Morality and Behaviour in Democratic Athens

Morality and Behaviour in Democratic Athens PDF Author: Gabriel Herman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521850215
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
Provides a model for societal behaviour and morality in ancient Athens.

Morality and Behaviour in Democratic Athens

Morality and Behaviour in Democratic Athens PDF Author: Gabriel Herman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521850215
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
Provides a model for societal behaviour and morality in ancient Athens.

Stability and Crisis in the Athenian Democracy

Stability and Crisis in the Athenian Democracy PDF Author: Gabriel Herman
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden gmbh
ISBN: 9783515098670
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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Book Description
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.

Democracy and Goodness

Democracy and Goodness PDF Author: John R. Wallach
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108422578
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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

Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece

Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece PDF Author: Joseph M. Bryant
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 9780791430415
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 600

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Book Description
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.

The Limits of Altruism in Democratic Athens

The Limits of Altruism in Democratic Athens PDF Author: Matthew Robert Christ
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107029775
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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

Political Dissent in Democratic Athens

Political Dissent in Democratic Athens PDF Author: Josiah Ober
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691089817
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Since it was no longer self-evident that "better men" meant "better government," critics of democracy sought new arguments to explain the relationship among politics, ethics, and morality.

Athenian Legacies

Athenian Legacies PDF Author: Josiah Ober
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691133948
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
How do communities survive catastrophe? Using classical Athens as its case study, this book argues that if a democratic community is to survive over time, its people must choose to go on together. That choice often entails hardship and hard bargains. In good times, going on together presents few difficulties. But in the face of loss, disruption, and civil war, it requires tragic sacrifices and agonizing compromises. Athenian Legacies demonstrates with flair and verve how the people of one influential political community rebuilt their democratic government, rewove their social fabric, and, through thick and thin, went on together. The book's essays address amnesty, civic education, and institutional innovation in early Athens, a city that built and lost an empire while experiencing plague, war, economic trauma, and civil conflict. As Ober vividly demonstrates, Athenians became adept at collective survival. They conjoined a cultural commitment to government by the people with new institutions that captured the social and technical knowledge of a diverse population to recover from revolution, foreign occupation, and the ravages of war. Ober provides insight into notorious instances of Athenian injustice, explaining why slaves, women, and foreign residents willingly risked their lives to support a regime in which they were systematically mistreated. He answers the question of why Socrates never left a city he said was badly governed. At a time when social scientists debate the cultural grounding necessary to foster democracy, Athenian Legacies advances new arguments about the role of diversity and the relevance of shared understanding of the past in creating democracies that flourish when the going gets rough.

The Life of Alcibiades

The Life of Alcibiades PDF Author: Jacqueline de Romilly
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501739964
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
This biography of Alcibiades, the charismatic Athenian statesman and general (c. 450–404 BC) who achieved both renown and infamy during the Peloponnesian War, is both an extraordinary adventure story and a cautionary tale that reveals the dangers that political opportunism and demagoguery pose to democracy. As Jacqueline de Romilly brilliantly documents, Alcibiades's life is one of wanderings and vicissitudes, promises and disappointments, brilliant successes and ruinous defeats. Born into a wealthy and powerful family in Athens, Alcibiades was a student of Socrates and disciple of Pericles, and he seemed destined to dominate the political life of his city—and his tumultuous age. Romilly shows, however, that he was too ambitious. Haunted by financial and sexual intrigues and political plots, Alcibiades was exiled from Athens, sentenced to death, recalled to his homeland, only to be exiled again. He defected from Athens to Sparta and from Sparta to Persia and then from Persia back to Athens, buffeted by scandal after scandal, most of them of his own making. A gifted demagogue and, according to his contemporaries, more handsome than the hero Achilles, Alcibiades is also a strikingly modern figure, whose seductive celebrity and dangerous ambition anticipated current crises of leadership.

Revenge in Athenian Culture

Revenge in Athenian Culture PDF Author: Fiona McHardy
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0715635697
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
Revenge was an all important part of the ancient Athenian mentality, intruding on all forms of life - even where we might not expect to find it today. Revenge was of prime importance as a means of survival for the people of early Greece and remained in force as a ‘cultural emotion’ during the rise of the poleis, even when the socio-political situation allowed people to live together more peaceably. A key reason for this was the concept of revenge as ‘justice’, which survived strongly in Athens even after the rise of the law-courts. Only the radical thoughts of Plato suggested that revenge was immoral and did not constitute justice. Nevertheless, this does not mean that all forms of revenge were seen as equally acceptable in Athens. Through a close examination of the texts, a more complex picture of how the Athenian people viewed revenge emerges.

Courtesans and Fishcakes

Courtesans and Fishcakes PDF Author: James N. Davidson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226137430
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
As any reader of the Symposium knows, the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates conversed over lavish banquets, kept watch on who was eating too much fish, and imbibed liberally without ever getting drunk. In other words, James Davidson writes, he reflected the culture of ancient Greece in which he lived, a culture of passions and pleasures, of food, drink, and sex before—and in concert with—politics and principles. Athenians, the richest and most powerful of the Greeks, were as skilled at consuming as their playwrights were at devising tragedies. Weaving together Greek texts, critical theory, and witty anecdotes, this compelling and accessible study teaches the reader a great deal, not only about the banquets and temptations of ancient Athens, but also about how to read Greek comedy and history.