The Limits of Altruism in Democratic Athens

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You already recently rated this item. Your rating has been recorded. Write a review Rate this item: Preview this item Preview this item. The limits of altruism in democratic Athens Author: Matthew Robert Christ Publisher: Christ quotes many passages to support his arguments, although these statements were mostly written for other purposes and need not always be taken as he does.

Much of the evidence is pretty squirrelly, and different ways of looking at it occurred to me so often that, except for Christ's superb Chapter 3, I often came away believing rather the opposite of Christ's thesis. I might have an equally hard time trying to prove my case. The five sections of Chapter 1, "Helping behavior in classical Athens," argue that Athenians helped friends and family but on the whole not strangers, even if fellow citizens. To clarify some questions regarding the use of evidence, I discuss these sections, here labeled a through e , in some detail.

In fact they gave "the prize for valor" to Alkibiades, who then argued unsuccessfully that Sokrates deserved it.

Did Alkibiades argue this because he was Sokrates' lover, or valued himself so highly? Did the generals think Sokrates' behavior not so atypical that it deserved a prize? Also, how much of Alkibiades' story in Plato is true? He is drunk and will not promise not to lie c, e. Can we be sure his insistence here that he is not lying e does not imply the opposite? Christ also accepts as factual Thuc.

In two different ways this passage may not support the conclusion that Athenians did not help fallen soldiers. On the one hand, the main theme of Thucydides' History is Athens' progressive moral collapse, culminating with Melos and Sicily. Hence, this writer had his own reasons for painting Athenian behavior at Syracuse as especially depraved.

On the other hand, in 7. Finally, when Xenophon strikes a muleteer for not helping a wounded comrade and is supported by his troops, Christ speculates why this need not imply that the troops were outraged by the muleteer's mistreatment of the wounded. Possibly so, but certainly it will not show the opposite. Later, in courts and Assembly, wealthy men adduce their generosity to the city and the poor. Christ calls such claims infrequent and hence of limited significance. I agree with Christ, these comments are probably exaggerated.

However, Christ's speculations 23 do not mean that Phormio had not been generous. The same applies to Demosthenes' similar claims of public and private generosity, where Christ's many "may have"s vel sim.

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May it not be that mentioning fellow citizens' dependence on charity was painful even for rich citizens? However, Thucydides' point is ironic, goodness led to doom, an irony Euripides also exploited see e. Athenians in the classical period — BC were drawn to an image of themselves as a compassionate and generous people who rushed to the aid of others in distress, both at home and abroad. What relation does this image bear to actual Athenian behavior? This book argues that Athenians felt little pressure as individuals to help fellow citizens whom they did not know. Democratic ideology called on citizens to refrain from harming one another rather than to engage in mutual support, and emphasized the importance of the helping relationship between citizen and city rather than among individual citizens.

1. A Play On Words!
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3. Impurity.
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If the obligation of Athenians to help fellow citizens was fairly tenuous, all the more so was their responsibility to intervene to assist the peoples of other states; a distinct pragmatism prevailed in the city's decisions concerning intervention abroad. Ukaguzi Sera ya Maoni. Flowing text, Original pages. Web, Tablet, Phone, eReader. Itasawazishwa kiotomatiki kwenye akaunti yako na kukuruhusu usome vitabu mtandaoni au nje ya mtandao popote ulipo.

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