The Greco-Roman legacy is, with the Judeo-Christian legacy, one of the two bases on which Western culture is based. Greeks invented critical reflection, wich flourished in the archaic period (8th-7th c.) with the invention of city, democracy, philosophy, history and "hard" science. Romans have pass down this legacy to peoples not affected by the Helenization; but far from being simple transmitters, they also exported their own political and cultural model through an Empire offering the first major example of European unification. After the fall of Rome in 476, the Empire disappear in West; but in the East, it until the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. In the West itself, the romanization has layed the bases for a cultural and linguistic unity (throug Latin) that survived to the dispearance of the political unity.
Greeks and Romans, twin people from the same Indo-European origins, despite their differences and antagonisms, shared common values: knowledge value; passion for litterature and science; some idea of freedom, based on "leisure" (scholê, otium) which liberates from material and allows to exercise the mind; a very human and "polytechnician" aspiration to the development of all human faculties, linked to a quasi-religious respect for tradition; these are the main themes of the Greco-Roman ideal of "culture".
Today, we are the heirs - sometimes unaware - of these ideal. This seminar aims to sensibize students to the antic origins of our history, values and thinking categories, to prepare them to a better understanding of the contemporary world. It is designed both to those who know nothing of the Greco-Roman world and those who wish to deepen their knowledge. The sessions will be envent history, literary history or intellectual history. The proposed programme is a suggestion and can be modified to meet students' expectations.
Evaluation modalities:
- presentation in class (20 min) on a subject chosen during the first session
- assiduity (absences have 0.5 point of penalty)
Course language: French
- Teaching coordinator: Morlet Sébastien