A History of Political Thought From Ancient Greece to Early Christianity

by Coleman, Janet

• ISBN13: 9780631218227
• ISBN10: 063121822X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-22
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Janet Coleman's two volume history of European political theorizing, from the ancient Greeks to the Renaissance, is the introduction which many have been waiting for. It treats some of the most influential writers who have been considered by educated Europeans down the centuries to have helped to construct their identity, their shared languages of politics about the principles and practices of good government, and the history of European philosophy. It seeks to uncover and reconstruct the emergence of the state and the various European political theories which justified it. In this volume, Coleman discusses the acknowledged great works of Greek, Roman, and early Christian writers to show how the historical contexts in which certain ideas about ethics and politics became dominant or fell from dominance help to explain the ideas themselves. Throughout she draws on recent scholarly commentaries written by specialists in philosophy, contemporary political theory, classical languages and cultures, and on ancient and early Christian history and theology. Janet Coleman shows that the Greeks', Romans' and early Christians' arguments can be seen as logical and coherent if we can grasp the questions they thought it important to answer. The author strikes a balance between trying to understand the philosophical cogency of ancient arguments on the one hand, and on the other, elucidating why historically-situated Greeks, Romans and early Christians thought the ways they did about politics; and why we often think otherwise. The volume will meet the needs of students of philosophy, history and politics, proving to be an indispensable secondary source which aims to situate, explain, and provoke thought about the major works of political theory likely to be encountered by students of this period and beyond.

Author Biography

Janet Coleman is the Professor of Ancient and Medieval Political Thought in the Government Department at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Previously she taught in the Politics Department at Exeter University and for the History Faculty of Cambridge University. She Studied at Yale University and at L'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris. Her numerous publications include The Individual in Political Theory and Practice (ed. 1996), Ancient and Medieval Memories: Studies in the Reconstruction of the Past (1992), Against the State: Studies in Sedition and Rebellion (1990) and English Literature in History 1350-1400: Medieval Readers and Writers (1981). She is co-founder and co-editor of the international journal History of Political Thought.

