortal.

His successors abused the power Qin had amassed, and the Empire devolved into four years of revolution until the Han Dynasty "claimed the Mandate of Heaven" to rule China.

The Han reinstituted order with Legalism, but they also embraced kinder Confucianism for education.

Under the Han Dynasty, China became an international economic powerhouse by opening trade with the world.

Gold, silver, ivory, cotton, wool and other goods flowed into China from the Middle East, other parts of Asia, Europe and Africa.  In return, China exported what it produced best, including salt, sugar, tea, spices, porcelain and silk.

"The Silk Road" was a phrase coined by 19th Century Europeans to describe the routes of this free trade that benefited all, but none benefitted as much as the city successively known as Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul, in modern day Turkey.  This capital of the Eastern Roman/Byzantine and then Ottoman Empires was at the hub of trade, enabling it to take a small piece of all the action to become incredibly wealthy.  The Silk Road came to represent free trade.

In many ways, the United States has been at the center of a new Silk Road for decades, with US companies and consumers reaping the rewards of specialization of labor and resources.

This globalization also has benefited formerly impoverished countries, including China, where wages still lag far behind those of the United States and environmental regulations remain lax.

International companies based in the United States outsourced so much of their manufacturing to China that tens of millions of working-class families lost their livelihoods when factories in the heartland of America were shuttered.

One of the major issues Donald Trump rode to the Presidency was the populist belief that China and other countries were "ripping us off," a claim establishment politicians, business leaders and economists poo-pooed.

Former steel workers, coal miners and factory workers, however, knew exactly what Trump meant.  It wasn't some secret whisper to racists who hated foreigners, but rather a shout out to blue-collar workers wanting to regain their self-respect.

Looked at in a non-establishment way, Trump and his followers are right.  China flaunts environmental and worker safety norms we take for granted in the US, which in conjunction with very low wages would be enough to undercut American factories.

In addition, China and the European Union enforce stiff tariffs to restrict  their consumers' access to certain US products in order to protect their domestic industries while at the same time exporting to us almost barrier-free.

The Dawn of the Trump Era could reverse these trends, though powerful forces do not want this to happen.  The establishment has launched counterattacks on other fronts to stop President Trump's policy implementations.  Only the future will tell who wins.

Back to the Great Wall, it took on increased significance under the Han Dynasty by protecting their essential trade routes.


For a quick history of Chinese dynasties, I highly recommend the video below.

After centuries of neglect in some regions and building entirely new fortification north of the wall in others, the Ming Dynasty, known throughout the world for elegant vases, rebuilt the wall stronger than ever beginning in the 14th Century A.D.  The Ming Dynasty used modern construction techniques with bricks and stones instead of simply rammed earth.  They added 25,000 watch towers along the 4,000-mile Wall that divided China from the Ordos Desert, which they had rationally conceded to the fierce, nomadic Mongolians who had defeated them in key battles.

The section of the Great Wall near Beijing has become a major tourist attraction and is maintained in good repair.  In other areas, it is reportedly no longer recognizable, with building materials often having been pillaged by villagers for other purposes over the decades, particularly after Communists, who have little regard for historical monuments, came to power.

Our bus driver was not allowed to drop us at the intended parking lot due to construction, so we had to go to the busier section at Juyongguan Pass.

In retrospect, perhaps we should have backtracked to the other side where we were supposed to hike, but instead we walked the wall among throngs of other tourists.

Don't let anyone tell you that this is anything short of a grueling climb, especially on a somewhat hot, smoggy day with the steps clogged by people going up, down or sitting to rest, but it is something you would definitely want to do if you visit China.  Its vast scale from an era before motorized heavy equipment is truly impressive.

Many souvenirs were sold that day, my friend.

I was tempted to buy a Great Wall hat, but Julie and I only bought a Chinese knock-off of a Dove Bar.  That dark chocolate-coated vanilla ice cream tasted particularly great after the long climb up and down the Great Wall.

