POL200Y1 Lecture : notes
Document Summary
Lecture: finishing thucydides, republic: 2 passages on ethics + politics, opening moves, conversation with cephalus, conversation with polemarchus, thrasymachus, foreshadowing later themes. Finishing thucydides: from: nicias" speech, alcibiades o. He brings out the quandaries of democratic leadership. Hence, he is the perfect child of empire. If athens had displayed its wealth, then culturally, domestic athens would value that which values self-interest. The human good would become valuing superiority over others. o. The human passions discussed with regards to corcyra, which the athenians had channeled outwards now appear to be returning to athens and alcibiades represents this. Democracy (and by extension human nature) succumbed. o. Alcibiades case shows that imperialism erodes democratic equality at home. The ideals of manly courage have also eroded free speech. If democrats are the imperialists, imperialism in effect manages to tear down democratic equality: constraints of empire o o. Alcibiades argues that they cannot stop the rollercoaster of empire.
