Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Chronology
- Map of the ancient Mediterranean
- 1 Mapping the territory
- 2 Language, logic and literary form
- 3 Cosmologies
- 4 Pagan monotheism
- 5 Souls and selves
- 6 Believing, doubting and knowing
- 7 Leadership, law and the origins of political theory
- 8 Ethics, goodness and happiness
- Epilogue
- Appendix: Sources for Greek philosophy
- Glossary of Greek philosophical terms
- Notes
- Further reading
- Index of passages
- Index
7 - Leadership, law and the origins of political theory
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Chronology
- Map of the ancient Mediterranean
- 1 Mapping the territory
- 2 Language, logic and literary form
- 3 Cosmologies
- 4 Pagan monotheism
- 5 Souls and selves
- 6 Believing, doubting and knowing
- 7 Leadership, law and the origins of political theory
- 8 Ethics, goodness and happiness
- Epilogue
- Appendix: Sources for Greek philosophy
- Glossary of Greek philosophical terms
- Notes
- Further reading
- Index of passages
- Index
Summary
This chapter explores some aspects of ancient political philosophy concerned with the emergence of political communities, leadership, freedom, justice and democracy, natural law, social contracts and constitutional theory.
Political anthropology
Modern theories on the emergence of states tend to focus on their origins in conquest or in social and economic cooperation; the Greeks, however, looked for the origins of states in the willing consent of individuals to submit to law to ensure the freedom, security and territory of the political unit. This thesis was oft en supported by narratives of founding heroes, national rituals and patron divinities, even as the ideology might be undermined by questioning the validity of the traditions. Human skills in establishing states could be viewed mythically as the gift s of Prometheus, Athena or Hephaestos, or be praised as achievements in their own right: “Humans have taught themselves speech and swift thought, / and how to live in a city and abide by its laws” (Sophocles Antigone, 354-60).
The first articulated view of the past was in the “golden age” mythology set out in Hesiod's Works and Days (109-201). First there was a “golden race of mortal men” under Kronos; they lived a simple, pastoral life, free of toil and sickness, enjoying the bounty of nature in innocence, peace and mutual friendship. This was followed by a degeneration into a “silver” and then a literal bronze age, of powerful war-loving soldiers with weapons and tools of bronze, who brought about their own destruction.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Introducing Greek Philosophy , pp. 156 - 175Publisher: Acumen PublishingPrint publication year: 2009