SCS 2150 Study Guide - Polynices, Haemon, Legal Positivism
11 Jul 2014
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Early in plato"s republic, socrates is having a debate with some of his friends about what justice is. One of socrates" friends named polemarchus backs up his argument by quoting the poet simonides. This shows that in ancient greece, poets were considered to be authorities on important questions of politics. Even though sophocles" antigone is a dramatic play and not a book about politics like plato"s republic, in ancient greece people might have been just as likely to look to playwrights as philosophers to answer these important questions. Antigone and republic are stories full of situations that require people to judge whether what the characters say is right or wrong, and then think about what this means in their own everyday lives. Today, most people in the west have opinions about politics and justice that are influenced by growing up in democratic, liberal countries, but in ancient greece democracy was not the most popular kind of government.
