Peter Jones

Safe space in ancient Athens

The culture of ancient Athens relied on rigorous separation of action and debate

issue 19 March 2016

Brilliant Oxford undergraduates argue that it is right to prevent us saying things they object to, because speech they do not like is the equivalent of actions they do not like. They had better not read classics, then. There is no safe space there.

Greeks made a clear distinction between logos (‘account, reckoning, explanation, story, reason, debate, speech’, cf.

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