Table of Contents

Preface	viii
Introduction	1	(1)
Canonical Difficulties	1	(3)
The Construction of a European Identity	4	(3)
Interpretative Difficulties	7	(1)
The Language of Politics	8	(1)
The History of Philosophy: From the Pre-Socratic Naturalists to Moral Philosophy	9	(4)
How Should We Study the History of Political Thought?	13	(8)
Ancient Athenian Democracy	21	(29)
Two Hundred Years of Greek Democracy	21	(1)
Ancient Athenian Democracy in General During the Fifth and Fourth Centuries Bc	22	(4)
Citizens: The Historical Emergence of the Athenian Democratic Constitution	26	(2)
Equality: Of What and of Whom?	28	(2)
Sparta	30	(3)
Athenians Reject Oligarchy	33	(1)
Freedom	34	(3)
Private and Public Life	37	(2)
Leadership	39	(1)
Heroic Politics versus an Amateur Citizenry: Character Formation	40	(5)
The Sophists	45	(5)
Socrates	50	(18)
How Socrates Discovered What is Right: The Elenchos -- Seeking Definitions	53	(4)
Socratic Ignorance and Moral Convictions	57	(1)
Socrates Alone on His Path of Discovery	58	(6)
Socrates' Ethical `Egoism'	64	(4)
Plato	68	(47)
Plato's Early and Later Socrates	71	(2)
The Phaedo	73	(6)
A Normative Account	79	(2)
The Republic	81	(3)
The Republic, Book 1	84	(7)
Book 2: Social Contracts	91	(1)
The First Principles of Social Organization	92	(3)
Civilized Society and its Justice `Writ Large'	95	(1)
Educating Guardians and Producers: Myths and `Lies'	95	(1)
The Myth of the Metals	96	(3)
Individual Justice	99	(2)
Women as Guardians	101	(1)
Specially Gifted People and their Education	102	(3)
The Possibility of the Philosopher-ruler and the Ideal Constitution: Theory and Practice	105	(2)
The Divided Line and the Cave	107	(3)
Dialectic	110	(1)
Five Types of Constitution	110	(5)
Aristotle	115	(114)
Aristotle's Experiences	116	(4)
`Goodbye to the Forms'	120	(1)
What Aristotle Means by `Science'	121	(1)
Aristotle's Audience	122	(4)
Aristotle and the Natural World	126	(2)
Logic: The Productive Mode of Thinking	128	(4)
Aristotle's Teleology	132	(1)
Definition and the Dialectician	132	(4)
The Relation between Dialectic and Ethical Enquiry	136	(10)
Ethics as Practical `Science'	146	(3)
Nicomachean Ethics	149	(7)
Moral and Intellectual Virtues as Moral and Intellectual Excellences	156	(2)
Nicomachean Ethics Book 2	158	(4)
The Mean	162	(3)
Voluntary Acts and Responsibility	165	(3)
Choice	168	(5)
Justice as a Moral Virtue or Character Disposition: Justice in its Universal Sense	173	(1)
Particular Justice	174	(1)
Distributive Justice as a Kind of Particular Justice	175	(1)
Corrective Justice	176	(2)
Political Justice	178	(2)
Contemplation or Theoretical Science	180	(6)
The Politics	186	(6)
Partnerships and the Sovereign Partnership	192	(3)
Human Household Partnerships	195	(3)
Slaves, Natural and Conventional	198	(8)
Aristotle and Women	206	(6)
The `State' and its Citizens	212	(4)
Polity: Mixed and/or Middle Constitutions	216	(6)
Labouring and Life as Work	222	(7)
The Legacy of Plato and Aristotle: A Pause for Thought	227	(2)
Cicero's Rome and Cicero's Republic	229	(63)
Social and Political Organization in Rome	234	(1)
Magistrates, Senate and People: The Polybian Ideal `Mixed Constitution' of Rome	235	(3)
Roman Freedom (libertas) and Roman Civil Law	238	(3)
Populares versus Optimates in Cicero's Rome	241	(2)
Patrons and Clients	243	(2)
Cicero the Lawyer: The `New Man' on his Way to the Top	245	(2)
Cicero's Debts to Captive or Client Greeks	247	(1)
Romans and Greek Philosophy	248	(2)
Cicero's Stoicism	250	(1)
On Duties (De officiis)	251	(7)
Human Communities and the Orgins of the `State'	258	(1)
The Four Personae	259	(7)
Rome's Freed Men and Slaves	266	(2)
The Destruction of the Concord between the Orders	268	(1)
Cicero's Career During the Last Days of the Republic	269	(6)
Cicero's De re publica	275	(1)
Scipio's Definition of a res publica	276	(4)
Natural Law	280	(4)
Cicero's Mixed Constitution Compared with Aristotle's Mixed Polity	284	(3)
Cicero in Retrospect	287	(5)
St Augustine	292	(49)
The Origins of Christianity and its Development into the Fourth Century Ad	296	(4)
Early Christian Philosophical Theology	300	(1)
Philo, St Paul and Platonism	300	(4)
The Pagan Philosopher and the Educated Christian	304	(1)
Christianity in the Byzantine Greek East and the Latin West	305	(2)
The `Ascetic Takeover' in the Latin West: St Ambrose	307	(3)
Augustine	310	(2)
The Gradual Emergence of Augustine's Mature Thoughts on Politics and Authority	312	(1)
Belief and Authority: The Limits of Human Certitude	313	(2)
Belief, Authority and Language	315	(2)
Belief in the Authority of Others Structures Social Life	317	(1)
What Distinguishes Christian Authority from Secular, Political Authority?	318	(1)
On Free Will	319	(2)
Grace and Predestination	321	(1)
Political Outcomes and the City of God	322	(1)
Augustine on Rome	323	(2)
Church and `State'	325	(1)
The Emergence of Augustine's Mature Spiritual and Political Views Amid Contemporary Conflicts	326	(3)
City of God	329	(7)
Conclusion	336	(5)
Bibliography	341	(11)
Index	352