Essay Instructions: The Topic:
The essay should address the following topic.
Pericles, in his ?Funeral Oration? celebrated Athenian democracy. The speech, as reported by Thucydides, may not have reflected Athenian reality but it did demonstrate the attachment of Pericles and his supporters to maintaining Athens as a democratic polis. The democratic society Pericles championed did not appeal to Plato and Aristotle, although for somewhat different reasons. Plato, however, was much more absolute in his rejection of democracy as one would expect from theorists with such different goals and approaches. How do they differ with Pericles and how do they differ with each other.
In addressing this assertion you should consider the following questions.
1.How did Pericles present his case in support of Athenian democracy?
2.What criticisms did Plato and Aristotle offer against democracy?
3.Did Plato and Aristotle have different reasons for not favoring democracy?
4.Did Plato and Aristotle use different approaches in their search for a good political order? Was Plato more absolute in his rejection of democracy than was Aristotle? Why?
The thesis paragraph should paraphrase the argument developed in the essay and should be a response to the topic.
The essay should present and defend the thesis stated in the first paragraph. The relevant references for the essay should be limited Plato's "the Republic" and Aristotle's "Politics". Evidence and arguments from those sources should be used to develop and illustrate the argument of the thesis. The grade will be based in part on the ability to select and use appropriate material. This essay doesn't need a works cited page. It needs in text citation such as (Plato 34) or (Aristotle 20). Basically have the author and the page number. The ?Funeral Oration? of Pericles should be cited thusly: (Thucydides). The "Funeral Oration" will be below.
I have to synthesize this material into a coherent argument that supports my thesis and how well I have handled contrary arguments. I also need an element of imagination
Pericles: ?The Funeral Oration?
This is a short excerpt from a famous speech given by the Athenian leader Pericles after the first battles of the Peloponnesian war. Funerals after such battles were public rituals and Pericles used the occasion to make a classic statement of the value of democracy.
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?The Funeral Oration?
"Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves. Its administration favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to serve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordinary life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in those injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ease in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.
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"Nor are these the only points in which our city is worthy of admiration. We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it. Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, regarding him who takes no part in these duties not as unambitious but as useless, we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate, and, instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all. Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours. Yet, of course, the doer of the favour is the firmer friend of the two, in order by continued kindness to keep the recipient in his debt; while the debtor feels less keenly from the very consciousness that the return he makes will be a payment, not a free gift. And it is only the Athenians, who, fearless of consequences, confer their benefits not from calculations of expediency, but in the confidence of liberality.?
from Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, Book 2. 34-40
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