1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910453031503321

Autore

Christ Matthew Robert

Titolo

The limits of altruism in democratic Athens / / Matthew Christ [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2012

ISBN

1-139-79439-6

1-139-88958-3

1-139-78302-5

1-139-77699-1

1-139-34257-6

1-139-78003-4

1-139-78388-2

1-283-71478-7

1-139-77851-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (x, 215 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

320.938/5

Soggetti

Altruism - Political aspects - Greece - Athens - History - To 1500

Athens (Greece) Politics and government

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: the philanthropic Athenian? -- 1. Helping behavior in classical Athens -- 2. Helping and democratic citizenship -- 3. Helping and community in the Athenian law courts -- 4. "Helping others" in Athenian interstate relations -- Conclusion: helping and the Athenian experience.

Sommario/riassunto

Athenians in the classical period (508-322 BC) were drawn to an image of themselves as a compassionate and generous people who rushed to the aid of others in distress, both at home and abroad. What relation does this image bear to actual Athenian behavior? This book argues that Athenians felt little pressure as individuals to help fellow citizens whom they did not know. Democratic ideology called on citizens to refrain from harming one another rather than to engage in mutual support, and emphasized the importance of the helping relationship



between citizen and city rather than among individual citizens. If the obligation of Athenians to help fellow citizens was fairly tenuous, all the more so was their responsibility to intervene to assist the peoples of other states; a distinct pragmatism prevailed in the city's decisions concerning intervention abroad.