In this photo taken Friday, Oct. 21, 2011, marble statues of ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, right, and Plato, left, are seen on plinths in front of the Athens Academy, as the Greek flag flies. More than 200 international philosophers braved strikes and protests to come to Greece this month to join a forum and debate matters of the mind. Greece's illustrious ancient thinkers built the foundations of Western scholarship, and their philosophy stands as an unquantifiable source of national wealth even during a financial crisis.
More than 200 international philosophers braved strikes and protests to come to Greece this month to join a forum and debate matters of the mind.
Topics on the program included "The Limits of Abstraction: Finding Space for Novel Explanation" and "Partial Realism, Anti-realism and Deflationary Realism: Can History Settle the Argument?"
For the organizers, the event was a success, a sign that life goes on despite economic hardship and perceptions abroad that Greece is one step from anarchy.
It was also a victory for thinking at a time when the country's debates are dominated by hoarse-voiced slogans. After all, Greece's illustrious ancient thinkers built the foundations of Western scholarship, and their philosophy stands as an unquantifiable source of national wealth even during a financial crisis.
"Sometimes people think that the philosopher is up on Mount Olympus, thinking about abstract things," said Stathis Psillos, a philosophy professor at the University of Athens. "We philosophers have somehow to stand up and say, 'Look, OK, money and profit and the bailout are important. But there are people also.'"
Greece's 11 million people face a barrage of existential questions — about change, values, individual and national identities, the future they want.
What answers would the icons of ancient philosophy be able to give? Are their precepts, crafted more than 2,000 years ago — when Greece was a "superpower," not Europe's weak link — still relevant today?
In the broadest sense, yes. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and a legion of others explored virtue and reason, ethics and evidence, science and harmony. They also pondered financial theory — the drachma was in circulation then.
In practical terms, the intellectual superstars would scratch their heads. They lived before capitalism, bailout funds, balance sheets and mass consumerism.
They would discover a society radically changed by education, industry and technology. And they might be surprised by the rage, not deliberation, that has gripped Athens, which has been rocked by protests and riots this week against wage cuts and austerity measures.
Psillos, who hosted the three-day forum of the European Philosophy of Science Association, said the "social contract," an idea with Greek roots that groups individuals in a political union, was in "violent rupture" because the state safety net was being scaled down dramatically. The government says the cuts and tax hikes are vital to get international rescue loans that are warding off a wider European or even global crisis.
Psillos lamented budget cuts in higher education. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said the jobs of hundreds of recently picked university lecturers were in limbo, and that some departments were scrounging for cash to make photocopies and buy toilet paper.
Several philosophers say Aristotle's theories are among the most relevant to the financial chaos that has stripped many Greeks of jobs and state benefits once taken for granted. A Plato student, he distinguished finance between household management and commerce based on money as an exchange unit.
The former, Aristotle said, was natural because it entailed the acquisition of things to become self-sufficient, based on practical need alone. The latter, he said, led people to pursue wealth as an end, without limits.
That message, that wealth should service human needs and not fuel greed, will ring true to Greeks angry with politicians for having overspent more than they should in the past, setting the country up for its current crisis. It might even be seen as anti-capitalist — Aristotle's ideas are said to have influenced Karl Marx.
Topics on the program included "The Limits of Abstraction: Finding Space for Novel Explanation" and "Partial Realism, Anti-realism and Deflationary Realism: Can History Settle the Argument?"
For the organizers, the event was a success, a sign that life goes on despite economic hardship and perceptions abroad that Greece is one step from anarchy.
It was also a victory for thinking at a time when the country's debates are dominated by hoarse-voiced slogans. After all, Greece's illustrious ancient thinkers built the foundations of Western scholarship, and their philosophy stands as an unquantifiable source of national wealth even during a financial crisis.
"Sometimes people think that the philosopher is up on Mount Olympus, thinking about abstract things," said Stathis Psillos, a philosophy professor at the University of Athens. "We philosophers have somehow to stand up and say, 'Look, OK, money and profit and the bailout are important. But there are people also.'"
Greece's 11 million people face a barrage of existential questions — about change, values, individual and national identities, the future they want.
What answers would the icons of ancient philosophy be able to give? Are their precepts, crafted more than 2,000 years ago — when Greece was a "superpower," not Europe's weak link — still relevant today?
In the broadest sense, yes. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and a legion of others explored virtue and reason, ethics and evidence, science and harmony. They also pondered financial theory — the drachma was in circulation then.
In practical terms, the intellectual superstars would scratch their heads. They lived before capitalism, bailout funds, balance sheets and mass consumerism.
They would discover a society radically changed by education, industry and technology. And they might be surprised by the rage, not deliberation, that has gripped Athens, which has been rocked by protests and riots this week against wage cuts and austerity measures.
Psillos, who hosted the three-day forum of the European Philosophy of Science Association, said the "social contract," an idea with Greek roots that groups individuals in a political union, was in "violent rupture" because the state safety net was being scaled down dramatically. The government says the cuts and tax hikes are vital to get international rescue loans that are warding off a wider European or even global crisis.
Psillos lamented budget cuts in higher education. In an interview with The Associated Press, he said the jobs of hundreds of recently picked university lecturers were in limbo, and that some departments were scrounging for cash to make photocopies and buy toilet paper.
Several philosophers say Aristotle's theories are among the most relevant to the financial chaos that has stripped many Greeks of jobs and state benefits once taken for granted. A Plato student, he distinguished finance between household management and commerce based on money as an exchange unit.
The former, Aristotle said, was natural because it entailed the acquisition of things to become self-sufficient, based on practical need alone. The latter, he said, led people to pursue wealth as an end, without limits.
That message, that wealth should service human needs and not fuel greed, will ring true to Greeks angry with politicians for having overspent more than they should in the past, setting the country up for its current crisis. It might even be seen as anti-capitalist — Aristotle's ideas are said to have influenced Karl Marx.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/10/22/international/i005917D63.DTL#ixzz1bXiKocxp
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