Pub Date : 2022-09-07DOI: 10.1163/20512996-12340377
Brennan McDavid
Despite the extensiveness of top-down control in his ideal city, Plato takes seriously the idea that the market does not require total regulation via legislation and that participants in the market may be capable of self-regulation. This paper examines the discussion of market regulation in the Republic and argues that the philosopher rulers play a very limited role in regulating market activities. Indeed, they are concerned only with averting excesses of wealth and poverty. The rules and regulations that are foundational to the daily functioning of the market – enforcement of contracts, resolution of disputes, etc. – are endogenous to the market participants themselves. In allowing for this self-regulation, Plato expresses tempered optimism about the market and a profound confidence in his ideal city’s educational program.
{"title":"Plato’s Market Optimism","authors":"Brennan McDavid","doi":"10.1163/20512996-12340377","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340377","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Despite the extensiveness of top-down control in his ideal city, Plato takes seriously the idea that the market does not require total regulation via legislation and that participants in the market may be capable of self-regulation. This paper examines the discussion of market regulation in the Republic and argues that the philosopher rulers play a very limited role in regulating market activities. Indeed, they are concerned only with averting excesses of wealth and poverty. The rules and regulations that are foundational to the daily functioning of the market – enforcement of contracts, resolution of disputes, etc. – are endogenous to the market participants themselves. In allowing for this self-regulation, Plato expresses tempered optimism about the market and a profound confidence in his ideal city’s educational program.","PeriodicalId":43237,"journal":{"name":"POLIS","volume":"103 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77276806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-07DOI: 10.1163/20512996-12340379
M. Knoll
This article gives a detailed analysis of Nussbaum’s ‘capabilities approach’ and her claim that it is a genuinely Aristotelian contemporary po-litical philosophy. The paper examines how Nussbaum bases her ‘capabilities approach’ on human nature and questions her assertion that both Aristotle’s account of human nature and her own approach are not metaphysical. In order to analyze the normative dimension of Nussbaum’s ‘capabilities approach’, this article focuses on Aristotle’s doctrine of distributive justice and equality. It shows how Nussbaum adopts and modifies this doctrine in an egalitarian way and demonstrates that her reading and appropriation of it is problematic. With reference to contemporary literature on Aristotle’s Politics, the article criticizes how Nussbaum assimilates Aristotle’s political philosophy into modern values and notions, laying out six primary reasons supporting the thesis that Nussbaum’s ‘capabilities approach’ cannot be regarded as an Aristotelian one.
{"title":"Martha Nussbaum and Aristotle on Distributive Justice and Equality","authors":"M. Knoll","doi":"10.1163/20512996-12340379","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340379","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article gives a detailed analysis of Nussbaum’s ‘capabilities approach’ and her claim that it is a genuinely Aristotelian contemporary po-litical philosophy. The paper examines how Nussbaum bases her ‘capabilities approach’ on human nature and questions her assertion that both Aristotle’s account of human nature and her own approach are not metaphysical. In order to analyze the normative dimension of Nussbaum’s ‘capabilities approach’, this article focuses on Aristotle’s doctrine of distributive justice and equality. It shows how Nussbaum adopts and modifies this doctrine in an egalitarian way and demonstrates that her reading and appropriation of it is problematic. With reference to contemporary literature on Aristotle’s Politics, the article criticizes how Nussbaum assimilates Aristotle’s political philosophy into modern values and notions, laying out six primary reasons supporting the thesis that Nussbaum’s ‘capabilities approach’ cannot be regarded as an Aristotelian one.","PeriodicalId":43237,"journal":{"name":"POLIS","volume":"280 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77902739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-11DOI: 10.1163/20512996-12340373
John Lombardini
{"title":"Philosophy, Poetry, and Power in Aristophanes’s Birds, written by Daniel Holmes","authors":"John Lombardini","doi":"10.1163/20512996-12340373","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340373","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43237,"journal":{"name":"POLIS","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88649595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-11DOI: 10.1163/20512996-12340375
William B. Cochran
{"title":"Aristotle on the Concept of Shared Life, written by Sara Brill","authors":"William B. Cochran","doi":"10.1163/20512996-12340375","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340375","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43237,"journal":{"name":"POLIS","volume":"200 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74844561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-11DOI: 10.1163/20512996-12340369
Thomas E. Strunk
Tacitus is an unlikely source for our study of Brutus, Cassius, and Cato, as they stand outside the chronological framework of Tacitus’ writings; nonetheless, they do appear a number of times throughout his works, and Tacitus portrays them with nuance and significance. As Brutus, Cassius, and Cato are rarely the precise focus for Tacitus, they are often referred to obliquely or in dialogue or speeches typically regarding treason and liberty. This paper will explore Tacitus’ depiction of Brutus, Cassius, and Cato in his major and minor works, including the oblique references to Cato, Brutus as an orator and writer, Brutus and Cassius as commanders in civil war, and lastly their memory as it pertains to liberty and treason. Tacitus’ contribution to our understanding of Brutus, Cassius, and Cato comes from both his own use of them as markers of political memory and liberty and his examination of how others used Brutus, Cassius, and Cato to make arguments for political liberty or for the basis of accusations of treason.
