Original article | International Journal of Educational Researchers 2013, Vol. 4(3) 9-22
Francesco Sidoti CORSARO
pp. 9 - 22 | Manu. Number: ijers.2013.010
Published online: December 01, 2013 | Number of Views: 135 | Number of Download: 808
Abstract
In the four billion years of our past, we have had many relatives. Human roots lie deeply below history's surface, sunken in the entire geological life of the Earth, in symbiosis with organisms and plants. From the Darwinian "little warm pond" to genetic engineering, suddenly and confidently today we have become audacious creators of ourselves, thanks to artificial biology and modified food. Some scientists play God, so it might be worthwhile to rewind our ancestry back to Çanakkale, a pre-eminent location with unforgettable clues about the beginning, when we were molded into what we are now. In a traditional society, everything is rooted in the hierarchies and customs of that which went before. It has been said that current modernity means, above all, uncertainty about our roots and about our identity: we are detached from time and space, orphans restlessly travelling in search of our fathers. But, even in hypermodern thinking, Ch. Taylor says that, in order to know "Who I am", we must know where we are: "I define my identify by indicating where I am". If I want to know my founding fathers, I must at least understand where I am now. Today we are in Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart Üniversitesi. Çanakkale is the city governing the territory of Troy, legendary land where, according to one interpretation, Europe’s first identity was born, with Homer and Virgil. It then became canonical in Shakespeare and Milton. In those places where terrifying battles were fought, Homer and Ataturk wrote monumental lines about war and peace. The battles were terrifying, but Homer and Ataturk were not merciless. I will try to argue that they had similar feelings, in the same geographical places, over three thousand years of history, beyond the times and languages and beliefs that separated them. I will also assert that president Obama spoke in a similar manner, about war and peace, right here, in Turkey, in 2008, including his presidency in the enduring tradition which shines not only in an unsurpassed poet like Homer and in an invincible commander like Ataturk, but also in the greatest theorist on war and peace: Sun Tzu.
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