TRADITIONS OF ANCIENT SCHOLARSHIP

A number of ancient civilizations flourished during the last several thousand years, with each producing a cadre of scholars, who in each case carried out various tasks and services for the society in which they lived. Among these the ancient Greeks stand out in a peculiar way: It was only here that objective thinking about the world around us came about, eventually leading to science, and by direct extension, to today’s science and technology. This is remarkable. Is it just a matter of chance? If the Greeks had not developed objective thinking, would another society have done so in the meantime?

Here is a partial listing, in alphabetical order, of long-lasting ancient cultures of the world: Babylonia, China, Egypt, Greece, India, and Israel. Let us begin by describing some important cultural attitudes of Greek civilization. A good place to begin is with Homer, the great poet who wrote around 700 BCE, just as Greece was beginning its golden age. Homer writes of some traditional legends and stories from the Mycenaean civilization of Crete some 700 years earlier. Clay tablets found there, written in an initially mysterious script referred to as Linear B, were eventually translated to reveal a people interacting with the gods of classical Greece: Zeus, his wife Here, Athena, Poseidon, Hermes, and others.

Homer’s two great epic poems are the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad is the story of the siege of Troy, and depicts the futility of war. The Odyssey is a sea yarn filled with fantastic events, as Ulysses makes his way back home from Troy. In the opening scene of the Iliad a meeting of an assembly is depicted. The meeting was called to discuss what to do about a plague that has appeared. What is interesting about the assembly is the diversity of people who attend. The king, Agamemnon is present, along with nobles, merchants, and soldiers. People of all stations in life. And they all feel free to speak, even insulting the king. The tradition of free debate as a way to solve problems is clearly deeply rooted in Greek history. We do not know whether this tradition goes all the way back to the Mycenaeans or whether Homer used it as part of the story because people of his own time would understand it. In either case, it was a well-established part of Greek culture.

Ancient Greece was a seagoing nation. They traded south across the Mediterranean to Egypt, and north all around the Black sea. This helped prevent them from becoming isolated from the surrounding peoples. In addition this made it relatively easy to move around from one seacoast town to another, enabling adventurous people to escape political oppression. Indeed, Pythagoras is said to have left Samos, his island of berth, for just such a reason. In addition the trade produced a merchant class that could afford to educate their children, creating the need for a teaching profession. Following is a list of characteristics of Greek culture that may have played a role in leading to the objective thought about the world:

1. The assembly, where people first learned to persuade one another by rational debate.

2. A maritime economy helping to prevent parochialism.

3. The existence of a widespread Greek-speaking world around them through which travelers and scholars could wander.

4. The existence of an independent merchant class that could hire its teachers.

5. The literary masterpieces Iliad and Odyssey that are the epitome of liberal rational thinking.

6. A literary religion not dominated by priests.

7. The persistence of these factors for many centuries.

It is remarkable that all these factors came together in one great civilization. This did not happen twice.

For comparison let us briefly review the conditions in ancient China. First we can only be impressed with a list of technical achievements: Chinese sailors used battens on their sails to improve efficiency in the first century, 1800 years before Europeans. They built ships with separate watertight compartments to help prevent sinking in the 5^th C, 1200 years before Europeans. And they used the magnetic compass for navigation in the 12^th C, 200 years before Europeans. The invention of paper, the use of block printing, and many other impressive achievements could be added to this list.

In many ways Confucius (551 – 479 BCE) can play the role of Homer as an indicator of the style of Chinese thinking. He was primarily concerned with human relations and the creation of good government. He traveled around China hoping to be appointed to a government post, and failed at this, but as he traveled, he spoke and wrote. And he was tough. For example in the Analects, is written:

The Master said,” The essentials of good government are sufficient food, sufficient arms, and the confidence of the people.”

“But”, asked Tzu Kung, “if you have to part with one of the three, which would you give up?”

“Arms, “ said the Master.

“But suppose,” said Tzu Kung, “one of the remaining two has to be relinquished, which would it be?”

“Food,” said the Master. “From time immemorial, death has been the lot of all men, but a people without confidence is lost indeed.”

Confucius taught loyalty to family and community as the highest values. There is no mysticism here, or superstition, and there is a commitment to education. These ideas were built into the Chinese governmental system, and for 2000 years China had the best government in the world. Over time however the system came to be more and more bureaucratic. The governmental officials, chosen for their knowledge of the writings of Confucius came to be the most powerful group in the country, and jealously guarded their power. Edicts were passed forbidding trade with foreign countries, presumably to prevent the possible rise of a merchant class.

Celestial events were observed and recorded, but only for a peculiar kind of astrology: To discover what heaven thought of the emperor.

Chinese thinking can be characterized as group-centered, and evolved into a bureaucratic governmental system that brought great stability, but foreclosed China’s future. In spite of the absence of superstition and the commitment to education, the climate of thought did not give rise to independent objective thinking about the world.

Each of the ancient cultures listed above was of course unique, a product of its history and environment. In each there was a tradition of scholarship. In most cases the scholars studied the history of their people, or the words of an ancient wise man, such as Confucius. And succeeding generations of scholars went on doing the same thing. In other words, a scholarly tradition lasting even thousands of years does not guarantee progress. Usually succeeding generations studied the same things the past generations had studied. In Greece things happened differently – let us now see how this began to take place.