Plato's Dialogues. Part I
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Historically Speaking
Historically Speaking Marathon at 2,500 ugust 12 marks an accepted date for By BG John S. Brown Greeks recently conquered by Persia rose the 2,500th anniversary of the Battle in revolt. Athens and the tiny city-state of A U.S. Army retired of Marathon, although the actual date Eretria attempted to assist, but the Per- may instead be September 12, depending upon how one sians utterly crushed the Ionians. Darius resolved to crush interprets the Lacedaemonian lunisolar calendar. The most Athens and Eretria as well and to bring the European Greeks notable commemoration will probably be the Athens into his orbit. Had he succeeded, he would have snuffed out Marathon this year, and other marathons around the world the democratic experiment, independent Hellenic civiliza- will undoubtedly take notice as well. Ironically, the ardu- tion and Greek national identity with a single stroke. ous 26-mile race is based upon an athletic performance by After preliminary operations in Thrace and Macedonia, the legendary Philippides that may not have actually oc- Darius launched a naval expedition directly across the curred. The battle itself did occur and is rightly regarded Aegean Sea. Securing—or devastating—islands en route, as among the most decisive in history. Marathon is ar- the Persians sacked Eretria and landed an army more than guably the first major battle for which we have a reliable twice the size of what Athens could muster in the sheltered record, provided largely by the world’s first actual histo- Bay of Marathon. Hippias recommended the spot, both be- rian, Herodotus. -
Who Freed Athens? J
Ancient Greek Democracy: Readings and Sources Edited by Eric W. Robinson Copyright © 2004 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd The Beginnings of the Athenian Democracv: Who Freed Athens? J Introduction Though the very earliest democracies lildy took shape elsewhere in Greece, Athens embraced it relatively early and would ultimately become the most famous and powerful democracy the ancient world ever hew. Democracy is usually thought to have taken hold among the Athenians with the constitutional reforms of Cleisthenes, ca. 508/7 BC. The tyrant Peisistratus and later his sons had ruled Athens for decades before they were overthrown; Cleisthenes, rallying the people to his cause, made sweeping changes. These included the creation of a representative council (bode)chosen from among the citizens, new public organizations that more closely tied citizens throughout Attica to the Athenian state, and the populist ostracism law that enabled citizens to exile danger- ous or undesirable politicians by vote. Beginning with these measures, and for the next two centuries or so with only the briefest of interruptions, democracy held sway at Athens. Such is the most common interpretation. But there is, in fact, much room for disagree- ment about when and how democracy came to Athens. Ancient authors sometimes refer to Solon, a lawgiver and mediator of the early sixth century, as the founder of the Athenian constitution. It was also a popular belief among the Athenians that two famous “tyrant-slayers,” Harmodius and Aristogeiton, inaugurated Athenian freedom by assas- sinating one of the sons of Peisistratus a few years before Cleisthenes’ reforms - though ancient writers take pains to point out that only the military intervention of Sparta truly ended the tyranny. -
Marathon 2,500 Years Edited by Christopher Carey & Michael Edwards
MARATHON 2,500 YEARS EDITED BY CHRISTOPHER CAREY & MICHAEL EDWARDS INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON MARATHON – 2,500 YEARS BULLETIN OF THE INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SUPPLEMENT 124 DIRECTOR & GENERAL EDITOR: JOHN NORTH DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS: RICHARD SIMPSON MARATHON – 2,500 YEARS PROCEEDINGS OF THE MARATHON CONFERENCE 2010 EDITED BY CHRISTOPHER CAREY & MICHAEL EDWARDS INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 2013 The cover image shows Persian warriors at Ishtar Gate, from before the fourth century BC. Pergamon Museum/Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin. Photo Mohammed Shamma (2003). Used under CC‐BY terms. All rights reserved. This PDF edition published in 2019 First published in print in 2013 This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0) license. More information regarding CC licenses is available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Available to download free at http://www.humanities-digital-library.org ISBN: 978-1-905670-81-9 (2019 PDF edition) DOI: 10.14296/1019.9781905670819 ISBN: 978-1-905670-52-9 (2013 paperback edition) ©2013 Institute of Classical Studies, University of London The right of contributors to be identified as the authors of the work published here has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Designed and typeset at the Institute of Classical Studies TABLE OF CONTENTS Introductory note 1 P. J. Rhodes The battle of Marathon and modern scholarship 3 Christopher Pelling Herodotus’ Marathon 23 Peter Krentz Marathon and the development of the exclusive hoplite phalanx 35 Andrej Petrovic The battle of Marathon in pre-Herodotean sources: on Marathon verse-inscriptions (IG I3 503/504; Seg Lvi 430) 45 V. -
