Meaning of Citizenship

The Greeks are the beginning of political thought, and the form political thought took from the beginning was related to the rationalism of the Greek mind. One of the primary conditions for the development of political thought in Greece was a sense of the value of the individual, and this also meant that one of the issues that had to be addressed was the proper relationship between the individual and the collective, between the individual and the state:

That sense had its manifestation as much in practice as in theory; and it issued into action in the shape of a practical conception of free citizenship of a self-governing community--a conception which forms the essence of the Greek city-state (Barker 2).

The classical features of Greek democratic tradition was an emphasis on disbursing political power among all citizens, and the participation of all citizens was seen as essential both to the wel

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even as he is condemned to death by political enemies: Plato's dialogue Crito shows Socrates's friend of that name trying to persuade him to grasp the chance of life; Socrates firmly refuses, determined to remain obedient to the laws of his city, though he was himself the innocent victim of their unjust operation (Kelly 15). Aristotle also addresses issues of justice and the relationship of the individual to the state. Aristotle believes that every art and inquiry is aimed at some good, that everything has as its goal some good. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle identifies political science as the discipline that has as its goal the study of what is good for mankind. Ethics are actually a branch of political science, and personal ethical science is at one level while political ethical science is at a higher level of inquiry. For Aristotle, statecraft holds a primary position because it employs all the other sciences. It must therefore embrace as its aims the aims of all the others. The purpose of political science is to secure the good. This is on a higher level for the state than it is for the individual because while the securing of the good for the individual is itself a good, the securing of the good for an entire nat
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Approximate Word count = 1348
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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