1,720,989 research outputs found
Justifying novelty in political theory: Aristotle on political and legal innovation
No full textIn Aristotle’s political thought, innovation is “acceptable” when it is achieved in the name of the common good and when the benefit is great. Against the notion that political and legal innovation may be either absolutely beneficial or absolutely harmful, Aristotle discusses concrete instances such as the size of the benefit the innovation produces, the aim of whoever proposes the new action and the need to exercise political control over every innovation. The lexical and conceptual dyad represented by the verbs kainotomein (to seek the new) and kinein (to change radically) allows us to follow Aristotle’s thinking and to identify the univocal result it reaches, both when it addresses theoretical proposals for innovation as well as examples of innovation that have already been implemented
La «farsa» delle due delegazioni ateniesi ricevute a Farige da Filippo III Arrideo e Poliperconte: l’ultimo dramma prima della morte di Focione
Full text linkGli ultimi capitoli della Vita di Focione scritta da Plutarco di Cheronea raccontano i drammatici eventi che precedettero la morte del generale e politico ateniese. Tra questi è un singolare episodio del quale Focione, suo malgrado, fu tra i protagonisti principali: l’incontro avvenuto in una località della Grecia centrale, chiamata Farige, fra il re macedone Filippo Arrideo, accompagnato dai suoi philoi e dal reggente del regno Poliperconte, e una duplice delegazione ateniese. Le modalità dell’incontro fra le autorità macedoni e la duplice ambasceria ateniese meritano di essere riconsiderate per diversi motivi. Uno di questi è il particolarissimo ambiente nel quale il re Filippo Arrideo, accompagnato da un consiglio di notabili macedoni, ricevette i delegati ateniesi: sotto a un baldacchino d’oro che il reggente Poliperconte aveva fatto innalzare e sotto al quale aveva fatto sedere sia il re che i suoi philoi. Ugualmente interessante è il ruolo svolto in questa occasione da Filippo Arrideo e dal consiglio macedone che lo accompagna. Entrambi infatti, pur sotto il controllo del reggente Poliperconte, interagiscono direttamente con i delegati ateniesi. Infine, il carattere della discussione tra i delegati ateniesi e i Macedoni assume un peso rilevante rispetto alla ricostruzione degli eventi che seguirono alla restaurazione democratica di Atene e alla comprensione dei rapporti che i democratici ateniesi stabilirono con Poliperconte in quella occasione.The last chapters of the Life of Phocion written by Plutarch of Cheronea recount the dramatic events that preceded the death of the Athenian general and politician Phocion. Among these is a singular episode in which Phocion, despite himself, was one of the main protagonists: the meeting that took place in a town in central Greece, called Pharige, between the Macedonian king PhilipArrhidaeus, accompanied by his philoi and the regent Polyperchon, and a dual Athenian delegation. The modalities of the meeting between the Macedonian authorities and the dual Athenian embassy deserve to be reconsidered for several reasons. One of these is the very special environment in which king Philip Arrhidaeus, accompanied by a council of Macedonian notables, received the Athenian delegates: under a golden canopy that the regent Polyperchon had raised and under which he had seated both the king and his philoi. Equally interesting is the role played on this occasion by Philip Arrhidaeus and the Macedonian council that accompanies it. Both, in fact, though under the control of the regent Polyperchon, interact directly with the Athenian delegates. Finally, the negotiation between the Athenian delegates and the Macedonian court is significant for our reconstruction of events that followed the restoration of democracy in Athens and the connections that the Athenian democrats developed with Polyperchon on that occasion
L’apodemia di Solone e l’inalterabilità delle sue leggi. La versione di Erodoto
Full text linkThe aim of the article is to identify the tradition to which the Herodotean version of Solonian’s apodemia (latency) can be traced. While scholars recognised the dependence of the later sources (Aristotle and Plutarch) on Herodotus and also identified the alternative traditions to Herodotus to which Aristotle and Plutarch would have referred, the origin of the Herodotean version of the story remains debated, generally explained by the dependence on traditions outside the polis such as the tradition of the Seven Wise Men or the "legend" of Greek legislators. This article discusses the hypotheses already put forward in order to identify the possible cultural matrix of the Herodotean version and considers the possibility of identifying its most plausible context of elaboration in the oral traditions of the polis. Herodotus offers the version of a story that he knows through Athenian traditions that had fixed its main contents: (a) the pact established between citizens and legislator in the phase of the origins of Athenian democratic legislation; (b) the role in that pact of the sworn commitment not to repeal any law for ten years. Thus we have a story that is already structured, rather than being an uncritical collection of data, and whose context of elaboration
