Democracy and Goodness

Democracy and Goodness PDF

Author: John R. Wallach

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-01-25

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 1108422578

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Proposes a new democratic theory, rooted in activity not consent, and intrinsically related to historical understandings of power and ethics.

Stability and Crisis in the Athenian Democracy

Stability and Crisis in the Athenian Democracy PDF

Author: Gabriel Herman

Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden gmbh

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9783515098670

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Was the Athenian democracy anarchic, given to domestic violence and hence unstable, as claimed by some scholars, or was it a stable, well-ordered, social system, provided with in-built mechanisms to overcome crisis? Various aspects of this question, central to the understanding of the Athenian democracy, are investigated in this volume by a team of distinguished experts. The often surprising answers they provide should be of interest to specialists as well as laymen. The volume is dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Alexander Fuks.

Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece

Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece PDF

Author: Joseph M. Bryant

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1996-01-01

Total Pages: 600

ISBN-13: 9780791430415

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An exercise in cultural sociology, Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece seeks to explicate the dynamic currents of classical Hellenic ethics and social philosophy by situating those idea-complexes in their socio-historical and intellectual contexts. Central to this enterprise is a comprehensive historical-sociological analysis of the Polis form of social organization, which charts the evolution of its basic institutions, roles, statuses, and class relations. From the Dark Age period of "genesis" on to the Hellenistic era of "eclipse" by the emergent forces of imperial patrimonialism, Polis society promoted and sustained corresponding normative codes which mobilized and channeled the requisite emotive commitments and cognitive judgments for functional proficiency under existing conditions of life. The aristocratic warrior-ethos canonized in the Homeric epics; the civic ideology of equality and justice espoused by reformist lawgivers and poets; the democratization of status honor and martial virtue that attended the shift to hoplite warfare; the philosophical exaltation of the Polis-citizen bond as found in the architectonic visions of Plato and Aristotle; and the subsequent retreat from civic virtues and the interiorization of value articulated by the Skeptics, Epicureans, and Stoics, new age philosophies in a world remade by Alexander's conquests--these are the key phases in the evolving currents of Hellenic moral discourse, as structurally framed by transformations within the institutional matrix of Polis society.

Moral Values and Political Behaviour in Ancient Greece: From Homer to the End of the Fifth Century

Moral Values and Political Behaviour in Ancient Greece: From Homer to the End of the Fifth Century PDF

Author: A. W. H. Adkins

Publisher: W. W. Norton

Published: 1976-09

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 9780393008265

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In this book, Professor Adkins undertakes an examination of certain key value-words in the period between Homer and the end of the fifth century. The behavior of these words both affected and was affected by the nature of the society in which their usage developed. The author shows how only with a complete understanding of the implications and significance of these value-words can the essence of the Greeks and their society be grasped.

The Limits of Altruism in Democratic Athens

The Limits of Altruism in Democratic Athens PDF

Author: Matthew Robert Christ

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2012-10-08

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 1107029775

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Examines the behavior of Athenians in the classical period, arguing that Athenians felt little pressure as individuals to help fellow citizens.

Athenian Political Thought and the Reconstitution of American Democracy

Athenian Political Thought and the Reconstitution of American Democracy PDF

Author: J. Peter Euben

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2018-07-05

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 1501723995

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In the contemporary United States the image and experience of Athenian democracy has been appropriated to justify a profoundly conservative political and educational agenda. Such is the conviction expressed in this provocative book, which is certain to arouse widespread comment and discussion. What does it mean to be a citizen in a democracy? Indeed, how do we educate for democracy? These questions are addressed here by thirteen historians, classicists, and political theorists, who critically examine ancient Greek history and institutions, texts, and ideas in light of today's political practices and values. They do not idealize ancient Greek democracy. Rather, they use it, with all its faults, as a basis for measuring the strengths and shortcomings of American democracy. In the hands of the authors, ancient Greek sources become partners in an educational dialogue about democracy's past, one that goads us to think about the limitations of democracy's present and to imagine enriched possibilities for its future. The authors are diverse in their opinions and in their political and moral commitments. But they share the view that insulating American democracy from radical criticism encourages a dangerous complacency that Athenian political thought can disrupt.