The City-State Foundations of Western Thought

This book was first published in 1984, and is designed to meet the needs of students and teachers of classical political philosophy . For the purpose of this book, classical political thought is equated with the reflective practice of Athenian moderates from Solon to Aristotle, to the exclusivity of the Spartanising, propagandistic Xenophon and the author of The Constitution of the Athenians . The import of the book’s subtitle is explicitly methodological. The two chief differences between the present revised edition and the first are (1) the addition of a section of Solon’s ethics in chapter II, and (2) the more frontal approach taken to the discourse of the visitor from Elea in Plato’s Potiticus - an approach which allows the reader to capture better and trace more easily.