Dimitris Liantinis: Difference between revisions

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	== Core Philosophical Views ==		== Core Philosophical Views ==

	Much of ~~Liantinis'~~ writings focus on what he saw as the great moral and intellectual decline of modern Greek culture as contrasted with its ancient equivalent. To establish his position further, he devotes a big part of his work in defining with precision what the value of ancient Greece is and why it has always played a central role in all of western though. Specifically, he argues against the popular notion that Ancient Greece, although ahead of its time for most of antiquity and perhaps the middle ages was eventually superseded by the advancements in Europe during and after the Renascence. In contrast he believed that the Ancient Greeks possessed a complete culture, a kind of superset of all Western cultures, past and present. "The Greeks" he argued in his book Gemma, "did not need psychoanalysis because they had Tragedy". In contrast, today, Greeks are relatively unknown. "For the Europeans" he writes quite harshly in Gemma "... we, 'New-Greeks', are but a faceless bunch, something of a Balko-Turkish Negro. We are the 'Ortodox' with the Russian-like writing ... and the domes on our village houses".		Liantinis' beliefs stem directly from ancient Greek philosophy infused with the works of ] and the Romantics. Much of his writings focus on what he saw as the great moral and intellectual decline of modern Greek culture as contrasted with its ancient equivalent. To establish his position further, he devotes a big part of his work in defining with precision what the value of ancient Greece is and why it has always played a central role in all of western though. Specifically, he argues against the popular notion that Ancient Greece, although ahead of its time for most of antiquity and perhaps the middle ages was eventually superseded by the advancements in Europe during and after the Renascence. In contrast he believed that the Ancient Greeks possessed a complete culture, a kind of superset of all Western cultures, past and present. "The Greeks" he argued in his book Gemma, "did not need psychoanalysis because they had Tragedy". In contrast, today, Greeks are relatively unknown. "For the Europeans" he writes quite harshly in Gemma "... we, 'New-Greeks', are but a faceless bunch, something of a Balko-Turkish Negro. We are the 'Ortodox' with the Russian-like writing ... and the domes on our village houses".

	He often touched upon the highly controversial issue of the alleged superiority of Greek to Jewish culture, one expressed through the ancient philosophers and folk mythology and the latter through the great Judaic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.		He often touched upon the highly controversial issue of the alleged superiority of Greek to Jewish culture, one expressed through the ancient philosophers and folk mythology and the latter through the great Judaic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
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	Education was central to what he though of as a future renascence of Greek (and beyond) culture. He emphasised on the need to distinguish between different levels of value amongst the various Greek intellectuals instead of presenting them as the single entity of "the Greats of Greek letters". This distinction is carried in other fields as well most notable being a lecture on the sacred hill of the Acropolis about what he called the "slate of shame". He refereed to a slate raised in the memory of ] and ] who, during the WW2 German occupation of Greece, lowered the Nazi Swastika flag from the Acropolis. The reason for Liantinis anger was that we cannot distinguish between something of eternal value (the Parthenon) and of common value (a heroic act), the second being one of many similar event in Greece and global culture in general.		Education was central to what he though of as a future renascence of Greek (and beyond) culture. He emphasised on the need to distinguish between different levels of value amongst the various Greek intellectuals instead of presenting them as the single entity of "the Greats of Greek letters". This distinction is carried in other fields as well most notable being a lecture on the sacred hill of the Acropolis about what he called the "slate of shame". He refereed to a slate raised in the memory of ] and ] who, during the WW2 German occupation of Greece, lowered the Nazi Swastika flag from the Acropolis. The reason for Liantinis anger was that we cannot distinguish between something of eternal value (the Parthenon) and of common value (a heroic act), the second being one of many similar event in Greece and global culture in general.

	== Jewish vs Greek culture ==		=== Jewish vs Greek culture ===

	These are vast and controversial view points and, to their most extreme criticism, has led Liantinis to be accused for anti-semitism. To understand this position better, we must look at mediaval Greek history and the Byzantine Empire where the Christian church, in league with the Emperors drove the final nail into what remained of ancient Greece, often through brutal means. Liantinis' argument however is not merely historical. He claims that the Greeks where morally superior as they did not conceive of morality as imposed by a higher power but stemming from human intellect.		These are vast and controversial view points and, to their most extreme criticism, has led Liantinis to be accused for anti-semitism. To understand this position better, we must look at mediaval Greek history and the Byzantine Empire where the Christian church, in league with the Emperors drove the final nail into what remained of ancient Greece, often through brutal means. Liantinis' argument however is not merely historical. He claims that the Greeks where morally superior as they did not conceive of morality as imposed by a higher power but stemming from human intellect.
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	Liantinis D. (n.d.) Is There Life after Death? Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRftd7Px_ho		Liantinis D. (n.d.) Is There Life after Death? Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRftd7Px_ho
			Liantinis D. (n.d.) Exemplary Teaching Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESwyPoO6Ur4&feature=related

	<references/>		<references/>

Revision as of 10:48, 7 January 2011

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Dimitris Liantinis (born 23 July 1942, in Greek: Δημήτρης Λιαντίνης, also transliterated as Dimitris Liadinis) was a Greek deputy professor for Philosophy of education and Didaktic of the old and new greek literature at University of Athens and writer of 8 books. His last book is Gemma (book) (Γκέμμα).

