Why do we read the canon? What does the past do for us? Specifically, why do we read the Western canon, that is, a group of works that starts from Plato and Aristotle? Is this not a potentially problematic choice – one that favors one group of people at the expense of others?

The simplest answer is that the tradition starting from the Greeks shaped our own contemporary civilization. Something essential shifted in Greek antiquity – the term “the Greek Miracle” is deserved – and this is worth studying, and preserving.

But what is it that we stand to learn from the canon? According to one common answer: the canon promotes eternal truths about human nature and society. This makes the canon conservative.

The claim of this talk is that the canon was historically important precisely because it was not unchanging but, instead, was a space for debate. This made it into the foundation of a free society that made liberalism, and progress, possible. The Greek miracle was setting up the model of a culture, which is free from the control of the state – a model worthy of preservation.

Join Reviel Netz, the Patrick Suppes Professor of Greek Mathematics and Astronomy at Stanford University. His areas of expertise include pre-modern mathematics and the history of cognitive practices, including visual culture and the history of the book, literacy, and numeracy. His most recent book is Why the Ancient Greeks Matter from Cambridge University Press, 2025.