The Political Thought of Xenophon

The Political Thought of Xenophon PDF Author: Dustin Gish
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781845402631
Category : Philosophy, Ancient
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
This special issue of Polis, dedicated to the political thought of Xenophon, springs from the lively panels on Xenophon sponsored by the Society for Greek Political Thought at the Northeastern Political Science Association annual meetings. These panels bring together and encourage dialogue between scholars from varied backgrounds, in particular classicists, philosophers and political scientists, all groups with great interest in Xenophon, though often for different reasons. This volume contains a brief introduction, nine papers and five book reviews, and unites diverse participants in their desire to better understand Xenophon as a political philosopher.

The Political Thought of Xenophon

The Political Thought of Xenophon PDF Author: Dustin Gish
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781845402631
Category : Philosophy, Ancient
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book Here

Book Description
This special issue of Polis, dedicated to the political thought of Xenophon, springs from the lively panels on Xenophon sponsored by the Society for Greek Political Thought at the Northeastern Political Science Association annual meetings. These panels bring together and encourage dialogue between scholars from varied backgrounds, in particular classicists, philosophers and political scientists, all groups with great interest in Xenophon, though often for different reasons. This volume contains a brief introduction, nine papers and five book reviews, and unites diverse participants in their desire to better understand Xenophon as a political philosopher.

Socrates Founding Political Philosophy in Xenophon's "Economist", "Symposium", and "Apology"

Socrates Founding Political Philosophy in Xenophon's Author: Thomas L. Pangle
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022664247X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
The oeuvre of the Greek historian Xenophon, whose works stand with those of Plato as essential accounts of the teachings of Socrates, has seen a new surge of attention after decades in the shadows. And no one has done more in recent years to spearhead the revival than Thomas L. Pangle. Here, Pangle provides a sequel to his study of Xenophon’s longest account of Socrates, the Memorabilia, expanding the scope of inquiry through an incisive treatment of Xenophon’s shorter Socratic dialogues, the Economist, the Symposium, and the Apology of Socrates to the Jury. What Pangle reveals is that these three depictions of Socrates complement and, in fact, serve to complete the Memorabilia in meaningful ways. Unlike the Socrates of Plato, Xenophon’s Socrates is more complicated and human, an individual working out the problem of what it means to live well and virtuously. While the Memorabilia defends Socrates by stressing his likeness to conventionally respectable gentlemen, Xenophon’s remaining Socratic texts offer a more nuanced characterization by highlighting how Socrates also diverges from conventions of gentlemanliness in his virtues, behaviors, and peculiar views of quotidian life and governmental rule. One question threads through the three writings: Which way of life best promotes human existence, politics, and economics—that of the Socratic political philosopher with his philosophic virtues or that of the gentleman with his familial, civic, and moral virtues? In uncovering the nuances of Xenophon’s approach to the issue in the Economist, Symposium, and Apology, Pangle’s book cements the significance of these writings for the field and their value for shaping a fuller conception of just who Socrates was and what he taught.

The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon

The Cambridge Companion to Xenophon PDF Author: Michael A. Flower
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107050065
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 545

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Book Description
Introduces Xenophon's writings and their importance for Western culture, while explaining the main scholarly controversies.

Xenophon the Socratic Prince

Xenophon the Socratic Prince PDF Author: E. Buzzetti
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137325925
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
An interpretation of Xenophon's Anabasis of Cyrus, paralleling the text to Machiavelli's The Prince, and focusing on the question: How did the Socratic education help Xenophon reconcile morality with effectiveness, the noble with the good, as a ruler?

The Shorter Socratic Writings

The Shorter Socratic Writings PDF Author: Xenophon
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801472985
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
This book presents translations of three dialogues Xenophon devoted to the life and thought of his teacher, Socrates. Each is accompanied by notes and an interpretative essay that will introduce new readers to Xenophon and foster further reflection in those familiar with his writing. "Apology of Socrates to the Jury" shows how Socrates conducted himself when he was tried on the capital charge of not believing in the city's gods and corrupting the young. Although Socrates did not secure his own acquittal, he profoundly impressed some listeners who then helped to shape the public perception of philosophy as a noble, if highly idiosyncratic, way of life. In "Oeconomicus," Xenophon relates the conversation Socrates had on the day he turned from the study of natural philosophy to that of moral and political matters. "Oeconomicus" is concerned most directly with the character and purpose of Socrates' political philosophy. Xenophon provides entertaining portraits of Socrates' circle of friends in the "Symposium." In the process, he conveys the source of every individual's pride in himself, thus defining for each a conception of human excellence or virtue. The dialogue concludes with Socrates' beautiful speech on love (eros) and its proper place in the good or happy life.