{"title":"Conspicuous by Their Presence: Brutus, Cassius, and Cato the Younger in the Writings of Tacitus","authors":"Thomas E. Strunk","doi":"10.1163/20512996-12340369","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340369","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Tacitus is an unlikely source for our study of Brutus, Cassius, and Cato, as they stand outside the chronological framework of Tacitus’ writings; nonetheless, they do appear a number of times throughout his works, and Tacitus portrays them with nuance and significance. As Brutus, Cassius, and Cato are rarely the precise focus for Tacitus, they are often referred to obliquely or in dialogue or speeches typically regarding treason and liberty. This paper will explore Tacitus’ depiction of Brutus, Cassius, and Cato in his major and minor works, including the oblique references to Cato, Brutus as an orator and writer, Brutus and Cassius as commanders in civil war, and lastly their memory as it pertains to liberty and treason. Tacitus’ contribution to our understanding of Brutus, Cassius, and Cato comes from both his own use of them as markers of political memory and liberty and his examination of how others used Brutus, Cassius, and Cato to make arguments for political liberty or for the basis of accusations of treason.","PeriodicalId":43237,"journal":{"name":"POLIS","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83248180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-11DOI: 10.1163/20512996-12340363
Susan Erck
The Republic’s political discussion begins with the construction of two contrasting cities: a ‘healthy’ city and a ‘city with a fever’; one defined by environmentally sustainable subsistence practices and the other by ‘luxurious’ over consumption that exceeds the carrying capacity of its land. Plato’s characters proceed to cure the inflamed city of its fever, resulting in the delineation of the ideal political constitution, the Kallipolis, which recovers the virtues of the original, healthy city in an altered form. This paper develops an ecological reading of the Republic, highlighting Plato’s optimism regarding humans’ ability to limit their material consumption in accordance with the limits of the natural world. The conventional interpretation of the Republic’s first city, known as ‘the city of pigs’, is reconsidered in light of new socio-ecological research on traditional resource management systems.
{"title":"The Ecological Sustainability of Plato’s Republic","authors":"Susan Erck","doi":"10.1163/20512996-12340363","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340363","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The Republic’s political discussion begins with the construction of two contrasting cities: a ‘healthy’ city and a ‘city with a fever’; one defined by environmentally sustainable subsistence practices and the other by ‘luxurious’ over consumption that exceeds the carrying capacity of its land. Plato’s characters proceed to cure the inflamed city of its fever, resulting in the delineation of the ideal political constitution, the Kallipolis, which recovers the virtues of the original, healthy city in an altered form. This paper develops an ecological reading of the Republic, highlighting Plato’s optimism regarding humans’ ability to limit their material consumption in accordance with the limits of the natural world. The conventional interpretation of the Republic’s first city, known as ‘the city of pigs’, is reconsidered in light of new socio-ecological research on traditional resource management systems.","PeriodicalId":43237,"journal":{"name":"POLIS","volume":"25 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81939626","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-11DOI: 10.1163/20512996-12340374
Giulia Maltagliati
{"title":"Greek Rhetoric of the 4th Century BC. The Elixir of Democracy and Individuality, written by Evangelos Alexiou","authors":"Giulia Maltagliati","doi":"10.1163/20512996-12340374","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340374","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43237,"journal":{"name":"POLIS","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73798514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-11DOI: 10.1163/20512996-12340366
Ziyaad Bhorat
Engaging Aristotle’s broader corpus, this paper offers an exegesis of his counterfactual statement in the Politics regarding self-weaving shuttles and self-playing lyres. It argues that Aristotle imagines and offers his own theory of automation – if by automation we understand the conditions, limits, and consequences of substituting human work with artificial tools capable of acting themselves to complete the relevant task. Because such automated tools are impossible in Aristotle’s time, his political thought is never positively released from its foundational dependence on living tools and the extremity of natural slavery. By analysing what it means for these workers to be considered tools, the perceptual requirements of the work they are to perform – as understood through the disjunctive conditions under which automated tools could replace them – and the consequences to masters and master-craftsmen of employing such tools, Aristotle’s disparagement of slave and craft subordinate work is thus also re-emphasized.
