The Ethics of Brutus and Cassius

1997 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 41-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Sedley
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Joint Decision ◽  
The Real ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The World

Among that select band of philosophers who have managed to change the world, and not just to interpret it, it would be hard to find a pair with a higher public profile than Brutus and Cassius — brothers-in-law, fellow-assassins, and Shakespearian heroes. Yet curiously little is understood of the connection, if any, between the fact that they were philosophers and their joint decision to form the conspiracy against Caesar. It may not even be widely known that they were philosophers.What work has been done on this question has been focused on Cassius' Epicureanism, thanks above all to a famous review published by Momigliano in 1941 which included a seminal survey of the evidence for politicized Epicureans. I shall myself have less to say on that topic than on the richer, and less explored, evidence for Brutus. For the present, we may note that at the time of the assassination, March 44 B.C., Cassius had been an Epicurean for just three or four years; that he had already prior to that been actively engaged in philosophy; but that his previous allegiance is unknown. His conversion to Epicureanism seems to have been timed to reflect his decision in 48 B.C. to withdraw from the republican struggle and to acquiesce in Caesar's rule, expressing his hopes for peace and his revulsion from civil bloodshed. This sounds in tune with a familiar Epicurean policy: minimal political involvement, along with approval of any form of government that provides peaceful conditions. We may, therefore, plausibly link Cassius' withdrawal to his new-found Epicureanism. In which case it becomes less likely that his subsequent resumption of the political initiative in fomenting conspiracy against Caesar was itself dictated purely by his Epicureanism. Yet he did remain an Epicurean to the end.6 At its weakest then, the question which we must address might simply be how, when he became convinced that Caesar must be eliminated, he managed to reconcile that decision with his Epicureanism. I shall have a suggestion to make about Cassius' Epicurean justification, but it will emerge incidentally during the examination of the evidence for Brutus, who is the real hero of this paper.

scholarly journals The Real Western War of Religion

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 17-29
Author(s):  
Kenneth L. Grasso ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Essential Role ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Real ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Religious Dimension ◽  
The World ◽  
The City

Steven D. Smith’s Pagans and Christians in the City takes its place alongside James Davison Hunter’s Culture Wars as one of the two truly indispensable books on today’s Culture Wars. It advances our understanding of today’s conflict by situating it historically and focusing our attention on its religious dimension. Smith argues that today’s conflict is the latest episode in a longstanding conflict between immanent forms of religiosity which locate the sacred in the world of space and time, and transcendent forms of religiosity which locate the divine beyond space and time. As compelling as it is, the volume’s argument would have been strengthened by a more sustained treatment of the nature of the political community and the essential role played within it by the truths held in common by the members concerning God, man, nature, and history.

scholarly journals CHAPTER : MAJOR POLITICAL PARTIES IN ASSAM.

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 351-356
Author(s):  
Dr. Subhash Talukdar.
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Education ◽  
The Political ◽  
Proper Sense ◽  
Democratic State ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The World ◽  
Voting Age ◽  
Election Commission

Party system is the important factor in the working of representative form of Government.  India is a democratic state. In the democratic state, political parties are said to be the life – blood of democracies. Modern democracies are indirect in character. They can function with the help of political parties. In the absence of political parties democracy cannot deliver the goods. Well organized political parties constitute the best form of democracy. India has the largest democracy in the world. It introduced universal adult franchise as the basis of voting right in the country. Now the voting age has been lowered down to 18. Most of the Indian voters are not politically matured and they do not have the political education in the proper sense. Political parties in India are classified by the Election Commission of India. It was classified for the allocation of symbol. The Election Commission of India classified parties into three main heads: National parties, State parties and registered (unrecognized) parties.

scholarly journals Krzysztof Kieślowski's Art of Film

1997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tadeusz Miczka
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Pressure ◽  
The Real ◽  
The World ◽  
Real Socialism ◽  
Party Activists ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Polish Culture

"WE LIVE IN THE WORLD LACKING IDEA ON ITSELF: KRZYSZTOF KIEŚLOWSKI's ART OF FILM" OUR "little stabilization" -- this ironic phrase by Tadeusz Różewicz, the poet and playwright, rightly characterized the low living standards of Poles and the state of apathy of the society in the 1960s. It also reflected well the situation of the Polish culture which, at that time, was put under strong political pressure and, except for very few instances, half- truths and newspeak replaced the clear dichotomy of truth and falsity. However, it finds its strongest expression if seen against the background of the Polish cinema of that time, since the cinema was, so to say, the "light in the eyes" of the Workers' Party activists devoutly building the 'real socialism' state. After the period of the political thaw which, among other things, brought to life artistically courageous works of the 'Polish film school', the...

