gittler, joseph b._a note on greek sociological thought before plato and aristotle_social science,...

Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Sciences

A Note on Greek Sociological Thought Before Plato and AristotleAuthor(s): Joseph B. GittlerSource: Social Science, Vol. 23, No. 1 (January 1948), pp. 19-23Published by: Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social SciencesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41885743 .

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A Note on Greek Sociological Thought

Before Plato and Aristotle

Joseph B. Gittler Associate Professor of Sociology, Iowa State College

IT writings HAS often

have been had an

said astonishingly

that Greek writings have had an astonishingly widespread influence on all west-

ern civilizations. Yet there is little evidence to indicate that men are truly aware of the depth and breadth of the wisdom expressed by the Greeks so many centuries ago which bear di- rectly or indirectly on our modern problems of propaganda, dictator- ship, corrupt politics, the class strug- gle, democracy, freedom of women, soil erosion, reforestation, and so on in an endless chain. In these days of confusion, it seems fitting to turn the leaves back and reexamine the wisdom of other ages. In any case, an analysis of some of their ideas al- though not new to all readers, surely bears reiteration.

The Greeks did not contribute very much to our material culture. Indeed, the technological and economic life of Greece was more primitive than that of many of her contemporaries, but her intellectual attainments have scarcely been surpassed. The post- Socratic Greeks, in particular, suc- ceeded in liberating men's minds from the superstition, fear, and intolerance so characteristic of earlier civilizations. Rationalism was regarded as the highest good, all thought being subjected to merciless scrutiny, often in the light of the empirical world. Free inquiry and the scientific spirit were fostered to a greater degree than in any preceding time or for many centuries to come. It was this very spirit of free inquiry that was the

forerunner of modern scientific thinking.

Education, as a separate social institution, was first established by the Greeks. Prior to them, education was largely the function of the family or tribe, and consisted for the most part, of imparting group tradition and cus- tom. Greek education however, included the study of philosophy and the acquisition of new knowledge.

It is, of course, not to be construed that the entire course of Greek civilization, from its advent to its close, glowed with the rays of a cultural Helios. Nor can it be said that a high plane of intellectual activity was characteristic of all the Greeks at any given time. Many of the Greek city- states contributed little to the total achievement of Greek culture. Nor were the earlier Greeks - the Homeric Greeks, and the Greeks of the ninth, eighth and seventh centuries - as "secular" as the Greeks of Plato's and Aristotle's time. As their culture developed we see a marked emphasis upon the secular and a veering away from the sacred, but the earlier Greeks still reflected a "sacred" civilization.1 At the point at which we first catch a glimpse of the social thought of the Greeks they are still in the mythological age, as can be ob- served in the poems of Homer and Hesiod. It is not until the later periods of the Attic thinkers that the

'See Harry Elmer Barner and Howard Becker, Social Thought From Lore to Science (New York: D. C. Heath and Co.; 1938) Vol. I, pp. 5-10.

19



20 SOCIAL SCIENCE FOB JANUARY, 1948

Greek mind becomes mobile, changing, enquiring and "secular."

Periods of Early Greek Social Thought It has been the general practice in

the treatment of the history of social thought to begin with Plato, gliding over pre-Platonic ideas almost en- tirely. Several volumes have appeared touching upon pre-Greek social thought and including Egyptian, Hindu, Chinese, and Hebrew social thinking. In these works, there has been a woeful neglect of early Greek (pre-Platonic) thought on the one hand, and of the social thought to be found in the writings of those men contemporaneous with Plato and Aristotle - in Greek drama, oratory, and historical works - on the other. It is these two gaps that this paper will endeavor to fill.

The General Nature and the Common Aspects of Early Greek Social Thought There are various classifications of

the cultural periods of Greek history from the archeological remains (in- dicating a Neolithic period) down to the Hellenistic age (after Alexander the Great). For our purposes it was found convenient to arrange the Greek periods of social thought in ac- cordance with the forms of literature dominant in various periods. Early Greek social though may therefore fall into the following literary periods: (1) the Age of Homer and Hesiod (1250-700 B.C.) ; (2) the Lyric Age (700-500 B.C.) ; (3) the Attic Age (500-300 B.C.). The last period (500- 300 B.C.) covers and includes Plato and Aristotle. This paper will not dis- cuss the ideas of these two men but only those of their contemporaries.

