Chapter 2: The Ancients Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Chapter 2: The Ancients Deck (45)
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1
Q

Political Theory is both ___ and ___.

A

Prescriptive and analytical.

2
Q

Prescriptive:

A

Prescribing how societies and political bodies should be structured and how they should function.

3
Q

Analytical:

A

Analysing how and why our political relations function the way they do.

4
Q

Three key points in political philosophy:

A

There is no winner.
Building Canon of Knowledge.
Accepting that we need to change the way we think according to changing circumstances of our own political environment.

5
Q

Canon of Knowledge

A

Building on past and present knowledge. Amalgamating knowledge, not replacing it.

6
Q

Western political thought originated in ___.

A

Greece.

7
Q

___ Wars influenced Plato and Aristotle.

A

Peloponnesian.

8
Q

More specifically, the execution of ___ influenced Plato’s ideas.

A

Socrates.

9
Q

During the trial and execution of his teacher, Plato came to realize that:

A

The ignorant were allowed to rule over the masses and run the government.

10
Q

Before the wars, there were ___ democracies in the Greek city-states.

A

Direct.

11
Q

Direct democracies meant that anyone who was a ___ could vote.

A

Citizen.

12
Q

What was the problem with the system of direct democracy in ancient Greece?

A

The definition of citizen was extremely limited, excluding women, foreigners, and slaves.

13
Q

Plato supported/questioned direct democracy

A

Questioned

14
Q

Plato proposed social and political justice through a state organized to individuals’ ___ and ___.

A

Capabilities and personalities.

15
Q

Plato’s new idea of system of governance can be identified as prescriptive/analytic.

A

Prescriptive.

16
Q

Governments before Plato’s ideas were run on the basis of virtues such as strength and courage. However, Plato proposed that…

A

Governments should be run by intellectuals who engaged in philosophical thought and contemplative reason.

17
Q

Aristotle was considered to be a philosopher of the ___.

A

Possible.

18
Q

Aristotle was not as focused on the idea of an ideal state: rather, he looked for ways to make it ___ and ___.

A

Practical and possible.

19
Q

Aristotle sought to establish a link between ___ and ___.

A

Ethics and politics.

20
Q

By Aristotle’s ideas, the ideal was that you would become the best person for your ___.

A

Capabilities.

21
Q

Aristotle stated that a good ___ can prosper only in a good ___.

A

Individual, community.

22
Q

By Aristotle’s theories, the ___ comes before ___.

A

Community, individual.

23
Q

___ is fundamental to ___, and vice versa.

A

Politics, ethics.

24
Q

Political philosophy is thinking about the nature and the ___ requirements of the good life.

A

Public.

25
Q

Polis in Greek means

A

City state, and the active life among citizens within it.

26
Q

Political philosophy should be understood as a ___ ___.

A

Extended conversation.

27
Q

Give an example of the failure of direct democracy

A

Pericles was reprimanded, but then re-elected.

28
Q

The most common divide in political philosophy is between the ___ and the ___.

A

Ancients and the moderns.

29
Q

The ancients believed in…

A

The classical tradition starting with the Greeks.

30
Q

The moderns believed in…

A

The thought that emerges with the sovereign state and market economy.

31
Q

In Athens, politics was a moral activity, and was about enabling the ___ ___ and the common good.

A

Good life.

32
Q

Socrates proposed that men of good character would rule not for money or power, but out of fear of…

A

Being ruled by someone worse.

33
Q

Socrates’ three parts of the soul:

A

Moderation, courage, and wisdom.

34
Q

Socrates defined wisdom as the ability to…

A

See beyond the surface of things.

35
Q

In Socrates’ division of labour, there would be:

A

Those who loved money, those who loved honour, and those who were capable of wisdom.

36
Q

Socrates’ division of labour is likened to these three things:

A

Sheep, watchdogs, and shepherds.

37
Q

Aristotle worked from ___, not abstract logic.

A

Observation.

38
Q

Aristotle tutored ___ the Great

A

Alexander.

39
Q

Aristotle’s citizens required ___.

A

Phronesis

40
Q

Phronesis

A

Practical judgement, which they could gain only by experience and emulation of those who demonstrated it.

41
Q

Aristotle’s two assumptions that would unsettle us are:

A

Slaves are expected to do housework, allowing citizens to participate in politics, and women do not possess the rational thought necessary for phronesis.

42
Q

According to the tragic and Sophocles, the worst of human afflictions is…

A

The lack of judgement.

43
Q

Who said that “fanatical enthusiasm is the mark of a real man”.

A

Thucydides.

44
Q

Aristotle insisted that “the most important thing is not life, it is the ___ ___”.

A

Good life.

45
Q

Hannah Arendt called the capacity for self-interrogation ___.

A

Thinking.