Art News

Greek crisis: what would the ancients say?

By: Christopher Torchia, Associated Press
ATHENS (AP).- 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,