This time we're taking a little break from Greece to explore the broader history of democracy. Was democracy really a Greek invention? Historian David Stasavage, author of The Decline and Rise of Democracy, thinks it was not. And in today's episode he explains why.
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Support Ancient Greece Declassified on Patreon: patreon.com/greecepodcast
Or make a one-time donation: paypal.me/greecepodcast
Polybius' theory of anacyclosis is the most sophisticated theory of political (r)evolution to have emerged from ancient Greek and Roman political thought.
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To watch the highlight real from the last AGD tour in Greece, click here.
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To read the passage in Polybius where he discusses anacyclosis click here.
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If you'd like to read more about the theory of anacyclosis, I've written a few blogs on the subject:
Anacyclosis, Act 1: From Monarchy to Tyranny
AGD is going back to Greece this winter (Jan. 3-11) for an epic tour of Greece's northern regions, focusing on mountains and oracles. For more information or to reserve your spot, email us at greecepodcast@gmail.com
Plato argued that the inevitable next step in political evolution after democracy is tyranny. Many political thinkers throughout history agreed with him. Were they right?
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Support Ancient Greece Declassified on Patreon: patreon.com/greecepodcast
Or make a one-time donation: paypal.me/greecepodcast
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A full transcript of this episode with references can be found on our website at greecepodcast.com
Was Marcus Aurelius really the enlightened ruler that history books and modern movies portray him as? And is his brand of Stoic philosophy applicable to the modern world?
With us to discuss these and other questions is Donald Robertson, a psychotherapist and the author of How to Think Like and Emperor and Verissimus.
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Support Ancient Greece Declassified on Patreon: patreon.com/greecepodcast
Or make a one-time donation: paypal.me/greecepodcast
An update on the AGD Tour happening in Greece from August 16-24
For an outline of the itinerary click here.
Thirty three scholars, philosophers, and archaeologists answer the question: If you could time travel to the ancient world, who would you want to meet?
Scholars featured + the timestamps when they appear:
2:10 Edith Hall
3:36 Eric Cline
4:30 Andromache Karanika
5:45 Josiah Ober
6:48 Rush Rehm
7:30 Ian Morris
8:02 Rebecca Newberger Goldstein
9:20 Patrick Hunt
9:46 Raffaella Cribiore
11:04 Mark Adams
12:20 Peter Adamson
13:47 Richard Martin
15:08 M. M. McCabe
16:37 Zina Giannopoulou
18:45 Greg Nagy
19:43 Caroline Winterer
20:04 Melissa Lane
22:28 Alicia Stallings
22:57 Rhiannon Evans
24:04 Barbara Graziosi
24:54 Walter Scheidel
25:12 Matt Simonton
26:30 Emily Greenwood
27:57 Olga Levaniouk
30:00 Steele Brand
32:55 Rachel Barney
33:36 Angie Hobbs
35:31 Adrian Goldsworthy
36:30 Mary Bachvarova
37:42 Jonathan Lear
39:40 Mary Townsend
40:31 Gabriel Richardson Lear
42:14 Ben Morison
Philosophers today often dismiss Plato's Theory of Forms as an outdated and failed attempt by a pre-modern thinker to explain knowledge. However, cognitive scientist John Vervaeke offers a radically different take on Plato's theory and how it ties in with recent debates about the nature of intelligence.
John Vervaeke is a professor at the University of Toronto and the creator of the popular YouTube series Awakening from the Meaning Crisis.
An announcement about the upcoming Ancient Greece Declassified tour in Greece this summer.
The cave analogy, which takes up the majority of book 7 of the Republic, is one of the most famous passages in all of western philosophy.
In this episode, we are joined by Ben Morison, professor of philosophy at Princeton, to dive deep into the allegory and unpack its various levels of meaning.
Plato is at once the most loved and possibly the most hated philosopher of all time. This episode explores five reasons why he drives some people mad.
Contents of the episode, with timestamps:
Reason 1: Who should rule? [7:30]
Reason 2: What political system is best? [12:20]
The Ship of State [15:10]
Reason 3: What is truth? [20:20]
Reason 4: What is knowledge? [30:35]
The Divided Line [40:25]
Reason 5: What is good?
Where does the notion of 'moral duty' come from? In this conversation with Simon E. Drew we dive deep into the history of the concept and discuss my recent book The Invention of Duty.
This episode was originally published on The Walled Garden podcast and is here republished as a crosscast.