It is obvious that no single idea can survive in identical form and remain unchanged over a period of nine hun- dred years. Nevertheless, several

propositions as to the general nature of social thought among the early Greeks (the pre-Platonic and the At- tic writers exclusive of Plato and Aristotle) suggest themselves.

First, by the close of the Attic period, Greek social thought had touched upon every conceivable phase of social life. Since Greek life included social experiences as multifold and as varied as those of contemporary life, it follows that the Greeks reflected on many types of present-day social problems and social situations. The difference lies in the emphasis rather than in the actual content. They con- centrated on those problems which were most consistently pressing in their lives. They discussed industry, but few references are found regard- ing the effects of technology.

Second, reason played a major role in Greek culture. It was reason that always seemed to determine Greek action, whether it led to success or not. Throughout Greek literature the char- acters are seemingly motivated by reason and less by impulse and emo- tion. This is truer of the Attic period than of the pre-Attic ages. In fact, appeals to beware of oratorical sub- terfuges which might cause emotional imbalance are made time and time again in Aristophanes' dramas. What Pericles says of the Athenians applies only in a lesser degree to all Greeks: "We have a peculiar power, of thinking before we act, and of acting too, whereas other men are courageous from ignorance, but hesitate upon re- flection."2

Third, to say that the Greeks were motivated by reason does not mean that the Greeks were exempt from tradition and emotional attachments

'Henry Osborn Taylor, Ancient Ideals (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1913), Vol. I, p. 151. Pericles' funeral speech, Thucydide s, ii 40, Jowetts' translation.



A NOTE ON GREEK SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT 21

to prevailing ways of life and to the status quo. The age of Homer and Hesiod, and a portion of the Lyric age might even be "ideally typed" as sacred societies - that is, "Communi- ties in which a sort of emotional halo encircles the ways of the fathers and thereby prevents the profanation by change."3 However, this "sacred" way of life gradually wanes as we ap- proach the Attic period, which, it ap- pears, definitely exemplifies a "secular" way of life. Mental mobility, ha- bitual abstraction, rationalism, and individuation become the modus vi- vendi.4 Thus reflections on justice and the nature of the state, comparative estimates of different types of gov- ernments, an analysis of the problem of wealth, a critical evaluation of the theory of communism by Aristoph- anes, an exposition on the first principles of economics by Socrates in Xenophon's Oeconomicus - all these become possible with the development of abstraction. For the "weaknesses" of democracy"5 can be contemplated only when a mode of life is abstracted and weighed through theory and analysis.

Fourth, early Greek social thought is unscientific in the sense that no empirical investigations of impressions and ideas are in evidence. Early Greek social thought, as all social re- flection, springs from the accumulated experiences of the writer. But the ex- perience is casual and the conclusions are unsystematic and lacking in a frame of reference. However, respect for their wide and penetrating insights is automatic when one reads their words.

Fifth, the Greeks, especially those of the Lyric and Attic ages, present a quasi-modern version of the nature of human nature. Many of them recognized, in general, the acquired and developmental aspects of human nature. Some considered man's nature inborn and innate, but a goodly number advanced the theory of the human- associative forces to account for the shaping and forming of man's human nature. As Theognis says, "The bad are not all bad from the womb, but have learnt base works and wanton outrage from friendship with the bad because they thought all they said was true."6

Communication, including dis- course and language, is recognized as the fundamental medium for the transmission of culture and for the socialization of the individual. As Isocrates puts it, "because there has been implanted in us the power to persuade each other and to make clear to each other whatever we desire, not only have we escaped the life of wild beasts, but we have come together and founded cities and made laws and in- vented arts; and, generally speaking, there is no institution devised by men which the power of speech has not helped us to establish."7

Aristophanes recognized imitation as a factor operating in social life. Aleman suggests that human motives are not externally observable, but are often concealed, and therefore difficult to ascertain. This fact suggests his recognition of the subjectivity of social phenomena. There is in early Greek writings, then, the idea that human nature is a non-inherited, developmental nature.

Sixth, it has often been pointed out * H. E. Barnes and H. Becker, op. cit., p. 10. * Ibid. , p. 146. Euripides, The Suppliants, 1. 399 ff ; Herodotus,

History Book III, 80-81, Book V, 97; Cleon, from Thucydides, Book, 37; Athenagoras of Syracuse, from Thucydides, Book VI, 39; Lysias, Defense Against a Charge oj Subverting the Democracy, XXV, 1. 25 ff; Isocrates, To Nicocles, 14-17.

