Suchergebnisse

Introduction : discovering practical reason -- Gyges' choice : rationality and visibility -- Glaucon's dilemma : origins of social order -- Deioces' ultimatum : how to choose a ruler -- Solon's bargain : self-enforcing constitutional order -- Melos' prospect : limits of inter-state rationality -- Socrates' critique : problems for democratic rationality -- Cephalus' expertise : economic rationality -- Conclusions : utility and eudaimonia -- Appendix : probability, risk, and likelihood.

This revisionist history traces an influential theory of practical reason from its origins in ancient Greece to its modern and contemporary permutations. The Greek discovery of practical reason, as the skilled performance of strategic thinking in public and private affairs, was an intellectual breakthrough that remains both a feature and a bug of our modern world. Countering arguments that rational choice-making is a contingent product of modernity, The Greeks and the Rational traces the long history of theorizing rationality back to ancient Greece. In this book, Josiah Ober explores how ancient Greek sophists, historians, and philosophers developed sophisticated and systematic ideas about practical reason. At the same time, they recognized its limits—that not every decision can be reduced to mechanistic calculations of optimal outcomes. We see contemporary echoes of this tradition in the application of game theory to political science, economics, and business management. The Greeks and the Rational offers a striking revisionist history with widespread implications for the study of ancient Greek civilization, the history of thought, and human rationality itself

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgment -- CHAPTER 1. Introduction: Athenian Democracy and the History of Ideologies -- CHAPTER 2. Models and Paradigms in Ancient History -- CHAPTER 3. Public Speech and the Power of the People in Democratic Athens -- CHAPTER 4. The Athenian Revolution of 508/7 B.C.: Violence, Authority, and the Origins of Democracy -- CHAPTER 5. The Rules of War in Classical Greece -- CHAPTER 6. Thucydides, Pericles, and the Strategy of Defense -- CHAPTER 7. Power and Oratory in Democratic Athens: Demosthenes 21, Against Meidia -- CHAPTER 8. The Nature of Athenian Democracy -- CHAPTER 9. The Athenians and Their Democracy -- CHAPTER 10. How to Criticize Democracy in Late Fifth- and Fourth-Century Athens -- CHAPTER 11. The Polis as a Society: Aristotle, John Rawls, and die Athenian Social Contract -- Bibliography -- Index

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Abbreviations -- Preface -- CHAPTER ONE: Introduction: Climbing the Hill of Ares -- CHAPTER TWO: Classical Athenian Democracy and Democracy Today -- CHAPTER THREE: Historical Legacies: Moral Authority and the Useable Past -- CHAPTER FOUR: Culture, Thin Coherence, and the Persistence of Politics -- CHAPTER FIVE: Quasi Rights: Participatory Citizenship and Negative Liberties -- CHAPTER SIX: The Athenian Debate over Civic Education -- CHAPTER SEVEN: Living Freely as a Slave of the Law: Why Socrates Lives in Athens -- CHAPTER EIGHT: Social Science History, Cultural History, and the Amnesty of 403 B.C. -- CHAPTER NINE: Greek Horoi: Artifactual Texts and the Contingency of Meaning -- CHAPTER TEN: Tyrant-Killing as Therapeutic Confiict: A Political Debate in Images and Texts -- Bibliography -- Index

What did democracy mean before liberalism? What are the consequences for our lives today? Combining history with political theory, this book restores the core meaning of democracy as collective and limited self-government by citizens. That, rather than majority tyranny, is what democracy meant in ancient Athens, before liberalism. Participatory self-government is the basis of political practice in 'Demopolis', a hypothetical modern state powerfully imagined by award-winning historian and political scientist Josiah Ober. Demopolis' residents aim to establish a secure, prosperous, and non-tyrannical community, where citizens govern as a collective, both directly and through representatives, and willingly assume the costs of self-government because doing so benefits them, both as a group and individually. Basic democracy, as exemplified in real Athens and imagined Demopolis, can provide a stable foundation for a liberal state. It also offers a possible way forward for religious societies seeking a realistic alternative to autocracy

"Lord Byron described Greece as great, fallen, and immortal, a characterization more apt than he knew. Through most of its long history, Greece was poor. But in the classical era, Greece was densely populated and highly urbanized. Many surprisingly healthy Greeks lived in remarkably big houses and worked for high wages at specialized occupations. Middle-class spending drove sustained economic growth. Classical wealth produced a stunning cultural efflorescence lasting hundreds of years. Why did Greece reach such heights in the classical period--and why only then? And how, after 'the Greek miracle' had endured for centuries, did the Macedonians defeat the Greeks, seemingly bringing an end to their glory? Drawing on a massive body of newly available data and employing novel approaches to evidence, Josiah Ober offers a major new history of classical Greece and an unprecedented account of its rise and fall. Ober argues that Greece's rise was no miracle but rather the result of political breakthroughs and economic development. The extraordinary emergence of citizen-centered city-states transformed Greece into a society that defeated the mighty Persian Empire. Yet Philip and Alexander of Macedon were able to beat the Greeks in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BCE, a victory enabled by the Macedonians' appropriation of Greek innovations. After Alexander's death, battle-hardened warlords fought ruthlessly over the remnants of his empire. But Greek cities remained populous and wealthy, their economy and culture surviving to be passed on to the Romans--and to us. A compelling narrative filled with uncanny modern parallels, this is a book for anyone interested in how great civilizations are born and die. This book is based on evidence available on a new interactive website. To learn more, please visit: http://polis.stanford.edu/"--

How and why did the Western tradition of political theorizing arise in Athens during the late fifth and fourth centuries B.C.? By interweaving intellectual history with political philosophy and literary analysis, Josiah Ober argues that the tradition originated in a high-stakes debate about democracy. Since elite Greek intellectuals tended to assume that ordinary men were incapable of ruling themselves, the longevity and resilience of Athenian popular rule presented a problem: how to explain the apparent success of a regime ""irrationally"" based on the inherent wisdom and practical efficac

When does democracy work well, and why? Is democracy the best form of government? These questions are of supreme importance today as the United States seeks to promote its democratic values abroad. Democracy and Knowledge is the first book to look to ancient Athens to explain how and why directly democratic government by the people produces wealth, power, and security. Combining a history of Athens with contemporary theories of collective action and rational choice developed by economists and political scientists, Josiah Ober examines Athenian democracy's unique contribution to the ancient Gre.

This book asks an important question often ignored by ancient historians and political scientists alike: Why did Athenian democracy work as well and for as long as it did? Josiah Ober seeks the answer by analyzing the sociology of Athenian politics and the nature of communication between elite and nonelite citizens. After a preliminary survey of the development of the Athenian "constitution," he focuses on the role of political and legal rhetoric. As jurymen and Assemblymen, the citizen masses of Athens retained important powers, and elite Athenian politicians and litigants needed to address

Preliminary Material /Josiah Ober -- Introduction /Josiah Ober -- The Economic Resources of Attica /Josiah Ober -- Methods of Waging War /Josiah Ober -- The Defensive Mentality at Athens /Josiah Ober -- The Theory of Defense /Josiah Ober -- Changes in the Athenian Military Establishment /Josiah Ober -- Routes into Attica /Josiah Ober -- Forts and Towers /Josiah Ober -- The Road System of Northern Attica /Josiah Ober -- The Border Defense System /Josiah Ober -- Chronological Review and Conclusions /Josiah Ober -- Identification of Some Sites in Northwestern Attica /Josiah Ober -- Selected Bibliography /Josiah Ober -- Index /Josiah Ober.