Cleitophon and Minos

Bibliographic Data

ID23213771
AuthorsChristopher Rowe (0000-0001-6624-8197, Durham University, corresponding author)
Year2000
Pages303-309
Publication date2000-05-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueThe Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought (The Cambridge History of Political Thought) (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherCambridge University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1017/chol9780521481366.016
OpenAlexW2489441778
ISBN9780521481366
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited578

As later chapters will show, Plato’s political ideas were immediately and immensely influential. Aristotle’s own political thinking largely starts where Plato left off, and much of Hellenistic constitutional theory shows an indelibly Platonic imprint. However, at least at first sight, this influence seems to owe relatively little to the post-Platonic Academy itself. The major figures who immediately succeeded Plato, Speusippus and Xenocrates, seem by and large to have been more interested, or at any rate more innovative, in ethics (and metaphysics) than in politics, though Speusippus is reported as having written an On Legislation, Xenocrates a Politicus, in one book, and – interestingly – an Elements of Kingship for Alexander, in four. Polemon, who took over the headship from Xenocrates, and taught the Stoic Zeno, was also primarily known for his contributions in ethics. After him, with Arcesilaus, the Academy takes a sceptical turn; when Antiochus of Ascalon, in the first century bc, announces a return to the positive doctrines of the ‘Old Academy’, his version of ‘Platonic’ (and Aristotelian) political ideas turns out to be a heavily Stoicized one.

Art · Epistemology · Literature · Metaphysics · MINOS · Monarchy · Political philosophy · Political science · Politics · Skepticism · Zeno's paradoxes · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Classics · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law · Philosophy

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