POL200Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: National Myth, Historical Method, Body Politic

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19 Jan 2016
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Causes of war: political action and national character. Athens were mainly concerned with naval power, and the spartans were mainly concerned with land wars. Dispute over control of other greek cities: rivalry over the supreme power . Thucydides: he doesn"t try to influence our thoughts. He doesn"t imagine what the best political system is. He educates us in terms of what the contemporary people say and do. He suggests looking towards history as a way to diagnose human character. He sees the world as a world of suffering and injustice. ): analyzing human beings as they make war. Salient political fact: the human world is a world of war. Anyone who doesn"t believe that is living in an illusion. Thucydides distinguishes himself from people like homer, he distinguishes useful knowledge from pleasant stories, believing stories will lead us astray like political rhetoric.

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