scholarly journals Facets of Democracy: An Overview

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 15-29
Author(s):  
Aswasthama Bhakta Kharel
Keyword(s):  
Rule Of Law ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The World ◽  
Elected Representatives

 Democracy allows the expression of political preferences of citizens in a state. It advocates the rule of law, constraints on executive’s power, and guarantees the provision of civil liberties. It also manages to ensure human rights and fundamental freedoms of people. In democracy, people are supposed to exercise their freely expressed will. Ordinary people hold the political power of the state and rule directly or through elected representatives inside a democratic form of government. Democracy is a participatory and liberal way of governing a country. Different countries in the world have been practicing various models of democracy. There remains the participation of people in government and policy-making of the state under democracy. But when the majority can pull the strings of the society without there being legislation for protecting the rights of the minority, it may create a severe risk of oppression. Many countries of the world at the present time are facing democratic deficits. In several countries, the democratic practices are not adequately regulated and governed, as a result, the rise of violations of rules of law is observed. Even a few countries practicing democracy are not living peacefully. This situation has put a significant question about the need and sustainability of democracy. Democracy is a widely used system of governance beyond having several challenges. Here the concept, origin, models, dimensions, practices, challenges, solutions, and future of democracy are dealt to understand the structure of ideal democracy.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Lee
Keyword(s):  
Political Thought ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Real ◽  
Dominant Discourse ◽  
Natural Connection ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The Ideal

Although the humanists greeted the revival of imperial aspirations in Northern Italy with unvarnished enthusiasm, their conception of Empire has been treated rather dismissively in scholarly literature. In most surveys of political thought, it has simply been ignored. But even where it has been acknowledged, it has been portrayed either as a digression from a dominant discourse of communal liberty, or as a flight of nostalgic whimsy divorced from the ‘real’ spirit of humanism. Challenging the assumptions on which such attitudes have been based, this chapter demonstrates that the political life of the regnum Italicum cannot be described solely in terms of the conflict between communes and signori; that the ideal of liberty was not tied to any one form of government; and that there was no ‘natural’ connection between humanism and republicanism. In doing so, it provides the rationale for, and the methodology employed in, this study.

scholarly journals The real(modern)ist novel

Literator ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
H. Eid
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic System ◽  
Social Function ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Logic ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
The Real ◽  
The World ◽  
Focus Point

This article aims to argue that the distinction in both meaning and social function between “realism” and “modernism” lies in their different positions in the economic system of capitalism. The focus point of the article is “modernism” as the cultural logic of monopoly, imperialist capitalism - a logic that never meant a “break away” from “realism”. The article's dialectical and historical approach to James Joyce's modern text A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man never accepts the internal modernist logic of the text, i.e. the complete autonomy of a work of art.Drawing on Fredric Jameson’s hermeneutics of ideology and Edward Said’s dialectical criticism, the article focuses on the ideological components of A Portrait and will explore its modernity in relation to the political economy of the world that has produced it. Moreover, it will show how A Portrait, as a modernist text, has affiliations with wider fields of power and action.

Alexander's ὑπομνήματα and the ‘World-Kingdom’

1921 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. W. Tarn
Keyword(s):  
Political Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Real ◽  
The World

So far as authority goes, Kaerst founded his theory of Alexander's worldkingdom on two passages in Diodorus and on nothing else. The first, 17, 93, 4, alludes to Ammon having conceded to Alexander the power over the whole world, τὴν ἁπάσης τῆς γῆς γῆς ἐξουσίαν the reference is to 17, 51, 2, where Alexander says to the priest of Ammon, εἶπέ μοι εἴ μοι δίδως τὴνἁπάσης <τῆς> γῆς ἄρχην and the priest replies that the god grants this. The second passage is 18, 4, 4, the story of Alexander's supposed plan to conquer Carthage, etc., and go to the Pillars, from his alleged ὑπομνήματα Every one will agree with Kaerst when he says that the political information in the Arrian tradition is imperfect, and that it is very desirable to supplement it; but the real question, which has to be faced, is, are we in a position to supplement it? It is no good using unsound material as a supplement; it is better to say we do not know, if it comes to that. My object here is to examine the Diodorus passages and see what kind of material they offer.

