Humans, among Other Classical Animals

We are living in a moment of environmental and existential crisis that demands a response. Why then study Classics now? From the European assimilation and destruction of the New World to our present environmental destruction of our shared world, Humans, among Other Classical Animals explores in encounters an answer by demonstrating how the Classics have been implicated in the structures of thought that have ultimately led us to our present historical moment. Telling the story of anthropology's Classical entanglements from its inception to its growth to critical self-awareness, it demonstrates that Classical ideas have played a crucial -and often deleterious- role in the Western placing of the human and in the discipline that claimed the study of humanity as its own. Responses to our present crisis, it argues, should therefore include as a prerequisite, considering the origins and implications of these Classical foundations because only by so doing can we attain the full self-awareness necessary to think beyond them and consider the alternatives we now need.

Postclassical Interventions aims to reorient the meaning of antiquity across and beyond the humanities. Building on the success of Classical Presences, this complementary series features shorter-length monographs designed to provoke debate about the current and future potential of Classical Reception through fresh, bold, and critical thinking.

Ashley Clements, Assistant Professor in Greek Literature and Philosophy, Trinity College Dublin

Ashley Clements studied Ancient History and Social Anthropology at University College London and Classics at Cambridge. He is Assistant Professor in Greek Literature and Philosophy at the Classics Department at Trinity College Dublin. His latest research explores how Classical conceptions have
always been implicated in European attempts to stake out what is essential to the human and our place in relation to others, and the modern legacy of such receptions. It argues Classics belongs not only to the study of the past but also to vital conversations about humanity of our present; there can
be no truly self-reflexive anthropology without it.