Melian Dialogue DBQ Rough Draft Claim Statement: The Melian Dialogue teaches the reader that, in 416 BCE, Athens’ foreign policy and actions were strongly informed by the Athenian belief and focus on realism, preserving the law of nature, and the natural order of events. In 416 BCE, Athens’ belief, policy, and ideal of realism is evident through their preference for knowledge-based spiritual faith and rejection of the metaphysical. The Melian Dialogue, recorded by Thucydides in 416 BCE, recounts the discussion between representatives from the empire of Athens and the small island of Melos concerning the addition of Melos into the alliance of the Delian League. The Athenian speakers take a strong, confident, unwavering stance on the issue,…
The Athenian government consists of a Democratic government. In theory, a Democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Taken from that theory of the Athenian Democracy, the “people” referred to men over the age of 18 who were born from Athenian parents. Men ruled the government, where they were able to vote and make political decisions regarding the country. Women, foreigners and slaves were not allowed to participate in the government at all.…
Thucydides offers a comprehensive analysis of the formation of early Greek cities during ancient times in the Peloponnesian War. His depiction portrays early Greeks as barbaric and simplistic freeloaders, who often pillaged each other to fulfill their own callow self-interest. According to Thucydides, they came together to develop cities out of a desire for safety without the turbulence of conflict. In The Republic, Glaucon paints a similar vision of politics in his speech to Socrates about the emergence of justice. Through arguing that justice evolves as a by-product of individuals’ natural tendency to exhibit injustice, Glaucon suggests people band together to create laws and cities to seek protection against the mighty inflicting injustice…
In this speech, Thrasymachus tells him that he thinks about rulers differently than sheep or cattle and whether it is advantageous for them (343b). “You are so far from understanding justice and what is just, and injustice and what is unjust, that you do not realize that justice is really the good of another, what is advantageous for the stronger and ruler, and harmful to the one who obeys and serves (343c).” Next, the son of Cephalus says that “...injustice rules the simpleminded…” (343c5). A just man, to Thrasymachus always gets less than the unjust one (343d). He continues on to say that injustice is better than justice (344c5-8).…
Athenian Attitudes Toward the Authority of State Through the Eyes of Plato and Sophocles The first evidence of democracy, a government in which the citizens have say in the rulings, was discovered in Ancient Athens. However, when we study Athenian history, we focus on the democratic system of government and tend to overlook the Athenian citizen’s points of view. Through close examination of the writings of Sophocles and Plato, one can discover that the Athenian’s respect towards the governing power, changed during the Classical Athens period. Although the Ancient Athenian government seemed to have control over its people, Antigone of Sophocles and Crito of Plato reveal that from 441 BCE to 360 BCE, the citizens began to lose respect for the…
Ancient Athenian Democracy Concludes an Unjustified Verdict of a Futuristic and Wise Man A court case requires evidence, accusers, the accused, and the jury. What links all these components together is a matter of persuasion through cross examining to prove the accused innocent or felonious. A court case also represents a cities governing and regulating systems efficiency. In the Trial of Socrates, one will come to discover the deficiencies of the accusers, Meletus, Lycon, and Anytus’ charges and the forthright manner of Socrates.…
In Books II-IV of Plato’s Republic, Socrates creates an ideal polis, and in doing so finds justice in the soul. The two foundational principles of the ideal city that Socrates creates are self-sufficiency and one-person-one-art, referred to today as specialization. Individual people are not self-sufficient, so the citizens of the city must take up a profession and trade with each other. Socrates and his companions are successful in their search for justice, and are able to reach the answer by considering the classes and their education in an ideal state. Citizens of the ideal city are not able to rely exclusively on themselves, nor are they able to practice a multitude of crafts.…
Kallipolis is a perfectly structured society in which justice is achieved at the social and interpersonal realms. It is ruled by a philosopher king, who maintain the peace and harmony in the ideal society. According to Plato in The Republic, the philosopher king possesses the qualities to be the rightful king to rule in Kallipolis. Philosophers are qualified to rule because they have a understanding of the Forms or the truth, their wisdom allows them to understand justice and their knowledge makes them superior than others. However, a philosopher can be a tyrant in disguise.…
When it comes to the topic of laws, most of us will readily agree that breaking the laws is unjust. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of if there is ever a time when a law can acceptably be broken. Whereas some are convinced that laws should never be broken, others maintain that there are some instances where laws should be broken. Socrates and Antigone would agree with the statement that disobeying laws is never the answer. Likewise, I have always believed that breaking the laws should be punishable and should never be done.…
Utopia Cicero and Plato were both great thinkers and both have a big influence on how some societies and governments are operated today. In his writing, “The Defense of Injustice”, Cicero talks about how the “justice” his society believes in is manufactured to work for self interest and not for the greater good. He uses a story where two characters Philus and Laelius argue about justice and injustice. He then goes on to talk about a single law that will never change and will be true for every nation: A law that comes from God and not following this law is sinful in any form. “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato is similar to this in the fact that the people that gained wisdom by leaving the cave for the upper world would never look back…
Assess the Athenians’ argument and actions from the standpoint of pacifism and just war theory. Which position do you find most compelling, and why? Just War theory portrays a practical look at the morality of war in comparison to pacifism, allowing the opportunity to form international procedures and protocol in an attempt to control conflict. During The Peloponnesian War the Athenians offered a valid and in-depth argument on their views of justice in war, over time this has developed into many different perspectives on the place of war in international politics, most noticeably pacifism and just war theory.…
Throughout history there has been many cultures with different ideas on how to organize their people. The Athenians, Sparta, and later the Roman Republic are examples of early forms of democracy. There where many systems of government in history some being oligarchy, monarchy aristocracy, and many others with slight variations. Why and how did democracy grow to such popularity, and how has democracy changed since its creation. The exact date of when democracy was first used in society is unknown but historians estimate it is approximately 500 BC in Athens Greece.…
In the Republic, Plato discusses and relates the three topics that are central to one lives, education, justice, and happiness. Through his definitions of these three topics, he considers how a society can achieve the proper education, justice, and happiness leading to his understanding of human nature. Plato addresses the close relation between being just and happy to the education received in society. The relationship between education, justice, and happiness depends on Plato’s understanding of these topics. Specifically with the relations of justice and happiness, the relationship is just as much dependent on the true sense of the idea as it is with Socrates rejection of the false claims.…
In The Republic of Plato, Plato considers the nature and value of justice and the other virtues as they appear in both the structure of society as a whole and in the personality of an individual human being. This city-soul analogy supplies Plato with a metaphoric language that enables him to describe aspects of the structure and dynamics of the human soul. He began with a detailed analysis of the formation, structure, and organization of an ideal state before applying its results to a description of personal life. This paper will explore how the Republic uses the description of an ideal city-state as a vehicle for explaining the harmonious operation of the human psyche, which can be likened to a city. This “psychopolis” can be well or poorly…
Justice has been an evolutionary concept that has been forever evolving for thousands of years. However, in order for the modern deduction of justice to have been made by modern standards, the concept of justice itself needs to be established. Although its formal understanding may have been unclear during their time period, Hesiod and Homer both attempt to understand and exert their opinions as to what justice is through their epic poems and other works. Even though some of their views on justice conflict and others compliment each other, they both laid a foundation to explain what justice meant in Greek society.…