is more plausible in the Athenian cultural environment
Dal governo della città al governo del mondo? Il rapporto tra Aristotele e Alessandro negli studi di H. Kelsen e V. Ehrenberg
No full textAbstract - The essays by Hans Kelsen and Victor Ehrenberg mark a decisive stage in the modern debate on the problem of the relationship between Aristotle and Alexander. It is a confrontation in which, in the 1930s, they argued different theses on the extent of Aristotle's intellectual involvement in relation to the novelty of the political achievements of the Macedonian monarchy in a scenario of great transformations such as the construction of hegemony in Greece first and Alexander's empire later. Their studies have decisively conditioned later scholarship. Subsequent discussions of the problem have tended to retain the integral content of Ehrenberg's treatment of Kelsen's critique. However, there are remarkable aspects of Kelsen's treatment that Ehrenberg was too quick to dismiss, and his failure to discuss relevant points of Kelsen's treatment resulted in fixing the terms of the debate in Ehrenberg's form, according to which Kelsen would have tried to trace in Aristotle's reflection the proof of a theoretical design that ideologically founded both the idea of the unification of the Greek cities and that of a unified government of the world by Alexander
Agatarchide di Cnido sulla compassione che genera la comprensione dei fatti. La funzione del pathos nel prologo al V libro del trattato Sul Mar Rosso
No full textThis article sets out to evaluate the function and content of the prologue to Book V of Agatharchides’ treatise On the Red Sea, with particular attention to the problem of choosing the most appropriate language to use in describing a dramatic historical event when it is intended to elicit the reader / listener’s emotions. A second aspect of the process of “emotional transfer” that this essay, departing from the prevailing line of interpretation, seeks to clarify is that this process does not take the form of an emotional contagion. On the contrary, just as the narrator selects the emotion to be transmitted, the listener also decides whether or not to receive it. An indispensable tool for transmis- sion is enargeia, that is, descriptive clarity, which becomes a tool for generating pathos. Finally, some considerations are presented about the epistemic value of emotions in the context of a process of understanding a dramatic historical event (for the understanding of which enargeia is the main tool)
Politeia and the historical account of the polis in Aristotle = Politeia y el relato histórico de la polis en Aristóteles
Full text linkAristotle’s conception of the politeia (regime, constitution) as a distinctive feature of the historical experience of the polis is a key aspect in his treatment of politics2. Part of this discussion deals with Aristotle’s attempt to locate and define the qualities of the politeia as the most valid criteria for a historical account of the polis. These are the qualities I intend to address in this chapter. In section 1 I consider the role of the politeia in Aristotle’s account of the history of the polis after it deviates from the monarchic model of government. In section 2 I tackle the problem of the politeia’s intelligibility inside the polis understood as a “community of interpretation”3. Finally, in section 3 I address the politeia as an expression of the unity of the polis and discuss its quality to unify actions (praxeis) aimed at a common goal. Here I argue that it is the politeia’s “unifying quality” that highlights the causal connections underlying actions that regard the polis. The politeia helps to unmask historical causation between the actions. Within the context of the politeia, the historical account of the polis connects actions which outside the framework of the politeia do not appear to be so closely related
AGRAPHOI NOMOI E POLITEIA NEL DISCORSO FUNEBRE DI PERICLE
