SİYASAL DÜŞÜNCE

Ancient Greek civilization is well-known for its specific political, social, economic, and cultural habitat that is known as “polis”. Polis is both the name of a social milieu and its political institution. This in fact underlines an important initial point that political administration is not something detached from the social life. On the contrary, it is an indispensable part of it in ancient Greece.

Sparta was a city on the south of Peloponnesus peninsula and consists of few villages.

Free population of Athens had four strata: Eupatrides, geomores, demiurgus, and thetes – the nobles, small farmers, craftsmen, and poor peasants, respectively (Ağaoğulları, 2011, p.36). Both inter-class and intra-class struggles between these groups had led to different types of administrations such as Aristocracy, oligarchy, plutocracy, and democracy. Perioikos (strata of Sparta)

Finally, there were also some philosophers, such as Democritus and Epicurus, who tried to understand the transformation of the universe and the movement of cosmos. These early investigations only partly aimed to deal with the social life.

Socrates is a philosopher dealing with theoretical issues

Socrates was seeking being a good human (Xenophon)

Socrates was seeking being a good citizen (Xenophon)

Socrates was not interested in dealing with logic (Xenophon)

Socrates was a high-level metaphysician (Plato)

Looking at the successors of Socrates, we can see an important ancient school of political thought that is usually pointed out as one of the oldest versions of egalitarianism: Cynicism. The word cynic, in fact, is from an ancient word used to imply dog. Cynics’ primitive life style was resembled to life of a dog and, therefore, the name of “cynic” was given them by their political opponents. Cynicism was a reactive movement against to the highly non-egalitarian society. The members of the movement were the lowest part of the society who was supported by the foreigners and exiles who were not given a right to citizenship. However, their egalitarian reaction to stratified society was not considerably successful in spreading among the poor. Cynics were a group that pursued happiness and, according to them, only virtuous people could be happy. Socrates was a good example for that. He was living simply and only trying to be virtuous, nothing else.

Plato was from an aristocratic family whose roots were believed to lie down to the God Poseidon. He was a successful Olympic sports player and also a poet. When he met with Socrates, he gave up sports and poem. He devoted his entire career to pursue of a good governance for Greece. But instead of going into politics, in 390 B.C. –when he was thirty-seven-, went to a trip for South Italy and Egypt. He also went to Syracuse based on the invitation of the King. He was the founder of Academia -the first academic institution of Europe-, where he taught his philosophy and political views. The institution was sponsored by some rich friends of Plato himself.

Aristotle classified the governmental types on two dimensions: The first dimension was the rightness and aim of the states. According to this measure, states were classified as being right or wrong. The second dimension was the number of people who possesses the power. There can be only one single person, there can be a minority, or there can be a majority. Thus there occur six different types: The right single person, or minority, or majority regimes and the wrong single person, or minority, or majority regimes. These types can be listed as follows (Coleman, 2000, p. 214):

Epicurus developed his philosophy based on four different sources: Platonic lecturers of Athens, atomist doctrine of Democritus, septic views of Pyrrhus, and hedonist philosophy of Aristippus. Even though he was affected by all these philosophers, he was a strong critic of them. Unfortunately, he taught his ideas like dogmas and his school gained almost a semi-religious character. Thus, while the further contributions were restrained by this feature, the Epicurean philosophy became easy to be studied. Investigating only Epicurus’ personal philosophy is adequate for understanding the general conception of Epicurean school indeed.

Greek political thought linked to Roman politics through Polybius. He was a Greek, educated in Greece and thus tried to explain the Roman institutions and political developments by the conceptions of Greek political thinking.

A comprehensive understanding of the western political thought requires a careful reading of the early Greek and Roman tradition in this field. Political institutions in ancient Greece started with the birth of polis that is today literally known as city. However, the polis, beyond various concrete structures, represented a particular social organization where a vivid and secure atmosphere for social, political, and cultural opportunities as well as discussions about them were being provided to residents.

Considering existing archival information, it is not possible to specify a precise date for the birth of the polis. We already know that there were settlements on the Greek geography starting from the 2nd Millennium B.C. On the other hand, polis, as a social settlement with its ideological and political institutions, appears at the 5th Century B.C., at the middle of the classical age.

Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey that are two epic poems which are the central works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek Kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the journey to home of Odysseus, the King of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy.

The first celebrity of Greek philosophers is Socrates who gained his fame through help of his students, namely through Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle. According to Socrates, virtue is a form of knowledge and thus something that could be taught to people. Only the virtues citizens should hold is the power of ruling. He was not interested in dealing with logic, nor chemistry and physics. Socrates was an admirer of knowledge and wisdom. According to him, everyday life of society should not be governed by ordinary citizens, who do not have adequate wisdom and knowledge.

Looking at the successors of Socrates, we can see an important ancient school of political thought that is usually pointed out as one of the oldest versions of egalitarianism: Cynicism. The word cynic, in fact, is from an ancient word used to imply dog. Cynics’ primitive life style was resembled to life of a dog and, therefore, the name of “cynic” was given them by their political opponents. Cynicism was a reactive movement against to the highly non-egalitarian society. The members of the movement were the lowest part of the society who was supported by the foreigners and exiles who were not given a right to citizenship. However, their egalitarian reaction to stratified society was not considerably successful in spreading among the poor.

Plato was the founder of Academia -the first academic institution of Europe-, where he taught his philosophy and political views. The institution was sponsored by some rich friends of Plato himself.

Plato was not favourable for democracy. He accepted democracy as a degenerated form and chaotic way of rule.

Six different types of modes of governing can be pointed out in Ancient Greece political thought:

1. The government of a single person who aims the common good: Monarchy

2. The government of a minority group who aims the common good: Aristocracy

3. The government of the majority of the people which aims the common good: Politeia

4. The government of a single person whotargets the interests of single person:Tyranny

5. The government of a minority group whoaims the interests of the rich: Oligarchy

6. The government of the majority of the people aiming the interests of the poor: Democracy

Epicurus developed his philosophy based on four different sources: Platonic lecturers of Athens, atomist doctrine of Democritus, septic views of Pyrrhus, and hedonist philosophy of Aristippus. Even though he was affected by all these philosophers, he was a strong critic of them. Unfortunately, he taught his ideas like dogmas and his school gained almost a semi-religious character. Thus, while the further contributions were restrained by this feature, the Epicurean philosophy became easy to be studied. Investigating only Epicurus’ personal philosophy is adequate for understanding the general conception of Epicurean school indeed.

Augustine believed that the universe was created by the God from nothing. According to him, the God created everything from nothing only in six days. His motto was “God and spirit. That is all I would like to know. Nothing else is needed”. This was a strong negation of reason and philosophy. He thought knowledge was impossible for human being. Human beings were deficient and transgressor. The only way of reaching knowledge would be faith and the scare of God. According to Augustine, justice was a relationship between the God and people.