The Discovery of Amerigo Vespucci
Who was Amerigo Vespucci? This is a question I asked myself as I was researching the man credited with the discovery of the new world. Much information has been written about Christopher Columbus and very little about Amerigo Vespucci. To understand who Amerigo Vespucci was is to look at his life and times in that time period. This paper is an attempt to look at his history and try to get a better understanding of his life in the “Age of Discovery”. To have an understanding of Vespucci is to remember that to the day of his death, Columbus persisted in claiming he was in parts of Asia. This is part of the old world mentality and shows that Columbus never fully comprehended the achievements of his voyages. Two continents are named after Amerigo Vespucci. A great achievement for a man who many feel is a charlatan of geography. Did he discover America or was this honor bestowed on the wrong man?
“In the middle ages, Europe knew less about the earth than did some of the ancients, for the commercial decline of Rome brought about the contraction of geographical knowledge.” [Pohl 6]. During this time period, men began to disregard authority and learned to rely directly on their own investigations. This is the seed that brought about men like Columbus and Vespucci. The period of the Renaissance is the fertile ground that brought about changes in the world of inquiry and scientific achievement in Europe. “This new spirit of inquiry received its chief impetus from the invention of the printing press whose importance outweighed even the greatest political event of the time.”[Pohl 9]. Printing led to the overthrow of authority and allowed the men of the period to come into immediate contact with each ...
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...e the intellect of the times to figure out how to navigate in the oceans is just as important if not more than his discovery of a new continent. Some would argue this point but from my research, Amerigo Vespucci was truly the founder of modern navigation that brought civilization out of the dark ages to the modern era. He was truly a man of his times.
Works Cited
Cohen, Jonathen. “The Naming of America: Vespucci’s Good Name”. Encounters 7:16-20
Pohl, Frederick, J. “America Vespucci”, Pilot Major. New York: Octagon Books, INc., 1966
Arciniegas, German. Amerigo and the New World: The life and Times Of Amerigo Vespucci. Knopf, NY, 1955
Lester, C. Edwards. The life and Voyages of Americus Vespucius, New York: New Amsterdam Publoishing, 1903.
Wills, Garry.Forward. Letters From A New World. Ed. Luciano Formisano, New York, Marsilo Publishers, 1992
Another great navigator from Portugal was Henry the navigator, he was the prince of Portugal who began to establish an observatory and also a school of navigation, and he also directed many long voyages that ignited the growth of Portugal’s colonial empire.
May, 1501 Amerigo Vespucci had just left for his 2nd voyage to the new continent. When he arrives in St, Augustine, Florida, he spends time talking to the natives, after spending time learning to communicate with them. He finds out that there is someone coming over seas, from about 100 leagues out, and coming over and killing, capturing, and enslaving them. Vespucci promises to avenge the ones that the natives have lost. Vespucci also says that 7 natives will be allowed to come with, but in their own canoes, for they did not want to be held responsible for their leaving and food. Off begins the journey to avenge the lost natives.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus was a self-made man who worked his way up to being the Captain of a merchant vessel. He gained the support of the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for an expedition to the Indies. With the support of the Spanish monarchy, he set off to find a new and faster trade route to the Indies. Upon the arrival of his first voyage, Columbus wrote a letter to Luis de Santangel, a “royal official and an early supporter of his venture,” in February 1493 (35). The epistle, letter, entitled “Letter to Luis de Santangel Regarding the First Voyage” was copied and then distributed in Spain before being translated and spread throughout Europe. The Letter is held in such regard with the people as it is considered the first printed description of the new world. Through his description of the nature of the islands, Columbus decided the future fate of the islands. His description of the vast beauty of the nature around him, declares both the economic and nationalistic motivations for colonizing the new world.
The first counter case to functionalism is the ‘homunculi head’. In this thought experiment Block asks us to conceive of a body externally equivalent to our own, but with a distinct internally distinct (pg. 215). The homunculi-head uses tiny men to process inputs and outputs. Each man performs a role normally accomplished by a part of your brain. The G-men do not work together on any functional role in the system, so little intelligence is required to be a G-man. Nevertheless, each G-man is able to perform the same role a part of your brain normally would. If you add up enough roles in a brain you can achieve qualitative states. With the homunculi-head these roles cannot be conjoined to give rise to a qualitative state. With all the G-men performing the same role as the brain the two systems are functionally equivalent. If functionalism is true, then an arrangement of G-men could have a qualitative state. But, it is intuitively false an arrangement of unintelligent G-men could have a single mental state you would normally have. So, functionalism is false.
