Less existential worries, less works of art and the man in the background. This is how the Western Hemisphere would be if Greek civilization had never existed. "Society would be less reflective and rational. We would live based only on faith", says José Leonardo Nascimento, a professor at the Universidade Estadual Paulista. Imagining a situation like this is not an easy task. After all, Greek influence in the West is deep and vast. On the other hand, thinking about this hypothesis is only possible thanks to the Greeks, since intellectual reflection was born among them and there is no doubt that this is their greatest legacy.
Man's awareness of himself and the phenomena that surround him did not only occur in Greece, but it was there that, by virtue of a culture dedicated to the human figure, rational explanations such as mathematics, medicine and science were developed. philosophy", says Donaldo Schüller, professor at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. For him, the basis of all human unease comes from this process of rationalization of nature. "The Greeks of the 6th century BC. they abandoned the metaphysical and spiritual solutions of the world and sought rational explanations for the events that influenced their lives. This is the beginning of science as we know it. Therefore, without the Greeks, no one would be racking their brains trying to get to know each other, which would be the death of any philosophical current", says Schüller.
Anthropocentrism – a Greek word that means man as the center of everything – is another heritage of that people. According to José Leonardo Nascimento, this concept was fundamental for the definition of Western thought, influencing several areas of knowledge, from the arts to religions. An original and unique idea around the world.
Despite all its importance in the ancient world, Greek culture and its influences were dormant during the Middle Ages, when religious and mystical feelings prevailed. "To think of a world devoid of Greek influence is to think of the Middle Ages until the Renaissance", says Nascimento.
The measurements of man (anthropometrism), his features and expressions, started to be used in the plastic arts and to serve as a reference for our mythological and religious creations", affirms Nascimento. The idea of representing man as he is would not exist. Instead, the arts would be populated with manifestations far from reality, like the colossal Egyptian works. Imagine this trend applied to architecture. We would have monumental constructions, suited to the dimensions of the gods and not those of man.
It's hard to imagine what Western arts would be without all the classical reference. "Without Greece, we would have the dullness of the culture of the senses", says Nascimento. In other words, the arts would not have man as a reference and another type of model would prevail. "With Egyptian art as a standard, for example, our imagination would be full of outsized figures, with divine and animal appearance," he explains.
In addition to the arts, this way of seeing the world was definitive in the fields of science and religion. Doctors of Christianity, such as Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Augustine, merged Greek thought with the foundations of religion. Without the Greek influence, Christianity would be much more austere, less inclined to syncretism and, above all, without the figures of the saints. Perhaps it would not become the predominant religion on earth. Without classical philosophy, Christianity would be little more than a neo-Jewish sect.
For Professor Schüller, Western man would be another. Awareness about ourselves, our fears, traumas and desires, too. "Freud would probably have another job. Man confronting his limits is a Greek invention," he says. An unthinkable situation from the point of view of Buddhism, for example, since the eastern doctrine suppresses the desire in the search for tranquility of spirit.