> country. [Erik: did the slave owning ancient greeks consider freedom
> to be a virtue?]
Of course. It was one of the pre-eminent virtues, along with practical
wisdom, justice, courage, slef-sufficiency, aidos and sophrosune (these
last two are extraordinarily difficult to translate---"aidos" is a kind of
shame, but not the kind arising from being a bad person oneself, but
rather the kind related to awe of the sublime and a proper understanding
of one's relation to it; "sophrosune" is something like a mixture of
temperance and self-knowledge, and is perhaps best captured by a
combination of the two Delphic admonitions "Know thyself" and "All things
in moderation").
In fact, our contemporary views of freedom and citizenship trace directly
back to the ancient Greek ideal---the views of 17th and 18th century
Liberalism (Locke, Hume, Burke, Paine, Madison, Jay, Hamilton, Jefferson),
the cornerstone of American political life, were informed almost wholly by
the political writings of Solon, Pericles, Demosthenes, Thucydides, Plato,
and Aristotle.
E
--
Erik Curiel
almost web-engineer/would-be philosopher
"The affairs of human beings are not worthy of great seriousness,
and yet we must take them seriously."
---Plato, *The Laws*
_______________________________________________
Bits mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.sugoi.org/mailman/listinfo/bits
