Thought Leaders

Author's name: Taha Hussein

Taha Hussein believes that ancient Greek civilization, with its great thinkers and artists, was the most important (perhaps the only) tributary to modern European civilization, from whose achievements all humanity has benefited. However, it was not easy. European thought went through continuous and long stages of development throughout history. From the pure Greek nomadism, poetry emerged as a necessity for humans to express their emotions and feelings, and to recount some of their glories in imaginative images. The great poetic epics were created by Homer and other great Greek poets. Then, humans began to sense their need to comprehend, understand, and interpret the phenomena and events occurring around them. They exerted an organized mental effort, criticizing every constant in the light of reason. This led to the emergence of philosophy, whose topics also developed and its discussions branched out at the hands of great masters such as Socrates and Plato, so that the journey of thought would continue as night and day follow one another.