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Language, truth and power in ancient Greek thought: Prolegomena to Nietzsche
Abstract
The meaning of democracy was contested theoretical and political terrain in classical Athens. In this dissertation I examine three contending theoretical views of democracy found in the works of three Greek thinkers--Thucydides, Aeschylus and Plato--present at the height of Athenian democracy. I show that each view draws upon competing conceptions of nature, language, truth, and power in order to claim the contested terrain. I argue that the heroic view of democracy, portrayed in Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, saw politics as the means by which states achieve immortal glory through feats of war which simultaneously destroy them. In this view political power was delivered by the unified voice--the single identity--of the Athenian assembly produced by the power of persuasion. I interpret the tragic view, represented by Aeschylus' Oresteia, to criticize the heroic tradition of politics as dangerously unbalanced. The Oresteia offers an alternative view of democracy in which multiple voices divided against themselves produce not weakness but balance as a shield against the loss of limits implied in the heroic view. I argue that the ambiguity of language, and the ambiguous identity it produces, is affirmed by tragedy to be a source of political strength and not a sign of political disintegration. The Platonic view articulated in the Republic opposes both the heroic view of politics and its tragic revision. I contend that the Republic, while appearing to oppose democracy, actually seeks to place it on a more secure foundation grounded in the logical concept of identity and rational thought applied to the soul. I argue that the Platonic attempt to found political order on the twin concepts of logical and psychological identity maintained by rational thought and language actually recapitulates on a grand scale the same dangers it identifies in its heroic opponents. And I suggest in conclusion that our Platonic legacy may effectively blind us to the dangerously heroic trajectory of the modern political state.
Subject Area
Political science|Ancient history|Classical literature|Theater|Classical Studies
Recommended Citation
Shepard, Paul M, "Language, truth and power in ancient Greek thought: Prolegomena to Nietzsche" (1993). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9408346.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9408346