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Today We Examine the Contribupons of Classical, Ancient Greece To

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Today We Examine the Contribupons of Classical, Ancient Greece To Today we examine the contribu3ons of classical, ancient Greece to government, both in the championing of democracy and in the development of philosophy to address ques3ons of ethics and jus3ce. Plato, the Greek philosopher who studied under Socrates and who himself taught Aristotle, was one of the first ancient thinkers to ask: what is jus3ce? What is a just society? What is the proper func3on of government and which form of government is the best? 1 During the mid sixth century BCE, the Persian Empire expanded into Asia Minor, eventually conquering Ionia itself and installing tyrants to rule the Ionian city-states on their behalf. One of these tyrants aempted to conquer the island of Naxos in the Aegean and various Greek city-states, including Athens, helped repulse this invasion. This coali3on of city-states soon began to aid and encourage the Ionians to revolt against their Persian rulers. The revolt was defeated but the Persian ruler decided that Athens and the other Greek city-states must be punished for their role in suppor3ng the revolt. This first Persian invasion was defeated and turned back at the Bale of Marathon (490 BCE). Ten years later, the Persian king Xerxes returned with one of the largest armies ever assembled to complete the subjugaon of the Greeks. Despite early successes and despite vastly outnumbering the Greeks, the Persians under Xerxes were defeated at Salamis and Plataea and control of the Aegean Sea, the Greek Islands and parts of Asia Minor passed to this coali3on of Greek city-states led by Athens and Sparta. The Persian Wars gave Athens control of trade in the region and helped enrich many of her ci3zens. More money means more leisure and more 3me for scholarly pursuits amongst those so inclined. The Persian Wars, the Greek victory and the expansion of wealth allowed for the development of philosophy. 2 The two great states of ancient Greece were Athens and Sparta. The two cultures could not have been more different. Sparta was land-locked, in the middle of the Peloponnesus, a region of Greece. Sparta was ruled by an aristocrac elite who kept their power through the subjugaon of slaves, known as helots. Military excellence was the primary goal of Spartan educaon. Young boys were taken away from their mothers and sent to train and learn. They literally were kept naked un3l they had passed their first tests and earned the right to wear a cloak. Weakness, empathy and emo3on were discouraged. Young men were expected to find a mentor, an older man who would teach them how to be a produc3ve member of Spartan society. By age 30, if they survived, they became a full ci3zen and were expected to marry and have children. 3 Athens was a great port city and the commerce of all of Southwest Asia passed through her harbor. Sailors and merchants from all over the Mediterranean came here, bringing their customs, religion and knowledge with them. This cosmopolitan background made Athens the perfect place for philosophers to study and to teach. Commerce was the lifeblood of the Athenian economy and commercial disputes were sePled in court, where an Athenian ci3zen was expected to represent himself. A group of philosophers, known as Sophists, taught Athenians how to argue logically and how to speak eloquently. Their teaching services were in great demand and this demand for philosophers made Athens the center of knowledge in the Mediterranean world. 4 Athens was small enough that all the ci3zens (Greek men of property) could meet two or three 3mes a year to sePle various issues through a simple majority vote. This is a form of democracy known as direct democracy. Rather than have many elec3ons for every government posi3on, Athenians filled most official posi3ons through a loPery system (rather like our jury selec3on). Only the very top government offices were sePled through vo3ng. Athenians also had an interes3ng system called “ostracism”. If at least 6,000 Athenian ci3zens wrote your name on a potsherd (an “ostraka” in Greek), you had to leave Athens for ten years and could not come back upon pain of death. 