The Problematic Greek Miracle

Abstract:The thesis that something unique happened in ancient Greece determinative of later world history — the Greek Miracle — has become ideologically problematic. This essay argues that ancient Greek mathematics has a determinative place in global history and that its formation is a contingent consequence of the structural conditions of the Greek literary canon. Considering science as the emblem of Greek canonicity, however, clarifies the sense in which the Greek miracle is worth celebrating not for any particular value achieved once and for all but, almost to the contrary, for instigating a process of change and transformation. In this sense, celebrating the Greek miracle is anything but conservative.