The History of Greek Philosophy. An Interview with Professor Ioannis Christodoulou by Tudor Petcu

1.) Well, Professor Ioannis Christodoulou, thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss with you on several issues regarding the Greek philosophical tradition. Will you please introduce yourself to us? What is the main focus of your philosophical research?

Thank you for inviting me to have this conversation with you for your project. I really appreciate what you are doing with Philosophy. You remind me of myself at the early stages of my philosophical career. I was taking advantage of every means at hand to promote philosophical thought. Apart of my research work, I was ceasing opportunities to test my philosophical intellect and make this testing visible to the widest possible community of educated people.

I always had, and still have, the strongest possible conviction that Philosophy is the most noble intellectual activity, which is genuinely related to human life. My entire work, till now, is dedicated to prove this conviction of mine.

One of the main areas of my philosophical research is the teaching of Philosophy. I really believe that Philosophy wouldn’t have been the discipline it is, if important philosophers of all times were not such good teachers, primarily through their writing. That’s why I put a lot of emphasis on the value of the teaching of the history of Philosophy. Philosophy students have to become familiar with philosophical writing of huge philosophical figures of old times throughout their studies. Historical philosophical texts are not only containing theories. Above all, they are the living proof of the philosophical struggle of their writers. Our students have to realize that we don’t just inspect the remnants of a philosophical vocabulary. We learn from the best not only what it is to think philosophically, but also, why not, to write ourselves philosophical texts of our own. I cannot think of an architect, for example, who only inspects the drawings of other architects without drawing anything himself!

The philosophical language differs from philosopher to philosopher in the history of Philosophy. Why is that? If it weren’t for the specific writing style to be telling something important as such, Philosophy wouldn’t have had the rich history it has.

As for the concrete views of mine on the basic domains of philosophical research, I should say that my dominant view is that the philosopher’s mind could be able to follow the reality under philosophical investigation in its manifold appearances. Philosophy is not meant to replace reality by its all inclusive verdicts. It rather shows towards reality. If this is the case, then truth is, exactly like reality, simple in its complexity and complex in its simplicity. From this point of view, reality calls for an elaborate philosophical thought to reveal its complex simplicity. I don’t call it phenomenology. I rather call it “a dynamic theory of truth”. I think this theory of knowledge is simultaneously a guide for all philosophical investigations, mainly ontological, ethical, political and aesthetical. Ontologically speaking, for example, the ancient philosophical problem of the one and the many could very well be solved via the previous mentioned double notion of the simple and the complex.

2.) At the beginning of our dialogue I wish to make reference to the meaning of Greek philosophy in the context of European philosophy. I mean I think it would be necessary to present in a relevant way the role that the Greek philosophy has played in the evolution of the European philosophy, especially western philosophy. So, what could you say about this topic?

Greek Philosophy counts for the first 8 centuries of European intellectual history. From the Presocratic philosophers on to Marcus Aurelius, the Greek philosophical spirit flourished in a way that no other European philosophical current ever did. From this point of view, Philosophy is a unique European achievement, which is absolutely due to the philosophers of ancient Greece.

Greeks invented again and again the philosophical thought. Philosophy is a matter of a certain intellectual invention, which took so many forms in the thought of ancient Greeks, that we cannot explore mainstream philosophical issues without referring to them and acknowledging their primary contribution. Thus, many European philosophers of all times, of whatever ethnicity, explicitly or implicitly referred to the Greeks as their predecessors in Philosophy.

Greeks gave the philosophical thought all its well-known forms: philosophical aphorisms, philosophical dialogues, philosophical treatises. They also formulated theories in all the domains of philosophical research. As a matter of fact, they invented ontology, ethics, the theory of knowledge and aesthetics at least. And not only that. The dialogue between Greek philosophers on every domain of philosophical reasoning produced almost every theory still discussed and debated today.

We cannot forget that the philosophical vocabulary is of Greek origin. The word “Philosophy” itself is a Greek one.

3.) Which are the main philosophical approaches assumed over the years in the different academic milieus in Greece? Can we talk about a strong Greek phenomenology, or about any analytical Greek philosophy, or so? Every country where philosophy was assumed as a field of research has had a specific and general philosophical tradition, as for example England, very well-known through its analytical philosophy, or Germany through its idealism or phenomenology expressed by Edmund Husserl or Martin Heidegger. In this case, what about the philosophical tradition in Greece? Of course, when I am asking such questions, I make reference to the post-ancient Greek philosophy (eg. the modern Greek philosophy), which is less well-known than the ancient one.

Allow me, please, to differentiate between academic and free philosophical activity. As you very well know, Philosophy in ancient Greece began as a free intellectual enterprise. The Presocratic philosophers serve as really representative examples of what we may call “free thinkers”. Apart from Pythagoras, all the other Presocratics were not situated in a constructed academic environment, nor they were headmasters of philosophical schools. Socrates himself was not pretending to be a teacher or an academic philosopher. He considered himself rather as an interlocutor of a philosophical kind. Nothing more and nothing less than that.

Nevertheless, in ancient Greece, the trend of academic philosophy was initiated as well. Plato’s Academy, the first academic philosophical institution in the history of Philosophy, together with Aristotle’s Lyceum and the other philosophical schools of classical antiquity, constitute the beginnings of academic Philosophy.

The academic philosophical tradition continued uninterruptedly from those days to the present.

