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Ch 1 Sec 1
The Greek Roots of Democracy
Solon
• Made many needed reforms
• Opened offices to more citizens
• Gave Athenian assembly more say in decisions
• Reforms provided greater fairness & justice
Pisistratus
• Seized power by force 546 B.C.
• Gave farmers & poor citizens a greater voice
• Weakened the aristocracy
Cleisthenes
• Broadened the role of ordinary citizens in
gov.
• Set up the Council of 500
• Made the assembly a genuine legislature (a lawmaking body)
Pericles
• Led a thriving economy & more democratic
gov.
• Believed all male citizens-regardless of wealth
or social class-should take part in gov.
• Stressed the rights & duties of individuals as
citizens of a democracy
• Expressed the earliest & greatest democratic
ideals in his “Funeral Oration”
Socrates
• Questioned his fellow citizens about their
beliefs
• Used a process called “Socratic method” –
examine questions to answers
• “What is the greatest good”
• Believed the unexamined life was not worth
living
http://www.biography.com/people/
socrates-9488126
Plato
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Student of Socrates
Set up his own school in Athens
Believed reason led to genuine knowledge
Described his vision of an ideal state in “The
Republic”
• Rejected Athenian democracy
• Believed the state should regulate citizens’ lives
»Believed “philosopher kings” should
» control the government (BM ?)
http://www.cloudbiograp
hy.com/bios/plato.html
Aristotle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeJJpbDrVRM
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Was Plato’s most famous student
Tutor to Alexander the Great
Favored a constitutional gov. ruled by the middle class
Believed good conduct meant pursuing the “golden
mean” (living in the middle?)
• Promoted reason as the guiding force for learning
• Set up a school for the study of all branches of
knowledge (politics, ethics, logic, biology, etc)
– (Individual achievement, dignity &
worth are key concept for Western
political thought today from Athens)
BM?
• “He who trusts any man with supreme power
gives it to a wild beast, for such his appetite
sometimes makes him: passion influences
those in power, even the best of men, but law
is reason without desire” Aristotle
Which feature of modern Western democratic
government reflects Aristotle’s views as
given above?
1. The direct election of members of the legislature
2. The power of the courts to review the laws
3. The granting of emergency powers to the chief leader
4. The requirement that government actions must adhere
to the law
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCsph5Pykv k horrible histories the thinkers
Answer
4. The requirement that government
actions must adhere to the law
CH 1 section1 Review ?’s
1.Sparta stressed this system vs Athens that
glorified this duty…
2.Who was eligible to take part in Athenian
government during the Age of Pericles?
3.What was the major result of the
Peloponnesian War.
4.To determine why things happened, Greek
philosophers uses these 2 items…
5.What was Alexander's most important
contribution to the world?
Answers
Each answer is worth 4 pts /20
1. Stern discipline, glorified the individual
2. All male citizens, regardless of social class
3. Sparta replaced Athens as Greece’s
leading city-state
4. Reason & observation (know this, BM?)
5. He preserved and spread Greek values