Re:Mea culpa: there is a crisis in the humanities
by Mediterraneo10 on Friday July 27, 2018 @07:25PM
(#17630314)
> Professors haven't ever been an important part of this.
Professors have definitely been an important part of Classics. First of all, if someone picks up any Latin or Greek text, that text was established (based on painstaking study of the manuscript tradition) by someone who was almost certainly employed at a university.
Then, if the text has notes at the back of it, those notes were written by someone who was almost certainly employed at a university. If it was translated from the original language for a general public readership, then commonly that was done by a scholar in that field.
As time goes by and new manuscripts are discovered, new light is cast on manuscripts already known, our understanding of some aspect of Greek or Latin life is expanded, or the focuses in our contemporary society change, there is a periodic need for new such editions, and we generally look to scholars to do all that instead of just anybody out there.
Professors have definitely been an important part of Classics. First of all, if someone picks up any Latin or Greek text, that text was established (based on painstaking study of the manuscript tradition) by someone who was almost certainly employed at a university.
Then, if the text has notes at the back of it, those notes were written by someone who was almost certainly employed at a university. If it was translated from the original language for a general public readership, then commonly that was done by a scholar in that field.
As time goes by and new manuscripts are discovered, new light is cast on manuscripts already known, our understanding of some aspect of Greek or Latin life is expanded, or the focuses in our contemporary society change, there is a periodic need for new such editions, and we generally look to scholars to do all that instead of just anybody out there.