10 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Greek Cynic philosopher who was Zeno of Citium's teacher — and who famously gave away his considerable wealth to live as a homeless philosopher on the streets of Athens — representing the most radical form of philosophical indifference to social convention.
Greek Stoic philosopher — head of the Stoic school after Chrysippus — who was part of the Athenian embassy to Rome in 155 BCE that introduced Greek philosophy to Rome, alongside the Skeptic Carneades and the Academic Critolaus.
Thucydides's account of the 27-year war between Athens and Sparta — the founding text of political realism and historical methodology — which includes the Melian Dialogue (the strong do what they can, the weak suffer what they must), Pericles's Funeral Oration, and the narrative of Athenian hubris and self-destruction.
Athenian logographer (speech writer) — one of the ten canonical Attic orators — whose speech on love (arguing that it is better to gratify the non-lover than the lover) opens Plato's Phaedrus and is used by Socrates as a foil for his own account of eros.
Greek sophist from Abdera — the first professional educator to charge fees — whose claim that 'man is the measure of all things' is the founding statement of philosophical relativism, and who appears as a sympathetic interlocutor in Plato's Protagoras dialogue.
Athenian philosopher — who left no writings — whose method of elenctic questioning (exposing inconsistency in interlocutors' beliefs) founded Western philosophy's commitment to rational self-examination — who was executed by Athens for impiety and corrupting the youth.
Athenian statesman and poet — who was appointed to reform Athens's constitution (594 BCE) — cancelled debt bondage (seisachtheia), reformed the Athenian class system, and created the first Athenian democratic institutions — one of the Seven Sages of Ancient Greece.
Mythological founder-king of Athens — who killed the Minotaur in the Labyrinth of Crete, unified Attica under Athens, and instituted democratic reforms — and whom Machiavelli cited as one of the four great armed prophets alongside Moses, Romulus, and Cyrus.
Athenian historian who wrote the History of the Peloponnesian War — the foundational text of political realism in international relations — depicting the conflict between Athens and Sparta as driven by fear, honor, and interest rather than justice or ideology.
Socrates's wife — famous in antiquity as a shrew and nag — who appears in Plato's Phaedo at Socrates's execution and in Xenophon's Memorabilia — and whose reputation for bad temper Socrates himself supposedly cultivated as a philosophical exercise in patience.