Abstract

In a critique of idealism, it would be somewhat incongruous if one were seen to be tracing 'threads' or philosophical themes through history, as each historical culture has its own particular configuration; but an academic sojourn at Olympia, the meeting-place of Ancient Greece, prompts reflection on the elements of cultural continuity between some parts of that earlier world and that of Western culture today. In both, we find similar forms of idealism; we can also identify material and social conditions which, though unalike in many ways, are in some respects comparable.