Transcript Lecture - Pedagog Mob

Neolithic & Classic Antiquity
Taking Notes
www.pedagogmob.com
Time Period *
Always ask:
Key
Purpose
theorists
Major events/context
Who is in power?
Who is a threat to
power?
of
punishment?
Assumptions about
punishment?
But what do I have to know?
 Let the slides guide
where you should
focus in the readings…
 Slides do not replace
readings…
 Dates?
Acephalous Societies
Agrarian
Shared
goals
Survival
No central authority
Multiple geographically specific
Nature Deities
Deviance = threat to group
survival
Retribution is illogical
Group reconciliation is logical
Sumerian (Neolithic Period)
 2285-2250 BCE
 Agrarian + trade
 Mathematics
 Music – ritualistic
Enhuanda
High Priestess
Writer
Male dominated society
Divine right of rulers…
Love, sex, not dualistic
Becomes important when
we cover the Inquisitions
Code of Ur
Ur- City State
 Philosophers, doctors,
teachers
 Merchants, labourers,
artisans
 Slaves
If crime, then punishment
Restitution & equality of land…
Classic Antiquity...
City States: Polis
● Greece
● Sparta/Athens
Supracontext
Nostalgic recollections about
‘rationality’
The Birthplace of “Democracy”
 Lottery
 Slaves & women
Rationalism: Everything and
everyone has its proper place
and function (virtue)
Plato: Purpose of Law (p. 45)
 Perfection in virtue
 Essential freedom
 Political Community
399 BCE: Trial of Socrates
Courts


Trials
Dikasts
Formal and ritualized

Avoid concentrated
authority
Adversarial system


Character was important
Hierarchy of Citizens
“…corrupting the youth
and impiety ”
Plato’s State Doctrine:
Aristocracy
…the elite eclipse everyone
because of their wisdom, the
masses should y means of selfcontrol, simply rein in their own
unreasonable instincts.
…governing power belongs
exclusively to the reasonable
elite.
…The everyday physical work is
performed by the unwise
masses. (p.46)
Rejection of Democracy & Tyranny
Plato’s State Doctrine
Function of the Polis:
1. Government
2. Maintain order
3. Productive labour (virtue)
Three classes ordered by
virtue :
 courage & intelligence
 philosophers natural rulers
Plato’s Ontology
Individually: weak
1. Governance/Reason/Philosophers
2. Maintain Order/courage/soliders
3. Productive labour/animals/slaves
Deductive: Find specific examples of an
idea as evidence
Aristotle &
Ontology
 Student of Plato’s
 Became a scholar
“Why are things ordered as they are?”
 Teological - a natural capacity in objects
 Inductive: look for ideas/concepts to
develop in collection of examples
Aristotle’s Ethics
Purpose of Law
 Highest Good (“happiness”)
 Duty to ‘essential nature’
Maintain ‘natural’ hierarchy
 Distributive Justice
 Equality in Inequality
 Corrective Justice
 Contractual fairness
Democracy that Excludes…
The Sophists: Skeptics
469 - 399 BCE
Sophists: Taught the art of rhetoric
(elite)/persuasion
Law is created by Man (relativism)
not a natural order
Good: what people in a polis define
as good
Attempt at Secularism
Broke with ethnocentricity & cosmic
order
Stoics: Apathy?
Alexander the Great
Authoritarian rule
Aristocracy
Plagues
Seneca:
 One should not desire things
outside your control
 Do not mourn your poverty,
control what you can….
 Do not resist…
Cicero –apolitical is unsustainable
Cicero: Natural Law
1. Do not disturb the order
of a community
2. Contribute generously
to the Polis through:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Benevolence
Generosity
Goodness
Justice
Good of the People always
trumps supporting
tyranny, for example…
Next Class….