On the bus ride back, we were supposed to stop for photos at the Olympic Village, but we apparently had used up time intended for that with a long bathroom break when we were supposed to be leaving the zoo, extended shopping time at the jade store and a rather leisurely lunch.


We did drive past the Bird's Nest National Stadium and other Olympic sites on the freeway, or so Julie tells me and has a photo to prove, but I had fallen fast asleep in the traffic jam.

That evening, we had another big event, the Beijing Duck Dinner.

Neither Julie nor I thought we liked duck, but the meal proved to be quite excellent, and it turns out I love Beijing Duck.

In America, we usually call this dish Peking Duck.


Peking is close to the Cantonese pronunciation of Beijing, which is apparently why Europeans and subsequently Americans used Pékin, Pequin or Peking, but Beijing means "North Capital."

When the Communists took over, they did away with the European misinterpretation of the name, reclaiming the traditional "Beijing," which is how most Chinese thought of it all along.

Once again, there were lots of other dishes, so even people who didn't want duck were well-fed.

I nodded off on the bus again on the ride back to the hotel.

Needless to say, I was happy to climb into my comfy bed once back at the Mercure after our very full first day in China.

"Better service leads to better trips!"

Maria Theresa and the Habsburgs, Pt. 6: Pressburg (Bratislava)

When the mob figuratively lost their collective heads during the French Revolution, many nobles literally lost their heads.

Marie Antoinette is the most famous victim remembered by "popular history," but an estimated 300,000 royalists (1 in 50 French residents) were arrested during the Reign of Terror and 40,000 died by force or disease, with over 16,500 sentenced to death by guillotine by Maximilien Robespierre and his blood-thirsty followers.

In the aftermath, a young officer named Napoleon Bonaparte rose to become Emperor of France.

City Gate in Bratislava

Napoleon championed a new meritocracy with systems of justice designed to make everyone equal under the law, so of course the royal families of Europe, including the Habsburgs, felt their feudal order was now being threatened in their own back yard as well as across the ocean in far-away America.

A series of coalitions formed to take down this upstart who had no legitimate claim to power by "royal blood."

Napoleon dealt with these threats, keeping territories captured during the successful defense of his realm through successive coalitions.

Unlike Hitler's detestable rule by fear, Napoleon and the common people in the territories he subsequently conquered saw him as a liberator.

Strolling through beautiful Bratislava

When the Third Coalition met with utter defeat at his hands, the Peace of Pressburg was declared on December 26, 1805, under a treaty between Napoleon and Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, a grandson of Maria Theresa.

So total had been the defeat that the Holy Roman Empire itself, the last official vestige of the amazing Roman Empire, collapsed entirely.

Emperor Napoleon's son by Austrian Archduchess Marie Louise, was called "King of the Romans" from birth, inferring that the Roman Empire almost resurrected under a Habsburg descendant, as royal family lines have occasionally reclaimed thrones in the past.

That was not to be, as royal blood apparently demanded that royal kingdoms destroy Napoleon and all that he stood for to stem the tide toward a more egalitarian world, even if it might have eventually evolved full circle back to the Roman Empire.

The eastern branch of the Roman Empire based in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), which by historians came to be called the Byzantine Empire but considered themselves Romans, had ceased to exist with the Fall of Constantinople in 1456 at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.

This was obviously a significant milestone for the Ottoman Empire, which had been rapidly expanding since the year 1300.

When Suleiman the Magnificent came to power as the 10th Ottoman Sultan, he set his sights on expanding deeper into Eastern Europe and beyond.

To those ends, Suleiman's army decimated the Royal Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohács in 1526.

In retreat, Louis II, the 20 year-old King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, fell backwards off his horse riding down a steep ravine.  He landed in a stream, and the heavy armor he wore for protection in battle proved to be so heavy that he couldn't stand up before he drowned.

This defeat brought central Hungary under Ottoman control.

Transylvania became a semi-independent vassal state of the Ottomans and eventually a "suzerainty" under the rule of both the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburgs.