Full text linkQuesto saggio esamina il ruolo degli agraphoi nomoi nell’orazione funebre di Pericle, in particolare nell’ambito della riflessione rivolta alla politeia degli Ateniesi. La scelta di Pericle di accentuare positivamente gli agraphoi nomoi e sottolineare la complementarità del rapporto fra i nomoi scritti e non scritti si discosta sia dalle regole del logos epitaphios sia dalle posizioni riconoscibili nel contesto del dibattito contemporaneo sul nomos, che tendenzialmente afferma la superiorità dell’agraphos nomos come espressione di un diritto universale e/o naturale. Diversamente, Pericle afferma che la politeia degli Ateniesi assegna uguale rilievo alle leggi scritte e non scritte e che gli agraphoi nomoi non hanno minore efficacia di quelle scritte relativamente al controllo sui comportamenti pubblici degli Ateniesi, particolarmente riguardo ai comportamenti irrispettosi di ciò che gli Ateniesi consideravano meritevole di rispetto (eusebeia). Gli agraphoi nomoi, secondo quanto qui si argomenta, individuano gli ethe intesi come norme consuetudinarie e regole appartenenti al campo del diritto sacrale.This essay examines the role of agraphoi nomoi in Pericles’ funeral speech, particularly in the context of reflection on the Athenian politeia. Pericles\u27 choice to accentuate positively the role of agraphoi nomoi and underline the complementarity between written and unwritten nomoi deviates both from the rules of the logos epitaphios and from the contemporary debate on the nature of nomos, which affirmed the superiority of agraphos nomos as an expression of a universal and/or natural right. Conversely, Pericles affirms that the politeia of the Athenians assigns equal importance to written and unwritten laws and that the agraphoi nomoi are no less effective than the written ones in policing public behaviour, especially the disrespectful behaviour for what the Athenians considered worthy of respect (eusebeia). The agraphoi nomoi, as I argue here, were the ethe understood as customary norms and sacred regulations
A Reading on Xenophon’s Hiero (2.8-16; 6.7-10): Citizens and War in the Tyrant’s Discourse = Una lectura sobre el Hiero de Jenofonte (2.8-16; 6.7-10): los ciudadanos y la guerra en el discurso del tirano
Full text linkThis essay focuses on the role that the theme of the war waged by the citizens plays in the tyrant Hiero’s regret for his lost status as a citizen. By invoking the military commitment that citizens offer to the city when it is engaged in a common war, Hiero underlines those aspects of being a citizen that he misses the most: sharing in the joys of victory, taking part in collective discussions when the community decides to go to war for a common advantage, the protection of the laws afforded to the citizens defending their city, the honor that victory over the enemy brings to the entire community of citizens
Compensazione del danno (timoria) e giustizia come reciprocità nella demostenica Contro Midia, sul pugno
Full text linkThis article offers an analysis of the legal arguments that Demosthenes uses in his speech Against Meidias, concerning the punch to prove that Meidias, who had struck Demosthenes as he exercised his public functions as a choregos, is guilty of hybris, and that he (Demosthenes) deserves adequate (i.e. public) reparation for the outrage suffered. Demosthenes claims his right to a punishment (timoria) capable of repairing the collective, more than individual, damage. This claim appears to allow him, on the one hand, to legitimise, with effective legal argumentation, all the choices made in the aftermath of the episode of the punch, and on the other, to give a strong legal basis for requesting the death penalty for Meidias. The paragraphs 2-3 of the article deal with the choices Demosthenes made after the episode of the punch. Here I intend to show that Demosthenes is able to demonstrate to the judges the relevance of the procedural choices and to qualify them as ‘choices’ precisely because they were motivated and considered at length. In the following paragraphs of the article I discuss the legal argumentation that Demosthenes uses with regard to the ‘measure’ of the penalty required (the death penalty). The aim is to understand what roles the principle according to which Meidias’s hybristic conduct must be assessed from an overall view and the principle of justice as reciprocity play in this argument. The latter must take into account the merit of the epieikes Demosthenes as compared to the hybristes Meidias
Introduction
No full textThe multi-faceted notion of politeia as a lens on Aristotle’s ideas about politics and history is the organizing focus of this monograph in Araucaria which unites essays by philosophers, historians and political theorists. What issues are focused on? The historical qualities of the research on the politeiai in relation to the Aristotelian judgement on history (Mara, Poddighe); the use of the politeiai as paradeigmata for the correction of the existing regimes and for the creation of new ones by lawgivers and politicians, be they real models (Pezzoli, Zizza) or theoretical elaborations (Sancho Rocher); Aristotle’s ethical reflection on the principles that give unity and stability to the politeia, in particular the democratic ones (Irrera) and Aristotle’s analysis on a pragmatic way to settle the problem of stasis with political means (Knoll); and, finally, the method of Aristotelian research on the politeiai (Polito)
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