I refer to Professor Josephine Quinn’s thought-provoking article in the FT’s weekend edition (“The civilisation myth”, The Weekend Essay, Life & Arts, February 3).
Setting classical Greeks on a pedestal, as western Europeans did in the 19th century, is as wrong as reducing them to just any other civilisation, as some early 21st century westerners seem to be doing.
Most civilisations have their moment of efflorescence. They may have absorbed foreign influences, but their particular contribution is to transmute those into something brilliant, exceptional and uniquely theirs.
In the case of the classical Greeks, one could argue that their major innovation was to develop conceptual frameworks around other peoples’ inventions. They introduced political and aesthetic theory, the philosophical and scientific method, grammatical and syntactical categories — all essentially principles of governance. Doing that well is very hard, and requires high levels of imagination and intellectual effort.
It is precisely this quantum, or “meta”, leap into governance that was the essence of Greek achievement. It has fascinated, and enriched, countless cultures over the last 2,000 years.
I would hazard a guess that the classical Greeks will survive even the relativism of some early 21st century westerners.
John Azarias
Paddington, NSW, Australia
