ABSTRACT
Most of the material included in this chapter is directly concerned with attitudes towards labour, technology, and innovation in the Greek and Roman cultures, but the connection sometimes is implicit rather than explicit. The subject is so large that naturally only a selection of the most important passages could be included. Furthermore, many passages in earlier chapters are relevant to this topic. Nevertheless, the overall evolution of attitudes from the eighth century B.C. through the late Roman period should be clear. The sequence of topics is, roughly, early attitudes towards labour and innovation, the appearance of banausic prejudice and its expression in the Greek and Roman cultures, positive and negative attitudes towards experiment, technology, and innovation, and visions of future progress in human knowledge.