Nevertheless, the renaissance of Philosophy in modern times (16th to 18th century) is marked by the work of non-academic philosophers, like Descartes, Spinoza, Hume, Locke and Leibniz. Only from the 19th century onwards Philosophy reduced itself almost exclusively to the academy. The non-academic and yet famous philosophers of the last two centuries are mostly faced today as extreme cases of philosophical enthusiasts, who may not fit so much to the academic philosophical orthodoxy of our times.

All that being said, Philosophy’s main research domains in Greece, as elsewhere in the world, are correlated with Philosophy’s academic presence and function in the universities and the Departments where Philosophy is being taught. From this point of view, the academic teaching of Philosophy is of paramount importance for the status of Philosophy as such as well as for the philosophical trends that are prevalent in each country. I don’t really think that in England or in Germany things with Philosophy are different. As a matter of fact, historically and ethnographically speaking, the only country with vivid philosophical tradition not so much related with academic Philosophy, is France. Think, for example, of the philosophical movement of Enlightenment. French philosophers with no academic affiliation gave birth to one of the most thrilling philosophical currents of all times. To a certain degree, there have always been, and still are, some French philosophers who inspire a larger part of the community than the students of French universities.

During the last 100 years Greek Philosophy has been represented by academic philosophers who supported German Idealism, Marxism and Analytic Philosophy at least, although not with explicit emphasis on these fields. Greek philosophers are almost in their entirety depended on their academic affiliations. In the context of their teaching duties are obliged to cover a wide spectrum of the philosophical curriculum. From this point of view, they avoid to express exclusive preference for certain philosophical theories or to reject others.

4.) Western philosophy has always accorded a huge attention to the relation between philosophy and theology although there is basically difficult to find too many common denominators, first of all because of their comprehensive logics. Of course, from this point of view there would be a lot to say, especially if we would need to take into account the modal logics as a way to explain the Reality in comparison with theology mostly based on a mystical worldview which has its own logics. But we shouldn't forget about the different Christian efforts in the Middle Age to create a liaison, a strong connection between philosophy and theology, as Saint Anselm or Thomas Aquinas did. Anyway, what can you say about the way by which was defined the relation between philosophy and theology in Greece and who were the main Greek philosophers focused on the analyses of this topic?

Well, first of all, there is a long Greek tradition of co-operation between Greek orthodox church and Philosophy. During the Byzantine times, Greek philosophy played a strong role in the Orthodox education, although the curricula were heavily religious. Greek orthodox fathers, also, were philosophically educated people, and they knew the value of Greek philosophy for the rigid structure of thought. Religious leaders and philosophers of byzantine times were, in some cases, the same person.

The last two centuries, though, Orthodoxy and Philosophy have followed different directions. They have constructed their own paths, independently the one from the other. There is, I should say, a mutual respect between them, but no synergies are being explored or deployed.

In my opinion, this is a sound relationship and the right thing both for Orthodoxy and for Philosophy. The distance between the religious dogma and the free philosophical spirit cannot and must not be covered. Of course, we can talk philosophically about religion. We can, also, interpret philosophically many of Jesus’ sayings. Philosophical thought can understand religion. Religious thinking, though, is not supposed to be able to cover the demands of rigorous philosophical thinking.

5.) What should we know about the main philosophical doctrines which influenced somehow the evolution of politics in modern Greece?

Like in many western countries, Greek politics is influenced by the two most popular political theories, liberalism and Marxism. Very early in the 20th century, as soon as the Russian Revolution was taking place, the Marxist – Leninist theory was incorporated in Greece by active Greek communists. Intellectuals of the time and university professors were not only sympathetic to the left ideas, but they also propagated them through their books and their teaching. Of course, there is no doubt that the prevalent ideology has always been the liberal one.

Nevertheless, it goes without saying that not many people in Greece were and still are acquainted with important philosophical texts of the right and the left political ideologies. Those who study Philosophy or Political theory only get seriously familiarized with those texts. It is self-evident, though, that no particular theoretical knowledge is needed, in order for the critical bodies of the faithful supporters of the two political ideologies to be formed.

Now, the strong political debate of the two extreme sides of the political spectrum, made it necessary for some centralist political movements, most often of socialistic origin, to come to the fore.

6.) We shouldn't forget to highlight the contemporary philosophical theories in Greece, because in our days it's very hard to find a philosophical task given the technological revolution and the development of pragmatism. I am saying that because the general question that is addressed even in the British and American schools of philosophy is the following one: what role can play philosophy in our days, in a society where science is evolving on and on? But in spite of this fact and according to the question I have mentioned above, there are numerous contemporary philosophical views related especially to politics, science and economics. So, which are the most important contemporary Greek philosophical theories and approaches? Can we also talk about any Greek philosophical postmodernism?

I cannot but agree with you that nowadays Philosophy’s role seems to be dramatically limited because of the prevalence of the technological and the scientific paradigms. Internationally philosophers feel insecure. They try to build strong communities, in order not to be overwhelmed by the huge mass of technological products and scientific information. The so-called Anglo-Saxon philosophical world has managed to become a certain pole for philosophers around the world. Like Greece in ancient times, England is assuming today the role of the native land of contemporary philosophy.

Whatever happens in the English philosophical context, is of paramount importance not only for the Greek but for other philosophers as well around the world. So, philosophy of science and analytic philosophy are one of the main directions that Greek philosophers take, in order to academically and socially survive.

Nevertheless, in Greece there is a strong academic tradition of teaching Philosophy. Greek philosophers teach many philosophical theories, historical as well as contemporary ones. Most of them know how to honor the pioneers of philosophical thought throughout the whole history of Philosophy.