 Political philosophy proper began with Greeks

 All succeeding political philosophy is a footnote to and a commentary on Plato.

 In pre-Greek writing there are fragments of a political nature and discussion of some political
problems – a written code of law, a tribal God, God as the source of political authority,
bureaucracy, and above all, the nature of the absolute ruler or despot.
 It is the Greeks of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. who created the terminology of politics.
 Politics was inseparable from life in the polis, a city possessing common habits, military strength,
a myth of its origin, its own god and religion, and citizens.
 Citizens is the last characteristic that differentiates the polis and future political organization from
associations based on blood and religious ties.
 Athens – remains one of the pinnacles of human civilization. Their material comforts were
modest.
 Public affairs were regarded as more important and significant than private matters.
 Versatility was the hallmark of the citizen.
 Pericles, education should mold a person “capable of the most varied forms of activity and able to
adapt himself to different circumstances with versatility and grace.
 Athens history was marred by examples of military aggression and intolerance, and by its
economic base of slavery.
 Greece also produced the Orphic-Pythagorean myths.
 Polis contained a community, the sole source of authority, dedicated to the purpose of achieving
the good life.
 This purpose would be accomplished through individual participation in communal affairs.
 The general object was the creation of social balance and harmony based on the premise that the
desire for individual fulfillment need not end in anarchy.
 The best kind of self-realization and society was the goal. At the core of the conflict is the issue
of the nature of law and justice.
SOPHOCLES

 Antigone is the immortal drama which embodies the conflict between opposing points of view
and principles on several basic issues confronting all political systems.
 At the core of the conflict is the issue of the nature of law and justice.
 The expression of individual conscience and will conflicts with the demands of the ruler.
 Antigone is a timeless drama in its discussion of the problem of disobedience by an individual of
the state and its ruler and the effect of that disobedience on the parties involved.

SOPHISTS

 First important group of political thinkers were the sophists.

 They were teachers who created subjects by inventing definitions and concepts, and who were
paid for teaching them.
 They introduced the ideas of cosmopolitanism, skepticism and free thinking, education for all,
and academic freedom.
 They taught Sophia, the wisdom, knowledge, and skill that was necessary for the successful
conduct of life as individual or citizen.
 Socrates was the great example of intellectual integrity.
 His method of achieving knowledge was through the dialectical process of question and answer
which would lead to precise definition and to understanding.

PLATO

 Republic, the book devoted to the meaning and implementation of justice both by the individual
and the state.
 Concerned himself with fundamental questions.
 The Republic is a book on politics, but it is also on psychology, morality, education, and
eugenics.
 Plato was critical of the accepted Athenian idea of all citizens participating in politics.
 Drawing distinctions between human beings on the basis, not of their possession of material
wealth, but on what part of the soul was dominant in their character: appetite (laboring class),
courage (warrior), reason (ruler).
 The good state, like the good man, possessed the characteristics of temperance, courage, wisdom,
and justice.
 Plato’s society was not only ordered but structured and hierarchical.
 Interrelated with the political structure was an educational system and a science of eugenics.
 Plato was largely interested in the class of rulers or guardians – this group of learned ascetics was
to be a communal body.
 Most important of this group were not simply rulers, they were philosophers – their reluctance to
govern was an illustration of their fitness to do so.
 The Republic presented an ideal regime, the feasibility or likelihood of which was not clear.
 Plato was pessimistic in his view of inevitable, progressive deterioration of government from the
starting point until the final form of tyranny.
 Plato and his ideas have been a model for all succeeding utopian projects.

ARISTOTLE

 The temper of Aristotle’s Politics is different from that of the Republic – it is cool, quiet,
reasonable, not so ambitious, lacking in strong enthusiasm or advocacy.
 Aristotle owned the first exhaustive analysis of existing constitutions, and he thus created
political science.
 Plato’s conception of change had been of degeneration from the ideal; Aristotle believed that
change was teleological, movement toward the natural, predetermined end.
 Man, and state were linked together. Man was by nature a political animal who reached
perfection and became civilized as a citizen.
 Aristotle was concerned with the most important topic of political inquiry, the best form of
political association or constitution.
 His classification of states was determined partly by the number of rulers and partly by their aim.
 His discussion of democracy is still pertinent today.
 Aristotle bequeathed a great legacy to political thought but not to any one school.
 His emphasis was on the need for constitutional stability for this was the great virtue of the good
polis.
 Above all, Aristotle is important for his belief in the possibility of a political science, and for his
investigations of the ends of states and of the activities of men making up those states.