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A Study on Anti-Intellectualism in Ancient Greece

  • Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • 2022, 79(4), pp.137-165
  • DOI : 10.17326/jhsnu.79.4.202211.137
  • Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : October 10, 2022
  • Accepted : November 8, 2022
  • Published : November 29, 2022

Heon KIM 1

1서울대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

In his inaugural address, President Yoon Seok-yeol pointed out that antiintellectualism is the cause of various problems in our society and puts democracy into a crisis, and emphasized the need for the recovery of rationalism and intellectualism for the development of democracy. However, anti-intellectualism is not only a negative attitude against the intellect and rationality, but also may be understood as a positive effort to acknowledge the imperfection of the intellect, guard against the arrogant self-righteousness of intellectuals and the hypocrisy of distorted selfishness, and ensure healthy communication of diverse opinions. The ancient Greek epic tradition seems to have regarded divine inspiration and intuition as more credible epistemological grounds than human experience and knowledge. Democracy, which began in Athens at the end of the 6th century BC, created a social atmosphere in which the sound common sense and opinions of the general public were more reliable than the intellectual authority of a small elite group. The rhetoric, which seeks to construct a timely opinion according to the situation and persuade the public rather than search for absolute and universal knowledge, played a major role in creating such an atmosphere. Greek old comedy also staged accusations of the self-righteous authority, hypocrisy, and incompetence of some intellectuals. As such, the so-called ‘anti-intellectualism’ in ancient Greece had a positive aspect that could not be defined only by negative evaluation, and it can be said that it contributed to the maturation of Athens’ own democracy

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