Political Philosophy

In contrast, history offers not only analysis but evidence. Inevitably, the evidence is itself colored by the author's presentation, yet the evidence is still there, and the reader thus has much greater freedom to reach his or her own conclusions, which may differ from those found by other readers of the same work. It happens that classical Greek political philosophy expressed itself through history, to some degree in Herodotus, but much more comprehensively in Thucydides' Pelopponesian War (1972), a generation or two before Plato launched formal political philosophy.

Moreover, consistently with the above argument, Thucydides has offered his readers a scope for re-evaluation and re-interpretation that is denied to the reader of Plato or Aristotle. Thus, for example, Leo Strauss notes (1964, p. 144) that the English political philosopher Hobbes found in Thucydides an argume

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e Mytilineans had been. The Melians argue justice, the Athenians argue their own interest--specifically, as in Cleon's argument, that moderation will be taken as a sign of weakness (Thucydides, 1972, p. 402). But this time, there is no Diodotus to put forth a pragmatic counter-argument; the Melians are condemned and massacred. Earlier--indeed, just after the Mytiline debate--the Spartans conquered Plataea on behalf of their Theban allies, and condemned the Plateans to death. The Plateans and Thebans plead their respective cases before the Spartans (Thucydides, pp. 225-35). These arguments need not concern us; what is relevant is that the Spartans show no sign of weighing these arguments, and have no internal debate. They agree with their Theban allies, and the Plataeans are put to death, each judged on the absurd question of what he had done to help the Spartan side in the war (pp. 235). What conclusions may be drawn from these episodes? First of all, we may note a profound difference between Thucydides' presentation of Athenian and Spartan political behavior. The Mytiline debate in the Assembly and the Melian "dialogue" are both among the most celebrated passages in Thucydides' work. They are celebrated precisely becaus
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Approximate Word count = 2247
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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