Philo-help-sophy

The day is drawing to an end, and the late nights are catching up on me... I cannot see how my aim to read five chapters of 'McNae's' and the whole of book one in 'Russell' by Tuesday is going to help me to stay awake. I am determined to become a philosophical wiz, slowly but surely so that I can have intercultural conversations down the pub; even though I have never touched upon philosophy in my life until now. Whilst I was sat in the lecture hall, I couldn't help but look around and compare with others how many notes everyone was taking, each new fact felt like a boomerang had hit me in the face, I was struggling to keep up with the fast pace. Putting that to one side, here are some bits and bobs of what I managed to recover from the lecture:

1. Logic was Invented by Aristotle (Greek philosopher) between 1400 and 1600 - This is the principle of valid inference and correct reasoning. Here is an example:

"All men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates are mortal."
Avicenna was a mathematician that also used Logic.

2. Romans are the source of power - 

Greeks are the source of culture

3. The decline in the Roman Empire, led to the 'Dark Ages' and civilization collapsed. 

4. Al Ghazali was a very religious man, who believed anything not written in the Qur'an was spoken by the devil.
5. Johannes Gutenberg invented 'The Printing Press' around 1440.
6. If you were accused of being a witch you would be thrown in to the river; if you sank you were not a witch, and if you floated it was a sign that the devil had helped you. In that instance, if you were a witch you were burned. A nice little interesting fact to end the night on.

At the moment my notes are still a little disjointed like the wires in my brain, I'm praying this is going to get easier. 'Russell' is coming everywhere with me from now onward, I have got to be optimistic!