The Athens Dialogues - An International Conference on Culture and Civilization

Summary: The Human Development Index of the United Nations and other broadly based indices of wellbeing seek to identify and measure a wide range of determinants of the quality of life. Income, longevity, and education are regarded as key indicators. Auxiliary variables include nutrition, income and gender inequality, political and human rights,…[Read more]

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Summary: Although biology lagged behind physics through most of the 20th century in terms of research and discovery, the discovery of the human genome and subsequent advances in molecular biology ushered in a new era of biological research. The proposal to sequence the human genome by the U.S. Department of Energy opened the door to […]

Summary: Moving towards sustainability and a greater understanding of how human life is connected to the earth’s ecosystem goes beyond mechanistic notions. Consistent with the ancient Greek concept biophilia, increasing evidence shows that the geometry of the natural and built environments is, to a large extent, responsible for human quality of…[Read more]

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Summary: Mathematics has always played a fundamental role in the development of civilization. In ancient Greece, mathematics referred both to geometry and precise thinking (or “logic”) and proof. Many art forms such as sculpture and architecture reached new heights in ancient Greece because of mathematical knowledge. Over the centuries mathematics…[Read more]

Summary: Throughout history and notably during the Renaissance period, the legacy of ancient Greek culture has been used as a source of information, inspiration and the expression of ideas. Today we can draw from the ancient Greek experience in our dealings with the moral aspects of technology. Looking at the examples of mythology, economy,…[Read more]

Summary: Stop a particle physicist in the street and you will soon be hearing that the world is simple and symmetrical. But stop a biologist, an economist, or a social scientist, and you will hear quite the opposite: the world is a higgledy-piggledy collection of complexities that owes little to symmetry and displays precious little […]

Summary: Do ancient Greek concepts of the human mind have any application to modern neuroscience? This paper examines the ideas of three major Greek tragedians and compares them to current neuroscientific terms. The first concept, genetic determinism, relates to Aeschylus’ emphasis on the deterministic force of the chorus. Second, the capacity of…[Read more]

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Summary: Democracy, a loaded Greek term coined before Aristotle’s time, has fascinated and perplexed scholars for its dynamism, its contradictions, and for the ways in which it has questioned the relationship between power and judgment. The Old Oligarch, who posits that the best elements in a society oppose democracy, resonates in many ways with…[Read more]

Summary: Contemporary political philosophy recognizes two kinds of dignity — the Kantian conception of dignity as intrinsic, and an older conception of dignity as high standing. This paper proposes an intermediate stage: dignity as equal high standing among citizens. The argument proceeds on lines that are eudaimonistic and historical. It borrows…[Read more]

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Summary: Aristotle famously identified the emotions that tragedy characteristically aroused as pity and fear—or rather, as eleos and phobos. His account offers an important clue to how ancient audiences responded to tragedy. To take advantage of his insight, however, one must consider what he meant by eleos and phobos. Words, after all, change t…[Read more]