The Swedish e-journal Swedish Philosophy (Svensk filosofi) has spoken with Charlotta Weigelt and Hans Ruin about what makes ancient philosophy relevant today. Here is a brief (translated) exerpt:
Antiquity was a world distinct from our own. Ancient Athens was a city-state with a citizenry so small that its politically active members could recognize one another. Rome, in contrast, was a hierarchical global empire defined by a culture of honor. Both were patriarchal, slave-holding societies. How, then, can ideas that emerged in that world inform us in our modern one?
– I’m thinking primarily of Plato, who seems to write with the awareness that he’s facing a new kind of society, says Charlotta Weigelt. The older warrior society is in the back of his mind. The questions Plato sees as necessary to ask are fully applicable to our society today because they are so fundamental.
– Ultimately, these are questions about how we can live together. How can we do that when we are facing a society that is much more heterogeneous than the one we are leaving behind? What is governance? What does it mean to be governed? What different types of governance exist? What is a citizen?
Read the full interview here.