Political Thought

The Twilight of the City State. The political philosophy of Plato and Aristotle was singularly devoid of immediate influence both of a practical and a theoretical kind. In fact, if it were judged by the part that it played in the two centuries following Aristotle’s death, it could only be described as a magnificent failure. … Read more

Aristotle Political Ideals. About the time when Plato was asked by Dion to undertake the venture in Syracuse for the education of the young Dionysus and the improvement of Syracusan government, the greatest of Plato’s students joined the Academy. Aristotle was not an Athenian but a native of Stagira in Thrace, where he was born … Read more

The later form of Plato’s political philosophy, contained in Plato the Statesman and the Laws, belongs a good many years after that contained in the Republic. The two later works show a resemblance and the theory which they contain is in marked contrast with that of the Republic; together they present the final results of … Read more

Plato the Republic. The imperial ambitions of Athens perished with her defeat in the Peloponnese War, but through her role was changed, her influence upon Greece, and ultimately upon the whole of the ancient world, was by no means diminished. After the loss of her empire, she became more and more the educational center of … Read more

Political thought before Plato. The great age of Athenian public life fell in the third quarter of the fifth-century B.C., while the great age of political philosophy came only after the downfall of Athens in her struggle with Sparta. Here, as in so many cases in history, reflection followed achievement, and principles were abstractly stated … Read more

The Invention of Political Philosophy. It is important to stress that Greece was peripheral to Egypt and Mesopotamia but not isolated from them. India, by contrast, was substantially more isolated and China nearly wholly separated. Although they started later, the Chinese seem to have, in many respects, moving through stages of development similar to that … Read more

The Development of Civilization Before the Greeks. Archaeological research over the last several decades-and this research has by no means come to an end-has greatly increased our knowledge of the ancient world. While the man in the broad sense seems to have been born in Africa, a threshold crucial to our discussion was crossed somewhere … Read more

Political Theory as an Attribute of the Western Cultural Tradition. As the preceding discussion clarifies, political theory is no primarily part of a poetic, musical, or artistic tradition. On the contrary, it is, for the most part, to be associated with a philosophical, scientific tradition and style of discourse. Indeed, political theory is more often … Read more

Political Theory and Political Institutions. Political theory as the “disciplined investigation of political problems” has in the main been the province of philosophical writers, most of them distinguished in philosophy and literature considered more generally. Thus, Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Hegel, and Marx are great names in Western intellectual tradition … Read more

Political Theory and the Evolution of Man. Science in the final third of the twentieth century allows us, with a high level of confidence, to describe the man as a member of that order of the animal kingdom called the primates, like other primates and, for that matter, like all other animals and plants-constantly face … Read more