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Essay on greek democracy
Essay on greek democracy
Plato's insight about government
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The readings and information in our textbook in regards to Plato and the Greek government were very similar to today’s ideas of government with the examples of citizens choosing other citizens to represent them, which is the same as voting in Governors or Councilmen/Councilwomen. The fact that there were term limits held by some is similar to the way we do things in our government.
Males were allowed to vote and females were not in Greek government and up until the early 1900’s our government did not allow women to vote here as well. The fact that the wealthy could only hold office in the Greek era is actually still the same now. You cannot run for office here if you are poor, it is not a law in our government but without money it would be
In comparing the Ancient Athenian system of government, and the Modern Day American political system, there are many similarities. In Ancient Athens, democracy was developed in response to a long history of oppressive rulers who used their position of power for their own benefit. Ancient Athenians sought a government where all citizens were considered equal under the eyes of the law, and all had a fair say in the running of their country. Following a series
Socrates and I grew up alongside the Athenian democracy, and experienced her vicissitudes in the past seventy years. We have both heard and experienced cycle of five types of governments that Socrates had mentioned. (Plato, Republic 8.547e) Our democracy was established hundreds years ago under Cleisthenes and turned to tyranny under Isagoras. In our childhood, Athens was a timarchy, and then Pericles ruled Athens with the
In Plato's Republic democracy made a controversial issue in a critique by Socrates. The theory of the soul accounts for the controversy as it states that the soul is divided into three parts: the rational, the spirited, and the appetite which are ranked respectively. The idea of the soul's three parts and the soul being ruled by a dominant part is used as the basis for identifying justice and virtue. However, the theory of the soul is not only used to identify justice and virtue, but also used to show that the virtue within a city reflects that of its inhabitants.
An authoritarian government is ruled by the few, where there is hardly any freedom or mobility. The construction of an authoritarian political hierarchy begins with trying to figure out the meaning of justice. Plato’s Republic is a defense of authoritarian political hierarchy. Socrates portrays the concept of an ideal city with the notion of making it into an authoritarian government. He creates the guardians, auxiliaries and the craftsmen, each group having a different type of metal to define them. In this paper I will argue that, Plato’s Republic is a defense of authoritarian political hierarchy because he incorporates the idea of a strict central government within a city. Three ways this is shown in The Republic are with the ideas of, the
In Plato’s Republic, Glaucon is introduced to the reader as a man who loves honor, sex, and luxury. As The Republic progresses through books and Socrates’ arguments of how and why these flaws make the soul unhappy began to piece together, Glaucon relates some of these cases to his own life, and begins to see how Socrates’ line of reasoning makes more sense than his own. Once Glaucon comes to this realization, he embarks on a path of change on his outlook of what happiness is, and this change is evidenced by the way he responds during he and Socrates’ discourse.
In Plato’s Republic Book IV, Socrates sets out to convince Glaucon that a person acts with three different parts of the soul, rather than with the soul as a whole. He does this by presenting Glaucon with a variety of situations in which parts of the soul may conflict with one another, and therefore not acting together. Socrates describes the three parts of the soul as the rational part, or that which makes decisions, the appetitive part, or that which desires, and the spirited part, or that which gets angry (436a).
Plato vs. Aristotle How do we explain the world around us? How can we get to the truth? Plato and Aristotle began the quest to find the answers thousands of years ago. Amazingly, all of philosophy since that time can be described as only a rehashing of the original argument between Plato and Aristotle. Plato and Aristotle's doctrines contrast in the concepts of reality, knowledge at birth, and the mechanism to find the truth.
In Book one of the Republic of Plato, several definitions of justice versus injustice are explored. Cephalus, Polemarchus, Glaucon and Thracymicus all share their opinions and ideas on what actions they believe to be just, while Socrates questions various aspects of the definitions. In book one, Socrates is challenged by Thracymicus, who believes that injustice is advantageous, but eventually convinces him that his definition is invalid. Cephalus speaks about honesty and issues of legality, Polemarchus explores ideas regarding giving to one what is owed, Glaucon views justice as actions committed for their consequences, and Socrates argues that justice does not involve harming anybody. Through the interrogations and arguments he has with four other men, and the similarity of his ideas of justice to the word God, Socrates proves that a just man commits acts for the benefits of others, and inflicts harm on nobody.
The Greeks preferred the Spartan system of government over Athenian democracy in many ways, such as authority, military, and social policies. Characteristics of each significantly shaped there form of society. Spartan government was so appealing because of its rule by few policy. Allowing much lesser of a say from its common people. Creating a almost perfect system for the elitists. How could this not be appealing. The Spartans also had this concept of a perfect race. In which they were trying to build the grandest race of people in the universe, by training and fighting. Which is why their military forces were so strong. Both forms of government however did support the idea of every person is within the law, yet both also rejected the idea
Britannica defines a political system as “the set of formal legal institutions that constitute a ‘government’ or a ‘state’”.1 As the preceding definition implies, a political system is a large component of every government or state. Plato finds that each type of political system possesses a complementary constitution which governs a person’s body and soul (Republic 8.544e). Likewise, Aristotle observes that examples of each political system can also be found in households and communities (NE VIII.10, 1160b). Whereas Plato perceives the different political systems as a chain of degenerations proceeding from the best regime, Aristotle approaches the concept by placing the regimes into three separate groups which each contains a good and a perverted subtype.
Plato's concept of what politics and government should be is a direct result of his belief in the theory of forms. The theory of forms basically states that there is a higher "form" for everything that exists in the world. Each material thing is simply a representation of the real thing which is the form. According to Plato, most people cannot see the forms, they only see their representation or their shadows, as in the simile of the cave.
The Ancient Greeks formulated what they believed to be a true democracy. Everyone was to have a say in the political scene, every man had a vote and no one should be disadvantaged. At the same time, however, the society was very much a patriarchal one. Power resided with the male; the leader, the logical and strong enforcer. Women, viewed as emotionally erratic, illogical and weak, were marginalised. Men were given the most noble of duties surrounding the glory of war; women were faced with trying to raise a household.
Ancient Greece was made up of individual city states, known as a Polis, which relied heavily on citizen participation in politics. The idea of self-rule was an entirely new way of governing. Citizenship was unheard of at the time. Although still considered citizens not everybody was allowed to participate. In Athens only adult males who had military training were allowed to vote. The majority of the population, namely slaves, children, metics (free noncitizens) and women were excluded from participation in politics. “[Metics] and women were not citizens and did not enjoy any of the privileges of citizenship.”(Sayre, 137) Athenian citizens had to be descended from citizens, excluding the children of Athenian men and foreign women. Individuals could be granted citizenship in to Athens by the assembly this was usually as a reward for some service to the state. Ancient Greece paved the way for the representative democratic style of government that is practiced by many countries today. Much like how voting rights started out in America, originally only the wealthy land owners were allowed to vote and call themselves citizens, but soon all men were allowed to have a vote and a voice in their states politics. Essentially the Greeks were the first to introduce citizen rights and freedom similar to what’s seen today.
Plato’s thoughts about power and reason are much different than Aristotle. Plato looked at the meaning of justice and different types of governments. Plato looked into four different types of governments
Social differences arise in Greek culture due to the implementation of slaves and royalty. In between the low and the high was the medium, and the medium happened to be land property owners, and people who assisted the wealthy as well. To impose democracy means you would have to take into account the opinion of the common man; which at the time was the slave who served a master. According to Socrates the idea of democracy required a body made up of people with educations, and when you were a slave an education