What Made The Classic Greeks Great - Subscriber Topic Episode 3

Why Were The Handful Of Classic Greeks So Great? – Subscriber Topic Episode 3

Ancient Greece, namely classical Athens, was arguably the most magnificent genius cluster in history.
While not all of the innovations associated with ancient Greece originate there, many were, and all influenced western culture today.
All of the city-states in ancient Greece played its role, notably Sparta, that was instrumental for keeping Greece safe from the Persian Empire.
But the majority of the credit for the cultural and scientific innovations go to Athens.
It boggles my mind that such a rich and sophisticated culture could have existed so long ago.
First off, the brilliance of the architecture and engineering goes without saying.
There were obviously philosophy and science in classical Athens, which were one in the same back then.
However, there were many great philosophers outside of the classical period, such as Thales and Pythagoras.
But some historians believe the classical period had the most significant philosophers, including the famous succession of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
At one point, the city had two academies, Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum.
Indeed, Athenian Culture seemed way ahead of its time, but what made the culture possible?
Was it merely because Athens had been around for a long time and had time to develop?
That is a part of it the answer, but there are indeed many more elements involved.
For a civilization in antiquity to support accessory professions like philosophers and playwrights, it requires the division of labor and a specific social structure.
In other words, Athens had enough wealthy citizens to finance art and scholars.
There were around 250,000 people in classical Athens.
At the top was the upper class, commonly referred to as the leisure class.
Historians believe there were 30,000 people in this class.
Individuals in this class performed little to no mundane tasks and devoted their time to civilized leisurely endeavors.
And then there was a middle class, a lower class and finally a large population of slaves.
Slaves mainly worked on agriculture, but pretty much anything the higher classes did not want to do; they had slaves do it for them.
Even poor farmers had one or two slaves.

Now, this kind of social structure played an essential role in Athenian culture, but it was not unique by any means in ancient times.
So, what separated classical Athens from other civilizations in the past?
The answer is its underlying culture, its ideologies, social norms, and values.
First, the classical Athenian citizens, the upper class, despised work, and embraced leisure.
But leisure had a different meaning back then, compared to today, based on the philosophy of Aristotle.
Leisure did not necessarily mean relaxing idly on the beach but more often meant spending time doing intrinsically valuable activities.
And Aristotle's definition of leisure also excluded any activities done for the pursuit of wealth or power.
Surely artists were compensated for their work.
But as soon as the artist created or performed art for the purpose of making money, it was no longer viewed as leisurely.
Athenian culture also valued participation and discussions concerning politics, philosophy, and public affairs.
They, in turn, looked down on citizens who refused to participate in public affairs and referred to them as "idiotes" haha.
Another aspect was the openness of Athenian culture.
Not only was Athens a global city, but it also welcomed foreigners and allowed outsiders to roam around the city freely.
However, it’s important to note foreigners were not able to become citizens, but it was the Athenian's openness that was key.
Because they were open to different ideas, open to learning from the experiences of foreigners, and they applied the good in what they learned.
Now, if we take a step back, we can see a clear picture.
Ancient Athenians were far from perfect, considering their way of life was made possible by slavery.
It had a large leisure class numbering in the tens of thousands that valued spending time doing activities with intrinsic value, such as the pursuit of knowledge and art.
Much of their time was spent exchanging ideas and debating, not only with each other but foreigners too.
So with all of these elements combined, Athens became a social soup of critical thinkers, of artists and philosophers.
Classical Athens was indeed, a cluster of geniuses.

[darwinmarquez]

Hello ....from Mount Apo, Philippines...

[chickenusgoddus]

Good job this is a very intresting video

[nkos]

youtube and other internet channels are the modern leisure schools :)

[Hy-jgow]

We should somehow regain this classic notion of leisure.

