POL200Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: If And Only If, Peloponnesian War, Sophocles
Document Summary
Two superpowers, different allies over the years 431-404 bce. 5th century bce: greece confronted and invaded the persian empire, athens and sparta led fellow greeks to victory over the persians, after the victory the athenians began to impose power over many greek islanders. Initially, they said with the view to protect greece from any subsequent invasions: but also with the view to consolidate our own supremacy, region of greece called peloponnese. What we want to understand is the thing that thucydides brings most to our attention. Desire to be useful to those who want to understand politics at all time. Not just the time frame of that time, but he wants to use his interpretation of particular events to eliminate human nature, in the shapes that it takes in various political nations and behaviours. To understand him as a theorist understand circumstances of human nature as it expressed itself in a variable historical circumstance.
