The Intellectual Revolution and the Effects of the Peloponnesian War

1. The Intellectual Revolution (cont.). Culture -->Civilization-->Humanity. The role of reason and empathy in popular literature. These terms reflect the Greek belief that the intellectual environment of the polis supported sustained, self-conscious, and public reflection / discussion on nature (science) and on society (politics) and on values (philosophy).
   1. Only through the reason [and reflection on the consequences of actions] could individuals and communities control the destructiveness of human passions and appetites.
   2. The most important instrument in the process of rational reflection was the use of empathy also known as the dialectic, namely that rational behavior is based on the ability to perceive and comprehend both / all sides of an issue. Hence, the dialogues of Plato, the dramatic conflicts of values in tragedy, and role reversals in comedy are expressions of this concept.
2. The Peloponnesian War and the Intellectual Revolution.
   1. Background: the analysis of Thucydides. Many commentators have thought that the war is important only because he wrote of it so well.
   2. History is the study of causes. Thucydides as an historian: note his distinction between the true and apparent causes / factors of the war. The political theory of Thucydides. The two documents here are examples of scientific thinking applied to the study of society and of history. Note that the factors are non theological, recognize patterns, and assume that humans can work out the causes:
      1. History is comprehensible in terms of knownable patterns of human behavior or human nature; knowledge is useful.. The role of fear. Here is what he writes: "The absence of romance in my history will, I believe, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it (recognizable patterns of human behavior), I shall be content. In sum, I have written my work, not as an essay that is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time... To the question why they broke the treaty [and began the war], I answer by placing first an account of their grounds of complaint and points of difference, that no one may ever have to ask the immediate cause that plunged the Greeks into a war of such magnitude. The real cause I consider to be the one which was formally most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the fear that this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable." Note the use of the core ideas of the intellectual revolution: no divine revelation, humans can understand, there are patterns, etc.
      2. Greatness and power are the result of commerce; accumulation of resources produces stable constitutions. Conversely, war and natural disasters (e.g., plague) discourage commerce, deplete resources and undermine constitutions. Both destroy quality of life and public morality. (Evidence: Sourcebook readings on the plague, on the revolt at Corcyra.  Note, both these passages are in the source book:
         1. "...the pestilence of such extent and mortality was nowhere remembered. Neither were the physicians at first of any service, ignorant as they were of the proper way to treat it... Supplications in the temples, divinations, and so forth were found equally futile (non-theological/natural whole), till the overwhelming nature of the disaster at last put a stop to them altogether...All speculation as to its origin and its causes...I leave to other writers, whether lay or professional; for myself, I shall simply set down its nature, and explain the symptoms by which perhaps it may be recognized by the student, if it should ever break out again (patterns/laws are assumed and are knowable). This I can the better do, as I had the disease myself, and observed (autopsy) its operation in the case of others...people in good health were all of a sudden attacked by violent heats in the head, and redness and inflammation in the eyes, the inward parts, such as the throat or tongue, becoming bloody and emitting an unnatural and fetid breath. These symptoms were followed by sneezing and hoarseness, after which the pain soon reached the chest, and produced a hard cough. When it fixed in the stomach, it upset it; and discharges of bile of every kind named by physicians ensued, accompanied by very great distress. In most cases also an ineffectual retching followed, producing violent spasms. ..internally it burned so that the patient could not bear to have on him clothing... What they would have liked best would have been to throw themselves into cold water; as indeed was done by some of the neglected sick, who plunged into the public fountains in their agonies of unquenchable thirst; though it made no difference whether they drank little or much...But if they passed this stage, and the disease descended further into the bowels, inducing a violent ulceration there accompanied by severe diarrhea, this brought on a weakness which was generally fatal. ... An aggravation of the existing calamity was the influx from the country into the city, and this was especially felt by the new arrivals. As there were no houses to receive them, they had to be lodged at the hot season of the year in stifling cabins, where the mortality raged without restraint. The bodies of dying men lay one upon another, and half-dead creatures reeled about the streets and gathered round all the fountains in their longing for water. The sacred places also in which they had quartered themselves were full of corpses of persons that had died there, just as they were; for as the disaster passed all bounds, men, not knowing what was to become of them, became utterly careless of everything, whether sacred or profane. ... Men now coolly ventured on what they had formerly done in a corner .... Perseverance in what men called honor was popular with none, it was so uncertain whether they would be spared to attain the object; but it was settled that present enjoyment, and all that contributed to it, was both honorable and useful. Fear of gods or law of man there was none to restrain them. As for the first, they judged it to be just the same whether they worshipped them or not, as they saw all alike perishing; and for the last, no one expected to live to be brought to trial for his offences."
         2. Corcyra: So bloody was the march of the revolution, and the impression that it made was the greater as it was one of the first to occur. Later on, one may say, the whole Hellenic world was convulsed; struggles being everywhere made by the popular chiefs to bring in the Athenians, and by the oligarchs to introduce the Spartans. In peace there would have been neither the pretext nor the wish to make such an invitation; but in war, with an alliance always at the command of either faction for the hurt of their adversaries and their own corresponding advantage, opportunities for bringing in the foreigner were never wanting to the revolutionary parties. The sufferings which revolution entailed upon the cities were many and terrible, such as have occurred and always will occur, as long as the nature of mankind remains the same... Revolution thus ran its course from city to city, and the places which it arrived at last, from having heard what had been done before, carried to a still greater excess the refinement of their inventions, as manifested in the cunning of their enterprises and the atrocity of their reprisals. Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to act on any. ... The leaders in the cities, each provided with the fairest professions, on the one side with the cry of political equality of the people, on the other of a moderate aristocracy, sought prizes for themselves in those public interests which they pretended to cherish, and, recoiling from no means in their struggles for ascendancy engaged in the direst excesses... Meanwhile the moderate part of the citizens perished between the two, either for not joining in the quarrel, or because envy would not suffer them to escape. In the confusion into which life was now thrown in the cities, human nature, always rebelling against the law and now its master, gladly showed itself ungoverned in passion, above respect for justice, and the enemy of all superiority... Indeed men too often take upon themselves in the prosecution of their revenge to set the example of doing away with those general laws to which all alike can look for salvation in adversity, instead of allowing them to subsist against the day of danger when their aid may be required.
3. Conclusions and Significance ...applies to Thucydides and to other writers fo the Classical Period.
   1. Scientific speculation was rooted in a belief that the world was ordered (natural laws; the cosmos), that the gods were not active, and that humans could understand the patterns (and did not require divine revelation).
   2. The assumptions and methods of the scientific method were quickly applied to the study ("acquire knowledge of something through effort") of the polis and politics, and eventually to the study of human behavior and morality.
   3. The purpose of such study was to further culture, to "civilize" citizens, to turn them to reasoned deliberation instead of to passions and blood vengeance. The knowledge acquired by such study is useful for determining the best course of action. An important element of 'civilizing' citizens was the use of empathy. One sees it already in Homer, and it is full developed in the literature of the Classical Age. Through empathy, one comes to see both sides of the issue, and become more capable of making, so the Greeks believed, the best and most rational decision.