|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
The Greek Heritage
| Article
# : |
11713 |
|
|
Section : |
EDITORIAL
|
| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1994 |
719 Words |
| Author
: |
Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
Our symposium in the Currents in Modern Thought section this month deals with the Greek heritage of the modern age. Recently it has been claimed, in the name of multiculturalism, that special emphasis on this heritage is a parochial and chauvinistic educational practice. Such a claim is evidence of destructive intellectual incompetence at the highest levels of the American university system rather than of legitimate dispute.
There is nothing Western about the Greek heritage, except insofar as it has been incorporated in contemporary Western thought. As John Bremer points out, the classic Greeks did not stem from a single genetic pool. Indeed, the character of the constitutive pools is still controversial.
Greek civilization was far from the earliest. Yet, the Greeks had a sophisticated intellectual culture while the Germans were tribal warriors and the inhabitants of what is now England were painting their faces blue. Geographically, Greece was at the crossroads of what is now Europe and the Near East and could not be termed Western in any meaningful contemporary sense.
The great heritage of Greece was lost in Europe after the adoption of Christianity. The Christian contribution was ambivalent: On the one hand, the monastic tradition created libraries that preserved and copied ancient manuscripts (even though they were sometimes not understood), and on the other, priceless manuscripts were erased by earnest monks who wanted to use the papyrus or vellum for religious works. Some of the greatest works might have been lost forever if Kurdish and Berber Muslims had not used them to create a great civilization, only to succumb to a religious piety similar to that of the European Dark Ages.
The rise of modern Europe coincided with the Renaissance, the rebirth in Europe of Greek thought. And its extension to Asia coincides with the flourishing of modern Asian civilization.
What is this remarkable Greek heritage? It is the belief that the world can be understood rationally and that true beliefs can be communicated to others by means of theses, theories, and logical thought. Mathematics and technological science did develop in China, India, Sumeria, and Babylon, and long before the marvels of fourth-century B.C. Attica. But thought remained allegorical and metaphorical. Furthermore, although this was only partly true, the most important matters were mysterious, not to be known by humans. However important such religious perspectives are to
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
