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Article 2598 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: rc@depsych.Gwinnett.COM (Richard Carlson)
Newsgroups: sci.philosophy.tech,alt.postmodern,comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Historical Origins of Logic
Message-ID: <RT90DB1w164w@depsych.Gwinnett.COM>
Date: 9 Jan 92 12:35:26 GMT
Lines: 48

Philip Santas writes:
RC:
>The second historical movement was the loss of political autonomy
>of the city-state following the establishment of Alexander's
>empire.  Alexander's empire, and the subsequent political unions
PS:
>Well it seems that you forgot the wars between Athens and Sparta
>and the decay of the athenian democracy.
>This decay influenced Plato so much so that he proposed
>a theory closer to the spartian oligarchy than the athenian
>democracy.

I just didn't mention it.  I've wondered if the acceptance of
Philip's (Alexander's dad) plan for a preemptive strike at Persia
(Iran) didn't stem from a conscious or unconscious feeling of a
need for a non-Hellenic other to increase a sense of Greek
identity and decrease the internecine hostility which must have
come to seem historically obsolete to the Greeks.  It would be the
beginning of the end of the autonomy of the polis.

PS:
>I can hardly believe that Aristotle was really influenced
>by the situation around him. Aristotle was believing that the ideal
>state has no more than 100.000 citizens, something that
>comes to a contradiction with the political facts of his days.

Clearly the Aristotelian political ideal was obsolete before it
was created, which is not an uncommon event in the history of
political ideals.  Call it the politics of nostalgia or something
like that, except that that seems to facile.  What I'm thinking of
is the historical obsolescence of Lincoln's Jeffersonian-like
ideal of small town America, with its independent tradesmen, while
the very war he was waging was essentially foreclosing that
option.

PS:
>It is more correct to say that the emperium of Alexander
>kept the ancient greek culture and civlization safe from destruction.

Yes, but it also changed it.  From that time on philosophy became
universalist because the ability of the individual to control his
particular piece of the particular decreased.

--
Richard Carlson        |    rc@depsych.gwinnett.COM
Midtown Medical Center |    {rutgers,ogicse,gatech}!emory!gwinnett!depsych!rc
Atlanta, Georgia       |
(404) 881-6877         |


