Chapter III: Interdisciplinarity in Antiquity

In the modern era, it is up and coming film director Yorgos Lanthimos who stays true to his Greek roots through his visually striking and metaphorically tragic films that underpin illustrious themes that present a mirror to ourselves. From the heart pounding (literally and figuratively) tragedy of a doctor who is given an ultimatum in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, the absurd, sexually repressed, and loving tale of The Lobster, or the venomous, competitive, and drive to win nature of The Favourite; what all of these movies have in common is their relation to the age of the Greek antiquity and the playwrights that relate to the movie’s themes. For example, The Killing of a Sacred Deer relates to and is loosely based on the famous antiquity play by Euripides called Iphigenia in Aulis, where the doctor played by Colin Farrell, is loosely based on the king Agamemnon¹. The Lobster can relate to the absurd elements of old comedy from antiquity playwright Aristophanes, and The Favourite draws similarities to the Pyrrhic War, to which the film uses the Greek theme of Pyrrhic victory to represent the winning of a war, but at a detrimental cost².

Thematically the age of antiquity in Greece is seen as the introduction into the modern world; furthermore, the relevant themes in philosophy, art, mathematics, and society were commonly brought forward through many generations and are still relevant today. The eminence of Greek Antiquity is carried over through their development of philosophy, politics and science, and helped to generate the Western ideal of culture we are privy of today³. Looking deeper, how did the age of Greek Antiquity display interdisciplinary ideas from their learning, life, and society? Also, what impact did the Greek Antiquity have on the interdisciplinarity of the future western society?

There are many characters during Greek antiquity that can be mentioned and scholars of this era may be unhinged at some of the names redacted. My goal is to make this content digestible to the reader and provide interdisciplinarity through the era via many different concepts. Of course, not all the names will be mentioned, but my ode to this chapter is to provide the best possible conception of the Greek antiquity, through the concept of interdisciplinarity research and stories of important individuals. With that said, this chapter starts with two very important figures in the beginning of Greek antiquity, they include Herodotus the famous historian, and Cleisthenes, regarded as the father of Athens and democracy.

Herodotus can be discussed as our first interdisciplinary character during Greek Antiquity. According to Redfield “Herodotus…is both the father of history and father of anthropology”⁴ and was regarded as a wanderer accepting of a foreigner in a social role⁵. It was Herodotus that made the earlier connections between human and society, by describing humans in roles that fit within society. In many ways, creating a philosophical understanding of human nature within a group. Redfield references the ancient word nomoi, which was used by Herodotus to describe how humans have the capacity to be autonomous and make rules for themselves⁶. Although criticized in his day for his connection of using history, the science of humans and human autonomy being instrumental in the Greek method of democracy; Herodotus remains an important figure for the understanding of the human condition, with historical response. With respect to democracy however, Cleisthenes is regarded as the father of democracy and was instrumental to creating the antiquity age of this time.

Cleisthenes used the reformation of Attica (Athens) to create a less tyrannical hierarchy different from Greeks past. Lewis suggests that Cleisthenes used the forms of trittyes (territorial divisions within the city of Athens) as an attempt to create distinct units within the city leading to a form of mixed composition⁷. With this composition came new rights for people with a reformation of tyrannical structures. Although Cleisthenes and his family would retain control over the lands and the different territorial divisions, new members of the city within this system had new rights for land and living⁸ which led to radical political reform in Athens and a new democratic constitution⁹. The role that Cleisthenes played to embrace a democratic understanding would lay the foundation for what antiquity stood for and the creation of new ideas on thinking about learning, life, and society. Both Cleisthenes and Herodotus can be considered as championing a new age of learning about society, with more of a collective and collaborative learning to face the problem of degradation and tyranny. This of course develops a deeper understanding into the meaning of life and how one chooses to live life.

Philosophy

The earliest form of philosophy related closely to the writings of Herodotus and the understanding of nature. These of course are regarded as the Pre-Socratics from roughly 560-469 BC, with the name coming from their lineage being before the philosopher Socrates. These philosophers were the first in developing an understanding of life connected with a rational nature and orders from plants and dirt, to the sun and stars in a rational-natural order¹⁰. None was more influential than Pythagoras of Samos (commonly referred to as only “Pythagoras”) as one of the first and most famous rational philosophers to come out of Greek antiquity. Another famous name relates to Heraclitus, also a fellow rationalist and believer of logic.

