PLT2060

Images of democracy: early Greek origins

Gillian Robinson

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton

Objectives Upon completing this subject students should have an awareness of the theoretic and philosophic conceptualisations of the origins of democratic thought and practice; a demonstrated familiarity with the exposition of classical political thinkers, as well as their relationship to the archaic Greek past; an understanding of the interrelationship of cultural and political activity and how political and cultural theories evolve and are subject to challenge and revision; developed the ability to critically analyse a variety of primary and secondary texts studied in this subject and be capable of identifying their points of convergence and disagreement in a reasoned and logically developed written response; attained confidence in articulating the core arguments and perspectives of primary and secondary texts read in this subject. Those taking this subject at third-year level should have developed more advanced research techniques (see assessment) and the ability to construct a longer and hence more sustained argument in the essay for assessment.

Synopsis Democracy for the Athenians, from the days of Pericles to those of Demosthenes a full century later, was a system of citizen self-rule. The point of democracy in 5th century Athens was that it made freedom possible and allowed the citizens of the small city-state of Athens to individually and collectively choose a way of life and the norms and values commensurate with that choice. This subject interrogates representations of the archaic past by Homer, of the institution and nature of democracy by the classical philosophers Plato and Aristotle, and of the reception of the past that had to be overcome in the Athenian democracy in the work of Aeschylus, Aristophanes and Sophocles.

Assessment Essay (1500 words): 30%
* Essay (3500 words): 50%
* Examination (1 hour): 20%

Prescribed texts

Homer Iliad ed. Lattimore, U Chicago P, 1962
Thucydides The history of the Peloponnesian war Penguin, 1972
Aeschylus Oresteia ed. Grene and Lattimore, U Chicago P, 1960
Sophocles Antigone ed. Grene and Lattimore, U Chicago P, 1959
Aristophanes The Clouds Penguin, 1973
Plato Republic Penguin, 1993
Aristotle Politics: The Nicomachean ethics Penguin, 1980