Political Philosophy Between Peace and War
Chapter 5 revisits the classical Greeks. I argue that while Thucydides and Plato appear to take different positions on whether peace or war should be the controlling frame of reference for political theory, their texts frustrate attempts to see either perspective as dominant. Thucydides’s description of his book a possession forever does not establish his text as a conclusive last word, but marks it as a resource to be continually consulted. In parallel, Plato’s Republic represents a kind of conversation able to take Thucydides’s book seriously. These thematic convergences suggest neither war nor peace can be identified as the dominant frame of reference for political theory. The need to take both prospects seriously makes a dialogic approach to Western political philosophy attractive. I recommend reading the philosophical statements considered throughout the book not as systematic arguments to be proven or refuted, but as diverse voices to be critically interpreted.