5 Athens and Sparta fought each other for control of Greece and the Greek islands in the Mediterranean. These wars lasted thirty years and ended with a total victory by Sparta. Thirty pro-Spartan Athenians were given control of Athens – these men were called “The Thirty Tyrants” by the Athenians. The 30 Tyrants were opposed to democracy. One of the tyrants, Cri3as, was a student of the famous philosopher Socrates. When the 30 Tyrants are expelled and a pro-democracy government put in its place by the victorious Athenians, Socrates is considered to be an enemy of the state. He is put on trial for atheism and is condemned to death. He is allowed to drink hemock and commit suicide rather than be executed. This he does in 399 BCE. 6 Socrates was a philosopher who emphasized inner reflec3on and self-knowledge (“know thyself”). He felt true knowledge was difficult to come by (“One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing”). He came from humble stock and lived a simple life but his pupils were primarily from the party of aristocrats and oligarchs. The “Socrac Method” he is associated with - of drawing out answers with a series of connected ques3ons - comes from his habit of geng his pupils to precisely define their terms. Many of the Dialogues revolve around trying to figure out exactly what is meant by beauty, by jus3ce, etc. The Socrac method is concerned with precise defini3ons and in trying to find contradic3ons or inconsistencies. When Socrates reaches a point at which there are no more inconsistencies, he is close to the Truth. His main areas of focus: what is virtue and what is the best type of government? 7 The conflict between Plato and Aristotle evolves into a conflict between realists like Aristotle who think that universals are convenient categorical descriptors but have no independent existence versus nominalists like Plato who believe the universals are eternal and do indeed exist. Men come and go, but the idea of man is eternal, say the nominalist. The realist replies that only by examining many individual men can we hope to understand what is meant by “man”. Plato is working deduc3vely, from the top down, while Aristotle is proceeding induc3vely, from the boPom up. 8 “Science tells us how to heal and how to kill..but only wisdom - desire coordinated in the light of all experience - can tell us when to heal and when to kill” (Will Durant). Philosophy is the fron3er between what we know (science) and what we do not or cannot know. Philosophy is the “No Man’s Land” between science and religion. If ordinal knowledge involves sor3ng things from bePer to worse then philosophy provides the criteria we use in the sor3ng. 9 In all of these ques3ons, we first must define our terms. What do we mean by “good”? What do we mean by “free will”? Only through precise defini3ons can we hope to find effec3ve answers. 10 For this class, we will obviously spend most of our 3me in the area of ethics and poli3cs, using logic as our guide and guarantee of sound conclusions. It’s important to remember that ethics and poli3cs are indeed branches of philosophy. Most people tend to associate “philosophy” with metaphysics (what is real?) and epistemology (what do we know?). 11 This is the great debate that we will have over the en3rety of the course – are people basically good or basically evil? Of course, defining “good” and “evil” should be our first step! Plato subs3tuted “equal” for “good” and “unequal” for “evil”. You might also subs3tute “caring” for “good” and “selfish” for “evil”. Depending on your conclusion, you’ll want your government to match up. In a world of equal people who are caring and empathe3c, government should be small and democrac. You can count on people to do the right thing. In a world of unequal, selfish men – government should be run by the strongest and most capable. Aristocracy or oligarchy or monarchy would be your best choices. 12 The great ques3on of the Dialogs – whose voice are we hearing? Recall, the Dialogs were wriPen in the years aer the death of Socrates. So is Plato faithfully recreang the words of Socrates? Or is he inser3ng his own thoughts and words into the mouth of a character he calls Socrates? One of the core beliefs of Plato was the belief in the Universal or Ideal. Plato looked at, say, a chair and thought that we iden3fied this object as a “chair” because it had some quality of “chairness”. He further thought that there must be some unseen Perfect Chair that represented everything we meant when we said “chair” and that all the imperfect chairs we saw around us were just poor reflec3ons of that unseen, perfect chair. 13 Star3ng with jus3ce at the state level and then working our way down to the individual level is a top-down, deduc3ve approach. This is typical of Plato. 14 A great mystery that is s3ll with us today. Running a state is very complex and requires much skill – yet we assume (especially in a democracy) that anyone can do it. Our modern idea of term limits contradicts what Plato was trying to say regarding the need to have government run by experts. Strangely, we would never let an inexperienced newcomer repair our car or fix a leak in our sink – but to run a state, long-term experience (at least in the modern age) is seen as some sort of liability.
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