The City-State Foundations of Western Thought

First published in 1984, this revised edition is designed to meet the needs of students and teachers of classical political philosophy. The two chief differences between the present revised edition and the first are the addition of a section on Solon's ethics in Chapter II, and the more frontal approach taken to the discourse of the visitor from Elea in Plato's Politicus-an approach which allows the reader to capture better and trace more easily his systematic equivocation between 'the political man' and 'the kingly man.' Contents: On the Nature of Reflective Discourse in Politics; Solon's Political Judgement and his Poetry; Thucydides's Reflective Discourse and Politics; The Politics of a Sophistic Rhetorician: Applied Pythagorism Scrutinized; Plato's 'Republic' or the Remedial Constitution; Aristotle's Political Philosophy; Dante and the Recovery of City-State Rationality about Politics; On the Unity of Machiavelli 'The Prince' with the 'Discourses'; Biography; Index.