For Ken Hope's Humanities Classes at Truman

Greece in the 5th Century BCE is an extraordinarily fruitful period to investigate and come to know. It is often referred to as a sort of flowering, since here we find the first real scientific investigation of the world (including physics and biology), the first philosophy (that is, the serious investigation of what it means to know things, and how we ought, as a result, to behave), the first major works of theater (the playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides are still read and performed around the world), and the first democracy, to name just a few firsts. From that time to the present - starting with the Romans around the start of the Common Era - people around the world who have come into contact with this period of time and the works created then have discovered an endless supply of material to engage, to agree with, to quarrel with or dispute, to use and modify, to think with, to build on. Whoever we are, and wherever and however we were brought up, we are likely to find something in a consideration of the Classical world that teaches us about ourselves.

Classicism is a major style in the arts originating in Greek and Roman Antiquity and continuing through to the present day. We use the words "classic" and "classical" to refer to many things, which can be confusing at times. Classical (with a capital letter) often refers to the time period of Antiquity and classical (no caps) refers to a style. When we refer to a "classic" to designate a model of its kind, the best of its kind, especially something that has withstood the test of time, we acknowledge the important role of Classicism on our lives, though we are using only one of the word's meanings.

The classical style may derive from the arts of the Classical period of the Ancient World, but it is as much a way of thinking about art as anything else. The impact of the Ancient World on our lives is so pervasive that we have adopted the term classical to refer not only to elements of Western art and design, but to an approach to art generally, one which can be found, for example, in the arts of China and Japan. Let us begin, then, with the general sense of classicism as an approach to the arts. It represents, in the words of one art historian, a state of mind:

Classicism qua state of mind is an approach to the arts that emphasizes the ideal in form and in content over the everyday; the power of reason over the often misleading emotions ‚ and hence restraint, moderation and self control; clarity and simplicity ‚ and, usually, understatement over prolixity; measurability as an index of beauty over intuition; and a respect for tradition (hence conservatism and intellectualism. (Michael Greenhalgh, What is Classicism? P. 10)

Now, it is important to remember that classicism does not describe how the ancient Greeks lived. They were just as irrational, unrestrained, and emotional as anybody else, and, some might say, more so. Instead, classicism refers to an awareness, first recognized by the ancient Greeks, that by achieving a sense of harmony and proportionality in the physical world we can represent, or capture, a sense of the ideal world that exists beyond the merely physical world.

Here another way classicism has been described, by another art historian:

Today, the term "Classical" implies the first rank or authority, a standard, or a model. It is therefore exemplary, but it specifically suggests derivation from Greek or Roman Antiquity: the term "Classical" means conforming in style or composition (or both) to the rules or models of Greek and Roman Antiquity. The Classical ideal is characterized by clarity, completeness, symmetry, deceptive simplicity, repose, and harmonious proportions; it is associated with civilized life, perfection, restraint, and serenity. ... There is also, in Classical Architecture, a system by which the geometry of each part is related to the geometry of the whole, giving an harmonious balance and repose to the entire faÁade, or total building, or both. Thus units, and multiples or subdivisions of such units, have an essential role to play in the system of Classical proportion, and the purpose of proportional systems is to help to set up harmony, balance, repose, and an agreeable aesthetic throughout the whole of the building .

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