Through an overload of information to get to the heart of the story.
This is The Point.
The Second World Conference of Classics, held on June the 9th and 10th in Athens, Greece.
The conference is jointly organized by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the Chinese Ministry of Education,
the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Greek Ministry of Culture and the Academy of Athens.
The conference brings together scholars and experts from around the world to revisit some of humanity's oldest ideas.
But what exactly are the messages the organizers hope to convey to the world?
Why now and why does it matter to us all?
Welcome to this special edition of The Point with me, Lixin, an opinion show coming to you from Beijing.
I'm pleased to be joined from Athens, Greece by Professor Zhang Yongle, Associate Professor of Law at Peking
University and Academic Advisor at the Centre for Classical and Medieval Studies of Peking University.
From Munich, Germany by Professor Hans van Es, former Vice President and Chair of Sinology at the University of Munich.
And from Rome, Italy.
By Giorgio Piraz, full professor of classical philosophy in the Department
of Ancient Sciences at Sapienza University of Rome.
Gentlemen, the warmest welcome to all of you.
First of all, exactly what we're talking about when we're saying
the classics here and why are we talking about this at this moment?
Professor Zhang, let's start with you.
There are a narrow definition of classics and a broad definition of classics.