PHIL2634 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Athenian Democracy
Document Summary
This lecture deals with the beginnings of democracy. Democracy is still often said to have begun in ancient greece , specifically in athens. Contemporary academic opinion still endorses this view, but with reservations and qualifications. Most obviously, ancient athenian democracy was restricted to male citizens, and co-existed with slavery (as well as colonisation and imperial" rule). Modern scholarship has also stressed the influence of practice elsewhere; plato was an admirer of the egyptian, pharaohic, form of government, for instance. The lecture emphasizes the relatively brief and local nature of this first period of democratic government , which to a significant extent caused its own destruction thanks to the war between. Athens and sparta related by the historian thucydides (who also fought in it). We will see how greek democracy was replaced by imperial rule, first under alexander the great and then under the romans.
