The Greek Concept of Justice : From Its Shadow in Homer to Its Substance in Plato / Eric A. Havelock.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Havelock, Eric A., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Begriff.

Gerechtigkeit.

Ideengeschichte.

Justice.

Philosophie.

Recht.

Rechtsphilosophie.

PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical.

Local Subjects:

Justice.

PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (391 p.)

Edition:

Reprint 2014

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this book, Eric Havelock presents a challenging account of the development of the idea of justice in early Greece, and particularly of the way justice changed as Greek oral tradition gradually gave way to the written word in a literate society. He begins by examining the educational functions of poets in preliterate Greece, showing how they conserved and transmitted the traditions of society, a thesis adumbrated in his earlier book Preface to Plato. Homer, he demonstrates, has much to say about justice, but since that idea is nowhere in the epics directly stated or expressed, it must be deduced from the speech and actions of the characters. Havelock's careful reading of the Iliad and the Odyssey is original and revealing; it sheds light both on Homeric notions of justice and on the Archaic Greek society depicted in the poems. As Havelock continues his inquiry from Hesiod to Aeschylus, his findings become more complex. The oral Greek world shades into a literate one. Words lose some kinds of meanings, gain others, and steadily become more suited to the conceptualization that Plato strove for and achieved. This evolution of language itself, Havelock shows, was one of the principal accomplishments of the Greek world. Lucidly written and forcefully argued, this book is a major contribution to our knowledge of ancient Greece--its politics, philosophy, and literature, from Homer to Plato.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Foreword

Contents

Prologue

1. From Homer to Plato, The Contours of the Problem

2. The Function of Epic in Preliterate Societies

3. The Psychology of Rhythmic Memorization

4. The Society Reported by Homer

5. Some Elements of the Homeric Fantasy

6. The Method and Manner of Homeric Storage

7. The Justice of the Iliad

8. The Legalities of the Odyssey

9. The Moralities of the Odyssey

10. The Justice of the Odyssey

11. The Justice of Hesiod, An Essay in Detection

12. The Spoken and the Written Word

13. The Early History of the Verb "to Be"

14. The Justice of Solon

15. The Justice of the Pre-Socratics

16. The Justice of Aeschylus

17. The Justice of Herodotus

18. The Justice of Plato

19. A Philosophy of the Written Word

Epilogue

Notes, Works Cited, Index

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

0-674-18351-7

OCLC:

1013948534