Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, And Athenian Democracy

The concept of Democracy dates back to the Classic Period, otherwise known as the Golden Age of Greece. Prior to becoming a unified nation, Greece was made up of city-states that were constantly warring with one another. None of these city-states possessed full control over its neighbors. It was during this time and because of these circumstances that there was great advancement in Greek thought encompassing philosophy and politics. These advancements are responsible for the strong Greek

Swiss-French writer Benjamin Constant and ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle offer conflicting viewpoints concerning the merits and possibilities of ancient Greek democracy. Aristotle’s political theory attempts to justify his city-state’s political structure by providing a model of the common good, or Chief Aim, his end goal for Athenian democracy. He believed Athenians could reach the Chief Aim as a society by individually learning to be virtuous and then instilling laws and morals based on these ideals. In his lecture, The Liberty of the Ancients Compared with that of the Moderns, Constant highlights that the individual liberties protected in a modern representative democracy are much more important than the political liberties that one was given in antiquity. Constant illustrates that while some ideas of ancient Greek democracy are precious, Aristotle’s political theory is not an obtainable reality and it was beneficial that modern democracies transitioned to a system that protects individual liberty.

The principal of Democracy is something that we often fail to appreciate. Democracy means a government that allows the public to be heard by having periodically held elections.

“Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people.” (Dale. Civilizations in History. Alternative Two. Pg. 92) This quotation perfectly summarizes Athenian democracy, a system in which all citizens had a say in affecting their daily lives. This is a contrast to Spartan oligarchy, which limited power to a small group of men. Athenian democracy encouraged citizens to use their voice and consequently make an impact on their society. The government included more people's opinions, gave Athenians a more lavish lifestyle and offered more freedom within the education system. This essay will prove that Athenian democracy left Athens a more open civilization, which therefore better

The United States is known for its many liberties to all, liberties that lead to all sorts of bad according to Socrates and Aristotle. Plato-Socrates in The Republic and Aristotle in Politics criticize democracy, a form of government that tries to equalize all. Centuries have passed and many of the democratic elements described in their works apply to current democratic regimes in particular the United States.

Evolution of Democracy and the Athenian Constitution Democracy is defined in modern times as government by the people. To put that in perspective and better understand all that democracy entails we must consider its origins. It is surprising indeed that even today tyrannies and dictatorships exist in the world when more than two and a half thousand years ago the ancient Athenians had developed a functional and direct form of democracy. What contributed to this remarkable achievement and how it changed the socio-political scene in Athens is what will be considered in this paper.

Plato’s The Republic and Aristotle’s The Politics are two classic texts in ancient Greek political thought. Although Plato taught Aristotle, the two philosophers had differing viewpoints on many subjects, one of them being the purpose of political rule. Plato believed that the purpose of political rule is to allow for the manifestation of a just city where both the city and its citizens are in harmony due to a specialization of roles according to individuals’ natures, whereas Aristotle believed that the purpose of political rule is to create a regime that pursues the common advantage and preserves the political partnership of the city.

Greece established a platform for the beginning of democracy. The Romans used these ideas and expanded upon them to form a government with written laws, division of power and the ability to vote which are all key elements in the US modern government. Also, Greece founded trade routes that allowed their empire to thrive, but Rome again improved the method of trade by creating currency as well as a system of roads which allowed their empire to expand. The complex trade and transportation system of the US is a further developed version of this Roman system. Finally, Greeks united their culture through sporting competitions and the Romans further developed their common culture by popularizing sporting arenas and spreading religion which are also significant aspects of US culture. Global success today continues to occur when countries emulate the best of what the world shows

The Athenian democracy is one of the oldest democratic systems that we know in our age. Many countries especially the United States was inspired by that system and felt that it would be an outstanding way of approaching and setting up a government. The Athenian democracy gave opportunities and opened many doors for those who like to call themselves as free thinkers to venture and ask the why. It gave the birth to many philosophers and scientists; such as Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes, and Socrates. It all started in the year 6th century B.C, when Cleisthenes, an Athenian leader introduced new reforms of governing. He named them “ruled by the people.” This system was comprised of three separate

The Athenian democracy of Greece was the first established democracy that lasted for around 186 years. It was a strong system of government up until its fall. Being in the largest city of Athens where there was a large amount of diversity many types of people were able to serve as council men or judges. Though there was a large amount of diversity women were still not able to serve or have a say in what was done during council meetings. Because of the large amount of diversity in the council the wealthy and upper-class people became jealous of the lower classes and did not want them to dictate what happened in their own houses. So, their want for power and wealth came to be the reason that the Athenian democracy fell. With this striving for power came a larger distinction of division between all of the classes.

Most of the fundamental element of European countries and The United State Follow Ancient Greece. Democracy, Economics, philosophy, Sculpture and the Olympic games were started from Ancient Greece were located from east to Persian empire, from south to Egypt civilization and from west to the ancient Romans. I am thinking Ancient Greece influenced by neighbors. The ancient Greeks wanted to know how the universe works, it was like as these days in the united estate which we hearing new discovery every day. To probe such questions, the Greeks turned to philosophy, mathematics, and science. The Greeks were the first in the West to experiment with the concept of democratic government. European and the united state and most successful modern democratic

Plato and Aristotle are philosophers that both have an idea of an ideal state but they have their differences. While there are benefits to each of their views on politics and society, there are also many negative things about their views. Some of their negative views were realistic at one point in time but few are the same in today 's society. Although I don 't fully agree with either philosopher, I would have to side with Aristotle overall.

The Ekklesia was the assembly in Athens. It consisted only of men, they were able to make laws. The ordinary citizen in Athens was allowed to voice their views on certain matters. This allowed them to engage in debates around the laws of Athens and was a very different set up to how things were done in Sparta. The minimum number needed for a meeting to be viewed as valid was 6000 members. If the members were absent from the meeting with no legitimate reason for their absence, then they would be fined severely for not attending. The Thetes (serfs), the Zeugitai (ordinary soldiers), the Hippeis (horsemen) and Pentakosiomedimnoi (500-bushel men) were all members of the Ekklesia and most were part of the Boule. The Thetes were the only ones that were not part of the Boule but were part of the Ekklesia.

In the fifth-century BC, Athens emerged as one of the most advanced state or polis in all of Greece. This formation of Athenian ‘democracy’ holds the main principle that citizens should enjoy political equality in order to be free to rule and be ruled in turn. The word ‘democracy’ originates from the Greek words demos (meaning people) and kratos (meaning power) therefore demokratia means “the power of the people.” The famous funeral speech of Pericles states that “Our constitution is called democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people.” However, only citizens (free adult men of Athenian descent) could participate in political matters. Women and slaves held no political rights, although they were

After democracy was introduced in Athens around the 5th century B.C.E., the majority of the Greek intellectual community condemned it as a form of communal tyranny. Socrates was put to trial and executed after a vote by the Athenian citizens because, despite strong evidence negating their arguments, the common people blamed him for corrupting the city’s youth. Aristotle would later argue in his writings that the most effective democracy should include equal power between the rich minority and the poor majority, so the poor could not take advantage of the rich. In other words, Aristotle felt that the poor should have a disproportionately small voice in democracy, perhaps believing that they were fundamentally less capable than the educated bourgeois of making the right decision. After two and a half thousand millennia have past, we’d all like to believe we’ve perfected this tried and failed egalitarian system. After all, the entirety of the first world operates under political structures that can largely be described as democratic, and there is something intuitively, morally correct about every person having an equal say, right?