The Family Connection of Alcibiades and Axiochus , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 27:2 (1986:Summer) P.173
STANLEY, PHILLIP V., The Family Connection of Alcibiades and Axiochus , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 27:2 (1986:Summer) p.173 The Family Connection of Alcibiades and Axiochus Phillip V. Stanley LTHOUGH THE ANCESTRY of the Athenian general Alcibiades A III remains obscure for the sixth century, his genealogy is as sumed to be secure for the fifth. The descent of the family from Alcibiades I to Alcibiades IV has been reconstructed by Vander pool in the following way:l Alcibiades J2 I Cleinias I I Alcibiades II I I Axiochus Cleinias II I I I I Cleinias III Alcibiades III Cleinias IV I Alcibiades IV I E. Vanderpool, "The Ostracism of the Elder Alcibiades," Hesperia 21 (I952) 1-8, esp. 6. Cr. M. B. Wallace, "Early Greek Proxenoi," Phoenix 24 (I 970) 196f; 1. K. DAVIES, Athenian Propertied Families (Oxford 1971 [hereafter APF)) 10-12. According to Isoc. 16.25f (delivered by Alcibiades IV, son of the general), Alcibiades I, the ally of Cleisthenes when he expelled Hippias from Athens, was the great-grandfather (1TpO- 1Ta1T1To~) of Alcibiades III. The general difficulty stems from the apparent need to reduce the number of generations separating Alcibiades I from Alcibiades III, believed to be five: if the number is not reduced, Alcibiades I would actually be the great-great grandfather of the general. 2 Roman numerals are those assigned in PA and APF. These numerals will continue to be used even when homonyms are added to the family's genealogy. In order to avoid the confusion that might result if a major overhaul of the numerical system for this family were attempted, and to preserve the numerical descent established for the branch of the family to which Alcibiades III belongs, the newly identified individual will be assigned the next available Roman numeral, even though he may be earlier than an individual with the same name whose number is lower. -
On the Arrangement of the Platonic Dialogues
Ryan C. Fowler 25th Hour On the Arrangement of the Platonic Dialogues I. Thrasyllus a. Diogenes Laertius (D.L.), Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers 3.56: “But, just as long ago in tragedy the chorus was the only actor, and afterwards, in order to give the chorus breathing space, Thespis devised a single actor, Aeschylus a second, Sophocles a third, and thus tragedy was completed, so too with philosophy: in early times it discoursed on one subject only, namely physics, then Socrates added the second subject, ethics, and Plato the third, dialectics, and so brought philosophy to perfection. Thrasyllus says that he [Plato] published his dialogues in tetralogies, like those of the tragic poets. Thus they contended with four plays at the Dionysia, the Lenaea, the Panathenaea and the festival of Chytri. Of the four plays the last was a satiric drama; and the four together were called a tetralogy.” b. Characters or types of dialogues (D.L. 3.49): 1. instructive (ὑφηγητικός) A. theoretical (θεωρηµατικόν) a. physical (φυσικόν) b. logical (λογικόν) B. practical (πρακτικόν) a. ethical (ἠθικόν) b. political (πολιτικόν) 2. investigative (ζητητικός) A. training the mind (γυµναστικός) a. obstetrical (µαιευτικός) b. tentative (πειραστικός) B. victory in controversy (ἀγωνιστικός) a. critical (ἐνδεικτικός) b. subversive (ἀνατρεπτικός) c. Thrasyllan categories of the dialogues (D.L. 3.50-1): Physics: Timaeus Logic: Statesman, Cratylus, Parmenides, and Sophist Ethics: Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Symposium, Menexenus, Clitophon, the Letters, Philebus, Hipparchus, Rivals Politics: Republic, the Laws, Minos, Epinomis, Atlantis Obstetrics: Alcibiades 1 and 2, Theages, Lysis, Laches Tentative: Euthyphro, Meno, Io, Charmides and Theaetetus Critical: Protagoras Subversive: Euthydemus, Gorgias, and Hippias 1 and 2 :1 d. -
Transcript of “The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization” Episode One: “The Birth of Democracy”
Transcript of “The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization” Episode One: “The Birth of Democracy” Transcript of PBS Video - The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization Part 1 – The Birth of Democracy 0:00 – Series Introduction: The Significance of the Greeks The Greeks. A people glorious and arrogant, valiant and headstrong. These were the men and women who laid the very foundations of Western Civilization. Their monuments still recall perhaps the most extraordinary two centuries in history, a time that saw the birth of science and politics, philosophy, literature and drama. [A time that] saw the creation of art and architecture we still strive to equal. And the Greeks achieved all this against a backdrop of war and conflict, for they would vanquish armies, navies, and empires many times their size, and build an empire of their own which stretched across the Mediterranean. For one brief moment, the mighty warships of the Greeks ruled the seas, their prosperity unequalled. These achievements, achievements which still shape our world, were made not by figures lost to time, but by men and women whose voices we can still hear, whose lives we can follow, men such as Themistocles, one of the world’s greatest military generals; Pericles, a politician of vision and genius; and Socrates, the most famous philosopher in history. This is the story of these astonishing individuals, of the rise and fall of a civilization that changed the world. 2:35 – Episode Introduction: The Revolution 508 BC. Five centuries before the birth of Christ. In a town called Athens, a tiny city in mainland Greece, pandemonium ruled the streets. -
