Thucydides and the Philosophical Origins of HistoryThis book addresses the question of how and why history begins with the work of Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War is distinctive in that it is a prose narrative, meant to be read rather than performed. It focuses on the unfolding of contemporary great power politics to the exclusion of almost all other elements of human life, including the divine. The power of Thucydides' text has never been attributed either to the charm of its language or to the entertainment value of its narrative, or to some personal attribute of the author. In this study, Darien Shanske analyzes the difficult language and structure of Thucydides' History and argues that the text has drawn in so many readers into its distinctive world view precisely because of its kinship to the contemporary language and structure of Classical Tragedy. This kinship is not merely a matter of shared vocabulary or even aesthetic sensibility. Rather, it is grounded in a shared philosophical position, in particular on the polemical metaphysics of Heraclitus. |
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Alcibiades aletheia already ananke anankein Ancient Medicine appear appendix appropriate Archaeology argued argument Aristotle aspect Athenians believe Blattner claims Calypso Cartesian century b.c. compelled complex comport connection context Corcyra cube demise deonta describing dides's disclose discussion especially everyday explain explicitly fact features of world-time fifth century fly-bottle for-the-sake-of-which gnome Gylippus Heidegger Heidegger’s Hesiod Hippocratic Homer human hummingbird Iliad interpretation language logos meaning mechanical causality narrative necessary cause Nicomachean Ethics noted notion noun one’s ontological death originary temporality Ostwald particularly passage Patroklos Pericles perspective phenomena phenomenologically phenomenon Philosophical Investigations poets possible present-at-hand public realm Rawlings reading reality recognize relate reread revealing pretext revealing prophasis rhetoric rience role sense sentence significance somehow Sophocles Spartans speeches structure sumpasa term thematic things thinking Thucy Thucydides Thucydides’s text tractarian Tractatus tragedy translation true truth uncanny uncon understand Vegetti verb visual Wittgenstein word deinon