1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910787504003321

Autore

Lewis John <1955-2012, >

Titolo

Solon the thinker : political thought in archaic Athens / by John David Lewis

Pubbl/distr/stampa

London ; New York, : Bloomsbury, 2008

ISBN

1-4725-9809-1

1-4725-2113-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (193 p.)

Disciplina

938.502092

Soggetti

Political science

State, The

Democracy

Athens (Greece)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Originally published: 2006.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index

Nota di contenuto

Acknowledgments -- Preface -- Author's Note -- Abbreviations -- Introduction: Approaching Solon's fragments -- 1. 'I brought the people together': Solon's polis as kosmos -- 2. 'To know all things': psychic qualities and the polis -- 3. 'In time, retribution surely comes': necessity, dikê and the good order of the polis -- 4. 'A kosmos of words': archaic logic and the organization of poem 4 -- 5. 'Moira brings good and evil': bios and the failure of Dikê -- 6. 'We will not exchange our excellence': Moira and wealth -- 7. 'I set them free': tyranny, slavery and freedom -- Appendix: glossary of terms used by Solon -- Notes -- Solon's fragments, translated by John Lewis -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

"In Solon the Thinker, John Lewis presents the hypothesis that Solon saw Athens as a self-governing, self-supporting system akin to the early Greek conceptions of the cosmos. Solon's polis functions not through divine intervention but by its own internal energy, which is founded on the intellectual health of its people, depends upon their acceptance of justice and moderation as orderly norms of life, and leads to the rejection of tyranny and slavery in favour of freedom. But Solon's naturalistic views are limited; in his own life each person is



subject to the arbitrary foibles of moira, the inscrutable fate that governs human life, and that brings us to an unknowable but inevitable death. Solon represents both the new rational, scientific spirit that was sweeping the Aegean - and a return to the fatalism that permeated Greek intellectual life. This first paperback edition contains a new appendix of translations of the fragments of Solon by the author."--Bloomsbury Publishing

In Solon the Thinker, John Lewis presents the hypothesis that Solon saw Athens as a self-governing, self-supporting system akin to the early Greek conceptions of the cosmos. Solon's polis functions not through divine intervention but by its own internal energy, which is founded on the intellectual health of its people, depends upon their acceptance of justice and moderation as orderly norms of life, and leads to the rejection of tyranny and slavery in favour of freedom. But Solon's naturalistic views are limited; in his own life each person is subject to the arbitrary foibles of moira, the inscrutable fate that governs human life, and that brings us to an unknowable but inevitable death. Solon represents both the new rational, scientific spirit that was sweeping the Aegean - and a return to the fatalism that permeated Greek intellectual life. This first paperback edition contains a new appendix of translations of the fragments of Solon by the author.