Thucydides and the Philosophical Origins of History

Thucydides and the Philosophical Origins of History PDF Author: Darien Shanske
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139460730
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 45

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Book Description
This book addresses the question of how and why history begins with the work of Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War is distinctive in that it is a prose narrative, meant to be read rather than performed. It focuses on the unfolding of contemporary great power politics to the exclusion of almost all other elements of human life, including the divine. The power of Thucydides' text has never been attributed either to the charm of its language or to the entertainment value of its narrative, or to some personal attribute of the author. In this study, Darien Shanske analyzes the difficult language and structure of Thucydides' History and argues that the text has drawn in so many readers into its distinctive world view precisely because of its kinship to the contemporary language and structure of Classical Tragedy. This kinship is not merely a matter of shared vocabulary or even aesthetic sensibility. Rather, it is grounded in a shared philosophical position, in particular on the polemical metaphysics of Heraclitus.

Thucydides and the Philosophical Origins of History

Thucydides and the Philosophical Origins of History PDF Author: Darien Shanske
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139460730
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 45

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Book Description
This book addresses the question of how and why history begins with the work of Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War is distinctive in that it is a prose narrative, meant to be read rather than performed. It focuses on the unfolding of contemporary great power politics to the exclusion of almost all other elements of human life, including the divine. The power of Thucydides' text has never been attributed either to the charm of its language or to the entertainment value of its narrative, or to some personal attribute of the author. In this study, Darien Shanske analyzes the difficult language and structure of Thucydides' History and argues that the text has drawn in so many readers into its distinctive world view precisely because of its kinship to the contemporary language and structure of Classical Tragedy. This kinship is not merely a matter of shared vocabulary or even aesthetic sensibility. Rather, it is grounded in a shared philosophical position, in particular on the polemical metaphysics of Heraclitus.

The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides

The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides PDF Author: Ryan Balot
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190647744
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 801

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Book Description
The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides contains newly commissioned essays on Thucydides as an historian, thinker, and writer. It also features chapters on Thucydides' intellectual context and ancient reception. The creative juxtaposition of historical, literary, philosophical, and reception studies allows for a better grasp of Thucydides' complex project and its intellectual context, while at the same time providing a comprehensive introduction to the author's ideas. The volume is organized into four sections of papers: History, Historiography, Political Theory, and Context and Reception. It therefore bridges traditionally divided disciplines. The authors engaged to write the forty chapters for this volume include both well-known scholars and less well-known innovators, who bring fresh ideas and new points of view. Articles avoid technical jargon and long footnotes, and are written in an accessible style. Finally, the volume includes a thorough introduction prefacing each paper, as well as several maps and an up-to-date bibliography that will enable further study. The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides offers a comprehensive introduction to a thinker and writer whose simultaneous depth and innovativeness have been the focus of intense literary and philosophical study since ancient times.

The Landmark Thucydides

The Landmark Thucydides PDF Author: Thucydides
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416590870
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 760

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Book Description
Chronicles two decades of war between Athens and Sparta.

Thucydides on History as Philosophy

Thucydides on History as Philosophy PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 4

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Book Description


The Essential Thucydides

The Essential Thucydides PDF Author: Thucydides
Publisher: Hackett Publishing Company
ISBN: 9781647920326
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Thucydides was the first ancient Greek historian to double as a social scientist. He set out to understand human events entirely in human terms, without recourse to myth. He sought to know why people go to war and how they are affected by its violence. He studied the civil war in Corcyra, which began when radicals burst into the council house and killed leaders who favored democracy. The strengths and weaknesses of democracy are a major theme of his History. Its larger story shows how the Athenians tried to expand their empire too far and came to a crushing defeat. Here are vivid stories of land and sea battles, interspersed with fascinating and disturbing debates about war and policy. All of Thucydides's History is here, either in summary or translation, in a volume short enough for a wide readership. This Second Edition is expanded to include all the important debates and battle scenes, and the entire translation has been revised in accord with the latest scholarship. The Essential Thucydides (Hackett, fall 2021) is the second edition of Paul Woodruff's On Justice, Power, and Human Nature: Selections from The History of the Peloponnesian War (first published by Hackett Publishing Company in 1993, paperback ISBN 978-0-87220-168-2, cloth ISBN 978-0-87220-169-9).

Thucydides Mythistoricus

Thucydides Mythistoricus PDF Author: Francis M. Cornford
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812210212
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
This book falls into two parts: Thucydides Historicus and Thucydides Mythicus. In the first, Francis M. Cornford attempts to prove the inadequacy of Thucydides's account of the origins of the Peloponnesian War and develops a very different theory of its causes. In the second part he attempts to answer the question why Thucydides has told us so little about the War that we find accurate, consistent, or relevant.

Thucydides and the Science of History

Thucydides and the Science of History PDF Author: Charles Norris Cochrane
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description


Thucydides and the Pursuit of Freedom

Thucydides and the Pursuit of Freedom PDF Author: Mary P. Nichols
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 080145557X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
In Thucydides and the Pursuit of Freedom, Mary P. Nichols argues for the centrality of the idea of freedom in Thucydides' thought. Through her close reading of his History of the Peloponnesian War, she explores the manifestations of this theme. Cities and individuals in Thucydides' history take freedom as their goal, whether they claim to possess it and want to maintain it or whether they desire to attain it for themselves or others. Freedom is the goal of both antagonists in the Peloponnesian War, Sparta and Athens, although in different ways. One of the fullest expressions of freedom can be seen in the rhetoric of Thucydides’ Pericles, especially in his famous funeral oration. More than simply documenting the struggle for freedom, however, Thucydides himself is taking freedom as his cause. On the one hand, he demonstrates that freedom makes possible human excellence, including courage, self-restraint, deliberation, and judgment, which support freedom in turn. On the other hand, the pursuit of freedom, in one’s own regime and in the world at large, clashes with interests and material necessity, and indeed the very passions required for its support. Thucydides’ work, which he himself considered a possession for all time, therefore speaks very much to our time, encouraging the defense of freedom while warning of the limits and dangers in doing so. The powerful must defend freedom, Thucydides teaches, but beware that the cost not become freedom itself.

Thucydides and Political Order

Thucydides and Political Order PDF Author: Christian R. Thauer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137527757
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book, the second of two monographs, consists of contributions by world-class scholars on Thucydides' legacy to the political process. It also includes a careful examination of the usefulness and efficacy of the interdisciplinary approach to political order in the ancient world and proposes new paths for the future study.

Thucydides Mythistoricus (Routledge Revivals)

Thucydides Mythistoricus (Routledge Revivals) PDF Author: F. M. Cornford
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317687523
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
First published in 1907 and reissued in 1965, this is a fascinating study of Thucydides’s History. Thucydides set out to write a truthful account of the Pelopennesian war, but his work reflects his Athenian fourth-century B.C. context, which was of a particular interest to Cornford. In this fascinating title, Cornford analyses the causes of the war as shown by Thucydides and other sources, and then goes on to comment on the History.