Benjamin Straumann: The Just State, Kartoniert / Broschiert

Blurb

Why should we engage with ideas about politics from hundreds or thousands of years ago? Why not just focus on what historical figures actually did, rather than on what they thought? How can Greek and Roman political thought enrich modern debates on the nature of justice?

Ideas about political and legal order are a vital contribution of Greco-Roman antiquity to the Western tradition-many of our own assumptions about politics and justice are directly influenced by classical political thought and the institutions of ancient city-states and empires.

In The Just State, noted historian Benjamin Straumann explores Greek and Roman ideas about the nature of justice, describes their institutional context, and discusses their legacy in later political thought. With a clear and accessible narrative style, Straumann brings Greco-Roman and modern ideas into conversation with each other to offer fresh insights into current debates about justice while illuminating their classical foundations.

Concise, easily accessible chapters trace the origins, development, and reception of Greek and Roman political thought from the pre-Socratic period to the Enlightenment. Topics include the Athenian democracy, the Sophist movement, the political philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, the Stoic idea of natural law, the origins of constitutionalism in the Roman Republic, classical influences on the French and American revolutions, and more.

The Just State: Greek and Roman Theories of Justice and Their Legacy in Western Thought is an ideal textbook for undergraduate classes on the history of political thought and graduate seminars on classical political theory and ancient philosophy.