Article: Oswyn Murray "Classical Tradition and the Creation of Values"

Read this article for 5364 in relation to Isocrates.

Murray attempts to link Jaeger and his book on Paideia to the rise of Hitler. Weak discussion, weak proof.

Acknowledges duality/dualism of classical tradition:

"Here it seems is the ultimate meaning of the ancient quarrel between thetoric and philosophy; for the classical tradition has a double heritage of conformism and liberation, embodied in these two traditions. We can construct any view of the relation between education and power out of selective use of the past. But in brining the past to bear on the present we must be careful of what we are doing: what future do we want?"

Mentions a call to the classics like a religious experience.

Asserts that "the idea that the study of the classics was once widespread elsewhee [not in Italy] is an exaggeration: only perhaps in the period from 1850 to 1914 was this even remotely true for most western countries."


While riffing on the specialized knowledge necessary to study the classics:

"Yet there is a dangerous confusion here: because special knowledge is required to understand a discipline, that does not imply that the discipline is necessarily a secret in the possession of a group of the elect. Skill may be difficult and confined to a small group, without in any way creating secret knolwedge with a higher status."

Classical tradition as providing both access to esoteric truths and as being a weapon against orthodoxy.

"In the 21st century, when most forms of intellectual persecution are at least temporarily in abeyance, our answer to this question of the continuing purpose of the classical tradition must be to consider how far its traditional function as a counter-culture is still useful; in what should that counte-culture consist, and how can we distinguish it from the idea of an esoteric sect with secret wisdom?"


"The advantage of the humanist tradition is that it has a wide range of influence on action, and sufficient flexibility to engender new solutions from within its intellectual framework."

"Similarly, we do not passively recieve that which is handed on to us. A living tradition works like influence: it is we who take from the past, not the past which dictates to us. And a living tradition will therefore always and wilfully reinterpret the past, shape it to its own expectations and needs. For such reasons I do not believe that the future of humanism is in any danger at all."

Potential uses:

Role of humanities in 21st century for broad overview
Apply last quote to the application of paideia and expanding it beyond the traditional notion of school reform (20th century)
Value of dual traditions, tensions between rhet/phil and esoteric vs. counter-culture mirrors Lanham's notions of oscillation