He has achieved popularity in Greece because of his strange and unexplained disappearance in the morning of 1.6. 1998 at the age of 56 years. It is thought that he committed suicide in 1998 on the mountains of Taigetos. His last university lecture was delivered on 27 May 1998. In his letter to his family he wrote "I go away by my own will. I disappear standing, strong, and proud."

An online resource www.liantinis.gr written and managed by his wife Professor Nikolitsa Georgopoulou contains letters to her, manuscripts, un-edited texts and critical comments for his books.

Core Philosophical Views

Liantinis' beliefs stem directly from ancient Greek philosophy infused with the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and the Romantics. Much of his writings focus on what he saw as the great moral and intellectual decline of modern Greek culture as contrasted with its ancient equivalent. To establish his position further, he devotes a big part of his work in defining with precision what the value of ancient Greece is and why it has always played a central role in all of western though. Specifically, he argues against the popular notion that Ancient Greece, although ahead of its time for most of antiquity and perhaps the middle ages was eventually superseded by the advancements in Europe during and after the Renascence. In contrast he believed that the Ancient Greeks possessed a complete culture, a kind of superset of all Western cultures, past and present. "The Greeks" he argued in his book Gemma, "did not need psychoanalysis because they had Tragedy". In contrast, today, Greeks are relatively unknown. "For the Europeans" he writes quite harshly in Gemma "... we, 'New-Greeks', are but a faceless bunch, something of a Balko-Turkish Negro. We are the 'Ortodox' with the Russian-like writing ... and the domes on our village houses".

He often touched upon the highly controversial issue of the alleged superiority of Greek to Jewish culture, one expressed through the ancient philosophers and folk mythology and the latter through the great Judaic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

Death was another big issue in his work. He adhered and emphasised the Ancient Greek notion of death as a final end with no defined views about an afterlife and especially about any moral rewards like the Heaven and Hell we know through Christianity, all in great contrast to the rest of Judaic religions. In one of his lectures he mentions a passage from Homer's Ulysses where the hero is said to visit the Underworld in order to ask the dead about their experience of afterlife so that he can judge Calypso's offer of immortality in exchange of his eternal companionship. There he finds even the greatest of heros like Achilles to be mere shadows, "without mind or will", in need of blood to drink in order to remember, momentarily, who they where before so that they can answer Ulysses questions. The Hero willingly choses to continue his quest to return to Ithaca, knowing that he will die and suffer the same fate instead of accepting the nymph's offer. These views can shed a new light on his alleged suicide since it infuses it with great moral courage.

Views on Education

Education was central to what he though of as a future renascence of Greek (and beyond) culture. He emphasised on the need to distinguish between different levels of value amongst the various Greek intellectuals instead of presenting them as the single entity of "the Greats of Greek letters". This distinction is carried in other fields as well most notable being a lecture on the sacred hill of the Acropolis about what he called the "slate of shame". He refereed to a slate raised in the memory of Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas who, during the WW2 German occupation of Greece, lowered the Nazi Swastika flag from the Acropolis. The reason for Liantinis anger was that we cannot distinguish between something of eternal value (the Parthenon) and of common value (a heroic act), the second being one of many similar event in Greece and global culture in general.

Jewish vs Greek culture

These are vast and controversial view points and, to their most extreme criticism, has led Liantinis to be accused for anti-semitism. To understand this position better, we must look at mediaval Greek history and the Byzantine Empire where the Christian church, in league with the Emperors drove the final nail into what remained of ancient Greece, often through brutal means. Liantinis' argument however is not merely historical. He claims that the Greeks where morally superior as they did not conceive of morality as imposed by a higher power but stemming from human intellect.

Views on Death

The only form of immortality that Liantinis (and the Greeks according to him) believed in was what he called "intra-world immortality" (ενδοκοσμική αθανασία) which translates to the memories a man has left behind through his deeds and life example. This is indeed in accordance to the immense value the ancient Greeks placed on post-thymus reputation (υστεροφυμία).

On the same subject he also emphasised the Greek hero's individualism (oposite to the Eastern dissolution of the self inside the Great Universe) even to the point of chosing his own death. In Gemma he writes poetically: "I will die, Death, when I want and not when you want. In this last act, your desire is not going to be realised, it is my desire which will be realised. I fight against your will. I fight your power. I fight all of your entity. I will enter into the earth when I decide, not when you decide." .

He has also written that eros and death are the related, something known to the Greeks before Freud.

Disappearance and Death

Liantinis disappeared in 1.6.98. A taxi driver in Sparta claims that he drove the professor on the same day near Sparti (near Taigetos) and that he was wearing a blue shirt and white footwear.

In 2005 some human bones where found in the area of the mountain Taigetos. Some people believe that Liantinis took his own life as a protest against what he saw as the lack of values in modern Greek society. In his last letter to his daughter he wrote: "My last act has the meaning of protest for the evil that we, the adults, prepare for the innocent new generations that are coming. We live our life eating their flesh. A very bad evil. My unhappiness for this crime kills me."

References

Liantinis D. (1997) Gemma Pub: Vivliogonia ISBN: 9789607088239

Liantinis D. (n.d.) Is There Life after Death? Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRftd7Px_ho Liantinis D. (n.d.) Exemplary Teaching Available from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESwyPoO6Ur4&feature=related

^ http://www.liantinis.gr/gramma.shtml

External links

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