The remaining Kingdom of Hungary was primarily modern day Slovakia, including Pressburg plus Transnubia, an area east of Vienna along the Danube encompassing modern day Budapest.

Separate Hungarian noble groups elected two Kings almost simultaneously for "Royal Hungary": Slavonian noble John Szapolyai, who would become known as Hungarian King John I, and Habsburg Archduke Ferdinand I of Austria, who was brother-in-law of' the recently deceased Hungarian King Louis II who was married to Maria of Habsburg.

John and Ferdinand both claimed to be King of Hungary.

Suleiman was not finished, and whether because he thought Ferdinand had stretched Hungary too thin with his power grab or because it simply fit his general plan, in 1529 at the absolute zenith of Ottoman power in Europe he went after the Austrian capital for the first time with the unsuccessful Siege of Vienna.

These unresolved, less-than-absolute claims of sovereignty by the Habsburgs as to who ruled Transylvania and Royal Hungary would seem to fall under what our guide in Vienna referred to as Austrian compromise as opposed to German compromise.  In that case, he was talking about a popular Viennese chocolate cake and conflicting claims to be "Original Sacher Torte" versus "The Original Sacher-Torte."  Austrian compromise means living with ambiguity until the situation can be settled later, whereas German compromise would require immediate satisfaction, even if that would mean a duel to the death over whose cake was the original.

As it turned out, the talons of the Habsburgs overcame occasional setbacks like those at the hands of Suleiman and Napoleon, clinging fast to Hungary through World War I.

In 1699, at the culmination of the 15 year Turkish War, the Ottomans withdrew entirely from Hungary, marking the first time they had lost significant territory after centuries of expansion.

When Maria Theresa was crowned King of Hungary in 1741, she promised to keep a residence in Hungary as well as Austria.

Pressburger Schloss (Bratislava Castle), which was just across the border from Austria, served that purpose.

As her successful reign progressed, Maria Theresa began remodeling Pressburger Schloss in the ornate Rococo style she preferred

Getting back to the promise at the end of my last lengthy post, Empress Maria Theresa's favorite child was Maria Christina.  Both strong-willed and extremely intelligent, "Mimi" was the most like her mother.

Her parents ensured Mimi received an excellent education, and she developed to be a fine artist by any standards, irregardless of her royal position.

Add in her beauty, and it becomes obvious why her siblings might be a bit jealous when their mother treated Mimi as her favorite.

Like Maria Theresa, who had been allowed to marry for love,  Mimi eschewed unions with more promising Princes to marry the younger son of the King of Saxony (Poland) rather than the heir apparent to the throne of a more significant prospective ally like France.

Albert of Saxe-Teschen was merely the Duke of Teschen, a title that would proceed to be held by Habsburgs for future generations.

However, they did not marry until 1765, when Mimi's father had passed away, possibly indicating the Emperor never gave the final green light to the marriage.

Mimi and her hubby moved to the beautifully refurbished Pressburger Schloss in 1766, and acting as a mother-in-law who wanted her favorite daughter to be married to a successful man, Maria Theresa appointed Albert Governor.

Because the Governor needed more space, a new palace in Classic style was built inside the walls.

Further upgrades included gardens similar to Schönbrunn Palace plus summer and winter riding schools along the lines of the Spanish Riding School in Hofburg Palace in Vienna.

In addition, Maria Theresa upgraded the furnishings, adding more valuable art.

While she visited there in keeping with her promise to live there part of the time, this remodeling would seem to be primarily for the benefit of her favorite child while at the same time providing mother and daughter the opportunity to maintain their close relationship.

Maria Theresa died in 1780, and the next year Mimi's brother Emperor Joseph II eliminated the position of Governor and moved many of the treasures to Vienna.

Did sibling jealousy weigh into those decisions?

In any case, Albert and Mimi took some treasures with them to Brussels for Albert's new position as Governor of Austrian Netherlands (modern day Belgium).

In 1783, Emperor Joseph II moved the seat of power to Buda (half of today's Budapest) and the Hungarian Crown Jewels to Hofburg Palace in Vienna.

