Week One: THUCYDIDES
Introduction: Justice Between Nations At War
September 12, 8 PM -9:30 pm
Justice appears to be at its weakest, though most needed and longed for, when nations make war on one another. The Melian Dialogue of Thucydides culminates in one of the most tragic episodes of the great war between Sparta and Athens: the enslavement or slaughter of all the inhabitants of a free city, Melos, by an imperial democracy, Athens. On the eve of that terrible deed, the Athenian ambassadors debate the Melian leaders, and give one of the most famous and extreme defenses of realpolitik ever made—of a politics governed only by questions of advantage and freed from any consideration of justice (5.89-90). Among the questions we’ll consider: Does the destruction of Melos prove that the Athenians were simply right to dismiss arguments about justice? Are the Athenians right in claiming that everyone, strong or weak, always acts out of self-interest, and for gain or power (5.105.2)? Are the Athenians themselves acting simply to maximize their gain or power (5.105.4, 5.107, 5.111.1, 5.111.4)? Conversely, do the Melians understand by justice something that is simply independent or free of considerations of gain and self-interest (5.104)? Each side makes claims about the gods—why do you think that is?