Socrates’ teachings rested on two unshakable propositions:-

(1) The principle never to do wrong nor to participate, even indirectly, in any wrongdoing and (2) the conviction that nobody who really knows what is good and right could act against it.

Together with Plato and Aristotle they laid the philosophical foundations of Western civilization, profoundly influenced Christianity and Arabic thought.  So much so that Bertrand Russell could say “that everything else is merely footnotes to Plato & Aristotle”.

It led others to proclaim:-

Without you Greece, what would the world be?
Wilhelm Muller

Whatever, in fact, is modern in our life we owe to the Greeks?
Oscar Wilde

The Greeks possessed knowledge of human nature we seem hardly able to attain to without passing through the strengthening hibernation of a new barbarism.
George Christoph Lichtenberg

The mention of Greece fills the mind with the most exalted sentiments and arouses in our bosoms the best feelings of which our nature is capable.
U.S. President James Monroe

“Whatever the brain and the heart represent to humans, Greece represents to humanity!”
Goethe

If it is true that the violin is the most perfect of musical instruments, then Greek is the violin of human thought.
Helen Keller

Indeed which area of knowledge or thought does not have a Greek origin or invaluable contribution: theatre and drama, mathematics, poetry, history, philosophy, politics, democracy, sculpture, architecture, sport, medicine and science, music?

Plato’s Academy pre-dated the first universities of London and Paris by 1500 years. 

The very concept of schooling is Greek.

The first public school system in the world at a primary level was founded in Constantinople in 425 and continued until the capture of that city by the Turks in 1453.

The importance of the Greek language and alphabet (the western version of which this text is written in) in enriching all European languages is beyond dispute.

Now Apple has produced a Computer program called “Hellenic Quest” because it has been proven that the Greek language is unique. It is the only language in which each word and its meaning have a fundamental relationship eg. geometry-“earth measurement”. All other languages arbitrarily assign a meaning to each word. The Greek language’s mathematical structure makes it ideal for the computer which defines it as limitless. There is no limit to its extended use and invention of new terms necessary for the development and expansion of IT, electronics and cyberspace.

At the present time 6 million word forms are known for the Greek language as against 790,000 for the English language.

The programmers of Hellenic Quest estimate that the Greek forms of words will reach 90 million as against 9 million for Latin.

To learn the Greek language is an investment for the future of Australia.  The UNSW has a Greek Studies Programme that should be enhanced not shut down.  What would Socrates say and how would such a decision square with his two immutable principles on the decision makers?

“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world”
Ludwig Wittgenstein

Costa Vertzayias

If you feel passionate about the Greek language and would like it to continue to be taught at the UNSW, write to the Vice Chancellor and Dean and express your views.

Professor Fred Hilmer AO
e-mail: vice-chancellor@unsw.edu.au
or fax 9385 1949

and to the Dean of the faculty of Arts
Professor James Donald
e-mail: j.donald@unsw.edu.au
or fax 9385 1016