Athenians were the first ones to give power to someone who they think will actually be good for that job, and not simply due to noble blood or force. Athenian democracy was also the first to emphasize individualism. It was the idea that the job should be given to the best. After the Persian war a man named Pericles ruled Athens. He created what is known today as direct democracy where you specifically pick your leaders as it differs from Rome’s republic where you elect people to represent you.
You are seen as nothing more than property. This exact situation happened back when the U.S. Constitution was being created. Slaves were a major part needed to be discussed in the constitution but it was not. This was wrong. Slavery should have been addressed during the ratification of the U.S. Constitution because they are human beings just like us.
In the book Half Slave and Half Free, Bruce Levine introduces the various issues that arose during the antebellum era in America that fueled the onset of the Civil War. According to Levine, tension due to conflicting interests between the slave based economy of the South and the free labor economy of the North boiled up to a point that led the newly formed nation to war. Levine starts off by giving a brief history of slavery and then shifts to discussing the way in which it revolutionized the economy of America and the role that it played in the conflicts leading to the Civil War. Slavery was crucial to the southern states as they depended on it to run their plantations, whereas, the northern states abolished slavery as they adopted the idea that “each person works for himself” (46). “The distinctive ways in which North and South organized their labor systems left their mark on all aspects of regional life - including family, gender and leisure patterns and both religious and secular ideologies.
A thesis could be made: Men’s brave deeds which should be honored related to their noble virtues and the spirit of courage to fight for their country instead of their fame. Since the Pericles’ Funeral Oration took the history of the Peloponnesian War as its background, the purpose of the speech should be encouraging citizens to focus on the greatness of Athens and benefit the state with their brave deeds both in peace and in war. A democracy was taken by the government that made the administration be controlled in citizens. There was no exclusiveness. The
This led to an economic strength that made these states even more adamant about defending the right to own slaves. There was no question that without slavery the antebellum would crumble and thus the South was able to weather the growing number of revolts, rebellions, and northern political opposition that was mounting. Edicts such as the Fugitive Slaves Law attempted to curb the flight of slaves to the Northern states and the Underground Railroad became a serious threat to Southern plantation owners who needed ever more assistance from this free work force to maintain their economic prowess. The Nat Turner revolt as well as the outspoken writings and speeches of the former slave Frederick Douglass contributed to the growing dissent but the South defended their claim to economic security through slavery until it became legally impossible for the to do so after the Civil War. The Thirteenth Amendment formally declared an end to slavery and despite the amount of money and political effort spent defending the right to use slavery, the South was left behind the desires of the North, which was growing economically as a result of industrialization and was home to ever-growing numbers of abolitionist
Later in this text religion will also be a factor in Malcolm X’s fight against racism. King believed racism is based on economics. He believed that the development of slavery was based on the economics and that the white man convinced themselves that because it was so profitable it was morally justified. The economical gains may have lead whites to believe that they
However, because of over generalizing the democratic populous, and arguing with a vagueness in the terms, ‘desire’, ‘passion’, ‘appetite’, and ‘spirit’, Plato’s theory proves to lack in consistency and thus weakens its validity. As well because of the elimination of social class systems and separation between government and economy, the platonic drone does not need to rule with tyranny rather he may participate in both government and economy as separate institutions in a democratic capitalist society. Finally by overlooking intellects and their normative desires to participate in society, Plato stereotypes the entire populous of a democracy and therefore makes incorrect assumptions such as that of unavoidable
Herodotus stated that everyone believes that the customs of his own society to be superior than the others'. Relativism, as stated by Socrates, has a deeper problem. Some social customs are merely arbitrary and when these customs face some issues, it is pointless to insist that one society's customs is better than another's. A second ancient
Still, Aristotle's conception of citizenship was that it was a legally guaranteed role in creating and running government. It reflected the division of labor which he believed was a good thing; citizenship, in his view, was a commanding role in society with citizens ruling over non-citizens. At the same time, there could not be a permanent barrier between the rulers and the ruled, according to Aristotle's conception, and if there was such a barrier, citizenship could not exist. Aristotle's sense of citizenship depended on a "rigorous separation of public from private, of polis from oikos, of persons and actions from things" which allowed people to interact politically with equals. To be truly human, one had to be an active citizen to the community: To take no part in the running of the community's affairs is to be either a beast or a god!
We have already seen that women and slaves are not capable of living this kind of life, although each of these groups has its own kind of virtue to pursue. But there is another group that is incapable of citizenship leading to virtue, and Aristotle calls this group “the vulgar”. These are the people who must work for a living. Such people lack the leisure time necessary for political participation and the study of philosophy: “it is impossible to pursue the things of virtue when one