scholarly journals The Alliance Between Politics and Philosophy with Regard to the Threats of the XXI Century

wisdom ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (7) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
Will POGHOSYAN
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Law ◽  
The Political ◽  
Pursuit Of Happiness ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
The World ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Republic

The alliance between politics and philosophy pursues the object to change the world as public or social life. The life implies various degrees of quality, and suggests existence regarded as a desirable condition: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This is the main point of the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776). We have here a whole philosophy of politics referring to Plato’s doctrine of the practical influence of philosophy on the state power to change the world (Plato, 1971, Rp. V 473d, VI 501e, VII 540d). The philosophy of politics holds life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to be unalienable rights and just so lays down the basic human rights as the principles of the political law, public law. The form of government which secures these rights is called democracy. America is no longer the ruler of her own spirit. In Armenia and Russia, there is instituted now timocracy, a form of government in which love of honor is the ruling principle (timē honor + krateein to rule). There exist here public law apart from human rights. The task of the philosophy of politics is to secure democracy in the United States of America and to carry out the transition from timocracy to democracy in the Republic of Armenia and the Russian Federation.

“To Believe in an Image (Again)”

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 314-332
Author(s):  
Corey P. Cribb
Keyword(s):  
Digital Image ◽  
The Political ◽  
Technological Problem ◽  
The Real ◽  
Patron Saint ◽  
The World ◽  
Andre Bazin ◽  
Ontological Concept ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract In screen studies and photography studies, the name of the acclaimed film theorist and critic André Bazin is frequently invoked by scholars seeking to defend the import of analogue media on ontological grounds by citing photography's privileged connection to the real. This article seeks to unsettle Bazin's reputation as the patron saint of analogue recording by exploring the ontological implications of the concept of sense in Bazin's writings on neorealism. Placing Bazin's writings into dialogue with a selection of critiques that find the digital image to be lacking in historicity, negativity, and presence, and flag its potentially authoritarian impulses, this essay seeks to reframe Bazin's ontological project as a question of cinema's sense (rather than its essence) to mobilize a different set of conclusions that may in fact prove to restore faith in the digital image and its rapport with the real. By maintaining that what is often treated as a purely technological problem also harbors aesthetics implications, this article confronts the manifest skepticism that has pervaded the discourse around the digital since the 1990s, seeking an alternative outlook in Jean-Luc Nancy's work on sense, an ontological concept that evidences the political potentials (or potential politics) of Bazin's predilection for images, which are said to ameliorate our love for reality by transmitting the excessive sense of the world in its ambiguity, creativity, and unpredictability.

Cincinnati

1928 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 385-387
Author(s):  
S. Gale Lowrie
Keyword(s):  
Reform Movement ◽  
The Political ◽  
Large Measure ◽  
The Real ◽  
The People ◽  
Form Of Government ◽  
Good Government ◽  
Personal Qualities ◽  
Real Test ◽  
New System

The charter group was again successful in the November elections in Cincinnati and retained the six seats won in the first contest, while the Republican organization lost one seat to an Independent candidate. Seven of the nine councilmen were reёlected to office. The victory of the charter ticket was due in large measure to public approval of the unusual accomplishments of the last two years, and in part to the political sagacity of the leaders throughout the series of campaigns. The election of 1924, which resulted in the adoption of the council-manager form of government with a council chosen by proportional representation, and the election of two years ago which “kept the charter in the hands of its friends,” have been described in the pages of this journal. It was appreciated that the real test of the reform movement would come at the election of 1927 when the charter party would be on the defensive. This test has now been met.Cincinnati was fortunate in the character of the men who composed the first council under the new system. They employed a manager with administrative ability, a charm of manner which quickly ingratiated him with the people, and a personality which complemented the personal qualities of the councilmen themselves. These men elected by the people did not refuse leadership, and the mayor especially has become a dominant force in the community. The combination of Mayor Seasongood and Manager Sherrill is an unusual one. The former is a leader of reform; the latter, the man to carry out the policies which the representatives determine upon. Consequently, the manager himself never became a campaign issue. Both groups pledged him support. As the mayor said of him, “He personifies the people's own desire for good government.”

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