City Research Online

Abstract

The thesis is concerned with the development of elitist ideas before Plato, within the context of the emergence and sophistication of politics as a specialised activity. The significance of the intellectual rather than the strictly historical context is stressed in the introductory Chapter, and Chapters 2 and 3 are concerned with elitist ideas in the Homeric poems and in Hesiod and with developments in religious and moral sanctions which resulted from the Archaics' response to political and social pressures. Chapters 4 and 5 are concerned with the contrast between Pindar's anachronistic attempt to identify the Heroic glory attached to the victors in the Games with a divinely sanctioned ruling class, and Aeschylus' concern with the emergence of a civic morality which could hold the balance between the intellectual potential of the most gifted men and the anarchy and stasis which were threatened by the changes brought about by the activities of this elite. Chapters 6 and 7 are devoted to the problems implicit in the emphasis on the distinction of man's own special sphere of activity, in the increasing rationalisation of political relations, and in the sophistication of political thought. All these factors point towards the emergence of a systematic theoretical basis for elitist ideas. It is contended in Chapter 8, through discussion of Thucydides and Euripides, that the necessary stimulus towards this was to be found in the climate of political and moral disillusionment towards the end of, and immediately following, the Peloponnesian War. Plato thus broke away from elitist tradition in formalising the political hierarchy in terms of a moral ideal derived from a belief in the progressive transformation of human nature. In contrast to the earlier sources considered, Plato inverted the relationship of the descriptive and the normative in elitist ideas.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General) D History General and Old World > DF Greece J Political Science > JC Political theory
Departments:	Doctoral Theses

Export

Downloads