Amerigo Vespucci was the first explorer to declare finding new land, and he is the man who named the Americas. His discovery was the start of what we call home today. One of the first well know colonies to be established on the new land was, the Jamestown Colony. This colony was located in the area that became Virginia. As this colonization grew in the new world the growth morphed into one of the largest and most powerful countries on the face of the Earth.
In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. However, even after centuries later, little is truly known of the mysterious voyage and findings of the new world.1 By examining “Letter from Columbus to Luis Santangel”, one can further contextualize the events of Columbus' exploration of the New World. The letter uncovers Columbus' subtle hints of his true intentions and exposes his exaggerated tone that catered to his lavish demands with Spain. Likewise, The Columbian Voyage Map read in accordance with the letter helps the reader track Columbus' first, second, third, and fourth voyage to the New World carefully and conveniently. Thus, the letter and map's rarity and description render invaluable insight into Columbus' intentionality of the New World and its indigenous inhabitants.
Flory, Harriette, and Samuel Jenike. A World History: The Modern World. Volume 2. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992. 42.
These theories include behaviorism, functionalism and the identity theory. Like in behaviorism the theory attempts to reduce mental states into real facts about behavioral dispositions. In functionalism, which is a more complex theory, particular functional roles and mental states are identified by these functionalists. They therefore deduce that, any state responsible for an appropriate functional role is considered as a mental state; therefore, the possibility of mind is realized in substance like artificial intelligence. Lastly, the mind brain identity theory which is mostly applied by the modern materialist’s deals with the state of the brain in trying to consider some physical states associated with the mental state. The main idea in this case is that mind and brain is one and the same thing.
Functionalism believes that society needs a system to work. Everything that goes on in a society gives balance to the world. Therefore, wealth will be a massive gear that turn a well oil machine. Wealth is a necessity to the economy and society. A person who has climb the ladder of wealth will be more respect. They believe that if you can acquire the skill set to do the
Christopher Columbus is the father of globalization. This claim is true because of the changes Christopher Columbus brought to the world and the cultures he brought together. Christopher Columbus made discoveries to the world that made others think differently.
Functionalism is the oldest and most commonly used theoretical approach used to understand social issues. Functionalism is a macrosociological perspective that presents the idea that society consists of different components working together to help a society function as one. Sociolog...
Functionalism is a materialist stance in the philosophy of mind that argues that mental states are purely functional, and thus categorized by their input and output associations and causes, rather than by the physical makeup that constitutes its parts. In this manner, functionalism argues that as long as something operates as a conscious entity, then it is conscious. Block describes functionalism, discusses its inherent dilemmas, and then discusses a more scientifically-driven counter solution called psychofunctionalism and its failings as well. Although Block’s assertions are cogent and well-presented, the psychofunctionalist is able to provide counterarguments to support his viewpoint against Block’s criticisms. I shall argue that though both concepts are not without issue, functionalism appears to satisfy a more acceptable description that philosophers can admit over psychofunctionalism’s chauvinistic disposition that attempts to limit consciousness only to the human race.
The appearance of functionalism allowed for additional means of empirical research on mental process and behavior grew as functionalists departed from the current schools of thought such as structuralism through the exploration of why of humanity adaptive ability to its environment and sought to understand the role individual differences play in how organisms successfully adapted to the environments (Hergenhanh & Henley, 2014; Katzell & Austin, 1992, Koppes & Pickren, 2007). As result, functionalism looked at external factors, such as societal trends and technology and their relationship to the individual's adaptive ability. Functionalists unlike structuralists believed that "the solution to the riddle of behavior by understanding the function of behavior and articulated the precepts of functionalism with a greater interest in individual differences and teleology by studying variations in "subjects" as a way of mapping the mind"...
Functionalism is a macro-consensus theory. The fact that it is ‘macro’ means it analyses society through social institutions such as: peer groups, education, workplace, mass media and religion, and the fact that it is ‘consensus’ means functionalists focus on the harmony is society ad see society working as a human body would [https://www.thoughtco.com/functionalist-perspective-3026625]. They claim society is made up of interrelated parts that work together to maintain homeostasis. Functionalists see the world through rose-tinted glasses so focus on the stability, harmony and continuity of society as a whole. Hence, they have a positive outlook on society. However, a drawback to functionalism is that it doesn’t look at or focus on an individual and their role in society. This theory can be linked to social stratification. Social stratification is a concept which focuses on the existence of structural inequalities within society. The most distinctive form of this comes via the social class, the division of society into the upper, middle and lower/working class. Also, society can be stratified according to age, gender and ethnicity. This shows the link between an individual and society as it proclaims that society is positively layered into social classes, gender and ethnicity, and this is necessary for society to run smoothly, hence, individuals must be put into a social class to maintain order. Functionalists emphasise
Findon, Joanne. Science and Technology in the Middle Ages. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company, 2004.