Understanding the work of Pythagoras follows his most notable contribution, the creation of the Pythagorean Theorem which is the mathematical law that the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of squares of the other sides. We observe Pythagoras on how he contributes to interdisciplinarity and his contributions towards this idea. First, his use of mathematics to outline the cosmos is what Klein would call the additive form of multidisciplinarity, as in the multi-layering or the fusion of competencies focused on solutions to problems¹¹. Pythagoras also used his mathematical concepts in an interdisciplinary way to add to the discovery of musical patterns¹². Mathematics opened a window into deeper conceptualization of the world, understanding the movement of planets in the universe, the earth being round and the analysis around medicinal sciences and natural effects of the human body¹³. Second, Pythagoras proposes that mathematics is connected to many things in the lives of humans and that there is a deeper understanding towards this through the connected lifestyle of Pythagoreanism which can be described as the first method of teaching with connections to the natural world through empirical learners and spiritual listeners¹⁴.

Not only would Pythagoras be an influential character in the realm of multidisciplinarity rather using the term from Lattuca and transdisciplinarity which proposes questions that cross disciplinary boundaries¹⁵. This concept of transdisciplinarity invites many different forms to take shape from one central idea or conceptualization in order to enhance learning, life, and society. Ultimately Pythagoras was not the only one to embrace this style of interdisciplinarity as Heraclitus would be another to embrace an interdisciplinary ideal with his philosophy.

Heraclitus was another naturalist and empiricist of the Pre-Socratic era and based his philosophy on the form of logic, which Marcus Aurelius states:

“Always remember Heraclitus…the Reason which governs all things; that their everyday experience takes them by surprise.”¹⁶

Heraclitus focuses on truth and truth building through concise understanding of the world. This relates to the interdisciplinary concept of a constructivist paradigm by developing truth through logical and empirical experience. Eduard Zeller suggests that Heraclitan Logos is the basis for a level of discourse through the identification of different ideas¹⁷, which relates to the classical rhetoric text of the Dossoi Logoi (English trans: Differing Logics or Opinions) which pushes us toward a kairotic conceptualization of truth depending on what information is presented and on the situation at the time¹⁸.

What the Pre-Socratics such as Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and the overall understanding of Pre-Socratic philosophy can provide is the interdisciplinary ideal that human beings are connected to nature in a mathematical and logical way and this proposes that math and logic expands beyond any gods or deities from previous societies. This presents the first understanding of a pragmatic design using different knowledge realms and different interpretations to develop a scaffolded understanding of the world through a real-world and applicable lens. This understanding of logic, empiricism, naturalism, and pragmatism would make way for a wider understanding of the moral and ethical implications of these interdisciplinary philosophies. This would be found in some of the most popular names of Greek Antiquity.

Socrates (469-399 BC) is considered one of the most famous philosophers during the Greek Antiquity. Essentially, Socrates acts as the divide between the naturalistic philosophers and the divergent forms Platonic, Peripatetic, Cynics, and Sophists. Socrates is also known for not writing any works and is historically known through second-hand accounts predominantly by Plato. Socrates teaching is commonly known through the Socratic Method to produce an understanding on how virtue and truth can be held in different realms. Ahbel-Rappe outlines the epistemology of Socrates in developing a definition of virtue and that can only be known if you are clearly able to define it¹⁹. The connected ability related to Socrates is to view virtue and logic and that these forms can be changing and divergent in many different topics. Therefore, the Pre-Socratic understanding of logic and empiricism can be held up to question by a different view.

Socrates allows the different understanding of truth and epistemology which creates further questions to ask and obtain further knowledge. However, as we will see with Plato, Socrates in his dialogues saw that the one who is able to obtain all knowledge on both sides should be the leader in society. The only issue with this relating to interdisciplinarity is that someone who is epistemologically proficient in every single realm is a fallacy of interdisciplinarity in modern ages, given an expert is unachievable in all facets of life, or at the very least, challenging and virtually unobtainable in a life span. However, the idea of virtue can expand through all areas of learning, life, and society through the concepts of virtue in the classroom, in your homelife, and in your community are all applicable for being a moral agent. Further reflection of the relation of Socrates and interdisciplinarity, Hamilton reflects on Socrates and his dialogue in the Phaedrus by Plato, that writing itself is not the ultimate measure, rather the ability to further explain the writing builds the base knowledge to further knowledge²⁰.

