A Contemporary Significance of Ancient Greece
October 24, 2008
What is the importance of ancient Greece in the world today? Most would say that we derive little value from learning about Helen of Troy, Athens, and the Peloponnesian War. The answer depends on the meaning of “value” – studying ancient Greece certainly adds little value to the work of engineers or mathematicians; for political scientists, policy makers, and those who wish to understand society, however, at least one defense of the study of ancient Greece can be made.
To understand this, we only have to [look at the modern world]. Two defining features of modernity are the value of individual liberty and the [reliance] placed on science and technology. Liberty for mankind is enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and scientific discoveries bring countless improvements to our lives. People around the world aspire to these values – we want to be free individuals; we hope to benefit from the latest technological advancements. To do so, we have to understand how these ideas came about.
[Yet] these ideas are really Western ideas; they have their roots in the West. Why is it that despite the many inventions made, reason did not come to dominate ancient Chinese society? Why is it that prior to the modern world not much discourse on government or politics could be found in the non-Western world? It is entirely possible that pre-modern China at one point came to value reason, and that Islamic thinkers wrote long treatises on government or politics. But the fact remains that it is difficult to decouple “modernity” from “the West”. “Our universal civilization,” to use Naipaul’s phrase, is very much a Western one.
Therefore, only by identifying the similarities and distinction between the experience of the West and the fabric of our society can we effectively incorporate them as our own. The perils of having the values of one culture imposed on another without due consideration of local context is all too familiar as we look at the Middle East. Even HSBC strives to be global and local. We have to understand the features distinct to the West that triggered the evolution of these ideas. And understanding the West starts with ancient Greece.
