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Athenian Democracy & Slavery
Was slavery essential to the development of Athenian democracy? The simple fact is that Athens in the fifth century BCE was, in fact, a slave-owning society. Therefore to debate over whether this fact was essential to the social and political system that developed in Athens is like splitting hairs over whether the men who built the Parthenon were happier than the men who built Pharaoh's great Pyramid: if neither was actually a free man, then we are debating the question of the treatment of slaves, not whether slavery plays an important role in a country's political system. The only reason this question seems worth consideration at all is because Athenian democracy itself would prove to be such an influential form of social organization, while being almost unique in the ancient world. The implication of the question would appear to be whether the existence of slavery in some way vitiates the high ideals preached by the Athenian democratic system; I argue that...
The most interesting fact about Patterson's findings is the way in which the expansion of slavery to include greater numbers of captive persons actually resulted in the redefinition of freedom among the existing classes of person, noting that scholars agree on a "strong correlation between the development of the polis and the concept of citizenship, on the one hand, and a sharpened polarization between free and unfree, on the other." (Patterson 8). The basic premise seems relatively easy to understand: as the class of unfree persons expands, the result is, as Patterson claims, that "men, for the first time, begin to take freedom seriously" (Patterson 8). In other words the expansion of slavery within Athens itself caused those who were free to more directly contemplate the meaning or possibility of unfreedom:…
Works Cited
Patterson, Orlando. "The Greek Origins of Freedom." In Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in the History of Western Civilization. Ed. Joseph Mitchell and Helen Buss Mitchell. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000. Print.
Democracy in Ancient Greece Class XXXX, Section XXXX, Fall, 2012 The term democracy was invented by ancient Greece, and it came about through the system of involving all the people in ruling of their land. The ancient Athenian Greeks have been credited with developing democratic rule. Though their governing system may not have been very democratic as present day democracies, it allowed participation of diverse social class of people. This paper will
Slavery was an essential element of the society of Ancient Greece. Social life, in numerous ways -- family, commerce, politics, was heavily dependent on a class of people who fulfilled tasks their masters saw as degrading. Although, the concept of slavery represented a fundamental aspect of the practical construction of democracy, it is not the only factor that has lead to the development of this complex political institution which is
Why American Democracy Has Failed and Why the Anti Federalists were Right Introduction The Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, asserted that “all men are created equal.”[endnoteRef:2] It was an Enlightenment notion: Thomas Paine, an avid follower of the Enlightenment Movement in Europe, had written the Rights of Man to support and promote the ideas of the philosophical revolution that had gotten underway decades prior with Rousseau’s Social Contract and the latter’s
“Where Do We Go From Here?” Democracy was meant to be government by the rule of the people. Athens is most famous for being the ancient city-state to represent democratic government and in a way the city-state was best situated for democracy: the people were educated and keen on performing their civic duty—at least for a generation or two. By the time the playwright Aristophanes came along, some Athenians were shirking
This is Aristotle's launching pad for his discussion of politics. To him, ethics and politics are matters of rational judgment, stemming from the natural inclinations of individual humans. This notion is reflected in Aristotle's analysis of the constitutional doctrines of some 158 cities. Essentially, he recognized that every state -- necessarily city states -- exist in unique sets of circumstances that act upon the universal forms of ethics in ways
Ancient Greeks The common Greek house consists of two stories with all the rooms built around a courtyard, and two rooms consisting of the andron and gynaikonitis, the men's and women's quarter's respectively, with the gynaikonitis on the second floor and the men's apartment just below it (Athenian pp). This arrangement makes it convenient for husbands to entertain in their quarters, which basically serves as a banquet room, without disturbing their