The philosophy of Socrates would perhaps be lost if it wasn’t for the dialogical work of Plato (407-367 BC). Along with his own idea of realism and influence of Saint Augustine (modern Christianity), Plato is often considered the most influential philosopher from Greek Antiquity. He further influenced the works of Speusippus through the development of knowledge that comes with knowing the differences between the different epistemologies, and Xenocrates which creates a bridge between Socrates and Pythagoras with understanding of moral duality and the sensible aspects such as mathematics and science. Through the influences, Plato was able to create an interdisciplinary framework through social roles and political phenomena²¹. Plato understood the future ramifications if society does not become involved in government and the need for a society to be involved through people and relationships. Although Plato supposes that democracy eventually devolves in chaos, his substitution is developing a philosophy king to be a moral, ethical, and political leader within society²². In a modern context that would be similar as an individual who is the smartest, the most athletic, the most morally aligned, and most politically competent to lead society. However, if we return to the idea of Socrates, we know that there is the opposing view to all these facets on how we judge the most athletic and politically competent?

This is a key fallacy of interdisciplinarity, as one person cannot be 100% knowledgeable in all areas of epistemology because there is an opposing opinion that believes in a different, just as rational truth contrary to your own. Therefore, you could not be a king of interdisciplinarity as opposing views will make your knowledge less than 100%. This also creates a logical error through university administrators who suggest that expertise is not found with interdisciplinarians, given they are not really an expert in one aspect. Well if we follow the classical understanding of Plato and Socrates, there is no full expert in any epistemology. Although full knowledge cannot be obtained, understanding the complexities of different concepts can be found and continuously built upon through new and further knowledge. This of course was the concept of Plato’s school The Academy in Athens to build skills and apply interdisciplinary examinations through performance and interaction²³. It was in The Academy the full scope of antiquity philosophy came to an epistemological apex with Plato’s top student Aristotle.

It is my triumvirate of interdisciplinarians (Kockelmans, Klein, and Lattuca) that attribute the beginning of true interdisciplinarity to Plato and his student Aristotle (385-323 BC). If there was a comparison between Plato and Aristotle, I would like to use sports to best describe it. Plato was Magic Johnson, Aristotle was Michael Jordan; Plato was Jack Nicklaus, Aristotle was Tiger Woods; Plato was Donnovan Bailey, Aristotle was Usain Bolt and so on. The view of Aristotle as upping the game of philosophy is shown through his school of the Lyceum and his writings on a bevy of topics ranging from politics, economics, biology and poetry to provide the world’s first intellectual knowledge of many forms through a lens of western philosophy and literature. Aristotle the philosopher is well known but what about Aristotle the interdisciplinarian?

To define Aristotle as an interdisciplinarian we must look at his work in Rhetoric, where he outlines the forms of persuasion and creating the Aristotelian tradition of rhetoric. Aristotle suggests that rhetorical tradition follows the forms of ethos: ethics or character, pathos: persuade emotions, and logos: perceived logic or empiricism to substantiate an idea of knowledge²⁴. It is Gross that suggests the rhetorical and to a further extent the Aristotilean tradition follows interdisciplinary lines through the conceptualization of emotion through pragmatic constructs of politics, economics, and Antiquity society²⁵. Gross further analyzes that Aristotle’s Rhetoric through providing an outline by broadcasting an emotive feeling within the political arena. It is in this arena where rhetoric is to “outline a ‘political economy’ wherein passions are constituted as differences in power”²⁶.

Aristotle and his development of Aristotelian tradition is to display critical analysis in many forms that outline our learning, life, and society that we interact with every day. Outlining the emotions that guide decisions combined with logic and ethics outline the decisions of many people with government, public policy, organizational policy, sociological behavior, and economic behavior. It is Aristotle in the end that brings the Pre-Socratic notion of empiricism, mathematics and naturalism and combines it with the Sophetic and Socratic dissemination of truth and knowledge, with the Platonic concept of knowledge in different dimensions being prevalent in society. In many ways, not only is the Aristotelian tradition an interdisciplinary framework for conceptual ideas, but rather a framework for understanding the history of antiquity philosophy through the learning of different realms. Ultimately it is Aristotle that is able to bring together the many ideas from brilliant minds to create a cohesive understanding of philosophy and ethics.

Infrastructure, Politics and Athletics

Philosophy played a major role in the understanding of knowledge in Greek Antiquity, however, what was its effect on the outside world? Well first the growth of knowledge in Greek Antiquity was not focused in philosophy, but expanded outside into other aspects of society. Notably the introduction of concession contracts in Ancient Greece to build roads and canals and these were introduced in the transition from the Greeks to the Romans²⁷. Through concession contracts the Greek states were able to enhance communication through other states and build the Greek nation. This has been a method of concession that has been replicated through history, similar to government contracts for infrastructure projects. Evidence of roads in Greek Antiquity are prevalent, however the irrigation and water management is another interesting factor relating to the infrastructure of Ancient Greece. Early evidence suggests that water management through advanced hydraulic measures that attributed to efficient water transportation, irrigation, and flood control²⁸. Furthermore, democratization and sociopolitical reform helped construct urban water management to deal with limited resources and balancing quite well with private and public interests²⁹.

