Comparison Of Athens And Sparta

Politeness has found an interesting way into our society, politeness and rightness. As Rousseau so perfectly quotes Horace, “‘we are deceived by the appearance of right’” (Rousseau 5). We as a people have become so fixated on appearances of intelligence and politeness. More so, we have become obsessed with the appearance of good. Rousseau blames this occurrence, at least partially, on the sciences and the arts. It does seem that there is an element of truth in this claim. While there is truth to claim perhaps in today’s society, it does not seem that knowledge and art have really made up all that lousy. As history has progressed, Rousseau repeatedly points out that when a culture was a simple culture, they were a good culture. “Ever since …show more content…
I think that the more we study and learn, the more we look to other ways of settling conflict. One can take the classic example of Athens and Sparta. Athens was much more concerned with knowledge and democracy. While Sparta was much more focused on strength and power. Both civilizations were flourishing and powerful. But they were very different in the way they went about life. This would go into the idea of what would make someone a good citizen. The definition of a good citizen from Athens to Sparta are two very different thing. One could assume that a good citizen in Athens would be a male who partook in the polis and was a knowledgeable human. While on the opposite side, in Sparta a warrior or a strong male who was willing to defend his civilization would be considered a good citizen. So I would argue against Rousseau’s assertion that one a man becomes learned that he is no longer a good citizen. Knowledge is an essential part of humanity and …show more content…
Rousseau questions this notion, “What good is it to seek out happiness in the opinion of another if we can find in in ourselves?” (Rousseau 24). This idea still has validity today. As we study the Arts and science, we are obsessed with being right in the field, or the best in the feel and with that we are looking for the newest and brightest ideas. We search for glory in surface level things. We stop thinking about what the good is. We are too focus on burning brightly, and not worried enough about being “virtuous and long lasting” (Rousseau