The Greeks and the Rational

The Discovery of Practical Reason Volume 76
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-0-520-38016-5
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 76, 488 Seiten, Cloth Over Boards, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 801 g

Reihe: Sather Classical Lectures

Tracing practical reason from its origins to its modern and contemporary permutations

 

The Greek discovery of practical reason, as the skilled performance of strategic thinking in public and private affairs, was an intellectual breakthrough that remains both a feature of and a bug in our modern world. Countering arguments that rational choice-making is a contingent product of modernity, The Greeks and the Rational traces the long history of theorizing rationality back to ancient Greece.

 

In this book, Josiah Ober explores how ancient Greek sophists, historians, and philosophers developed sophisticated and systematic ideas about practical reason. At the same time, they recognized its limits—that not every decision can be reduced to mechanistic calculations of optimal outcomes. Ober finds contemporary echoes of this tradition in the application of game theory to political science, economics, and business management. The Greeks and the Rational offers a striking revisionist history with widespread implications for the study of ancient Greek civilization, the history of thought, and human rationality itself.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ober, Josiah

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Antike Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Erkenntnistheorie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike Griechische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Geschichte
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Wirtschaftstheorie, Wirtschaftsphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface 
Acknowledgments 
Abbreviations and Classical References

Introduction: Discovering Practical Reason

1. Gyges’ Choice: Rationality and Visibility

2. Glaucon’s Dilemma: Origins of Social Order

3. Deioces’ Ultimatum: How to Choose a Ruler

4. Solon’s Bargain: Self-Enforcing Constitutional Order

5. Melos’ Prospect: Limits of Interstate Rationality

6. Socrates’ Critique: Problems for Democratic Rationality

7. Cephalus’ Expertise: Economic Rationality

8. Conclusions: Utility and Eudaimonia

Epilogue

Appendix: Probability, Risk, and Likelihood
Works Cited
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Josiah Ober is Mitsotakis Professor of Political Science and Classics at Stanford University and Senior Fellow (Courtesy) at the Hoover Institution. He is author or editor of eighteen books, including The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece and Demopolis: Democracy before Liberalism in Theory and Practice.