[crustymcgee]

I think the creation of Athen's leisure class owes its existence to the fact that the Greeks were the first civilization to use money which greatly increased wealth and trade. Athens was alsovfrequently at war which required the mass mobilization if its populace. This in turn encouraged the creation of democratic institutions so the entire citizenry, rich and poor alike, had a stake in the society undertaking any imperial enterprise. Classical Greece is the only pre-modern civilization civilization that used democracy to facilitate a war economy but this phenomenon is common in modern industrial economies such as late nineteenth century Europe and the Cold War-era West.

[dennis-theimproviser]

Gréât. I need a new thing to subscribe to. I guess I’ll scribe to neo :)

[PhilosopherRex]

Athens was successful over time as they built up wealth - and did not debase their money (government stealing wealth) until their fall. And this success as a city-state was due to their 'culture' only to the extent that it prevented the debasement of their money. Any culture can be successful and create immense wealth and technology if they are able to prevent sociopaths from debasing their money and hence stealing the wealth of the nation.

In an Appendix to his The Theory of Money and Credit (1912) the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) discussed the value of a silver coin issued by Gelon the King of Syracuse in 480 BC. Mises was interested in these coins because he believed that sound currency emerged in the ancient world as a result of the productive economic activity which went on in places such as Lydia (Turkey) and Athens. These places remained economically powerful ONLY SO LONG as they retained sound money, which Athens did and the other Greek city states did not. Rulers face an irresistible pressure to devalue their currency because of the demands of the treasury for more funds, the reluctance of taxpayers to pay more in taxes, and the fact that debasement of the currency is an easy, indirect, and often not immediately discernible way for the treasury to get more funds.

[darwinmarquez]

In ancient times my country is called krist by the Greeks .our seas Celebes ...and our mountain Apo...and many other names that still exist and being used up to these day...just wondering what the Greeks doing in the land of krist....modern day Philippines....

[gordonsumner]

To those dissmive people in the comments: Not laughable. Ever actually read Thucydides, the father of the modern historical method? Ever do geometry? Thank Euclid. Ever do logic? Thank Socrates for applying the syllogism methodically. That’s why we call the systematic use of questions the socratic method. I’m not even scratching the surface. They did borrow and also test and EXPAND the ideas they found worthwhile. The Greeks fostered and encouraged genius. Please read the Greek poets or the Greek playwrights: they INVENTED theater. Theater is a Greek word, just like the word idiot. No Greeks and we get no Shakespeare. What did the natives of Spain or France at the same time produce that can be compared? Maybe some metalwork. The reason why historians sit and wonder what the cause of the Greeks precociousness, is because they were precocious as hell. The Romans wondered at it as well. However, you have them all figured out, apparently. They did nothing themselves? Bravo. Well done. All of us who have studied the Greeks and their language (i.e. me) owe you a great debt.

[FlorestanTrement]

So the answer is, there was a bunch of rich people who didn't know what to do other than thinking and who didn't have much else to do to pass the time.

[redhidinghood]

The social dynamic of the upper class and slaves where slaves do all the work and the upper class do "work" that they love just for the fun of it makes me think we might live like that after advanced AI and robotics where they do all the work and humans can just enjoy and live life

[wokelion]

Explore who taught, where the Greeks went for knowledge. 😎

[IBITZEE]

I think HAL-9000 is trying to know our weaknesses...
and then kill us all...

?didn't you saw 'Space Oddity 2000'?? ;-)

[gto]

CB digital currencies; Book: nervous states, range: why generalists..; how US deficit runs the world economy; snowden joerogan interview; Qanon; DARPA invented internet mobile
I hope you check this out!

[crustymcgee]

I think the creation of Athen's leisure class owes its existence to the fact that the Greeks were the first civilization to use money which greatly increased wealth and trade. Athens was alsovfrequently at war which required the mass mobilization if its populace. This in turn encouraged the creation of democratic institutions so the entire citizenry, rich and poor alike, had a stake in the society undertaking any imperial enterprise. Classical Greece is the only pre-modern civilization civilization that used democracy to facilitate a war economy but this phenomenon is common in modern industrial economies such as late nineteenth century Europe and the Cold War-era West.