Judaism and Greco-Roman Philosophy

Judaism:

In 721 BCE when Assyrians began displacing large populations of Israelites it actually created a stronger sense of identity among those who were affected. The Jewish community's set of rules they live by- such as dietary restrictions, ritual baths, Sabbath, Monotheism, and ban on marrying non-jews- isolated them from other parts of society. However, this in turn created a tighter community and sense of identity because it allowed members of the Jewish community to band together and support each other. This can be seen in the creation of the synagogue which functioned as a religious, educational, and social meeting place. The synagogue allowed communities to maintain their religious and cultural beliefs in their new homelands.

Greco-Roman Philosophy:

I thought it was interesting how the reading brought up a correlation between "thinkers" and their interactions with people. For instance Bulliet wrote how many empirical thinkers came from Ionia and southern Italy because those were two areas with high contact with non Greek people. This makes sense to me because being introduced to a variety of people and their cultures exposes the Greeks to different ways of perceiving the world and their understand of it. Therefore, in addition to shifting from religious conceptions of the world to rational understanding, the interactions between cultures catalyzed the Greeks progressive scientific, philosophical, and political innovations.