Why the Ancient Greeks Matter: The Problematic Miracle that was Greece

Netz, Reviel

ISBN 10: 1009505599 / ISBN 13: 9781009505598

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2025

About this Item

Seller Inventory # BSM.123V1

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Why the Ancient Greeks Matter: The Problematic Miracle that was Greece
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1009505599
• ISBN 13: 9781009505598
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

The ancient Greeks were exceptional and they were consequential. This innovative, engrossingly written book addresses head-on the problematic question of the Greek Miracle. It will appeal to anyone interested in the ancient world and its modern meaning. Reviel Netz boldly argues that the traditional understanding of the Greek legacy as a store of timeless values is false to the Greek literary canon itself. The latter is in fact made up of contradictory texts, sharing no common core of beliefs. This is precisely, for the author, the canon's significance: by presenting a system of works-in-polemic, it created a template for a culture of open debate, leading all the way down to modern civil society. The most lasting result of this practice of open discourse was in science, where Greek disputations paved the way for an autonomous scientific culture and opened the door both to the scientific revolution and the modern world.

About the Author

REVIEL NETZ is Patrick Suppes Professor of Greek Mathematics and Astronomy in the Department of Classics at Stanford University. He is the author of many celebrated books, including (with William Noel) the bestselling The Archimedes Codex: Revealing the Secret of the World's Greatest Palimpsest (Wiedenfeld & Nicolson, 2007, winner of the Neumann Prize), and the path-breaking The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics (1999, winner of the Runciman Award), Scale, Space and Canon in Ancient Literary Culture (2020, winner of the 2021 Classical Studies category PROSE Award), and A New History of Greek Mathematics (2022, shortlisted for the Runciman Award), all published by Cambridge University Press.