Today we'll say good-bye to ancient Athens (representative of Greek democracy, in preparation to get into our time machine and move to ancient Rome.
Note the two headnotes to the document for today. The second was written by Professor Joshua Stein a colleague of mine for many years who sadly passed away, but remains through the documents he found and added to our Core Materials.
You will want to make sure you understand the word polity. While you are at it, make sure you know what an "Oligarch" is. The fact that the author of this becomes known as the "Old Oligarch" is an indication that this is a satire.
Remembering that this is satire. Compare what the author says about the situation in Athens with Aristotle's ideas about the "middle" class. It the Old Oligarch poking fun at the idea that Athens is truly a democracy? What do you think? (There are two possibilities here: we'll see if members of the class discover both of them.
The cartoon above is from a blog entitled "Voices from Russia," though I suspect that the cartoon itself was produced by an American cartoonist. In what way is it trying to represent "Oligarchy". Is it fair? What do you think? The blog doesn't seem to publish very often, but you might enjoy looking at it, anyhow.
We've moved a few centuries closer to our times. Marcus Tullius Cicero was a Roman philosopher and statesman. As you'll see from the brief biography which I've linked to his name, he came to a sad end. Politics can be a rough game.
We might call this document a "trialogue", as you'll see there are three characters in it. The odd thing is that Cicero wrote every word (in the original Latin version). One of the things I want to have to think about as you mark this up is what is his strategy here? Can you see how he is using this strategy to make is theories more convincing. Other things I'd like to have you look up include,
1. Consider how he goes back to the Greeks and begins by creating a definition for law which includes both a Greek idea and a Roman idea. What are the two elements which determine the validity of a law? You'll notice in this part of the essay the "trialogue effect". What is Marcus's job? How about Atticus' function?
2.Around line 80, we begin to see Cicero define human nature? What are humans like? Could you paraphrase what he has to say in words of your own? If so, how would you define human nature? Do you think Cicero overdoes it a bit? Think of this as well, just because a person "can" do something doesn't mean he "will" do nothing.
3.The idea of "universal" law appears around pages three and four. How about this? Are there "universal" principles of justice which apply everywhere? How do we discover what those are? Here another sticky note would be useful.
4.Is the best quality of a human the ability to reason. Note that reason is a sequential process. You will find that process around line 170.
5.There is another counter-quality which the translator calls "voluptuousness". Looking at the several qualities he includes in "voluptuousness", what might we call it today?
6.Moving on to the section around line 210, Cicero begins to think about what the Divine's intent was in making us "just," in other words persons to pursue justice. How do "just" persons behave in human communities. Is Cicero arguing against oligarchy in any way?
7.Around line 286, Cicero begins to argue about the difference between "universal" and "civil" laws, which he admits differ from place to place. He also concludes by introducing the idea of "legislators," which we should be aware of in this election cycle. How should true legislators create laws? then around line 326 he begins to explain the idea of "unjust laws". Why do some legislatures create "unjust" laws.
8.Finally, suppose you are confronted by a law which your reason considers unjust. What do you do, follow your law or follow your reason? Can you think of some laws of our day and age which might be considered contrary to justice? What would you do in such a situation, be a good citizen (follow the law) or be a good person? Hopefully we'll have time to think about all these things.
