Thucydides and the Disintegration of the Polis

Wassermann, Felix M.

doi:10.2307/283466

Cited by 5 publications

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“…The older view, according to which the mythological elements in Thucydides history continue to lurk underneath the surface (Cornford, 1907), has been succeeded by more nuanced recent views (Kagan, 1991, pp. 10, 22-23), but the standard Hegelian view that sees in Thucydides' depiction the drama of an antithetic relationship between a Periclean rational practice of leadership and an emotional populace has persisted (Wasserman, 1954). This rubric of a general tension between reason and desire cannot capture the complex strategies of Periclean leadership, which are subtly outlined by Thucydides.…”

Section: Periclean Rationality and Demotic Passionmentioning

confidence: 94%

The Austere Demagogue: Thucydides on the Uses and Abuses of Periclean Rhetoric

Makridis

2011

Atlantic Journal of Communication

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Section: Periclean Rationality and Demotic Passionmentioning

confidence: 94%

The Austere Demagogue: Thucydides on the Uses and Abuses of Periclean Rhetoric

Makridis

2011

Atlantic Journal of Communication

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“…But the terms to signify them have been rhetorically transmuted according to the demands of ideological fanaticism. 27 Felix Wassermann has well summed the matter up. The war becomes 13~toq 6t66trKa~og, a "violent teacher" (3.82.2), all but destroying material, psychological, social, and moral security.…”

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confidence: 99%

From nomos to anomia in Thucydides' history: The moral and political context

Mittelstadt

1996

J Value Inquiry

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In the eighth book of the Republic, through his literary spokesman, Socrates, Plato analyzes the deterioration ofthepolis under the rule of the radical mob, of demagogues, and of dictators. His analysis owes a large debt to a Thucydidean model, 1 formed from the historian's perceptive political assessment of 5th-century Athens. Plato in these passages proceeds with his discussion of the progressive devolution of the state, from the ideal government of the philosopher-rulers through the various stages of oligarchy and "democracy", which degenerates into anarchy and ultimately tyranny.Simultaneously he describes the types of individuals who characterize society at each stage of this constitutional and political transformation. Democracy and the democratic person, according to Plato, evolve when the oligarchic individual surrenders control to the appetites. Thus, the pursuit of pleasure becomes the dominant principle in society. On the political level, revolution comes about when the poor and disenfranchised revolt and overthrow the wealthier and more privileged oligarchs.Interpreted in Platonic psychological terms this means that the appetitive (xO ~t0o~t~'ctKOv) in a human being takes over and suppresses in the soul both the rational (zO 5~o]tt~ztliOv) and the better emotional nature ('c6 0o~loetSgq) and begins to dominate. The guiding principle both for the individual and the state thus becomes the pleasure of the moment, making expediency a paramount principle for behavior, gradually replacing any other kind of norm in a psychological universe where the appetitive in human nature assumes control. The exhilarating permissiveness and promiscuity, so ironically eulogized by Socrates in the eighth book of the Republic, must of its nature be short-lived. An environment with such extremes of behavior denies the possibility of the social or moral consensus which the concept of justice in any community demands.So the "democratic" state upon which Plato speculates, in the hands of people-pleasing demagogues, quickly becomes anarchy. Political necessity demands a champion to restore by force the law and order necessary for a

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A Fortuna de Pilos: peripécia ateniense na narrativa tucidideana? Considerações acerca da leitura mithistórica de F.M. Cornford

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Thucydides and the Disintegration of the Polis

Cited by 5 publications

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The Austere Demagogue: Thucydides on the Uses and Abuses of Periclean Rhetoric

The Austere Demagogue: Thucydides on the Uses and Abuses of Periclean Rhetoric

From nomos to anomia in Thucydides' history: The moral and political context

A Fortuna de Pilos: peripécia ateniense na narrativa tucidideana? Considerações acerca da leitura mithistórica de F.M. Cornford

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