{"title":"Automation, Slavery, and Work in Aristotle’s Politics Book I","authors":"Ziyaad Bhorat","doi":"10.1163/20512996-12340366","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340366","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Engaging Aristotle’s broader corpus, this paper offers an exegesis of his counterfactual statement in the Politics regarding self-weaving shuttles and self-playing lyres. It argues that Aristotle imagines and offers his own theory of automation – if by automation we understand the conditions, limits, and consequences of substituting human work with artificial tools capable of acting themselves to complete the relevant task. Because such automated tools are impossible in Aristotle’s time, his political thought is never positively released from its foundational dependence on living tools and the extremity of natural slavery. By analysing what it means for these workers to be considered tools, the perceptual requirements of the work they are to perform – as understood through the disjunctive conditions under which automated tools could replace them – and the consequences to masters and master-craftsmen of employing such tools, Aristotle’s disparagement of slave and craft subordinate work is thus also re-emphasized.","PeriodicalId":43237,"journal":{"name":"POLIS","volume":"232 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87009280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-11DOI: 10.1163/20512996-12340370
A. Orwin
Ibn Bajja both lavishly praises Plato, and quietly alters his teaching. He develops a novel version of the Platonic city, taken partly from Alfarabi, which completely excludes non-philosophers from it, arguing that the gap between purely intellectual philosophy and mostly corporeal politics is simply too great. This allows Ibn Bajja to escape many of the problems associated with the exposition and implementation of the city of the Republic and Political Regime, but raises a new difficulty, namely, the relationship of the small, weak city of the philosophers to the stronger, larger cities of human beings more generally, in the midst of which it must somehow flourish. Ibn Bajja’s solution, ironically, points to the frenetic political engagement for which his biography is known, and which he himself may eventually have come to regret.
{"title":"The Double Life of Ibn Bajja: A Platonic Philosopher among the Potentates of His Time","authors":"A. Orwin","doi":"10.1163/20512996-12340370","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340370","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Ibn Bajja both lavishly praises Plato, and quietly alters his teaching. He develops a novel version of the Platonic city, taken partly from Alfarabi, which completely excludes non-philosophers from it, arguing that the gap between purely intellectual philosophy and mostly corporeal politics is simply too great. This allows Ibn Bajja to escape many of the problems associated with the exposition and implementation of the city of the Republic and Political Regime, but raises a new difficulty, namely, the relationship of the small, weak city of the philosophers to the stronger, larger cities of human beings more generally, in the midst of which it must somehow flourish. Ibn Bajja’s solution, ironically, points to the frenetic political engagement for which his biography is known, and which he himself may eventually have come to regret.","PeriodicalId":43237,"journal":{"name":"POLIS","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85392052","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-11DOI: 10.1163/20512996-12340368
Keita Ishino
It is often emphasized that the Athenians viewed philosophy as essentially apolitical or anti-political. Placed in this context, Aristotle’s Politics 7.1–7.3 deserves special attention because here Aristotle presents his argument on the best life for ‘each human being (ἑκάστῳ τε τῶν ἀνθρώπων) and commonly for cities and human beings (κοινῇ ταῖς πόλεσι καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις)’, which culminates in his conclusion that ‘the same life (τὸν αὐτὸν βίον)’ is the best for them (Pol. 7.3.1325b30–32). This paper attempts to show that ‘the same life’ does not mean a life consisting of activity of the same content but rather of the same type or kind, and that Aristotle semantically differentiates between ἑκάστῳ τε τῶν ἀνθρώπων and τοῖς ἀνθρώποις and assigns a sphere of philosophy to the former and a sphere of politics to the latter, which helps him mitigate the tension between the philosophical life and the political life.
{"title":"The Best Life in Aristotle’s Politics","authors":"Keita Ishino","doi":"10.1163/20512996-12340368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340368","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000It is often emphasized that the Athenians viewed philosophy as essentially apolitical or anti-political. Placed in this context, Aristotle’s Politics 7.1–7.3 deserves special attention because here Aristotle presents his argument on the best life for ‘each human being (ἑκάστῳ τε τῶν ἀνθρώπων) and commonly for cities and human beings (κοινῇ ταῖς πόλεσι καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις)’, which culminates in his conclusion that ‘the same life (τὸν αὐτὸν βίον)’ is the best for them (Pol. 7.3.1325b30–32). This paper attempts to show that ‘the same life’ does not mean a life consisting of activity of the same content but rather of the same type or kind, and that Aristotle semantically differentiates between ἑκάστῳ τε τῶν ἀνθρώπων and τοῖς ἀνθρώποις and assigns a sphere of philosophy to the former and a sphere of politics to the latter, which helps him mitigate the tension between the philosophical life and the political life.","PeriodicalId":43237,"journal":{"name":"POLIS","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81028373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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