Stripped of its treasures, Pressburger Schloss became a Catholic seminary.

In 1802, the aging seminary became a military barracks housing 1500 soldiers.  That made it a target for bombardment by Napoleon's forces in 1809 after Austria joined Britain in the Fifth Coalition to break the French Empire.

Austria had stayed out of the Fourth Coalition, abiding by terms of the Treaty of Pressburg, but no peace lasts forever, it seems.

By the way, all of the photos in this post are from our port stop in Bratislava (formerly known as Pressburg), except the last one which is a picture of Bratislava from the AmaWaterways brochure.

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia revolutionized architecture.

It established a unique Byzantine perspective, an exotic Middle Eastern style far different from that found elsewhere in the far-flung Roman Empire.

Many features of Hagia Sophia can be found in the Blue Mosque, including the massive dome.

Mary and Jesus flanked by Emperors Justinian and Constantine I

Hagia Sophia means "Holy Wisdom" in Greek, foreshadowing by a century when Greek would replace replace Latin as the official language of the Roman Empire.

By the time Byzantine Emperor Justinian commissioned construction of Hagia Sophia in 532 AD, Rome itself had been overthrown by Odoacer, the German Barbarian leader who became the first King of Italy

The pink area was what remained of the Roman Empire at the time of the "Fall."

Many consider the surrender of western Roman Emperor Romulus in 476 AD as the final straw in the Fall of the Roman Empire, but what is now referred to as the Byzantine Empire continued for almost a thousand years more, referring to themselves as Romans.

The remainder of the empire expanded and contracted dramatically over time, as this dynamic map I found in a Vox Media article about Roman maps demonstrates.

Designed by architects Isidore of Militus and Anthemius of Tralles, Hagia Sophia became the world's largest cathedral upon its completion in 537 AD.

It would have remained so until Spain's Seville Cathedral supplanted it in 1520, but in 1453, when Constantinople surrendered to the Ottoman Empire, Hagia Sophia was converted into a mosque.

Sultan Mehmed II's soldiers had begun to pillage the church, following the traditional thesis of war that "to the victors go the spoils."

Mehmed, however, stopped his troops from razing the beautiful structure.

Emperor John II Komnenos, Mary with Jesus, Empress Irene

After removing the bells, crosses, altars, relics and other religious artifacts, Mehmed nonetheless had religious mosaics featuring Jesus, Mary and everyone else plastered over.

That's because "Aniconism" forbids depiction of Mohammed and Islamic prophets in art, as you may remember from incidents with cartoons over recent years.

Anicosnism extends further to discourage depiction of any humans or animals in art.

Interior and exterior elements of mosques, including four minarets, were added, and Hagia Sophia served as the primary mosque of Constantinople until Sultan Ahmed's Blue Mosque was completed in 1616.



The former Greek Orthodox Church remained a mosque until 1931, when the Republic of Turkey converted it into a museum.

Since then, restorers have worked to refurbish this masterpiece, stripping away plaster to reveal beautiful mosaics which had been thought lost forever.

Large discs from the mosque era detract from the original interior design.

As the construction of the Blue Mosque to some extent marked the plateauing of the Ottoman Empire, the fall of Constantinople and conversion of the greatest church in Christendom to a mosque marked the true end of the Roman Empire.

Despite having lost Rome and being called "Byzantine" by historians beginning a century after the fall of Constantinople, make no mistake: this was the Roman Empire.

Due to having consistently more competent rulers than the Rome-based western European branch of the Roman Empire, the Constantinople-based Christian Roman Empire had survived considerably longer.

Just to connect the historical dots, on Christmas Day in the year 800, Pope Leo III crowned Frankish King Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, but he had no direct tie to the original Roman Empire.

These ancestors of the former "Barbarians at the Gate," of course, would eventually come to the aid of Christians being tormented in the Holy Lands.

Much of central Europe became confederated as the Holy Roman Empire, which would survive until 1806.