H.E Ambassador of Greece to China,

Dr. Evgenios Kalpyris’s address

Conference on Ancient Wisdom

for Global South

(Chongqing, June 25, 2025)

Distinguished guests,

Although it sounds cliché and usually a speech starts with expressing appreciation for the organizer, in the case of today’s Conference on Ancient Wisdom for Global South at the Center of Greek and Chinese Ancient Civilizations, this could not be more sincere on my part. Equally important, I would like to congratulate the Southwest University for co-sponsoring the Conference together with the Center of Greek and Chinese Ancient Civilizations, as well as the Center’s Secretariat for being the locomotive of a unique endeavor, that of studying in parallel two of the most important cradles of the world civilization, which both continuously and incessantly have been influencing all aspects of human activity.

I have to admit that when the theme of the Conference was first presented to me, I was puzzled and I felt a sense of awkwardness. Ancient Wisdom and Global South? If nothing else, presenting my thought would have been a tall order. The fact that I, a mere student of philosophy, a jurist by training, should present some thoughts before such a knowledgeable audience, certainly complicated my decision to accept the invitation from the Center. At the same time, however, the topic was enticing as well as provocative.

The global character of Greek civilization will serve me as springboard for the following thoughts. I will not concentrate on the huge scientific, artistic and technological achievements of Greek Civilization that laid many of the foundations of world civilization. I will refer to some of the basic Platonic values which still make sense today. These values travelled far not only in Europe, but also in Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia. We need to remember that Alexander the Great, the student of Aristotle who himself was a student of Plato, built many great cities-beacons of the Greek Spirit, outside Greece proper, among which, I could just mention two: Alexandria in Egypt and Alexandria the Furthest in nowadays Tajikistan close to the Chinese borders. Although we all associate Greek civilization with the West, actually the Greek – Western values have deeply and inexorably influenced all the places I just came to mention. Greek civilization is equally African, Asian and beyond.  

Many of the regions that today belong to the ensemble of countries we call the Global South have been influenced by the Greek Spirit either directly through their interaction with the Greeks or indirectly through peoples and cultures they came into contact with that were themselves deeply influenced by the philosophical and humanistic values of the Greek civilization.

Virtue is a key concept in Plato’s system. In this respect individual as well as social harmony, happiness and justice arises under the guidance of reason. Virtue is also central in Aristotelian goal of human flourishing and ethics and to achieve it requires finding the rational mean between extremes. Moral cultivation guided by reason has been crucial in the Greek thought. Comes as no surprise that in the other corner of the earth, Confucius placed also ethics at the center of his thought. For him cultivating virtue in the individual would offer the answer to the question “how we can live a good life?”.

Politics was central in Plato’s thought. He proposed a very refined political system by describing an ideal city based on the Rule of Law and governed by Philosopher Kings. Plato’s teacher, Socrates, chose, as we all know as we grew up with the story, to drink the poison rather than violate the laws of the city, demonstrating practically how philosophy can be put into action. Aristotle also, like Confucius, pondered on how we can achieve the good life. Politics guided by reason aims for this goal. Confucius proposed that society flourishes under the rule of a Sage King who governs by virtue and rules with righteousness.

Both Plato and Confucious saw Education as the primary means to cultivate virtue and wisdom, not merely impart skills or information. Both understood Education as lifelong learning. They both believed that individual and social harmony and justice could be achieved through rigorous moral and intellectual education of people and leaders guided by wisdom and a deep sense of responsibility.

Pointing out the above does not mean, of course, that Greek and Chinese thought, which we might characterize as ancient wisdom, do not also differ in many aspects. However, another similarity that runs through all Greek thought and is present in the thinking of Confucius is Dialogue, as a means of teaching and presenting opinions, often opposing, in order to find common ground.

The above points aim to provide guidance on issues like politics, education, social harmony and development, among many others we can extract from ancient wisdom which is nonetheless very modern wisdom, it can be applied in the Global South and provide answers to many questions, especially in a time when we all must redouble our efforts to strengthen our resilience against old and new challenges. Ancient wisdom provides us all with this much-needed spiritual armor.

In concluding I would also like to congratulate the Center for the two Seminars it is organizing during the Conference and encourage it in its intention to create two networks, one on Plato’s Global Scholarship and the other on the Study of Modern Greece. These are noteworthy initiatives that connect the dots and restore the big picture of Greek thought and culture as the subject of the Center along with the study of the brilliant Chinese civilization.