Revised New Summary of Philebus
New Summary of Philebus REVISED 1. (11) Philebus maintains that pleasure, enjoyment, rejoicing, and their kind, are the best things for all animals, while Socrates maintains, for those able to partake of them, wisdom, mind, memory, and their kind, are the best. Each side must agree that it is a condition and disposition of soul that produces happiness. Stipulation: if some other life superior to both is found, then the victor will be he whose champion is closer to this hypothetical best life. a. (12c) Problem: are pleasure and likewise knowledge, both like and unlike themselves, because they each have various aspects and shapes? And are some of these shapes bad and some good? b. (14c) We must investigate this question with the aid of the principle that the one is many and the many are one. This is obvious and common property when applied to things that come to be and perish, but when applied to things like man, ox, beauty, and good, there are perplexities. i. (15b) The perplexities (there is unclarity about exactly what these three questions are): 1. Do such unities exist? 2. How do they, while remaining themselves, enter the domain of becoming? 3. How are they both one and many? ii. (15d) The identification of the one with the many arises everwhere from the nature of discourse itself—it entrances the young. iii. (16c) A gift of the gods: all things contain limit and the unlimited. We must not pass from the one to the infinite too quickly or slowly, but instead note all the intermediate numbers. -
Cleisthenes Knows That for His Revolution to Succeed, It Must Give People Sufficient Incentive to Participate in It to Make It
First Draft (Incomplete) Kleisthenes and the Ascent of Democracy Krishna K. Ladha <[email protected]> Department of Politics, New York University, New York, NY 10003 Abstract Who is Kleisthenes? What is democracy? How did it come into being? Kleisthenes conceived democracy as a strategy to attain power by proposing the Athenian constitution as an instrument of a lasting compromise between two militarily equipped factions of Athens: the hoplites and the nobility. Based on the history of Athens, this paper formulates a dynamic game of complete information that Kleisthenes faced in the sixth century BCE. The innovative solution to the game is a new system of government: democracy. To implement democracy, Kleisthenes faced two problems: the problem of constitution design and the problem of factions that lay beyond constitution. The solution to the first is the Athenian constitution, and the solution to the second is the tribal reform. The main accomplishments of the Athenian democracy are the following: (a) it offered domestic peace, economic well being, and the capability to withstand or dominate foreign powers, and (b) it was self-enforcing. The paper seeks to highlight Kleisthenes’s thinking, a thinking that reflects a great command of the economics of information, mechanism design and game theory. 1 October 2003 Kleisthenes and the Ascent of Democracy Krishna K. Ladha [email protected] Department of Politics, New York University, New York, NY 10003 Cleisthenes … [established] laws and a constitution that was admirably balanced so as to promote harmony between the citizens and security for the whole state. Plutarh (1960, p. 167) Introduction Kleisthenes installed democracy in Athens in 507 BCE. -
ARISTOTLE and the IMPORTANCE of VIRTUE in the CONTEXT of the POLITICS and the NICOMACHEAN ETHICS and ITS RELATION to TODAY Kyle Brandon Anthony Bucknell University
Bucknell University Bucknell Digital Commons Honors Theses Student Theses 2010 ARISTOTLE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE POLITICS AND THE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS AND ITS RELATION TO TODAY Kyle Brandon Anthony Bucknell University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Anthony, Kyle Brandon, "ARISTOTLE AND THE IMPORTANCE OF VIRTUE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE POLITICS AND THE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS AND ITS RELATION TO TODAY" (2010). Honors Theses. 21. https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/honors_theses/21 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Theses at Bucknell Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Bucknell Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1 What does it mean to live a good life? 7 The virtuous life 8 Ethical virtue 13 Bravery as an ethical virtue 20 Justice 22 Chapter 2 The Politics and the ideal polis 28 Development of a polis 29 Features of an ideal polis 32 What does it mean to be a citizen of a polis? 40 Aristotle’s views on education 42 Social groups in a polis who are not recognized as citizens 45 Non-ideal political systems 51 Chapter 3 Connections between the Politics and the Ethics 57 Chapter 4 Difficulties in applying Aristotle’s theories to a modern setting 68 Conclusion Where do we go from here? 87 Bibliography 89 iv Acknowledgements First off, I have to thank God, as He helped me endure this project and gave me the courage to press on when I became frustrated, angry, and ready to quit. -
