CLASS 3676

Ancient Political Thought

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2024-2025.

Ancient political debates about democracy, empire, and justice appear in late fifth-century BCE Athenian dramatic, historical, and philosophical literatures composed against the backdrop of the 27-year Peloponnesian War over the control of Greece (which Athens lost). Reading selected tragedies of Euripides, comedies of Aristophanes, and philosophical dialogues of Plato, in combination with the history of Thucydides, this course retraces, explores, and interrogates these texts' complex, provocative, and surprisingly relevant arguments for and against the pursuit of equality (democracy), security (war and imperialism), goodness (aretê from "excellence" to "virtue"), and fairness (justice), and their often unexpected results in practice. All the readings for this course are in English.

When Offered Fall.

Distribution Category (ALC-AS)

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