Why the Greco-Romans?
The ultimate answer to the question: why do we care about people from over two millennia ago?
Why on earth did I end up devoting so much time of my life to the ancient Greco-Romans? Some would say that this was the predictable endpoint of a trend. After all, my first academic career was in science (evolutionary biology), which is “obviously” useful. Then I moved to philosophy, the equally obvious epitome of a useless field, they say. But at least I was doing philosophy of science, which didn’t remove me too much from what the truly important stuff. Then I discovered Stoicism and now not only my academic job, but also my outreach efforts and even my personal life are devoted to utterly useless things put forth by dead white men who lived two millennia ago or thereabout.
Well, to begin with, though the Greco-Romans are all definitely dead, and most of them were men (with several remarkable exceptions), they were definitely not “white.” But that’s a story for another day. What I want to explore here is why, exactly, do I and so many others think that it is not a waste of time to reflect on the Greco-Romans. On the contrary, it is one of the most useful things we could be doing.
First, let’s get clear on where the Greco-Romans are useful and were they are not. If your interest is in physics, say, I…
