Classical legacies

Latin and Greek social and political thoughts, particularly as preserved and discussed in the international language of Latin, influenced ideas of natural law, liberty, public virtue, and republic and empire as models of government, particularly in medieval and early modern Europe, colonial America, and imperial Britain. Plato was invoked for and against twentieth century political absolutisms and the emerging sciences of anthropology and psychoanalysis drew on classical sources for ancient legend and evidences of primitive religion and ritual as source material and conceptual models. Plato, Aristotle, and, earlier, pre-Socratic, Greek philosophy have remained reference points for phenomenologists and other modern thinkers.