'Elegy and Iambus, edited and translated by J. M. Edmonds (Loeb Classical Library, 1931).

Isocrates, To Nicocles (Loeb Classical Library, 1928-9).



22 SOCIAL SCIENCE FOE JANUARY, 1948

that among the pre-Greek thinkers there existed no conception of the group as a unit of social structure. The same can be said about all the Greeks. The concept of the group is almost completely absent.

However, there did exist a conception of the "greater" group, the Great Society. There are constant references to humanity as an entity and to the general mass of mankind.

The state and social class, are the two major forms of human groupings repeatedly referred to in many writings. No precise distinction however, is made between state and society. They merge into an identical entity. Class as a unit of social structural differentiation is recognized, but no delineation and analysis of origin, number, and nature of class per se are to be found. Some connection is made between class and division of labor in society, but causal nexus remains un- established.

Seventh, in modern sociological literature the concept of social forces plays an important role. By social forces are meant those factors which impel and motivate human behavior. They are considered to be the dy- namic, impelling activations operating in human behavior, including in- terests, wishes, and attitudes. It is indeed interesting to note that some awareness of these social forces is to be found in Greek literature. Xeno- phon distinctly noted in society the forces analogous to W. I. Thomas' wish for recognition. As he says, "Am- bitious, emulous natures feel the spur of praise, since some natures hunger after praise no less than others crave for meats and drinks."8 Other writers seem to have been impressed by the driving force exerted by the desire for wealth. The importance attached to

economic factors operating in society can be construed as being similar to W. I. Thomas' concept of the wish for security.

Eighth, there is among the Greeks in all three periods a recognition of the operation of distinct and specific social processes - the types of actions per se, involved in human association. Hesiod, for example, depicts the strife inherent in society.9 Heracleitus con- siders opposition the basis and "cause" of human association.10 Eu- ripides wrote that "our life is conflict all."11

Ninth, social control - its nature and its operation - comes in for an extensive treatment in all of the literature. The most prominent form of control was thought to be the gods' control of human activity. Man's activity is dependent on the will of the gods. Offended gods punish man for his oversight in the religious observ- ances and sacrifices.

A second source of social control is found in the concept of fate. Fate con- trols human events making them pre- determined and inevitable. Sophocles writes these words for a chorus : "Full many a thing do men by seeing learn; But ere he sees, no prophet may discern, What lot for him shall leap from fate's dark urn.""

But fate and the gods are not the only sources of social control. Tradi- tion, leadership, oratory, public opin- ion, propaganda, law, wealth, demog- raphy, and conditioning factors of physical environment are all recognized as factors in channelizing the

8 Xenophon, Oeconomicus, Chapter XIII, (translation by H. G. Dakyns (New York: Macmillan Co.; 1897).

9 Hesiod, Works and Days , 1. 41 if; (translated by High G. Evelyn-White, Hesiod , The Homeric Hymns , and Homérica , Loeb Classical Library, 1914). 10 "Opposition brings men together, and out of discord comes the fairest harmony, and all things have their birth in strife." (Heracleitus, Fragments from C. M. Bakewell, Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1907). 11 Euripides, Suppliants , 552. 12 Sophocles, Aias, 1. 1417-1419.



A NOTE ON GREEK SOCIOLOGICAL THOUGHT 23

impulses of man and in directing his manifest overt behavior.

Finally, probably the important charcteristic of Greek social thought in all of the three periods is that it is ethical in nature. How a state should be constructed, how the state should control, how the individual should conduct himself, how he should act to- wards others - are problems that ap- pear again and again. War is sometimes condoned, sometimes con- demned. No profound attempts are made to discover the causes of war.

At one time hedonism is regarded as a good ; at another time the moderate life is exalted. The moralistic strongly permeates all Greek writings.

From these gleanings it should be possible to recognize that the early works of the Greeks offer a rich source of basic insights to the social world which might serve as a basis for scientific quest and verification. In ad- dition, it might make us a little hum- ble when we appraise our own con- tributions to the body of knowledge in the social sciences.



gittler, joseph b._a note on greek sociological thought before plato and aristotle_social science,...

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