Plato's Hypothetical Inquiry in the Meno Naoya Iwata
Plato’s Hypothetical Inquiry in the Meno Naoya Iwata At Meno 86e2–4 Socrates proposes to Meno that they should consider the question whether virtue is teachable on a hypothesis. Partly because its concrete procedure is illustrated by a baffling geometrical example, there has still been wide disagreement among scholars as to how he actually carries out this hypothetical inquiry into virtue. The basic structure of the argument at 87b2–89a5 appears very simple: Socrates converts the original question whether virtue is teachable to the question whether it is knowledge, and then examines the latter on the basis of his agreement with Meno that virtue is good. Apart however from that agreement being, as it is explicitly called, a ‘hypothesis’, opinion is divided on what other hypothesis Socrates posited. Some think of it as the conditional ‘if virtue is knowledge, it is teachable’ or as ‘knowledge is teachable’ (Bedu-Addo 1984, 7–9; Wolfsdorf 2008, 44–6 and 58–60),1 and others as the bi-conditional ‘if virtue is knowledge, it is teachable, but if not, not’ or as ‘knowledge alone is teachable’ (Grgić 1999, 34–6; Weiss 2001, 131; Zyskind and Sternfeld 1976, 132). 2 But most scholars, in contrast, identify it with the simple proposition ‘virtue is knowledge’ (Bedu-Addo 1984, 7–9; Benson 2003, 107–25; Bluck 1961, 17–19 and 85–91; Bostock 1986, 165–6; Canto-Sperber 1991, 98–102; Cherniss 1947, 140; Hackforth 1955, 140–1; Kahn 1996, 310; Robinson 1953, 116–18; Rose 1970, 3–7; Sayre 1969, 29 n. 40; Scott 2006, 137–40 and 221–4; Sharples 1985, 167).3 It is also suggested that Socrates’ new philosophical tool does not involve any process of positing a hypothesis but only aims to establish the equivalence between teachability and knowledge (Ebrey 2013, 76 and 83–4). -
Gregory Vlastos
Gregory Vlastos: A Preliminary Inventory of His Papers at the Harry Ransom Center Descriptive Summary Creator: Vlastos, Gregory, 1907-1991 Title: Gregory Vlastos Papers Dates: circa 1930s-1991 Extent: 100 document boxes (42.00 linear feet) Abstract: The papers of philosopher Gregory Vlastos, a scholar of ancient Greek philosophy who spent most of his career studying the thought of Plato and Socrates, document his studies, his writings, and his career as an educator at several American universities. Call Number: Manuscript Collection MS-4361 Language: English, with Ancient Greek, French, German, Italian, Latin, Modern Greek, and Spanish Access: Open for research Administrative Information Acquisition: Gifts, 1993-2010 (G9070, G9134, G9163, G9225, G9252, G9628, G9979, G9982, G10214, G10288, G11877, 10-03-014-G) Processed by: Hope Rider, 2006; updated by Joan Sibley, 2016 Repository: The University of Texas at Austin, Harry Ransom Center Vlastos, Gregory, 1907-1991 Manuscript Collection MS-4361 Scope and Contents The papers of philosopher Gregory Vlastos (1907-1991), a scholar of ancient Greek philosophy who spent most of his career studying the thought of Plato and Socrates, document his studies, his writings, and his career as an educator at several American universities, especially Cornell, Princeton, and The University of California at Berkeley. The papers are arranged in six series: I. Correspondence and Offprint Files, II. Study, Lecture, and Teaching Files, III. Works, IV. Works by Others, V. Miscellaneous, and VI. Offprints Removed from Manuscripts. The Correspondence and Offprint Files (35 boxes) in Series I. represent Vlastos' extensive correspondence with other philosophers, classicists, former students, academics, and others. The files are arranged alphabetically by correspondent name, and generally include not only letters received, but copies of Vlastos' responses. -
UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Democratic Education in The
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Democratic Education in the Works of Plato A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science by Richard A. Barrett Committee in charge: Professor Tracy B. Strong, Chair Professor Page duBois Professor Fonna Forman Professor Marcel Hénaff Professor Gerry Mackie 2014 Copyright Richard A. Barrett, 2014 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Richard A. Barrett is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ Chair UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO 2014 iii DEDICATION To those who have shared conversations about our world with me. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page……………………………………………………………………...…iii Dedication……………………………………………………………………………..iv Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………....v Vita…………………………………………………………………………………....vii Abstract of the Dissertation.………………………………………………………....viii Introduction: Plato and the Problem of Democratic Education ..................................... 1 Chapter 1 Reading Plato: Plato and Xenophon as Teachers and Poets ............. 7 1.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 7 1.2 Comparison of Apologies ................................................................................ 8 1.3 Plato on the Relationship of Philosophy,