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Flattering the Demos

Author: Marlene K. Sokolon

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-10-31

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1498578411

To understand the movements of democratic society one must appreciate fictional narratives and not depend on rationalistic argumentation and scientific analyses. This volume examines the lessons and effects of storytelling in democratic culture and political life, as it articulates our aspirations, communicates our fears, and criticizes our reality.

Power and the People

Author: Alev Scott

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2020-09-01

Total Pages: 151

ISBN-13: 1643135635

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Democracy was born in Athens. From the city's founding myths to its golden age and chaotic downfall, this timely and well-informed political history is rich with lessons for contemporary America. Why did vital civic engagement and fair debate in Athens descend into populism and paralysis? Can we compare the demagogue Cleon to President Trump; the Athenian Empire to modern America; or the stubborn island of Melos to Brexit Britain? How did a second referendum save the Athenians from a bloodthirsty decision? Who were the last defenders of democracy in the changing, globalized world of the fourth century BC—and how do we unconsciously echo these leaders today? With verve and acuity, the heroics and the critics of Athenian democracy are brought to bear on today's politics, revealing in all its glories and its flaws the system that still survives to execute the power of the people.

Taming Democracy

Author: Harvey Yunis

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-05-31

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13: 1501711377

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How does one speak to a large, diverse mass of ordinary, sovereign citizens and persuade them to render wise decisions? For Thucydides, Plato, and Demosthenes, who observed classical Athenian democracy in action, this was an urgent question. Harvey Yunis looks at how these three—historian, philosopher, politician respectively—explored the instructive potential of political rhetoric as a means of "taming democracy," Plato's metaphor for controlling the fractious demos through language. Yunis offers new insights into the ideas of the three thinkers: Thucydides' bipolar model of Periclean versus demagogic rhetoric; Plato's engagement with political rhetoric in the Gorgias, the Phaedrus, and the Laws; and Demosthenes' attempt both to instruct and to persuade his political audience. Yunis illuminates both the concrete historical problem of political deliberation in Athens and the intellectual and literary responses that the problem evoked. Few, if any, other books on classical Athens afford such a combination of perspectives from history, drama, philosophy, and politics. Writing with unusual clarity and cogency, Yunis translates all texts and explains the relevant issues. His book can profitably be read by anyone concerned with the issues at the heart of classical and contemporary democracy.

Allusion, Authority, and Truth

Author: Phillip Mitsis

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 469

ISBN-13: 3110245396

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Questions about how ancient Greek texts establish their authority, reflect on each other, and project their own truths have become central for a wide range of recent critical discourses. In this volume, an influential group of international scholars examines these themes in a variety of poetic and rhetorical genres. The result is a series of striking and original readings from different critical perspectives that display the centrality of these questions for understanding the poetic and rhetorical aims of ancient Greek texts. Characterized by a combination of close attention to philological detail and theoretical sophistication, the essays in this volume make a compelling case for this kind of focused, critically informed dialogue about the nature of ancient textual praxis. Students of classical literature will find a wealth of critical insights and challenging new readings of many familiar texts.

The Political Theory of Aristophanes

Author: Jeremy J. Mhire

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 2014-04-01

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1438450036

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Examines the political dimensions of Aristophanes comic poetry. This original and wide-ranging collection of essays offers, for the first time, a comprehensive examination of the political dimensions of that madcap comic poet Aristophanes. Rejecting the claim that Aristophanes is little more than a mere comedian, the contributors to this fascinating volume demonstrate that Aristophanes deserves to be placed in the ranks of the greatest Greek political thinkers. As these essays reveal, all of Aristophanes plays treat issues of fundamental political importance, from war and peace, poverty and wealth, the relation between the sexes, demagoguery and democracy to the role of philosophy and poetry in political society. Accessible to students as well as scholars, The Political Theory of Aristophanes can be utilized easily in the classroom, but at the same time serve as a valuable source for those conducting more advanced research. Whether the field is political philosophy, classical studies, history, or literary criticism, this work will make it necessary to reconceptualize how we understand this great Athenian poet and force us to recognize the political ramifications and underpinnings of his uproarious comedies.

The Facts on File Companion to Classical Drama

Author: John E. Thorburn

Publisher: Infobase Publishing

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 689

ISBN-13: 0816074984

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Surveys important Greek and Roman authors, plays, characters, genres, historical figures and more.

Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy XXX

Author: David Sedley

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2006-05-04

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 0199287473

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This volume of original articles covers diverse aspects of ancient philosophy, including the work of Plato, Aristotle, and the stoics.

The Sorrow and the Pity

Author: Brian M. Lavelle

Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 9783515063180

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Fifth century Athenians were expecially hostile to tyrants and tyranny as a result of Peisistratid treachery during the Persian Wars. Their hostility engendered a persistent refusal to acknowledge the truth of collaboration during the tyranny and so a revisionism which fundamentally affected the tradition about it. This study first examines the psychology of mass revisionism and of the early fifth century Athenians leading to their transfigurement of the tyrannicide/s; genos- and demos-traditions and topoi relating to the tyranny affirm and further define the distortion and deformative process affecting the historical record. This work aims to establish better bases for reconstructing Peisistratid history, but also for comprehending the psychology of Athenian antityrannism.

Ruling Bodies

Author: Robin Varma

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2022-05-23

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 1666907308

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This book is about an epochal shift in ideas that changed the nature and meaning of coercion in modern political thought. It begins with a review of Foucault, Arendt, and Habermas, and points out a discrepancy in the way each thinker understood coercion in modern politics. From here, Varma examines Plato’s Republic, Laws, and Gorgias to provide a framework and context for thinking about this. As the author shows, each work demonstrates a particular style of Platonic statecraft that corresponds to the amount of power the philosopher holds in a city. The Republic demonstrates the philosopher’s rule as a monarch; the Laws demonstrates his rule when he must share power with a few spirited statesmen; and the Gorgias demonstrates his rule in a democracy where power belongs to the people. Ultimately, Varma argues that the philosopher used coercion as a supplementary tool to help harmonize man’s soul with the heavens. When Hobbes recast the cosmos as matter in motion, however, power became the highest ordering principle for political life.