Greek Political Thought

Greek Political Thought PDF Author: Ryan K. Balot
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1405152214
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This wide-ranging history of ancient Greek political thought showswhat ancient political texts might mean to citizens of thetwenty-first century. A provocative and wide-ranging history of ancient Greekpolitical thought Demonstrates what ancient Greek works of political philosophymight mean to citizens of the twenty-first century Examines an array of poetic, historical, and philosophicaltexts in an effort to locate Greek political thought in itscultural context Pays careful attention to the distinctively ancient connectionsbetween politics and ethics Structured around key themes such as the origins of politicalthought, political self-definition, revolutions in politicalthought, democracy and imperialism

Xenophon on Government

Xenophon on Government PDF Author: Xenophon
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521581540
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 12

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Book Description
Xenophon of Athens was a pupil of Socrates and a philosopher in his own right. He wrote two of the texts included in this volume, the Hiero (On Tyranny) and the Constitution of the Spartans. The third, the Constitution of the Athenians, is found under Xenophon's name alongside the other two in the manuscripts. The works represent three distinct types of government (the rule of one man in tyranny and kingship, the rule of law in the mixed constitution of the Spartans, and the rule of the masses in the Athenian democracy), but there are common features throughout. This volume presents an introduction discussing Xenophon's views on government in the context of his general political thought, drawing particularly on his Socratic work Memorabilia, and a commentary on the Greek text of each work aimed primarily at advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

The Socratic Way of Life

The Socratic Way of Life PDF Author: Thomas L. Pangle
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022651692X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
The Socratic Way of Life is the first English-language book-length study of the philosopher Xenophon’s masterwork. In it, Thomas L. Pangle shows that Xenophon depicts more authentically than does Plato the true teachings and way of life of the citizen philosopher Socrates, founder of political philosophy. In the first part of the book, Pangle analyzes Xenophon’s defense of Socrates against the two charges of injustice upon which he was convicted by democratic Athens: impiety and corruption of the youth. In the second part, Pangle analyzes Xenophon’s account of how Socrates’s life as a whole was just, in the sense of helping through his teaching a wide range of people. Socrates taught by never ceasing to raise, and to progress in answering, the fundamental and enduring civic questions: what is pious and impious, noble and ignoble, just and unjust, genuine statesmanship and genuine citizenship. Inspired by Hegel’s and Nietzsche’s assessments of Xenophon as the true voice of Socrates, The Socratic Way of Life establishes the Memorabilia as the groundwork of all subsequent political philosophy.

Eros and Polis

Eros and Polis PDF Author: Paul W. Ludwig
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139434179
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Eros and Polis examines how and why Greek theorists treated political passions as erotic. Because of the tiny size of ancient Greek cities, contemporary theory and ideology could conceive of entire communities based on desire. A recurrent aspiration was to transform the polity into one great household that would bind the citizens together through ties of mutual affection. In this study, Paul Ludwig evaluates sexuality, love and civic friendship as sources of political attachment and as bonds of political association. Studying the ancient view of eros recovers a way of looking at political phenomena that provides a bridge, missing in modern thought, between the private and public spheres, between erotic love and civic commitment. Ludwig's study thus has important implications for the theoretical foundations of community.

Xenophon's Socratic Education

Xenophon's Socratic Education PDF Author: Dustin Sebell
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812252853
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
A careful reading of Book IV of Xenophon's Memorabilia and a demonstration of a Socratic education It is well known that Socrates was executed by the city of Athens for not believing in the gods and for corrupting the youth. Despite this, it is not widely known what he really thought, or taught the youth to think, about philosophy, the gods, and political affairs. Of the few authors we rely on for firsthand knowledge of Socrates—Aristophanes, Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle—only Xenophon, the least read of the four, lays out the whole Socratic education in systematic order. In Xenophon's Socratic Education, through a careful reading of Book IV of Xenophon's Memorabilia, Dustin Sebell shows how Socrates ascended, with his students in tow, from opinions about morality or politics and religion to knowledge of such things. Besides revealing what it was that Socrates really thought—about everything from self-knowledge to happiness, natural theology to natural law, and rhetoric to dialectic—Sebell demonstrates how Socrates taught promising youths, like Xenophon or Plato, only indirectly: by jokingly teaching unpromising youths in their presence. Sebell ultimately shows how Socrates, the founder of moral and political philosophy, sought and found an answer to the all-important question: should we take our bearings in life from human reason, or revealed religion?