H. A. Drake, "The Wisdom of the Ancients: Four Ideas That Changed the World" (Oxford UP, 2025)

About this episode

H. A. Drake discusses four foundational ideas from the ancient Mediterranean that shaped modern thought.

The Wisdom of the Ancients: Four Ideas That Changed the World (Oxford UP, 2025) is about four cornerstones of modern thought that were put in place by people living in the ancient Mediterranean world. It covers approximately 2,000 years in time (from ca. 1000 BCE to 1000 CE) and spatially moves from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia (roughly, modern Iraq), through Greece and Rome, to the new Germanic states growing in what is now western Europe. The four ideas, as author H. A. Drake proposes, are monotheism, the idea that there is only one god, not many; individual rights, the idea that there is a limit to what the state can order us to do; naturalized citizenship, the idea that the full rights and privileges of citizenship can be extended to people who have no birthright to them; and creation of a standard by which to judge the performance of states. It is easy, now, to take these ideas for granted. For believers, it seems obvious that only a singular, omnipotent deity can account for the splendour of the universe. Similarly, the common notion that individuals can stand up for their rights, that citizenship can be freely given, or that governments ought to be held…

People in this episode

Host: Marshall Poe

Guest: H. A. Drake

Topics covered

• ancient Mediterranean thought
• monotheism
• individual rights
• naturalized citizenship
• state performance standards
• historical ideas
• cultural evolution

Keywords

• Wisdom of the Ancients
• four ideas
• modern thought
• monotheism
• individual rights
• citizenship
• state standards
• ancient history

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Oxford UP

Places: Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, western Europe

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