Who hasn’t heard of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza? Spotting a young man reading a book while slapping his forehead and laughing, Spanish King Philip III said in the 17th century, “This guy is either crazy or reading Don Quixote.” A courtier went to ask the young man about the book and hurriedly informed the … Read more
Since ancient times, through centuries and centuries, the original meaning of the Greek muses, nine goddesses of harmony and protectors of many divine and human creative arts, has been forgotten. During the Middle Ages, artists and philosophers almost stopped seeking their protection and inspiration, but their name remained ingrained in the words music and museum. … Read more
Our current culture has grown out of the attitudes, ideas and institutions of ancient Greece. Academy, lyceum, gymnasium, school, educator, grammarian, and many other foundational concepts of today’s educational system were inherited from them, therefore it is understandable why the understanding of the concept of education should be sought in ancient Greece. The idea of … Read more
“If they see a just and deserving person, everyone immediately falls silent, stops and pricks up their ears. And he guides souls with words and brings peace to their hearts. Virgil, Aeneid. Demosthenes. The first requirement that communication experts set for achieving quality communication is learning to speak as the foundation of every communication and … Read more
It seems that in rhetoric, the art of proper and beautiful verbal expression, Marcus Tullius Cicero had no equal. Having acquired a broad legal education from famous Roman jurists, Cicero turned to Greek philosophy and rhetoric, first studying under the Athenian Epicurean Phaedrus, and then under Diodotus, who taught him Stoic philosophy. Cicero actively participated … Read more
During the 5th and 4th centuries BC, rhetoric, or the art of beautiful and correct speaking, was considered one of the important civic skills in Athens, and Isocrates was renowned as one of the greatest orators of classical Greece. His principles became the foundation of education in most European schools until the 18th century. Isocrates … Read more
“I know you still observe the abode and dwelling of humans. If it seems small to you, as it indeed is, always look at the celestial and despise the human: for what fame and glory can one hope to achieve among people? (…) Who in the far east or west, north or south will hear … Read more
Who can more fervently encourage virtue than a speaker? Who can more sharply deter wickedness? Who can more vehemently rebuke evildoers? Who can more beautifully praise the good? Whose attack can more powerfully break greed? Whose consolation can more gently silence pain? For what is as foolish as the empty sound of words, highly chosen … Read more
On the occasion of the 2400th anniversary of his birth… Three years after the founding of the Academy, when Plato was forty-three years old, Aristotle, the most distinguished student of Plato and a philosopher scientist, was born in Stagira on the Halkidiki peninsula in 384 BC. He arrived in Athens as an eighteen-year-old and joined … Read more