The growth of knowledge from the Greek Antiquity reflects many of the processes we use in today’s infrastructure methods. The concept of obtaining concessions or permits to build roads and irrigation tools that benefit both the private and public sectors and the use of scientific reasoning build sufficient and beneficial structures to help the citizenry. Politics on the other hand relied heavily on traders and producers, akin to trading competency to a producer who is willing to take on this competency. Evidence suggests that the politician should be noble and provide to the citizenry of the state, and the richer classes should take up their capital towards commercial undertakings, perhaps in further infrastructure for their state, as opposed to personal capitalistic gain³⁰. Aristotle too had a sense of politics and government as he, in his writings suggest the basis of moral and ethical politics must be based for the people and that every political establishment is essentially nothing without the people that comprise the state³¹. This is a quote that perfectly encapsulates this idea:

“That a city then precedes an individual is plain; for if an individual is not in himself sufficient to compose a perfect government, he is to a city as other parts are to a whole; but he that is incapable of society, or so complete in himself as not to want it, makes no part of a city, as a beast or a god…so without law and justice he would be the worst of all, for nothing is so difficult to subdue as injustice in arms; but these arms man is born, namely, prudence and valour…for justice is a political virtue, by the rules of it the State is regulated, and these rules are the criterion of what is right.”³²

The politics of the people as justified through a lens of moral and ethical judgement is a constitution within politics that remains today, lending credence to the idea of Greece forming the first democracy. Through the interdisciplinary actions taken by philosophers and statesmen around the subject of justice, the creation of a proficient and collective state was organized and led to prosperity, especially through a populist conceptualization of government.

None further can be exemplified through the collaboration of independent city states than the introduction of the Olympic games in Ancient Greece to promote unity³³. Crowther concluded that sports were a unifying aspect for the Greek states, however the underlying construct of sports was to train for war and suggested leading towards an “aggressive nationalistic policy”³⁴. It questions the morality of sports and the ultimate morality of politics and infrastructure. Were the infrastructure, policies and cultural events a method of moralistic endeavors for the people of Greece? Or did the leaders have underlying motives toward control of resources, war procurement, and control of the people? It is clear that the leaders used an interdisciplinary frame of mind for decision-making in socio-political circles, but were the decisions following the moral and ethical guidelines for the people of the Greek states? We may never know the answer to this, but the concept of the dissoi logoi reminds us there can be opposing views to the motives behind the curtain.

The Birth of Interdisciplinarity: Learning, Life and Society in Bloom

As we have seen in this chapter, the birth of an interdisciplinary way of thinking was built upon the obtaining of knowledge via philosophical, economic, societal and political realms. From the Pre-Socratic philosophers, to Socrates, to the Socratic tree with Plato, and from Plato to his student Aristotle; we see the growth and advancement of knowledge through the observing and questioning of moral and ethical constructs. Klein suggests that interdisciplinarians are able to look at procedures from a variety of different perspectives through the forms of comparing and contrasting³⁵. What the philosophers of Greek Antiquity were able to do was to see the different disciplines and connect them to the society around them, not as an epiphany like Gilgamesh, but more of a broader understanding of their place in society. From the multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary concepts of using mathematics to understand music and astronomy, to the introduction on opposing views, and the carrying of opposing views to the decisions made in society. This had an effect on the people through morality and ethics representing a clear level of interdisciplinarity justified by the early philosophers, towards the growth of Western thinking.

To summarize; the philosophies, societal growth, and deeper understanding of processes put in place for leaders and the people developed an interdisciplinary understanding of the learning, life and society of Greek Antiquity. What the learning represents is a growth mindset of building conceptual ideas and introducing them in a pragmatic way, such as the idea for democracy leading to the building of aqueducts to provide water to people, or the idea of collaboration to create governmental controls to bring states together for cultural or political significance. Although scholars are mixed on the ultimate motives the Greek leaders had with creating the different controls, as if they were truly for the good of the people. The fact remains, the natural growth and evolution during the Greek Antiquity highlights a progression in not only thinking, but critical thinking and analysis on life and society. With this growth of knowledge comes newer ways of thinking, and thus leading to a transition in power. After the Greeks reign came the Roman and Byzantine empire, by all accounts had their fair share of moral and ethical degradation; yet nonetheless, an interesting study on how they grew the interdisciplinary ideal, fostering a new age of understanding.