Freedom, Reason, and the Polis: Essays in Ancient Greek Political Philosophy

What is the nature of law? Does our obligation to obey the law extend to unjust laws? From what source do lawmakers derive legitimate authority? What principles should guide us in the design of political institutions? These essays by prominent contemporary philosophers explore how these questions were addressed by ancient political thinkers. Classical theories of human nature and their implications for political theory are examined, as is the meaning of freedom and coercion in Plato's thought and his idea that philosophers should be political rulers. Other essays ask what we can learn from ancient thinkers like Aristotle about the principles of constitutional design or the limits of political obligation.

Author: Fred D. Miller Jr.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 06/01/2007
Pages: 316
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.10lbs
Size: 8.98h x 7.06w x 0.68d
ISBN: 9780521710121

About the Author
Miller Jr, Fred: - Fred D. Miller Jr. received a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Washington. Since 1972 he has been a member of the Department of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University. He has had research fellowships at Harvard University, the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Princeton University, jesus College at Oxford, at at the Centre for Philosophy and Public Affairs (University of St. Andrews. His book Nature, Justice, and Rights in Aristotle's Politics was published by Oxford University Press in 1995. He is the editor (with David Keyt) of A Companion to Aristotle's Politics, published by Blackwell in 1991, and the editor of A History of the Philosophy of Law from the Ancient Greeks to the Seventeenth Century, forthcoming from Kluwer in 2007.