What we talk about when we talk about Classics. A Few Considerations from Italy

What is the role of the ancient classics in a globalised, digital, inclusive society? To expect the Greeks and Romans to be as we are now, on pain of their cancellation or marginalisation, is an act of supremacism of the present, which an- nihilates the past, confines current events in an enclosure and renders arid the fu- ture. The classics (not only Greek and Latin), considered in their essential historical trajectory, represent important terms of cultural comparison and help overcome the inevitable conformism of the present. They do not provide answers and models, but lay bare – through the power, effectiveness and beauty of expressive languages – the hard and even stinging core of crucial issues in the lives of individ- uals and communities. Historical and educational reasons speak in favour of Greek and Latin languages in curricula. In the era of big data and artificial intelligence, can we really be so sure that in a classical-humanistic education, everything or al- most everything should be set aside?