The Legacy of the Ancient Greeks (108-137) 10.1

10.1 How ancient Greece influences western political thought.

(our society and government)

I. Geography A. Mountainous- small isolated communities“city states”,

poor resources, no large river

B. Mediterranean Sea “Greeks did not live on a land but around a sea” - travel, trade by sea, colonies

C. Climate moderate, like California, encouraged public gatherings

II. Rise of City States 750BC Athens- Largest, most powerful

city-stateA. Limited Democracy 1. monarchy till 683 B.C. then

aristocracy- (noble class) rules 2. Solon- increase democracy a. begins reforms 594 B.C. b. all free adult men attend

assembly, vote but not hold office 3. Cleisthanes a. 508 B.C. limits power of nobles b. “founder of democracy in

Athens” -council of 500 submits laws, advise (commoners and nobles)

B. Age of Pericles 461 -429 B.C.- Athens Golden Age- strengthen Democracy

1. direct democracy- 10% are citizens- all citizens vote on all laws 2. paid public officials and jurors- poor can participate 3. Strengthen Army/ Navy (Delian League)

4. Glorify Athens's, building projects/ art “Our constitution is

called a democracy

because the power is

in the hands not of the

minority but the whole

people”

Themes- power struggle between rich and poor, continuous reform to an ideal, trying of new ideas

Emergence of culture- sculpture, drama, poetry, philosophy, architecture, mathematics, pottery and science

Sparta- other large city state- very militaristic- Greece falls because of the wars between these two powers and the other city states that support them.

Theater; of Aegeira

C. Philosophers1. “lovers of wisdom” - two assumptions a. universe is orderly ; natural laws

are absolute and unchanging b. people understand laws of the

universe through logic +reason

2. Socrates 469-399 B.C. a. Socratic Method : question-answer

b. began the practice of examining oneself

and life- “The unexamined life is not worth living.”c. believed in absolutism in truth and justice

“There is only one good, knowledge; and one evil, ignorance.”

Socrates

3. Plato 427-347 B.C.a. wrote down the

conversations of Socratesb. The Republic - perfectly

governed society- philosopher-king rules

c. founded the Academy

4. Aristotle 384-322 B.C. a. rules of logic, basis of

scientific method b. “Man is by nature a political

animal; it is his nature to live in a state.”

Jacques Louis David's painting, The Death of Socrates (1787). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Wolfe Fund, 1931, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection. Source: Oliver Taplin, Greek Fire, New York,

What about the Greeks makes them important enough for us to study 2500 years later?

How was the emergence of democracy, culture and philosophy related?