Solon the Thinker: Political Thought in Archaic Athens - Softcover

Lewis, John David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0715637282 ISBN 13: 9780715637289

Publisher: Bristol Classical Press, 2008

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

John David Lewis is Visiting Associate Professor in the Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program, Bowling Green State University, USA. He is author of Nothing Less than Victory: The Will to Fight and the Lessons of History (2010), and Early Greek Lawgivers (also published by Bloomsbury, 2007).

Edition details

• Publisher: Bristol Classical Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0715637282
• ISBN 13: 9780715637289
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192